"I've always felt that SPN would work better as a serial rather than as a series of standalones with a storyarc playing in the background and only coming to the fore during sweeps or before midseason hiatus."

Agreed. I like the serial method. It keeps the writers accountable for continuity ( for a few minutes at the beginning of each episode at least.) I feel like it makes the season more consistent than when they do standalones.

"Either way, Edlund is one of the last writers on this show who gives Dean some good scenes."

Did he write this one? I actually wondered about that, seeing as Dean had some decent material to work with this week. It was a nice to watch :)