We open in a preschool, where a little kid has somehow managed to smear himself with lots of paint. The teacher jokingly scolds him about it, then takes him to the washroom to clean up.
Only, it isn’t a teacher, it’s a demon wearing a teacher meat-suit. Once the washroom door closes, a small freak tornado hits the school. The washroom door bangs open to reveal the teacher and the kid are missing.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the backwoods, Dean is breaking the 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not EAT in the Car,” while rocking out to "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place", when he spots a lone figure walking along the road.
The figure looks a lot like Cas, so Dean backs up and starts looking around to no avail.
Disappointed, he reaches the base-camp – Rufus’ old house – where Sam tries to make some lame joke, “I was gonna say you look like you’ve seen a ghost but you’d probably be stumped.” Drop it Sam, you’re not hilarious. Dean is.
After last week’s spat, it seems Sam is more attuned to Dean’s frequencies and figures out something’s wrong.
But Dean “ain’t talking about it” (for now at least) and he lets it go, instead pointing out to the mysterious disappearances all over the continent, followed by freak instances of natural calamities. Since these are Demon omens, they figure that demons are behind the kidnappings.
The only problem is, the victims have nothing in common, from age to ethnicities to religious affiliations, so there's no way to tell what they're after.
Meanwhile, somewhere else, Crowley is busy torturing Samadriel, or Alfie, the cute little button angel, who had the misfortune of running into him during that antique auction, a few episodes back.
The poor guy claims that he has already spilled all the beans he had, but Crowley is not convinced. After a bit of poking and stabbing, Alfie says that he has given up all the names, except for those of the next generation which isn’t even born yet.
Crowley stops the torture for the moment, but instructs one of his guards to “keep him on ice”.
Looks like we’re gonna see a bit of Alfie in the upcoming season. Possibly, literally.
DeltaMendota, former bandmate-turned-witch
In the third segment of this jumble of an episode, Kevin Tran, the missing Prophet of the Lord, comes back from somewhere, only to get doused by strategically placed bucketful of Holy Water.
“Mom! You gotta stop drowning me in Holy Water every time I go out,” he yells at his mother, Extraordinarily Awesome Mom (E.A.M), who pops out from behind the counter of what looks like an abandoned diner.
He tries to talk sense into her (yeah, good luck with that, kid), but she’s tired of rat-infested hovels and constantly running for their lives. Instead, she has a plan to stop the demons once and for all, and it involves “Demon-bombs” which Kevin made to escape from Crowley the first time round.
“But it had ingredients from all over the world,” Kevin reasons “Even demons had to get the stuff.”
Which is why, E.A.M went to an expert. A witch named DeltaMendonta she found off of Craigslist, who’s ready to supply the ingredients. EAM is smart enough to not trust her completely.
Then we cut back to Dean and Sam, who are paying a visit to the teacher from the intro, pretending to be FBI agents.
The teacher has no idea what happened. One moment she was walking the kid to the washroom, the next she woke up about three blocks away and the kid was missing. She, however, says that she did in fact smell Sulphur when she woke up.
Sam sneaks in the Exorcism spell while Dean makes small talk, but the woman is not possessed.
Back in their motel room, Sam’s asleep while Dean is probably watching Anime (or reading Destiel fanfiction) when he sees what looks like Cas standing outside the window, staring in.
He walks over to find that the figure has disappeared. He keeps staring out, until Sam realizes Dean is not in bed and comes looking. Dean spills that he saw Cas… or thought he did. He also mentions sighting him on the road earlier.
“You said it yourself, you made it out and he didn’t,” Sam argues.
Flashback time. Dean, Benny and Cas are on a lookout for the escape portal, when Cas once again starts his broken record about his never getting out of purgatory. Benny’s words, not mine.
And frankly, we’ve all had enough, because Dean gives him an ultimatum. “Save the Hallmark. You’re coming and that’s final.” It’s my way… no highway business.
So, of course, Dean blames himself for leaving Cas behind. “I tried so damn hard to get us out of there. I could’ve pulled him out… I failed him… It’s all my fault…” blah blah, his usual guilt speech. Sam tries to console him with “you did everything you could… It’s just survivor’s guilt…”
Quit yapping, Sam. The guy needs a hug and a little distraction to get his mind of Cas for a while.
Crowley and the Prophets of the Round Table
Back in Crowley’s Den, he’s in some sort of conference with the kidnapped victims, who have no idea why they are there.
A couple of them believe that they are in a space ship and they’ve been abducted by aliens, much to Crowley’s confusion and amusement. He tries to get them to read the Tablet, but one of the more outspoken ones claims he can’t read Chinese, while another tries to make sense of the chicken scratch, only she’s doesn’t even know which is the right way up.
A still another demands his rightful phonecall, because they cannot be illegally detained. Crowley makes the guy vomit blood till he dies.
