'Sacrifice' -- SPN 8x23

Warning Spoiler Alert

Well, at least one thing that I was fairly certain would happen (or in this case not happen) was Kripked instead of Jossed. I didn't see there being any way for the boys to actually close the gates of Hell by the end of the season, not when there was another season coming. Cuz if they closed up Hell, it didn't seem like there would be enough filler for an entire season (even with the run-of-the-mill boogeymen or angels roaming around and causing trouble). It seemed like they would still need to have the demons around to cause a stink, since that's the show's bread and butter (and as Dean said, fighting demons is what they do).

Was rather disappointed that Metatron turned out to be the ultimate baddie for the season, since I love the idea of using Metatron as a helper (or even as someone who would be willing to fight a bit, even if that isn't necessarily what he was originally created for ... whether we're saying that he was originally Enoch, or was originally from the secretarial pool). In my head, he's got a mixture of SPN did with Gabriel/Loki (where he wasn't necessarily a fighter, but he still stood up to Lucifer to protect the boys) and what Kevin Smith did with Metatron in Dogma.

I'll also freely admit that I still have a bit of a hard time believing that Naomi would have jumped ship on what she was doing previously to warn Castiel about Metatron. After all of the shady things that she's done to Cas and the boys, and always giving the impression that she was trying to trick the boys so that she could use them (or even kill them) later on, her leaving Metatron alone to warn Cas seemed a bit out of character to me. And she ended up feeling like a tool to me, which I didn't care for. I was hoping that she would turn out to be a little more ... competent? ... menacing? ... and a little less of a masochist for the sake of having an angel that seemed to enjoy hurting people. She kind of reminded me of Alistair in a way, and I'd love it if someone did a meta comparing the two of them.

I'd still love to know exactly who the shadowy figure was that we saw in the first episode. Were we supposed to think that it was Don? I have a feeling that we could always handwave that figure into being Don, but I have more of a feeling that the figure was part of a plot thread that the writers either forgot about, or dropped and just didn't bother to go back and explain.

Also in the WTH? category ... when did Mama Tran die? Did I just completely black out or something? I mean, that's entirely possible, but ... I don't see how I could have forgotten something as important as that ... especially after remembering how odd it was that she hadn't tried to find Kevin after he was kidnapped by Crowley. Someone ... please ... tell me that I'm just forgetting something and that isn't one of those times when the writers just threw in a statement about how something happened like we should have remembered it when they never did anything about it in the first place.

'Clip Show' -- SPN 8x22

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Well, I suppose that I've now had another part of my headcanon of Show torpedoed. First, it was the idea that Metatron might actually have been Chuck (which is still an idea that I like far better than what he's supposed to be). But now it's the idea that the boys might have come from a line of angels (and that somewhere in their family tree there was a Nephilim). It possibly could be argued that they might be at least a little bit angel, and that's why they were the perfect vessels for Lucifer and Michael ... but I don't see Metatron saying that there was only one Nephilim in the world if the people who are the perfect vessels had even a bit of angel blood inside of them. And again, I like my idea much better than the one that has now become canon, but ... what can you do? Nothing, really.

Also, if Crowley is supposed to be the demon that they save, that may kill the theory that he might be a fallen angel ... which I am also a bit disappointed about. But then, my brain is needing some "bigger meaning" to his reference to Mesopotamia ... something bigger (and which makes more sense in canon) than "the writers just fucked up," since my brain wants things to MAKE SENSE, BITCHES!! I'm sure that this would be another point where would have been telling me that genre television isn't supposed to make sense, and maybe realizing that should mean that I need to sit the hell down instead of trying to rip out my hair.

But at the same time, it seemed kind of like it was getting to be inevitable that the boys were going to try to do something about Crowley ... even if it didn't turn out that he was the final trial. Crowley has kind of become a bit too large when it comes to power, and may start going into YED territory pretty soon. Without the bitch check before that happens, it could be that Crowley becomes an even bigger pain in the ass for someone else later on down the line.

And now we do know that the angel tablet is in Crowley's possession. I'm glad that this was addressed, cuz I'm sure that it would have bugged the hell out of me if we weren't given some kind of answer. Though, I'm not entirely sure that Metatron would have remembered what was on each of the tablets, regardless of what he says about them being things that you wouldn't forget. And from the way that it was worded, I'm taking it as him remembering what was on each of the tablets, and not just the angel one (cuz that's the one that affected him most directly as an angel). He seems far too ... absentminded? ... put your head in the sand? ... to necessarily remember what all the trials were.

Speaking of the trails, and the fact that the first one was to cut the heart out of another being, and that Metatron claimed that he couldn't do it himself since he's just a "pencil pusher" and Cas is the warrior ... bullshit. What he is, is just as bad as the archangels, getting someone else to do his dirty work. Someone needs to knock him on his ass, cuz I have the feeling that it's a good thing that he was in hiding for so long; if he hadn't been trying to stay out of everything, I have a feeling that things would have been much worse. He probably would have been the guy who was whispering in someone else's ear, trying to get them worked up and doing something stupid ... what I would think that Lucifer does in the traditional Christian sense of the being ... or even the way Loki was in Thor.

Was it just me, or was Dean acting like a whiney, little bitch in this episode? Sure, Cas hurt him, but Cas was doing what he thought was right ... and it seemed like Dean should have realized that without needing to be told. Hell, even when Sam is on the angel's side, that should be a clue that you need to let things go, broheim.

'The Great Escapist' -- SPN 8x21

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Good on Kevin for figuring out that the dudes that were hanging around were actually demons and not the boys. I like him more and more every time that he's around. Too bad that the boys thought that he was dead for a while, since I'm sure that caused them some turmoil ... and possibly them. But if they hadn't, I have a feeling that he might not have been rescued by Metatron, since they probably would have gone out looking for him, and there wouldn't have been the real possibility of him being saved ... even though it does seem a tad bit convenient that Metatron was able to get to him and get him to safety. I'm kind of conflicted as to whether or not I like that it happened. Sure, I'm glad that Kevin is not dead now, but to have Metatron come in just in time to save him seemed a little too deus ex machina, and the only one who I was ok with doing that was Bobby.

I was super glad that Metatron did manage to make it into Show ... even if I'm disappointed that they changed his backstory so that he was originally an angel (and part of the "secretarial pool"), when he's supposed to be Enoch ... and Enoch was originally a human who became an angel so that he could be the "voice of God" ... at least according to folklore (Book of Enoch ... read it ... it's kind of awesome).

