Yeah... there are lot of things they SHOULD have explained that they didn't, and a lot of things they did explain that they didn't need to.
where were they planning on getting a replacement vessel??? Why didn't anyone bring that up to Dean???
I assumed they were going to let Lucifer find his own - and the reason they didn't bring it up was because it would make plain how completely amoral that is, as they'd essentially be dooming some poor schmuck, or multiple poor schmucks, to be killed by Lucifer as he burned through vessels (as eventually happens after Amara rips him out of Cas). (I really wish Amara had just killed him, but I recognize that's my own personal opinion on Lucifer's utility as good storytelling beyond S5)
And Cas being oblivious to the outside--I suppose it was to show he's given up, but I hated it. Wouldn't he hang on for Dean's sake???
Again, they obliquely make Crowley reference the idea that Lucifer is essentially drugging Castiel - and/or messing him up and that's how they explain it.
It would have been MUCH more effective (and compelling storytelling) if Crowley had gone into the vessel only to discover that Castiel was too weak to launch any kind of attack - and that he perhaps DID regret his decision but now could do nothing.
And I'm still not sure why they were so ready to do any exorcism in the church, having everything all handy, when they were supposed to be trying to get Lucifer out and angels don't respond to exorcisms...
So this is the other stupid thing. Sam doesn't need the cross or to be in a church for an exorcism. They could have easily just been anywhere and not make it seem "convenient" or premeditated at all. Because either they reserved this as a back-up plan from the jump, or Crowley did it spontaneously. The boys know exorcisms off by heart and I wouldn't put it past them to have holy water on them for no apparent reason. But either placing it in a different location, or having less paraphernalia to show that they weren't necessarily EXPECTING to have to do this, would make it clear that they knew perfectly well that only Castiel could eject Lucifer.
And Sam and Dean's final conversation made me go 'bwah?' the first time around...I finally decided the point of it was to show that Dean was contradicting everything he agreed with in principle because it was Cas...
I honestly think that WAS the point, the problem is in Jensen's delivery of Dean's last line. It's supposed to be said in a manner that suggests that Dean KNOWS he's contradicting everything he agreed with in principle, but Jensen says it like it logically follows from what they agreed upon. Not that I'm laying the blame on Jensen's feet, don't get me wrong, I have a feeling he was just as confused about the conversation as we were - the problem is in the failure to communicate intent between the writer's mind and the final shot - and basically EVERYONE along the way who didn't convey the correct message and didn't ask for clarification.
But yeah, like I said, the writers over explain things that we don't need to have explained to us (Lucifer's motivations and/or intent for heaven) and under explain things that SHOULD be explained (the morality of saving Castiel above whomever Lucifer is going to inhabit next. Whether Rowena was there to shove Lucifer back in the cage or what? What agreement did they finally come to with Crowley? And what EXACTLY Dean and Sam were both trying to say with that last conversation.) And they cut the important conversation between Amara and Rowena and left in a whole bunch that were frankly repetitious.
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where were they planning on getting a replacement vessel??? Why didn't anyone bring that up to Dean???
I assumed they were going to let Lucifer find his own - and the reason they didn't bring it up was because it would make plain how completely amoral that is, as they'd essentially be dooming some poor schmuck, or multiple poor schmucks, to be killed by Lucifer as he burned through vessels (as eventually happens after Amara rips him out of Cas). (I really wish Amara had just killed him, but I recognize that's my own personal opinion on Lucifer's utility as good storytelling beyond S5)
And Cas being oblivious to the outside--I suppose it was to show he's given up, but I hated it. Wouldn't he hang on for Dean's sake???
Again, they obliquely make Crowley reference the idea that Lucifer is essentially drugging Castiel - and/or messing him up and that's how they explain it.
It would have been MUCH more effective (and compelling storytelling) if Crowley had gone into the vessel only to discover that Castiel was too weak to launch any kind of attack - and that he perhaps DID regret his decision but now could do nothing.
And I'm still not sure why they were so ready to do any exorcism in the church, having everything all handy, when they were supposed to be trying to get Lucifer out and angels don't respond to exorcisms...
So this is the other stupid thing. Sam doesn't need the cross or to be in a church for an exorcism. They could have easily just been anywhere and not make it seem "convenient" or premeditated at all. Because either they reserved this as a back-up plan from the jump, or Crowley did it spontaneously. The boys know exorcisms off by heart and I wouldn't put it past them to have holy water on them for no apparent reason. But either placing it in a different location, or having less paraphernalia to show that they weren't necessarily EXPECTING to have to do this, would make it clear that they knew perfectly well that only Castiel could eject Lucifer.
And Sam and Dean's final conversation made me go 'bwah?' the first time around...I finally decided the point of it was to show that Dean was contradicting everything he agreed with in principle because it was Cas...
I honestly think that WAS the point, the problem is in Jensen's delivery of Dean's last line. It's supposed to be said in a manner that suggests that Dean KNOWS he's contradicting everything he agreed with in principle, but Jensen says it like it logically follows from what they agreed upon. Not that I'm laying the blame on Jensen's feet, don't get me wrong, I have a feeling he was just as confused about the conversation as we were - the problem is in the failure to communicate intent between the writer's mind and the final shot - and basically EVERYONE along the way who didn't convey the correct message and didn't ask for clarification.
But yeah, like I said, the writers over explain things that we don't need to have explained to us (Lucifer's motivations and/or intent for heaven) and under explain things that SHOULD be explained (the morality of saving Castiel above whomever Lucifer is going to inhabit next. Whether Rowena was there to shove Lucifer back in the cage or what? What agreement did they finally come to with Crowley? And what EXACTLY Dean and Sam were both trying to say with that last conversation.) And they cut the important conversation between Amara and Rowena and left in a whole bunch that were frankly repetitious.
Blah.