Crowley's speech:

“Your brother, bless his soul, is summoning me as I speak, make a deal, bring you back. It’s exactly what I was talking about, isn’t it? It’s all become so...expected. You have to believe me, when I suggested you take on the Mark of Cain I didn’t know this was going to happen. Not really. I mean I might not have told you the entire truth but I never lied. I never lied Dean, it’s important. It’s fundamental. But there is one story about Cain that I might have forgotten to tell you. Apparently he too was willing to accept death rather than becoming the killer the Mark wanted him to be. So he took his own life with the blade. He died. Except, as rumor has it, the Mark never quite let go. You can understand why I never spoke of this. Why set hearts a flutter at mere speculation? It wasn’t until you summoned me, no, it wasn’t truly until you left that cheeseburger uneaten, that I began to let myself believe maybe miracles do come true. Listen to me Dean Winchester, what you’re feeling right now it’s not death, it’s life. A new kind of life. Open your eyes Dean, see what I see, feel what I feel. Let’s take a howl at that moon.”

I'm feeling particularly dense tonight. Why would leaving the cheeseburger behind be the tipping point for Crowley?

Also, I'm seeing speculation from some who are wondering if this means Dean is now Crowley's First Knight. But Cain was never a Knight of Hell, was he?

Cain was the leader of the Knights of Hell.

He gave up evil for the love of a good woman, and if I don't see the parallel fics soon...

Last time Dean turned down a burger was when Famine had a grasp on his soul.

Dean's love of food is one of his most human traits. That's the way I took it anyway.

I don't think the lore of the First Blade and the Mark of Cain is clear enough -- I have no idea what Dean is aside from a demon. Crowley does seem pleased, though.

Dean's body is the biggest problem here, isn't it? I mean, his body is dead (or that's what the episode implied, anyway). So if you cure him, what then?

I'm also suddenly so bummed that Meg isn't around anymore.

If you cured Crowley, he'd keep that meatsuit, and it wasn't even his. I expect Dean has extra dibs.

The comments about Sam spritzing him randomly with holy water or inscribing sporadic devil's traps under rugs crack me up. I'd also over-salt everything.

If you cured Crowley, he'd keep that meatsuit, and it wasn't even his. I expect Dean has extra dibs.

Does that make sense, though, with the way demons and hosts are supposed to work?

I'm also wondering how much it matters that Crowley mentioned he was back on human blood.

Does that make sense, though, with the way demons and hosts are supposed to work?

Dean is only the second demon we've met that could inhabit his own body and we only just learnt that was true about the first, so there's not much already written on the subject. They can make a lot of it up as they go. They can bring him back from the dead upon curing, maybe the Blade refused to let him die, who knows. He might not even be able to smoke out.

I guess I wasn't aware that they *knew* Crowley would keep that body when cured, and since they didn't go through with it all the way, we can't count it as a successful example, right?

I just don't want it to be too easy to get Dean out of this predicament, I guess.

Dean is only the second demon we've met that could inhabit his own body

Who's the first? I'm forgetting something here, I guess. Even Crowley isn't in his original body anymore.

I guess I wasn't aware that they *knew* Crowley would keep that body when cured

The guy they cured in black and white kept his host body.

Who's the first?

Cain. Didn't Crowley say it wouldn't let him go in the speech you quoted? Are you assuming he smoked out of his corpse and possessed Lassie? And the Mark came with the smoke?

I forgot about the film.

And no, I wasn't assuming Cain smoked out and possessed Lassie. I didn't think it through. No reason to be rude, though.