I want to see Team Free Will break that bit of angelic dogma into a million bitty pieces.

More than anything, this.

What I don't get is, if Zachariah now knows that God has NOT "left the building", does he really not see Joshua's appearance as some kind of blatant cue that God is, at the very least, watching? If God's wrath is something to fear, wouldn't the fact that God seems to be paying attention, and to some extent is helping the boys, be a HUGE clue that perhaps some angels should be rethinking the Apocalypse?

I for one would like someone to ask Zachariah if he's considered the possibility that there might be personal consequences to inspiring seething hatred in people who, if his plan succeeds, will become vessels of the two most powerful incarnate beings in creation. If I were either of the Winchesters and decided to say yes I'd make his grisly end one of the conditions.

a HUGE clue that perhaps some angels should be rethinking the Apocalypse?

Maybe he was listening in on the sitting it out part.

I don't know if Zachariah is equipped to deal. I mean, if he has the faculties to do so. He's been so enamoured of taking the bludgeon to Dean, time after time, that it might not occur to him that a deal could be in the offing.

Michael, the smooth talker, on the other hand, seems more likely to go that way. But I'm not entirely clear who's talking to who up there. Still don't know how Anna got out, and on whose side she was acting.

Hey, spent today with my best SPN fan friend and we suddenly realized that the Michael Shanks character AND the preacher both had the Hunter-creation thing going on - is it possible that we will see them again?

By Hunter Creating thing - I mean when you lose somebody in bizarre circumstances to Supernatural creatures.

Also - it would be kind of fun to have season 6 open in the reverse of season 1: with Dean living a nice quiet ordinary life and Sam coming into it and pulling him back to the hunt.

In the 100th episode party clip, Jensen's toast is "here is to 100 more!" So I am thinking they have room for lots of scenarios. Suburbia Dean pulled back into it would be cool.

But what is he leaving behind? Jessica had to die for Sam not to be abandoning anything. Would we give Dean a similar loss? Or would he turn around and walk away from a family?

Unless you meant solo suburbia. The idea of Dean settling down by himself seems...well, I can think of nothing other than It's a Terrible Life. It would need a lot of setup.

Would we give Dean a similar loss?

That seems really ouchy so I'm thinking that's how the show would do it.

Or would he turn around and walk away from a family?

I don't see Dean doing that.

I just mostly CAN'T WAIT FOR THURSDAY--ahem.

I get that Dean is really exhausted, mentally, emotionally, and physically, but I can't see him settling down with a family unless he knows without doubt there is nothing left for him to hunt, and no one to pull him back into it.

After everything he's figured out about his own upbringing, and especially all the talk of deadbeat dads recently, I can't see him doing that to a wife and child(ren).

In my heart, I think Rufus is right, and that hurts. If there's no more OMGAPOCALYSPSE!, but still ghosts and vampires and the occasional low level demon, Dean might hole up somewhere a la Bobby (or Rufus) with too much to drink, a collection of porn on DVD, and maybe some side work restoring cars.

Further upthread I had theorized that Ben wasn't Dean's son, because he were the angels and demons would have been watching his every move from the instant he was born. Theresa suggested that

Unless mixing with Lisa's blood offset the convergence of bloodlines of John and Mary. Maybe this kid didn't get the special vessel gene.

which made me wonder, so I went looking. The transcript for "The Song Remains the Same" isn't on the Super Wiki yet so I sat down with my DVR and this is what found in the episode:

Michael: You're my true vessel, but not my only one.
Dean: What's that supposed to mean?
Michael: It's a bloodline.
Dean: A bloodline?
Michael: Stretching back to Cain and Abel. It's in your blood, your father's blood, your family's blood.

This implies to me that potential vessel-hood falls all along the Winchester family tree -- John's great-grandfather, John's sons (for instance, Adam if he were still alive), and Ben, if he were Dean's or if Sam got any girls pregnant during wild drunken parties at Stanford the child born from that encounter.