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This week, Dean travels to Idaho to investigate a case with Cas, who now works in a convenience store. Sam and Kevin stay in the bunker and try to get Crowley to translate part of the angel tablet.

Spoilers below.

The episode starts out with a man wearing a cross earring zapping a suicidal man with magenta light. That’s a new one.

Castiel is working at a gas station convenience store in Rexford, Idaho, in a cute purple striped shirt and blue uniform vest. He goes by Steve now and is pretty much completely adorable. The manager, Nora, is impressed by him and tells him he’s special. Cas is too hung up on fitting in and seeming normal that he doesn’t recognize this as a compliment.

At the Men of Letters bunker, Kevin shows Sam and Dean he’s translated the tablet into cuneiform and then unreadable Elamite. The only thing Kevin is able to read is “fallen angels.” The boys figure if they can translate the footnotes from Elamite, maybe they can reverse the spell and send the angels back up.

Cas calls Dean, saving him from researching all of the ancient dead languages with Sam and Kevin. Four people have died and their bodies are not being released to family, Cas explains, while accidentally dumping the contents of a blue slushie machine all over the floor.

Nora finds overnight stuff and a sleeping bag in the supply closet of the store. Cas says he stayed there one night to be thorough with inventory. Oh man. He doesn’t even have a home. You’re killing me, Cas. Nora asks him if he’s free that night and he says yes. He smiles a bit after she runs off, which is awesome. I’m glad he knows what he agreed to and is happy about it.

Dean investigates the magenta deaths. The windows on the suicidal man’s house are still magenta. All of the victims were unhappy, depressed and or suicidal. Dean goes inside the house, where everything is pink. Dean asks the sheriff if it’s blood. He replies, “If the tests come back same as the others, it’s everything. Blood, skin, hair, nails, internal organs, even clothing fibers. Like these poor souls got run through the world’s finest wood chipper.” Uh. That’s gross. I didn’t realize the end result would be Pepto Bismol.

Dean finds Cas and watches him from outside.

A high school girl whose boyfriend just broke up with her in public, says to a friend on her cell phone, “I’m so embarrassed. I could just die.” The cross earring dude shows up, says, “I can help with that,” and then Peptos her. Okay, everyone. It’s official. Be careful what you say in Idaho.

Cas prints out a lottery ticket for a woman, enthusiastically giving her a thumbs up while telling her good luck. She thinks he’s weird. Well, screw you, lady. Bad luck to you. Right behind her is Dean, who is not very encouraging about Cas’s new line of work. Dean: “Wow. So you went from fighting heavenly battles to nuking taquitos.” Cas: “Nachos, too.”

Sam asks Crowley for help reading the Elamite. He refuses and Sam points out he was there when Crowley’s humanity came out. Sam: “Like it or not, there’s still a little part of you that’s not a douche.” Crowley: “Sorry, moose. To the last drop.” Sam threatens to give him to Abaddon and a bristled Crowley takes the Elamite paper, crumples it up at throws it at Sam’s face.

Dean tells Cas he’s above this job but Cas disagrees, saying he failed as an angel and there’s a dignity in what he does now. Cue Nora, who tells him there’s been an accident in the bathroom. Dean thinks Cas is just working there for Nora, which is probably the only reason Dean would ever work there. Cas: “Nora, she’s a very nice woman. I’m pretty sure she’s not a reaper intent on killing me and she’s asked me out.”

Dean convinces Cas to go with him to investigate the dead girl at the high school. Once there, Cas is shaken as he’s seen this before in Heaven and it’s very, very bad. In Heaven, the Rit Zien, or “hands of mercy” in Enochian, were a class of angels that put down those who were past saving. Trouble is, the angel can’t tell the difference between normal human pain and all encompassing, verge of death pain, so everyone is in danger.

Crowley agrees to translate in exchange for a phone call, which involves human blood and not anything resembling a phone.

Dean drops Cas off at Nora’s place but not before helping him look more date-ready and giving him actually helpful advice. Cas cuts a rose from outside Nora’s place and then waves Dean away, like a teenager embarrassed by his parents.

Turns out Nora asked Cas to her house because she has a date with someone else and needs a sitter for her baby. Aw, Cas. With the rose still behind his back, she leaves. His face falls, he puts the rose down and buttons his shirt back up.

