Me too, about Jo and Ava. Great character, and none of those sideways glances that clue us in that she’s hiding something. Although we should have guessed when she said she couldn’t remember the past five months.
And wasn’t she a good actress? I’m always impressed when actors can cry on cue.
The way I saw it was:
IF Sam had stayed dead, Jake would’ve been the General of the demons newly released army. He didn’t and as such Jake ended up ventilated, and the demon dead now, with his army partially released and assumedly causing havoc.
I don’t see why people are already worried about the next season, we’ve got two major plots that need to be dealt with (the FBI’s manhunt for the boys & Deans deal for Sam) and next to Heroes this was the best thing on TV this season, I’m just glad it’s coming back for another.
What’s wrong with Jo? I thought she made a nice foil to the boys.
Plus you girls get the Winchester Boys, let us guys have Jo or someone else like her (damn them making Ava evil) 
Speaking on behalf of my entire gender (who will probably tell me how wrong I am shortly :)), I’m more than willing to put up with a chick who can even be a regular cast member–just not Jo, because she annoys me. I say bring back that girl from the first season episode with the haunted painting that looked like Sherilyn Fenn. From my heterosexual point of view, she’s way hotter than Jo, and I liked the character better.
See, I liked Ava. Ava was adorable and sensible and smart and awesome. I liked Lenore, and Madison, and I even like the various incarnations of the crossroads demon (Deirdre?).
But Jo? Jo is basically Dean, with boobs, only less funny. And interesting. It felt like they shoehorned her in to basically say “Look! Look! Dean’s love interest! Right here! See?” I have nothing against Alona Tal, who’s cute and a great actress, but every time Jo walks on the screen I do a mental headdesk. Hard.
I would think it’s likely that Jo might come back at some point simply because her mother is actively involved in the proceedings. But the people running the show have already decided that Jo just didn’t have the oomph necessary to be a love interest.
I wouldn’t mind Sam and Miss Art Girl from “Provenance” in Season 1 meeting up again.
Jo was also written really oddly. It was like even at the time of writing, the showrunners weren’t sure what to make of her. In that episode featuring her heavily, she’s made out to be a tough chick who can handle a knife, but she’s also made to look like a bratty child, mouthing off to her mother, getting Dean to lie to her mother, causing her mother to haul her ass back to Nebraska or wherever it is they live, and then bitching out Dean over something his father did to her father. How was a character like that supposed to be a good match for Dean, who’s a grown-ass man who’s been taking care of his family since he was a kid?
I liked Dean with the classy chicks he’s run into, like Darl-, uh, I mean Layla in “Faith.” (Though she’s probably dead by now, poor thing.) I like the way he acted when he was around her, and it would be nice for him to be with a girl who honestly liked him and showed it. (None of this super-trite “feisty girl who can put him in his place” business. Snore.) Even Carmen, his dream girl in the Djinn episode, was a good match. I loved that line when he found out she was a nurse: “That is so…respectable!” When she said she worked the night shift, my first thought was that she was a stripper…guess he thought so, too. 
So, switching gears, do you guys think Sam is still in danger of going evil?
Wait, I forgot to say my piece! I’m torn between feeling like that plotline is going to be dropped (or is considered resolved after this season finale) and feeling like it’s going to compound the Quest to Save Dean’s Soul. I can’t tell if the show has royally screwed this (always vague and vaguely dissatisfying) plotline or if it’s planning something magnificent for the future.
I read somewhere that Eric Kripke deliberately wrote the finale knowing that next season’s renewal was still up in the air and that this episode could serve as the show’s parting shot if need be. That’s what’s giving me pause – are we supposed to consider Sam’s morality test over, or has it not yet begun? What say you?
Is anyone’s morality test ever over? I consider it realistic that it could come up at any time.
That’s very true. Each one of us is tested every day (though I rarely wake up thinking, today might be the day I go evil. Maybe I should start. ). On the other hand, the show has always presented this as Sam’s big thing, not Dean’s. Ignoring the fact that Dean’s soul now belongs to the devil, the question of whether or not he’d ever “go evil” (whatever that means) was never raised. I think the show tried to portray Dean as having felt like he crossed that line a long time ago, but really, he’s a good man who doesn’t hurt people needlessly and even apologized to that prison inmate he provoked to fight him. Certainly not evil. So I thought the Sam: Evil or Not? issue had to be tied to the big demon’s plans for him, or else his morality test would be the same as everyone else’s, which is to say, implicit and not explicit.
But now that the big demon is gone…
But they spent so many episodes bringing it up…
Including that one with the really cute scene where Sam’s drunk and grabbing Dean by the face…
The way Sam killed Jake? definitely made it an open question, though if they never really return to it, it’s the sort of thing for me that doesn’t actually require an “answer.”
But if anybody was asking to be killed (insofar as anyone does), it was Jake – the guy had stabbed Sam in the back, was about to make Ellen shoot herself, and opened the gate to Hell. IMO, there’s nothing “dark” or skirting the line of evil about shooting a guy in that position, no more than are cops “dark” when they shoot someone in the line of duty.
I don’t know. I found the finale really disappointing for so many reasons, and the lack of payoff to the “Is Sam going evil” storyline, which started twelve episodes ago and was featured prominently in five or six of them, is one big reason. I guess I need an answer, even if I have to wait until the end of next season or beyond.
It wasn’t that he killed him, it was something in how he did it. Even Dean looked freaked out. I think. If I remember correctly, and I might not.
Yeah that’s actually what I liked about Ava, I can never remember the guest of the weeks name so can’t recall which ones Lenore & Madison were.
Okay I’ll give you that Jo was basically Dean with boobs, but I saw her personality as a facade, trying to fit in with the legendary Winchester boys. Maybe I was willing to accept it more because I had enjoyed her in Veronica Mars, and was just happy to see her in something else I actually would watch
I’ll make you a deal in return for a gory death of Jo (just to make up for the fact Dean most likely wont die), I’ll take Antique shop girl coming back
Hmmm maybe the Crossroads demon can possess Antique Shop Girl and we’ve
got this years recurring demon 
I think you’re remembering correctly. Sam shot Jake like ten times. That’s the definition of Impending Dark Side Overkill.
Still, can’t really say that I blame him.
Except of course that at this point, Sammy will probably think something along the lines of: “Girl!I like girl! Girl likes me! Girl will DIE!” And then flee.
Poor boy.
You weren’t evil already?
I like the idea of Dean having to trust his soul to Sam, just at the critical moment when Sam is possibly turning evil and ready to lead the army out and destroy the world (or crash the Smallville set, or whatever). It really tests the bond between the brothers and sets up the confrontation in the most dramatic way possible.
Antique shop girl! Oh, man, I hope she comes back, too. You’ve got your deal!
I’d die gruesomely at the hands of an evil being for a shot at Sam Winchester (and/or Dean Winchester). Just saying.
Amen, sister.
He’s just so TALL … ::sigh::
I’ll sign up for that club, myself.