True, but dogs seem to get abused more often on the show.

Maybe not a purely substitutive allegory on American politics, but Crowley is definitely a pragmatist to Abaddon's raging ideologue. I tend to see it more as the merchant class versus the aristocracy.

When the music started up, I blurted out, "Dean would never listen to shit like this."

Poor pup. Between demonic dog murders and bestiality, I'd like to know what the writers have against dogs.

I have to disagree about the angst and how it plays out in this episode. The cheesy, intrusive power ballad totally ruined the opening grief montage for me. It gave it the feel of one those other CW shows where the actors aren't strong enough to carry the emotional weight of the scene on their own. Apart from that, I…

Sigh. I tried watching a little bit of S1 and didn't much care for it. Can I skip ahead to S2 without missing anything crucial?

I wouldn't give this particular pair of writers that much credit.

I think you're probably right about the spinoff. This season has been incredibly weak so far, with far too much writing being farmed out to the B-team. As others have pointed out, Ross-Leming is Robert Singer's wife, which is probably the only reason she was allowed to write anything after "Route 666". Still, she was…

Just had a stray thought that may or may not be important later. Did Crowley inject himself with Kevin's blood once, or has he been doing it on the sly all this time? If his system is full of Kevin's blood, is there hope for a resurrection, or will it simply mean that Crowley will be hell-bent, so to speak, on…

Ackles can sell anything the writers throw at him, and SPN at its worst is still adequate genre TV, but I don't think it would have made it past a few seasons without him. I've watched all the shamefully bad stuff he's ever starred in because nobody can polish a turd like he does. I just hope he doesn't end up locked…

Agreed. We're nine seasons in, and the boys keep treading the same well-worn piece of emotional ground with angels and demons nipping at their heels. I may be the odd one out here, but I admired S7 if only because it tried to do something different (which is not to suggest that I was okay with killing Bobby or…

I'm okay with pointless redshirt deaths, since that's been a constant on the show from day one, but they don't seem to put any more care into the deaths of recurring characters. I think Ellen and Jo were the only characters to get a suitable amount of emotional weight attached to their deaths.

I didn't much care for this episode for every reason you listed. I haven't liked much of this season, and I've lost a lot of faith in Jeremy Carver's showrunning abilities (the Montreal version of Being Human should have been a big red flag, I suppose).

This could have been a great episode in more capable hands. I don't know what's up with all the sub-par writing this season. Ben Edlund may have left, but Carver, Dabb, Loflin, and Glass are all strong writers and all still around. Are they padding the front end of the season and keeping the good writing in reserve…

That was never really addressed pre- or post-Apocalypse, and it should be. If the dead soul intake process is independent of the angels, why would should humans care if angels annihilate each other?

That's my biggest problem with all the angel arcs — villains appearing out of nowhere with inadequately explained motivations. Demons enjoy cruelty but have differing opinions on order v. chaos, so it's logical that they'd be a scheming, fractious bunch. Angels seem to crave order, but to what end? Beyond imposing it…

And hiding the porn. I think Kevin might take issue, as it were, with Dean's Busty Asian Beauties mags.

Judging by the bunch that Crowley kidnapped last season, the prophets in waiting are pretty lame.

Yeah, if it was that easy to get his grace back, why make such a big deal out of turning him human?

I don't feel sorry for Dean this time. He brought it on himself.