I mean, in the final scenes of the episode, where Dean enters Sam’s mind to convince him to live – whether it is actually Dean himself or Ezekiel-as-Dean (with instructions from Dean what to say) does not really matter in this context – he could have just told Sam the truth and asked him to accept Ezekiel’s proposition, even if it was only for Dean’s benefit. However, Dean chooses to deceive Sam instead, because he is afraid that Sam will deny him his request.

I think this cuts right to the heart of what is so frustrating about this story (aside from the fact that we've all seen it before): the characters all basically agree that deception is unnecessary right up till the moment they insist it's essential. Ezekiel's argument is that, while he couldn't convince Sam to go along with this, Sam will do anything for Dean. Dean apparently accepts this idea with very little difficulty – he just goes in and asks Sam to come back to him. And Sam clearly changes all his plans the second Dean calls. Dean really could have just told him.

I know you can squint a bit and justify it – Sam is okay with being brought back in general but really might balk at the details – but it mostly looks like Carver constructed a scenario where telling the truth had an excellent chance of succeeding ... but then couldn't allow them to do it because if he did there wouldn't be angst. Or at least it would be a different kind of angst, and we can't have that.

Yeah, it makes total sense for some angels – or Sam and Dean, for that matter – to still trust/believe in Castiel!

I really, really hope Ezekiel has an agenda, because otherwise he's just very dim. That said, I was just as incredulous when Samandriel said the same thing last season, and he was apparently completely sincere. I have a terrible feeling that good angels have endless faith in Castiel's good intentions and only bad angels wasn't to hit him over the head with heavy objects.