Okay, that's my take, too. I think this is what confused me:

When he stabs the demon in MBV and drinks their blood, what happens to their demony souls? Does he kill them? Exorcise them?

Because that whole scene was confusing to me. I didn't understand why Famine wanted some fancy soul in a briefcase when he seemed perfectly happy to eat the souls fresh right there in the diner.

So when Sam yanked them back out of Famine, to kill Famine ... I have no idea what happened to them then.

I don't think Sam has killed as many demons as simply exorcised them, which Ruby was teaching him to do. He did kill a lot of the hosts early on, though, albeit accidentally.

I think with the knife, I always thought once you saw that electric crackle, the demon was dying, even if it wasn't necessarily a mortal wound. But I could be wrong. I don't pay that much attention to the intricacies of the fight scenes.

I didn't understand why Famine wanted some fancy soul in a briefcase when he seemed perfectly happy to eat the souls fresh right there in the diner.

No, that didn't make sense. Unless it was a ripened soul, now that I'm fanwanking it. You know, had a proper addiction it had given into and killed itself, as opposed to just going overboard.

I can did that human souls are tastier than eating his demon cohorts, but you're right--that wasn't well explained.

I don't think Sam has killed as many demons as simply exorcised them

But he did (and was training to) kill Lilith, right? And what did he do to Alastair?

But he did (and was training to) kill Lilith, right? And what did he do to Alastair?

Um. He did kill Lilith. Alistair would require a rewatch.

It's just weird that Lilith is the only demon he's killed. All that training seems completely irrelevant.

I'm on the overthink train, aren't I? Back on the fun train, as John Rogers would instruct.

I thought he killed Alastair as well, but then I thought Alastair had been killed previously by Anna going Chernobyl and that turned out to be just banishment in the wake of his human host getting disintegrated.

My impression has been that when the black clouds sink into the ground burning or the host shows that flickering lit-from-within effect, the demon is being destroyed rather than just cast out.

when the black clouds sink into the ground burning

But isn't that what they show after an exorcism? And we know, from Meg, that that isn't destruction.

Or is the burning effect something I'm missing?

The host flickering with the knife and the gun I get.

I'm trying to remember visually what Lilith's demise looked like. I know he killed her because it's been said seventy kajillion times, but I don't recall what we actually saw.

Youtube ahoy!

Whohoa. Bad boy Sammy. He does definitely kill Alastair. No expulsion of black clouds--instead, just like Lilith, he goes all glowy skeleton. In fact, that's where he announces he can kill demons, when Alastair dares him to send him back to Hell. So I guess everything before has been less than that.

"Traditional," or pre-Season 4, exorcism removes the demon from a host and sends it back to hell, where it can climb out again and inhabit a new host. If the host was alive when possessed and hasn't been mortally damaged while possessed, the host will survive.

When they use the knife it does kill the demon's "soul", prevents it from jumping to another host or returning to hell to climb out and possess somebody else, but also the demon dying almost always kills the host.

Which was why Sam was learning to "pull" demons; the demon's "soul" died upon extrication, did not return to hell or body-jump, and if alive at the time of possession and not mortally injured while possessed, the host almost always lived. "Pulling" was a more final solution for dispossessed demons, and left more hosts alive.

I don't remember, or never knew, what Ruby did to the colt to rehabilitate and reactivate it.

when the black clouds sink into the ground burning

But isn't that what they show after an exorcism? And we know, from Meg, that that isn't destruction.

Traditional exorcism, the black cloud (assumptive "soul" of the demon) leaves the body of the possessed through the mouth, and exits the scene, sent back to hell. Leaving the body the same way voluntarily enables the demon to body-jump. The knife and the colt prevent the demon's soul from leaving the body, killing both the demon and the host.

So the black clouds they've showed Sam pulling have been misleading? They go nowhere? Except potentially into Famine's tummeh.

No, *those* black clouds that settle into the smoking ash are Dead.

The ones that shoot out of the mouth and head into a vent or whatever are still viable. Or whatever you want to call it.