In the “then” flashback, we see Castiel’s return, freaking
Jessica, and Sam and Dean splitting. We then come to a shirtless Sam (the girls
I’m sure love this, and yay tattoo! I say that because I have one too. Yes, I’m
a crazy fan), lying in bed. When he flips over, he sees freaking JESSICA lying
in bed with him. You know, his girlfriend that died in the pilot, same way as
his mom? Yeah, that one. And OMG what’s with Sam’s sideburns?
 
Anyway, Sam is surprised as hell to see Jessica, thinking
he’s dreaming. Jess tells him she isn’t. Sam says she misses her, and she
misses him, followed by questioning Sam’s decision to run away. Sam says last
time he wanted to be normal, this time he knows he’s a freak. And props to
Jared for bits like this. He does that internal guilt, that pained knowledge that
he has on his shoulders better than most actors I’ve seen who are both older or
more experienced. His facial expressions alone show you how tortured Sam is
internally, and how he’s fighting to keep it all together inside. I love stuff
like that about this show.
 
Anyway, Jessica tells Sam he always knew something was dark
inside him, thinking it might’ve been that that killed Jessica. She was dead
from the moment they saw each other, she says, which horrifies Sam, as it
should. Jessica says things will never change with him…and then
disappears…SCARY OMG!
 
After the title card (which I still ADORE), we see Sam in
Oklahoma and Dean in Pennsylvania with “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynrd playing
behind them (and I am REALLY happy about the return of more classic rock to the
show). We see Sam burning his fake ID’s while Dean uses one of his in an
investigation. We see Sam cutting up lemons while Dean cuts up a vampute (“Eat
it, Twilight,” made me belly laugh. Thanks Dean!). Sam wipes sweat from his
brow while Dean wipes blood off his face. Sam cleans the bar while Dean cleans
the blood off the Impala’s hood. This sequence of parallels between the
brothers, I thought, was fantastic.
 
We then find Dean driving the Impala, actually listening to “Simple
Man,” only to see him look slightly longingly over at the empty seat next to
him. Does he miss Sam? It’s hard to read on his stone of a face, but one can
only hope. This scene made me wanna jump in the car and take a road trip.
 
Getting back to Dean, we find him in his hotel, still
cleaning up blood, when Castiel surprises him, and invades his personal space,
something the two of them have talked about (though I’m sure the shippers loved
it). Since Dean is “flying under the angel radar” thanks to the sigils carved
into their ribs, Castiel had to find out where Dean was through Bobby, which I
found to be a nice touch. Castiel also doesn’t know what happened to Sam
either, which doesn’t seem to phase him once Dean tells him.
 
Castiel still hasn’t found God, but tells Dean that the
archangel who killed him, Raphael (a “teenage mutant ninja angel”) is walking
the Earth, and Cas wants to trap him and interrogate him for information. When
Dean asks why he should do this, Cas says no angel will harm him due to Dean
being Michael’s vessel. Well, if that’s true, what was all that stomach cancer
crap Zachariah pulled in “Sympathy for the Devil”? I’m not fully buying that,
but we’ll roll with it for now I suppose.
 
Anyway, Cas says Dean is the only one who will help him,
twinging his guilt muscle. When Dean agrees, Castiel is about to transport them
to Maine when Dean stops him. “Last time you zapped me someplace, I didn’t poop
for a week.” Maybe the best line in the episode? I’d vote yes, but moving on…
 
We go back to Sam, or “Kieth”, at his new job bussing in a
bar. His feisty blonde co-worker Lindsey noticed he finished the New York Times
crossword puzzle, and is interested in his story. Well c’mon, what girl WOULDN’T
be interested? Anyway, after challenging Sam to a dart game in order for him to
come clean, Sam obviously beats her. Sam is then distracted by a story of
natural disasters nearby on the news, obvious signs of the apocalypse, which
the bartender is quick to joke about.
 
Back to the Dean and Castiel happy hour. We find them in
Maine, about to ask a deputy sheriff about his sighting of Raphael. While
Castiel wants to go in and tell the truth, Dean tells him people have to lie. Castiel plays the straight bumbling angel trying to be human well here, and on
any other show it might’ve been a disaster, but here it works. Anyway, the sheriff
tells them about a riot at a nearby gas station with 30-40 “kill or be killed”
combat. 
 
