A playground, playing children, a woman possessed by a
demon (or something else that can turn her eyes black), some freaky weather and
a disappearing child.
Just another day in Supernatural world!
Meanwhile Dean is driving down the road and he sees
someone, messed up, dirty and bedraggled. And he does a double take because….
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| Castiel! It’s Castiel! Castieeeeeel! He’s back!!!!! |
He sees Castiel! Dean slams on the break and reverses back quickly…. And the figure is gone.
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| Supernatural, do not make me come over there! |
Dean returns to see Sam (boooo, less Sam, more Castiel)
who notices Dean is shaken and tells him about the disappearing child and
freaky weather. This is part of a string of disappearances followed by weird
weather and earth effects. They guess demons, but none of the disappearing
people have anything in common.
Switch to Crowley! He’s baaack! And he’s torturing the Fast-food
Angel (Semandriel) with a seraphim sword for a list of names. Fast Food
Angel has already given up the names but Crowley is dissatisfied. (Mythos
quibble, is it just me or have the angels been severely depowered that an
angel, even the King of Hell, can hold one?). Semandriel (damn that’s long, I’m
not typing that out all the time. He’s now the McAngel) threatens Crowley but there’s so much chaos
in heaven Crowley’s confident that they don’t even know he’s gone. Crowley
keeps up the torture and McAngel insists he’s given him all the names – the “next
generation” isn’t born yet. Crowley is very evil and just so much fun.
He leaves the McAngel and joins all the kidnapped people
at a kind of hi-tech electric round table. Alas, they don’t join him in amusing
banter. Crowley doesn’t having fun hosting the Clueless of the Round Table.
They’re all would be prophets who haven’t been tapped. And would-be prophets can’t
read his tablet. Two of them think they’ve been kidnapped by aliens and one
demands their rights and their phone call (before Crowley kills him) prompting
another to pretend to read the tablet. Poor Crowley.
Time to skip to Kevin – and his mother, Linda Tran! She’s
alive and recovered (excellent, she was a most awesome character)! They’re on
the run though Linda, being awesome, wants to stop running especially if Kevin
can make the anti-demon bomb like he made before. He doesn’t have the
ingredients and thinks they’re impossible to get – but Linda has hired a witch,
off Craiglist, Delta Mendota who doesn’t fill Kevin with a whole load of
confidence.
Dean and Sam are investigating the disappearances, and
speak to the woman who was demonically possessed during the child abduction –
and quickly find she’s demon free. But they’re sure the child, Aaron Weber, was
taken by a demon. That night during the storm Dean looks out his window and
sees Castiel! Who quickly disappears again.
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| Noooo come back! |
Sam asks Dean what he saw and Dean tells him it was
Castiel. Dean breaks a little as he describes how hard he fought to get Castiel
out. Sam diagnoses survivor’s guilt and urges him to walk past it.
Which calls for a Purgatory flashback with them
approaching the portal out and Castiel thanking Dean for everything – just in
case the portal doesn’t work. Dean won’t hear it – the portal MUST work.
Back in the present, Sam finds the disappearances are
happening globally – and Castiel appears again. And he talks! And Sam sees him!
(I am resisting the urge to post more pictures). Dean is shocked that Castiel managed to get
out after what he had to go through to get out the portal. Castiel has no idea
how he got out (much as I hate to question a Castiel – I’d
be soaking him in borax about now)
Another flashback to Purgatory where they find the exit –
and
Dean cuts his arm to absorb Benny, showing how much trust Benny has earned
from Dean. Dean and Castiel run up the
ridge to the exit – and are intercepted by Leviathan. At which point Sam says
Dean’s name and manages to bring him out of his flashback. Dean is suspicious
of what brought Castiel back, especially with no memory, since he remembered
everything of leaving and Castiel was in bad shape when he left. But then
Castiel joins them – all cleaned up and back to normal.
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| Yes this needs another pic |
We must, alas, leave Castiel to catch up with Kevin and Delta
Mendota comes to see them – and gets dunked in holy water (which is Linda’s new
way of saying hello). After a disagreement about the terms of their agreement, Kevin
notices the salt line on the window has been broken. Delta has betrayed them –
and Crowley and co are now in the room. Crowley gets rid of Delta – who is
probably not going to enjoy her new association. He instructs his associate to
kill Linda and destroy the spell components, clicks his fingers and he and
Kevin disappear. Leaving his demon sidekick in a room alone with Linda.
Do you pity him? She douses him with holy water.
Back at Sam and Dean, there are no new disappearances.
Sam begins to read out the list of names – and Castiel finishes it, recognising them as
all prophets. They’re future prophets since only one can exist at a time and
Kevin is still alive – which means Chuck must be dead (I have to say, I’m not
sad to see him go). They instantly leap on Crowley being behind it – which is when
they get a call from Linda.
Kevin joins the Prophets of the Light Table and Crowley
tries to convince him to read the tablet or he’ll kill him and get one of the
others to read it when they inherit his prophet-ness. He’d prefer not to
because the other prophets have not amused him a whole lot. To prove his point,
he explodes a prophet – which is really, really messy.