I'm really hoping that Kevin ends up staying around with Metatron. He won't need to translate anything anymore (so that will cut off all of the bad things that have happened to him from translating the tablets), and he will be around the angel that he should have been around the entire time. Maybe there will finally be some kind of balance in the Force when they are together ... at least as far as Prophets and the Word of God (and the tablets) are concerned.

And when Metatron nabbed Kevin from Crowley, it kind of bothers me that we don't know whether or not he also grabbed the angel tablet. Sure, he knows what's on the tablet itself (since he's the one that made sure that it was made), but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you should just leave hanging around ... especially when the King of Hell is right. there. The thing has already proven that it has some kind of magical properties inside of it, and I have a bad feeling that if Crowley figures out how to use it, something bad is going to happen. SOMEBODY TELL ME WHERE IT IS, SO I CAN STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS!!!!

'Pac-Man Fever' -- SPN 8x20

Warning: Spoiler Alert

I'm kind of torn about how I'm feeling about Charlie right now. On the one hand, I think it would be a completely fab idea to have her join up with the boys in their super-secret clubhouse, since she would be able to help them out a billion ways to Sunday when it comes to figuring things out and research and whatnot (plus, she would be able to get everything in the records digitized and organized and easily searchable in no time flat), and I'm sure that sort of thing would come in complete handy when they are coming up against a brick wall on some things. That being said, I think that if Charlie was around all of the time, I might end up getting annoyed with her enough that I would want to shake a bitch. There are some characters that are awesome in small doses, but if they were to be imbibed on a regular basis, they would be far more annoying than what they would be worth ... and I have a feeling that she would be one of those characters.

Also, with her favorite book being The Hobbit (or at least, that being the book that her mom used to read to her all of the time) ... I have a feeling that the only reason that this particular book was picked (and the only reason why the beginning of it was read at the end of the episode) was cuz of the fact that it's kind of in the public consciousness right now. If this episode had come out around 2001, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the writers would have name dropped LotR. Kind of annoying, but understandable I suppose (in that the writers were probably trying to add to her nerd street cred).

Another mention of Chuck in this episode. Ok, yeah, the name that was used was his pen name, but I'm counting it. I kind of want to think that there is something with the mention for the second time this season ... like it might mean something in the larger scheme of things ... but I also have the feeling that it's not going to pan out to meaning anything at all (kind of like how they mentioned John being in Sacramento in the first season a couple of times, but there really wasn't anything to that ... even though, there could have been something going on there, and the fan reaction of "WTF is going on in Sac to make John either stick around, or go back there for a second time?" was kind of understandable). The idea that Chuck is Metatron is becoming even more firmly placed inside of my headcanon, and I would love it if the writers are trying to prepare us for that revelation by dropping him in every now and again.

Good to know that what I suspected about the Bunker and its protections turned out to be true ... or at least, that there is some kind of protection on/in/around the place so that it's hard to locate. At least now my brain will be able to rest on that front and not want to keep demanding that there be some kind of logic concerning why everything was still intact. Sure, there are still problems with the fact that someone would probably have come across the place at some point (maybe a city worker of some kind), and they may have forced their way inside (and we still don't know what the place has when it comes to keeping unwanted peoples out), but at least now there's something when it comes to an explanation about why it's still around undetected.

'Taxi Driver' -- SPN 8x19

Warning: Spoiler Alert

BOBBY!! BOBBY!! BOBBY!! Oh, Bobby!! It was really nice to see him again, and especially nice to see him kick Sam's ass for not trying to find Dean when he was stuck in Purgatory. Sam completely deserved having Bobby telling him that he was a dumbass, cuz he really should have tried to find his brother (regardless of what the supposed agreement was, cuz that's what they do ... and he had no idea of knowing whether or not Dean was stuck in Hell ... again).

Also, speaking of Bobby, I'm not sure why it is that Dean was so surprised that Bobby was in Hell, just cuz he was one of the "good guys". Regardless of what kind of person he was, did he not remember that year that Bobby spent in a wheelchair ... and the deal he made with Crowley so that he could start using his legs again? It wouldn't matter what kind of person that Bobby was, or if he "deserved" being able to make it into Heaven, cuz of the deal that he made, he would have taken the escalator down. And being someone who was so very important to the Winchesters, Crowley would have been even more unwilling to let him out of his deal. It probably would have made him extra happy to know that he had someone so important to them somewhere where he could torture him.

But now he's in Heaven, and I kind of want to believe that Ash is going to find him, and he's going to be able to hang out at the Roadhouse of Ash's Heaven with Ash and Pamela. That would be fun. And maybe Bobby would even be able to find out if John ever managed to make his way up there after he escaped from Hell at the end of season two.

And Naomi helping Bobby make it into Heaven after Crowley was trying to make sure that he was drug back to Hell ... I really don't trust her, not after what all she was doing to Cas. And of course, she tried to make it look like Cas was completely nuts for thinking that she was trying to make him do something that he wouldn't have done normally. She just can't find out where Cas is, and she thinks that she can find him when/if Cas tries to contact the boys again (which I'm not sure that he will this season. Next season, however, he probably will, since he's supposed to be a series regular again).

I really think that someone needs to be with Kevin more often than any of them are, and they need to be far more worried about him than they are. All of this translating is really doing a number on him, and I don't think that it's going to be much longer until the poor boy burns out. It makes me wonder why the boys don't wonder why Chuck didn't have this same sort of reaction to being a prophet, since they are all supposed to be human, and Kevin is having such a bad reaction to the whole ordeal. I have become convinced that Chuck is Metatron, so there would be a reason for why he didn't go completely bonkers (cuz he was already a spiritual being by the time that the boys met him), but Kevin is still a human kid.

What with Naomi making her way into the boat that he was holed up in, it kind of makes me wonder why the boys didn't take him to their new secret clubhouse. At least then, he would be able to have someone looking after him pretty regularly (since Garth always seems to be away when the boys come to check on Kevin (since the boy who plays Garth is on another show now)) ... and he would be able to have a bit of his own space (since their clubhouse seems to be rather large) ... and he would probably be safe there (since the place would have been ransacked ages ago if there weren't things there to ward off anyone who they wouldn't want to come waltzing in whenever they felt like it.

Oh, and also, Benny!! I am sad to see him go, since there was so much more that they could have done with him, but maybe he did what it was that the writers wanted him to do (in that he changed Dean enough to make him see that not all "monsters" are non-humans, and some humans are monsters). But that doesn't mean that I woulnd't have liked him to keep running around and helping the boys, since that would have been awesome, and he tried so hard to get himself out of Purgatory. But maybe he was getting tired of trying to be good and not eat people. At least he was able to change Sam's mind about him before the end. That's something, right?

