Photo: Colin Bentley/The CW
“How the hell are we supposed to fight God?” Dean Winchester asked in a recent episode of SUPERNATURAL. Since this is the mid-season finale and not the series finale, we’re going to assume they probably won’t be defeating God anytime soon, but they’re definitely making some big moves.
We catch up with God himself in a casino, where we see that he has free reign of the place with everyone else unconscious on the floor, except for a lone waitress bringing him drinks.
Meanwhile, Sam has tracked down a newly resurrected Eileen, who has returned to hunting with a nearby job. She and Sam return to the bunker, where Dean has come up with an idea: the Demon Tablet. Sam is tasked with reminding the audience what the Demon Tablet is about by filling in Eileen. In any event, Dean suspects God might have a weak spot because he gave instructions to humans how to defeat all manner of monsters in case he wasn’t available. Enter Donatello, who is brought to the bunker by Cas. The Winchesters suggest that since Chuck overpowered and imprisoned his sister, they might be able to do the same to him. They can’t kill him because creation would fall apart without the balance of God existing, but they might be able to lock him away. Donatello thinks this whole plan is crazy, because it required the power of God last time, which these guys clearly don’t have. But he’s game for trying to translate the tablet. He also requests that they shoot him if he goes crazy again.
Donatello notices that the tablet scribe had made some personal notes: “the Almighty guards his secret fear, but it is always there”. That catches the attention of Cas and the brothers, although they don’t know what the fear is. They do know that God’s “favorite” will know the truth, and they realize that that being is actually Michael, who is still possessing Adam. Chuck soon joins the party, having possessed Donatello. He tells the guys that he usually likes their little games, but they need to let this go. Otherwise, he’ll go all powerful wrath on their friends.
Dean sends Donatello back home, while Cas asks if they should drop it. Dean and Sam insist they need to take Chuck down to protect everyone. So they’re headed to Hell to talk to Michael, not believing that he’s truly crazy as Chuck and Lucifer suggested. Using one of Rowena’s spells, the Winchesters and Castiel get transported to Hell while Eileen stays behind in the bunker. They’re greeted in Hell by three demons who immediately start beating them up and they’re all quickly disarmed and beaten down.
But a familiar face comes to their rescue: Rowena! Turns out she is now the Queen of Hell after taking the throne post-death. She’s surprised they think they can try to reign in Chuck and reiterates that Michael has gone nuts. He’s also not in the cage and could be anywhere, so she sends her minions to find the archangel.
Meanwhile, another hunter named Sue calls the brothers and is shocked to find Eileen is alive again. Sue asks her for some help on a case, but Eileen can’t leave her post just yet. Down in Hell, Rowena insists that Sam killing her is the best thing that ever happened to her. She sends him off to refill her drink and then tells Dean and Castiel that they should repair their friendship after their recent dispute.
But where is Michael? Not in Hell according to a demon who comes back to report to the queen. Instead, he’s up on Earth. Actually, Adam is eating a bunger in a diner and we realize that he’s talking to Michael in his own head, although Michael looks just like Adam, except no one else can see him. Neither knows what they’re going to do next because both of them have lost their families.
Back from Hell, Dean calls Donatello to see if he’s felt any surges of power recently. When he hasn’t, Dean talks to Sam about Eileen, trying to suss out what’s going on between them. Dean says he tried the family thing. Sam did as well and says it didn’t work. But Dean thinks that Eileen gets their life and could fit in. Sam doesn’t seem to have made up his mind about anything.
Lilith (still inhabiting the body of the blonde girl from a recent episode) soon stops by the diner with a proposition – God wants a word with Michael. He isn’t eager to be reunited with dear old dad, so they both unleash some power that Donatello feels. It succeeds in banishing Lilith, but everyone else in the diner is freaked out until Michael erases their memories. Donatello calls Dean to say he knows where Michael is: Cairo, Egypt. So Castiel suggests they bring Michael to them via prayer. Cas sympathizes with Michael as he prays to him. He tells him that Heaven isn’t what it was and his father isn’t who Michael used to know. In fact, they all have the same enemy now: God, himself.
This all seemingly worked because Michael is soon reunited with Cas outside of the bunker. But it was all a trap, because Castiel encircles Michael inside a ring of holy fire and the Winchesters enter the warehouse. Using their special handcuffs, they bring Michael back to the bunker. The archangel confronts them about leaving Adam in Hell for all of those years and then brings Adam to the forefront so that the brothers can apologize to him. Adam explains that he and Michael came to an agreement in the cage whereby Adam can take control of his body periodically. Michael soon puts a stop to that conversation and keeps insisting God will usher in paradise, but Dean says they’re all Chuck’s puppets, especially Michael.
In another head conversation, Adam tries to tell Michael that Sam and Dean might not be lying about the situation. Michael still isn’t eager to believe his father has gone evil and he doesn’t want to be the bad son by doubting him. But as Adam rightly points out, Chuck left Michael in the cage to rot for all those years.
Sue calls Eileen back, asking for her help and off Eileen goes, bringing Sam with her as they race to help their fellow hunter on a hunt gone wrong. Meanwhile, Castiel has a little heart-to-heart with Michael, saying that Chuck betrayed him too. But now he just pities Michael because he was just a tiny part of God’s overall story. He invokes Lucifer’s name, saying that the devil always knew God couldn’t be trusted and he was the smart one. Michael doesn’t believe it and attacks Cas, but Cas uses their proximity to show him a memory recap of Chuck revealing the truth.
That seems to do the trick. Later, we see Dean and Cas have a tense conversation about revealing the truth to Michael. Soon after, the bunker starts shaking and they head into Michael’s room. He’s broken now, saying that God never truly loved him. He’s not even the only Michael, after all. Meanwhile, Eileen and Sam pull up to Sue’s last known location, ready to help her fight the vampires. But it turns out Sue wasn’t actually Sue, it was Chuck in disguise and he lured Sam to him.
Back in the bunker, Michael says what was done to the Darkness can be done to God, if he’s as weak as the Winchesters claim. And he knows how – via a spell. But to bind the spell together they need the nectar from the Leviathan blossom, which only grows in one place: Purgatory. Michael opens up a portal to Purgatory and Dean removes the cuffs from him. He refuses to go with them, but agrees to let Adam talk to Dean again. Dean tells his half-brother that they are sorry for what happened to him and that he’s a good man who didn’t deserve it. “Since when do we get what we deserve?” Adam asks ruefully. He wishes Dean good luck and then heads out.
We end SUPERNATURAL’s mid-season finale with Dean and Castiel staring at the portal to Purgatory, planning their next move.