Season 4, Episode 18: The Monster at the End of This Book

"You must understand why I can't intercede.  Prophets are very special.  They're protected . . . .  If anything threatens a prophet, anything at all, an archangel will appear to destroy that threat.  Archangels are fierce. They're absolute.  They're heaven's most terrifying weapon. . . .""So if a prophet was in the same room as a demon -""Then the most fearsome wrath of heaven would rain down on that demon.  Just so you understand... why I can't help."

This episode is my favorite episode of the whole series to date.  From the very first time I saw it, to the dozen or so times I have rewatched it, this episode is everything that makes this series brilliant.  Just as importantly, this episode, the quoted moment above - that was the moment that I knew, that I was sold on Castiel.

My first thoughts:

"As in Sam slash Dean together."  "You mean together together?  They do know we're brothers, right? #Supernatural #Season4"

"Ok.  This is the moment, right here in this episode, that I've decided I love Castiel.  I'm sold.  #Supernatural #Season 4"

- Twitter, September 3, 2013

And now:  

• I love the opening credits.  I love how Bobby looks exactly the same and Sam and Dean look like this:

which one is even which?

• "Sam slash Dean" - I love that Sam had to explain that to Dean and the disgust on Dean's face when he figured it out. 
• "The best parts are when they cry."  So true.
• The publisher girl who was also in season 2 looks so much younger in this episode.  Maybe because she's fangirling like crazy instead of being griefstricken over her dead husband.
• I love the "traded soulful looks" line followed by the actual soulful looks traded by Sam and Dean.
• "This is not a misery thing, believe me, we are not fans!"  That whole scene is so great, and Chuck Shurley is such a fantastic character.
• So Chuck never wrote the last names into the books, but the first thing Becky says to Sam in Season 5 is that she knows him, that he's Sam Winchester... how'd she know that?
• "Obviously I'm a God."  Yup.  I think that's pretty clear, Chuck.
• I love Sam's reaction to Dean busting out the Vonnegut titles - too funny.
• "You especially are not gonna like this."  "I didn't like Hell."
• I always feel like the food came out super quick when Dean and Sam ordered their tofu burger and salad.
• Dean thinking "tofu is amazing" - still funny after all these viewings.  Also - BIG mistake by that waitress - she's lucky Dean was just playing opposite day and that he wasn't a vegetarian!
• I love Dean trying hardest not to fight with Sam.  "It frustrates me when you say such reckless things."
• Chuck telling Sam about the demon blood storyline, that he was "afraid it would make you look unsympathetic" - truth.
• Did Kevin ever have visions like Chuck did?  I can't remember.  I feel like he spent 2 seasons trying to translate tablets but that's about all he did as a prophet.
• I love Cas's face when he tells Dean "just so you understand why I can't help."  He's so clever in that moment, so understanding of how to be sneaky - it's kind of un-Caslike, especially compared to what we'd seen of him to that point.
• I HATE this version of Lilith... she was so much creepier as a little girl.  At least when Katie Cassidy played her, she played her like a little girl in an adult body... now we're supposed to buy her as a demon who needs to have sex to seal a deal?  I just don't like it.  At all.  
• I've always wondered what exactly Chuck saw.  Was it that Sam killing Lilith would break the final seal? Was is that the angels wanted the apocalypse to happen?  I guess it doesn't matter, we get the idea, but still, curious.