| RECAP ADDED BY SFF
This episode opens at the Randy Raccoon Pre-School.
Young children are playing on the slides and swings and a boy, Aaron, is finger-painting. One of the assistants takes him to the washroom to clean him up but before she goes in her eyes turn black – she is a demon! She follows him in and when the door closes it is outlined in bright white light. Clouds suddenly appear out of nowhere and there’s a storm. The light disappears and the door of the washroom bangs to and fro; a tornado tears across the ground and children run screaming… The door of the washroom bangs open and Aaron is gone!
It’s daytime: Dean is driving back to Sam with supplies when he passes someone in a trench-coat walking along the roadside. As he passes he sees it is Cas! He stops the car and reverses back along the road and gets out but there is no sign of anyone… He is distracted when he enters the cabin where Sam is on the laptop and Sam comments that he looks like he’s seen a ghost. He asks Dean if he’s OK and he says he is… Dean asks Sam what he’s found and Sam tells him about the missing boy and that there have been other disappearances accompanied by freak events. Dean asks Sam if he thinks it’s demons; Sam isn’t sure and can’t see any connection between the victims but they decide to investigate…
The scene changes to Samadriel who is being tortured by Crowley with an angel blade. He tells Crowley he has given him all the names and that the next generation hasn’t been born yet… Crowley believes him but can’t resist stabbing him once more before he walks out of the chamber. He tells one of his demons to keep Samadriel ‘on ice’ and then he walks into another room where all the people who’ve been abducted are being held. He asks if they want to know why they are here…
… Kevin enters a disused building – a coffee-shop or bar – and is soaked by holy water in a trap set by his Mom. He complains but she says she needs to check he isn’t possessed and says they can’t keep running and living as they do; they need to make a stand by building the demon-killing bombs Kevin made earlier. She says she has hired a witch, Delta Mendota, to find the ingredients but she has kept the spell secret as she doesn’t trust her. She speaks to Delta on her laptop and Delta says she has almost all the ingredients…
Meanwhile, Dean and Sam visit the helper from the pre-school at her home. She is frightened and says she doesn’t remember anything from when she went to take Aaron to wash up to when she found herself in a park three blocks away. Sam pretends he is making a phone call but he is actually saying part of an exorcism and there’s a funny moment when she asks what he is doing and Dean says he’s talking in code so she won’t be able to reveal anything under advanced interrogation techniques! Sam asks her if she smelled sulfur and she asks him how he knew that… As they walk away, Dean says she had no reaction to the exorcism but Sam says he’s sure she was and that demons took Aaron…
Back in their motel that night, a storm is raging outside. Dean is sitting on his bed, looking on the laptop at the disappearances while Sam is sleeping. He looks over at the window and sees Cas standing outside. He walks over but Cas has gone again. He’s still looking out when Sam wakes up and asks him what’s wrong and then, if he’s alright. Dean says he doesn’t know. He says he saw something and when Sam asks what, he says it was Cas, and that he also saw him earlier on the road. Sam says that isn’t possible, that he was left in Purgatory according to Dean. Dean says he tried so hard to save Cas and that he doesn’t know why he didn’t try harder to escape. He says he could have pulled him out… Sam tells him he knows he did everything he could to save Cas, but Dean asks why he feels like crap. Sam says it’s survivors’ guilt and that he needs to get past this or it will keep messing with him…
As Sam leaves the room, Dean has a flashback to Purgatory… He’s with Benny and Cas and Benny says they are nearing the Portal. Dean asks Benny what it looks like but he doesn’t answer and Cas says he, Benny, doesn’t know. Benny says ‘they’ promised it was there; Dean seems to know who ‘they’ are and it seems he is being sarcastic when he says ‘ well that’s comforting’. Cas is still saying there’s no proof an angel can pass through the portal but Dean says he is getting out. Cas thanks Dean for everything he’s done, even if he can’t escape, but Dean tells him that no-one is being left behind…
The scene changes to Crowley who is still with the abductees. Two of them think they’ve been abducted by aliens! Crowley can’t quite believe what he’s hearing. He asks one of them if he knows what the “Word of God” tablet says but he says he can’t read Chinese! Then someone starts to complain about his rights and Crowley makes him feel great pain and he throws up blood then falls to the floor. Someone else, a woman, tries to read the tablet but she’s looking at it the wrong way up! Crowley’s not happy…
