Trudy, that's what I thought.

March 25th.

I hope this means we go straight through to the season finale from there.

I'm having entirely inappropriate reactions to feral!Sam. Good god.

No, you were having ENTIRELY APPROPRIATE reactions, silly.

He knows better than anyone what looking up and asking for help means...or doesn't mean. Especially after last week. And it's Sam's pain that's breaking him.

And it was very satisfying, in a painful way.

I hope this means we go straight through to the season finale from there.

I think that's what I heard. Straight shot to what might be the end.

Do you think maybe Sam only savaged those two demons a little bit, so their hosts will be okay, or did he full on dracula those mothers?

Oh, and Bobby in the next ep. He could totally buy it. Or maybe closer to the end.

I was just thinking that they've both come quite a long way, in that Sam admitted right away that he was infected with the hunger and that he needed to be restrained, and that Dean so nakedly (heh) asked for help. A season or two or three ago neither of those events would have occurred without far more metaphorical teethpulling.

I fully encourage the idea that Sam can master his powers when he's not hopped up on hell juice. Didn't they say that the blood addiction was just a distraction of sorts?

Agreed. I think he should be able to pull demons on his own -- Ruby said the blood drinking wasn't necessary. And I still don't understand why the act of him yanking demons out of a human host would be an inherently bad thing. Kill a demon, good. Most of the time it saves the human host, good. Sam looks hot doing it, good. Where's the bad?

However, even if he does get more control, he still needs to have that same attitude when he uses the powers, because that's totally hot.

Oh yeah.

I was just thinking that they've both come quite a long way, in that Sam admitted right away that he was infected with the hunger and that he needed to be restrained, and that Dean so nakedly (heh) asked for help.

Totally. I was so worried that Sam was going to hide his cravings and so happy that he didn't. But I worry about Dean--did Sam or Castiel hear what the Horseman told him about being empty inside?

But I worry about Dean--did Sam or Castiel hear what the Reaper told him about being empty inside?

I think Castiel was still out of it, but it's hard to say with Sam -- we don't know when he actually came into the room.

I wonder how much Sam's craving is for the actual demon blood, and how much of it is metaphorical, him simply wanting that power again (remember his conversation with War?). I am a little confused, though, because I thought we/show determined that the blood was a placebo, not really the source of his power.

Reaper? I meant Horseman. Edited thusly. I have Tessa on the brain right now. I keep thinking of him almost giving up to her, and that emptiness now.

I'm seeing discussion that it's supposed to be that he has no soul, but that's very literal. I'll have to rewatch, but it wasn't my takeaway. Mine was that he was hollowed out by everything he was going through, and he wanted nothing. A whole lot of nothing.

With Sam, I guess he ties the power to the demon blood (his?) so tightly that he's never been able to access it without drinking. But I'm surprised that they haven't made an effort to work out how to get past that. It's huge. Even if the bloody nose of mental overextertion was worrying.

That was way too close to Dean saying yes for comfort, but I don't think Dean's going to say yes unless somehow that keeps Sam out of trouble.

I wasn't that surprised that Famine told Dean he was dead inside. Dean was in Hell for awhile so I suspect in order to survive that, he had to become harder than he was. How can he be dead inside and be able to be Michael's vessel? That's the only question I have. What is the status of Dean's soul?

BTW, Cupid was really sweet. :-)

I need to rewatch -- JA's expressions while Famine was hissing at him were so pained, so revealing. ARGH. BOYS.

Yeah, I can't imagine Dean literally doesn't have his soul. For one, I can't see how that would work with Michael wanting him -- and I can't imagine Castiel would have brought him back at all if hell had truly destroyed it/him.

I think what hit me the hardest was a) Dean pleading, when he's said again and again he believes God is gone, and b) Sam pleading for DEAN.

For all the funny (and the ewww), this episode was really gutting.