SPN Rewatch Season 10

[borgmama1of5]

Rewatch of Supernatural 2022

Season 10

This is the season that has my all-time favorite episode of the entire series…


196. Black (10.01)—W: Carver/D: Singer
Road so Far—Music: ‘Heartbreaker’ by Pat Benatar; ends with Dean ‘s black eyes
Fakeout—demon taunting how ‘a Winchester is one of us’ turns out she’s talking to Sam not Dean
Sam has total disregard for vessel as he tortures demon—'where’s Crowley?...Where’s my brother?’—Sam totally out of control!
Arm in sling
4 weeks pass
Sam talking to hunter Mike
Sam very scruffy
Note: ‘Sammy let me go’
Cas: ‘Sam...you can't blame what that demon did to your shoulder on me; you were out of...’—we never find out exactly what happened to his shoulder
Cas is coughing a lot (but doesn’t have cough in any other episode)
Sam hoping Dean left because he didn’t have a choice
Dean singing karaoke (first ‘I’m Too Sexy,’ later ‘Imaginary Lover’)
Anne Marie and Dean in bed, she is on her break: ‘Then you had to go and do that thing with the thing’
Dean playing foosball with Crowley
Dean beats up Anne Marie’s ex but stops before killing him
Hannah wants Cas to help find rogue angels who need to be punished
Sam in really nice suit
Sam sees Dean’s black eyes on crime video
Cas is back in self-sacrificing mode
Crowley tells Sam Dean is a demon—Sam is furious, blames Crowley: ‘…what’s really eating you up…it’s that he’s with me and he’s having the time of his life’
At this point Dean has been a demon for 6 weeks
Crowley trying to get Dean to step into role of Crowley’s right-hand demon and Dean doesn’t want any part of it
Crowley tells Dean to decide and that Sam is coming for Dean
Sam is driving a strange car which stops randomly
I can’t believe Sam just naively lets strange man come over to help without any protective behavior!
Anne Marie: ‘I wait tables at a roadhouse. I meet the bad guys. I meet the good guys. And maybe for a second there, I thought you were a good guy playing bad’—Dean: ‘The kind of guy who sleeps with every skank in every small town dive that he passes through?’—Non-demon Dean would not be so cruel
Hannah is totally hard-line against the angels who just want to be left alone on Earth; Cas’ attempts to mediate end in angel’s death
Sam tries to save Cole from going after Dean: ‘He’s a monster’—Cole doesn’t listen
Dean not at all interested in saving Sam from Cole: ‘I told him to let me go. So whatever jam he's in now, that is his problem’—cue collective gasp of horror at just how awful Demon Dean is!
Cliffhanger ending!!!

197. Reichenbach (10.02)—W: Dabb/D: Wright
Recap—previous episode
2003—Dean wearing very flare-legged jeans, John’s leather jacket; has killed man—the CGI work they did to make Dean’s face younger is not quite right and very disconcerting
Sam tries to tell Cole about monsters, said Dean would have had a reason for killing Cole’s dad
Cole brings out a hammer (Dean uses hammer next episode…)
Nice cut from Dean punching bouncer to Cole punching Sam
Crowley stringing Dean along—‘Death is your drug’—offers choice of working for Crowley and killing those who ‘deserve it’ or Dean will end up killing civilians
Last week Hannah was totally militant about angels not having any reason to be on earth—this week she wants Cas to explain the appeal to her (I find her character annoying)
Lester on cheating in marriage: ‘…It’s different when guys do it’—Dean decides Lester is douchebag who needs to die
So lady tow-truck driver is just going to take random strangers to her home where her kid is sleeping and let them hang out there while she gets parts for their car? Really???
Dean has had it with Crowley: ‘I ain't your friggin' bestie, and I ain't taking orders from you’—Crowley realizes he cannot control Demon Dean after all, calls Sam to tell him where Dean is in exchange for the first blade
Metatron tries to make deal for his freedom in exchange for Cas’ grace—Cas won’t let Hannah do it—Cas: ‘My life…my choice’
Dean when Sam finds him: ‘Did you ever stop to think that if I wanted to be cured, I wouldn't have bailed?…right now, I'm doing all I can not to come over there and rip your throat out with my teeth. I'm giving you a chance, Sam. You should take it’—Sam: ‘You’re my brother and I’m here to take you home’
Dean mocks Cole and beats the crap out of him but lets him live
Sam handcuffs Dean in the Impala: ‘This thing is filthy’—Dean: ‘It’s just a car’—Ouch!
Sam thinks Dean showed Cole mercy: ‘You call that mercy? Imagine you spend your whole life hunting down the guy that knifed your father. When you finally find him...He whips you like a dog. How do you think that feels? That kid's gonna spend his whole life knowing that he had his shot and that he couldn't beat me. That ain't mercy. That's the worst thing I could have done to him’—Oh man, this is not Dean…
Fascinating how Demon Dean, unlike every other powerful demon/evil creature, was not at all interested in power—which totally flummoxed Crowley—this was a very cool direction to take with the character!

198. Soul Survivor (10.03)—W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Ackles
Recap: rogue angel, Crowley can’t control Demon Dean, Sam captures Dean
Sam is not wearing his shoulder splint while getting the blood blessed by a priest?
Sam not using his own blood—because he knows how weak he got with Crowley and can’t risk that with Dean?
Dean: ‘…did it ever occur to you that maybe I don’t want to be fixed?...what do you care?’—Sam doesn’t engage in debating Dean
Dean: ‘You know I hate shots’—Sam: ‘I hate demons’
Cas is no longer coughing even though his grace situation is supposed to be worse
Dean says Crowley told him how far Sam went—flashback to Sam setting Lester up to summon crossroads demon so Sam can get hold of one and Lester makes deal before Sam can stop him—Dean: ‘That line that we thought was so clear between us and the things that we hunted, ain’t so clear is it? Wow. You might actually be worse than me! I mean, you took a guy at his lowest, used him, and it cost him his life and his soul. Nice work’—I struggled with seeing the equivalency between what Sam and Dean did, particularly since both have done worse things in the past
Dean: ‘If this doesn’t’ work, we both know what you got to do to me, right?’—made me think of Sam making Dean promise to kill him if he went darkside back in season 2
Demon tells Crowley about Cas’ fading grace so Crowley can get rid of Cas
Crowley really off his game, still obsessing over Dean
Crowley can disintegrate demon by snapping fingers—don’t recall seeing that before
Hannah to Cas: ‘Your preference is to die for your principles, it’s very noble but it is meaningless’
Sam afraid he’s killing Dean but Cas on phone points out there aren’t any other options
Dean: ‘…your guilt-ridden, weight-of-the-world bro has been M.I.A. for quite some time now…You notice I tried to get as far away from you as possible? Away from your whining, your complaining. I chose the King of Hell over you! Maybe I was just tired of babysitting you. Or always having to yank your lame ass out of the fire since forever…’---Sam: ‘This family is all we have ever had’—Dean: ‘Well then we got nothin’—Sam: ‘Would you say that to Dad?’—Dean: ‘…There’s a man who brainwashed us into wasting our lives fighting his losing battle’
Rogue angel punches Hannah and she is down for the count—angel fistfights don’t make any sense, sometimes the angels can take a beating and keep going and sometimes they are wimps!
Sam looks at the pie leftover that has been sitting in Dean’s room for at least 6 weeks—it should be awfully gross and smelly!
Crowley gives Cas the rogue angel’s grace because ‘…you’re useless to me dead’—I don’t think Crowley ever fully recovered from being almost humanized
For Dean as he became less demon the cuffs and demon trap didn’t work—why was it different for Crowley?
Sam locks bunker down to keep Demon Dean inside and maybe lure him to where Sam would know his location?
Sam has amazing reflexes with his knife when Demon Dean comes at him with the hammer
How did Cas get in the bunker without a) anyone letting him in and b) not making any noise?
Cas on why Dean wanted to stay a demon: ‘Only humans can feel real joy but also such profound pain’
And Cas has to point out Sam really hasn’t fixed Dean: ‘But the mark of Cain, that he still has’—Sam: ‘One battle at a time…I’m just gonna go grab my brother some cholesterol and then I’m gonna get drunk’
Dean: ‘What did Sam say? Does he want a divorce?’—Cas: ‘…It’d take a lot more than trying to kill Sam with a hammer to make him want to walk away’
Hello Rowena
Curing Dean was brutal
Demon Dean’s time was short, only 3 episodes, but real Dean was needed back by episode 200…and the episodes we did get were very effective in showing us what Dean became as a demon

