Aw, actually seeing Jimmy in heaven got me sniffly.

I liked Sam's interactions with Claire, especially the discussion about their mothers (paraphrasing -- "I never knew my mother, she died when I was a baby...I got to know her in later life." "Wait, what?")

Heh. Although really, he saw her ghost for like 30 seconds and then met her past self for a day or so while time-traveling, so it's not as if Sam has a good feel for what his mother was actually like, apart from being protective of him.

I actually quite liked last week's episode (two in a row!

• sits next to Matt*

Call me crazy, I quite enjoyed the last few episodes. And with a handful of exceptions, I thought overall the season was better than usual. Although I am a bit apprehensive about what might be unleashed if the Book of the Damned works. I hope we don't head down another Leviathan-like route.

Unfortunately next week's episode is a Buckner/Ross-Leming effort, so look for offensiveness, contradictions to established cosmology/setting, and complete obliviousness to the logical implications of whatever happens in the story.

I have to say, when it comes to that writing team all is forgiven after tonight's episode (well, most -- maybe not all). That was a great episode. Heartbreaking, but great. Felt like old times there for a minute.

Jensen never gets less attractive, does he? Neither does Dean, of course.

Oh! I heard "Nice grouping" and laughed because I love that movie (and we've quoted it on the board here a million times) but even while I wanted it to mean something, I had no idea it would be ... that! Very cool.

They got the main character beats mostly right (I'm not thrilled by Rowena's lack of fear at having a heavenly watchdog, but Team Free Will all felt right); however, there were logical inconsistencies that drove me nuts. Sam & Dean are terrified that their faux little sister is going to be killed, and they know exactly where this is happening, so they take the time to drive there instead of calling the angel who was blowing up their phones five minutes ago and having him provide instantaneous travel or just go there himself. Charlie staying and fighting rather than jumping out the bathroom window to escape the instant she smashed that laptop. Involving Rowena at all since Castiel can presumably read any language and has millions of years more experience using supernatural forces than she, while presenting far less chance of being vulnerable to the book itself and zero of deciding to use what's in it against the Winchesters.

Also, the captured redneck's pompousness in announcing membership in the Frankenstein family was laughable, both for the melodramatic reveal to the audience and for trying to intimidate one of the Winchester Brothers. (Dude, these guys are personally responsible for wiping out all of Hell's royalty including Caine and Lilith, and managed to derail the Apocalypse by trapping the Devil and the Archangel Michael in the deepest pit of Hell. I think they're up for the challenge of facing down Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman.)

Hah! You made me laugh, Matt. Which may be the only thing I enjoyed about this episode.

It all just felt like retread to me. I hate the sparkle twins writing team. Charlie did somewhat redeem herself from her offhand dismissal of Sam before her departure, though. I guess that's something.

It's just... in addition to being bad writers, they don't seem to be smart enough to figure out plot implications and solutions to problems that are immediately obvious to the viewers. It's fine for least-common-denominator sitcom writers to be dumb if they can tell funny jokes, but it's an unforgivable failing in a genre show writer who has to deal with mysteries and plot twists. I get this mental image of Ross-Lemming waving a script around to get Singer's attention, and then him pinning it to the refrigerator with a magnet and patting her on the head.

Murderous, vengeful, ass-kicking Dean is so hot. I'm not even ashamed.