or more like a fandom realization/possibility. anyways, i was reading this gabriel/trickster centered fic and it hit me. what if it's wasn't god or lucifer and the host that brought castiel back, but gabriel? after all, dude's been in occupying a trickster for goodness knows how long - definitely since before we met the character back in season 2 in episode 15 tall tales. at the beginning of season 4, we hear sam talk about how he even went to the trickster for help in getting dean out of hell but the trickster refused, and not because he couldn't do it (because he can as evidence of 3.11 mystery spot). so yeah.. that's my new theory. gabriel/trickster brought back cas obviously in the hopes that castiel would push our lovely winchester bros towards taking their destined places as vessels for michael and lucifer. man. ten bucks says i'm right.... i can't wait till we find out!