#ameila

Dean spills his beer all over at the sight of Cas.

Cas jumps right into asking for help in locating Samandriel. Dean’s on board when he mentions that Crowley has the angel. Also, for some reason, Dean doesn’t want Cas to see his porn --the shit that he practically brags about to all the other random people in his life. Weird. Anyway, Samandriel is near Hastings, Nebraska. Angel screams cause a ripple effect of strange happenings. 

Cas eventually gets around to inquiring about Sam, lol, but Dean brushes off the question. They’ll work the case alone. 

Sam’s busy watching dung beetle documentaries. Amelia shows up to explain herself. (Also, she’s not really there and that’s why they can finish each other’s sentences --Sam, you’re talking to yourself.) Amelia wants to know why Sam’s regressing back. Sam thought she was in trouble --but he’ll leave now that he knows she’s okay. Then they kiss. 

Samandriel is having no luck convincing the demon to let him go.

The demon hits something deep in Alfie’s insides, and he starts chanting. A man hears the chant and watches a bush catch fire (and get a little singed in the process.) 

Dean and Cas head to the hospital to interview the poor guy. He recites the chant he heard. It’s Enochian, and means “Obey.”

Cas can’t fathom the amount of pain Alfie must be in to set a bush on fire. Dean suggests they head out and search for the demons that have him.

Sam’s mopey after having mistake sex with Amelia.

Shirtless Sammy Alert:

They have to figure their shit out, so Amelia suggests they think about things and meet/don’t meet two days from then. 

Meanwhile, Dean and Cas are having no luck on the Alfie hunt and Dean just wants to go on a date with Cas. Unfortunately, Cas can see demons outside their latest abandoned factory. There’s angel warding --and Dean and the demon knife just won’t be enough. Cas suggests getting Sam. Dean is vehemently against it. 

Instead, they head to Garth’s boat. Kevin is busy. Cas states the unfortunate truth: “You look horrible.” 

They want another demon bomb. Kevin starts listing impossible-to-get ingredients, making it clear to Dean that his quest is pointless. Cas asks for the list, because he’s BAMF.

Crowley checks out the recent development with Alfie, and realizes they’ve found the angels’ OS. 

Back at the ranch, Kevin continues to toil over translation while Dean plays the role of extremely annoying impatient bro in the background. Kevin puts on a pair of noise canceling headphones which is...relatable. Benny calls and apologizes for the death of Martin in the previous episode. He needs a little support, and Dean promises to be there as soon as he wraps up his current case. (Last episode was Dean/Benny vs Sam/Amelia and this episode it’s Dean/Cas vs Sam/Amelia and I’m gonna chew my own arm off.)

Dean learns that Kevin sent his mom away. “I can’t enjoy a world I need to save, Dean,” Kevin says tiredly. DAMN if that line doesn’t hit. He bends back to his task.

Meanwhile, Cas flaps in next to Sam who was moping on a park bench, and then returns to Kevin’s lair with Sam in tow. Cas bitchily sorts through the ingredients for their spell while Sam and Dean henpeck at each other, until he loses his cool and orders the Winchesters to “stow their crap” and get his job done. YAAAS here for this!

In directing tics that I can’t unsee news, Robert Singer zooms dramatically in on each Winchester. WILL they solve their crap? Or will they continue to be at odds? Stay tuned for this recycled plot non-twist! 

Having adequately stowed their crap, they pull up outside the warehouse in the dead of night. Cas instructs the Winchesters to destroy the angel warding sigils so he can rescue Samandriel. He hands Sam an angel blade (!!!) and tells him that it will also kill demons (!!!). I confess, I do love re-encountering these foundational bits of lore in these recaps. 

Meanwhile, Crowley continues to hack into Samandriel and stumbles across word of tablets. The Winchesters take out the last sigil just in time, because Crowley appears to have stumbled across something juicy. Cas flaps into the building, albeit a little woozy. He blames it on the sigils.

They hurry to open the door and rescue Samandriel. Or they try, at least. As Dean and Sam pound away on the door, Cas raises his hands to his ears as his experience of the moment is intercut with memories of Naomi hovering over him with a needle. Castiel sinks to the floor, cowering against an invisible foe. 

For PROTECT Science:

Cas continues to experience horrible flashbacks of his own heavenly torture while Dean and Sam hurl themselves at the door. When they finally break it down, Crowley’s gone and safe with him is his new Samandriel-sourced secret: there’s an angel tablet. As Cas removes the needles from Samandriel, he remembers:

Cas pulls the halo device off of Samandriel and flaps away while Dean dispatches the last demon. Outside, Samandriel begs for help. He can’t go back to Heaven - he inadvertently revealed secrets to Crowley. “Heaven, Naomi,” Samandriel begins his list of secrets. When Cas asks who Naomi is, Samandriel gasps. “They’re controlling us, Castiel.”

Cas is suddenly back in Heaven’s office space. Naomi looms over him, ordering him to kill Samandriel. On Earth, Cas stabs him. Back in Heaven, Cas reels over what he just did. He tried to save Samandriel so he could atone for his past actions. Naomi interrupts - Samandriel was broken and a traitor and deserved what he got for revealing the existence of an angel tablet to Crowley. 

We return to the BREAKING MY HEART TIMEZONE, where Cas is just. cradling. Samandriel. 

P R O T E C C

Dean and Sam run up. Almost robotically, Cas parrots Naomi’s lines to the Winchesters. He explains that Samandriel turned on him and was killed in self-defense. He now needs to flap off to Heaven with Samandriel’s body. Dean peers suspiciously at him - if not for his sudden cool demeanor then certainly for the trickle of blood spilling from Castiel’s eye. Cas fucks off, sadly, for places heavenward.

Later, Dean and Sam convene in a room warded against angels. They start to talk through what might be up with Cas, before Dean pulls away. Doesn’t Sam need to get back to his girl? 

Dean opines that maybe at least one Winchester deserves to have a happy ending. I CHEW GLASS VERY LOUDLY AND WITH GREAT VIGOR. Sam decides there’s still too much to do in the supernatural sphere. He’s going to stick around. Now that Sam’s decided to walk away from his temporary love interest, Dean calls Benny and LITERALLY DOES THE SAME. He tells Benny that he can’t come see him, and they also can’t talk again. 

Later, Dean watches TV moodily, alone. Amelia checks in on the empty motel room, alone. And then we learn that Dean wasn’t QUITE alone. Sam settles next to his sad brother with sad beers and chili, and the bad decisions bus trundles ever onward.

Sadtown is the Next Quote on the Bad Decisions Bus:

That depends. It depends on you. On whether or not you're done with him

It seems this is gonna involve talking to people

Hey, what do you say, this doesn't pan out, we head back to that beer-and-bacon happy hour about a mile back?

I've given you every torture instrument known to man – short of a Neil Diamond album

I can't enjoy a world I need to save