'Freaks and Geeks' -- SPN 8x18

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Oh, how I love it when a show uses the same actors to play the parts that they played in previous episodes. Continuity makes me all kinds of happy inside of my happy place. But I will admit to getting kind of distracted by the fact that the girl that played Krissy looked like the woman that plays Mary Margret on "Once Upon a Time" ... though it's more the shape of her face and her coloring (as in the light skin and the dark hair) that makes me think that than anything else.

I'm not entirely happy that the boys left the kids to take care of themselves at the end of the episode. Sure, they're going to have people that they trust to come check in on them, but still ... the kids are still a bit too young to be left alone without a grown up. They may be pretty good at taking care of themselves, but there are still going to be things that they aren't going to be ready for, and will need to have someone with a little more experience to defer to. They will also need someone who is an authority figure who is "legally responsible" for them in case they need paperwork signed, or some kind of law enforcement figure comes around (since they are probably not going to be able to talk their way out of something like that if the person is insistent on talking to a grown-up, and even if they can count on Garth being able to get rid of anyone in those kind of circumstances, it will take him a while to get to them ... and how exactly are they going to explain something like that without having CPS called?). Yes, yes, no room for logic in genre television (as used to tell me all of the time) ... but I really can't stop my brain stuffs from wondering about that sort of thing. Believe me ... I've tried; but it won't listen to me ... ever.

I do think that having some kind of school for young hunters is kind of a good idea. Not only will it make sure that the next generation of hunters would be far more likely to survive things that are scary and go bump in the night, but they will probably be more successful in making sure that the things that are harmful aren't going to be able to hurt people. And if they are able to kind of do a "Men of Letters" thing about it, they may even learn to not shoot first (and realize that sometimes the monsters are humans, and that things that aren't traditionally "normal" humans aren't always the things that need to be feared, hunted, or harmed). In that way, I'm really hoping that the show is taking a bit of a turn (since this whole idea of anything that isn't strictly human is something that needs to be killed is something that I haven't liked about Show). And if Sammy is able to survive the trials ... I would kind of love to see him become kind of a Professor X type character (doing the research, and maybe teaching the childrens that it is completely possible to leave some people alone when those people aren't human ... but who are just trying to live their lives without hurting other people). And who knows, maybe even Dean could become a teacher ... though, I have a feeling that his classes would be a little more hands-on, and a little less theoretical (which is how I imagine Sammy's classes to be). Hell, they could probably even get James Frampton and Portia to teach some things to the kids.

Also, I kind of wanted to shake dude for calling Bobby a barely functional alcoholic. While it might technically be true ... I am still a Bobby fangirl, and will always dislike anyone who says mean things about him.

'Goodbye Stranger' -- SPN 8x17

Warning: Spoiler Alert

I want to know what exactly happened the last time that Naomi and Crowley saw each other, cuz something happened. And I find the fact that he knows who she is to be rather interesting, since she seems so keen on making sure that no one knows who she is ... and so many angels seem to not know, until she does the drill to the brain on them. Could it have possibly have been a fight over something? Or maybe she hadn't been as high on the food chain as she is now, and at least a few other intelligent creatures out there made her acquaintance? I'm getting more and more interested in her backstory now ... now that I know that she didn't have other angels do all of her dirty work, and she at least did some of it herself (if we can take the fact that she and Crowley know each other as some kind of clue as to that effect).

I'm still wondering why, if Dean knew that Cas was acting strangely, that he didn't put the angel tablet back into the angel be gone case once Cas started to freak him out. If he knew that there was something creepy going on (even if he didn't know exactly what it was), it seemed like keeping the tablet away from him right in that moment might have been the way to go. Even if Cas has been their homie for a long time, this isn't the first time that he's gone kind of mental ... or the first time that he's done them harm ... and once he started acting strange(er), that might have been the point where keeping something so important away from him might have been the way to go (at least until Dean was kind of sure that he wasn't going to go all nutso).

But seeing as how the tablet helped him in getting him away from Naomi, that is a good thing. It makes me wonder what power the tablet actually has, and why the demon tablet didn't so anything of the sort when it was picked up by Crowley? Maybe cuz there was an angel around to cancel out anything it might have done in that regard? I also want to know what exactly the angel tablet says if Cas thinks that it's dangerous to have it around Dean (or have Dean around it). Could it be like I was wondering before in that it might close the gates on Heaven and make sure that all of the angels are kept securely on the other side of that particular gated community? Or could it be something more, and is that why it had the weird Naomi be gone light of impending power? But whatever it is, the fact that Cas is going to be a regular next season makes me think that the angels are still going to be around, and that maybe the tablet gets destroyed before anyone is able to use it. And also, since there is going to be a next season, I wonder if the boys aren't going to be able to get through the trials to get rid of the demons, since the show banks so much on demon interaction.

I'm wondering if Cas taking the bus to ... wherever ... instead of using his angel powers would help him keep off of the Naomi radar. Probably. And it would also be kind of awesome if the tablet itself would help protect him from being found (like maybe there's something special in their very fiber (or would it be rock?) that makes them hard to locate) ... something that may have been put in there by Metatron.

So ... Meg is gone now. I'm kind of sad about that. She was the first demon that we really got to know; the first one to become our homie ... and the one that didn't completely suck when it came to trying to get Sam to do things. I'm looking at you Ruby. I would have liked to have seen Meg stick around a while longer, but I don't suppose that she would have had much in the way of forward motion of the plot to go on, and seemed to have been kept around for the awwwes and the woobie feelings of her being our first demon homie toward the end.

Haha! on Dean quoting LotR. And does it mark me out as a complete nerd that I totally said his line about carying Sam right before he said it? Also, haha! on Sam for making fun of him for quoting it, and again on Dean for the Rudy!hobbit comment. Oh, boys.

