Perhaps I am missing something here but In the latest episode of Supernatural (S11E18) Crowley enters Castiels vessel in an attempt to convince him to expel Lucifer. However, Lucifer attacks Crowley and he asks for Sam and Deans help. Sam performs an exorcism in order to save Crowley. In every previous exorcism, the demon which has been exorcised is forced to return to hell so how did Crowley manage to avoid this and return straight to his vessel?
1 Answer
In "The Phantom Traveler," it was established that there are two parts to an exorcism: expelling the demon from the vessel, and then sending the demon back to hell. Sam most likely only performed half the exorcism.