At the abandoned diner, Delta pays a visit to theTrans. She has brought the supplies and is ready to help them because she is tired of demons hanging over her head.
EAM douses her with holy water and she’s clean. Unfortunately, she’s also smart - because she has brought ingredients enough only for one bomb, promising more when the payment is made. Finaly, she also hot. And our dear Kevin has been in the hiding with his mother for far too long.
Delta excuses herself to use the loo, and EAM catches Kevin staring at her backside.
Back in Sam & Dean's motel room, Sam is still yapping about the omens and disappearances – which apparently happened all over the world, not just the U.S. – and Dean is in the bathroom, where he is accosted by the not-so left behind Castiel.
Woohoo! Bring out the confetti. It’s a parade, bitches, the Destiel-ers are back on the scene.
Sam goes full-on fanboy on Cas... “Unbelievable! I can’t believe you’re actually here… Oh my god, I’m gonna swoon…” as Cas tries to explain that he had been trying to reach out to them for a while, but since his powers aren’t fully back yet, he couldn’t.
Meanwhile, Dean wants to know how the hell did he make out.
Cas has no idea. He was hiding and running away from the Leviathans one minute, and walking down a road in Illinois the next.
Dean takes the whole reappearance thing with a grain of salt and lays his suspicions on Sam, while Cas takes a shower.
Shouldn’t Dean be assisting Cas with a shower, considering he would have no idea how?
However, before they can start contemplating on who… or what… got him out, Cas comes back in, in his former cleanshaven, trenchcoated, tax accountant glory!
Holy… Tax Accountant!
Shampoo: $5, Shaving Cream: thereabouts. The look on Dean’s face when Cas walked in: Priceless.
In the diner, Kevin and EAM find out that Delta sold them off to Crowley.
Crowley once again makes off with the Prophet, leaving one of his minions to “take care” of EAM. EAM douses the poor demon with a water gun full of holy water and escapes.
At the motel, Cas is happily reunited with his television, while Sam researches more on the kidnappings, a total of seven people from all over the world.
Apparently, according to Cas, who has one ear on the hunters’ conversation, all the people who’ve been kidnapped are the living Prophets in existence. Plus, there’s Kevin. The victims, however are future Prophets, since there can be only one Prophet at a time.
“So how is Kevin a Prophet, when Chuck is a Prophet?” Sam asks the question that has been on all our minds, since Chuck's disappearence 3 (or 5, according to SPN calendar) years ago.
“Not sure what happened to Chuck, but he must dead,” Cas shrugs, and that sound you heard was the collective wail of denial that raised through the fandom.
Chuck is not dead, you assbutt! Chuck is God!
The pieces click into place, as the Winchesters realize that Crowley has taken the Prophets to ensure at least one of them may be able to translate the Tablet for him.
Just then Mrs. Tran contacts Sam, who fortunately reactivated his old phone numbers after Dean yelled at him, and informs him that Crowley has taken a hold of Kevin. Again.
Dean takes Benny inside of him
At Crowley’s round table, Crowley is threatening and goading Kevin into translating the Tablet. When Kevin remains adamant, he blows one of others up to show that he means business.
Dean, Sam and Cas wait in the Impala for EAM to turn up, but Dean can’t stop thinking about his escape from Purgatory.
Clubbing all the flashbacks together, Dean, Benny and Cas arrive at the portal. Benny and Dean share blood and Dean takes Benny inside of him – not in that way, you perverts – and pulls Cas along with him.
It’s a hard climb, and they are attacked by Leviathans. Dean and Cas fight and kill their way to the portal, which Dean climbs into, trying to pull Cas in with him. Only the hands keep slipping and until finally Dean is sucked in and Cas is left behind.
See, I told you there was no way Dean could’ve left him behind! Ha!
Finally, tired of going over and over every possible scenario and cursing and blaming himself for failing a friend, Dean has had enough and takes Cas outside for a private chat.
And frankly, he’s pissed because Cas did not try hard enough to keep hold of him. “Did you not trust me? I did everything to get you out… I did not leave you!”
The wheels finally click in motion as Cas realizes that Dean is blaming himself for failing Cas, in Cas’ stead, and defending himself against it. “So you think this was your fault?” he asks incredulously.
But before, Dean can manage to stutter out an answer, EAM arrives with the poor demon in trapped in her trunk.
And they wonder why I call her EAM.
Back in the Den, Crowley has moved on from threatening and bribery to torture. When Kevin remains unresponsive to his offers, he simply cuts one of his fingers off and Kevin agrees.
Kevin gives him some cock-and-bull, but Crowley wants to know something major. Like game-changing major.
The trunk demon directs the hunters to an abandoned mill in Atlantic,Iowa. Dean confirms the place, then ganks the poor bastard.
Sam handcuffs Kevin’s mom to her car because they don’t need Crowley to have more leverage than he already does.
And leaving her unsupervised, out in the open, is a good idea? Need I remind that Meg is still MIA.
