Bessie

I'm not a math person, so I'm probably about to make a stupid comment. But, how can your average total viewers be greater than your season high episode for viewers?

I don't know why they would do that. I mean, yeah, the show would have to pick up the slack of his screen time so J2 could still have their time-off, but that shouldn't be difficult. All I ask is that if they kill off Cas, they take the Lucifer storyline with him. Not that I think they're killing off Castiel, permanently, but the end of Lucifer/angel storylines would make me happy.

According to spnwiki, it was seen in the trunk in the pilot. I don't remember that, but that's what they say.

That was one of the funniest moments this season for me.

I thought it was pretty adorable too. Although, to tell you the truth, I don't care who has or fires the colt because it's kind of a traveling weapon. It gets around! The grenade launcher, on the other hand, belongs to Dean. Full-stop. I don't want to see anyone but him using that weapon. (They better let him use it or I'm going to be pissed!)

Do you think they intentionally created this tension or is it viewer fear based on what the writers have done in the past?

@rue721, I'm replying in the Mary thread to your post, again. Sorry to keep jumping around, but I don't view Mary's relationships with her sons as a Dean vs Sam issue so my replies don't fit in this thread.

Replied in mary thread.

Brought over from the bitch v jerk thread: I think Mary might also be carrying some emotional baggage when it comes to a relationship with Sam. In her eyes, she made a deal with a demon that cost Sam dearly. That's probably tough for her to handle. When she first came back, she questioned how she was ever going to face Sam and I expect her deal impacts on the way she interacts with him. Plus, I'm still not convinced that Sam even knows about it. He might, this show does way too many important moments offscreen, but I'm not certain of that. And if he doesn't, that too would make for a more distant relationship.

That's unfair. All she said was that she'd like there to be some contact between Sam and Mary. There's nothing wrong with that, I happen to agree with it. And that she was irritated that all contact with Mary went through Dean. That doesn't mean she wants all contact with Mary to go through Sam, but that in addition to talking with Dean, it'd be nice if she and Sam were in touch. That seems like a reasonable complaint to me. And as @rue721 points out, it was strange that Mary is in trouble, knows she's in trouble, leaves a voicemail for Dean and doesn't even attempt to get in touch with Sam. Very odd behavior. ETA: Or what @RulerofallIsurvey said.

That'd be good. But what I really want, is for Dean to use the grenade launcher on Lady Toni.

That works too.

Me too. That was a head-scratcher. ETA: My only idea is that maybe that doesn't fit with whatever scenario they may have been foreshadowing.

I really enjoyed this one! I liked the twins when they were initially introduced and that continued here. No Castiel/Kelly/Lucifer/Baby Lucifer story, always adds to my enjoyment of the story. The actors all did a great job. And I liked Mary for the first time in a while. Samantha Smith gets a shoutout from me. Ketch and Mary kept my attention and the switching back and forth between the stories was fairly smooth. I do have a couple of nit picks. I can't believe they just left Max after his entire family was slaughtered. C'mon, boys! They should've invited him back to the bunker, at a minimum. I've never thought they lack empathy and I think the writer could've gotten where he wanted to go with Max and maintained the boys characterization. As others have said, leaving that ring was stupid. And Dean asking Sam if he could fix the Colt was off-key, for me. I did notice the way Dean held the wineglass. It didn't bother me as much as some of you, but I believe that's an Ackles thing and I give the actors who've been playing these characters for twelve years all the latitude when it comes to small things like that. I really wish they would stop killing characters I like and start killing characters I dislike! I guess I'm selfish that way, but why must we keep Claire and not this lovely witch family?

I'm telling y'all right now that if there is a conversation about Mary's deal with Azazel, it had better involve both boys or I'm going to be pissed. That was the pivotal moment in both their lives and they each deserve to be a part of any conversation surrounding it.

I honestly can't remember Dean taking this position. I'm not saying he hasn't, but I can't remember him doing it. I always thought it was interesting how when Sam was going to the pit he told Dean to settle down, have a life outside of hunting. Whereas when Dean was going to hell, he told Sam to continue on and remember what John and he had taught him.

And the boys are nothing, if not masters of etiquette! ;)

Which Dean did in Swan Song. Absolutely! I found Ackles portrayal of that heartbreaking. But, generally, he doesn't.

I agree with Sam on that narrow point. True sacrifice for Dean isn't giving up his life. It's giving up Sam's.

The one that bothered me the most with Sam was hands-down The Purge, but the one that bothered me the most with Dean was Sacrifice. And he had no excuse. That's where Dean's cruelty matched Sam's. For me, it was just as painful to hear Dean say those things to Sam as he's about to go up against then King of Hell as it was to hear Sam's hurtful words to Dean. Both of those scenes were hard to watch.

Agreed. All of them are adults and get to make their own decisions. Their history is just so weird, though, that I can understand if Dean were to have a hard time with Mary's alliance with the BMoL. She's his mother, who he's looked up to all his life and now (in his view) she's screwing up all over the place. And in his mind, that probably includes her work with the BMoL. Wait til he discovers she borrowed a cup of sugar from Ketch!

Yeah, I don't think Mary's and Sam's decisions to work with the BMoL were in any way equivalent. In this case, sam was not portrayed as some wide-eyed idealist or as a sucker, take your pick. Dean should be hurt and angry with Mary. Sam? Not so much. As far as I can tell, they're pretty much on the same page.

Eh. They've left many important conversations off-screen. I'm not getting my hopes up because their track record is less than stellar in this regard. ETA: I also think it would've come up last episode if it were going to be discussed in any serious way.

You can't take everything that Dabb, or any show runner, says as truth. None of them want to give up the plot ahead of time. So misdirection or stretching the truth is something I expect from writers. It's not uncommon and all viewers can do is go by what the show, as a whole, is telling them onscreen. Now, if Dabb is still saying positive things about the BMoL after showing children killing children, then maybe he's a psychopath. Kidding! But I think he's just a writer who didn't want to give away his story before the ending.

I don't think there is one. They share a past, but I've never thought there was any relationship between them. And I think that's a realistic take by TPTB. Any relationship between those two, given their past, would be creepy and feel forced, to me.