Oh, Supernatural. I knew that you'd come back to me. I knew that last week's episode must have been some sort of awful aberration. Last night's episode, "Appointment in Samarra", is proof that it was not a horrible mistake for Supernatural to continue with a sixth season.
SPOILERS!
Dean pulls the Impala over in front of a Chinese butcher shop, checking the address against a hand-written scrap of paper. The butcher directs him to the back stairway, where he meets a very enthusiastic, scruffy little old man. The man reminisces about patching up Dean's father John multiple times (of course this was after he lost his medical license). Dean gives the old former doctor an envelope stuffed with cash, and the doctor tells him "You have three minutes." Then he and his assistant stop Dean's heart.
Now that Dean's technically dead, he makes a beeline for Death, who was by far our favorite Horseman of last season's Apocalypse. He wants to force Death to retrieve both Sam's soul and their half-brother Adam from the Cage, and he intends to use Death's ring as a hostage. Death laughs this off, saying "You think I don't already know where you've hidden it?" Then we see Dean realize just how foolish it was to think that he could coerce Death into doing anything for him (after all, this is the being that told us he'd eventually reap God himself). Death refuses to raise Adam from the Cage, but offers a wager for Sam's soul: Dean must wear Death's ring for twenty-four hours and do his job, and Death will not only get Sam's soul out of the Cage, but will put up a wall in Sam's mind to block the worst experiences from his memory. Dean accepts the deal, and just in the nick of time - the old doctor and his assistant had been trying to get his heart beating again. He'd been dead for seven minutes.
Dean fills Sam and Bobby in on the wager, and Sam is not at all stoked at the prospect of getting his soul back. He remembers what both Cas and Crowley said, and he doesn't want any part of his soul. He doesn't trust the "wall" that Death promised, because it could come down at any time. Dean's like "Tough shit. I'm doing it anyway" and asks Bobby to keep an eye on Sam while he takes his 24-hour Death shift.
Dean puts on Death's ring and meets Tessa, a Reaper with whom he's had previous dealings. She's not terribly excited about having to walk him through this, but she gets him started right away. Dean's first stop is a convenience store, where a thug is threatening the store owner and his son with a gun. Dean is horrified and asks Tessa which one of these people is going to die, and she tells him to wait and see. The store owner grabs a gun from under the counter and shoots the robber. Dean lets the robber suffer for a little bit before touching him. The robber's spirit looks down at its body, and asks Dean "Why?"
"Because you're a dick," Dean replies, satisfied with a job well done. He and Tessa move onto the next target, an overweight man finishing a pizza in the park. The man has a heart attack, commiserates with Dean about how good the pizza was, and asks "What does it all mean?" That's a head-scratcher, and Dean thinks about it for minute before answering. "Everything is dust in the wind." "That's all you've got?!" the man says as Tessa leads him away. "A lousy Kansas song?"
Meahwhile, at Bobby's place, Sam makes his way out to the barn so that he can have a little privacy as he casts a summoning spell. Balthazar appears, and is not happy to see Sam again. He hasn't forgotten the last time they met - Sam had threatened to fry his wings "extra crispy" with holy fire. Sam asks for his help in severing any tie he may still have with his soul. Balthazar tells him that he must commit a terrible act as part of the ritual - Sam needs the "blood of the father." Sam's confused, because his father's been dead for years. Balthazar smiles cryptically and says "The blood of the father is needed, but the father need not be blood." How convenient - Sam has a father-substitute just a few yards away. Bobby's blood would satisfy the requirements. Balthazar wishes him luck, happy with a chance to screw with Dean.
Sam and Bobby start a game of poker and get all squinty-eyed and suspicious of each other. Sam tries to attack Bobby, but Bobby fends him off easily, having expected something like this from the soul-less son of a bitch. He goes to get some rope to restrain Sam, but Sam is gone - now they're playing cat and mouse instead of poker.
Dean and Tessa stop by a hospital, where they observe a father reading to his terminally ill daughter. Dean refuses to touch her, wanting the child to get a pass this time. Despite Tessa's warnings about the "natural order", Dean leaves the girl alone. The doctors wheel the girl in for heart surgery, but cancel it in amazement when they discover that her heart mysteriously healed itself. Dean is happy to see the joy that the girl and her father share, but all of that is shattered when a woman is wheeled into the emergency room on a gurney. Dean recognizes her as one of the nurses that would have been assisting with the girl's surgery - having gotten off work early, she was in a car accident that she would not have had. Dean watches in horror as she dies, and her fiance's grief. The nurse's spirit looks at her fiance sobbing over her body, and is confused. Tessa tells her that she should have lived. She should have gotten married and had children and grandchildren. All Dean can do is apologize as Tessa leads the nurse away.
