I was getting the impression all over the place that she made a conscious choice to leave, cut out her own grace, and because of that she fell. She wasn't thrown out, she threw herself out.

I'm having difficulty with the logic of Anna's actions, which is really the show logic on angels. I'm okay with hand-waving it but I need to spit out what bugs me about it. If Angels have to be obedient and follow orders, then how is it that they have the free will to Fall? If they can choose to Fall, why can't they choose to disobey orders?

I suppose you could answer that in the Angel form they have tremendous pressure on them to be obedient, and the only way to shake that is to Fall, but then it becomes a matter of degree not ability. On the other hand, I think we have the same issue with Ruby - demons have tremendous pressure on them to be evil, and she's resistant to the pressure and choosing to act good. But Ruby retains her demon powers, and Anna had to abandon her Grace. Now that she's reclaimed it, she can no longer exercise that free will. Hmmm. Okay back to hand waving.

Sam's Plan: This is also bugging me a bit. I see how Sam could dispatch Ruby to summon and trick Alistor, but how did Sam know that Dean would be contacted by Uriel (at least in time to arrange for the showdown)? Unless I'm misremembering, Ruby summoned Alistor before Dean had his dream. Unless Show arranged those scenes out of sequence, which would not, in my opinion, be playing fair in the game of misdirect.

Heh, other than these things, I really, really liked this episode. For awhile it's been bugging me what could have happened to Dean that he'd come out of Hell all happy-go-lucky (in a sense) yet have just endured 40 years of horrific torture. Now it makes sense - he was tortured for 30 years, but the last 10 years he was the torturer. So while he carries the trauma of the 30 years of torture, he really emerges with fresher emotional scars of tremendous guilt - which would be consistent with his immediate behavior, and his reluctance to discuss the events. The writers really knocked this one out of the park.

Castiel is awesome, and I've developed a total man crush on Misha - that guy can ACT. If he Falls though, wouldn't he need a new meatsuit? I hope not.

Some things to consider about John: he apparently hadn't earned the enmity of as many (and as powerful) demons as Dean had, so he may not have been given the same sort of personal attention and fast-tracked for demonhood. Also, his brief appearance after escaping Hell demonstrated mainly that he still loved his kids and still hated Azazel. We don't necessarily know much about his mental state regarding anything between those two extremes.

Some thoughts:

this is as a said a very non-Christian universe, however nominally Christian supernatural is. (If the mythology is hoodoo, that makes a lot of sense.) A lot of the gray comes from that. And apparently applies to Angels and Demons, not just people and monsters. A lot of life and afterlife is navigating arbitrary and unfair rules, and defying them or finding ways around them.

A thought about Ana: her timing was unfortunate. She spend millenia just watching, then chose to fall just as the war heated up. As a really big mojo angel, deserting in the heat of battle, that probably made what she did worse.

I was amused at the fact that after Dean was twice chided for confusing reality with porn, his reality becomes porn.

Hah.

But Ruby retains her demon powers, and Anna had to abandon her Grace.

Always struck me that God is a real stickler for rules. Angels were made without free will, end of story, you know?

he apparently hadn't earned the enmity of as many (and as powerful) demons as Dean had, so he may not have been given the same sort of personal attention and fast-tracked for demonhood.

Also, they made deals with different demons, yes? John sold himself to the YED, Dean sold himself to the red-eyed variety.

As a really big mojo angel

Given that she said she was Castiel and Uriel's boss, I really want to know if/where they're going to pin her in the existing Christian angel pantheon.

Isn't Uriel an archangel? Or is that just Michael, Raphael and Gabriel?

(Who would be the 4th Angel who has seen the face of God?)

Uriel is an archangel, depending on what part of the Bible you ask.

I'm wondering if one of the four is Lucifer. (Morningstar, don't ya know...)

Donatello!

Wait ...

He was the favorite.