199. Paper Moon (10.04)—W: Glass/D: Szwarc
Recap: Werewolf lore; curing Dean; Sam and Lester
Music as episode starts is ‘Werewolves of London’
Lame attempt to give more explanation for Sam’s arm is done by Dean making fun of it…sigh
Fancy Game Warden uniforms
Dean is ready to kill Kate without looking for any alternative suspects—Sam doesn’t want Dean to pull the trigger
Kate saved her sister from death by turning her
Kate trying to save sister from Sam and Dean: ‘I owe her every chance to make it right’
Dean comes up with fake cure idea to get Kate’s confidence
Sam: ‘How can you possibly blame Kate for fighting for her sister? We do it all the time’—Dean: ‘…and that’s worked wonders for us’
Why is Kate riding shotgun in Impala? And why are boys risking talking about her situation while she is asleep?
Kate is insistent that she can save her sister, taking away her sister’s agency in what she’s been doing
Pretty lame how Dean is caught right away
Kate kills her sister
Kate calls them from pay phone—how did she know Dean’s number?
This episode tried to have the boys address what just happened with Dean in their typical ‘blow-it-off’ way but none of the dialog around Demon Dean and Dean’s deflection to off-the-rails-Sam felt right. Dean’s admission ‘It’s embarrassing…all of it. The note. Crowley. Everything’ contrasted with Sam saying he ‘lied about Lester‘—trying to make Sam’s behavior equal to Dean’s—just doesn’t work for me. I would have expected a bit more remorse from Dean.

200. Fan Fiction (10.05)—W: Thompson/D: Sgriccia
Recap: Blank screen then typing begins: Supernatural Pilot created by Eric Kripke
Run through all the different title cards to date
Dean doing car maintenance to ‘Sundown’ by Gordon Lightfoot
‘We got work to do’ as boys shut trunk
Sam was in ‘Our Town’ and did tech for ‘Oklahoma’
The look on Sam and Dean’s faces when the singing starts!
Dean: ‘There is no singing in Supernatural!’ —Maeve: ‘Well this is Marie’s interpretation…’
The BM—Boy Melodrama scene
Dean: ‘There is no space in Supernatural’—Marie: ‘Well, not canonically, no. But this is transformative fiction’
Chuck stopped writing after Swan Song
Dean: ‘You wrote your own ending? With spaceships?’—Marie: ‘And robots and some ninjas and then Dean becomes a woman…it’s just for a few scenes’
When Dean tells Marie what really happened: ‘That is some of the worst fanfiction I ever heard!’
Sam: ‘…shouldn’t it be Deastiel?...How about Sastiel? Samstiel?...CasDean?’
Maggie: ‘If it’s not canon then it shouldn’t be in the show’
When boys tell Marie and Maeve it’s all real and who they are the girls laugh—Marie: ‘Those books are works of fiction’—Maeve: ‘And you guys are way too old be to Sam or Dean’—ouch!
The ridiculousness of the scarecrow that Marie thinks is so horrifying
Marie: ‘This is all my fault. If I hadn’t written this dumb play, none of this would’ve happened’--Dean: Ok, first of all the play is not dumb’—Maeve: ‘I thought you didn’t believe in this interpretation?’—Dean: ‘Yeah I don’t…like at all…but you do…and I need you to believe in it with all you got’
Marie to Dean: ‘…if Sam and Dean were real, they wouldn’t back down from a fight, especially my sweet, brave, selfless Sam’
Sam asks where’s Chuck—Marie: ‘Oh…I love him. I do ! But honestly, the whole author introducing himself into the narrative thing, it's just not my favorite. I kind of hate the meta stories’—Sam and Dean in sync: ‘Me too’
Dean: ‘I know I have expressed some differences of opinion, regarding this particular version of Supernatural. But tonight, it is all about Marie's vision. This is Marie's Supernatural. So, I want you to get out there, and I want you to stand as close as she wants you to, and I want you to put as much sub and add text, as you possibly can. There is no other road. No other way. No day, but today…Now you get out there and you kick it in the ass’—and the company goes ‘Ghostfacers!’
Dean is nodding to the music
Calliope about second act: ‘There’s robots and tentacles and space…I can’t even…’
Single Man Tear song
Calliope sums up why we love this show: ‘Supernatural has everything. Life. Death. Resurrection. Redemption. But above all, family. All set to music you can really tap your toe to. It isn't some meandering piece of genre dreck. It's epic!’
Maeve to Sam: ‘You know if you’d cut your hair a little you’d make a pretty good Dean’
Dean: ‘I have my version and you have yours’
Marie gives Dean the prop Samulet: ‘Just take it. Jerk’—Dean says ‘bitch’ automatically then looks utterly horrified at what he just said to Marie who laughs—pretty sure at this point she believes who they are
Actor Sam and Dean on stage: ‘…the two of us against the world’
Sam: ‘What she said’
When Sam asks ‘who’s that’—Maeve: ‘Oh that’s Adam, John Winchester’s other kid…He’s still trapped in the cage in hell with Lucifer’
This version of Carry On—and Sam and Dean’s faces listening to it
Dean hangs the Samulet on the rearview mirror
Chuck: ‘Not bad’
Being completely honest, this is my favorite episode of the entire show and if I could only watch one episode ever again this would be it—it truly is a love letter to the fans, pointing out all the stuff that goes on in fandom but doing it with appreciation for the fans’ passion, complete with irresistible songs!

