Dean growling is the "new" new black, pass it on.

How exactly does Crowley know how to vacuum the grace-energy out of an angel and transplant it into another? That doesn't seem like something that would be common knowledge, particularly among demons. (I assumed Cas learned how by watching Metatron do it to him.)

Crowley knows everything! At least that seems to be prevailing handwavium when it comes to him.

I saw who had written the episode and my heart sank (Buckner/Ross-Leming) but I was pleasantly surprised. Still not sure what Crowley's flashbacks to his time with Dean were all about, aside from a really sappy way to remind us how broken up he is, but I loved the Sam and Dean interaction at the end. Jensen was fantastic.

I think they must also be using a lot of hairspray on Sam, because Jared's hair was so immobile, it was a little weird.

One of my silly thoughts was that Sam should set up a catheter and inject the blood like saline in a big bag, instead of individual injections, but that's not as dramatic, I suppose.

This ep made me think of the fic tag "Crowley hurts or helps".

Speaking of, does this mean that Hannah no longer needs Cas' help to hunt the rogue angels? Which, I'm still unclear as to why it was important, and why Hannah couldn't do it with some other angel. Please let it be that she was lying. But I'm still stuck on "her best hope is the dying dude"!!? So I hope that sweet Hannah has an ulterior motive other than necking with Cas. (And I do enjoy the actress' portrayal of awkwardness and humanity, it really does seem alien to her).

I have sympathy for the demons. Crowley seems like a pretty bad king of hell.

Sam's face when he had the knife to Dean's throat, man. So raw.

Raw is the perfect word for Sam's face. He also really played the younger brother in this episode -- I could hear echoes of the old Sam when he was asking Cas what he should do about Dean when the treatment didn't seem to be working, and when Dean was crashing through that door, too, like every monster under his bed had shown up. It's weirdly lovely to see such a huge man display vulnerability like that.

Totally. He looked so young, somehow.

I concur with raw. There's no way I could tell who directed this episode--it was handily done.

I agree that Crowley's a bad king of hell. His mind is always on something else--like making the Winchesters his best friends? How is that not a Roy and Walt level decision? Giving Cas grace for a favour ?

I did note that Dean promised vengeance on whoever killed Sam--not in an emo pleading please don't kill him don't hurt HIM way. Just that--he is mine, and if you kill him, you will pay.

Kind of like Soulless Sam hieing to Dean.

I think both of those are due to John WInchesters A+++ Parenting (actual AO3 tag) which has given them bonds above and beyond emotions and ethics. They belong to each other.

Is the grace Cas has now clean and self-charging, or will he need to recharge vampirically and periodically?

I was wondering that, too, about Cas' grace. It's still stolen grace so it will still deteriorate, or whatever, right?

It seems to be being played like this is a fix, not a stopgap, or is it just me getting that feeling? Were there differences in collecting? She was still alive and they just pulled it out, versus taking it from someone dying like before?

I DON'T KNOW.