two more days. I can do it.

YOU CAN! Come sit on my bench!

You think Point of No Return!Cas was screwed over?

I think that's the first time they let him be what he once was in season 4. Because the rest of the time there was

they started making him the butt of easy jokes so often.

Where before he wasn't there much but when he was, there was the bad-assery and the power and then doubt and struggle, and then suddenly there was him not there much except as a presence to write quickly and clumsily out of the episode. It felt like poor writerly neutering, and not a progression of a slow fall.

I love him so much, but a lot of the season 5 stuff just makes me cringe or feel bad.

Cas who banishes Zachariah in 5x01 or tries to kill Jesse or pushes Meg face down in the fire to escape the angel oil? I think he's had his SRS BZNS moments this season too.

Maybe it's just the eps that I have rewatched most recently that leave me with this bad taste in my mouth, but even in Abandon All Hope, it felt like he was being cut off from the main story in a ball-snipping way. "Cas wanders away and is no longer integral to the main story and can't use his aweseome angel might to keep shit from getting too dire." Although I think this was one of the better-handled episodes for him.

But Changing Channels, Back to the Future II... oh god, especially the brothel ep (Free to Be...?) was so incredibly motts for me.

especially the brothel ep

Yeah, the brothel ep. Dean makes some comment about how he hasn't laughed so much in years, and I remember thinking that Dean's not laughing with Castiel he's laughing at Castiel, and that's kind of unpleasant. But I guess it's a YMMV kind of thing, because if I remember right a lot of people liked that episode.

YOU CAN! Come sit on my bench!

And what a fine bench it is.

How was The Song Remains The Same mottsy? Sure, they removed him tidily from the field of play, but I loved him stepping up to Anna in the time we did have with him.

They fucked themselves, having the potential power lying around when the boys needed it, so they had to move him around a lot, but I don't think they made him unfierce, even as they progressively depowered him, or put him up against archangels.

He's been consistently focussed on the end game, and I love that about him.

The brothel thing...that's the shit aesc ignored in her Casifesto. That's Cas imprinted on Dean and following his lead because he needs a lead to follow. But I think that's been in his character well since S4.

I give Dean credit for trying to laugh with Cas about it, but honestly, he was so fucked up in that episode. The entire idea was wack, and I chalk shit up to the Sam-shaped void in his life or crap writing. Because I don't understand how we're supposed to believe that's the best laugh he's had in forever. Just look at the smiles vid.

Yeah, the brothel ep. Dean makes some comment about how he hasn't laughed so much in years, and I remember thinking that Dean's not laughing with Castiel he's laughing at Castiel, and that's kind of unpleasant.

I don't know if I took it as laughing "at", but Dean's laughter did make me squirm. I think I took it more as not believing his laughter. Like either Jensen was having a bad day, or maybe Dean was forcing hiself to laugh and talk shit about Sam.

but really, I just didn't buy that that's how Castiel would act about sex, or that he'd even let himself be led into that situation, period.

I didn't like the brothel scene, but I think it was Dean's character I was troubled by. Cas was his hapless victim along for the ride with no clue what vehicle he was in. I might have gotten carried away with the metaphor.

Dean felt OOC for me, but I'll buy ita's argument that he was f'd up with the absence of Sam.

That was the only motts moment for me this season.

How was The Song Remains The Same mottsy?

It wasn't. I was referring exclusively to Free to be You and Me. The whorehouse stuff.