I got the impression that, at first, Dean was enjoying having his "brother" fall into line. I mean, turning up the volume on the music, ordering bacon cheeseburgers, etc.

That changed later, though.

I think that's why I can't watch JP play silly in Sam's skin. Nothing against JP and his comedic talents--I just associate him in that environment so strongly with expressed pain and angst. Whereas Dean/JA is all about masking his pain with doofery and mackery and only the occasional tear that I can accept it much better.

But how in god's name would Gary as Dean ever have been noticed?

Webclip for next week.

Poor Sam. Mindfuck.

Dang... Next week is going to be deliciously painful, isn't it?

I agree with the idea others have shared that Lucifer is playing things close to the vest. Crowley called it in AAH that demons are just cannon fodder to Lucifer, and other demons clearly don't know this about their "father". Even Crowley didn't know the Colt wouldn't finish him off.

I'm going to say that because Gary stole Sam's body through witchcraft, the demon turning over Gary-in-Sam's-Body to Lucifer to say yes wouldn't be sufficient. To my mind, Lucifer would still need the original owner's consent to make things "legal", otherwise it would be receiving stolen goods, sort of. For me, it makes sense that's how angels have to operate.

Besides, Lucifer wants Sam's anger. He did pick Nick as his vessel presumably to leverage same kind of rage.

I was most definitely squicked by Sam's body being used to fuck a dominatrix. I sure wish the kid had bailed instead when the riding crop appeared. Just. Ew.

Speaking of consent issues, was anyone else totally squicked by them using Sam's body to fuck someone?

It made me wonder yet again what Meg did with his body for that week when she was inhabiting it. And it made me think that perhaps Sam should get himself tested for STDs every so often as a matter of course, if he's going to keep getting used on a time-share basis.

I just thought that Sam's "you have a great life" speech to the kid seemed a lot more impassioned than his denial that he wanted that kind of life.

Hmm. I bought his denial. I thought he was just trying to placate the kid. He seemed irritated by the restraints of family in general.

I don't see the concepts as contradictory, necessarily. Sam could see that suburban life as a good one for Gary, while no longer viewing it as a good option for himself.

But I thought conventional wisdom was that you couldn't sell someone else's soul, you could only make deals for your own.

All Mary knew about her bargain was that Azazel would be coming back for something in 10 years. For all she knew at the time, she probably thought Azazel would be coming for her.

I didn't get to rewatch the episode, but I read the end of the transcript for it and Azazel very clearly tells her he won't be taking her soul: ("Oh, no, you can keep your soul, I just need permission....Mmm, ten years I need to swing by your house for a little something, that's all....Relax, as long as I'm not interrupted, nobody gets hurt, I promise. (beat) Or you can spend the rest of your life, desperate and alone.") So she knows she's in the clear. I need to rewatch the episode to find out if she knew the extent of the damage he was causing. At the very least she made an open-ended deal with a demon, knowing the kind of evil he'd be wreaking (considering he'd been murdering people around town, including her parents and John).

Regardless, she didn't trade Sam's soul. Even after all this time, Sam's soul is still intact. Azazel just altered his physical make-up with Mary's deal. The damnation part is and always has been Sam's choice.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the whole setup then. But when Dean made the crossroads deal to bring Sam back from the dead, are we assuming that Sam was in hell and that that is why Dean went to hell when his year was up? Or did Dean go to hell because that's where everyone who makes a crossroads deal goes? Because at that point in time I don't think Sam had done anything that would sentence him to damnation. Since then he's been on a downward spiral, but up until then I don't think so.

Or did Dean go to hell because that's where everyone who makes a crossroads deal goes?

That's where everyone who makes a crossroads deal goes. See Crossroads Blues -- that's why all those people were terrified of the hell hounds coming for them. Bela, as well.

Sam has never talked about being in Hell, has he? Was it just nothingness for him?

He's never mentioned it, no.

It never occurred to me that Sam went to hell when he was killed in Cold Oak. It never occurred to me that Sam deserved to go to hell. I always assumed he went on to an afterlife, and being ripped away from it a la BTVS might have changed him.