Metatron wanted to cast all the angels out of heaven so ... he could eventually bring them back?

So he could lead them.

If my sister went to hell to save my life I'd flip my shit (and maybe start fucking Ruby). If she was dying and I could see any possible way to save her including feeding her chocolate...I'd still do it. I'm not mad at Dean for not learning to live alone. His terror is a very realistic and compelling theng for me.

1-5 falls apart when I prod at it. I would have probably ended up hating the season if it ended up with not just two ruined boys but an innocent about to be ruined family (I've been assuming Sam coming back was the addition--am I wrong? Would Dean have just been drunk driving across America instead? If he had just settled and dealt because Sam told him to, I'd have laughed my way out of fandom).

I like them stripped down to Team Free Will. I like the internal conflict being Dean batshit crazy. I like Dean telling Sam they're not even a team, much less a sibling unit. In fact, I don't actually want a season without conflict between the siblings.

Conflict between them is fine. Conflict that rehashes the same old beefs and goes nowhere is not satisfying TV for me.

I miss a show that was about two guys fighting monsters because they were saving people (and had been brought up that way), and also because they were looking for answers about their own family. I liked that story.

And I'm not hate-watching the show now--I love the Winchesters too much for that. I just miss what it used to be, and it all feels sort of bittersweet to me.

Conflict that rehashes the same old beefs and goes nowhere is not satisfying TV for me.

I still haven't seen an explanation of why this conflict is the same as the other conflicts, but I'm not asking you for one. I see it very differently, even excitingly differently, so I have liked this season very much.

Also, I don't know if I've liked Castiel more.

I just don't think it makes any sense in the big picture. The Sam who didn't look for Dean while he was in Purgatory is the same Sam who loathed the idea of letting Dean down again at the end of the season? Dean is again with the "I have to protect you" while also "but I don't trust you to actually do your job," and loving Sam so much that he doesn't actually pay attention to what Sam wants?

I know I'm not being really coherent here, but it's just same old, same old for me. Dean never learns, Sam never learns that Dean will never learn, and most of the time they don't seem like they enjoy being in the same room together.

The Sam who didn't look for Dean while he was in Purgatory is the same Sam who loathed the idea of letting Dean down again at the end of the season?

Why not? He thought Dean was dead and that they'd agreed to leave this things as they were. That doesn't mean when he's proven wrong that he doesn't love him and wants to be everything to him like he was before--and even more doesn't mean he's calculated properly what everything means--that he can't be Dean's everything just on his terms because Dean has a nuclear detonation definition of everything.

That's all new for me, but plausible. The idea that Dean says "I fucked up, I gotta walk away from you for a bit" despite his abandonment issues (which I see as different from letting someone go, or even nudging them to go). Dean abandoned someone--the last time he did that, he had their memories wiped (I've already mentioned Dean and nuclear options).

The fact that Dean's so hurt that he can't see Sam's treating him like a brother is both typical (he didn't tell "Andy" he wanted Dean back from the magical house with no doors--he said he wanted his brother back). He's shown little recent reticence to being with him--Dean's been pushing him away, and more since he was trying to handle the Mark, and moreso since he failed.

I do hope that wasn't a fatal blow to Gadreel. I think I finally like Tahmoh's acting!

I'm glad you're still enjoying it as much as you are. That's definitely a good thing.

Tahmoh's bitchface rivals Jared's, I think.

Tahmoh was pretty wooden in BSG in Dollhouse. Pretty, but wooden. He seems to have some expressions now, so I'd hate to lose him this week. Next week maybe. But if he could stay about along enough to be a viable Sam ship (he's still straight, but these things need be done--Sadreem, Gam, whatever).

When did Reapers become Angels? Or have the writers just decided to toss that canon by the wayside too?

The writers announced it around when they got Sam into Purgatory. But they never wrote it in, IIRC.

That's... pretty contradictory to the episodes where Reapers interacted with demons back in early seasons. And to the way the series has treated Reapers in general.