The scene changes to the Trans’ place: Delta Mendota is at the door and Kevin lets her in. Kevin’s Mom sprays her with holy water to check she’s not a demon and then she asks Delta if she’s got all the ingredients. She says ‘yes’ and gives Mrs. Tran a bag, which she unpacks, but as Delta is going to the washroom to dry off Mrs. Tran says there aren’t enough ingredients here to build more than one weapon and this wasn’t their agreement, but Delta says their agreement has now changed…
Back in their motel room, Sam is telling Dean, who is in the bathroom washing his face, that it’s not only Americans who have disappeared, someone from Rome vanished too. As he reaches for a towel and stands up, he sees Cas in the mirror and turns around to see he is really there! Cas says, “Hello, Dean.” Back in the room, Sam is happy, saying he can’t believe Cas is here but Dean looks shocked, like he really can’t believe Cas is here now. Cas says he’s been trying to reach out but he couldn’t connect with them as he wasn’t at full power, and Sam asks Dean if that was why he kept seeing Cas. Dean agrees that’s likely but he looks very troubled. He asks Cas how he got out, because he says he knows what Purgatory is like, how he had to fight to get out and it nearly finished him, so how did Cas manage it? Cas tells Dean he doesn’t know. He says he remembered running and hiding from leviathan and then he was on the side of the road in Illinois, and that’s it. Dean looks as if he doesn’t believe him. Cas leaves the room to wash up and Dean looks after him; as he does so, he has a flashback to Purgatory again…
They are supposed to be close to the portal but they can’t see it. Suddenly a leaf flies up in the air and moves towards what appears to be a glowing tear in the sky – it is the portal! Dean cuts his arm and then he cuts Benny’s arm. They grip reach other’s arm and Benny says he’ll see Dean on the other side. Dean recites an incantation. Benny’s arm dissolves into flaming light and then his whole body / soul dissolves and flows into the cut in Dean’s arm. He and Cas start climbing the hillside towards the portal when two leviathans crash down in front of them…
… Dean comes back to the present and Sam asks him if he is alright. He sits down at the table and tells Sam something is very wrong. He tells Sam he remembers everything about escaping from Purgatory and it’s not possible that Cas doesn’t. Sam asks if he thinks Cas is lying and Dean says something else must have happened, and that Cas was in no shape to escape unaided from Purgatory. Sam asks who or what got Cas out and Dean says ‘exactly!’ Cas walks back in and he looks like his old self again. Sam is smiling but Dean’s very wary of him…
The scene changes to the Trans’ again. Mrs. Tran is arguing with Delta about having to pay for the ingredients up front but she has to agree. When Kevin goes to get her purse to pay Delta he finds the salt line at one of the windows has been broken and when he gets back to his Mom to ask her about it, Crowley appears with one of his demons… He says hello to Delta and Mrs. Tran realizes they’ve been betrayed by the witch. Crowley says she thought she have more leverage with him, the “King of Hell” rather than Mrs. Tran who’s just a Mom – funny! Crowley clicks his fingers and Delta vanishes. Crowley tells the demon to kill Mrs. Tran and destroy the ingredients for the spell and he vanishes with Kevin. Mrs. Tran fires a water gun filled with holy water at the demon, who burns and screams…
Back in their motel room, Cas is watching television while Sam is working on the laptop. Dean walks in and asks Sam about the disappearances and he says they have all stopped. Dean asks Sam if they have seven people missing and he says “yes” and starts saying their names when Cas joins in. Sam asks Cas how he knows their names and he says they are prophets and that all angels know the names of past, present and future prophets. Dean asks if the names are those of all existing prophets and Cas says “yes”, until the next generation is born, plus Kevin Tran who’s the current prophet. He explains that there can only be one prophet at a time so these other people are the future prophets. Sam asks how Kevin can be a prophet if Chuck is a prophet and Cas says he doesn’t know what happened but Chuck must be dead. Dean says that one of them will “come off the bench” if Kevin goes down and Cas says that’s right, and that these people don’t know who they are. The Boys realize Crowley has kidnapped these people for insurance, as the “vessels of God’s Word”. Cas says he thinks something is going on and Dean just looks askance at him… Then Sam gets a phone call; it’s from Mrs. Tran who tells him Kevin has been taken by Crowley…
