The CW Network, LLC.

In the mid-season finale, the drama with Ezekiel intensifies as opposing groups of angels massacre each other. Cas joins Sam and Dean to investigate.

The episode begins with a big damn angel massacre. The Melody Ministries Glee Club, possessed by angels, travels to a bar full of bikers, also possessed by angels. The bikers tell the holy rollers they shouldn’t be there but that’s apparently debatable as the glee club kills all of the bikers with their angel blades.

Sam and Dean head to Wyoming to investigate and Dean has a chat with Zeke along the way. Zeke insists Sam is getting better, it won’t take much longer and that he hasn’t been listening in on every conversation between Sam and Dean. Five bucks says that last promise comes back to bite Dean, and all of us, right in the ass.

Zeke checks out and Sam blinks through before the conversation is over, adding an extra element of untrustworthiness to our dear Zeke. Sam notices Fort Collins is not the hundred miles away it was seconds ago. It’s now fifty miles away. Dean tries to blame it on Vesta from last week and the trials from last season but Sam doesn’t buy that’s why he can’t remember huge bits of time.

Dean: “You’re not up to warp speed yet but you will be. Would I lie?”

To save your brother? A thousand times yes. There’s not enough time in the day to write out exactly how many times Dean has lied to protect Sam. But nice try, darling.

Sam and Dean arrive at the bar and find Cas, decked out in a suit, also posing as FBI. Sam playfully calls Cas “Agent” while Dean takes a disapproving approach, probably so Zeke inside his brother doesn’t explode, killing Sam and ripping a hole in time and space. Or something like that.

Cas explains he thought he could help and it was worth the risk. Cas, happy and confident: “Hey. Cas is back in town.” Dean: “Seriously, did you–did he just say that?” Cas then says the angels were murdered with “much more violence than is required.”

Upbeat, Cas promises they’ll figure out who did it. Zeke blinks in after Cas walks away, pissed as all get out. You’re just eating popcorn and watching Winchester TV in there, aren’t you, Zeke?

Elsewhere, there’s an angel caucus in a dark parking lot at night. Malachi, the angel heading up the holy rollers, is disappointed Bartholomew has sent his lower level Robin Scherbatsky to be his emissary instead of showing up himself. Bartholomew, you know, the dude we haven’t heard about in months.

These two groups talking is a lot like the adults in Charlie Brown but the important information is that the angels have to unite to take Metatron down and out of heaven. Robin says Bartholomew won’t negotiate so Malachi takes out Robin and her whole crew. Goodbye. Don’t care. Humans over angels, yo.

Sam, Dean and Cas are at a bar and Cas is very happy to be with them. He’s even having his first beer as a human. When Cas goes to get more beer, Zeke blinks in, as evidenced by all the joy draining from the room and, of course, Jared Padalecki’s angry, flaring nostrils. I did not miss those.

Zeke drives Sam outside for a minute, under the guise of getting something out of the car. You really don’t lock that car, Dean? You should. Zeke runs into Metatron, who says, “I know who you really are and it isn’t Ezekiel.” And, we’re screwed.

Cas tells Dean he’s noticed Dean’s uncomfortable whenever Cas’s leaving is brought up and asks if Sam knows Dean told him to leave. Dean gives Cas the good old speech about how he’ll do anything to help Sam and how messed up Sam was after the trials. He also tells Cas it’s good to have him helping but they can’t work together. Cas looks hurt or confused. Maybe both. It’s Cas we’re talking about here.

Outside, in Betrayal Alley, Metatron says he’s not going to expose Not Zeke. He’s curious why Not Zeke chose to say he’s Ezekiel.

Not Zeke, rather emotional: “They say he is a good and honorable angel.”
Metatron: “Ah. Everything they say you are not. I see your point, Gadreel.”

Okay, so captioning spells it Gadreel but I hope it’s Gadriel, because that goes more with the whole angel naming theme. Plus, it’s just better.

Gadriel (I’m going with this) says, “the stories about me, they are not true.” Metatron says Gadriel was “locked in heaven’s darkest dungeon” for thousands of years. We have the potential for a deeply tormented but innocent angel here. Like Cas, times thousands of years.

Metatron: “It broke his heart to lock you away, you know. You were God’s most trusted. That’s why he chose you to protect the garden.”

You don’t get more emotionally tortured than the angel who allegedly let the serpent into the garden of Eden. You’d think God would know if that was true or not. Gadriel swears it wasn’t his fault. Oh, you poor thing.

Metatron says he wants to be Gadriel’s friend and that he freed him. Gadriel is shocked to find out all of the angels have fallen from heaven, including his fellow imprisoned angels.

Metatron has grown bored of being alone up there. Insert hard eye roll here. Metatron proposes they rebuild heaven without the weak and stupid angels and perhaps keep some funny ones. He promises this will put heaven back as it was meant to be and fix Gadriel’s reputation.

Back at the bunker, Sam’s internet search skills turn up that the bikers were all born again and call themselves Boyle’s Boys, for Reverend Buddy Boyle. They realize they’re dealing with a new group since Boyle’s Boys, Bartholomew’s angels were killed by the holy rollers.

Speaking of, one of the glee clubbers speaks to a bible study group in the woods. She teaches them to welcome angels in, in the name of Malachi while white, swirly angel light flies above them. She gets angel-bladed by suit wearing angels, and the entire study group gets burned from the inside out. Ouch.

Metatron and Gadriel, driving Sam, meet under an overpass to discuss how humans are weird and too emotional. Gadriel: “Sam Winchester. It is a mess in here. And the brother? I do not know where to start.” Metatron offers to rid Gadriel of the Winchesters and all of humanity.