'Remember the Titans' -- SPN 8x16

Warning: Spoiler Alert

You know what's kind of annoying? When a show has an episode (or a series of episodes) where one of the characters is supposed to be proficient with a bow, but the actor looks like they have never held a bow a day in his/her life. The longer that the actress who played Artemis held the bow, the more convinced I became that if she actually tried to fire it, the arrow would have gone absolutely nowhere (and would have only fallen down at her feet). It was like watching "Robin Hood" from the BBC again, where Marian was supposed to have been a fab archer, but the actress who played her looked like she had never held a bow before (and if she tried to fire it, she wouldn't have managed to have been able to do anything). It could be that since the SPN showrunners thought that it would have wasted time and money to have homegirl who played Artemis learn how to actually hold the damn thing so that it seemed even the least bit believable that she would have been able to cause some serious damage with it (and since she is the goddess of the hunt, and the bow is her thing ... she should look like a complete badass when holding any weapon).

But I do have to say hizzah! for the writers actually getting Artemis' name right, and not calling her Diana. A few weeks ago, one of the characters on "Spartacus: War of the Damned" used "Poseidon" instead of "Neptune," and it bugged me that they used the Greek name for the god, instead of the Roman name (when the show is all about a point in Roman history).

At first, when Artemis showed up, I was almost sure that she was actually Nemesis. I can kind of understand why they used Artemis, since she's the goddess of the hunt, and the writers might have wanted to create a connection between her being a hunter, and the boys being hunters ... but it still seems like it would have made more sense to have Nemesis be the one that would have been the one to go after him in the first place. Zeus seemed to think that Prometheus had done something that would have been in need of some divine retribution, and that is what Nemesis is for.

Was kind of disappointed how easy it was to figure out who Prometheus was. As soon as they showed the crow eating his liver it was pretty much obvious as to who he was. It would have been a little bit more fun if it was kind of harder to figure out his true identity, especially since the writers had made kind of a big deal about the fact that he couldn't remember who he was. But then, they did only have an hour, so there was only so much that they could do (even if the episode felt a bit rushed, and they could have easily broken this up into two episodes).

Was glad to find out that Sam isn't as awesome with the hiding of what's going on when it comes to Dean. It seems like they're together far too often to really be able to hide much of anything from each other, but with the whole letting Sam believe that he's getting away with hiding what's going on seems like the way to go with right now (and possibly until Sam finally says that he needs help, cuz things are getting kind of crazy for him).

'Man's Best Friend With Benefits' -- SPN 8x15

Warning: Spoiler Alert

So, we got a bit more information about witches with the addition of some of them having familiars. I kind of like the idea of the familiars being telepathically linked with the person that they are the familiar for, as well as them being able to shift between human and animal forms. It seems like having a familiar that is able to do both of those things would be all kinds of handy. However, the fact that the familiar is fully clothed when they shift into human form seems kind of like a cheat (especially when the clothes seem to change to whatever the familiar wants them to be). Sure, the show runners were probably thinking about the nudity, and the fact that they wouldn't be able to get away with much, and it might become kind of cumbersome to have the familiars find clothes and put them on every time that they went into human form (and then, had to take them all off and possibly find a way to carry them around whenever they were about to shift into their animal form). Still, the fact that they didn't acknowledge the fact that they were fully clothed when they became human, and the clothes seemed to disappear once they went into animal form has my brain stuff screaming for some kind of answers. I should be used to Show not giving me the answers that my brain craves, but I still would like them. So there.

And also, the fact that Dean was introduced as a "wiccan from Detroit" ... I wonder if this is the writers trying to say that there was something different about the witches that we have seen and actual Wiccans. Maybe? Or maybe I'm just reading more into things than what is actually there ... which I know that I have a tendency to do, what with my tendency to overthink things. Still, I think I like the idea that they are saying that there is a difference between the witches on Show and Wiccans ... what with the witches that we have seen being full-on crazy and demon friends for the most part (and that not being what Wiccans are about).

I am glad that Dean was finally able to let go a little bit (the control freak ... sure, he wants to protect Sam, and he's always felt responsible for him ... but the fact is that Dean is kind of a control freak). It seems like it shows a little bit of growth on his part, but what with Sam coughing up blood as soon as he said that he was fine ... maybe Dean has a reason to feel like there should have been an out looked for so that he could be the one who was doing the tests. Whatever the significance of the coughing up of blood is, it sure isn't anything good, but I wonder what exactly the cause is. Maybe there is some kind of sickness that is in the hellhound blood? Or maybe his insides are running too hot (perhaps without him realizing what is going on, since it's something supernatural), and it's broken something on the inside? I'm hoping that whatever it is that Sam is going to have to go through for the tests, it isn't going to be something that is going to end up killing him. The boys have died way too often, and it's starting to get beyond old at this point.

'Trial and Error' -- SPN 8x14

Warning: Spoiler Alert

I really wish that it hadn't been kind of obvious that Ellie had made a deal with Crowley, but it was. And I suppose that things can't always work out where you (as the viewer) can't guess what's going on with at least some of the things that are happening with any given episode (or the mythos in general).

I can really appreciate the fact that Dean wants to protect her from Crowley and the hellhounds that he's bound to keep sending after her to get her soul, but regardless of how good his intentions are ... Sam has a point. At a certain point, Crowley (or one of the mountains of hellhounds he's going to send after her) is going to find her, and she's going to get dragged into the Pit. There isn't any way around that ... unless Kevin and the boys are able to figure out a way to close up Hell forever (and send all of the Earth-bound demons back there) so that no human is going to be able to be hurt by a demon ever again. There are a couple of problems that I see with that. 1) Show has been renewed for a ninth season, and I don't see the writers going back to dealing with folklore the way they did in season one. At this point, angels and demons have become the bread and butter of the show (even if I would love it if the writers stopped focusing almost exclusively on Christianity, and went back to folklore from all over the place, the way that it was in the beginning). 2) Just cuz Kevin and the boys might be able to rid the world of demons and angels for the rest of eternity, that doesn't mean that Heaven and Hell are closed to humans after they die. At no point did Kevin say that the tablets that he's read have said that humans would need to find somewhere new to go after they shuffle of the mortal coil, just cuz they have stopped humans being generally harassed by spiritual beings out of the Christian mythos system. So, she might get a few more years of life, but Crowley still holds a contract that says that she is his bitch. It would be kind of an interesting twist if cuz of the fine print of the tablets, if/when the gates of Heaven and Hell are sealed forever, anyone who is still alive who made a deal with a crossroads demon is allowed to go to Heaven (as though cuz they were able to stay alive until "time ran out" for the demons' free reign on earth, all contracts that still have not been collected at this point are null and void).

Also, I don't think I like the idea of them being able to see hellhounds (even if they have to use the magic angel oil to do so). Part of what makes the hellhounds fab is that you don't see them; they come at you, and the only warning that you have is the howling and (possibly) the destruction of property. Other than that, you really have no idea of exactly where they are, and they could be far closer to you than you realize. That would make them a bit more frightening, IMO, and stripping that away from them takes away some of the horror and the "magic" from them.

