Did Cas get memories of Hell? I know he had a little Lucifer, but again, in the variability of how people process things, I thought he took the stink of Lucifer himself off, not the events. That's the magic of calling it "the problem", I guess. They can pretend they meant anything, since their metaphysics is holey to the core already.

I don't think they've said explicitly, but as most of the PTSD effects could be offset by putting up a block around Sam's memories and it was portrayed as the later recollection of those memories that was killing him, I assume they had to go as a package deal with the resultant trauma for Sam to get better.

But they had the whole bit where he was re-integrating his different selves, at which point they were really indistinct about what was killing him, since Hallucifer was very much in the here and now of his brain, and they didn't show him having flashbacks that were driving him nuts.

I'm not saying that my interpretation is solid--just that for one reason or another they've been so vague it's hard for me to know if they're contradicting themselves.

for one reason or another they've been so vague it's hard for me to know if they're contradicting themselves

I was reading a blog about writing this morning, and the author was talking about reading and writing with your humanist brain as opposed to your critical brain, and I very much watch this show with my humanist brain.

Because there are so many holes -- if Dean's body was dead and still present when he went to hell, how come Sam and Adam's bodies disappeared? They clearly didn't need to be in the cage to be tortured, since physical!Sam was topside for a year while his soul was being hate-banged.

That's just one. If I think too hard about the memories or demons' ever evolving powers or even Azazel's plan (which was no plan at all, imo), I get angry and then I have stop and go to my happy place.

So I just don't think too hard about those parts. But I get that other people do, and have to.

Actually, the body thing doesn't bother me at all--Sam and Adam weren't dead. Dean was killed by the hellhounds, leaving a corpse for burial. Sam and Adam travelled bodily to Hell the same way Cas and Dean travelled to Purgatory. But Dean died and his soul travelled to Hell alone the same way only their souls went to Heaven when Roy and Walt killed them.

When Cas grabbed Sam, he pulled the body out, but the soul didn't make it through the bars. I'm assuming Adam is still down their both body and soul.

I do agree that Azazel's plan has no substance, and demonic resurrection powers are bad for the story, not good. They (even if it's only crossroads demons) can do too much, and the lines are too blurry.

Is it canon that all witches get their powers from selling their souls? Or do some witches just learn spells? I mean Bobby knew an assload of spells and Sam and Dean certainly know a goodly number. It does seem a better deal than you get with a crossroads demon - no ten years and you are out. But still trading an eternity in hell for something finite.

Just to be clear, I know the boys are not witches. Just trying to figure out if trading your soul is the only way to become a witch.

If Jimmy had sold his soul, I'd think they would have mentioned it like they mentioned last week. It has been stated that power comes from demons, but I don't recall the soul thing.

If Dean is being hypocritical about this, it would approximately the nth time (where n is an integer greater than zero) he's been two-faced about what extent is pardonable for others, and what's okay for him to save family bacon, etc.

AND JESUS WHY NAME SOMEONE ELSE JAMES????

IF THIS SEASON IS A DREAM, I WILL CUT A BITCH.

Ryan Reynolds

Good, not just me then. Gosh, he was cute, with lots of Jensen tics like freckles and reddish stubble.

I was waiting for Dean's epiphany at the end to be about how not all witches are bad. I didn't quite follow his logic on being okay with Sam taking point on closing Hell down, although I'm glad he got there.

I was a little annoyed at Sam for not getting that Dean was coming from a place of "It's not that I don't think you can do it (I don't trust you to do it" but "I don't WANT you to do it because I put your life before my worthless one" which was my reading of last weeks ep. I'm still waiting for Dean to have a Life series finale epiphany that self-sacrifice isn't the answer for the ones you love, especially when they get left behind, alive and alone, that they need you to survive for them, with them. And that it's not even about acknowledging that you are a worthwhile person, but simply acknowledging that the person you hold highest wants you around, whether you "deserve" it or not. In my little fantasy world, that's where I want Dean's headspace to get to at the end of all things. Some Bab 5 awesomeness about being willing to die for someone/thing, and also being willing to live for them, too.

For the record, my little sister would probably have levied the same accusation at me, and somehow failed to understand the specific kind of idiot I was being in a real-world-sized equivalent situation. That and Dean's witch hypocrisy I see as long-standing character notes which are going to take more than one disappointing episode to get past.

I swear--I've been avoiding IO9 reviews because she's been disliking it, and now she says she loved this week, and I'm all WTF idjit! on her.

Thanks to your mention, Amy, I noticed the same team wrote Route 666, and I think that's about the point where I throw my hands up in defeat--no matter how many not awful (I liked A Little Slice of Kevin, for instance) episodes they do, that does mean they're responsible for my least watchable episode, so...maybe I was lucky to have liked some of it.

And I can't help but think the writers room takes responsibility for some of what annoys me, not just the people with their names on the script.