In the midseason return of Supernatural, Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Cas (Misha Collins) make amends while Chuck (Rob Benedict) shows Sam (Jared Padalecki) the end. Here’s a recap of the episode if you weren’t able to watch:
Dean and Cas survive Purgatory, again
During the previous episode, Michael (Jake Abel) helped the Winchesters find a way to stop Chuck. In case you need a recap, Adam Milligan, the third son of John Winchester, was Michael’s vessel and has been for the past 10 years. At the end of the episode, Michael opened a rift into Purgatory so the boys could get the leviathan blossom.
While in Purgatory, Dean and Cas encounter a leviathan and force him to take them to the blossoms, which grow from rotting leviathan corpses. Dean and Cas get to talking and the audience can feel tension still between the two regarding Mary and Jack.
As far as Cas is concerned, he tried to apologize, but Dean won’t hear it. As far as Dean is concerned, Cas upped and abandoned him and Sam.
Just when it seems like things are going according to plan, Cas steps on an angel trap because according to the leviathan, Eve wants revenge for what Cas did to the Alphas and the Leviathan in seasons six and seven. Suddenly, Dean wakes up and, Cas isn’t there and the blossom field is burned.
Dean spends his window of time looking for Cas. In a desperate attempt, Dean prays to Cas and apologizes for the past season. “I should’ve stopped you. You’re my best friend but I just let you go ‘cause that was easier than admitting I was wrong,” he says. “I don’t know why I get so angry. I just know that it’s always been there and when things go bad, it comes out and I can’t stop it no matter how bad I want to, I just can’t stop it. Of course, I forgive you.”
Ackles delivers an amazing confession that is very unlike Dean, especially since Dean admits fault with his friendship with Cas. The interaction and the reunion between the two shortly after reminds fans how the show deeply intertwines family. It’s also seems like the show is giving Destiel fans what they want.
Cas says that he gave himself up to Eve but when he saw a blossom, he created a diversion and managed to escape. Together they go back to Earth and make the spell, which creates an orb. Since Dean already took the Mark of Cain when trying to defeat Amara, Cas says he will take it this time.
Chuck shows Sam the end
At the end of the last episode, Sam and Eileen (Shoshannah Stern) were surprised to find that there was no vampire case. Chuck had made the whole thing up. Chuck kidnaps them to a casino and shows Sam the end he had created.
In his book, the monsters are winning because there is no law of nature since God is not there. Sam wants to keep fighting and hunting, but Dean wants to give up because there’s no one left. Eileen dies. Dean has to lock Cas in a Ma’lak box when he couldn’t handle the mark. Claire dies in a vampire hunt. At the very end, the brothers, now vampires, are killed by Jodie and Bobby, but not before Dean kills Jodie.
Chuck shows Sam the end to break his spirit, his hope. It works because when Dean and Cas come in to save him, guns ablazing, Sam only has to crush the orb. Sam can’t because he’s afraid. The plan backfires, and Chuck disappears.
Eileen decides to leave the bunker because she doesn’t know what’s real. Sam kisses her and fails to make her stay, but the audience definitely feels the connection onscreen.
It feels like a cop-out that the “end” is Sam and Dean getting turned into vampires. It could be construed as poetic, but it feels tacky and overdone. Technically, by Sam not destroying the orb, Cas never got the mark, so the future may be able to be rewritten.
Jack is back
When Sam tells Dean and Cas his reasons, they are onboard and the next plan of attack is to just find another angle. The scene cuts to Jack (Alexander Calvert) in the Empty. Suddenly Billie (Lisa Berry) is there and says, “It’s time.”
Supernatural airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
