2) Speaking of young girls being possessed and leading a whole town into a witch hunt, why did Leah let Sam and Dean stay instead of having them attacked by the townspeople right away? Did she really see them as no threat? Was it just because she didn't want to risk Sam being killed (but then, Lucifer would just bring him back)? Her motivation in all this seems really unclear which made her storyline less than satisfying. Unless the whole point was that Dean gets to call her a whore.
I actually thought this was pretty obvious, but I might actually have been interpreting this completely wrong, haha! The way I saw it was that Leah kept them there for the reason of getting Dean to agree with everything that she said. Once he agreed, he would then - no doubt - find out what she was and have to go kill him. She'd make sure that her "daddy" was out of commission so that all that was left was Dean... Why else make the snide comment about him not being a holy man and then tacking on the bit about him being Michael's vessel? I took it as she was hoping him staking her would work. Why? Because then he'd run off and say yes to Michael, and that would leave Sam completely vulnerable for Lucifer. Everybody knows that the only reason Sam hasn't said yes yet is because of Dean. So what better way to speedup the process than to get Dean out of the way? And, from what we've seen, she did her job perfectly.
I understand there were some who didn't think Dean's disposal of the amulet had anything to do with Sam. I don't know why they'd think so, though. Joshua was pretty clear about all the things Dean had lost faith in. I don't think Dean feels he owes Sam much any more. But presumably, we'll find out more in the next episode about where he's coming from. One possibility, for example, is that if he gives in to Michael but Sam does not give in to Lucifer, then Michael should have no trouble destroying him and Sam won't have to become a vessel at all. If so, though, Dean's not listening to what Sam's saying. He's telling Dean that if he's left on his own, he won't be able to hang on. And given what happened last time, Dean ought to know better.
I totally think the amulet was completely about Sam. And well... that's what really pissed me off last episode. And this episode. Sam is standing there, watching Dean, has been telling him all year that he can't do this without him... and I've counted at 10 episodes (if not more) now this season where the show has ended with Dean throwing away another piece of Sam. It seems less like Sam is handing himself over... and instead like Dean's the one handing Sam over. Maybe it's because Dean's tired or whatever... But you once said that Dean doesn't find freedom desirable, that his family means more to him than anything... Well, he's doing a shit job recently of proving that. For a while now, I've felt like Dean has lived in a double-standard. He wants old pre-college Sammy back. He won't take Sam for who he is anymore, and now... he's found out that pre-college Sammy isn't even who he thought he was anymore (as his happiest memories apparently destroyed everything Dean ever thought of him), so it's like Dean doesn't want any part of him anymore.