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.

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.

Oh, absolutely. No one is handing in a script without a story approved (and most likely assigned) first. Still, it's always my instinct to blame the writer first, and I would imagine a lot of it is this team's doing -- like the questionable jokes, the poor characterization.

I saw that they had written more decent episodes than I thought, but I still don't like them. Sorry, Bob.

Yeah I wasn't even thinking about hypocrisy. I'm just trying to figure out what makes a witch in the SPN verse. It can't just be knowing spells, because lots of people who are not witches know spells... So where is the line between "knows spells" and "witch"? Or is it one of those things that has never been explicitly defined?

Maybe being a witch is being able to do stuff like snap peoples necks with a hand guesture and the power of your mind? That it's not just getting the ingredients and saying the right words, but somehow harnessing power into yourself to use at will?

I don't think it's "being" a witch so much as actively joining a group of them that set these witches apart. They were part of a community.