Previously on Supernatural:

Castiel took over some family man named Jimmy Novak and ruined his vocal cords forever. Unable to share much screen time with Dean some years later, Castiel decided to look into having his own storyline and popped back into Jimmy’s daughter’s life.

Currently on Supernatural:

Amelia, who is Jimmy’s widow even if his body is sort of still alive, has a dream about her husband coming back home to her. She totally remembers his hair wrong, though.



Then again, she was hit so hard by loss that she literally became a different person, so I guess it’s to be expected her memories are different, too.



The dream comes to an end when Amelia notices gooey blood appearing on her arm. She recognizes something is wrong, having been through this scenario many times. When she wakes up in the real world, she’s been tied down to a filthy cot. A man cuts into her arm with a scalpel and releases a bit of bluish light. He inhales it like it’s steam off a pot of delicious soup.



He puts her back to sleep with a touch of his hand, sending her back to her dream about Jimmy’s dorky hair.

********



Claire heads into Susie’s Bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hey, Dean just killed a bunch of vamps in Tulsa! What a popular town. Also, that’s two Suzies/Susies in a row. If this one weren’t a bar, it’d probably end up dead, too.

She tips the bartender $50 to point her to a guy named Ronnie Cartwright. I would have tried getting the info for free first, but whatever. I guess I’m not a homeless teenager with unlimited disposable income.

Her mother’s diary said she was meeting with this Ronnie guy right before she disappeared, and that he was supposed to introduce her to a “miracle worker.” She shows him a picture but he says he’s never seen her.

Ronnie leaves the bar and Claire follows him into the alleyway because of course she does. “I don’t know no Amelia Novak,” he says. “I never told you her last name,” Claire points out. She grabs his arm and he shoves her away, right into a dumpster, knocking her out. He’s not a total asshole, though, and calls 911 for help before fleeing the scene.

********



Castiel gets to the hospital, but waits for the Winchesters to arrive before going up to see his not-daughter. Then they just waltz into her room without even knocking, which is just rude. “What are you doing here?” she asks Castiel, then sees Dean. “And why the hell did you bring him?!”

On an unrelated note, what is going on with your hair this week, Sam?

Claire eventually confesses that she’s looking for her mother, so she can “tell her off” for ruining her life. She explains all the stuff from the first scene to catch them up.

The guys head into the hall for a confab. Castiel feels responsible. He did, after all, tell Jimmy he would watch out for his family. He must have heard Amelia’s prayers, right? In between the assorted times he died. “She did disappear trying to hunt down an angel,” Dean muses. “Might be a case.” Sam shrugs: “Yeah, but we don’t know that.”

They agree to help out and go back into the hospital room to tell Claire. She’s managed to escape through the window because she wants to do this on her own instead of letting a literal angel and two guys who are extremely good at finding people help her.

Dean and Castiel drive off for the bar to look for her. There’s that permanent rain cloud again. Also, how far away is the bar? It was bright daylight at the hospital and now it’s night.

Dean thinks it’s nice of Castiel to help Claire, but where does it end? He thinks Claire is better off on her own, stronger.

As soon as Ronnie sees them in the bar, he tries to make a break for it. Dean corners him back into his seat. “Headin’ out to beat down another teenager?” Dean asks. “That bitch attacked me,” Ronnie protests. Dean, not taking kindly to Ronnie’s choice of words, bashes his head into the table. He does it one more time when Ronnie doesn’t immediately give up Amelia’s whereabouts. Ronnie finally agrees to talk.

He confesses that he worked for a faith healer named Peter Holloway who cured him of his blindness. Holloway wanted him to recruit the kind of people nobody would miss. “Some people he healed, but others…” He describes Holloway tying up and cutting into some of those people. After he saw that, he quit. Holloway doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would let someone just quit.

As soon as Castiel and Dean hit the road again, Ronnie calls Holloway with a heads up.

Meanwhile, Sam has intercepted Claire at her motel room. He says he’s impressed with how much she’s managed to do on her own, but that he and the others just want to help.

The topic eventually gets around to moms. Sam says his mom died when he was a baby. “I’m sorry,” she says. “Oh, no, it’s okay, I go to know her later in life,” he says. He explains that death doesn’t always mean goodbye.

Sam volunteers to teach Claire how to hack into her mom’s credit card records and set up her own fake credit cards. Best tutor ever!

********

Holloway pays Ronnie a visit in the alley behind Susie’s. It’s convenient how these alleys are always deserted except for the people who are about to be killed and the people who are about to kill them.

First Holloway takes Ronnie’s sight away from him, then he stabs him with a sword.

That just seems like overkill.

********

Dean and Castiel show up at the motel.

Also, they stopped off to do buy a gift for Claire’s birthday. “I got it at the Hot Topical,” Castiel proudly says of the Grumpy Cat stuffed toy. Dean’s face looks like he’s seen things… too many things.

Sam learns that cops just found Ronnie’s body. Claire assumes Dean killed him, but he defends his innocence. “What happened at the bar?” Sam asks when he has a moment alone with Castiel. “Dean snapped,” Castiel says glumly, “he’s getting worse.”

