Did Dean Pass the Test in Supernatural 'It's The Great Pumpkin'

I think it was an awesome episode.  I was talking to a few others about it, avid Supernatural fans, although one didn't watch the episode - grrr.  The other one did.  He said he understood this one but thought it had nothing to do with the "big picture"

Was he daft????  Of course this episode has A LOT to do with the big picture.  New Angels, another one of the 66 seals is broken, Dean obviously has powers to control the Angels and can't be allowed to die - at least for now - not to mention Sam used his powers again and did you see that explosion of a nose bleed?  How could none of this fit into the big picture?

When I argued that he said that the plot had nothing to do with the "little picture" i.e. Sam and Dean's relationship.  Like hell it didn't.  Did you see the way Dean looked at Sam when he saw Sam using his powers?  Dean even has a new found confidence because of his little chat with Uriel and Castiel.  The relationship between Sam and Dean is obviously stressed.  Sam is going on with his own disreguard about his powers - although I do think he was a little justified in using them.  He did it when all else failed, and let's face it, if WE were in the same situation and either we die and everyone else dies, or we use the powers we have and kill the S.O.B and then try to redeem ourselves for using them - yeah that's what I thought.  But wasn't it neat the way that none of Samhain's powers worked on Sam? That was a side I never knew existed!

When Castiel is having the chat with Dean about "passing the test" I see how there can be two sides to the story.  Being able to sacrifice in order to save and being able to keep yourself together and destroy to save everything.  However when they're having the conversation and Dean is openly admitting "sure I failed the test" and such, and Castiel was saying that wasn't what he meant - I think in his own way, Castiel was saying that he passed, in Castiel's view at least.  However the scary thing is that even though they did defeat Samhain, the seal was still broken.

And who saw the Teacher's student as his sister? Who hated him...btw, Samhain knew the witch?  She was in love with him apparently?  And he killed her.  Ouch.  That was a little tad bit of history I would of been interested in reading up on!

In the end, I think Dean made the right choice.  It's funny how Sam is the compassionate one - and yet even though Dean is a pervert and does all these wacky things and has many indulgences - he's the one who seems to truly care deep down.  Nothing against Sam of course.

Oh, btw, Razor blades were a very nice touch.  But I wish he would of been biting into a candied apple.  That would of been realllly cool.  It's still neat though! Props to the directors :)

Loved the episode, but for guys that are supposed to know all this stuff, it's annoying that they don't know how to pronounce "Samhain" - was like nails on a chalkboard each time they said it!

(Think "Sow-wen" or "Sah-ween" - or something in between for starters.)  The Celts surely didn't say Sam Hain.  :)

As you know, I don't care for Castiel, but I like him a whole lot more now after meeting Uriel. 

Mud Monkies?  Great name.

Sam and Samhain fough-Samhain supposed to be a extremely powerful demon and yet Sam beat him and sent him packing.  That's some serious go juice in Sam.........

Am I nuts???

I'm reading all this info and thinking to myself, what does this have to do with Howard Dean?  God! 

Talk about dumb! lol

Sorry to interrupt.

I know I'm very late in my comment on this, but I felt it needed to be said. There were things in this episode that bothered me almost from the get go, not including the fact that is was simply utter crap. The most important thing was the total lack of research. I know the show is based in fantasy, but research does go into the lore to make is as believable as possible. They dropped the ball big time here. Samhain (not pronounced as it is spelled as it is a Celtic word) was NEVER a demon. It is one of the Pagan holidays. Actually the most important Pagan holiday. It is a night of honoring lost loved ones and this (like all Hollywood representations of the night) is an insult. That and always portraying witches as evil, as selling their souls to demons for power. I don't expect many to agree as we live a very Christian dominated culture. Just making my opinion heard.