So...Dean's basic personality seems intact, with extra added callousness and violence. He's crueler, more stripped away, but he doesn't seem completely 100% EVIL to me.

I rewatched, and I think from the argument Dean and Crowley had after Dean realized Crowley had been tossing lower-level demons his way just so Dean could kill a few every now and then, that Dean actually isn't a demon yet. Which confuses me, because I though that's what the black eyes meant.

Crowley: If it wasn't for me throwing demons your way, what do you think would happen? The Mark needs to be sated. Otherwise...

Dean: Otherwise I turn into a demon. Yeah, yeah, I sort of got that six weeks ago.

I took that to mean -- the "I sort of got that six weeks ago" -- to mean he is a demon, he did turn into one.

I thought it was very confusing in the episode, and I read an interview with Carver -- I can't remember where now -- that said this is Crowley's way to keep the demon sort of under control? That if he doesn't have things to kill regularly, he would go more feral, I guess? It seemed unclear even in the interview, but I think since we've seen black eyes twice, he is a demon now.

I think. ;-)

Well I'd always assumed that the black eyes indicated "hey, demon!" So that bit just struck me as a question mark. I was sort of hoping to see Dean actually evince something more demonic -- like teleportation, or setting things on fire. Maybe we'll get some of that once the writers are done having him pickling his liver.

Yeah, I think the writers need to clarify that -- it's all kind of nebulous -- Dean IS a demon, but he IS Dean, and not some ages-old demon wearing a Dean meat-suit. I think they're doing some handwavium Mark of Cain stuff right now, and they're going to have to clear that up pretty quickly.

Because it's not very clear right now.

The handwavium is thick on the ground, I think.

I do not know what the hell is going on.

Apply more handwavium, -t!

I think one other thing that's confusing is Sam's injury. Because his arm was in the sling when he was questioning the tied-up girl demon, but then we switched to "Four Weeks Later," (instead of Four Weeks Earlier, which I think might have worked better). At any rate, his arm is still in the sling four weeks later, and he and Cas mention the injury, but don't really explain it.

The timeline alone was sort of a mess.

This is the interview with Jeremy Carver I read. It's spoilery, but in a big picture way.

The link would help: [link]

I think I don't mind not knowing what's going on? I'm interested to see where they are going.

The Very Special Supernatural Special was fun. I'm still kind of having a hard time believing it's season 10.

EW has an interview with Jeremy Carver, (complete with spoilers), that discusses that whole "is Dean a demon or isn't he?" issue we were discussing:

I want to clarify something. Crowley said the Mark of Cain had to be sated or else Dean goes full Demon? Isn’t he already?

Crowley is saying, “I’m keeping you sharp by giving you demons to kill and that is sating the Mark because the Mark needs to be sated, and if you don’t sate the Mark, then the Mark eventually takes you over even more.” So [Dean's] on this knife’s edge of yes, the Mark has already turned Dean into a demon, so if you don’t sort of feed the beast, the Mark will potentially take you over even more.