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.

Do you think he was saying there was another Winchester out there? I wonder if it could be a cousin or something.

My read on it is that maybe any of the Winchester line -- or that line descended from Cain and Abel -- could have worked, but like Gabriel said, the reason Sam and Dean are the *true* vessels is because they're brothers, because they're mirroring the conflict between Michael and Lucifer. Destiny, or whatever, arranged it so that they're the ones who are going to play out the battle best emotionally, I guess?

The kid I'm most interested in is Jessie, right now. That's a gun that better reappear in the third act.

I'm a bad fan. Who's Jessie?

Ohhhh...he was the antichrist or something, wasn't he? That kid.

Yeah, him! Superhero!kid who took himself off wherever.

I just clicked on some promo pics for next week's episode and got massively spoiled. Dang it.

Tries desperately to forget. On another note, I'd love Jessie to come back. For that matter I love it when anyone comes back. I want the Wendigo siblings to put in an appearance, or Lucas and his mom, or any number of awesome female cops...

This implies to me that potential vessel-hood falls all along the Winchester family tree [...]

I'm not discounting Sam as a vessel for Michael either, demon blood taint or not. If, as an angel, Lucifer can ride him, so can Michael.