Back at Bobby's, Sam is nowhere to be found as Bobby clears each room, holding a shotgun. Hearing a noise, Bobby runs into the closet and locks the door. Sam pulls a "Shining" and starts chopping through the door with an axe, telling Bobby that it was foolish to corner himself. Bobby pulls a rope that causes a trap door to open underneath Sam's feet, and the soul-less son of a bitch falls through the floor into the basement. Bobby warily makes his way down to the basement to find him, but tricky Sam is gone. Again.
Dean is beating himself up now that he's been faced with the consequences of not following the "natural order". He watches as the nurse's grieving fiance makes his way into a bar. He and Tessa have a discussion about destiny and free will - a theme that was common in the last season as he and Sam tried desperately to avert the Apocalypse. Dean sees the now-wasted nurse's fiance stumble out of the bar and climb into his car. Dean immediately takes off after him, knowing that the guy is either going to kill himself or someone else by driving drunk. Dean whooshes into the passenger seat of the guy's car, but is unable to get his attention or make him pull over. Death's ring has made him invisible to the living. As the car speeds toward a bus, Dean yanks off the ring and pulls the steering wheel sharply to the right, and they crash into a dumpster. Dean stumbles out of the car. The nurse's fiance is alive and groaning in the driver's seat. Dean calls Tessa, but receives no answer. Then he remembers to put on the ring. Tessa appears with her sad face on, knowing that Dean has just lost the wager. She tells him to go home, but Dean is determined to fix things first.
Dean and Tessa go back to the hospital, where the little girl and her father are asleep. Dean tells the father in a whisper that he ought to say his good-byes, and then touches the little girl. The father wakes and screams for the nurses as he sees his daughter's heart monitor flatline. The girl's spirit watches him sadly, and asks "Why?" Dean tells her that it's the "natural order", and the girl says it stinks. Dean agrees, obviously tormented by the fact that there's nothing he can do. Tessa leads the girl away.
At the same time, Bobby is following a trail of blood - Sam had been injured from the fall into the basement. The trail leads out to the barn, and Bobby enters. Sam, of course, ambushes him and ties him to a chair set inside an Enochian magic circle. Bobby tries to talk some sense into Sam as he watches Sam pull out a knife. Sam gives him a soul-less apology, but moves to kill him anyway. Fortunately, Dean is there to grab the knife and knock Sam out. He and Bobby move Sam to Bobby's panic room and cuff him to the cot (as they have so many times before!). Dean admits to Bobby that he lost the wager and now has no idea what to do about Sam. He heads upstairs and is surprised to find Death sitting at Bobby's table eating some hot dogs. Dean tells Death how difficult it was to do his job, and Death is satisfied that Dean learned that messing with life and death isn't so fun when one has to deal with the consequences. Dean gives back the ring, and Death puts it on and informs him that he's off to retrieve Sam's soul. Dean is flabbergasted - he lost the wager! Death tells him that despite all the trouble he and Sam have caused, they have been useful, and they're currently on the trail of something big. It's all about the souls.
Dean races downstairs and tells Bobby to open the door to the panic room. They see Death appear out of nowhere and open a black leather bag. Sam starts freaking out and begging them all not to do this, but Death reaches into the bag and pulls out a bright, glowing something. Death shoves the light into Sam's chest while telling him that even though the "wall" may itch, Sam is not to scratch it - he will not like what he finds if it should come down.
Questions that still need answers:
What's the deal with the souls? Balthazar, an angel, is buying them up, and he and Death both claim that they're extremely valuable. Before his unfortunate demise, Crowley had been searching for Purgatory, which is where monsters go when they die. So what's the deal?
Is this all we're going to hear about Adam this season? Now that Dean finally thinks of his other brother who was also locked in the cage, we immediately find out that Adam's probably going to stay there. Forever. Wow - it sure sucks to be Adam.
So Sam's soul is back! How is he going to be now? Are we going to return to the emo, weepy Sam that we know and love? And what happens when that wall in his mind comes down? Come on. We all know that it's going to happen.
No new episodes of Supernatural until next year!
Noooooooooo!
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