The scene changes to Crowley who tells Kevin he either helps him or dies, and one of the other prophets takes his place. He says he’d rather have Kevin read the tablet than one of the other prophets but “better a stupid prophet than a stubborn prophet”. When Kevin refuses to agree he kills one of the others…
…Back in the Impala, Dean, Sam and Cas are waiting for Mrs. Tran and Dean has a flashback to Purgatory again, from the time when he and Cas are faced with two leviathans near the portal… Dean is sent crashing down a slope and the leviathans attack Cas. Just when it looks like one of them is about to eat Cas, Dean comes up behind it and chops its head off. He does the same thing to the other one a few moments later... He tells Cas they have to move as the portal’s closing; Dean climbs the final slope ahead of Cas and is in the portal’s influence. He holds his hand out for Cas to grab and tells him to hold on, but Cas’ grip appears to slip and he slides down the slope, calling Dean’s name as he does so. Dean can’t do anything and he vanishes with the closing portal… Back in the present, Dean asks Cas to step out of the car…
Dean asks Cas what happened in Purgatory. He tells Cas that he kept saying their escape plan wouldn’t work and asks Cas if he didn’t trust him to get them out. He says that Cas just gave up and he did everything he could to save him – he didn’t leave Cas behind. Cas says to him, incredulously, “so you think this was your fault?” Their conversation is interrupted by Mrs. Tran arriving. She is agitated and asks them if they can get Kevin out. Dean asks her how Crowley found them and she tells him she hired a witch and when an incredulous Sam asks why, she says she wanted to make demon bombs. She gives Sam Kevin’s notes on the spell. Dean asks if she knows where Crowley is and she says “nah, but, er, this guy might” and she opens the trunk of her car to show them the demon who attacked her earlier! Dean gets the magic knife out and says, “let’s talk.”
The scene changes back to Kevin, who’s now tied to a chair in a room away from the other “prophets”. Crowley is with him. He tells Kevin it’s decision time about the tablet and when Kevin refuses to talk he cuts off the little finger on his left hand. Kevin screams, naturally, and tells Crowley he’ll do it… Kevin is now reading the tablet to him. What he says to Crowley he already knows or it is minor stuff which doesn’t interest him – he tells Kevin to “think macro” and concentrate on anything “game-changing”…
The Boys are now driving in Atlantic, Iowa. They stop outside a disused factory. Sam handcuffs Mrs. Tran to the steering wheel as he says Crowley doesn’t need another hostage. Cas is looking on when Dean opens the trunk and asks the demon inside if this is the right place. When the demon says “yes”, he kills him…
Back with Kevin and Crowley: Kevin pauses in his translation and Crowley reminds him not to provoke him – he still has nine fingers left! Kevin goes on to talk about making weapons against demons, which Crowley drily observes Kevin is familiar with, and then says this section is about “sealing the Gates of Hell”! Crowley says it’s true then; he says humans can’t possess this thing and asks what God was thinking about!
The scene changes to Dean, Sam and Cas infiltrating the building. Dean kills a demon guard and they split up: Sam goes off to check in one direction, Dean and Cas go in another…
This scene alternates between Sam and Kevin: Kevin has come across a “personal note” from the Archangel Metatron, the scribe of God. He says it’s a farewell note and Crowley tells him to read it… Sam is slipping quietly down a staircase and he can see demons in the room below… Kevin is reading the note from Metatron… Then Sam kills the demons waiting for him with the bomb he’s made from Mrs. Tran’s ingredients; they are all vaporized…
… Dean and Cas are investigating elsewhere. Cas tells Dean they are very near Kevin now… Then the scene switches to Sam, who bursts into the room where the other “prophets” were held. He sees blood all over the table and thinks the worst but then they get up from underneath. He tells them he’s here to help… Back to Dean and Cas again… Dean feels someone behind him and turns to see a demon there. He tries to kill him but he is flung into chains hanging down from the ceiling. Cas manages to kill the demon but it weakens him severely. Dean asks him what is happening and he says Cas is not all the way back…
This scene alternates between Kevin and Crowley and Dean and Cas: Kevin is just finishing reading Metatron’s note; it ends with saying that the compendium of tablets for the defence of mankind is to pass to “God’s children”. Crowley asks what does Metatron mean by “compendium”?
