Oh, yeah! I forgot about her, too, -t.

Although "the only way" is always a concept with a whole lot of fluidity in the SPNverse.

I'm behind, but I want to play along.

If Sam is/becomes God and Dean is a Reaper (or Death, or the Darkness fwiw), what about Cas?

Still an Angel of the Lord. Just a different Lord.

For some reason I keep flashing on hippie!Cas communing with butterflies et al. So yeah, still an angel, but maybe with a St Francis flair? That would be an interesting new trinity.

Oh, I like that! Hippie!Cas was pretty great

Exactly. Cas would be the righthand angel, better able to effect the change/support/influence he has always wanted but routinely fell short of. He would also continue to keep the boys in line...cleaning up their messes.

I confess, I don't know what happened with Mark Sheppard, but it would be interesting to see him return in some changed capacity to compliment the Trinity.

I think they just decided Crowley didn't fit well any more and I can see why.

That said, from what I've managed to gather (and I don't follow these things all that closely any more), he was unhappy with his final episode.

This is the best thing I've read on his feeling about the execution of his exit: [link]

I do remember that after Crowley died on screen, one of the writers/showrunners teased a possible return someday, and Mark shut that right down (this was all on Twitter, but I think some of the tweets might be gone). My impression about that has been because he was angry about his final scene, not leaving itself.

Aw. That's too bad. I liked the character but can agree that the ramp up to the end was pretty weak.

Thanks for the link!

I always thought Mark Shepherd, from clips I'd seen from cons, seemed to be wanting all the attention for himself. But I could be really wrong about that.

Last night's episode, S15E3, was ... wow. I did not see a lot of that coming. And I sincerely hope this whole "hell's open" thing is over for the rest of the show.

I think Sheppard is an all-in kind of player. Do you remember the Firefly con that nearly didn't happen? When the "organizers" absconded with the money and left people without hotel reservations or organized events? When Allyson and Maya stepped up to fling things together at the last minute, and found hotels and meeting places, and called on Joss and Tim? Nathan brought a box of his own memorabilia to give away, Tim brought DVDs, back when we had just managed to convince TPTB to make Firefly DVDs and they weren't widely available yet? And did two days of "behind the scenes" for whoever was interested? And Adam and Alan and Christina Hendricks (...drix?) showed up to visit with the fans and Clare Kramer and her husband were opening a bar the week after this con, and got permits for a limited opening as a 'private party' for the con? Well, Sheppard showed up, along with some other guest stars. But he'd only been in two episodes as Badger, but he showed up to talk to folks and schmooze. And when an interviewer who had come to chronicle the "impromptu" rescue of a almost-failed con and talk to some of the personalities who'd come to meet folks asked Sheppard, "Why are you here at an unsponsored event for a failed tv series?" Mark answered, "Darling. Where else would I be?"

Sheppard goes all out--yes, I get the impression he's somewhat brash and forward, but his energy is infectious, he demands interaction, he engages, he makes people laugh, and he's wonderful with kids. He attracts a lot of attention, but that's different from attention-seeking, more of a "We're here now--let's take advantage of that and have a good time!"

Or so people say who've been to cons where he's appeared. My info is all second-hand, but this is what I hear.