Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
Warning: Spoiler Alert
Well , here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten us into! Sam and Dean went from the frying pan into the fire, in the season finale of season ten for The CW series “Supernatural.” Throughout its history, the show has concluded the season on a grand scale, leaving the fans excited with cliff-hanger endings. This episode continued in that tradition, as “THE BOYS,” unleashed a force, that could forever alter the planet. There’s also the matter of our favorite trench-coat wearing Angel, being guided by a spell cast by the newly freed Rowena, a situation that doesn’t look promising for her son.
Our first image is the final e-mail Charlie Bradbury sent to Sam, containing the key to deciphering the codex, we also see pictures of Dean as a tyke with their mom. Castiel arrives and Sam informs him that he left a dozen voice-mail messages for Dean, without receiving a response. He tells Cas that they need to get Rowena to find the spell to break The Mark Of Cain’s hold over Dean immediately.
Dean’s in Superior, Nebraska, and he spent the previous night passed out on the cheaply carpeted floor of some motel. He gets up off the floor, looks at his phone which shows that he received 12-messages from his brother. He picks up an open beer-bottle, takes a couple of slugs from it, then tells himself he’s good.
Sam and Castiel go to where Sammy’s got Rowena imprisoned and he pulls out a pistol, that he says contains five bullets, containing some witch-killing toxin. Rowena laughs off the threat, saying Sam needs her if he has any hopes of saving his brother. She negotiates a new deal, she’ll rid Dean of the Mark, in exchange for her guaranteed freedom and she keeps the codex.
Dean shows up a crime scene, in his FBI garb. A young teenage girl’s body lies on the grass, her throat ripped open. Dean’s diplomacy skills have vanished, he says to the sheriff the girl’s dressed like a slut. The sheriff, an older man says he couldn’t care if she was the Whore Of Babylon, all he sees is somebody’s little girl.
The sheriff starts to walk off and we hear him say to somebody else that his partner’s a hard man. It’s Rudy, a hunter we’ve encountered only through phone conversations, previously. This was his case and he called up Dean for assistance, but Winchester tells Rudy, he’s handling the case solo. Rudy starts to give him a hard time, but then quickly backs off and leaves. The sheriff tells Dean, another girl’s missing, he’s going to talk to the parents and suggests Dean stay away.
Rowena deciphers the spell from the Book Of The Damned, saying she needs three ingredients. A piece of the forbidden fruit, that Eve ate in the Garden of Eden, the remains of the Golden Calf that people worshiped in lieu of God. She says the third ingredient’s impossible, she needs to kill somebody she loves, alas she love nobody. Castiel reads her mind and sees an eight-year old Polish boy named Oscar, she says he lived three-hundred years ago.
Dean goes to interview the dead girl’s parents, and he asks Mr. and Mrs. McKinley if their daughter had any new friends that they were aware of. He then says that their daughter was out to have sex with whom ever she was meeting, he asks if she had a boyfriend, or this was just a fling? The father asks Dean if he’s implying his daughter had loose morals? Winchester responds, that was his initial mindset, until he smelled all the deceit, beatings and cruelty in their house. The father hits Dean twice in the face, then Winchester pulls out his pistol and asks who killed your daughter Joe? Both parents start weeping as Joe says he doesn’t know.
Their teenage son runs after Dean and tells him the other girl Crystal’s fine and he knows the guys who killed his sister. They said they were rehabbing a cabin, but the kid says he thinks they just wanted a place to drink and have girls come over. He says he didn’t tell the police this, because he brought the girls up there the first time.
Sam gets a call from Rudy, telling him Dean’s acting really strange and he gives Sammy the location. Sam asks Cas to help Rowena with the spell while he’s gone, Castiel asks about the repercussions caused by removing the Mark? Sammy says that nobody knows what will happen. They can’t worry about the unknown and the Angel agrees. When Sam leaves, Cas summons Crowley, asking for his help in breaking the spell. After Castiel reveals the needed ingredients, Crowley tells him he’s in.
Dean heads to the cabin, the two killers are vampires and Dean cuts off the first one’s head. He enters the cabin, to see Crystal tied to the bed post, while the other vamp has a knife pressed against Rudy’s neck. The vamp tells Dean to leave, or his buddy dies, but Dean says he won’t kill him. Rudy begs for Dean to leave, but Dean spooks the other vamp instead and he puts the knife into Rudy. Winchester cuts the head off the second vampire and frees Crystal, who screams at Dean that he could have saved Rudy, if he had talked things out. Dean says you’re welcome and leaves the cabin.
Dean goes back to his motel room and starts washing the blood off his hands, he looks in the mirror and sees Castiel’s face all bloodied, as it was after Dean beat him up. He looks down at his hands again and when he looks up this time he sees Rudy’s terrified face, staring back at him. He breaks the mirror, then trashes the entire motel room, doing a job that Keith Moon, would’ve been proud of.
Dean goes to an abandoned Mexican restaurant, creating a feast fit for a king, then he sets up a table with a pentagram on it and summons someone. Another familiar face arrives, as Death answers the call and starts trying the Mexican food. I’ve always enjoyed Julian Richings’ portrayal of the dour faced character, he infuses Death with a certain nobility. The first time we met the character, he gave Dean his ring freely in order to imprison Lucifer, whom he said had given death a bad name.
Dean shows him the Mark Of Cain and he says that he’s tried to control it, but he can’t and Death is his last option. The member of the Four Horseman says he never expected to see the day, when Dean Winchester would lay his king down on the chess table. He says he can’t kill him, that it’s the Original Sin. The bearer can’t die, Dean asks him if he can remove it. Death says he could, but the cost would be far too great. He then tells Winchester the story behind the Mark.