Okay, a few things here. If you’re going to have Dean getting worse, then you *show* him getting worse. The others have done violent things without any kind of demonic influence this season. The dude’s nose wasn’t even bleeding after his face met the table. It was like a Three Stooges routine with better haircuts. And finally, what is Sam picturing happened? “Dean snapped” is super vague.

******

In the alley, the away team gets a look at Ronnie’s wound. It looks like it was made by angel blade, but with three extra little puncture marks. “Best birthday ever,” Claire grumps. Ronnie’s ghost should pop up at that point and shout, “Your day’s going better than mine is kid!”

Luckily, Sam has found that Holloway owns a farmhouse purchased under his own name outside of town. Stupid villains are so considerate.

Sam and Castiel head out to the farm and leave Dean to stay with Claire, because they’re trying to “keep the Mark in check.”

********

Sam and Castiel take the Impala and that little rain cloud. They decide to use all this sittin’ time to chat. Sam’s advice is the opposite of Dean’s. “Going it alone is no way to live,” he says, advising him to stay in Claire’s life.

Big, bad, getting-worse Dean takes Claire mini-golfing. They proceed to try to out-putt each other and quote golf movies. Dear God, the Mark of Cain has its grips in him deeper than ever!

I like how Dean grunts with effort when he squats down to tee up his ball, but has no difficulty in slaying half a dozen vampires.

They talk about the hunting life. “We help people,” Dean says. “Oh, like Castiel ‘helped’ my dad?” Claire asks.

He says because of Jimmy’s sacrifice, Castiel was able to save the world. “Your father’s a hero,” Dean says. He’s safe up in Heaven now with his terrible hair. “He did not die in vain.”

Nor was this golfing trip in vain, because Claire dropping her putter into the last hole somehow makes Dean realize that the marks on Ronnie’s back were caused by the hilt of an angel sword. They head back to the motel to do some research.

Claire comes upon a picture of the archangel Michael. It’s the same picture that Dean once thought looked like Cate Blanchett, remember?

Instead of Dean being, like, “Hey, I was almost that guy and then my part of the story was abruptly dropped!” he now recognizes the picture as a super-ancient “Grigori” angel. You could have at least used a different angel picture, Show.

When he can’t get Sam or Castiel on their phones, he decides to pack up and head out to the farm. He even gives Claire a gun so she can come with.

********

Meanwhile at the farm, Sam and Castiel have split up. Castiel finds Amelia in the farm, while Holloway finds Sam in the house. Instead of just stabbing Sam in the back like he did Ronnie, he whacks him over the head with a pipe and knocks him out. What is this, Clue?

Castiel discovers he can’t heal her wounds for some reason.

Amelia can tell he’s no longer her husband. His voice is way too gravelly, for starters. Castiel assures her that Jimmy is in Heaven. He apologizes for not looking out for her family, but the plot didn’t require it until this season.

Sam wakes up some time later to find he’s been cuffed to a very tiny chair. His legs look like when a giraffe goes for a drink of water.

Holloway introduces himself, saying his real name is Tamiel. “I’m a Grigori,” he says, “a watcher angel.” He feeds on human souls a little bit at a time. He talks long enough for Sam to pick a nail out of his chair and start picking the lock on his handcuffs.

He talks long enough for Claire and Dean show up, too! Claire and Amelia have their tearful reunion. They’re so happy to see each other, you know it’s going to end in tragedy.

Castiel and Dean head to the house and find Sam’s chair empty and broken. Sam jumps out at them with the same pipe that knocked him out. What a weird-ass transition. Did Tamiel just wander off in the middle of opining? Wouldn’t Sam have followed him, or gone to the barn to look for Castiel?

Indeed, Tamiel has gone to the barn to gloat that Amelia can’t be fixed. Claire shoots him to no effect. When Tamiel moves to stab her, Amelia jumps between them and gets a belly full of angel sword.

Castiel tackles him to the ground. Sam and Dean join in, with fisticuffs ensuing! It’s a pretty standard fistfight, considering the parties involved. For some reason, Dean comes at Tamiel with an angel blade like this:

Just when it looks like Tamiel is going to smite Castiel, Claire pops up behind him and kills Tamiel with his own sword. Then she goes back to cradle her dead mother. It’s actually very sad, if you overlook all the vague plot reasons why it happened.

But, on a happier note, Amelia reunites with Jimmy in Heaven, where his hair isn’t quite as terrible as she remembered it.

********

In the end, the guys decide to send Claire off to Jody’s. In a cab. They couldn’t drive her themselves? They leave her with assorted parting gifts, like a Caddyshack DVD, a credit card, and a book about Enochian myths. Dean advises her about becoming a hunter. “It’s not a long life,” he says.

She apologizes for trying to have him killed and all, and asks him to keep an eye on Castiel. “He’s been through enough.” It’d be easier if they had more screen time together, but I’m sure he’ll try. She surprises Castiel with a big ol’ hug before she gets into her cab. He stares after her like a puppy abandoned on the road.

I give this episode 3 Hellhounds

and a hot topical rub for all your aches:

And now a limerick for animikean, for backing my Kickstarter recap campaign:

Death’s not a goodbye or an always

On a show where rebirth’s a mainstay.

Unless you’re a Harvelle

Or an Adam in hell,

Croaking’s just kind of a holiday.

– Tippi Blevins