I think elanurel said it best... SPOILERS!



This episode was Kripke's love letter to the fans.

I think it is a tribute to the writers on this show, and to Kripke's organizational genius, that I've been waiting for this since the very first season, when, in Home, Mary apologizes to Sam. Sadly, we know very little about Mary in the first three seasons, but I've discussed this with some people before and it was always my determination that she was complicit in what happens to Sam - and that the only reason she died was because she tried to get in the way of whatever the demon was doing or tried to renege on her contract in some way. A contract, I've always been certain, that she made to save someone's life - most likely John's or Dean's. So, while this episode was in no way a surprise to me, it has been WELL AWAITED and it was pulled off so beautifully by the cast and the writers that I am just in absolute GASPLOVESHOCK about it all.

1. My love for Mary knows no bounds.

Forget my first thought, that oh.my.god the FIC that is going to run rampant through this fandom with Mary as a hunter is going to be awesome. Forget even my second thought that this was such a perfect example of how to write a brilliant female character within the confines of this world. It's my third thoughts that matter, and they say that had Mary lived, she would've done everything in her power to keep Sam from becoming whatever Azazel had planned - and Dean is her son, her hope, her chance at fulfilling that destiny. I hope that Dean feels it, knows that John's commission of him to save Sam or kill him wasn't the demands of a desperate father, it was his mother's legacy, as hard and as heavy as that might be to fathom.

2. John Winchester - Civilian.

It's not a hard stretch for me to imagine this John, green and naive, willing to follow or take Mary to the ends of the earth. Willing then, too, to make sure her sons know the truth about what's out there and aren't as naive and in the dark as he was. What saddens me is that even through everything, it's now obvious that Mary never told John the truth. He had to come to it on his own after she'd died. Whether it was her trying to protect him, or to protect her boys as she makes so painfully obvious by saying "The very worst thing - is for my children to be raised into this like I was. I won't let it happen." All things considered, John did the best job he could do for their kids even when it must've been painfully obvious to him that Mary had died trying to protect them from what they've now become.

3. Destiny can't be changed, Dean. All roads lead to the same destination.

Further to my last review, I think this season is going to be a lot of realization for Dean that he can't change the past, he can't undo or wish for a different life. He is a hunter. He is a warrior. The choices of his parents and now his brother have carved this fate on him and his purpose in this fight is going to be to be Sam's anchor. If that fails, well...

4. Stop it... or we will.

Again, this brings me back to Ruby. Seriously, a tough nut to crack. I hate that we had to change actresses across the seasons because I have a feeling there is a bit of continuity we are missing out on with her. Is she a cog in the machine? Is she working for her own ends? She makes it seem to Sam in 4.02 that she is almost remorseful and trying to help the good guys. But, again, there's that bigger picture, the Endgame that Castiel keeps mentioning, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if she were a part of that. You have to have some major pull in Hell if they let you out to form your own Master Race, so I'm thinking Azazel would've put things in place (especially given that Dean tells him he's going to kill him) so that if he was destroyed, the wheels would keep turning.

5. Brother vs. Brother

They've finally come out and said it. This is about Dean stopping Sam from continuing down his path. They haven't said that Sam must die, but Dean is going to have to do what he can to keep his most dreaded eventuality from coming to pass. Something else Castiel said - that changing the past would've let all of the people die that Dean had saved - it may have seemed almost rhetorical because we know that Dean, given the choice, would choose his family (Or would he? We've seen him choose the masses over his own wants before) - but he will soon find it hard to escape the fact that his brother is killing people, innocent people that could possibly be saved and how many more people are going to die? How many people will die if Dean fails and Azazel's plan comes to fruition? Here we have the combining of two mytharcs, Lilith and the Endgame, and they're twisting into each other like DNA.

Kripke, again, I salute you. This episode was genius.