201. Ask Jeeves (10.06)—W: Charmelo & Snyder/D: MacCarthy
Recap: curing of Demon Dean; various monsters
That is one heck of a fall over the railing into the glass table!
Dean is fixing the running light on the Impala
They still have a working phone of Bobby’s???
Sam mentions the fed suits are in the trunk
Amusing music throughout the episode
Older women as cougars after Sam are annoying
Smart Dean notices the book symbol matches the necklace
We get a pipe, rope, wrench, knife, and candlestick—game of Clue anyone?
Dean empties gun into shapeshifter
Dash wants to let the world know the Winchesters are heroes—that was a nice acknowledgment even if not going to actually happen
Sam worries that Dean shot so many times because of ‘demon residue’—Dean blows it off
This was a fun ‘whodunit’ episode, more of a mystery than a typical case

202. Girls, Girls, Girls (10.07)—W: Berens/D: Singer
Recap: Cole; witches lore; Cas and Hannah
Dean is on a dating app—really??? After just getting over being Demon Dean???
Cas is suddenly gung-ho on finding all the rogue angels—an odd position for him to take
Hannah gets naked in front of Cas to take a shower, a scene that felt very unnecessary and not contributing to either character
Dean doesn’t pay for sex: ‘No cash for ass’
Dean figures out Shaylene operating under duress: ‘I love my job’—Dean: ‘It doesn’t look like love to me’
Rowena has a demon-killing spell
Aftermath of angel possession—really does a number on the vessel and their loved ones
Crowley upset with minions: ‘So, you and your half-wit pal threw me into the sex trade? I'm evil. That's just tacky’
Types of witches: Borrowers get power from a demon; Naturals are born with power; Students can be trained
Suits
Hannah has crisis of conscience, decides to give up vessel—Cas looks sad
Lore on demon-killing spell says only one witch knew that spell 300 years ago—Rowena
Rowena comes across as a one-dimensional cartoony character in this episode
Cole catches Dean, now prepared to deal with him as a demon
Dean ready to face Cole’s judgment: ‘You’re gonna give me five minutes and we’re gonna talk…after that if you don’t like what you hear, you still want me dead, you take your shot’
Dean explains what happened to Cole’s father
Dean tells Sam to stand down when Sam sees Cole holding gun on Dean
Dean: ‘…but those stories that we tell to keep us going?...They take us to dark places, the kind of place where I might beat the crap out of a good man just for the fun of it. The people who love me, they pulled me back from that edge...Now, the truth is...I'm past saving. I know how my story ends. It's at the edge of a blade or the barrel of a gun. (Or on a piece of rebar…) So, the question is, is that gonna be today? That gonna be that gun?’
It is daylight when Cole confronts Dean in the alley—it is night when Cole drives away…how long did they talk???
Sam: ‘What you said back there about being past saving, were you really…’—Dean: ‘I was just telling the guy what he needed to hear’
Rowena is Crowley’s mother?!

203. Hibbing 911 (10.08)—W: Klein/D: Andrew
Recap: Mark of Cain; Jody and Alexis; Donna
Researching the mark
Sam didn’t tell Jody that Dean was back
Sam tells Jody to enjoy the retreat—‘Screw you, Winchester’—we know what she really said…
Jody annoyed by Donna, but Donna gets things done
Why would monster hide in the dumpster just to get a victim? Ick
Suits
Dean: ‘This badge means something’—Sam: ‘I made it at Kinko’s’
Donna calls Jody out on her attitude
Jody is concerned about Dean, he says it’s nothing he can’t handle
Jody apologizes to Donna
Jody pulls machete out—Donna’s face
Donna gets ‘the monster talk’ from Jody
Jody and Donna include themselves on the hunt
The boys are taken out by one hit?
Smart Donna breaks glasses to saw through rope and saves Jody
Dean: ‘For the first time since I’ve been back I didn’t feel like the mark was pushing me…I felt like me again’—truth or just pacifying Sam?
The family theme plays over Donna and Jody with the boys
Strange plot but Jody and Donna were awesome

204. The Things We Left Behind (10.09)—W: Dabb/D: Bee
Recap: Dean shooting maid; Rowena and Crowley; Jimmy Novak
Dean having nightmares about killing
Claire in home for troubled teens
Jimmy’s soul is in heaven from when Raphael destroyed Cas’ vessel
Story is totally ignoring that Cas possessed Claire briefly as well in 4.20
Mom left Claire at grandma’s a few months after Jimmy’s brief reappearance 6 years ago
Cas describing his job: ‘I fight certain deadly threats to humanity’
Cas interview trying to get custody is painful
Dean laughing at 3 Stooges
Sam made grilled cheese for Dean
Cas breaks Claire out when he can’t get custody—he’s been hanging around the Winchesters too long…
Rowena has been in Crowley’s dungeon for weeks
Claire takes off with Cas’ wallet at restaurant—how did he pay the bill?
Cas calls Sam and Dean to help with emergency—dealing with Claire
Dean is wearing lavender plaid shirt that is one of the prettiest ones
Dean advising Cas: ‘There’s some stuff you just got to let go…the people you let down, the ones you can’t save, you got to forget about them for your own good’—Cas: ‘Is that what you do?’—Dean: ‘That’s the opposite of what I do. But I ain’t exactly a role model’
Dean makes Cas promise to take him out if he goes dark side: ‘And don’t let Sam get in the way because he’ll try. I can’t go down that road again, man, I can’t be that thing again’—first hint we get that Dean has any regret for things he did as Demon Dean
Only certain demons are allowed topside
Reason Rowena says she’s in dungeon: ‘I was a horrible mother’
Rowena insists on calling Crowley ‘Fergus’
She left Crowley at age of 8
Randy manipulating Claire to commit robbery
Claire really stuck on blaming Cas for taking her dad, and Sam and Dean for standing by
Cas to Dean: ‘Did you love your father?’—Dean: ‘John Winchester’s not going to win any “Number One Dad” awards, you know? But…damn if he wasn’t there when we needed him’—Sam: ‘Tell him about that time in New York’—Dean: ‘…me and Sam begged the old man to let us go to the city for once… by about midnight, Sam and Dad are zonked, and I figure… Screw it. I’m going to CBGB…I sneak in, and it is nuts. I mean, people are drinking and they’re smoking and they’re—they’re snorting whatever…And, uh, my mind is blown. I don’t even know what to do. Then this girl walks up and she says “Hey, why don’t you come over and sit down with me and my friends at our table?” ‘—Sam: ‘And they got him drunk. First time’—Dean: ‘But not fun drunk. I’m not quite sure what was in that stuff, but the room starts to spin, and I feel like I’m going to puke forever. And right about that time, I hear him. “Dean Winchester!” My old man. I don’t know how, but he found me. And now I’m really freaking out, because he’s just standing there, not saying anything. I look around, and everybody else is freaking out, too. In fact, nobody’s even looking him in the eye. And finally, this one guy with, like, a safety pin through his nose and a “Kill Everything” tattoo looks up and he says, “Sorry, sir.”…you know what he got for that? Me whining about how much he embarrassed me. Me telling him that I hated him. But then he stopped and turned around and he looked at me and he said, “Son, you don’t like me? That’s fine. It’s not my job to be liked.”’—Sam: ‘It’s my job to raise you right’ (That was the first time Dean got drunk? Really?)
Randy sells Claire out
Rowena works out a lie with the other prisoner to get jailor demon killed, leaves with Crowley, other prisoner left behind
Sam, Cas, and Claire head to car, Dean left in room with thugs who jump him: ‘You guys don’t want to do this’
Sam realizes Dean slow to come out, goes back—why did Cas and Claire go back too?
Dean kneeling amidst bodies—Sam: ‘Tell me it was them or you’—I’m not quite understanding Sam’s horror, they attacked Dean
Appreciated when they had bad guy attempting to rape Claire that she remained clothed

