PopSyndicate.com

Forget Heroes. Supernatural is quickly becoming this TV season’s big event.

A woman wakes up to find her electronics on the fritz and runs to her closet, revealing a wide assortment of weapons and a familiar looking EMF – revealing herself to be a hunter. Soon, a pasty-faced ghost appears – and one that is familiar to her. She dispatches it with a shotgun and retreats behind a line of salt, but another ghost appears right behind her, closing in on her right before the title rolls.

At Bobby’s place, Dean is still fuming over Castiel’s angelic revelation. A fierce atheist, Dean refuses to accept the existence of angels – or the God which they serve. However, Sam is much more open to the possibility, and Bobby admits lore tells of angels saving souls from Hell. Still, Dean is skeptical, but willing to sort through the loads of information Bobby has on angels – so long as Sam brings him some pie.

Going to get groceries, Sam talks to Ruby, who also knows of Dean’s divine encounter. When Sam confirms it, she tells him good-bye – clearly startled by the appearance of the angel and extremely fearful of meeting one face-to-face. When Sam returns, he finds Dean and Bobby packing up the car to check on Olivia – the hunter seen in the beginning of the episode. Dean and Sam follow Bobby, though Dean notes Sam has forgotten his pie. At the house, the three of them discover Olivia’s body torn to shreds. Bobby calls several other hunters and receives no response – at least one other hunter is dead not far from there.

Sam finds it cold and chilly in a gas station bathroom - so much so that the bathroom mirror is frozen open. Wiping it away, he sees Agent Hendrickson standing beside him. With a flicker of his image, Hendrickson confirms he did not survive and accuses Sam of leaving him and the others to die at Lilith’s hand. He begins thrashing Sam until Dean enters the room and blasts the phantom away. At his house, Bobby has a similar encounter with two ghostly twin girls.

Dean and Sam re-enter Bobby’s house to search for him, splitting up to do so. While Sam searches the junkyard, Dean is confronted by the ghost of Meg Masters – the ill-fated host of a demon Sam and Dean battled in the first season. Like Agent Hendrickson, Meg blames Dean for exorcising the demon from her body and inadvertently bringing about her death. As she digs into the apologetic Dean, she talks about the anguish she felt as she watched the demon kill people while she watched trapped within her own body, knowing that her family never knew what happened to her. Sam, meanwhile, realizes Bobby is being tormented by the little girls in one of the junkyard cars when he notices the frost on the windshield. Sam saves Bobby from the girls while Dean shoots a chandelier above Meg, dispelling the spirit with their common weakness – iron.

The three of them retreat to Bobby’s supernatural “panic room” – a basement room with salt-encrusted walls constructed of iron and surrounded by devil’s traps that Bobby made “when he had a weekend off.” Safe from the ghosts, they use their resources to figure out their origins. Dean noticed a brand on Meg’s wrist and Sam saw a similar one on the twins. Bobby identifies the brand as the Mark of the Witness – a sign of the Apocalypse. However, the Mark can be undone by a spell, but of course; none of the ingredients are in the panic room.
Exiting the panic room, the three of them find Ron, the would-be skinwalker hunter, at the foot of the stairs. Dean starts to joke with Ron, but when it’s clear dead Ron isn’t in a joking mood, Bobby shoots the spirit with an iron round, and the three proceed upstairs. Lying salt around the fireplace, the three of them begin the ritual as ghosts attacked them from all sides. Meg has some choice words for Sam, calling him a monster as he engages in a sexual relationship with Ruby, who has burned through body after body. Sam has no answer for her other than a shotgun, perhaps proving her right.
Dean finds himself cornered by Hendrickson, who reveals he and the other victims were tortured by Lilith for forty-five minutes. Saved by Sam, Dean and his brother return to Bobby as he begins to undo the spell. The spirits unleash a final salvo though, with a roaring wind bursting through the window. Dean and Sam cover Bobby by repelling the spirits, but soon the twins overpower Sam and Dean is out of ammo. Getting behind Bobby, Meg thrusts her arm inside of him, causing him to drop the bowl of ingredients, but Dean catches it and throws it inside of the fireplace, igniting the room in a brilliant which watches away the spirits. As the Winchesters help Bobby back on his feet, they breathe a sigh of relief.
That night, Dean wakes up to find Castiel standing in the kitchen. He congratulates Dean on the Witnesses but Dean is far from happy to see Castiel, berating him over the violence he has seen while God apparently does nothing. Castiel reminds him angels are not guardians – they are warriors of God, caught in a bigger battle. He explains the Witnesses are a seal broken by Lilith. When enough of the six hundred and sixty six other seals are broken, Lucifer walks the Earth. When Dean continues to chide Castiel, the angel leaves him with an ominous warning: he dragged Dean out of Hell and he can toss him back.

Waking up from the dream, Dean talks to Sam. He confirms Sam believes in God and the angels, and next asks him the million dollar question: if you believe in all of that, do you also believe in the Devil? Sam asks him why. Dean gives him a meaningful look as the episode comes to a close.

Usually, the “You’re responsible for my death” troupe is the worst kind played in a variety of genres. In comics alone, I know Jason Todd used it and so did several undead Avengers at one point. But here, it’s different. Here, these spirits – though bewitched – have some reason to be genuinely angry. Meg especially is an excellent example of “bad crap happening to good people.” She’s a good person effectively destroyed by evil, and the Winchesters have to own up to it, one way or the other. While Dean is clearly moved by her presence, Sam has little to say when she delves into his dark relationship with Ruby. Fans are most vocal about Sam’s sexual relationship with a parasitic demon, and this episode speeds right into it.

The re-appearance of Meg actress Nicki Aycox is bittersweet. Though some fans bemoaned the notion of her joining the cast after she was freed from the demon, those same fans found a far worse notion with the forced and artificial entry of Ruby. I’ve always wanted them to have a reoccurring character who was a survivor of a long-term demon possession, but the episode examines many of those same elements, such as the abuse demons post on their host’s bodies, their emotions and ultimately their families.

The show’s ads have often touted the Apocalypse, but often fell short in prior seasons. Here, finally, the stage is set with seals, Lilith and the angels. Castiel’s ending scene, like last time, was exceptionally effective, though I’m a bit torn by his closing remarks. On one hand, Castiel is depicted as a solider through and through. He is more like the edgy angels of Dante Alighieri than the Michael Landon variety. But on the other hand, his mercy clearly has limits – unlike the Lord’s. Is this Castiel just showing his battle fatigue or is there something more sinister at work?

It’s interesting that both this week’s Heroes premiere and Supernatural all come back to the Book of Revelations. We’ve seen plenty of apocalypses in television before – all throughout the Whedonverse. But we’ve rarely seen the grand scale Kripke has applied, ranging from Castiel’s epic appearance last week to the subversively sinister Witnesses this week. Supernatural may not have the viewership or the budget it deserves, but neither has changed the fact the show is already two episodes into delivering its best season yet.

5