The fact that Mary became kind of a "thing" in this episode (what with her picture being put up in what is now Dean's room, and Ellie referencing her), makes me wish even more that the writers would finally let us know what happened to her and to Papa. There was that whole thing in season six with the mother of all monsters, and the inclusion of the Campbells, which would make you think that maybe (just maybe) we would be getting some answers about what the hell happened to Mary ... especially since Samuel made it sound like he knew where she was. It was very true that Crowley could have been yanking Samuel's chain so that he could get what he wanted from the guy, but whether or not he was was never answered. Whether Samuel actually knew where she was, or if Crowley was only trying to use him was one of those things that was just left hanging. And if they're going to keep bringing her up, it would be nice if we finally had some kind of answers as to what was going on.

'Everybody Hates Hitler' -- SPN 8x13

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

So, the box that the boys got had a key to a super-secret Men of Letters bunker. Nice. I get the feeling that what the writers were actually trying to do with that was to give the boys a base of operation to work out of ... something akin to a home, as it were. It's not going to be anything like Bobby's, but it'll still be something. I don't mean that it won't be like Bobby's cuz of the amount of knowledge that is collected there (since I have the feeling that the bunker is going to have more, and stuff that may be way more obscure), but it won't be the same cuz of the love that is there. After all, Bobby was the closest thing that they had to a father (and they were the closest thing he had to kids). But having someplace that they can both return to will do them some good, I'm sure. That being said, if they're going to keep going back to this one place, I think that they should put some protective spells on the place. I wouldn't be surprised if there are already some there (even if we didn't see the boys looking for and finding any (not that they necessarily would have found any or all of them, if the Men of Letters are as badass as they have been presented to be when it comes to spell work), that doesn't mean that there isn't something (or quite a few somethings) there to not only keep them safe, but to also keep the place safe ... after all, I don't see the place remaining empty and untouched for all this time without there being wards to keep out the people and things that aren't wanted inside); but it also wouldn't hurt if the boys added some of their own to make doubly sure that nothing is coming in that they don't want in there.

And I'm really getting the feeling that Sam is getting an "out" when it comes to hunting. He has never really wanted this life, and has been way more of a researcher anyway. With him staying back while Dean went out to see Kevin and Garth, and diving into the files that they found there, as well as starting up the files again with their own adventures ... it looks like he's being given a chance to be the one that stays in the books and trying to figure out how to get things done, as well as figure out what they might be up against (while making sure that future hunters and Men of Letters have things that are a little more current to reference when they are needing information).

Also, I suppose that the boys have new secret society (in the Judah Initiative ... even though it's only Aaron and his golem right now) to be allied with. I'm really hoping that we see Aaron and the golem again in the future ... perhaps during a showdown with Naomi? How awesome would it be if Aaron was able to start learning some Rabbanistic magic that would be crucial in taking her down? It's true that there isn't much time left until the end of the season, and it isn't likely that he's going to learn that much, but it would still be pretty awesome for him to get back in touch with his heritage (and be something of a hunter/man of letters in his own way).

I want to know what the hell is up with the Thule Society. The way the camera lingered on the ring that Eckhart was wearing, I really do have the feeling like it is something important ... like we're going to be seeing it again later on, and were supposed to take special notice of it so that we recognize it again later (and perhaps realize that whoever is associated with it later on is far more horrible than we realize). Why would I not be at all surprised if we find out that the symbol originates with Naomi, and that she was the one who first started Eckhart and his idiots on their path of necromancy? I'm trying to remember what exactly was on the ring ... I remember thinking that it looked like a sword with wings behind it. There's got to be some kind of significance to what was on it, and I would really like to know what it is.

'As Time Goes By' -- SPN 8x12

Warning: Spoiler Alert

I have a feeling that this would be one of the episodes that Kieren would have insisted that I talk about, since there was so much huge stuff happening when it comes to learning about the Winchester side of the family.

The first thing that should probably gotten out of the way is the continuity that hasn't exactly been followed. Yes, there was the part when Dean first met John in the past, and someone told him to say hello to his old man for him ... but if Henry disappeared when John was a small child, there would be no way for him to say hello for anyone. Unless, perhaps the person was talking about a step-father, or a foster father. But then, there's also the fact that there should be two whole missing years that we're dealing with when it comes to continuity (one from between seasons five and six, and one from seasons seven and eight). So, when Henry looked at the tags that where on the Impala, they should have read 2015, and not 2013 (especially when kind of a big deal had been made at the beginning of seasons six and eight that a year had passed). Boo, writers.

But beside that ... it was good to finally get at least a little bit of information about the Winchester side of the family (after being able to get some about the Campbell side ... even if some of those threads about the family that were picked up in season six were just dropped without the writers giving any real closure). I want to know some more about what this whole thing about being a "Man of Letters" entails. Henry kept repeating that he had no choice about being a member (cuz he was ... what was the term he kept using? ... a "legacy"), but why? With the hunters (from what we've seen so far), it does look like it kind of sticks with families (and there are people who are from "hunting families" who become hunters themselves), but that doesn't mean that there aren't those who don't "get out". So, why does being a "Man of Letters" mean that you have no choice about whether or not you are able to be something other than that?

And I'm not fully convinced that the reason that Cupid was ordered to make John and Mary fall in love was so that a family of hunters and a family of "letters" could have children together, and they could subsequently have both brains and brawn. I feel like there is so much more there than what we are aware of ... so much more than just that they needed the brains and the brawn. Maybe it's just that I want there to be more than just that they needed a family of hunters and a family of "letters" so that they could be vessels, or so that they could possibly stop the apocalypse. Part of it (I'm sure) is that it still bothers me that they haven't explained what it is that makes someone so different that they are able to be the vessel of an angel, and what makes the people within the Winchester line so special that they are able to be the vessels of archangels. I kept talking to the screen during the is episode, and kept wanting Henry to say that they were actually the descendants of angels, and that was why he had no choice about being a Man of Letters ... like he had to learn all of this very specific magic, and at a certain point, he would learn about his heredity ... and that perhaps the organization that he was a part of was created by an angel before they all went back into Heaven so that there would still be someone looking after humanity and protecting it from the demons that would still be roaming around.

