Episode Report Card Tippi Blevins: B- | 84 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Separate Storylines for the Hardy Boys
By Tippi Blevins | Season 9 | Episode 6 | Aired on 11.12.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Kevin Tran seems like kind of a terrible Prophet of the Lord, doesn't he? His one big job is to be able to translate those tablets, but mostly he just gets headaches. He finally manages to translate the Word of God: Angel Edition... but into a dead language that he can't even read. That means it's time to hit the books, much to Dean's dismay.
Luckily, Dean gets a call from Castiel, pointing him to a case in Idaho. Four very sad people have exploded recently, leaving behind something that looks like copious amounts of Pepto Bismol all over absolutely everything. At first, Castiel is reluctant to join Dean on the case even though the deaths happened in his new hometown. He's afraid of drawing angelic attention to himself and he's just started to settle into his human life as a clerk at a convenience store. He's even been invited on a hot date with his pretty boss!
Sam and Kevin have zero luck with the translations, so they reluctantly turn to Crowley for help. The unemployed King of Hell demands only one thing in return: a demonic phone call. After much hemming and hawing, they agree to his terms and even provide him with the blood he needs. Crowley calls Abaddon, hoping, it seems, to scare her into backing down. He fails, of course, and ends up working for Sam and Kevin. The bad news is that it looks like the spell that exiled the angels is irreversible. The weird news is that Crowley injects some human blood into himself, although how he got the extra blood is a mystery.
Meanwhile, Dean has brought Castiel to one of the explosive crime scenes. The fine pink goo all over everything is the vaporized entirety of the victim. Hair, blood, skin, clothes... everything. Castiel recognizes the work. There was a class of angels in Heaven who euthanized other angels who were wounded beyond repair. Now, stuck on Earth, the angel is seeking out people in pain so that he can carry on his work. When Castiel shows up for his date later that night, he learns that he's actually been asked to this lady's house so he can watch her baby. Who leaves a baby with a total stranger? Castiel's pain and confusion over being human draws the killer angel right to him. Luckily, Dean figures out the identity of this angel and rescues Castiel just in time. It's a good thing, because Samekiel wasn't there to heal him if he'd died again.
In the end, Castiel returns to his job at the convenience store, but he's growing increasingly uncomfortable with hiding while there's so much more he could be doing. Also, nobody flirted with a dog this week. Woohoo! Stay tuned for the full recap.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!THEN! An evangelist named Buddy Boyle became a viral sensation, spreading the word about angels to his inexplicably devoted followers. This proved useful to the angels, since, as Sam reminds us, they can't possess someone without permission, and Boyle got folks all get up to permit. Once upon a time, Crowley was the King of Hell, but then the Winchesters captured him. This left something of a power vacuum in Hell, which a fabulous demon named Abaddon aimed to remedy. Meanwhile, Sam injected Crowley with his blood in the hopes of "curing" him, in that plot from last season that kind of just fizzled out. Then the Winchesters locked him up in their torture dungeon, where they could visit him every other episode. So, Crowley is sort of their roommate now, but Castiel was made to hit the road before he could get two bites into his first burrito. You see, Ezekiel (the angel possessing Sam with "permission") refused to stick around as long as Castiel was there. It was all pretty hinky, but Dean dared not argue the matter, lest Darling Sammy drop like big sack of dead meat.
NOW! We begin in Rexford, Idaho, on a foggy night. On a trash-strewn lot sits a dilapidated shack, with dim, orange light bleeding from its mismatched windows. Inside, the situation doesn't look much better. A man in a grungy T-shirt paces around his depressing hovel while a woman's voice reaches out to him from an old rotary phone some feet away. "Sir, can you hear me?" she asks. "Please just say something." She pleads with him to let her help. "You called the hotline for a reason. There's some part of you that still wants to live." He trudges over the phone and puts the receiver back into the cradle. He reaches into a drawer and pulls out a revolver. He cocks the hammer and holds the gun to his temple, taking deep, shaky breaths. At the last moment, he catches sight of a photograph showing a woman holding a baby. He breaks down crying and lowers the gun.
A floorboard creaks behind him. He turns to see a young man in the shadows. "Did the lady from the hotline send you?" he asks. "No," says the young man, "you did. A crucifix gleams in his earlobe. He raises his hand to the depressed man's brow. Pink light glows from his palm. As we move back outside, the light intensifies to neon. Something moist splatters all over the windows. It looks like Pepto Bismol. Supernatural has wings!
Over the episode's title card, a man in a cheerful blue vest makes coffee in a convenience store. He checks the register and wipes down the slushy machine. This conscientiously clean clerk is Castiel, although his friendly name tag swears his name is actually Steve. He's poured a cup of coffee for himself and watches as two customers prepare their own cups at the counter. He imitates their every move, like a primatologist trying to observe and thus fit in with monkeys. Comical music plays, but Castiel's hair looks pretty sad. He has eschewed his artfully tousled 'do for something that conforms more closely to his scalp. This, combined with his rugby striped shirt, makes him look like he's waiting to get his school picture taken. One of the patrons tosses his coffee stirrer into the trash, and high-fives his friend to celebrate the small victory. Castiel throws away his stirrer in the same manner, then tries to high-five the guy who delivers the newspapers. Alas, his timing is off and he's left hanging. Is there anything sadder than an unrequited high-five? Yes – a billion things. But it's still pretty sad, mostly because of Castiel's embarrassed look.