Time for another Purgatory flashback – Dean is knocked aside
by the Leviathan. Castiel tries to fight them, but angels have one shiny power
that doesn’t work on Leviathan. Still, he delays them until Dean scrambles
back, beheads them and they both head to the portal. Dean steps in and reaches
back for Castiel. He grabs his arm – but can’t hold on as the portal closes,
leaving Castiel behind. Pulling out of the flashback, Dean comes to his senses
and asks to speak to Castiel alone. He wants to know why Castiel let go, why he
didn’t come through, why he seemed to give up. Angrily he protests that he didn’t
leave Castiel (oooooh lookit that extremely well acted guilt). Castiel,
somewhat stunned, realises Dean is blaming himself.
Which is when Linda arrives with Kevin’s notes – and the demon locked in the boot of her car and in a demon trap (yes she’s awesome). Dean draws a knife and they prepare to… talk.
Unfortunately, he’s not the only one starting the torture
– and Crowley has tied Kevin to a chair and cuts off one of his fingers. Kevin begins to read the tablet – which is
very long and very slow.
Sam, Dean, Castiel and Linda arrive at Crowley central –
and Sam handcuffs Linda to the steering wheel (and apologises - because he’s not entirely foolish) since
they can’t afford to have Crowley use her as a hostage. They kill the demon in the
boot (seriously, have they just forgotten how to exorcise demons? They used to
try to save the possessed.) Kevin keeps
revealing the tablet to Crowley – including a section on sealing the Gates of
Hell – which Crowley is perturbed to realise actually exists.
Dean and Sam infiltrate, killing demons on the way and making good use of the demon bomb. Castiel uses his angel power to kill a demon – but it causes him to stagger and grab a wall, out of breath – Dean realises he’s not all the way back. Kevin finds a personal note on the tablet – from the Archangel Metatron. It’s a farewell note saying that he’s written down the word of god and passed down the Compendium of Tablets into humanity’s hands - revealing there are a lot more tablets out there.
With Dean and Sam unable to get through the door, Castiel
says he’s going to teleport his way in, despite Dean’s protests about how weak
he is. Castiel zaps into the room with Kevin and Crowley. Both Crowley and
Castiel draw angel swords. Crowley mocks him – he looks like hell. Castiel
responds by glowing and his eyes sparking – in the brightness of the light he
produces, the shadows of his wings appear on the wall behind him. Crowley
protests that this extremely epic display is a bluff – and Castiel challenges
him to take that chance (nice to see the old epic style angels after McAngel’s
display). Crowley reaches for the tablet and Castiel smashes the table it’s on,
snapping it in half. Crowley disappears with his half and Dean breaks through
the door as Castiel collapses.
In the aftermath, Sam arranges for Garth (ye gods) to
help look after the Trans and warns Linda about hiring the witch and Kevin
reiterates his determination to get the demons
Dean lectures Castiel about risking his life and Castiel
snaps back about Dean taking responsibility for everything including getting
out of Purgatory. It’s not about fault – it’s about will, and he suggests that
Dean isn’t remembering the escape properly. Dean talks about failing Castiel as
he failed everyone else he cared about and Castiel replays the memory with his
powers
The same flashback plays but this time, instead of them
losing their grip, Castiel pushes Dean’s hand away and tells him to go. Castiel
says he didn’t want to be saved because he needed to do
penance for the things
he’d done on Earth and Heaven. And Dean can’t save everyone. Mid conversation
Castiel suddenly zaps out and is in a white, modern office facing a woman
behind a desk. Who tells him he’s home – in heaven.
She is Naomi and they rescued him from Purgatory. She wants to know about Sam and Dean; he tells them and then questions why he’s obeying. Naomi tells him to help the Wincesters and report in regularly – but he won’t remember when he does. He refuses, but she says “as you where” and he blinks back – and they don’t even realise he was gone.
Yes, I am intrigued. My money’s on Naomi being the Metatron.
Crowley’s back! I forgot how much I loved Crowley – he’s
so evil and uncaring and cunning and fun – best villain ever.
I know it fits everyone’s personality but if I were Dean,
the next person who told me to get over something or walk past something would
be punched repeatedly in the head. Considering what Dean has gone through, I’m
glad to see he isn’t just magically dealing with it all. I like that he is
having flashbacks, that he is hurt by what happened to him – that all the
things he has endured have left their mark. I’m glad that we’re seeing the
frays and Dean having to try and deal with it all. And Jensen Ackles is an
excellent actor.
And, thank you all that is holy, we’re returning to the
much neglected meta-plot! About time, it’s not just that the last few episodes
have been monster of the week – but they haven’t even been very good monster of
the week.
I have to complain about the Prophets. These are ALL the future prophets currently alive? There’s less than a dozen of them, over half are from the US and all but 2 (including Kevin) seem to be White – but these are the Prophets taken from all over the world?
Castiel is back! He’s back he’s back he’s back he’s back!
(I realise some people may object to the Castiel picspam. Naturally these
people are bad and wrong and we should point at them and shame them for such
heinousness).
I haven’t enjoyed an episode of Supernatural this much
for a long time – it’s bringing it back!
And a Castiel pic
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| (Don’t judge me) |
