Yes, yes, yes to all of this. SPN is a fledgling show. It's finding its way. And the first season of most shows is dedicated to exploring the original premise--which, in the case of SPN, is two brothers searching for their father and kicking ass along the way. I compare SPN to X-Files in some ways, at least in terms of its setup (two main characters on a quest, MotW setup, lots of one-off characters, etc.), and even with XF, it took a while for any secondary characters (Skinner, Krycek, the CSM) to become significant. But it did happen, and it enriched the story, and I do think that SPN can head that direction in the future. But we're talking about the first season, here. Did it bug me that the early episodes contained a string of damsels in distress? Yeah, kinda. But taking the season as a whole, we see a whole bunch of different people in distress, and Dean and Sam aren't particularly connected to any of them (with the exception of Cassie and Sarah, and maybe Max, since Sam identifies so strongly with him), and that's fine with me for now. As time goes on, they can expand the world in an organic way, but for now, we're talking about the basic premise of the show, which involves three men. If that's not your (and this is the general "you," since obviously I am agreeing with you, personally :) ) thing, then probably SPN isn't the show for you, you know?