YMMV / Supernatural S 04 E 22 Lucifer Rising

• Alternative Character Interpretation: It's clear that Ruby thinks she's the hero of this story. She's gone deep undercover, including enduring the scorn of and sometimes torture from her own kind, to convince the man she thinks is the Messiah/Anti Christ to answer the call to greatness. Thanks to her, he frees Lucifer, the entity she worships as a God. Demons believe, incorrectly, that this will mean liberation for them. She does this through deception, which is of course something that comes with being a demon. The tragedy here is that Crowley is right about Lucifer, and had Ruby seen that Sam was in the right and helped him stop Lucifer, he likely would have protected and even loved her for it.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Chuck putting his hand on Cas's shoulder is much more meaningful when you realize that Chuck is God and he's proud of Cas for siding with the Winchesters and being willing to sacrifice himself. Could also be Harsher in Hindsight when it's revealed that Chuck is doing all of this for his own amusement.
• Ho Yay: Cas and Dean have wordless communication that is suggestive to say the least. This is true when Cas hand gags Dean and they gaze into each other's eyes, but there's also an intense moment when Cas tells Chuck they are making the story up as they go and Dean gazes at him in the background.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • When Castiel goes against his orders to help Dean. Exemplified at Chuck's house, when Castiel tells Chuck, with practically more emotion than he's shown in the entire season, that they're making it up as they go. He then puts himself between the Winchesters and an archangel.
  • Ruby's big reveal was one for her fans (and the writers), while her death was one for those who disliked her. Especially because of how Dean and Sam immediately clicked back into place to work together and kill her, foreshadowing that all the work she put into being a Bond Breaker won't stick.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Ruby finally gets her just deserts. Too bad it's too late to stop what she's already set in motion, but given that she's in the middle of a particularly insufferable round of Evil Gloating, it doesn't exactly halt the Catharsis Factor. Given the expression on Dean's face and how he literally twists the knife before killing her, this example may count In-Universe as well.