205. The Hunter Games (10.10)—W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Badham
Recap: Demon Dean; Cas getting other angel’s grace; Claire; Rowena (music—'Long Black Road’)
Crowley being attacked—it’s a nightmare caused by Rowena’s hex bag
The mirror in Dean’s bunker room is already cracked
Dean: ‘That was a massacre, is what it was. There was a time I was a hunter, not a stone cold killer. You can say it, you're not wrong. I crossed a line. Guys, this thing's got to go’
Reference that demon tablet is missing (Gadreel took both tablets when he killed Kevin, Cas destroyed angel tablet)
I am getting so tired of manipulators—Rowena and Metatron in the same episode is too much
Cas gets to borrow Metatron from angel prison, takes to bunker dungeon
Metatron says first blade is needed to cure mark—Dean all for getting it, Sam doesn’t want it around Dean at all
The couple at the pool table who pick up Claire—that is a very weird encounter and subsequent ‘taking in’ of Claire
Rowena spies on Crowley and discovers his relationship with Winchesters and about first blade
Dean: ‘When we screw ourselves we like to go whole hog’
Cas wants Dean to talk to Claire: ‘One extremely messed-up human to another’
Dean goes nuclear on Metatron who eggs him on knowing that feeds the mark
I really wish Dean would have killed Metatron then…
Sam asks if Dean’s okay (remember that drinking game I suggested seasons ago?)
Dean: ‘I was gonna kill him and I couldn’t stop myself’—Sam: ‘Dean, maybe there’s a part of you that wants to give in to it. And maybe you have to fight that, you know? Maybe part of that powerful force has to be you’
Apparently Claire and her new buddies are still in the vicinity of the bunker, Dean goes to see her
Dean controls himself and doesn’t kill Claire’s accomplices

206. There’s No Place Like Home (10.11)—W: Thompson/D: Sgriccia
Recap: Charlie—Oz—Mark
Charlie beating up guy???
Dean serving egg white omelets, is on 12-step program to control mark, no drinking
Dean goes very intense ‘bad cop’ on victim to get him to tell the truth about encounter with Charlie
Dean believes there has to be a good reason for what Charlie is doing
Charlie pulls up in another car???
Dark Charlie won the war in Oz
Sam needed Charlie’s help to hack bank records?
If Dark Charlie gets hurt so does Good Charlie
Developer is very rude to Dean
Weird that developer doesn’t have a cell phone to call for help
Charlie convinces Dean to let her talk to developer: ‘I want him to see my face. I want him to see what he did to me...That's all….And then we hand him over to the cops’ and he falls for it
Dean goes ahead and has a drink at the bar
Dark Charlie shows up at bar: ‘I’m not the monster here, he was. He got what he deserved. You know I'm right. You know what I learned about being dark? It sets you free. And part of you knows that's right, too’
Dean tells Dark Charlie the plan about contacting the MOL from Oz but gives her the wrong address
Dark Charlie steals the Impala
MOL shoots himself to draw Wizard of Oz there
Dean fights Dark Charlie—Good Charlie reacts to every blow
Good Charlie has to shoot the MOL to kill Wizard
Dean is devasted by what he did to Charlie
No explanation how the two Charlies rejoined
Sam tells Charlie the Book of the Damned is in a library is Tuscany and might help save Dean
Charlie to Dean: ‘We are going to fix this. I'm not letting what happened to me happen to you…I forgive you, Dean’
Sam: ‘You good?—Dean: ‘No’—Honesty!
Kind of a ‘hit you over the head with the parallel to Dean’ episode, but Charlie makes it watchable

207. About a Boy (10.12)—W: Glass/D: Ladouceur
Recap: Rowena; witches; Cain; Dark Charlie
Dean researching while Cain and Crowley’s words going through his mind
Have been in bunker for a week
Sam: ‘You need to get back in the game for your own good. You can beat this, Dean’
Dean says Sam believed in the Easter Bunny till he was 12—Sam protests he was 11
Suits
Dean heads into bar, gives Sam keys
Dean has his first drink in a while
Trading stories with Tina—Royale Motel in Scranton—Winchesters snowed in for a week
Different ways to make mac and cheese—add ketchup; tuna; hot dogs; fluff marshmallow mix which Sam thought was exotic
Scene opens with close-up of eyes to keep viewer confused about what happened to Dean and Tina, then pulls back to show young Dean
Tina: ‘How are you so calm?’—Dean: ‘Practice’
Dean starts eating the cake, Tina suggests it could be poisoned and he stops
Smart Dean breaks metal of bed to get out
Sam not messing around when he sees bartender has Dean’s jacket—smashes guy’s head on bar to get answer
Tina: ‘I thought you were just another drunk’—Young Dean: ‘I prefer functional alcoholic’
Sam’s face when young Dean shows up!!!
Dean gets in Impala’s driver’s seat, is too small to reach pedals
Dean confesses he heard Taylor Swift song and liked it
Sam explains yarrow is used by witches—Dean doesn’t know about it—however Dean pointed out the yarrow growing around the crossroads in season 2 ‘Crossroad Blues’
Young Dean does not have the mark—Sam thinks he should stay young, Dean not sure: ‘…if it’s between being a psycho rage monster/borderline demon or a teenager, well…’
They still have witch-killing stuff in trunk
Sam says Dean can drink again in 7 years
Dean goes back into basement through window into the room he was locked in before but then is out in the basement hall—how did he get out of the room when it was locked from the outside?
Witch has been sent by Grand Coven to find Rowena
When Dean turns back into adult the clothes also grow—but when they turned into kids the clothes were left behind (Dean was dressed when he woke up as a kid—who put clothes on him???)
Dean shoves hex bag into witch’s mouth before shoving her into oven—he should have held on to it
Tina is now about 14 and she is going alone??? No mention of family or friends—that does not seem like a good idea!
Sam: ‘You saved me, and you saved Tina, and…pulled a Dean Winchester’
Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake it Off’ comes on radio and Dean leaves it on
Really like this episode—young Dean actor is spot on

208. Halt and Catch Fire (10.13)—W: Charmelo & Snyder/D: Showalter
Recap: spirits that can’t leave, mark
Possessed GPS (I feel like I might have one of those…)
Cas out looking for Cain
Suits with overcoats
Dean written like back in season 2 with ogling college girls and pigging out on food—really???
Sam’s hair has ridiculous swoops this episode…
Sam: ‘…if you died and I drove your car you’d kill me?’—Hello, this already happened when Dean went to Hell in season 3 and Sam put an iPod in the car, and then in season 8 he let a dog in the car…
Death by loud music?
Dean talking to Delilah: ‘I have made more mistakes than I can count. Ones that haunt me day and night’—Delilah: ‘How do you deal?’—Dean: ‘Whiskey. Denial. I do my best to make things right, whatever that may be…You can’t just bury stuff like this. You got to deal with it’
Andrew using wifi to get around
Wonder how Delilah will explain all her tech stuff destroyed? That will be expensive to replace
Ghost is very strong throwing Dean across room
Dean to Sam: ‘My peace is helping people, working cases. That’s all I want to do…I’m done trying to find a cure, Sammy… I’m not just gonna give up. I appreciate the effort, okay? I do. But the answer is not out there. It’s with me. I need to be the one calling the shots here, okay? I can’t keep waking up every morning with this false hope. I got to know where I stand. Otherwise, I’m gonna lose my freakin’ mind. So I’m gonna fight it till I can’t fight it anymore. And when all is said and done… I’ll go down swinging.’
They tried for a unique case but it just didn’t work for me

