Supernatural
“Despair”
November 5, 2020
THEN
NOW
Sam half carries, half drags Jack into the map room, and drops him into a chair. Castiel kneels in front of the boy, telling him to breathe and focus. Yeah, I don’t think Lamaze is going to do much to slow down the nuclear reaction burning its way through him from the inside.
Fissures glow white-hot around Jack’s eyes. He pleads with them to just let him go. Take him outside and he’ll try to get as far away as he can before he blows. He says he can’t stop it. He can feel himself coming apart.
“I don’t want to hurt you. Don’t let me hurt you.”
Dean barks that they need a spell—something—they have to do something! Billie appears and snaps that they’ve done quite enough. They were so close. She isn’t trying to hear that Chuck saw her coming. She blames the Winchesters. She says the plan was doomed because of them.
Cas pleads with Billie to stop the chain reaction. She puts a gentle hand under Jack’s chin and tips his face up to her. The Divine Spark sizzles as it consumes Jack. It sounds like bacon.
Mmm … bacon …
In a blink, bacon!Jack gone.
He’s in the Empty.
It’s Billie’s unspoken, “duh”, that makes it poetry. She explains as one would to a slow, dull child, that Jack was a bomb, designed to annihilate cosmic forces. With Chuck and Amara gone, the Empty was the only player on the board that could possibly absorb the impact. Billie cautions though that if Jack survives and the Empty survives …
“It’s gonna be pissed.”
Cas demands that Billie bring Jack back, but she refuses until Sam returns Chuck’s death book. Sam is righteously spun up. He says Billie was always going to betray them, seize power and kill everyone who had been brought back and given a second chance—including Sam and Dean. That’s the order she wants restored. Sam says that has always been her end game.
Billie full-body eye rolls. Lisa Berry is always a delight but she is just delicious in this scene. Have the boys met Death? Are they really surprised? From her first moments on screen in Season 11, Billie has been clear and consistent in her motivations.
Sam wonders, even if he does give her the book, what’s to stop her from killing them all?
“Nothing.”
Billie gets up in Sam’s dance space and tells him he doesn’t have a choice. This is not a negotiation. If Jack is alive in the Empty, he doesn’t have much time. So, chop chop.
Death holds out her hand for the book. Sam drops it on the map table in front of her. She can choke on it. Her scythe is also propped up against the table—something that Dean definitely clocks.
Billie picks up the book and flips to the end. God’s book has a new ending. One that Billie seems pleasantly satisfied with.
Jack drops back into the Bunker with a thud. Billie stands in front of him—the boy is hers. He’s still useful. She makes the mistake of turning her back on Dean. He lunges forward, grabbing the scythe and slashing at Billie. She leans back away from the blade, but it nicks her shoulder. She claps her hand over the wound and vanishes, leaving Jack, the book, and her scythe behind.
Later that night, Dean sits alone in the library with a bottle of sweet Kentucky brown. Sam wanders into the room, scrubbing a hand over his face. He can’t sleep either. He grabs a glass and joins his brother.
Dean says he’s sorry. For everything. Sam says he doesn’t have to …
“I pulled a gun on you.”
Sam is like, fair play. Dean shakes his head, trying to make sense of it. Wrestling with the guilt and shame. Dean says it was like he just couldn’t stop. He couldn’t snap out of it. They were so close. He could smell Chuck’s blood in the water and nothing else mattered.
Sam says that Dean did snap out of it—and he’s snapped Sam out of worse.
That’s small comfort to Dean.
He runs through the butcher’s bill. Chuck is more powerful than ever after absorbing Amara. Billie wants them dead. Jack is powerless. And Michael’s not returning their prayers. That leaves them with no heavy hitters on their side.
Does it, though?
Sam says they’ll regroup … somehow. Dean raises his glass.
“To somehow.”
The boys sit and sip and brood in silence. The framing of this scene is just gorgeous and a nice call back to “Baby”.
Well played, director Richard Speight, Jr.
The next day the boys are sitting on AU!Charlie’s sofa at the Kim Manor apartments. Yay! Charlie! She says she didn’t know who else to call. One minute she was eating the best fluffy scrambled eggs she’d ever tasted … and the next her adorable hunter girlfriend Stevie was gone. The only evidence that she’d been standing there was her smashed plate on the floor.
Dean is like, so … we’ve made some big enemies lately. Sam cuts right to the chase—Death wants to send everyone back. Back to worlds that don’t exist anymore. Dean says Stevie fits a pattern and Charlie’s composure shatters. Is Stevie just collateral damage to them?