I am also very suspicious about the fact that Abaddon is supposedly the last Knight of Hell. They made kind of too big of a deal about it for me to think that we aren't going to see another one at some point ... and why do I want to say that the big reveal that we're going to find out toward the end of the season (or at least one of them) is that Naomi is one? Yeah, I'm still very suspicious about her, but at lot of that has to do with the fact that she's up to no good.

'LARP and the Real Girl' -- SPN 8x11

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Normally, I think that I might have been kind of amused by the fact that the boys were participating in the battle at the end of the episode, except for the fact I still don't feel like the writers are "getting it" about how they treat women or LGBT characters on Show. LARPers are still treated like they are weird for doing what they do, even if the boys seem like they're getting a smidge better at being able to treat them like they aren't complete freaks ... and that seems to mostly come from the fact that they like Charlie. And I do find it interesting that the last time that they interacted with LARPers, it was a gay couple that helped them out, and the boys treated them like there was something icky about them ... but now that it's a lesbian that's helping them, it's super cool. I'm kind of feeling a double-standard there (where it's cool to be a lesbian, but it's not cool to be a gay man), and I'm not digging that. I would almost say that maybe it is good that they go with baby steps toward acceptance, except that I still feel like there is some misogyny with this (and an attitude that straight men then lesbians are hot, but that gay men are gross).

But let me step away from that before I really start getting annoyed with it ...

Why do I have a feeling that Dean has played many, many games of Risk? When he was telling Charlie how she should position her peeps so that they could win the battle that was coming up, my initial thought was of him playing that game. Yeah, it was probably more likely that it came from the fact that Papa was a Marine, and he started training for battle from the (essentially) the time that Mama died ... and they may not have had all that much time to be able to sit around and really take the time they would have needed to play a game like Risk, but still ... I kind of like the idea of him playing it.

I thought that it was super cheesy to have a fairy be the one that was making things happen, when they were in the middle of a giant LARP weekend. It was just a little too cliché (and I said, "Oh, come. on." more than once). Sure, there was one of the LARPers that was making her do things, but there was a little too much of "well, of course it would be a fairy making things happen ... what with this particular game looking like it was in the middle of a Ren Faire". But I guess I can't really think of anyone else that the douche might have been able to get control over to make what he wanted to happen take place (since I have a feeling that if he tried to pull that crap on a pagan god, he would have gotten his ass handed to him).

I kind of wanted the fairy to ask Charlie to go with her into the fairyland. No good comes of that for mortals, but still ... it would have been kind of fun to see her get all excited about being able to go there for a while. And hey, what with time being all whacked out there, by the time that she came back (if she did), there wouldn't be any danger of her having to hide from monsters anymore. At that point, anyone who would have been looking for her would probably have been dead for a while.

'Torn and Frayed' -- SPN 8x10

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Ok, what is up with the music on the "Then" portion? We are supposed to be getting us some "Carry On Wayward Son". Maybe this is another instance of the new show runner trying to put his own, personal stamp on the show (like when he turned Crowley's smoke red, for no reason, instead of keeping it the traditional black).

So, the boys are back together again ... kind of ... until their next fight, where they'll break up again. Yes, I get that their lives as hunters cannot possibly be easy, and I get that Sam never felt like he was cut out for the life, but the way that the two of them seem to go in cycles with their breaking up and getting back together is starting to get wearisome. It would be ever so nice if the writers of the show would come up with something that hasn't been done on the show at least three times before. Really, how many times do the two of them need to have a huge fight where they break each other, and then, decide that they really can't do life without each other, before the writers think to try something else when it comes to that? Families fight, and they sometimes go through the same cycles in RL, but when you've watched a show since it's pilot, rehashing some of the same themes over and over and over again is not only dull for your audience, it's sloppy writing. And you know what? There's only so much that an audience is going to forgive that before they start to get bored and decide to try something else.

Sooooo ... it looks like Naomi has done something to Cas' hardwiring. Why? So that he will be her own, personal, little buttmonkey? So that she can force him to do whatever the hell she wants him to do without him thinking for himself or trying to fight her on whatever it is that she wants to use him for? Cuz it seemed like it was far more than just some kind of tracking device that she was implanting inside of him to make sure that she knew where he was at all times, and would be able to snatch him up into the White Room. The fact that he was having flashbacks to the time when she was sticking drills into his eyes while Little Boy Angel was being tortured into giving up all of the information that was on his mainframe makes it look very much like there was a correlation between the two events. And it makes me wonder when exactly this occurred with Naomi going all anal probe into Cas' eyeball. It would have had to have been after he came back from Purgatory, yes? It wouldn't make sense that she did it before he went to Purgatory, what with the way that he went off the rails and declared himself god. But if it had been done before that, a whole hell of a lot of stuff could have been avoided ... like Dick.

What do you want to bet that Naomi is just working on her own and that she doesn't have an official sanction to do whatever it is that she's been doing (or whatever it is that she's trying to accomplish)? It doesn't necessarily mean anything that we haven't seen anyone else in there with her in the White Room, but it still kind of makes me suspicious of her ... like she's created her own little bubble that is Heaven adjacent, and she's been making Cas (and us) think that she is something that she's not. There is, oh, so much going on with her than we realize; I'm very sure of that. And I would not be at all surprised to see her turn into this season's Big Bad (since she's already been doing some questionable things that would lead her down that path).

And I'm really not surprised to find out that there is a tablet for angels as well (even if I don't really like the idea that there is a mainframe somewhere inside of their minds that turns them into slaves to whoever is able to "hack" them ... or that they aren't willing servants to God, and that He would need to turn them into slaves for Him as well ... but I don't suppose that we're going to like everything on any show or movie, or in any book). I kind of want the boys to be able to find all of the tablets, and for Kevin to be able to work his magic on them so that they could get rid of all of the angels and demons on earth. If it were only the demons mucking things up, I think that I could live with it, but the angels really get on my nerves. It's the fact that they are self-righteous while they're fucking everyone, and they seem to think that they're doing the right thing. At least a demon will be honest about what s/he's doing, and why s/he's doing it.

I'm sad about Dean breaking up with Benny, since I liked him, and I was hoping that he would be staying around for a while. Well, this doesn't necessarily mean that he isn't going to be around for a while on the show, cuz he could still make a few more appearances later on. Maybe we'll finally find out who that stalker was that made an appearance in the beginning of the season, and Benny will be able to help with that ... or maybe he'll even be able to help with the tablets and getting the angels out of Dodge. I really do hope that we see him again; he's the first reoccurring character that I've liked in a very long time.