209. The Executioner’s Song (10.14)—W: Berens/D: Sgriccia
Recap: Rowena and Crowley; Cain
Cain taking out killer in impressive opening
Sam suddenly into serial killer facts—surprises Dean (and us, although he did know who Holmes was back in season 2 ‘No Exit’)
Suits with overcoats
Cas torturing demon for info on Cain, kills him after getting info
Crowley letting Rowena assist him at ruling
Cain is killing all his descendants
Dean: ‘Cain resisted the Mark for a long time, then I came, kicking up trouble about the Blade. I sent him down this path. This is on me’—Sam: ‘ Dean, wielding the Blade against Cain himself…Win or lose, you may never come back from that fight’—Dean: ‘I know’
Dean tells Crowley he is on Cain’s hit list so that Crowley will give him the blade
Sam does not want to use 12-year-old as bait
Crowley is actually being very subdued for him
Dean: ‘You know last week, when I said that I would go down swinging when the time came? I meant that I was at peace with that. I just didn't realize the time would come so soon, you know, like right now. I'm scared, Sam’—that is a hell of a confession for Dean!
Dean doesn’t want any help: ‘I'd be too worried about what he could do to you... Or what I could. Plus, I need you three out here to take out whatever comes out of there. And I'm serious. I mean whatever comes out’
Dean is holding back through much of the fight, Cain calls him on it (for all this was reportedly a hard fight to film it doesn’t feel as dramatic to me as many other fights—it is very slow and deliberate)
Cain: ‘Can you honestly tell me that humanity's not better off with fewer Tommy’s and fewer Leon’s... Fewer you’s?... There is no resisting the Mark or the Blade. There is only remission and relapse!...Your biggest weakness, the thing I noticed the moment I met you, your courage, your reckless bravado…first, you'd kill Crowley. There'd be some strange, mixed feelings on that one, but you'd have your reason. You'd get it done, no remorse. And then you'd kill the angel, Castiel. Now, that one... that I suspect would hurt something awful. And then! Then would come the murder you'd never survive, the one that would finally turn you into as much of a savage as it did me. Your brother, Sam’
Dean: ‘Tell me I don’t have to do this. Tell me that you’ll stop. Tell me that you can stop!’—Cain: ‘I will never stop’
Dean gives Cas the blade instead of Crowley and tells Crowley he was lied to—Crowley wasn’t on Cain’s list
Rowena is leaving Crowley because he is such a disappointment for always choosing the Winchesters
Sam: ‘Dean, you know, what you did back there... it was incredible. You know, if you can do that without losing yourself... that's cause for hope, even without a cure’
Sam to Cas when Dean leaves: ‘Dean’s in trouble’

210. The Things They Carried (10.15)—W: Klein/D: Badham
Recap: Monster medley; Cole
Sam researching mark
Dean: ‘Sam when we work a case, there's always that point where we have to face the truth, right? Even if we don't like it. Well truth is, there's no way around this. We saw what happened to Cain, okay. I'm not happy about it, but I gotta move on. So I'm gonna keep doing we what do...while I still can, and I'd like you to be there with me’
Suits with overcoats
Widow holding baby made me sad for what happened to her life
Cole: ‘…I stick to you two like flies on roadkill, make sure my buddy comes home in one piece’
When Cole shows them video on his phone he is holding it at an angle they couldn’t see in real life
Wearing suits to crime scene—then go from crime scene to dropping Cole off at home of friend’s wife and suddenly they are in flannels—when did they change???
Smart boys know to follow Cole
Dean pulls up to the cabin with the car lights off
Worm transfer into mouth is gross!!!
Cole: ‘Damn. Day in, day out, you and Sammy saving people from things they just can't wrap their minds around…and nobody even notices it. Hell, at least l get a medal for my efforts. But you…I tried to kill your ass…I almost took you off the map. Who would be saving me now?’
Dean does not show any signs of blood lust even when Cole attacks him—seems like there should have been some signs of the mark in the sweat lodge tension
Dean gives Cole pep talk: ‘That means giving up. If you think that's where you're headed, then you've got it ass-backwards. You're gonna fight harder than you ever have. You understand?’
Sam: ‘I tried. l did. I tried. l just . . . I couldn't save this one’—Dean: ‘…you can do everything right and even still sometimes the guy still dies’
Cole calls them Deano and Sammy throughout the episode (and gets away with it)

211. Paint It Black (10.16)—W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Showalter
Recap: Rowena and Crowley, Dean will fight until he can’t
Suits
Bickering about case, Dean says there is one, Sam says no
Nuns don’t dress in those kind of habits nowadays…
Dean: ‘I'm just wondering how somebody quits one life for something completely different, and then believes in it so much’—Nun: ‘I felt I had no choice. My life had become painful, there was hopelessness. I felt I had to find something larger than myself to focus on. A kind of mission, I guess’
Dean is actually serious with the nun, not flirting
Olivette of Grand Coven did not know Crowley was Rowena’s son
Florence Italy 1520 story
Olivette says MOL was Coven’s downfall
Dean goes to confession, starts with story that sounds made up to attract the ghost: ‘I was not honest with her. Sometimes I as seeing two maybe three girls at the same time, sometimes in the same day. You get the picture. And it wasn't just Gina, it was endless. It's making me sick’—then he gets real: ‘What if I said I, I didn't want to die... yet. That I wasn't ready…The life I live, the work I do I pretty much just figured that's all there was to me, you know? Tear around and jam the key in the ignition and haul ass until I ran out of gas. I guess I just thought sooner or later I'd go out the same way I lived, pedal to the metal and that would be it…Recent events made me think I might be closer to that than I really thought. And…there's things, there's people, feelings that I want to experience differently than I did before, or maybe even the first time’ (Okay, why didn’t we get any of this in season 3 when Dean was faced with a definite end date of going to hell???)
Father: ‘Do you believe in God?...because that can be a comfort’—Dean: ‘I believe there is a God but I’m not sure he believes in us’
Dean orders Sam to burn Isabella’s journal but Sam takes time to read it and figures out he needs to burn the painting
Rowena realizes Winchesters are MOL
Crowley: ‘My relationship with the Winchesters is my business. I’ll handle them. I’m not killing them’—Remember season 6 when Crowley desperately wanted to kill the Winchesters and Cas wouldn’t let him?
Rowena turns Olivette into a hamster
Sam drives home
Sam: ‘I don’t buy for one second that the mark is a terminal diagnosis, so don’t go making peace with that idea. There has to be a way. There will be a way, and we will find it. That’s what we do. So, believe that’—Dean: ‘Okay Sammy’—Sam: ‘You want to…try that again like you mean it?
Another case where they are trying to come up with a twist on the monster but it requires a lot of not looking too closely at the plot