The hunters make their way inside, stopping only to gank the demons, Cas lurking in the background keeping out of the way.
Somewhere in between, Sam splits from the group to rescue the hostages and Dean and Cas go to find Kevin.
Again with the splitting? Have they not learned the lesson enough number of times?
Sam finds the hostages guarded by bunch of demons and uses the ‘demon-bomb’ to kill them. The demons are killed, but their shadows remain. Quite like the angels and their wings.
Huh. That’s new.
He finds the hostages in the Round Table room, scared but most of them in one piece.
Dean and Cas are nearing Kevin, when they are attacked by a demon. Cas manages to mojo-kill him and all but collapses. Dean realises that Cas’ powers haven’t fully returned yet… Or maybe Cas is slowly losing them. Either way, it’s not good.
They find the room Kevin is in. Unfortunately, the door is locked from inside, and Dean can’t pick the lock.
Cas transports himself inside the room heedless of Dean’s protests.
All the while, Kevin keeps translating. He finds a section on Closing the Gates of Hell and finally, a footnote from Metatron, the scribe of God, which talks about not one, but a compendium of Tablets.
Crowley is super-excited because “there are far more things in Heaven and Earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” and he has more or less found a key to all of them.
He starts building castles in air, when they are rudely interrupted by his former business partner/boss/archenemy, Castiel, who has come to take the Prophet and Tablet back.
They face off, blades in hand, until Cas starts to reveal his true self. Crowley tries to call out on his bluff “you can get it up, but you can’t keep it”, but even he’s above taking a chance as far as his own life is concerned.
He tries to escape with Tablet once again, but Cas, in a fit of Winchesterism, manages to smash it into two.That’s the second Tablet they’ve destroyed so far.
Crowley escapes with one of halves, while Kevin gets the other part, just as Dean bursts in through the door and finds unsteady Cas on the floor.
I hope they don’t drag Cas’ fall for too long. Either give him the powers back or make him a human… and keep him with Dean forever.
Everything over, Sam informs Kevin and Mama Tran that they will be living with Garth till the dust settles.
I can actually see ‘The (Mis)Adventures of Garth and Ms. Tran’ in the works. Fandom, make it happen.
He also scolds EAM about hiring an unknown witch, as she blatantly ignores him and instead tends to Kevin, who’s now out for blood because “the bastard took my finger”.
Meanwhile, Dean is pissed that his angelfriend went off to a certain death without listening to him.
“That’s my problem,” Cas says “Not everything is your responsibility. Getting me out of Purgatory wasn’t your responsibility…”
“But you didn’t get out,” Dean cuts in. “And whose fault was it?” Great. Now he blames both, Cas and himself.
“It’s not about fault,” Cas argues, “It’s about will.” He says Dean doesn’t remember what really happened, because as the resident guilt expert, he just wants to keep blaming himself.
“I don’t need to feel like hell for failing you,” Dean snaps. “For failing you, like I’ve have failed every other guy for everything single thing I care about. I don’t need it.”
But Cas being the awesome angelfriend that he is, shows Dean what really happened down there. Dean never let go. Cas was the one who pushed him out, because he never wanted to leave. He had planned to stay all along.
F*cking hell, Cas, how could you? And to think Dean was beating himself over the head ever since he got out.
“Nothing you could’ve done would’ve saved me, because I didn’t wanna be saved,” Cas says, and this is the cue for Dean to go off his rocker. I wouldn’t be surprised if that angry betrayal ghost thingie makes a reappearance.
“You can’t save everyone, my friend,” Cas adds softly “though you try.”
C’mon, Cas. Don’t do that. Dean is the resident guilt expert… that’s his shtick. Well... apart from being “Hunter Numero Uno” that is.
Dean is about to reply… or maybe hug him, because they look like they need a hug… when Sam comes in and spoils the mood.
Wait for your turn, Sammy-boy. There’s enough Dean to go around.
Sam starts to say something when Cas is suddenly transported to a plush office with a woman in it.
Naomi, the new angel
Her name is Naomi, and the office is one of the parts of Heaven not many angels know about. She informs him that her team was the one that rescued him from the Purgatory.
Now she wants him to keep an eye on the Winchesters, help them in anyway they want, and report their progress to her. Also, he won’t remember ever meeting her or ratting out on the brothers.
When Cas refuses, she simply sends him back to the exact point of time when he disappeared from.
He returns to find Sam still yapping about finding the missing half of Tablet, and Dean still semi-glaring at him. And says that he’s with them now, “if that’s all right.”
Of course it’s all right. Dean would have it no other way, even though he won’t say anything.
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Wow! Cas is back and I’m speechless. As usual the (2nd?) most popular ship in the fandom comes through. Cas and Dean FTW!
So… what did you think of this week’s episode? Cas’ return and Dean’s reaction to it, the shocking revelation, and the new brand of memory altering angels.
Tell us in the comments.