'Citizen Fang' -- SPN 8x09

Warning: Spoiler Alert

You know what I could really, really do without? The Vaseline on the camera lens flashbacks for Sam. I get that they're probably trying to do some kind of super visual thing with the falshbacks for Sam (with them being super sunny), the flashbacks for Dean (with them being pretty much devoid of color), and the present (with it being our standard horror genre SPN), but it's gotten really old, really fast. Fast as in it was old and annoying the first time that they used it, and I never, ever want them to use it again (and that would be entirely too soon. For real). The Vaseline-porn camera with the extra dose of vitamin D doesn't prove to me that everything was perfect-happy for Sam, or that he had finally found the life that he had always wanted for himself ever since he first ran away from his family when he was like 12. The boys will never be able to be "normal people" happy, no matter how much they try to talk it up to themselves that that's what they are, cuz the two of them are a very special kind of fucked ... the kind that there is no coming back from, and the kind in which only other people who are truly fucked like that can ever really understand.

Also really annoying me about Sam this season ... the fact that he is so very much willing to gank Benny, no matter how much he may "know" that Benny is the reason why Dean was able to not only survive Purgatory, but that he was able to escape it. And it pisses me off that he is so willing to kill Benny, a "monster" that is very really trying to deny his vampire nature, when he used to be the first one to be willing to give the "monsters" a chance, and he was also the one that was somehow naïve enough to believe all of the lies that Ruby was telling him. Perhaps what he took from the whole Ruby thing was that you should never, ever trust the "monsters," but I really don't think that's the right "lesson" that he should have taken from that (especially when, I happened across a rerun of a season four episode (can't remember the name of the particular episode), and Dean was saying that if he was anyone else, with Sam doing the Hand of Ipecac, he would have killed Sam for a "monster". Yeah, what was I saying about the last episode that it was weird that John didn't kill Fred for essentially being a "special kid"?). I can totally understand Dean having a change of heart, at least where Benny is concerned, since the guy did save his life after the two of them essentially went through a warzone together ... and I can even understand where that whole experience of Benny and Cas being the only ones who really had his back in that situation, and finding out that his brother left him for dead, might have given him a new outlook on what it was that hunters do (and how he goes about saving people and hunting things in general) ... but I cannot understand the 180° that Sam has been exhibiting. Nothing in the "I am the God of Pastels" flashbacks seems to add up to Sam becoming such a douche. Maybe the beginning of it actually happened in the finale of season seven, but you know what? I'm not buying Sam's line about "ZOMG!! WOE!! MY WHOLE FAMILY IS THE DEAD, AND THERE IS NO ONE HERE ANYMORE BUT ME!!" Why? Cuz even when the Winchesters are actually dead and in either Heaven or Hell ... they never stay dead (at least when it comes to Sam and Dean, since J2 are seemingly signed onto the series until the end of time). It seems much more like Sam is just using Dean's "death" as an excuse to be an ass, cuz he can't be bothered to figure out a real excuse for his dickishness. So, I say to Sam: boo, you whore.

Martin ... oh, crazy Martin ... you sad, evil little man ... you deserved exactly what you got from Benny, and I am not at all sad that he killed you. The thing with Martin is that I think he proved what I think should have been proved about hunters a long time ago: sometimes it's the hunter that's the real "monster". The good thing that Martin thought that he was doing by going after Benny the vampire was immediately turned into something so very, very wrong when he not only harmed someone who was innocent, he threatened to kill her for no reason (she wasn't trying to hurt him, she wasn't trying to hurt anyone, and he knew that she had no idea of what was actually going on). Benny had every reason to try to do whatever he could do to try and save her life, and the fact that Sam refused to even listen to Dean about the hows and whys of Martin's death make me think even more that Sam is where all douches come from (especially since, if he hadn't known that Benny was a vampire, he more than likely would have listened to what Dean had to say, and probably would have agreed that Martin was way out of bounds on this one). So, yeah, I have absolutely no pity for Martin, and I think that he got exactly what he deserved.

The fact that Dan switched out the numbers on Sam's phone ... I really think that it's going to give Sam just one more reason to be a five-year-old throwing a tantrum. I also don't think that any good is going to come of Amelia suddenly showing up outside of the Vaseline. I have a bad feeling that seeing her again, actually talking to her after he left (and she's back with Don) is going to make him a little more of a whiny brat. At this point, I'm already ready for the boys to break up completely (even though they're really the only ones that either of them really have at this point), and start over with someone new. I have a feeling that Dean would still keep hunting, and Sam would probably find a dog that he can set up house with. And if things keep going the way that they seem to be, I have a feeling that I'm going to get aggravated enough with Sam that I'm going to have to start writing fanfic where I kill him off in such a way that he never comes back.

Also, we still haven't seen any more of the mysterious figure that seemed to be following the boys from earlier in the season. I don't think that it was Benny ... and I don't think that it was Don. I would love, love, love it if it turned out to be Metatron. Love it to the point where I would want to find whichever writer revealed that to us and draw hearts all over that writer's face with a red Sharpie. Fact.

'Hunteri Heroici' -- SPN 8x08

Warning: Spoiler Alert

How did the people in charge of Show manage to get Hunnicut to be in such a small role, with so few lines in it? That's kind of impressive. I wouldn't have thought that we would see anyone involved with "M*A*S*H" making a guest appearance on Show, especially since I'm sure that their services probably wouldn't have come very cheap (regardless of how few lines any of them were given within the episode). Though ... if they were going to get anyone from "M*A*S*H", it probably would have been kind of funny if they had gotten David Ogden Stiers, since his character on that show was named "Winchester".

I'm almost surprised that John associated with Fred, what with the way that he had the tendency of thinking that anything that wasn't entirely "normal" human was something that needed to be gotten rid of. Sure, Sam turned out to be one of YED's special kids, and I bet that if he knew about that, he would have been able to turn a blind eye to it (since Sam was always the Golden Boy), but with someone else ... I have a feeling that he wouldn't have been able to just let it go; he was kind of OCD about being "black and white" about things that weren't necessarily black and white. And if John and (seemingly) the boys were ok with a human who had psychokinetic abilities, why wouldn't they be ok with someone who was able to shape shift? It appeared that Fred could do a lot more damage than any of the shape shifters that we've come across in Show up to this point, so I don't see how they could say that the one that is less dangerous is the monster. It seems much more like they are willing to overlook some things that would normally make them chase after someone with pitchforks, if the person is useful to them (and is willing to help them gather the villagers and torches, and make sure they all make it to the windmill in time). Yes, I realize that I'm still wanting there to be logic in this show, even though they've proven for such a long time that they want absolutely nothing to do with logic, but ... it would be nice if they at least made some sort of sense on this, damn it!! (and every time that I want to demand logic from it, I still hear Andreth telling me that I'm never going to get it from genre television. lol)

I did find the inside of Fred's mind pretty amusing (what with all of the "please stand by" type things all around, when Sam and Cas were trying to explain to him what was going on, and trying to get him to help them out with what was going on). It did remind me a bit of the episodes with Gabriel ... back when he was just still Loki (and not an angel yet ... at least to us anyway). Poor Loki Gabriel. I wish he was still around; I liked him.