Is that what she’ll be, too?
Cas and Jack wait outside by the car. Cas notes that Jack has been quiet and checks in with the boy. Jack wonders how long the angel has been waiting to ask him how he’s feeling. He says he feels … strange. Maybe it’s because he blew up. Maybe it’s because he knows it’s over.
Jack says he was ready to die. Ready to accept his destiny. For Sam. For Dean. For the world. He wanted to make things right. And now he doesn’t know why he’s even there.
Cas tells Jack that he never needed absolution from Sam or Dean—or from him. He says they don’t care about him because he’s useful or fits into some grand design.
“We care about you because you’re you.”
And then Jack ruins the moment by meow-meowing again some more about not having his powers.
The boys realize that Billie is beginning to clear the board … and that includes Eileen. They race through the night to get to her. No one speaks. Sam texts her with a warning—get out of her house and go someplace public. He asks her to trust him. He tells her they’re coming.
Eileen’s bubble blinks as she types her response and then it disappears.
Sam looks over at Dean. Dean floors the accelerator.
Baby screeches around the corner and pulls up behind Eileen’s car. Sam is out of the Impala before it stops moving. Eileen’s bag and phone are on the sidewalk. Her lock screen is a picture of Sam sitting at the initial table in the Bunker’s library. A half-finished text is waiting to be sent.
Sam pushes down the grief and rage. He can’t. He can’t afford to lose control. Not now. He focuses instead on the mission at hand—getting everyone to safety. He says they need to find a central location. Secure. Contained. Warded to bujeesus.
Dean is working on another plan. He says he started this … and he’s going to end it. They couldn’t make Chuck pay, but Billie? She left her blade.
“Her I can kill.”
Sam tells him to be careful. They hug. Yay! Hugging! Dean puts his hand on the back of Sam’s neck and gives him a look. One final check-in to make sure his brother is good. Sam gives him a nod. He’s good. Castiel is with Dean.
“Let’s go reap a Reaper.”
They hit the door of the Bunker and Cas taps the brakes, questioning Dean’s assumption that Billie will be in her library. Dean says if she’s not, then they’ll wreck the place. Burn her books. (Oh, Dean. Not the books!) Whatever it takes to smoke her out.
Donna comes through clutch with a secondary location for the off worlders.
DONNA! D-TRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!!
Oh, wait. Oh, shit …
Sam takes her call while gassing up Eileen’s car. He peers at Jack through the rear window, obviously worried about the boy’s state of mind. He walks around to the passenger side and tells Jack he needs him to drive. Jack is like, I’m three-years-old and I’ve driven a car once.
Sam says he can’t drive and research-fu, so. Scoot. Jack is apprehensive but slides across the bench seat behind the wheel. He checks his mirrors and turns the key. Sam does not immediately begin researching wards and spells, but that wasn’t really the point.
Also, did anyone else expect the kid to drive into the gas pump or take out a stanchion?
Donna is waiting for them when they arrive at the abandoned silo on the old Harmon property. AUers have already begun to arrive. Jack goes inside to help set the warding. Donna gives Sam a hug. Yay! Hugging! She says she’s sorry about Eileen. The pain is visible on Sam’s face. She quickly moves on to the sitrep—Bobby and his people are inside with more on the way.
She also put out the word to Garth and Jody and the girls. She says they’re on standby, ready to act when needed. Sam is grateful for her help, but also confused. He says the other hunters aren’t on Billie’s list, so they should be okay. Donna should be okay, too.
DONNA SHOULD BE OKAY, TOO.
Sam is surprised to see Charlie pull up. She’s a little surprised she’s there, too. She says she just doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else.
Inside, the silo is buzzing with low voices. Also, it is a Chuck damned TARDIS in there. Groups of people in twos and threes set up cots and check supplies while others complete the warding. Bobby greets Sam as he comes down the stairs. He says his people get it. And whether Sam likes it or not, he’s the big man there. When the boss put out the call, they came. Bobby says his only worry is the lave situation. There wasn’t time to truck in a port-a-john, but he did bring a bucket.
And you know, I would think if there was anyone who had asked and answered the question, “Have you planned for Number Two after ’The Big One’?” it would be Bobby Singer.
Bobby glances around at the warding and asks Sam if he thinks it will work. Sam has literally thrown at the walls everything he thinks might stick. Angelic warding, Aramaic, and Enochian along with a spell he found in Rowena’s things that should super-boost all of it.
