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Warning: Spoiler Alert
The CW series “Supernatural,” broke out of the gates galloping, in the ninth episode of the season and maintained that pace all the way until the end, leaving the series’ fan’s hungry, until the show returns on January 20. The show started this season attempting to find its footing, but they landed on firm ground in the episode entitled “The Things We Left Behind.”
One thing that’s still front and center, concerns Dean Winchester still branded with the “Mark Of Cain,” which gets addressed in the opening scene. We see Dean on his knees in a room, surrounded by dead bodies, Winchester’s holding a blade and covered in blood, we see there are multiple bodies on the floor and Dean’s eyes filled with confusion. The fact that the scene’s shot in a sepia-tone, lends us to believe it’s a dream and just then Dean wakes from his nightmare gasping for breath and staring at the mark on his arm.
Meanwhile somewhere in Illinois, a teenage girl’s brought into a youth transition station, by a rather grumpy police officer. Seems the girl got caught shoplifting and though the store declined to press charges, he brought her back, as that’s her official residence. The administrator, a woman named Sandy tells the girl she’s in isolation for the next 48-hours, which the girl rolls her eyes at. She’s flung into the room, filled with just a bed and a punching clown, but she choses to beat on the walls instead. When the security guard asks Sandy the young girl’s name, he’s told her name’s Claire Novak, the daughter of Jimmy Novak, whose meat-suit’s inhabited by our favorite Angel, Castiel.
The next morning, the security guard tells Claire she’s got a visitor, her father. After asking the guard for private time, Cas tells Claire’s he’s not her father, she tells him those were the first words he ever said to her, referencing when Jimmy granted the Angel to take possession of his body. Castiel tells her he remembers everything, then the girl asks if any part of her father’s still in his body. For the first time we’re told Jimmy Novak’s died, it happened when Sam, Dean and Castiel prevented the apocalypse. Castiel got blown to bits by Satan, but got reassembled, however Novak didn’t survive and got sent to heaven.
We find out that Claire’s mother took off not long after Castiel saw them the last time, depositing their daughter at her grandmother’s while she went off “to find herself.” When grandma died, Claire found herself a ward of the state, living in a group home until she turns 18. Castiel says that he’ll do anything to help her and Claire asks him to take legal custody of her. However, Cas comes off as unconvincing when he speaks with the administrator, and his request for custody’s denied.
You might remember that the King Of Hell Roderick Crowley’s got his mother, a witch named Rowena imprisoned, she’s shackled to the wall and asleep, when a demon brings a female demon into the cell and locks her up next to the witch. Turns out the female demon got smuggled to the surface, though her name wasn’t on the list and Crowley will question how she accomplished that. She asks Rowena her crime and she says she was a terrible mother.
In his throne room, Crowley’s talking to the demon who locked the woman up, about Rowena’s lacking’s as a mother. She tried to trade him for three pigs, he said that he clearly was worth five pigs. Gerald, the demon tells Crowley that his mother burned him with a cigarette, Crowley replies nobody cares. Then the King Of Hell brings up the name his mother chose for him, Fergus which he says sounds like a disease.
Dean’s watching The Three Stooges on his laptop and giggling like a six-year-old, when Sam brings him a grilled-cheese sandwich, which Dean makes love to while he eats it. He then shows Sam the clip, it’s Curly as a plumber, trying to make sense of the way he just arranged the pipes, the two laugh together, but Sam glances at the mark on his brother’s arm and looks concerned.
We re-join Claire, back in the group-home’s isolation room when she hears noises, her door opens and Castiel’s there to break her out after knocking out the guard. They head to a fast-food restaurant and Claire tells Cas that he’s changed, he’s not the rigid, stoic, character she remembers. She says he’s nice, even though he’s a doofus. Castiel replies, that he felt he was on a righteous path, but since discovered that path doesn’t exist, it’s just people trying to get by, in an ever hostile world. He then asks Claire where they head next and she tells him thanks but no thanks, Cas reminds her they committed a felony and she might need him.
Castiel’s naivete gets him again as she tells him she’s heading to the rest-room and he should stock up for the road, when they both get up she bumps into him and lifts his wallet, then heads out the back door. Castiel brings a bunch of candy, snacks and magazines to the register, only to realize Claire stole his wallet. He gets outside, just after she flags down a car, gets inside and the driver pulls away.
Castiel meets Sam and Dean in a parking lot in the next scene, Dean’s acting belligerent saying this doesn’t qualify as an emergency. Castiel feels an obligation to help her, but Sam tells him she might not want his help as he took away her father. Dean then tells a story, of when they were young teens, John took them to exorcise ghosts out of a home on Long Island and Dean convinced his father to take them to Manhattan. They rode the subways, ate way too much pizza and when the three went back to the hotel, Sam and John passed out from exhaustion.
Dean still felt energized, so he went to CBGB’s and got in, although underage. A girl invited him to her table and Dean proceeded to get drunk and sick, when all of a sudden he heard this voice yell Dean Winchester and of course it was John. Nobody would look John in the eye except for this huge guy with a Mohawk and a diaper-pin through his nose, who sheepishly said We’re Sorry Sir. Though John saved Dean’s tail, all Dean did was cop an attitude because John embarrassed him.
