Wayward Son

That won't be an issue... not on the CW. Renewed dramas Jane the Virgin, The 100, Crazy Ex Girlfriend and Riverdale are all still doing worse than us. Right now I'd say we are somewhere middle in the pack. However, the CWs ratings are so low / tight that even the slightest fall to a 0.4 could see us enter danger area. So basically we are safe at the moment, but it's a very fragile safe.

Finals are in 0.5 in the demo and viewers adjusted down to 1.49 million.

It could be just the places I read (although I doubt it since the ratings suggest the same), but there has been very little buzz about the episodes lately. Before Remembering Dean aired there were many fans excited at the prospect of a Dean centric episode that focused on who he was. Before Stuck In the Middle (With You) there were many fans feeling suspense about Cas' fate and curious about the overall episode because of rumours it'd be a Tarantino homage. During the build up of the last three episodes however the response seemed to be generally along the lines of "eh whatever" or outright dreading the episode. Like I said, it could just be I'm on the wrong places and other fans have been excited for these episodes.

I assume Jared must have been off set that day haha! And I'm not being sarcastic or anything. I highly doubt a newbie would deliberately try and start drama by excluding a lead for the sake of it. It's always nice to hear that pretty much everyone who has been on the show speaks of it favourably :) P.S: Jensen looks like he deaged back to season 1 Dean :o

According to TVBYTHENUMBERS the CW was preempted in several markets last night for base ball. This means there is a higher chance of adjustment than there would normally be :)

The 0.5 is a new series low! And when it comes to ratings the demo is more important than the viewer count. Not that it matters because we've been renewed anyway, but that 0.5 is a new low!

Ouch. New series low if that keeps. Bar Stuck In The Middle (With You), which did decently, the move to 8 has been a disaster for the show.

I can't watch until tomorrow (timezones ugh) . How irritated am I going to be about Castiel's behaviour in this one? I think I read he's back to keeping secrets from the brothers again? *sigh*

Agreed! You could definitely tell from his episodes he was invested in the show and it wasn't just a job for him! Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll come back sometime!

I thought it was an interesting read! And now we have the answer to the eternal question "why do they keep giving important episodes such as the mid season finale to BuckLemming?" And yeah @SueB I miss him too! Although at least we know the door is open for him to return if he wants to :)

The episodes you're referring to are actually called The One You've Been Waiting For and Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox. I think if I remember right the titles you used were just headlines from the episode synopsis :) I agree though that both were excellent episodes. I also thought we got a good run from Lily Sunder has Some Regrets through to Stuck in the Middle (with You). The main duds (for me at least) were Rock Never Dies and LOTUS. Im not too sure what they're doing with Lady Toni! I think they might have written her out realising how bad the audience response to her was. I'll not say anymore than that to avoid entering into speculation territory :)

I'm keeping myself hopeful! Based on season 11 (which Dabb apparently did most of the plotting for despite Carver still being the official showrunner) and 12 so far Dabb doesn't seem to share Carver's love of using Sam vs Dean to keep things "interesting".

I'm sorry to hear you're not enjoying the season so far @Zolo . I'm enjoying it (and season 11) more than I've enjoyed the show in years, but I think that's mainly down to the fact I'm just relieved to get a break from the brother on brother angst that made up seasons 8-10! However, I can definitely understand why others aren't as in to it! Hopefully the rest of the season will be more to your taste :)

Ugh, that's definitely awful as well! Another example of how the show tried to downplay Sam's suffering. The whole "redemption" arc was meant to tell those of us outraged on Sam's behalf that we were wrong. "See it wasn't so bad after all! Gadreel was really a good guy at heart!" I would be very surprised if the show succeeded in creating a storyline I hate more than the possession storyline, ugh.

Pretty much agree with all of this! Definitely the shows worst storyline ever.

