I preface this by saying you're absolutely right, and season five was it for both shows. As glad as I am for having s6-7 for a lot of reasons, there wasn't really any story left after that and digging themselves a new path turned it into a trench. It didn't work with Buffy.

I suspect it won't with Supernatural, either.

But god damn, I loved that episode. I loved the possibilities of character arc and story lines they could follow. I loved Dean finally growing up, whatever Jensen himself might say.

I wanna see where it goes. I may even be genuinely fannish about it, when I never could the first five seasons.