Castiel thinks it’s angels and demons, and tells the sheriff
so to his amazement. Dean thankfully covers for him. In describing what happened,
they find out that the explosion that leveled the gas station was pure white,
like nothing the sheriff had ever seen before. The sheriff then told them about
the one man still there, kneeling, without a scratch, and he happens to work at
the gas station. He’s now in a mental institution, as Raphael has left the
vessel. This has left Donnie, the vessel, empty and drooling. Dean asks Castiel
if this would happen to him if he accepted Michael in. Castiel tells him no, it
would be much worse.
 
We cut back to Sam doing some research on his computer. As
he’s about to make a phone call, he looks at Dean’s number longingly. He then
scrolls up to call Bobby about the revelation omens he’s found nearby. Bobby
then wonders why he’s calling, since Sam is the best hunter in the immediate
vicinity. Sam says he’s sitting this one out, and actually hangs up on Bobby,
which is just plain rude.
 
Cutting back to Dean and Castiel. Cas made a pit stop in
Jerusalem to get some special, rare oil used to capture Raphael. Dean wonders
if it can be done, asking if it’s like trapping a hurricane in a butterfly net.
Castiel says it’s actually harder. Well, that’s terrific, isn’t it? Apparently
while Dean has a chance of survival, Castiel doesn’t think he has one. Dean
then asks about Castiel’s last night on Earth, including booze and woman…and
Castiel’s face just goes…I can’t explain it, but it’s priceless. Apparently Cas
is a virgin (he hasn’t done any “cloud seeding”), which totally leaves Dean
speechless for a moment. Dean is determined to not let Cas die a virgin.
 
Back to “Keith,” some guys enter the bar asking for Sam, and
he ignores them for a moment, leaving Lindsey perplexed. These guys are
hunters, sent by Bobby to check out Sam’s intel. They’re planning to take care
of the local demon problem, and ask Sam for help, but sadly he refuses. They
grill him on his reasoning, but he refuses. Once they leave, Lindsey forces him
to go to dinner with her to divulge his story, and he reluctantly agrees.
 
We now cut to, personally my favorite part of the episode.
We find Castiel and Dean in a strip club/brothel. The look on Castiel’s face of
sheer TERROR is freaking priceless. Castiel doesn’t think he should be in such
a “den of iniquity.” When approached by a lovely woman, Chastity, he barely
knows how to handle himself, drinking half a beer in one gulp. He is so
terrified it’s hilarious. She beckons him t
o the back, and Dean gives him cash
and tells him to not order off the menu.
 
A moment later, screams are heard from the back. We find “Chastity”
yelling at Castiel. Castiel apparently looked her in the eyes and said “It wasn’t
her fault that her father Gene ran off, it was because he hated his job at the
post office.” Dean, totally perplexed, explains that the entire sex industry
runs on absent fathers, as it’s the natural order. Once security shows up, Cas
and Dean high tail it out of there, and Dean has, I think, the first, real,
good belly laugh I have ever seen him have in five seasons of this show. That
in ITSELF is monumental. While Cas wonders what’s so funny, Dean says it’s been
a long time since he’s laughed that hard, years in fact…and then he looks sad
for a moment.
 
Back to Sam and Lindsey having dinner. Lindsey grills Sam
about his background, but Sam is, of course, vague, only saying he was in
business with his brother. Sam then explains that he did things he wasn’t proud
of and that people got hurt because of it…a lot of people. This, I think, is
one of the best moments of the episode, as you can see, just for a SECOND, the
sheer guilt and remorse flash across Sam’s face. It’s subtle, but it’s there,
and it’s done expertly, in my opinion.
 
Moving on, Lindsey asks Sam what his “poison” was.  Sam is shocked, but Lindsey knows the look of
someone that’s been hooked on something. She then shows her AA chip celebrating
three years of sobriety. She then goes on to say that “no one has anything so
bad, they can’t be forgiven, they can’t change.” Again, this is a beautiful
moment, as not only does the actress playing Lindsey (who’s name I can’t find
anywhere) delivers her lines convincingly, I felt, but you can see Sam just
grasping at the words, praying that they’re true, but in some way knowing they
don’t apply to him. That’s what I see on his face, anyway, and again props
should go to Jared Padalecki for playing subtlety so well.
 
