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.

I agree with Amy on show retreading old ground. I do comprehend how family takes roles with each other, and keep falling into those roles without some dedicated effort and constant attention, but it can be done.

After all the personal growth of each brother in 1-5, I would have hoped 6 and onward would have been renegotiating the ways they dealt with each other, accomodating that growth. Instead, the writers had them fall immediately back into old patterns of behavior, repeating them and wearing those ruts even deeper. Whatever lessons had been learned were scrapped in favor of retreading old emotional ground.

I think Sera had a real grasp of the characters, and under her guidance there was at least adherence to canon. But Singer took over mid-7, there was a shift at the network in personnel and outlook, and notes came down to deviate strongly from Kripke's canon. Which, okay, they kept the tall guy and the short guy and the car. Pretty much every other consistent element changed.

Suddenly instead of a trip to the Grand Canyon together being a goal, they'd already been there as kids. And there were other bits of canon that had been carefully fed viewers over seasons as accrued mythos, that were junked and left behind carelessly, as though people who had watched for previous seasons hadn't paid attention or didn't care. And I'm sure that's true of many.

But to those who did pay attention and did care, it's not the same show. I know it's up to the showrunner to make the show s/he wants. But I do think it's pretty callous to thumb a nose at previously established canon, and completely redesign the personalities of main characters and how they relate to the world and each other. It's like reading bad fanfic, although the characters and that world resemble what you know, you've landed in some strange AU.

I'll watch till they pull the plug, because I *want* to love the show and I still care about the characters. But it's been a long time--since Sacrifice, actually--since I gasped or teared up, or even got angry on behalf of the characters, as opposed to wavering between apathy and simmering ire at the writing.

I'm happy for those who are enjoying it. But I miss my show.

Suddenly instead of a trip to the Grand Canyon together being a goal, they'd already been there as kids. And there were other bits of canon that had been carefully fed viewers over seasons as accrued mythos, that were junked and left behind carelessly

I'll say this in the writers' defense: I can't remember minor details or throwaway lines (some of which become really important to readers, because that's what readers do, even if I was just trying to add detail or change the rhythm of a sentence) from books that I've written. When something's being written by committee, it has to be really easy to miss little things like that. Especially since the writers may be fans, but they're not necessarily fans the way we are. They're not living it in their imaginations and writing fanfic and debating interpretations.

Or if they are, it's part of the job, which I imagine puts a different spin on it.

I know it does have a different spin, if it's your job. I can't believe there are staff writers who have never watched earlier seasons. I mean I believe it, but it's not the way I work, in any endeavor. But I'm a ferret for history, if only to try and avoid repeating mistakes.

On the other hand, coming in new under a showrunner with his own mandate from the network, you follow his lead. I suppose lack of attention to the past is normal, in concentration on what's next.