212. Inside Man (10.17)—W: Dabb/D: Green
Recap: Bobby’s soul going to heaven; Metatron; Mark; Cas’ grace; Rowena and Crowley
Start at a séance with Sam and Cas without explanation
Bobby listening to ‘The Gambler’ (his song from the first episode Jensen directed back in season 5)
Sam’s voice comes through the radio in heaven—that has been a consistent way of communication in heaven since season 5
24 hours earlier
Dean’s nightmares are really upsetting Sam
Sam lies about going to a French movie about a mime who is really a cockroach, is actually meeting Cas
Charlie has been radio silent
Cas drives Sam in his car
Dean has a phone call with Rudy about a hunt
Dean puts tape on an old phone in Sam’s room—what is the point of that? What are they even using those phones for?
Dean putting Sam’s toothbrush in his armpit is vile!
Angel Hannah has a new body
Demon can only trace Crowley’s call from the bunker last year to a 10-mile radius
Dean pretends to be drunk to fleece a college kid at the pool table—insisting the guy throw in the watch his dad gave him was a dick move
Psychic says Cas can’t be an angel ‘because I’m an atheist’
Sam tells psychic they want to talk to someone in heaven—Psychic: ‘and if I say no?’—Sam: ‘You’re the mind reader’—Psychic: ‘I’ll get my crap’
Sam has Bobby’s hat
Rowena has college kids attack Dean with spell—Dean initially reacts with mark’s aggression but then pulls back (knocks one kid out by beaning him with a cue ball)
Rowena prepares to blast Dean but it doesn’t work—he has knife to her neck and is ready to kill her—she tells Dean Crowley is her son and she is saving him from Dean being a good influence on him
Rowena knows Dean won’t kill her: ‘I think you're a hero. You could have killed those men, but you didn't because they're innocent. 'Cause you're the good guy, and you want them to live. But the spell I cast will devour them from the inside out like it did that girl…I'm the only one that can save them. What's it going to be…Hero?’
Bobby finds escape hatch in rung pretty fast
Hallway of heaven—the Robert Singer wing LOL
Smart Bobby lets all the Singers out—Angel PA: ‘We need all hands. They’re surly. I repeat, the Bobbys are surly’
Door to heaven is #42
Rowena hurts herself and tells Crowley Dean did it: ‘Why were you anywhere near Dean Winchester?’
Rowena says Mark is just a curse and can be removed
Crowley: ‘I have Sam and Dean exactly where I want them’
Crowley joins Dean in bar: ‘She says I’ve gone soft’—Dean: ‘You have…maybe it’s all the human blood Sammy pumped into you…the old Crowley, he would have come in here with hellhounds and demons…now you didn’t want to fight, you wanted to talk…here I am playing Dr. Phil to the king of Hell. Never saw that coming…why are you letting mommy dearest tie you into knots?’—Crowley: ‘Because we’re family’—Dean: ‘A wise man once told me, "family don't end in blood," but it doesn't start there, either. Family cares about you, not what you can do for them. Family's there through the good, bad . . . all of it. They got your back . . . even when it hurts. That's family. That sound like your mother?’
Cas and Bobby get Metatron from prison, he gloats…Metatron: ‘…I know about the Mark. I have your Grace. I make the rules. It's called leverage, boys. Learn it, live it, love it’—Cas removes Metatron’s grace—Cas: ‘We have your Grace, Metatron. You're mortal now. So you will answer our questions, or Sam will…What's the phrase? Blow your fricking brains out. It's called leverage, Metatron.’—Sam: ‘Learn it, live it, love it. How do we get rid of the mark?’—When Metatron can’t help with the mark Cas says to shoot him but Metatron says he can get Cas’ grace back
Crowley kicks Rowena out: ‘I'm bloody Crowley! I'm the King of Hell. I do what I want, when I want. And I don't take orders from you’—I’m not a Crowley fan
Sam says movie was ‘French’, Dean says he played some pool, it was boring—mutual lies again
Sam reads note from Bobby which says it’s not a good idea to go behind Dean’s back but that he knows Sam will make the right choice
Angels come in to punish Bobby (but we never find out what happens to him)
I am not a fan of Crowley’s, but I found myself rooting for him against Rowena

213. Book of the Damned (10.18)—W: Thompson/D: Pesce
Recap: Metatron/Cas grace; Charlie looking for book; Rowena/Crowley
Charlie has sword in her backpack
Oh no! Charlie’s been shot!
Cas punches Metatron when he won’t shut up—yay!
Dean wearing gray hoodie in bunker
Dean tells Sam Rowena said mark is a curse
Charlie found a phone booth
Charlie stitched herself up with dental floss—just like a Winchester
Smart Dean finds curse box to hold book of damned
Boys have switched positions again—Dean is upbeat about getting rid of mark, Sam pessimistic
Sam says they have never been on a beach??? That doesn’t make sense
Book of Damned is 700 years old, pages made from nun’s skin
Dean transfixed when he holds book: ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea that I touch this’
Dumb Cas uncuffs Metatron
Dean figures out Styne family history from 1800s, they lost book about 100 years ago
Dean: ‘The book’s been calling out to me ever since I laid eyes on it, okay?...I can hear it like it’s alive. It wants me to use it, but not for good…we have got to get rid of that. Burn it, bury it, I don’t give a damn. We’ll just have to find another way to fix the Mark…I’m not giving up…I don’t have a death wish…what I can do is I can fight it as long as I can until…’—Sam: ‘…until I watch you become a demon again…I can’t do that. I won’t do that…I can’t lose you’—Dean: ‘…That’s not what you said last time’—Sam: ‘…You know I didn’t mean that’—Dean: ‘’…we got to destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands and that includes me’
Metatron says Hannah has restored order to heaven
Sam to Charlie: ‘…we had a chance to close the gates of Hell. And in order to do that, I would’ve had to die. And, I was okay with that…but Dean was not. And so, he uh…’—Charlie: ‘He saved you…in doing so, he did something you didn’t want, and that pissed you off. And you said something that hurt him?’—Sam: ‘You know, when Dean came to get me at school, I told myself one last job, you know? And then when I lost Jess, I, again, told myself one more job. There’s always one more job, you know? And one more job, and one more job, and then I was gonna go back to…my life…this is my life. I love it. But I can’t do it without my brother. I don’t want to do it without my brother. And if he’s gone, then I don’t….’—I find Sam saying ‘I love it’ it little much, I don’t believe he ever ‘loved’ hunting, it’s more that he loves being with his brother and that means hunting
Smart Cas finds his grace even as Metatron is trying to kill him
Metatron escapes with demon tablet
Smart Dean recognizes Styne tattoo
Dean gets to cabin before Stynes
Dean hands the book to Sam and tells him to burn it
Charlie holds her own in fight
We think the book is burned
Sam lies about book to Cas
Cas lies about how he got his grace back
While everyone enjoying meal Sam is thinking about how he didn’t destroy the book and we see he’s gone to Rowena for help with it—typical Winchester behavior…

