And the fourth season finale of Supernatural begins…
One night, St. Mary’s Convent, Ilchester, Maryland, 1972
A black smoke enters a priest putting out the candles in the chapel. The next day he talks to a chapel full of nuns about his father in jail, put there by God, their Father. The demon is revealed to be “good” ol’ YED/Azazel.
Sam and Ruby are at some abandoned house. Ruby asks him if his head is in the game. Feeling Sam’s uneasiness, she says Dean was wrong, but they’ll patch things up later on. Sam says he feels that he’s changed for good. There’s no going back.
“Dean’s better off as far away from me as possible.”
Focus in to Dean and Bobby. Bobby tries to convince Dean to call Sam. He can’t. He says he is sick and tired of chasing after him. He’s not sure if Sam’s still his brother anymore, or if he ever was.
This makes Bobby lose it… “You stupid, stupid son of a bitch. Well boo hoo I am so sorry your feelings are hurt, princess! Are you under the impression that family’s supposed to make you feel good? Bake you an apple pie maybe? They’re supposed to make you miserable! That’s why they’re family!”
“You sound like your dad. Your dad was a coward,” Bobby adds.
Papa Winchester would rather push Sam away than reach out to him.
“You are a better man than your daddy ever was. Don’t be him.”
Dean turns around and he is somewhere else, a very opulent room where Castiel appears who says it’s almost time.
We go to the hospital where Lilith’s “cook” is just about to snatch another baby. In the basement, she gets thrown against the wall and Sam and Ruby appear.
Back to Dean, there’s a table of bear and beef sandwiches. Zachariah and Castiel tell Dean they want to keep him safe, keep him focused and relaxed.
All the seals have fallen, except one.
The final seal, Lilith has to break it. She’s the only one who can.
Lilith’s “cook” is captured. She remarks Sam and Ruby are like A-Rod and Madonna, all roided-up.
Sam demands to know where Lilith is.
She says she’s going to die no matter what happens, so why should she tell them. But Sam decides to torture her.
Dean decides to call Sam. He leaves a message, he’s still pissed, but he shouldn’t have said what he said. “I’m not dad. We’re brothers, we’re family. No matter how bad it gets, that doesn’t change. Sammy, I’m sorry.”
The “cook” says Lililith will be in a convent, St. Mary’s, Ilchester, Maryland to break the final seal tomorrow night at midnight.
She doesn’t know the final seal. She is begging to be killed, but Ruby says Sam will need more juice for the main event.
The demon smiles and decides to take a siesta in the subconscious of her host. The nurse comes back to the forefront and now Ruby and Sam can’t do anything. Sam shoves the girl into the trunk. And they are off.
Flashback to 1972. The massacre is over. Azazel has murdered all the nuns and soon speaks to Lucifer through one of them. Lucifer tells him that he must free Lilith from the bowels of hell and then find a very special child.
Dean asks Castiel to take him to Sam. He doesn’t think that’s wise.
Zachariah tells Dean he isn’t going to kill Lilith. She is going to break the final seal.
Zach doesn’t want to stop it. The apocalypse is coming. Would they really have let 65 seals be broken? “Unless senior management wanted it that way?”
Dean asks Why? And Zach says Why not? He says they’re going to win anyway, and the result? Paradise on Earth. What’s not to like?
“This isn’t the first planetary enema.”
Zach says Sam has a part to play in all of it, and that they’ll make sure he’ll play it.
Zach says Dean has larger concerns. He has a destiny. Nothing’s changed. Dean is chosen. He’ll be the one that’ll stop Lucifer.
And in return, Dean will be rewerded, peace, happiness, everything.
“Where’s God in all this?” Dean asks.
Zachariah replies “God? God has left the building.”
Later, Castiel wants to apologize it had to end like this after all they’ve been through together. Dean punches him, but Castiel’s face is like steel.
All of this has been foretold. It is Dean’s destiny, he says.
Dean says people, families are real. Castiel sees nothing but pain. In paradise, all is forgiven. He’ll be at peace, even with Sam.
Dean would rather have all the pain and guilt than living some stepford life. He pleads with Castiel to help him, if there was anything worth dying for, this is it. Castiel doesn’t agree, Dean calls him a soulless son of a bitch and Castiel disappears.
Sam and Ruby are almost at the convent. But he wants some time.
Sam listens to the message Dean left, but it is the complete opposite of what he had said. Ruby laughs in the back and Sam is now convinced to go through with it.
Dean decides to eat a burger, but Castiel arrives and pins him to the wall. He covers his mouth, Dean understands. Cas slices his arm and takes the blood and makes some kind of marking on the wall. Zachariah appears and asks what he is doing, but Cas preses the symbol and he disappears. Castiel tells Dean that Lilith is the final seal. She dies, and it all begins.
They need to get to Sam. They need to stop him from killing Lilith. Dean and Castiel go to the prophet Chuck. Archangels arrive at the prophet Chuck’s home and Castiel says he’ll hold them off and transports Dean to the convent.
Lilith begins some kind of ritual but Sam and Ruby arrive. Lilith slams the door shut, but Sam opens it and throws Lilith towards the altar.
Sam says he’s been waiting for this moment a long time. Ruby sees Dean in the hallway and slams the door shut. Dean tries to get in and yells for Sam. Sam hears Dean calling for him. He hesitates, Ruby is yelling at him to finish Lilith off.
All Lilith can do is laugh. “You’ve turned yourself into a freak! A monster. And now you’re not going to bite.”
This pushes Sam over the edge, his eyes go black and he finishes off Lilith. Blood begins to flow out of Lilith’s mouth and moves around the floor.
Sam is confused. Ruby says he is free.
She rejoices, celebrates. She is awesome, she was the best, the only one completely loyal to Lucifer. Sam is in shock. He calls her a bitch. She explains all she did was present him the choice to take the blood and he chose the “right” path every time. He didn’t need the blood, “it” was in him the whole time.
Dean finally breaks in, Sam grabs a hold of Ruby and Dean sticks the knife in her.
But it really is too late. The blood has finished its formation of some symbol, a gate perhaps for Lucifer to rise from. A white light comes up from the floor, Sam and Dean stand there in horror, and Supernatural whites out for the season.
Overall
It was an amazing episode. A slow build up to that final confrontation, though not the apocalyptic moment many might have expected, the emotional repercussions for the bros was still very much there.
The episode itself really played to the emotions running through Sam and Dean’s heads before the big moment.
I definitely didn’t expect that cliffhanger since really I assumed they save the world and all will be well.
But of course, nothing is what it has seemed all season long. Everything we thought, just literally smashed.
And that makes for an exciting 5th (and final?) season.
September can’t come soon enough!