I tend to agree that the editing didn't work for me in this episode.

@avclub-a9ba553828f4a0900f6d53a825651453:disqus But that happens all the time on supernatural-esque shows.  Sam & Ruby, Buffy & Spike (and on their second go, Buffy &Angel), and those are just the examples I thought of immediately.

I somehow doubt this is going to work out well for me…

@avclub-cb0e59b8f769a8698b9f7154dd8809b5:disqus I do think one of the brothers dying would be repetitive so I get why they didn't go that route.  But Dean's speech at the end didn't make a ton of sense to me either - it was his idea to do these trials, he was warned that they would cause Sam great pain (and he never…

Exactly!  It wasn't the best ever but it was interesting, they did something I wasn't totally expecting (even though the Dean's speech at the end to Sam was actually maybe a little awful?) and it opened up a different avenue for next season.  That's more than I can say for some shows this season…

@avclub-9c766629c76db3e282d1d3d3170fa34b:disqus I see the point about more "stuff" happening to Sam but it's generally in a passive sense.  Sam lost Jess, Sam was led astray by Ruby, Sam submits to Lucifer.  Dean gets to have emotions that aren't about Sam and maintain his righteousness.  He's an active player in how…

Metatron said the trials (and taking Cas' grace) were for a spell which might've been referring to the angel expulsion in turn.  I still think it's possible that Cas could get his grace back (unlikely, but possible) so we'll see.

Don't the angels need to find hosts and have them agree?  As in, that's a condition of being an angel that the demons don't have to deal with, right?  So does that mean all of them are being reborn as infants?

Yeah, I thought that comment was strange so it seems like his memories would be intact.  I can't imagine Cas would actually take the "normal" route, though, so Metatron was really just being an ass.

Hmm.  It seems like he was peering up into the sky with some idea of what was happening but I guess this type of speculation is the whole point of the finale.  Some memory loss wouldn't be a big deal but I sincerely hope he's not amnesiac!Cas.  They've been to that well before and I didn't love it the first time…

Well, Metatron has his grace and plans to use it in a spell…  If Cas found a way to track down Metratron and retrieve his grace before it was used then it would be, in theory, him and Metatron as full angels…  But the show wasn't clear about whether the trials affected angels who were hanging out topside or whether…

I don't know…  I liked it.  It wasn't the best season finale ever but it set up a solid arc for next season.  I was sort of hoping Sam would get to finish the trials because his arcs often turn out to be about him screwing up rather than succeeding and it was nice to have him on the road to being the noble one making…

All of you or just you-you?

@avclub-cb0e59b8f769a8698b9f7154dd8809b5:disqus They did bring back dead characters (can I say now that I would like to have Balthazar return?) but it's rare that there are many alive characters for them to bring back - having said that, I forget most case-of-the-week characters.

@Kumagoro:disqus I actually forgot most of those people were still alive.  When it's a case of the week, I usually forget about the characters they've introduced but you'd think I'd remember the recurring ones…  Out of that list, I think Sheriff Mills is my favourite.

Actually, that's…  Kind of what I liked.  It was a pleasant, happy, sitcom for me.  It wasn't something where I cared about the relationships (you knew they were never in jeopardy), it wasn't something where you feared or dramatically hoped week to week - I had other shows to fill those requirements.

I stuck it out for Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph who became, more and more, the heavy lifter on that show.

I don't remember exactly where the downward slide started so I'll take your word on it.  I just rememebr being disappointed in the second season.  So much disappointment.

You would think that, but honestly, I don't know that such a statement is true.  We can only hope…

Up All Night wasn't terrible in its first season.  So much wasted potential…