If it was Lucifer who moved the boys to the plane, I can't imagine his motivation.

This. I mean, if Sam has always been his intended vessel, he was right there, and vulnerable as hell.

I will say, though, that the consent issue with angels (including Lucifer, apparently) bugs me. Demons don't need it. I can angels not wanting to intrude, but Lucifer? Unless his angel roots still apply in full, it seems odd.

Unless his angel roots still apply in full, it seems odd.

They apply to the hiding spell that Castiel placed on the boys, so maybe he still is all angel.

Demons were people once, canon tells us, and thus are not bound by angelic rules requiring consent for possession of a body. Lucifer, though fallen, was created an angel, and is bound by angelic rules.

Anna, stripped of her grace, was human, though she retained some memory of being an angel. Unless some residue of angeltude prevented it, I'm pretty sure her graceless body could have been possessed by a demon, had one been shopping for a meatsuit in her vicinity. But that's just conjecture.

Anna suggests another possibility for the intervention that saved Sam & Dean. Also, she reappeared in a replica of the human body she'd occupied before, much the same as Castiel did. Perhaps the "friend in high places" she mentioned as responsible for that is another archangel that's not following the same agenda Zachariah and Raphael are pushing?

Last season Anna said that only four angels have had direct communication with God. Presumably Michael and Raphael are two of them. Perhaps Gabriel and whoever the producers have decided the fourth archangel is in place of Uriel, or Metatron, are the others?

That's an appealing theory, Matt. It might actually be only one archangel, given the way heaven's hierarchy seems to have wandered off the path of Good. That might set up God plus his remaining archangel and the Winchesters against the angels, including Lucifer and his hell minions, as the final battle.

My recollection of archangels, etc. is spotty at best, but there is an Islamic archangel (Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel are the three shared with Catholicism apparently) and Azrael is the 4th in Islam.

So, assuming these are the 4 Anna was talking about (with Uriel a question mark, right): we still need to meet Gabriel and Michael minimum and perhaps the fourth.

Does Cass think God is sitting around Texas or something? I'm not sure why he would think God is anywhere on Earth. If I were as powerful as God and I decided to take a powder, I'm not sure I'd even be in the Milky Way.

Lucifer, though fallen, was created an angel, and is bound by angelic rules.

I rewatched, and Lucifer even says, when Sam mentions needing consent, "Of course. I'm an angel."

The things I miss first time around, I tell you.

Last season Anna said that only four angels have had direct communication with God. Presumably Michael and Raphael are two of them. Perhaps Gabriel and whoever the producers have decided the fourth archangel is in place of Uriel, or Metatron, are the others?

My money's on Lucifer being the fourth.

My money's on Lucifer being the fourth.

That makes sense to me. I'm guessing that means we'll also get to meet Gabriel somewhere along the lines. If so, I hope it's not Raphael-redux, in terms of the kind of attitude we get.

Does anyone else get the feeling that if we meet Michael, he won't be quite what Castiel, Zachariah, and Raphael have led us to believe?

Hell, they might as well go ahead and hire Cate Blanchett.