214. The Werther Project (10.19)—W: Berens/D: Pleszczynski
Recap: Purgatory; Cuthbert Sinclair; Crowley/Rowena; Book of Damned
Rowena wants Sam to kill Crowley in exchange for help with book
MOL have codex Rowena needs
Dean went on solo vamp hunt, killed 6 vamps: ‘Takes the edge off’
Visual effect of focusing on tape machine to switch to 1956 MOL hearing
Sam asks Rowena for a spell to break the spell on the Werther box
Sam leaves in another car
Dean tracks Sam down, assumes Sam went solo as payback for Dean hunting solo
Sam says Werther box contents are MOL responsibility and potential time bomb, avoids saying what is in it
Werther effect takes Dean to Purgatory in his mind
Sam is guilted by ghost of Suzie: ‘You think Dean’s the wild card, the loose cannon. But don’t you see? Making deals with witches, opening Pandora’s box down there? You’re the reckless one. You’ll do anything to keep clinging to that doomed brother of yours. How many more will die, Sammy? You know it. You have to be stopped. And the only one who can stop you is you! Do it, Sammy! End this farce once and for all!’—Rowena appears and dispels Suzie (we realize later that was Sam’s mind conjuring Rowena but it made perfect sense for her to be there when originally seeing the episode)
Smart Dean knows Benny’s not real
Benny: ‘…But no matter which way you turn, you keep ending up here…This is where you wanna be, your happy place. And you don’t really wanna leave’
Benny implies Dean needs to kill himself: ‘…You can’t say you haven’t been thinking about it…’—Dean: ‘That ain’t gonna happen ever’—Benny: ‘…You gonna get Sam and Cas to put you down? You really think that they’re gonna keep that agreement? Come on. Dean, let’s say they do. Do you think they will ever recover from that? It will ruin them. This little backup plan of yours, I know you’ve been thinking about it for a time…’—Dean: ‘For better or worse, the mark, it wants me alive’ and Dean kills imaginary Benny and wakes up
Dean finds Sam bleeding out (and completely ignores Rowena): ‘It needs legacy blood. Enough to take a life’—Dean: ‘…it doesn’t have to come from one legacy, does it?’
Rowena was never there—real shock the first time I saw it
Dean: ‘Werther splits us up in there. Within an hour, we’re both on the brink of death…The universe is trying to tell us something we both should already know. We’re stronger together than apart’
Sam says he doesn’t know what was in Werther box, just that they’ll keep it safe
Smart Sam cuffs Rowena, and boy, is he cold—reminds me of soulless Sam, but actually good idea he’s like that with Rowena

215. Angel Heart (10.20)—W: Thompson/D: Boyum
Recap: Jimmy/Claire/Cas; Dean/Mark
Guy has decency to call 911 after he knocks Claire unconscious
Cas calls Sam and Dean to help him with Claire: ‘You were both troubled teens. You speak her language’
Dean: ‘Give me something to punch already’—mark’s getting antsy
Dean notes Claire has been doing ok alone: ‘I’m saying she might be stronger on her own’
Sam is already in Claire’s room when she gets to motel
Sam approves of Claire’s hunting research
Claire says she’s hunting her mom to tell her she ruined her life—to Sam: ‘You always get along with your mom?’—Sam: ‘…my mom died when I was a baby’—Claire: ‘I’m sorry’—Sam: ‘It’s okay, I got to know her later in life…’—So Claire does have some decency in her…and Sam wants her to understand hunting is crazy life
Sam shows Claire how to hack credit card records and set up fake cards for herself (This is similar to how Sam was all about training Adam in the life): ‘Hunting monsters doesn’t exactly pay the bills’--Claire: ‘Then why do you do it?’—Sam: ‘To help people, make a difference’—Claire: ‘That’s it?’—Sam: ‘That’s not enough?’
Dean smashes Ronnie’s head into table twice and Cas freaks that he’s losing control, but honestly that level of violence is not anything extra—in ‘About a Boy’ Sam did the same thing to the bartender
Dean was in suit at crime scene with Claire and Cas, then enters Claire’s motel room wearing flannel—when and where did he change???
Today is Claire’s 18th birthday
Sam tells Cas he shouldn’t leave Claire alone: ‘…going it alone, that's no way to live. You being there for her, even if she thinks she doesn't want you to be there for her, that's good for both of you’—Surprise, the Winchesters have opposite positions…
Dean takes Claire out to play mini-golf: ‘This is what you guys do? Stay at cheap motels, steal credit cards... Play mini-golf?’-Dean: ‘Actually, we haven't played mini-golf in a while. But, uh... eah. That about sums it up.’
Dean tries to set things right between Claire and Cas: ‘Your dad’s sacrifice was not meaningless. Yeah he gave up his body…and because he did that Cas was able to save the world’ (Not quite sure how Dean was figuring that, back in ‘Swan Song’ Sam saved the world—Cas was helpful but not the reason the world was saved—but then, Dean commonly exaggerates to make a point…)
Smart Dean figures out marks on Ronnie were from angel sword, not angel blade
Another category of angels: Grigori
Dean gives Claire a gun: ‘Happy birthday. Don’t shoot me’
Super Sam picks handcuffs with a nail
Boys say ‘Grigori’ in sync
Amelia saves Claire from Grigori
Brutal fight—Claire kills Grigori
When Amelia finds Jimmy in heaven he asks about Claire and Amelia says she’s strong (how would she know? she left her daughter 6 years ago!)
Sam sends Claire to Jody who asks if it’s a house for ‘wayward girls’—he also slips her a credit card
Dean gives Claire ‘Caddyshack’ video and Enochian book because ‘I felt bad about taking the gun back’—he opens her duffel and pulls out the angel sword: ‘Did you honestly think I didn’t see you take this?’ but lets her keep it
Dean: ‘You already got your revenge. You go down this path…our path…it’s not a long life’—Claire: ‘Are you gonna be okay?’—Dean answers honestly: ‘I don’t know but I will keep fighting’
Long shot of Cas and Claire watching each other as she leaves is supposed to make us invested in their relationship
Just have to say that I found Amelia to be a horrible example of a mother—she leaves her 12-year-old daughter to search for her missing husband and never checks in on the kid, just sends postcards? All she cares about is her husband, not her kid?

216. Dark Dynasty (10.20)—W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Singer
Recap: Olivette; Book of Damned; Stynes; Sam/Rowena/Book
Rowena has been working for days
Sam driving another car to pick up Charlie—he needs her help and admits Dean doesn’t know about the book still being around—Charlie: ‘Behind Dean's back. After Dean told us the stupid book would kick our asses if we mess with it…is there any part of this that doesn't reek?’
Then Sam brings Cas in secretly as well
Rowena’s first meeting with Cas—surprise at angel
Sam: ‘…we know there are times when every choice sucks. Now, us lying to Dean is the choice that sucks the least. We have to make this work. Please’
Demons tell Crowley they’ve lost track of Rowena
Suits
Rowena and Charlie don’t get along
Charlie: ‘Same and Dean are like my brothers. I love them’—Rowena: ‘And that steadfast loyalty will be your undoing’
How Dean is doing: ‘…you know, some dark thoughts, creepy visions, violent urges. Same old same old. I'm happy I got a murder to focus on, though’
Dean getting suspicious about what Sam is up to
Crowley gets information about Rowena from Olivette the hamster
Dumb Winchesters—Why did they chain up Eldon Styne by only one arm???
‘There’s always profit to be made from desperation’
Styne family is actually Frankenstein family
Eldon reveals the book couldn’t have been burned
Eldon ripping off his arm is gross (and his escape could have been prevented with proper restraining!!!)
Cas finds out Rowena is Crowley’s mother
Oh Charlie, why did you go off on your own???
Dean: ‘I thought, "this is bad, but it would really blow if these guys had the book. At least they don't have the damn book"… At least the damn book burned. Right, Sam? But then, Eldon Frankenstein…he hits me with this little fun fact. He says that the book can't be destroyed’
Sam: ‘Give them your notes, Charlie! Give them the code, whatever they want!’—Dean: ‘Give whoever that is whatever they want. You understand?’—Charlie: ‘I can’t do that, Dean’
Charlie! NOOOO!!!
That sucked