Crowley wants Kevin’s blood for the call, not Sam’s. Kevin refuses, then draws the blood out himself like a badass. You’ve grown up a lot since we first met you. Crowley blood-calls Abaddon but is treated like a nobody and is placed on hold.

Back at Cas’s adventures in babysitting, baby Tanya that never cries is crying full force. Cas: “Hello? Please, please don’t.” Cas picks up Tanya and sings her “Believe It or Not,” the theme to The Greatest American Hero, which stops her crying. She immediately starts up again when he puts her down. It’s really not possible for him to be more adorable right now.

The sheriff calls Dean and lets him know the first Pepto’d couple’s remains were examined and it only contains the wife’s DNA. The husband was an out there religious nut who listened to Buddy Boyle, that preacher we saw earlier in the season that encourages people to let angels in, like all the way, possessed in. Dean recognizes the husband’s truck from a photo as the truck that tried to block Dean in at Nora’s place.

Cas talks to Tanya about how hard it is to be thrust out into the world without knowing what’s going on. Cas calls Nora, leaving her a message that Tanya is burning up. He checks his phone, presumably reading a message from Dean, opens the door and finds the Pepto angel right on the porch.

The angel, Ephraim, knows Cas and calls him a legend. Cas asks him to stop killing and Ephraim replies he won’t, “until I wash the planet clean of all suffering.” Cas stands between Ephraim and Tanya. “You think I came for her,” Ephraim says. “No, Castiel. I came for you.”

Ephraim found Cas, despite being warded, by following the sound of his pain. Ephraim: “You have no idea how loud it is. I could hear you for miles.” Cas paints an angel button on a glass door in his blood but Ephraim catches him. Good luck explaining that to Nora.

Abaddon tells Crowley she’s doubled his soul numbers, taking souls before their time is up. Abaddon pushes further, taunting Crowley that he has nothing left. He warns her, “Your way will backfire. You will burn.” She replies, “I can’t wait.” The call ends and Crowley begins translating, saying, “I keep my agreements.” Crowley reads the spell is irreversible. Well, that’s a problem.

Dean bursts in with an angel sword but Ephraim quickly knocks him into a wall. Ephraim, to Cas: “By choosing a human life, you’ve already given up. You chose death.” He touches Cas’s forehead and Dean immediately slides Cas the angel sword. Cas kills Ephraim without hesitation.

Sam calls Dean to tell him they can’t put the angels back in Heaven. Sam asks if he’s going to tell Cas.

Dean’s outside Nora’s place while Cas says goodbye to Nora, apologizing for ruining her date by overreacting. She tells him the date wasn’t working out anyway. Nora: “The part of you that overreacted, that cares so much? That’s what makes you special.” Dean asks Cas where to take him and a defeated Cas says nothing and gets in the car.

Sam notices another of the syringes is missing and spies Crowley injecting himself with Kevin’s blood.

Dean tells Cas he’s proud of him, for the way he’s adapted. Cas worries about not taking care of the angels. Dean says he and Sam will take care of the angels and that since Cas is human, it’s not his problem anymore. Cas, more troubled than before, goes about his daily routine at the store.

Oh man. Poor Cas! He just can’t win. I feel terribly for him. I feel even worse that Dean can’t tell Cas why he couldn’t stay in the bunker. The bit with Crowley is interesting, too. Just like the angels can’t go back to Heaven, I don’t think Crowley can go back to being his old non-caring self.

What made this episode for me was the look into Cas’s new life. It’s easy to brush off the things he does, Cas-isms, I suppose, as silly or cute but there’s clearly a lot of pain going on in there. I feel very badly for him. He’s lost his grace, his home and everything he knows. Like Dean said that, he has adapted well and I’m proud of him, too.

Next week, it looks like we’re back to our roots with Sam and Dean on a case with a potentially evil kid and creepy, ghosty, super dead people haunting a house.

What did you think of this episode? How do you think Crowley’s humanity addiction will play out this season? Are you worried about Cas? Do you think others from Ephraim’s class of angels will become a major problem? Let me know what you think below.

Bonus Points:

Dean answers a call Agent Lee Ermey. R. Lee Ermey is an actor known for his role as hard ass Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. Among his many, many credits, you might know him as Sarge from the Toy Story movies.