We return to find Dean and Castiel in the hospital, about to
spring their trap on Raphael. Apparently while the flame burns, no angel can
pass the flame without dying. Castiel then recites what sounds a very old
language like Latin into Donnie’s ear, then tells Raphael to come and get him.
Castiel then lights the flame and closes the circle. Apparently nothing happens
because we find them back at the squatter house they’re using…only to find
Raphael waiting for them…with COOL lightning wing effects, by the way.
 
Raphael seems honestly surprised to see Castiel alive. While
Dean thinks Raphael just blacked out the room, Raphael actually blacked out the
entire eastern coast. Raphael then threatens to smite Castiel again, but Dean
thinks he’s full of crap. While Castiel knows Raphael won’t kill Dean, Raphael
says he’ll just take him to Michael. When Dean refuses, Raphael brings up Zach’s
stomach cancer, then saying Zach doesn’t have the imagination he does. But hey,
he apparently didn’t imagine that they knew Raphael was coming…and the trap is
sprung. Dean then says the whole thing is Castiel’s idea, humorously.
 
When Castiel asks Raphael where God is…Raphael says God is
Dead. Wait, what? God is dead? C’mon, now Nietzschean can you get? The whole
idea, the whole NOTION of God being dead would piss a LOT of people off…maybe
not the people who watch this show, sure, but wow, that’s a powerful thing for
any show, let alone a drama, to declare. It’s stuff like this, that makes us
think, that pisses us off and so on, that makes me love this show as much as I
do. Well, that and the Impala…
 
Anyway, we cut back to Sam at the bar, when one of his
hunter friends returns, looking pretty battered. Apparently a demon they
captured told them things about Sam…crazy things. To get Sam to tell the truth,
they’ve kidnapped Lindsey, who rightfully wants to know what’s going on, and we
cut with Sam looking MIGHTY pissed off, as he should be.
 
Back to Castiel, Raphael and Dean…el? Seriously, Castiel
accuses Raphael of lying, but Raphael says there’s no other explanation to
account for the twentieth century or how badly the twenty first is going, and
asks if God would’ve let that happen if he were alive. A very good question,
actually. Dean then asks Raphael who invented the Chinese basket trick. Raphael
takes umbrage at his father being talked about in such a manner. When Dean asks
how his father would feel about them starting the apocalypse, Raphael asks in
return, “Who ran off and disappeared? Who left no instructions and a world to
run?” Again, good questions.
 
While Dean jokes about it, Raphael says they’re living in a
Godless universe. Dean then chides him about having an apocalypse while daddy
is gone. Raphael says they’re tired, and they want it to be over. They want
paradise. Dean asks, since God dies that makes them the boss? Raphael says it
does, and whatever they want, they get as glass breaks behind them.
 
Cut back to Sam, Lindsey and the other hunters. Once they
take the knife away from Lindsey, Sam comes clean, saying everything the Demon
told them is true. When asked to keep going, Sam says “Why? Are you going to
hate me any less? Am I going to hate myself any less?” That’s pretty powerful
stuff, but when asked again, he tells them that yes, he started the apocalypse…
 
Cutting back to Castiel, Raphael and Dean, Cas asks if God
is dead, who brought him back? Raphael tells him that Lucifer raised him to
have all the rebellious angels he can find. Castiel looks…shocked at this, and
then turns to go. When Raphael orders Cas not to leave him there, and says that
he will find him, Castiel says “Maybe one day, but today you’re my little
b-tch*.” All Dean can say is, “What he said,” wherein really, what else could he
say that would top what Cas already said?
 
Now we cut back to Sam, Lindsay and the hunters, one of whom
produces a vial of demon blood. Holy crap! You can see Sam’s face change when
he sees it. Sam wants nothing to do with it, they want to force him to drink it
so Sam can “hulk out” and take out the demons who killed their friend. A fight
ensues when they try to make him drink the demon blood and…OMG they make him
drink it! Sam then…spits it back in his face! He didn’t swallow it, OMG! That
is HUGE, my friends, HUGE. He then is about to kill one of them right in front
of Lindsey, face covered in blood, when he lets them go.
 