That's my biggest complaint about the storyline. I would never have liked it, as I consider Dean's part in the whole thing the most vile thing any of the main characters have ever done. However, I could have understood and respected the writers reason for going there had it been used to explore the more troubling aspects of the brothers relationship. Had it been used to make both realise there are some lines you just don't cross if you truly love someone. Instead Sam's trauma is trivialised and we are expected to feel sorry for Dean because mean old Sam said a few mean things to him. As if anything Sam said could compare to months of being lied to and abused by the person you love most, of losing your self autonomy and free will and knowing that your body was used to murder a close friend. The fact that Dean never realises just how grossly wrong he was and goes as far as to say he'd do it again is worst of all. Like I said, if it were me I wouldn't stop at a few choice remarks. Such unrepentance alone would have ensured I walked out and never looked back. So Dean got off pretty lightly in my opinion.

Ooh I'd forgotten about that. Probably due to the fact season 6 is one of my least favourite seasons. Thanks @SueB

This may be an unpopular opinion, I haven't really seen it discussed much to know, but I find it hard to believe the brothers would regard Claire as anything more than a casual acquaintance. I can understand Castiel being deeply invested in her fate as he feels obliged to fulfill his promise to Jimmy to keep her safe. I can also understand Jody being the one to truly love her as they've spent two years living together as a family and developing a bond in that time. But the brothers not so much... So if the episode has them acting overly dramatic / desperate to save her I'll probably end up rolling my eyes. Me neither. I've seen the idea pop up in fanfiction, but as far as I can recall, the only known monster cures on the show are the mixture for curing vampirism and the demon cleansing ritual. Neither of which involved angels. I'd be curious to hear about it if we've forgotten something :)

Random note: this is only the fourth episode this season that hasn't starred at least one of Cas/Crowley/Mary @catrox14 Unless they filmed a scene in advance during the filming of this weeks episode then he won't be. According to Jessica (the girl who does the spoiler sheet) Misha was in LA while episodes 16 and 17 were being filmed.

UO: I don't blame Sam for his speech in The Purge. If someone lied and manipulated me for months, collaborated with what was essentially a supernatural form of rape that took away my self-autonomy and resulted in my body being used for the murder of a close friend, I wouldn't limit myself to angry words. They'd be disowned. And Dean's actions were not about saving Sam. Sam was ready and willing to die if needs be hence Dean's need to lie to him on that day and for months afterwards. Deans actions were about serving his own co-dependent need to have Sam around. It's a long term bitterness of mine that the writers handwaved the horror of Sam's experiences away with the stupid "I lied" line. Too bad Jessica Jones didn't exist then as an example of how to write this type of storyline. Now there's a show that properly explored the sheer trauma and PTSD that comes with mind control / possession and didn't indulge in victim shaming.

Fair enough, and of course at that point it's all speculation anyway. I guess we'll find out how accurate the promo, stills etc were tomorrow :)

For me a character light episode is one where their time on screen is rather limited, or the character has little importance to the overall plot of the week be that plot mytharc focused or a more introspective "lesson of the week". My best guess is Cas' screen time is gonna be limited, as the synopsis suggests his interactions with the other mains will be limited, to non-existent, as he'll be off doing his own thing in a B, Kelly Klein related, plot. While I think Dean and Crowley will be the main focus of the Episodes A plot i.e. hellhound hunt. I should clarify though that when I perdicted the episode will be light on Sam and Cas I was not speaking of it in the "bitch" vs "jerk" sense. There have always been episodes that focus particularly on Dean such as In the Beginning, or episodes more heavily focused on Sam like Sam Interrupted, or even episodes like Stuck In the Middle (With You) and Abandon All Hope that focus equally on the whole main cast. It goes back and forth as the story needs and I personally think Sam and Dean both get equal story time throughout the overall season. I was just speculating that based on what we've seen so far that this week will be more focused on Dean and Crowley :). I wasn't complaining about that fact. I guess we shall have to see :) . Like I said to @SueB above I wouldn't actually mind if it was heavier on Dean and Crowley! I think the two of them have a rather interesting dynamic!

The impression I'm getting from everything released about the episode so far (promo, stills, scene) is that it's going to be very Dean and Crowley heavy. They were the only two to speak in the main promo and are featured in most of the stills. I think it's gonna be light to moderate Sam and probably very Cas light. He'll probably appear for one or two scenes and that's it.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the too much Cas issue. Gonna respond about this episode in the spoiler thread. I don't think we're meant to speculate about the episode in here until after it's aired :)

Hi @Geordiegirl1967 He also wrote Stuck in the Middle (With You) :)