Supernatural starts and Kansas' "Carry on my Wayward Son" plays as we get a recap of what we has happened during the season. That can only mean its time for the current season to come to a close. And while this season seemed to go back to the basics of killing monsters and helping people out, we have seen one heck of a change in some of the characters.
The Mark started making Dean more aggressive and Dean didn't seem to care. It was one thing when he was taking out a shifter who was murdering people and they had to die anyway, but when Heaven entrusted the boys and Castiel with Metatron in hopes of getting information form him, Dean beat the crap out of him and left him beaten and bloody. The final straw was when Dean murdered a bunch of guys (who deserved to die) even though they could have easily been subdued.
Later, a prisoner on death row is antagonizing the guards in his cell and then, out of nowhere, a man appears out of nowhere and kills the guy in the cell. The man that killed him turns out to be Cain. Cain is killing everyone related to him to end the violent curse in his bloodline. Castiel finds out and meets Cain and tries to reason with him. Cain not only will not listen, but Castiel isn't powerful enough to stop Cain. So they boys and Castiel make a deal with Crowley to help stop Cain from killing more people. Crowley agreed to the terms, but Rowena was not happy. She went on to tell him how disappointed she was at him for following the Winchesters around and that he wasn't their friend, he was their b****.
So, The Winchesters, Castiel, and Crowley lure Cain into a trap and a final fight between Dean and Cain. Dean and Cain fight and while Cain was the one winning most of the fight, in the end, it was Dean cutting Cain's head off. Dean walked out and told them it was done. When Crowley asked for the First Blade back, they all said no. Crowley went back to Hell upset that he let the Winchesters play him for a fool. Rowena stayed in Hell after realizing that she could still further manipulate her son. Back at the Winchester's base, Dean is completely fine with what he had to do and Sam isn't happy about it. Castiel comes to Sam and he tells Castiel that they have to find a way to remove the mark and they need to do it soon.
Time passes on and the brothers continue on going from mission to mission and Dean continues to insist that he has a control over the aggression that the mark has put inside of him. Sam doesn't believe that Dean can control it forever so in typical Winchester fashion, Sam works behind Dean's back to find a cure for him by any means necessary.
Back in Hell, Rowena is still pushing Crowley's buttons and trying to get him to "Man up" and do something about the Winchesters. Since Crowley won't do anything about it, Rowena decided to head to Earth and deal with Dean herself. Rowena finds Dean in a bar and uses a spell to try and kill Dean herself. The spell doesn't work. The Mark of Cain is protecting Dean from dying. Rowena tells Dean that he and Sam have turned Crowley soft and that she did it to help make her son tough again.
Dean lets her go and Rowena heads back to Hell. Rowena fakes injuries and tells Crowley that Dean beat her mercilessly in an attempt to make Crowley go to Earth and kill Dean. Crowley confronts Dean and instead of fighting, they talk. Dean tells Crowley that he didn't beat on his mom and that she's playing him. He also tells him that family isn't just blood. Family is there to help him when things get bad. Crowley listens to Dean and kicks Rowena out of Hell for good.
While this is going on, Castiel and Sam make a plea to Heaven to try and take Metatron for a while to get help on removing the mark. After Metatron was tortured in their custody, the angels of Heaven denied their request. Sam and Castiel had to find another way to get Metatron from his cell. Sam and Castiel make their way to a psychic and have a psychic to try and contact Bobby in Heaven. Bobby agrees to help them by causing a distraction so Castiel could run in and take Metatron away. The plan works, but Metatron refuses to help. Castiel cuts Metatron's throat a bit and takes his grace.
Sam then shoots Metatron in the leg. Metatron tells them that he doesn't know how to get rid of the mark and that he were just talking to make them mad. Before Sam could shoot him again, Metatron tells them that he does know where Castiel's grace is. So in exchange for not killing or hurting him anymore, Metatron will get Castiel his grace back.
Metatron takes Castiel all over the place to find his grace and they finally get to a library where Metatron had a back up plan in case Castiel or another angel captured him. Metatron uses an angel spell to take Castiel out. Metatron finds the hidden demon tablet and walks over to Castiel to kill him in a weakened state. As Metatron is about to kill Castiel, Castiel retrieves his grace and Metatron leaves knowing that he clearly overpowered.
The next episode, Charlie calls Sam and Dean for help because he is being chased by a couple of guys because of The Book of the Dead. A book she took to help them get rid of the Mark of Cain. The boys find her and bring an iron case full of protection and thwarting spells to hide the book so they can't track her via the book. The three meet at one of Bobby's many safe houses. When Dean gets close to the book, he feels it calling to him to him and he tells them to keep it away from him. The guys chasing Charlie eventually find where the book is after they follow Dean back from a gas station (after he kills one of their own).