I still really want to find out about Metatron, and still would love it if s/he suddenly showed up. I don't see why someone who is so high up on the food chain would be mentioned, and then, not make an appearance ... especially when that particular someone is the one that dictated the various tablets. And the fact that there was the mention of Chuck being a prophet (and them not knowing what happened to him) makes me even more want Chuck to turn out to be Metatron (since it makes more sense to me that way).

'A Little Slice of Kevin' -- SPN 8x07

Warning: Spoiler Alert

I have a bit of an issue with the fact that Momma Tran rolled her eyes at Sam when he told her that the events of the episode were her fault ... cuz she was silly enough to trust a witch with anything. Up until that point, we had seen her be overly protective of Kevin, and to not own her responsibility for the bad things that had happened to him didn't seem in character for her. If she is really as protective and concerned with what happens to Kevin (especially where demons come to play), it would seem much more like she would own the fact that she had messed up so that she could make things better in the long run, and not do that sort of thing again.

Them questioning what happened to Chuck ... I would have hoped that they would have wondered about him before this point, but I guess at least they are they are starting to think about him somewhat now. I would kind of love to find out that he's actually Metatron; I still don't dig the idea that he was really God, even if it was only something that was inferred, and not something that anyone explicitly said. Also, with the addition of Metatron to canon ... I really hope that they don't make me hate the addition the way that I really didn't like the Leviathan. Metatron and Leviathan kind of make me geek out, and I would like it so much more if they didn't suck.

I'm wondering if the office that Cas suddenly found himself in was the office of the Metatron, but at this point there isn't enough evidence of who the office belongs to when talking about anyone; so, it actually could have been anyone's office. Whoever the "woman" was that met him there could have been the Important Person that belonged to that office, and not just an assistant or something, so we may have gotten our first view of who our newest power player is. Could it have been Metatron? Sure, and that would have been cool. But just cuz he got a shout out from the tablet doesn't mean that he's going to be making an appearance. Oh, wait, that's actually an angel named Naomi, so maybe the Metatron mention was just a one off, and that would make it much easier for me to talk myself into saying that Chuck was actually Metatron and not actually God (which is something that I like way better anyway).

So, Cas is back on Show. He's been kind of amusing on some of the episodes that he's been on, but to be honest, I could really do without him. Yeah, it's good for the boys to have people who are in their corner, and they could always use as much help as they can get with the things that they do, but sometimes it seems much more like Cas is more trouble than help. I'm happy for the Cas fangirls, but I just could never get myself all that excited about him. Hell, when you like the vampire that's only been in like three episodes more than the angel that's been in four (going on five) seasons, that's not really a good sign.

'Southern Comfort' -- SPN 8x06

Warning: Spoiler Alert

I'll admit that Garth has started to grow on me over the time that he has been on the show, but ... him being the "new Bobby" ... bollocks. There is no "new Bobby" ... there never will be a "new Bobby". Only Bobby is Bobby. ::in a huff::

Ok, now that I've kind of gotten that out of my system ...

It does kind of make sense to have someone fill the need that is presented by the loss of such an important person within the hunter's world. They're going to need someone who is familiar with all kinds of lore, and who will be able to get them the information that they need in a hurry. And while Garth is kind of a goofball, he seems like he might be more suited toward finding out information than going out on hunts (since he seems much more likely to get himself hurt when it comes to dealing with real "monsters" and weapons). Also, it is pleasantly surprising that he has moments of insight that are truly helpful to other hunters and their problems; his goofballness seems to be a bit of a hindrance at times when it comes to picking up on cues ... but then, he has proven that he's rather in touch with being able to pick up on the underlying problems between the boys, so maybe it's that he's good at picking up on the things that are actually important, no? Also, while I can understand that Bobby was important to more people than to just the boys, the boys were family (to him and to them), and it seems weird for other people to try to copy the things that he did or said. Maybe it made Garth feel a little bit closer to his memories of Bobby, or maybe it helped him deal with Bobby's death, but I was totally with Dean for yelling at him for trying to become Bobby ... in a way, it kind of felt like he wasn't taking the death of someone who was so important in the lives of the boys as seriously as he should. I totally get trying to pay homage to the man ... I just didn't dig it all that much.

By Odin's ravens, I am getting so very, very tired of the boys getting pissy with each other. They seem to (on some level) want to cling to each other, but they seem so completely desperate to make each other miserable once they are together. It's like they are in this constant state of trying to figure out if they love each other, or they want to beat the holy living hell out of each other. At this point, I would love to see Sam go off and find someone that he can settle down with (since he's been trying to run away from his family ever since he was ... what? ... 13?), and for Dean to find someone who would actually have his back. Yeah, this has never been the life that Sam wanted, and he's felt like he's been forced into it, but I'm going to have to go with Dean on this; Sam's left how many times, and he keeps coming back, and he keeps making Dean feel like shit (like he doesn't want to be there, like he would abandon Dean at the first chance he got, like family will never be as important to Sam as it is to Dean ...). The longer that Sam stays, the more miserable he is making both of them.

I'm also taking Dean's side in the whole "Benny thing". How is Benny any different than Ruby? Besides the fact that Benny has actually been helping Dean, instead of trying to get him to break a seal? And there's only so much that can be said about the fact taht we didn't know that she was in on the whole thing with YED and Lilith, since she was sneaky from the very beginning, and never stopped being sneaky (or giving me any reason to believe that she wasn't up to something horrible that was meant to hurt the boys). Yeah, I didn't trust her from the beginning, and it didn't matter what she did to "help" them, I never trusted her. Unlike Benny, who (even though he's a vampire) seems to actually be someone that they can trust. Why is it that the more time that goes on, the more I'm trusting Dean on the big things about who/what they can trust, and trusting Sam less and less? Probably cuz Sam makes such bad decisions. Stupid Sam.