The writer of the fic linked above seems to totally share my mind. Not the Michael/Dean interaction but ...

I've been thinking (probably more than it deserves) about Ana's "All the pain, twice the self-righteousness". (And: quoting from memory.)

And there is a way to reconcile it with getting Dean to torture Alister. The point of that was not that Dean was the only one with the skills (though I'm sure Castiel sincerely believed that.) And it was not just Uriel's little plan for Alister to kill Dean, though I'm sure that was sincere too. What it did to Dean was the point; someone higher up that both Uriel and Castiel intended to make sure Dean stayed broken, had his face rubbed in his time in hell now that he was out. So hell really did learn its torture techniques from heaven. Not canon, but not inconsistent with canon.

Also, (and here again the fic deals with something I've though before) the timing on Dean's rescue is suspicious. No one notices when he goes under that he has the bloodline hell needs to unleash apocalypse. Especially no one notices when unleashing the apocalypse is something heaven and hell agree on. They were sick of haggling over a few souls at a time during the pregame, and wanted to start the big game (which they now seem to have done). That is how they just notice how well Dean fit into prophecy only after he broke and rescued him too late. No accident, Dean's breaking was part of the plan.

And maybe the writers won't go that direction. But it would not be at all inconsistent with the direction they seem to be going.

Yeah, I didn't think he was soulless - I mean wouldn't he be a zombie, but my question about the status of his soul was more, what state is his soul in?

It doesn't sound good to me.

I'm pretty sure (in the Supernatural universe) that you can't go walking around without your soul.

Also Famine eating souls and demons? Totally consistent. After all in Supverse, demons are souls that have been tormented until they broke, then put back together wrong. To a soul eater that might taste good, like a Gorgonzola.

House of Wax is on. I keep trying to change the channel...hasn't happened yet. Someone save me.

What channel?

MTV.

Yes, I'm still watching.

I guess I could record it and FF through. I tried Christmas Cottage and fell asleep repeatedly. What's the worst that could happen?

Heh. I just remembered I'm two degrees from Paris Hilton since she was in a movie with a friend of mine. I never even saw that, despite it being the reason I was at a party with her (I was actually standing next to her for a while, but totally didn't realise it).

So JP is going to be the reason I crack and try and watch a whole movie with her in it? We'll see if I can make it that far.

Paris was forgettable (shocker!) and not as intrusive a presence as she might have been. JP was sweet and earnest and huge. That's ... pretty much all I remember aside from a truly WTF ending. Oh, and a MCR song over the closing credits.

I suspect she'd be easier to ignore in this than in The Hottie And The Nottie. I stand by my decision to avoid that, friendship be damned.