…Then it switches to Dean and Cas: Dean is trying to pick the lock on the door but he’s having trouble; Cas says he’s going in but Dean says he’s not strong enough… Back to Crowley, who is musing on the fact that there are more tablets, more than just ones about demons and leviathan, when he hears the beat of wings behind him and Cas appears. He says he’s taking Kevin with him but Crowley won’t let Kevin go without a fight. Cas takes his angel blade out and Crowley responds with showing his own angel blade. He says Cas looks like hell and isn’t strong enough but Cas starts to unleash his full angel mojo – shining eyes, light glowing around his body and full angel wings. Crowley says he’s bluffing but Cas asks him if he want to take that chance and he reaches his glowing hand out to Crowley, presumably to kill him. Crowley tries to snatch the tablet from the table but Cas smashes the table with his hand and the tablet breaks in two. Crowley manages to keep hold of his piece and disappears just before Dean opens the door… He goes to help Cas up from the floor and Kevin picks up the other piece of the broken tablet…
Outside, Sam tells Kevin and his Mom that the police are coming to pick up all the prophets and take them home. Mrs. Tran asks what’s going to happen to her and Kevin and Sam says that a friend of theirs – Garth – will keep an eye on them and they shouldn’t run off again. He asks her if she realizes that it was hiring the witch that caused all this but she doesn’t like being told she’s in the wrong! Sam asks Kevin how he’s doing and he says he wants to seal the b******* up forever as they took his finger. Sam tells him Cas might be able to fix that for him but in the meantime they should just lay low until he or Dean contacts them.
Meanwhile Dean is angry at Cas for going to face Crowley alone. He says he should have waited for him. Cas tells him he is responsible for his own actions, not Dean, that Dean isn’t responsible for everything. He tells Dean it wasn’t his responsibility to get him out of Purgatory. He asks Dean if he really doesn’t remember what happened there and when Dean says he lived it, he remembers, Cas says he only thinks he does – he remembers it how he needs to. Dean says he doesn’t need to feel like hell for failing Cas and everyone he’s ever cared about… Cas asks Dean to really look at it and he puts his hand up to Dean’s forehead… Dean remembers leaving Purgatory as it really happened. He didn’t let go of Cas and Cas didn’t just give up either, he pushed Dean’s arm away and told him to go; then Dean was swallowed up by the portal and taken away… Back in the present, Cas tells Dean that he pulled away, he was stronger than Dean and there was nothing Dean could have done about it. He says that he didn’t want to be saved, that he needed to do penance for all the things he’d done on Earth and in Heaven, and he realized that when he was in Purgatory. He tells Dean that he planned to stay all along but he just didn’t know how to tell him. He says to Dean, “You can’t save everyone, my friend, although you try.” Dean is struggling to come to terms with what Cas has just said to him as Sam comes over and sees Dean looking strained. He asks if everything is OK, and Cas says they are just getting a few things straight…
As Sam starts to say the Trans are going to lay low with Garth, Cas is suddenly transported to a white room, where someone is sitting behind a desk. He asks where he is and she tells him he’s home. He says he’s never been to this place in Heaven and she says not many have. She tells him she’s Naomi and they rescued him from Purgatory at a cost of many angels… She tells him these “chats” are his way of repaying those deaths. She asks him about Sam and Dean and he tells her that they have the prophet safe, the tablet is split in two and they are trying to recover the missing piece… He asks why he is telling her any of this and she says it’s not his concern; he’s to help the Winchesters and come when they call. She says he’s to report in to her regularly and he will never remember doing it. He says he won’t do that, but she says, “now, as you were, they won’t even notice you were gone” and he’s transported back into the middle of Sam’s conversation. He’s talking about finding the missing piece of the tablet and he asks Cas if he’s with them. Cas is confused and Sam asks if he’s OK. Dean looks troubled and maybe he’s a little suspicious of Cas but Cas recovers and says he’s fine and he’s with them, if that’s alright. Dean still looks as if there’s a problem but he nods in agreement to Cas, who walks off. Sam sees Dean’s expression and asks if he and Cas are good and he says yes but his expression belies that…
Editor’s note:
I think this is a great episode, probably the best so far this season. It shows the final part of Dean’s backstory – his escape from Purgatory with Benny and what finally happened to Cas – and it reveals that Dean was mistaken in his belief that he somehow let Cas down – he did do everything he could to save him and it was Cas’ decision to stay… The story moves along sharply with Kevin and his Mom now back in the mix and Crowley failing to keep hold of the whole tablet, while the complexity of the plot is increased with the addition of Naomi and her plans for Cas and the Winchesters. |