217. The Prisoner (10.22)—W: Dabb/D: Wright
Recap: Stynes; Dean with various quotes about ‘family’; Charlie/book disaster
Cyrus Styne’s comeback to the bully is clever
Charlie flashbacks as she gets hunter’s funeral (this made me cry)
Sam: ‘Charlie. We're gonna miss you. You were the best. And I'm so sorry…‘—Dean: ‘Shut up. You got her killed, you don't get to apologize’—Sam: ‘You think I'm ever going to forgive myself for that?’—Dean: ‘You wanna know what I think? I think it should be you up there and not her. This thing with Cas and the book ends now. Shut it down before somebody else gets hurt, you understand me?’—this is not good
Eldon Styne relays info about the MOL bunker
Dean calls Rudy to run some footage of a license plate
Sam is preparing to shut down the book effort when he gets the email from Charlie with the code cracked—Cas: ‘What are you doing?’—Sam: ‘I’m saving my brother’—Cas: ‘You told Dean…’—Sam: ‘I know what I told Dean. Cas, look. I've been the one out there, messed up and scared. And alone. And Dean…’—Cas: ‘He did whatever he could to save you’—Sam: ‘I owe him this. I owe him everything. Look I know he pretends he can ride the Mark out, but you and I know the truth. We know what happens if we don't cure him. We both know where that road ends’
Interlude with Crowley in random diner chatting with young man
Cops stop Dean and bust Impala taillights—bad move, guys…
Cop found 17 different IDs in Impala for Dean
Super Dean overpowers cop even wearing cuffs and gets key
Cop: ‘You can’t take on the Stynes…They’re practically gods around here’—Dean: ‘Well, I kill gods’
Dean wasn’t excessively brutal to cops and he left them both alive
Sam takes down Crowley with devil’s trap bullet and Rowena’s hex bag
Sam: ‘Will you just die already?’—Crowley: ‘That’s what I get for trying to be the good guy…I thought if I did better I might actually feel something again, that it might matter’—Sam: ‘It doesn't matter. Maybe everybody else forgot about all the bad you've done, but I haven't! I have watched you kill people, Crowley. Innocent people! People I cared about, people I loved!...at the end of it you are a monster…’—Crowley: ‘You're right. I am a monster. And I've done bad. I've done things you can't even imagine…So thank you Sam. For reminding me who I really am’—uh-oh
Crowley overcomes attempt to kill him—he really is powerful—but leaves Sam alive
Dean to Styne: ‘You flatline me, I will come back…and then you’ll all die’—Styne: ‘And we’ll let you go, then what? You’ll just mosey on?’—Dean: ‘No but I will be human so maybe a few of you live’
Dean lets the mark take over and massacres all the Stynes
Elden just blows in the bunker door??? Really???
Pours gasoline over books—Nooo!!!
Dean: ‘Your old man's dead. They're all dead. So you can save me the speech on the three hearts, the two spleens, the seven nipples, for the ladies...or the fellas, I don't judge. But even with all that, you still only have one brain’—Dean shoots Eldon in the head—Gotta say, I was happy about that kill
Cyrus pleads for his life: ‘You don’t need to do this’—Dean: ‘Yeah, I do’—and nonono, he kills Cyrus who didn’t deserve it
Dean rejects help from the book because it will exact a price—Cas: ‘Maybe you could fight the Mark for years. Maybe centuries, like Cain did. But you cannot fight it forever. And when you finally turn, and you will turn... Sam, and everyone you know, everyone you love...they could be long dead. Everyone except me. I'm the one who will have to watch you murder the world. So if there's even a small chance that we can save you, I won't let you walk out of this room’—Brutal beating of Cas, Dean stabs down and we don’t see for a minute that he stabbed book not Cas
‘You and Sam stay the hell away from me. Next time I won’t miss’

218. Brother’s Keeper (10.23)—W: Carver/D: Sgriccia
Road so Far starts with the ‘Fan Fiction’ version of ‘Carry On,’ then transitions into Kansas version
Sam: ‘… the only way I know how to save my brother is to cure the Mark. And, yes, I know there will be consequences, but not you, not Dean, not anybody can tell me what those consequences are. So I'm not gonna let my brother destroy himself on a guess. We save Dean’
Dean in suit on case
Dean says teenage victim dressed like a whore—he has lost empathy for victims
Dean insults Rudy’s skill, tells him to leave
Cas reads Rowena’s mind to find out who she loves
Dean provokes the vamp into killing Rudy (shades of soulless Sam)
Sam shows up looking for Dean, wearing suit
Cas gets Crowley to find the spell ingredients
Dean trashes motel room—he has enough awareness to know he is off the reservation
Sam finds Impala, then Dean’s room, finds keys and note ‘She’s all yours’ (How did Dean get out to the building without the Impala?)
Dean summons Death to kill him, offers homemade Mexican food
Death explains god locked away Darkness and the mark is both lock and key—he can only move it to someone else to keep Darkness locked up—he offers to relocate Dean somewhere he can’t hurt anyone
Dean calls Sam to come say good-bye
Crowley collects the young man he talked to last episode and we find out he was little boy that Rowena loved when his family took her in when she was in trouble
Sam: ‘You don’t need to go with him. You don’t need to die’—Dean: ‘Funny you say that…I thought the only way out was my death. Well I was wrong, Sam, it’s yours’—Death: ‘Even if I remove Dean from the playing field, we're still left with you, loyal, dogged Sam, who I suspect will never rest until he sets his brother free…’—Sam: ‘You traded my life’—Dean: ‘It’s for the greater good. Once you consider that, this makes all the sense in the world…Remember when we were in that church…about to close the gates of hell?...You were ready to die for the greater good then’—Sam: ‘And Dean, you pulled me back’—Dean: ‘And I was wrong…You knew that this world would be better without us in it…Evil tracks us and it nukes everything in our vicinity…It’s time we put a proper name to what we really are and we deal with it’—Sam: ‘We’re far from perfect, but we are good. That thing on your arm is evil but not you, not me…You were willing to summon death to make sure you could never do any more harm…that’s not evil, Dean…that is a good man crying to be heard, searching for some other way’
Sam starts the fight
Sam: ‘You will never, ever hear me say that you…the real you…is anything but good…Before you hurt anyone else, you have to be stopped at any cost. I understand. Do it.’—Dean: ‘Close your eyes…Sammy, close your eyes’—Sam handing Dean family pictures: ‘Take these. And one day, when you find your way back... Let these be your guide. And they can help you remember what it was to be good...what it was to love’—Sam’s speech feels way melodramatic for a Winchester…
Dean: ‘Forgive me’—and he kills death instead of Sam—Whoa!
Rowena kills the young man as she hugs him and does spell
Spell removes mark
Rowena frees herself and puts attack dog spell on Cas, vanishes
Boys have a minute of ‘everything’s fine’ and then the Darkness erupts and surrounds the car
Darkness cloud looks an awful lot like demon cloud from previous seasons
That is an awful cliffhanger but at least they are together…

Overall this season had a tense main theme—would Dean go dark again? as opposed to one ‘big bad,’ although Rowena and Metatron were both causing trouble (and annoying the heck out of me!) Dean’s struggle with the Mark was a little uneven, but the majority of the episodes did at least show some behavior concerns along with talking about it, unlike the way Sam’s broken wall was ignored is season 7. I also realized how much more I enjoy episodes that are strictly about Sam and Dean as opposed to ones that cut back and forth among 2 or 3 plotlines.