“ … Should.”
Sam is like, the hell do you want from me, man? He says it’s all he’s got. They both look around at all the people—the families—who are staking their lives on it.
Jack pauses mid-sigil and bends down to look at a small plant that’s growing out of a crack in the floor. Donna comes up behind him and gently suggests they might need to patch that up. It’s a confusing line—I thought at first she meant he needs to finish the sigil, but maybe she means he should pluck the wee greenie from the ground? Jack seems to understand the latter, but when he reaches for it, the plant withers and dies under his hand.
So that’s new and strange and probably not good.
Dean and Cas slip into Death’s library. Dean directs Cas to move to Billie’s flank while he makes his stand behind her. She’s waiting for them by her desk. She supposes that this is the part where she says, ‘Hello, boys.’ She turns and gives them both a look of cool disdain.
“Hello, boys.”
So what’s the plan, then? Dean takes her down with her own weapon? Billie sasses that he better work on his aim.
“Thing is, that time? I wasn’t trying to kill you.”
Dean has the still, dead behind the eyes look that would cause a lesser being to soil itself.
Billie is unbothered. She moues, wondering what changed. Dean thinks maybe it’s that she’s started killing his friends. Billie is like, oh is that all?
Dean picks up the scythe and sets his stance. Billie holds out her hand and mojos him through the air and into the wall. The scythe clatters to the floor. Cas presses the attack and Billie Force chokes him. She backs him up against a pillar until her hand is actually around his throat. She grips him tight and raises him up off his feet. Does he remember when he stabbed her in the back?
Because Billie does.
Dean comes around on her blind side and jabs the butt end of the scythe into Billie’s wounded shoulder. She cries out in pain and drops the angel. Dean slashes at her and then recovers to deliver a beheading blow. Billie throws up her hands and catches the blade inches from her throat. She groans and breathes through the pain. Dean tells her that it’s over. He shouts at her to call it off!
The only problem is Billie isn’t the one hurting Dean’s people.
He’s in the wrong place.
Billie can’t help but laugh. She says if people are getting gone, her guess is it’s Chuck. She spits through gritted teeth that Dean is just wasting time.
Sam recites the spell and fires up the warding. The sigils glow with energy and then fade. Sam says now they wait.
Two little girls sit next to each other on a cot. The younger one’s stuffed animal falls to the ground as she evaporates. The other girl cries out in alarm. Dad asks Dana where her sister is, and my dude. Bruh. Dana is 10. She doesn’t know. She has the same information you do.
Panic sweeps through the silo as one by one the AUers begin to vanish.
Charlie.
Bobby.
HOW MANY TIME DO WE HAVE TO WATCH THEM DIE?
Donna turns and looks around the now empty room. Her breathing increases. She can feel it coming. She cries out Sam’s name and then she’s gone.
I rebuke this ending for Donna. I REBUKE IT!
It makes me wonder if writer Robert Berens considered putting Jody in this role and then opted against it knowing Kim Rhodes would refuse to show up for work.
Death reveals another truth to Dean. His first blow in the Bunker—“that li’l nick”—was fatal. A cut she can’t survive. She opens her coat with her left hand. The flesh on her shoulder is gooey and green, something beyond necrotic.
“You killed me, Dean.”
So, no. Billie does not care about his friends. She does not care about his family. But there is one thing she would like. One wish before she goes …
“I’d like to see you dead.”
The coolly collected reserve we’re accustomed to seeing has been replaced with a controlled ferocity. There’s something wild in Death’s eyes.
Dean looks into those eyes and mentally squares up.
Bring it.
Even with one arm being held onto her body by force of habit, one fallen angel and one drop-out with a GED and a give ‘em hell attitude are no match for Death incarnate. Dean and Cas beat a hasty retreat back to the Bunker just trying to put some distance between them. It’s all they can do.
But it’s not enough.
Dean gasps and clutches his chest, doubling over in pain. Death is standing behind him on the map room catwalk holding his figurative heart in her hand. Billie’s face is in shadow. The light reflected in her eyes two tiny pinpricks. It’s a nice call back to the first time we met her in Season 11. It is a beautifully framed shot.
Is there a game beyond A, because Speight is bringing that game in this episode.
Cas grabs Dean and tries to keep him out of Death’s actual clutches. She follows behind them. She’s not hurried. She tells Dean it’s always been him.
Rule-breaking.
