Supernatural Episode 7.17 – The Born Again Identity

Sam is running through the back streets, trying to get away from Lucy. He meets a druggie (who maybe takes a liking to him?!) who gives him some happy stuff to knock him out a little after the guy finds out he hasn’t slept. Sam wakes up in the guy’s car (clothes still on, thankfully) and continues his halLucynations. He runs again and ends up getting hit by a car.

Dean heads to the hospital where Sam’s now been locked up in the psych ward for having a “psychotic episode.” The doctor says they’ve pumped Sam up with sedatives to help him go to sleep and that they’ve never seen a case like this before.

Dean visits Sam in his room and tells his little brother they’ll find a way to fix this. But Sam tells Dean not to do this to himself. An upset Dean leaves and heads home to try calling some of Bobby’s contacts, but there’s no one. That is, until Bobby flies in again to help, knocking the planner off the table to reveal the one calling car Dean needs.

Lucy continues toying with Sam, even making him see maggots in his sandwich. A kinda creepy girl watches from the hallway and runs when Sam sees her.

Macky, the guy from the calling card, calls Dean back and tells him about Emmanuel, a guy that seems to be the real deal healing the sick and curing the crazy.

The girl comes back to see Sam, Maryn. She gives Sam a candy bar. Meanwhile, Dean goes to see this Emmanuel fellow. A guy answers the door, but Dean glances into the window to see Daphne, Emmanuel’s wife tied up. The guy turns out to be a demon and Dean quickly takes care of him, rolling him down the steps right to the feet of… Castiel!?

This Castiel-looking fellow is Emmanuel. He appears to have no memory of being Castiel.

Emmanuel agrees to help and he and Dean are on their way to Sam. He tells Dean about how Daphne found him a few months ago near the river, soaked, confused, and naked with no memory.

“What if you were some kind of bad guy?” Dean asks.
“I don’t feel like a bad person.”

Maryn brings Sam another candy bar and tells him her story. She’s been in here for five weeks, the doctor saying she’s psychotically depressed with suicidal tendencies. She feels like crap and just wants it all to be over. Sam talks about hearing a voice in his head, like Charles Manson or the devil, Maryn suggests. She hears one too; her dead brother. He tells her to kill herself so they can be together

Back in the car, Dean tells Emmanuel his story. He’s angry at the guy that did this to his brother, how he feels betrayed and how the guy “broke my brother’s head.”

“Your friend’s name is Cass? That’s an odd name.”

Next day, Dean tells Emmanuel to stay in the car while he goes into the store. But inside come a few demons. Dean is cornered, but coming to save the day… Meg!

She tells Dean that she needs friends. She can’t burn Crowley’s ass with an army of one. And an amnesiac Castiel can certainly help with that goal. She suggests they help each other and Dean reluctantly agrees.

Emmanuel sees Meg’s true face, but she and Dean assure him they’re old friends, even though Meg is itching to just tell Emmanuel everything about his life.

Back at the hospital, Sam tells Maryn he can help her with her brother problem. Sam prepares everything to burn Maryn’s bracelet that her brother gave her stained in his blood. Her brother pops in just before they finish and the room explodes into a mess as he burns up.

She thanks Sam as he tells her to run. But now the doctors think Sam’s psychotic episode has taken a turn for the worse as they tie him up.

Dean, Emmanuel and Meg arrive at the hospital and they see it being patrolled by a group of demons. Meg can’t take it anymore and she comes right out to tell Emmanuel that he’s really an angel.

“Is that a flirtation?”
“No, it’s a species.”

Emmanuel says being an angel sounds pleasant, but then realizes he is the Cass that Dean was talking about.

Dean and Meg try to get him to remember how to bring up the juice since he could easily take care of those patrolling demons. He musters up the courage and walks right up to them and does his forehead touching thing which works. As he smites the rest of them, he gets flashes of his past until he remembers everything.

While a possessed nurse conducts electroshock therapy on Sam, Dean is trying to get Castiel to snap out of his guilt so he can help Sam.

Dean takes out his trenchcoat and that seems to soften Castiel up. He pops into the hospital and takes care of the demon torturing Sam.

“I should have never broken your wall Sam. I’m here to make it right.”

But he can’t. Castiel tells Dean “there is nothing left to rebuild.” Everything in Sam’s head has crumbled, crushed to dust. But a lightbulb goes off in Cass’ head and he says “I might be able to shift it” to get Sam walking again at least. “It’s better this way.”

He walks over to Sam, “If I can’t tell you again, I’m sorry I ever did this to you.”

Castiel touches Sam’s head and somehow transfers… something from Sam into his own body. Now Lucy pops up in Castiel’s head. “Hello brother.”

Sam and Dean head out to the car. Sam is unsure of this plan… leaving Castiel in the psych ward, now with a boarder in his mind. It’s better this way, Dean says and at the very least he’ll be safe. Sam is unsure of trusting Meg, who is inside applying for (and getting) a job as a nurse in the psych ward. But Dean says they have no friends since they’re all dead. They should take what they can get.

Episode Thoughts
I guess this episode is supposed to be resolution to Castiel’s story. And I have to say, it was an efficient way to do so. You could say it is poetic justice to have Castiel locked up with Lucy in a psych ward, but somehow, you still feel a little sorry for him after everything we’ve been through with him and the Bros.

Plus, taking that burden off of Sam (though we don’t really know what he did or if it’s really fixed anything in Sam) helps a little in making up for his douchebaggy power trip.

So overall, a quick, efficient and nice little episode that actually had things you cared about. (Yeah, I still don’t care about the Levia-yawns.)


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