What a great and powerful scene — especially the look in
his eyes while his face is covered in blood — but now Sam has a new problem.
Not only do demons want him dead, but now other hunters will as well. He’s had
one problem to deal with before singly, but not both at the same time, so it’ll be interesting to see
how he handles it, whether alone or with Dean by his side.
 
Anyway, we now find Castiel and Dean back in the Impala.
Castiel looks…mournful, solemn, sad. Dean tries to comfort him by going into
his own story about his own missing father, and how even when all the logic
told him John was dead, Dean still believed he was alive. “It doesn’t matter what
some ninja turtle says, Cas, what do you believe?” Dean asks. “I believe he’s
out
there,” Castiel replies. Dean then tells Cas to go find him.
 
Then another big reveal. Cas then asks Dean “What about you?”
Dean says he’s…good? Seriously? He can’t even believe he’s saying it, that he’s
really good. When Cas asks, “Even without your brother?” Dean replies, “Especially
without my brother.” Dean goes onto say he’s spent so much time worrying about
him, and that he’s had more fun with Cas in the last 24 hours than he’s had
with Sam in years. Dean has been so chained to his family, but now that he’s
alone…he’s happy? Seriously? Cas, of course, disappears mid-sentence, leaving
him actually alone.
 
Now this is a point of debate here, I think. While on the
one hand, Dean has been putting family first for so long and has been so tied
to them that yes, I believe he actually is happy to finally be independent, the
other hand is probably the one that holds the regret for Sam leaving, the
sadness, the loneliness that will follow. Is Dean just trying to convince
himself that he’s better off without Sam, or does he truly believe it? We’ll
just have to find out, but for right now, while I can see both sides of the
coin, I’m not sure which one is the right one yet.
 
Cut back to Sam in his hotel room — not shirtless this
time, probably to the sadness of the ladies out there — with Jessica AGAIN.
She asks him if he can live forever with his head buried in the sand…while all
he can say is that he loves and misses her. However, Sam says she’s wrong,
people can change, and that there’s reason for hope…but Jess says there isn’t…and
then morph’s into Nick/Lucifer. Eeeeep!
 
Lucifer apparently can’t find him, but wants to reward him
for setting him free. Apparently, however, Nick is plan B, as Lucifer then
tells Sam that he’s meant to be Lucifer’s vessel! Holy crap…or not. Seriously,
here’s something I don’t get. This was…fairly predictable. Not in a bad way,
mind you, but a lot of us saw this coming for a while, so, to me, it wasn’t the
huge OMGWTFBBQ reveal I think it was intended to be. However, a lot of other
fan friends of mine were, indeed, OMGWTFBBQ about this reveal. It was a GOOD
reveal, it just wasn’t entirely unpredictable, especially when it was revealed
that Dean was Michael’s vessel, something much more shocking, in my opinion.
 
Anyway, Sam pulls a Luke Skywalker – I’ll never join you! —
and flatly refuses Lucifer’s claim. Lucifer tells Sam he will find him, and
when he does, Sam will let him in. Sam, however, says he’ll kill himself before
letting him in. Lucifer, however, will just bring him up. Lucifer then goes
into how his heart breaks for Sam, and how he wishes there was another way, but
there isn’t, saying he’ll never lie or trick Sam. When Sam asks, “Why me?”
Lucifer says it had to be him, it always had to be him. Sam, on the verge of
tears, looks up from absorbing this to find Lucifer gone, and himself alone
again.
 
Overall, while this was a great episode, it wasn’t a “WOW
OMG” episode like the previous two, in my opinion. It was very compelling, but I see it
as a bridge episode, setting up future, bigger events that will DEFINITELY make
us go OMGWTFBBQ. Is this a bad thing? No, not at all, it just feels…slightly weaker
than the two previous episodes that preceded it. Regardless, the mythology of Supernatural is chugging along at a
wonderfully breakneck pace, and I can’t wait to see where this amazing season
will take us in the weeks and months to come.

 

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