Before the light, before God and the Arch-Angels was the Darkness, a terribly destructive Amoral force. God and the Arch-Angels, fought a war against the Darkness and won, God locked the Darkness away and created a symbol. The symbol was the Mark, actually a lock and key for keeping the Darkness contained and he gave the Mark to his most trusted lieutenant, Lucifer.
Soon after they realized that the Mark itself was a curse, it corrupted Lucifer and made him jealous of humans. God banished his favorite son to Hell. Lucifer gave the Mark to Cain, who in turn gave it to Dean. Winchester now holds the Darkness in its prison, if the Mark vanishes the Darkness will get released. Dean has two choices, the first being give the Mark to someone else. Winchester says he wouldn’t do that to anybody. Death then asks him what if he could take Dean to a place far away, not even on this planet, where Dean could live out his days without harming anyone or himself?
We’re back at the diner that Crowley visited two episodes ago, the one where he spoke with Seth, the burger-flipper who learned to brew coffee in Ecuador. Seth turns his back to the customers and he hears a crash, he turns around to find all the patrons and the waitress dead, with Crowley standing there smiling. He tells Seth that he has a story to tell him.
He sits down at the counter and he tells the man that about 300-years-ago a terrible witch was driven from her village, abandoning her only son in the process. A Polish family took pity on the sick and injured witch and nursed her back to health. She grew to love the family’s eight-year-old son Oscar, but he suffered from a fatal disease that would take his life shortly. Before she left, the witch thanked the family with two gifts, curing the boy and when he reached maturity, he’d become immortal. Seth is that boy, still looking like he’s in his early twenties, 300-years later.
Sam arrives at the cabin, he sees Crystal sitting in the ambulance, she just keeps repeating he wouldn’t even talk. Sam walks inside the cabin and sees Rudy’s body along with the two decapitated vampires. Sheriff tells him, that one of his guys came in hot, refused to talk and cost his partner his life in the process. Sam drives away and starts searching the area’s motels for the Chevy. He sees it and goes in to Dean’s room and sees what his brother did.
Sam’s phone rings and it’s Dean, he says he going out and he wants to say goodbye to Sammy one last time. Dean tells his brother to grab a pencil and gives him the address of the restaurant. Sam begs him not to do anything stupid, that he’s on his way.
Sam arrives at the restaurant and he knows it’s bad when he sees that his brother’s guest is Death. Sam tells Dean he can’t give up his life, his brother tells him that it’s Sam whose going to die. Death tells Sammy that he’s going to transport Dean to a place where he can’t harm anyone. However, Sam won’t rest until he frees Dean and rids his brother of the Mark. He has to die for the greater good. Sam says it doesn’t make sense, Dean screams at him it makes perfect sense and Sam has to stop thinking of himself.
Crowley arrives with the ingredients needed to cast the spell. He reveals that the forbidden fruit was a quince, not an apple. He says that he got the remains of the melted calf in Jordan and if he returns there, they might cut off his head. He then calls out for Oscar and Rowena’s eyes fill with tears, as she spits out to her son, that this is low even for him.
Dean tells his brother that evil seeks them out, that they think they help others, but look what’s happened to their friends and family. Dean says he finally realized that he’s truly evil when he let Rudy die and that Sam’s evil too, bullying Charlie to get involved in breaking the curse, which cost Charlie, her life. With logic failing him, Sam resorts to violence hitting Dean smack in the face. His brother says good, a fight and they start trading blows.
Rowena says to Oscar she can’t believe how big he grew and then asks him to come over and give him a hug. He embraces her and says he hopes he hasn’t done anything to hurt her. She tells him of course not, everything’s fine. She says nobody’s going to get hurt today, then slice’s his neck open, she gets enough blood for the formula then lets his dead body fall to the ground.
Sam stays on his feet for a while, but Dean’s far too powerful, Sam ends up on the floor saying he gives. He then tells his brother that nobody will ever convince him that Dean’s evil but he has to be stopped. If this is the only way to do it so be it. Death hands the scythe to Dean and says for him to do the honors, Winchester tells Sammy to close his eyes.
However Sam pulls out the pictures of Dean and their mom from earlier in the show. He says if you ever want to find your way back to good, maybe these will help and puts them on the floor. Dean gets a bit choked up and says he’s sorry then raises the scythe, but he stabs Death with it. We see Death standing perfectly still, with the scythe poking out of his side, then he crumbles like dirt to the floor.
The potion complete, Rowena invokes the spell. The blast from it knocks all three of them off their feet, as we watch a bolt of light leap from the bowl through the ceiling. Seconds later, the light strikes Dean’s arm and removes the Mark. Sam says this is a good thing, gives Dean the keys to Baby and suggest they split.
The three recover from the blast and Rowena’s now free of her chains and freezes Castiel and Crowley in their tracks. Crowley says this is impossible, that she’s not that powerful. Rowena laughs at her son and says he’s never experienced a really great witch with really great magic. She leaves, but casts another spell on Castiel, blood starts dripping from the Angel’s eyes as he tries to kill Crowley.
Outside the restaurant, lighting starts hitting the ground all around them, then a series of black swirling clouds rise up from under the earth. They gather together forming a mushroom cloud that soon fills the sky. Dean and Sam get into the Chevy, but the wheels spin aimlessly as the cars stuck in mud. Suddenly the cloud starts moving straight for them, engulfing them as the screen goes black.