Sam heads to the group-home under the guise of being a detective, while Castiel and Dean go back in the fast-food joint, to see if Claire shows back up there. The two get to talking and after being pressed by Cas as to how he’s feeling, he asks the Angel to promise him if he goes Dark-Side once again, to take Dean out. He says he can’t go through being a demon again, apparently his nightmare’s truly unnerved him.
Sam’s talking with Sandy the administrator, who says Claire’s a real good kid, just filled with anger. She mentions that Claire took a boy under her wing, who was older than she. He’s over 18 and out of the program, but his name’s Dustin Tate and he works at the local hotdog shop. We then get our first look at Dustin as Claire walks into the house they share with a man in his fifties named Randy. She says she got busted but she’s got 200 bucks from Castiel’s wallet, Randy thanks her but tells her it’s far too little to pay off the loan shark, arriving that evening. He convinces Claire she let him down and talks her into taking a revolver into the local convenience store and robbing it.
The door opens of the cage imprisoning Rowena and the other woman, Gerald walks in with a smile on his face and tells Rowena the boss will see her now, he then drags her still in manacles to where Crowley’s at. She shows no deference as she addresses him as Fergus, which the King of Hell corrects her, sneering Crowley. He then talks about how she hated him as a child and abandoned him at eight, without a father. She says of course he had a father, she just never knew his name. She begs his forgiveness, saying they’re family, which Crowley laughs off. She says she’ll always be loyal and can even help him, with that he tells Gerald to take her back to the cage and Crowley follows him in.
When they enter the room, Rowena tells Crowley that Gerald’s the one whose smuggled souls to the surface and the female demon says that she’s telling the truth. Gerald starts strangling Rowena, causing Crowley to say that’s enough Gerald, three times, the last time ramming a blade directly through him. Crowley then tells Rowena to follow him and leaves the room, the woman says to the witch that Rowena promised if she lied, Rowena would get her released, the witch smiles as she leaves and says she will.
Sam and Castiel are standing on a street corner when Dustin Tate walks by, he asks the teen if that’s his name and he denies it. Castiel looks intensely at Tate says yes you are, then picks the kid up by his neck and holds him against a building, asking where’s Claire. As the kids shoes now are above the Angel’s head, Dean tells Tate he might want to cooperate.
Claire’s getting ready to rob the store, when Cas grabs her hand and pulls her out of the store and into a back alley, where Dean and Sam wait. Castiel says he can’t believe that Claire would attempt something so wrong, when the girl turns it around on him, asking who he is to tell her about right and wrong. She says he killed her father and he denies it, she amends her statement to if he never arrived she’d still have both her parents. She told him she used to pray to him nightly, to bring her father back to her and he responds he knows. That causes her to snap and she aims the gun at the Angel, Castiel tells her the gun won’t hurt him, so she wheels around and aims it at the Winchester’s because they allowed the monster Castiel to kill her father.
Sam then tells her Randy’s using her, when she asks how they know about Randy, they tell her Dustin revealed it. She then says that Randy’s her family, that he was there for her when things were really bad. She then tells them to leave her alone and runs away. She arrives at Randy’s to find the loan-shark and three of his thugs have Randy in a chair at gunpoint.
She walks in the front door and Randy asks her if she has what he needs and she says she couldn’t do it. She pulls out the gun, but one of the thugs grabs it from her, the loan shark then tells her he likes her spirit and she spits in his face. He tells the thug to put her in the other room, then tells Randy she’s got a lot of fight in her and asks Randy how much he owes. He replies five grand and the loan-shark proposes he trade her for his debt, Randy says she’s family. The loan-shark tells him he’ll give him a great deal and Randy replies she’s family, so he better give him a great deal.
The loan-shark walks into the room Claire’s in and tells her how beautiful she is and starts fondling her face, she kicks him in the package and tries to escape but the door’s locked. The trio arrive and Castiel uses his powers to force the house’s front door open, then as one of the thugs runs at him Castiel puts his hand on the dude’s forehead, killing him instantly. He then asks where the girl’s at and seconds later he hears her screams, he knocks down the loan-shark, then Claire repeatedly kicks him until Cas pulls her off. He gets her out of the house with Sam and Dean holding off the others at gunpoint, Sam leaves and as Dean starts to leave the thugs inch towards the door, he yells at them to back off, but gets struck from behind by the loan-shark, knocking him to the floor. The mark starts glowing, Dean thinks back of all his killings with the First Blade and says hey guys you don’t want to do this.
Castiel and Claire climb into the car’s backseat, he asks her if she’s okay and she hugs him, burying her head in his chest. Sam gets into the shotgun seat, notices Dean’s not arrived and suddenly we hear these other-worldly noises, emanating from the house. The three sprint to the house, but it’s too late, Dean’s dream came true. He’s on his knees, covered in blood, holding a knife and he’s gutted each man, his eyes show only confusion. Sam grabs his brother’s face and looks into his eyes then says to Dean to tell him he had to do this. The older brother says I didn’t mean to do this. Sam shakes him and tells Dean to tell him that it was either them or him, but Dean remains silent and almost catatonic. See you on January 20!
The Show Goes on Winter Hiatus and Returns January 20, at 9:00 pm on The CW.
