I’ve had theories as to how they were going to fix Dean all season long, but I have to say this episode dealt me surprise after surprise.
We start out this episode with a ranting Sam giving all the reasons they should do whatever they can to save Dean, but with Cas warning about the consequences about doing that. I know they will figure something out (they always do), but I’m going to agree a little with Cas here. Sam and Dean don’t always make the wisest decisions about each other.
First Life Lesson of the Night
Next we see Dean most assuredly not alright.
Nope you’re not good at all Dean. If any of you wake up like this in the mornings– you are also very far from good. [Insert “The More you Know” Rainbow].
Dean’s day just keeps getting better too. He starts off by calling a murdered girl a whore (which he totally missed the opportunity to make a comment about the Whore of Babylon) and the rounds it out by trying to run off the hunter that called him in on the case in the first place. His charm gets even better in a minute. When he goes to interview the dead girls parents he not only makes them so mad that the dad punches him repeatedly in the face, he also pulls a gun on the dad AND the son. Hunter of the Year right here. He did find out the location of the vampire nest though so there’s that.
Rowena doesn’t fall for bluffs
Evidently Crowley can’t find another witch for them (why has that not been asked yet?) so they are stuck with Rowena. She strong arms them into promising her freedom and the Codex in exchange for performing the spell. I’m sure this is going to go perfectly.
She reads the spell out loud telling Sam and Cas the three ingredients she’ll need to do the spell. It turns out that Dr. Seuss invented the language it was written in and that they need the forbidden fruit, the golden calf and the thing Rowena loves. A little bit of a challenging shopping list.
She looks pretty fantastic for someone chained up in a nasty dungeon-y place.
She once again establishes that she’s the worst mother ever and doesn’t love Crowley, but Cas does read her mind and finds out that she did love a boy named Oscar. After Sam gets a phone call from the Hunter that Dean was a douche to he gets Cas to go get the ingredients for the spell while he goes to find Dean.
Dean is Passing the Point of No Return
Dean makes it to the cabin where the vampires are holed up and kills one immediately then walks in to find Red Shirt Hunter Dude trapped with a knife to his throat. First off Dean is scary in this scene with his lack of desire to try to save a fellow hunter. Secondly I feel like any other hunter would have escaped that vampire while he was waiving that knife all around. So I don’t agree with the fact that Dean proceeds to mock the vampire into killing the guy, but I do think that someone with better instincts would have gotten out of the way so Dean could have chopped the bad guy’s head off. Dean cuts the hostage loose before leaving her with multiple dead bodies, but I was surprised that he didn’t check to make sure she hadn’t been turned before leaving. I half expected him to chop her head off just to be safe.
Dean may have left calmly, but everything he just did hit him hard once he got back to the hotel room as was evidenced by his temper tantrum.
If anyone can sexily destroy a seedy hotel room though it’s this guy.
The Bro Love is Strong with Crowley
So Sam just tried to kill Crowley with the help of his POS mother yet all Castiel has to do to get him to help Dean is ask nicely. That’s it and all of a sudden Crowley is back with the fruit from the tree and a piece of the Golden Calf. These boys are too close to let a little attempted murder to bother them.
I, along with everyone else, love Castiel’s literal take on everything.
Now we know things are bad
Sam finds Dean’s hotel room, but he’s gone and he left a note with the keys to the Impala saying simply, “She’s all yours.” You know that Dean is gone when he gives away the Impala. You can see how much it freaks out Sam as well to see this casual note along with the trashed hotel room.
We cut to Dean summoning something that looks dangerous and turns out to be Death. Death is one of my favorite characters. He plays by his own rules. He helped the boys beat Lucifer, but he’s not really on their side.Dean asks Death to kill him and when he refuses he asks Death to remove it (I might would have asked those things in the opposite order). Death tells Dean that he can take the Mark away if he agrees to pass it on to someone else. Why you ask? Because of course the Mark isn’t just a curse, it’s also a key to a prison that holds back “The Darkness.” That not only sounds ominous, but also sounds like the writers are running out of names for their bad guys.
Dean agrees to Death’s other deal then and calls Sam so he’ll come and meet him for one final goodbye.
Crowley is still a sad lonely little boy
Crowley is still on the hunt for something that Rowena loves, but we find out that the diner owner he was talking to last week was actually the one person that Rowena loves. So by bringing him to her to murder he’s really just happy he’s found a way to hurt her. She lied to Castiel about Oscar and pretended like he was long dead when she knew he was immortal and hanging around somewhere. So her freedom must not have meant that much too her– until she was almost made to look weak in front of her son.
Poor Crowley.
Now Rowena has everything she needs to make the spell work and Sam doesn’t know that they are performing the spell as he’s meeting Dean.
Sam and Dean still like to fight
Sam shows up and right off the bat argues with Dean over his decision. He thinks that Dean is going to go off to space with Death and leave him all alone. However, Dean’s next statement surprised and shocked me.
The thought of Dean killing Sam is so alien to me I can’t wrap my head around it and I mostly watched the rest of the episode with my mouth open unsure of how this was going to work. Also here’s an image of Dean chilling in Space like Death wanted him to:
Dean’s thought process is that Sam won’t let Dean live wherever Death has planned so Sam has to die so that Dean can live forever alone in peace. Ummm no Dean. I get what you’re saying, but no. Sam begs with him, argues with him, and then finishes it off with a fist fight. . .as brothers do.
I love so many things about this. Sam got into a fight with crazy Dean knowing that when it went too far that he could cry Uncle and get him to stop. They also have a thorough discussion of good and evil. This is something that I feel like the writers have been dancing around for a while. The boys were obviously good when this show started, but after it all are they still good? Should they be one of the monsters hunters hunt?
Sam finally agrees to let Dean kill him though. Before he completely surrenders he gives him pictures of their family as reminders of what good and love really are. It’s at this moment we see something break in Dean, but I’m still not sure how Dean can get out of killing Sam. Something I’ve worried about since he originally took the Mark.
He reaches up to bring Death’s blade down onto Sam and keeps swinging around, stabbing Death in the chest with it. Death’s blade was established as the only thing that could kill Death way back when during the Apocalypse. So now Dean has killed Death for some reason (well to save Sam, but he’s the one that called Death in the first place) and he doesn’t quite seem to know what to do next.
RIP Death. You will be missed.
As he’s trying to figure out what their next move should be Rowena finishes the spell and successfully manages to remove the Mark from Dean’s arm. The only down side to this development is that Rowena is now free and appears to have taken control of Castiel and sent him to kill Crowley.
Taking a cue from the Sopranos it cuts to black before we know if Cas goes through with it or not.
Oh yeah that too
Oh yeah “The Darkness” thing that Death was going on about now seems to be free and not wasting any time taking over the world. Ooops. I’m sure it’ll be all OK right? At least Death is dead so no one can die until a new Death takes over. . .