I’m afraid the writing and pacing in the episode was so uneven and some of the developments so clunky that I didn’t get any emotional resonance at all, which is a shame, because this show can make me cry – it did in “Abandon All Hope” and that was over characters I didn’t have any particular emotional investment in. I do agree, though, that most of it felt like a Series Finale, with some bad editing and a couple of new plotlines shoehorned in at the last moment. Whatever the real Series ending is, it’ll be substantially different from what most of us assume was the original intent (Sam and Dean going into the pit together) because (IMHOP) Gamble gives the impression that she’s more likely to end the show with marriages than mortal injuries.

As far as Lisa and Ben are concerned, I don’t want them and their domestic trials and tribulations playing any sort of major role in next year’s storyline but, other than Lisa coming to her senses and realising that playing at happy families with a functional alcoholic who would rather be dead than living with her is not a good idea even if you ignore his family’s enemies tendency to wipe anyone close to them, I can’t see any way of getting rid of them that won’t destroy the show and/or Dean’s character.