Supernatural theory time: 'Nick' is actually Lucifer just pretending.

This is a theory for Supernatural season 14 so... consider this your spoiler warning for everything up to SPN s14e1.  :)
(Also, this theory is in its early stages, still a work in progress.  I have a lot of scenes to rewatch to work out the details.  So bear with me please.  :) )

Ok.  So... in the s14 premiere,
we meet again (or so we think) Nick, Lucifer's original vessel.  Sam, and Mary and everyone else, believe this.

But how is that possible?  For one thing, Nick, being not the true vessel of Lucifer (Sam was), was last seen to be rotting away (right?).  I'm pretty sure he's dead now.  But besides that, this last vessel was, I believe, just a recreated body Crowley made.  I don't think this was ever Nick to begin with.

My theory is: this is actually Lucifer just pretending to be Nick.

So then you'd ask, but how can Lucifer still be alive after being stabbed by an archangel blade?
Well, I think it might have something to do with the fact that this was just a recreated body/vessel, but not only that, it's a specially made vessel.  At one point (s12e15), Crowley said that that vessel was Lucifer's prison as it's been warded with runes and spellwork from the Cage. So maybe, when Lucifer got stabbed with the archangel blade, his angel grace got all burned away (leaving him 'human' and powerless), but this body remained somehow...

Edit:
I have since rewatched a scene from s12e13, where Crowley says they "found [Lucifer's] discarded vessel a few years ago, repaired it, improved it".

So I guess this means that body WAS Nick's original body, not just recreated from scratch as I first thought.  But my theory might still hold.

As far as I can tell for now, Crowley didn't mention how they found the discarded vessel.  Was Nick still alive then?  By repairing the vessel, did Crowley mean they healed Nick?
I think it more likely that they found Nick dead, his soul has likely moved on, so this was still just an empty vessel.  The burning away of Lucifer's grace now will not leave the old Nick behind.  Much like we don't expect to see Jimmy again even if we remove Cas from his current vessel.

Of course, by 'improved it', Crowley was likely referring to the runes and spellwork from the Cage that was carved into the vessel's every molecule.

:)


Oh, btw... why this theory?
I actually prefer that Lucifer is alive pretending to be Nick, over Sam's idea that an archangel blade only kills the archangel but not the human.  As I said in my s14 premiere review, the ability to kill Michael with no threat to Dean is just too convenient for my taste.  :P