Gadriel, catching a bit of a clue here, asks Metatron if he will rule heaven and become God. Metatron argues that’s semantics, the classic response of someone up to no good. He says he’ll go by X when he takes over as New God, a burden Metatron pretends to not want.

In a motel room, Cas kneels on the floor beside the bed, straightens his tie and says, “Okay, I’m unfamiliar with this end of the process. ‘Course, no one may be listening, um, but I–I do need assistance.” In a series of quick cuts, we see him praying in all the prayer positions of different religions. Day turns to night and still, there’s no response. Cas: “I don’t know how humans do it.”

Angel Muriel shows up outside Cas’s door but when she realizes it’s him, she turns to leave. “It can’t be known that I even spoke to you,” she says. He begs for her to stay for just a moment.

In the bunker, Kevin tells Dean the last part of the tablet is “nearly indecipherable,” like Metatron didn’t want anyone to know about reversing the fall from heaven spell. Yeah, there’s a good chance of that.

Dean puts it together that the holy rollers biker massacre and the forest church group massacre are connected by the same glee club woman. They realize the angel fight has escalated.

Muriel, having listened to Cas’s story of Metatron betrayal, clues him in on what’s been going on with the angels. She says if angels don’t choose which faction they join, Bartholomew or Malachi’s, they are tortured and sometimes killed. Muriel is neutral but insists angels like her are becoming few and far between.

Just then, an angel breaks down the door. Right after, we’re in Malachi’s angel torture location. Cas and Muriel are in bad shape and an angel can be heard screaming from another room. Malachi says they had been following Muriel and that’s how they found Cas. Muriel didn’t know.

Cas insists, for what must be the hundredth time, he doesn’t know how to reverse Metatron’s spell. Malachi lets door kicker angel, Theo, loose on Cas and Theo cuts into him with the angel blade. Malachi then has Theo kill Muriel to hurt Cas. Oh, Muriel. I liked you.

Malachi goes on a rant about how a bunch of angels died horribly when they fell, including Ezekiel. So, the good and honorable angel is dead. Great. The gears in Cas’s brain start whirring at this one. Malachi leaves Cas with Theo, telling him, “I don’t care what’s left.” I truly hope Malachi doesn’t stick around all season because he’s super obnoxious and annoying.

Theo tells Cas to ask Metatron if he’ll beam him up to be a soldier in Metatron’s empty paradise. Theo, about Malachi: “I thought he was the answer but he’s crazy.” Cas: “You’re … noticing this now?” Theo’s sure everyone will die during this war. Cas pretends he is in an alliance with Metatron and Theo frees him.

Cas tells Theo he needs something from him, to which Theo says, “Anything.” And so it was that Cas slit open his throat with the angel blade and ate Theo’s grace. That’s pretty dangerous if all humans can do that. Later, Malachi runs down the stairs to find all the angels de-graced and dead.

Dean asks Kevin if he’s seen Sam and they both agree he’s being going out a lot. Cas calls Dean and gets him up to speed on his renewed angel status and Ezekiel’s deadness. Dean asks Kevin to find a spell that will switch off an angel inside a human so he can warn the human to expel the angel.

Gadriel agrees to become Metatron’s right hand man. Not surprisingly, Metatron asks Gadriel to prove his loyalty by killing enemies of the new regime. Gadriel insists he’s not that guy but Metatron hands him a name anyway.

Kevin and Dean have painted sigils in the storeroom that Kevin is kind of pretty sure will temporarily power down an angel inside a human. He asks Dean what’s going on but Dean tells Kevin he just has to trust him. Kevin replies, “I always trust you. And I always end up screwed.” Dean: “Oh, come on. Always? Not always.”

Dean finds Sam unloading a bunch of beer he says he just picked up and asks to talk to him. In the storeroom with Sam, Dean cuts his hand and hits the angel button with his blood, lighting it up. Dean explains the whole angel inside him mess, insisting he did what he had to do, the phrase everyone is saying in this episode.

Sam’s pissed and Dean promises he can beat him into next week later if he wants to but there’s more. Dean goes on to say Ezekiel is not Ezekiel. NotSam sucker punches Dean and knocks him out cold. He then angel zaps Kevin, killing him, eyes burned out and all. Really. Really, we’re killing Kevin? I hate this. I hate it like poison.

Dean runs in mid-zap and Gadriel throws him against a wall, saying, “There is no more Sam. But I played him convincingly, I thought.” Gadriel then explains he overheard Dean and Kevin talking earlier and he changed the sigil, which changed the spell. He apologizes for killing Kevin but says, “It’s for the best. I did what I had to.” That’s a big old sorry, not sorry right there.

Gadriel places the card Metatron gave him with Kevin’s name on Kevin’s dead body. Gadriel leaves, Dean drops. Half-heartedly, Dean says Kevin’s name twice, before he bows his head and a tear falls from each eye.

Dude.

Not Kevin Tran. So, Metatron officially has to die and die “yesterday, Cinderella.” That goes down with Jo and Bobby as one of the most impactful losses. He deserved a much better out from the show, even if this had a good shock factor. Gadriel is officially on my shit list.

Speaking of, when do we get to have Tahmoh Penikett back? If he hadn’t already before, Gadriel has totally worn out his welcome in Sam now. Time to go. I demand to have Tahmoh back behind the wheel of this angel.

Supernatural comes back January 14th but let’s face it. That’s not going to lessen the burn of losing Kevin. Osric Chau, thank you for the good times and the migraine-ridden, tablet translating, torture enduring bad times, too. I’m sorry this show can’t hold on to humans too well. I hope Mrs. Tran is actually still alive somewhere to avenge Kevin. If not, I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to do it. To Kevin Tran! Best damn prophet there was. We’ll miss you.

What did you think about this episode? What do you think is going to go down in the second half of the season? Let me know your thoughts and predictions in the comments.