After a long break I am continuing my tv series season updates. Let’s start with Season 8 of Supernatural, as we are 6 episodes into the 9th season on tv. Ok so when we left off in season 7, Dean found himself in purgatory along with Castiel but just as some creatures start to surround them, Cas disappears. After fighting it out in that realm for a year, with the aid of a vampire named Benny (Ty Olsson), Dean manages to come back and he also smuggles Benny’s soul out of purgatory and resurrects him before they go their separate ways. Dean meets up with Sam, who has been out of the hunter game and has been living a normal life with a dog and a girlfriend. Kevin Tram has managed to escape from Crowley and is now on the run. The two track him down and learn that he had been kidnapped by Crowley to translate the Demon Word of God tablet. The writing on the Demon Tablet would allow Crowley to open all the gates of Hell, allowing all the demons of Hell out into the world. Additionally, the tablet contained a way to seal the Gates of Hell and banish all demons from the Earth forever. Sam & Dean need to find Kevin’s mother who is guarded by demons, as an incentive to Kevin, and also find that the tablet has been stolen by Plutus and is being auctioned, along with other rare supernatural items.
Sam and Dean are able to save Kevin and Mrs. Tran, but fail to recover the tablet, which Crowley took with him.Kevin takes his mom away in secret, saying that he fears for her life as she is expendable and he doesn’t trust the brothers. Meanwhile, Sam contemplates returning to normal life after the hunt for the Word of God tablet is concluded. Unconnected to the main season arch, there is a great episode about 3 college students who are film makers who are trying to find a mysterious werewolf-type creature who’s been biting and killing students and locals at the college. One of the kids gets bitten and is seduced by the powers & strength he gets so the other guy also gets himself bitten and the two fight for the love of the girl in their trio. The girl kills the boy who bit her in revenge for killing her boyfriend, finishes he movie, leaving a message for Sam and Dean that she will feed off of animal hearts and not harm humans, asking for a chance to live in peace. Benny calls Dean for help and Sam is only told that dean needs some time off to work out some personal issues. Dean helps Benny track & kill his maker who had killed Andrea, the woman that Benny had loved. When they find the maker, who has Amelia, herself now a vampire, they are outnumbered and Dean calls Sam for help. Later, as Sam meets Benny for the first time, and upon realizing that he is not human, Sam has a difficult time not killing Benny. We then learn more of Sam’s lover, Amelia (Liane Balaban) in flashbacks, a woman who had lost her husband Don. We also learn that Dean, while he is under a spell, is actually angry at Sam for not searching for hi while he was in Purgatory.
After Sam and Dean investigate a series of demon abductions, a weakened Castiel appears to them with no memory of how he escaped Purgatory. Dean has some guilt for not saving Castiel. Castiel reveals that he chose not to leave Purgatory with Dean, telling Dean that remaining in Purgatory was his penance for his previous actions. Dean is distressed to learn that Castiel stayed behind of his own volition. The 3 of them rescue Kevin and a few other prophet in waiting from Crowley, who manages to take half of the broken tablet with him before he leaves. Castiel then “checks in” with a higher-level angel, named Naomi (Amanda Tapping), who asks about Sam and Dean and tells him that an army of angels rescued him from Purgatory and that he will not remember these periodic check-ins. Sam gets fellow hunter Martin (Jon Gries) to check up on Benny, who is now in Louisiana. When Dean finds Benny, he is burying another victim and claims that it is a rogue vampire, named Desmond, who is trying to draw Benny back into the fold by killing a victim each time he refuses. Benny is there to look after his great-granddaughter Elizabeth, who is human. Dean & Benny kills Desmond but the unstable Martin takes Elizabeth hostage to get to Benny. Elizabeth calls Dean who returns to find that Benny is gone and Martin is dead. In flashbacks, Sam is shown leaving Amelia to give her a chance with her husband, who is a good man. Upon returning to Texas, he finds Amelia fine and living with her husband, and realizes that Dean tricked him to get him out of the way. Sam calls Dean, angry at him for what he did, and learns of Martin’s death. Sam hangs up on Dean, only to find that Amelia saw him at her window and has come to the bar to see him.
The brothers will continue to clash about Benny but reunites to fight more cases. Sam and Dean are stunned when a man who claims to be Henry Winchester, their grandfather, suddenly appears in their hotel room demanding to know where he can find John Winchester. Henry has time-traveled to stop a demon named Abaddon and was looking for John’s help. Through Henry, Sam and Dean learn more about their father and the Winchester blood line. Kevin deciphers the tablet and figures out how to close the gates of Hell. He tells Sam and Dean that according to the tablet one person must face a series of three tests designed by God. The first one – kill a hellhound. Sam and Dean argue over who should complete the trials. Eventually Sam is the one who starts the tasks. Meanwhile, Dean receives a visit from Naomi and realizes he must find Benny and ask for a huge favor. The physical toll the second trial took on Sam, Dean benches his brother from hunting until he heals up. The boys now have a safe house, the lair of the Men of Letters, which also keeps them safe from demons. So, when geektastic hacker Charlie stumbles upon a case and finds the boys, Dean decides it’s time to teach Charlie how to be a hunter-in-training. In a casino in Colarado, Sam & Dean run into Metatron, a recluse from heaven who may be able to fill in the holes in Kevin’s research. Castiel tries to elude Naomi and the angels hunting him. Sam and Dean reunite with Castiel. Digging through the Men of Letters’ files, they stumble upon an undiscovered film which could be the key to the third trial. Metatron enlists Cas to mull over problems at home. Meanwhile, Crowley digs into Sam and Dean’s past. Sam and Dean make a deal with Crowley: the brothers give the demon tablet to Crowley in exchange for the angel tablet and the promise to stop killing everyone Sam and Dean ever saved.
Meeting up at Bobby’s old house, the brothers pretend to make the deal, then capture Crowley in demon-binding handcuffs so they can use him for the third trial. They take him to an abandoned church (consecrated ground), where Sam confesses his sins to purify his blood; he then injects Crowley with his purified blood as part of the demon-curing process. Elsewhere, Castiel and Metatron try to complete the second Heaven trial by retrieving the bow of a cupid, but Naomi and her men kidnap Metatron, leaving Castiel behind. Castiel asks Dean for help in completing the angel trial. Against Dean’s better judgment, they leave Sam alone with Crowley and go to retrieve the bow of a Cupid, eventually convincing a cherub to give up her bow. Meanwhile, during his curing process, Crowley bites Sam’s hand and takes a mouthful of his blood, which he then uses to make a “call” to his demons, for help. However, Abaddon arrives, and tries to kill them both, to rule Hell herself. Crowley stalls while Sam douses her in Holy Fire, and Abaddon leaves her vessel and the building. In Heaven, Naomi learns Metatron has been lying, and really wants to expel all angels from Heaven as revenge for his own expulsion. She hastens to inform Dean and Castiel, also telling Dean that completing the demon trials will kill Sam. She also offers Castiel the chance to return to Heaven. Castiel brings Dean back to the church, but then teleports back up to Heaven. Upon arriving, Castiel discovers Naomi’s dead body, killed by her own torture device, and is then ambushed by Metatron. At the church, Sam does not care that completing the trial will kill him, telling Dean that he felt his greatest sin was letting his brother down, multiple times. Dean assures Sam of his love, and they stop the trial before its completion. Back in Heaven, Metatron extracts Castiel’s grace, the final component needed in the spell he is really working. Castiel, now fully human, falls back to Earth. Dean, Sam, Castiel and Crowley look up into the night sky as thousands of angels begin to fall.