He is everything that Billie lived to set right.
To put down.
To tame.
He is human disorder incarnate.
Cas carries Dean through the Bunker’s hallways, searching for a safe haven. Death calls after him to come on. He can’t escape her. Sparks dance along the edge of Billie’s scythe as she strops it along the wall. The sound echoes through the halls.
“Don’t you think it’s finally time? Time for the sweet release of Death?”
Cas keeps moving until they reach the storeroom. He pulls Dean’s knife out of his back pocket and uses it to slice into his own hand. The angel uses the blood to paint a warding sigil on the door. It flares to life and Dean draws in a long, ragged breath.
Death glares at the door, like how dare it?! HOW. DARE. IT. Lesser doors would have already shattered in their frame from her look alone. Billie pounds once with her fist, beginning a slow, steady rhythm. The sigil glows each time. Each time it loses a little bit of its power.
Billie’s right hand is now green and oozy. Castiel hopefully suggests that maybe they can just wait her out. And if they can’t, then they fight.
“We’ll lose.”
“I just led us into another trap.”
Dean blames himself for his anger. Blames himself for just needing something to kill … because, he says, that’s all he knows how to do. Dean is overwhelmed. And tired. So tired of dancing to Chuck’s tune. Of running on his hamster wheel.
Dean says they should be with Sam and Jack now. Bleak hopelessness settles over him. Dean says everybody is going to die. Everybody.
And he can’t stop it.
Cas feels Dean’s pain as if it’s his own. They both look at the door. Dean says she’s going to get through. And then she’s going to kill Cas. The ‘in front of him while he watches, powerless to stop her’ is taken as read.
“I’m sorry.”
Something thunks in the angel’s brain. The one thing Billie is afraid of. The one thing strong enough to stop her. Cas brightens with a flicker of hope. He tells Dean about the deal he struck in Season 14 to save Jack the first time he died. That when he experienced a moment of true happiness, the Empty would be summoned and take the angel forever.
Castiel says he has wondered since that day what it could be. What his true happiness could even look like.
“I never found an answer. Because the one thing I want … it’s something I know I can’t have.”
The fear and anger and everything else that Cas is feeling just seem to evaporate. It is replaced by the joy and relief and release of allowing himself to openly acknowledge and give voice to a single truth. Castiel tells Dean that he knows now.
Happiness isn’t in the having. It’s in just being. It’s in just saying it.
I know. I know how you see yourself, Dean. You see yourself the same way our enemies see you. You’re destructive and you’re angry and you’re broken.
Daddy’s blunt instrument.
And you think that hate and anger—that’s what drives you. That’s who you are.
It’s not.
And everyone who knows you sees it. Everything you have ever done—the good and the bad—you have done for love. You raised your little brother for love. You fought for this whole world for love. That is who you are. You’re the most caring man on Earth. You are the most selfless, loving human being I will ever know.
You know, ever since we met, ever since I pulled you out of Hell … knowing you has changed me. Because you cared, I cared. I cared about you. I cared about Sam. I cared about Jack. I cared about the whole world because of you. You changed me, Dean.
Dean is gobsmacked. He receives Castiel’s affirmation and benediction in stunned silence. Has anyone (other than Sam) ever validated his existence in this way? Has anyone else ever seen him so clearly?
“Why does this sound like a goodbye?”
“Because it is. I love you.”
Destiel is canon.
Dean softly pleads with his angel not to do this, but it’s too late. In Castiel’s moment of grace, the Empty has been summoned. It manifests through the Bunker’s wall as a thick, black goo. Behind them, the warding finally gives way. Death stands framed in the open doorway.
Castiel puts his hand on Dean’s shoulder, gripping him tight. He leaves a bloody handprint on Dean’s jacket.
Cas says goodbye and then shoves Dean to the floor, out of the line of fire. He faces the Empty, content and at peace. The thick black tendrils consume Billie before enveloping Cas, pulling them both into oblivion.
I would be upset about this–Cas dying and yet another The CW show burying your gays–if I thought there was any chance at all that Cas is actually dead.
I manifest my own reality and I release it into the Universe.
Dean’s phone buzzes with a call from Sam. Somewhere in the back of his mind Dean already knows Bobby and Charlie are gone. Maybe others, too. He knows that Sam will worry—will think the worst—if he doesn’t answer. But he can’t. All he can think about is Cas.
Supernatural airs Thursday at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern) on The CW. Follow Whitney on Twitter @Watcher_Whitney.