Dean tells Sam to burn the book and Sam does exactly that. Dean kills the last of the guys in the room and the three of them leave and go back to the base to relax for a change. What Dean doesn't know is that Sam didn't burn the book. Sam went to Rowena to help and brought her the book to help him get rid of the Mark of Cain off of Dean's arm. She agrees, but only if he kills Crowley. Sam agrees to her terms and when they get back to their secret location, Sam handcuffs Rowena to a table.
Sam later brings Charlie and Castiel into the fold and neither of them are happy that Sam is working with Rowena even if she is handcuffed to the table. Charlie and Rowena work hard on figuring out the translation. Rowena get into Charlie's head and Charlie leaves to work on the translation alone.
We found out through Dean very...useful interrogation skills that the people chasing the book of the damned are decedents of Dr. Frankenstein. They have found the formula to their bodies alive through using replacement organs. He also finds out that the book can't be destroyed so Sam lied about destroying the book. The Styne (name changed from Frankenstein to avoid suspicion) of them literally rips his arm off to escape Dean.
He later finds Charlie's hotel room right as Charlie is about to crack the code to the book. Dean goes to Sam and confronts him about the burning the book. Sam denies it saying that he saw him burn it. Dean then tells him that the Styne told him that the book couldn’t be destroyed. Just as the argument was getting angrier, Charlie calls Sam to tell him where he is at and Dean overhears what's going on and is not happy. If Sam hadn't lied to him, Charlie wouldn't be in trouble.
As the Winchesters are on their way to try and save Charlie, Charlie cracks the code and emails it to Sam and then breaks the computer. The Styne here's the noise coming from the bathroom and breaks the door down. The guys show up too late. Charlie is dead and in the bathtub.
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Sam and Dean give Charlie the normal pyre funeral and as Sam is about to apologize for lying about the book, Dean cuts him off and tells him he can't apologize because this is his entire fault. If he hadn't lied then Charlie would still be alive. Dean leaves to go get avenge Charlie's death by killing all of the Stynes. When Dean gets to the Stynes, he is knocked out and taken to their house to have his organs harvested. The leader of the Stynes sends two of their boys and his youngest son to go to the Winchester's home and burn everything down that isn't useful. His son isn't happy about this because he doesn’t like how his family does things at all. He is against the violence and the killing.
Meanwhile, Sam receives the email from Charlie about the code being cracked and brings the information to Rowena. Rowena refuses to read the spell until Sam kills Crowley. Sam reluctantly agrees and goes to kill Crowley. He uses Dean's voice on a cell phone and gets Crowley to meet him at specific coordinates. When Crowley shows up, Sam shoots him with a demon-binding bullet. Sam tells him why he's killing him and Crowley says that he has been trying to do better and asks if that was enough. Sam says no.
Sam says that he had been torturing and killing people so long and enjoying it that it shouldn't matter if he's been trying to be good for a little while. Crowley's eyes turn blood red and he throws Sam off of him. He thanks Sam for reminding him that he enjoyed his job and tells him that he won't kill him out of respect for Dean and to tell his Rowena that he is going to kill her when he sees her.
While all of this is going on, Dean is on an operating table getting ready to be cut open. Dean warns them, but they don't listen and Dean breaks free and kills them all with ease.
Sam is currently leaving the warehouse and Castiel calls him and tells him that he is at the Stynes are dead and Dean has killed them all and Dean's GPS says he's heading home. Sam looks like he just pooped his pants in fear.
Dean gets to the house just in time to stop the Styens from burning the place down. Jacob Styne does his villain speech and Dean says that he knows that they have extra organs to keep them alive, but they only have one brain and Dean shoots Jacob square in the brain. The youngest of them pleads with Dean not to kill him because he's not like them. Dean says that he has evil in him and shoots him too.
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Castiel walks in and pleads with Dean to let him help him. Dean says no and that he can handle it. Castiel tells him that he might be able to for a few years or decades and maybe even centuries, but eventually, he will succumb to the mark and while all his friends and family will be dead, it will fall on him to take Dean down. Dean says he can't take him down and Dean proceeds to kick the crap out of Castiel and tells him to tell Sam to stay away from him.
The next day, Rowena translates the ingredients needed to get the Mark of Cain off of Dean. All the items needed are almost impossible to find. The last ingredient is something that Rowena loves. So Castiel summons Crowley to help him retrieve the things needed. He even knows where to get something Rowena loves.
While the others are working on curing Dean, Dean is working a case still with dried blood on his hands from killing the Stynes and beating up Castiel. Another hunter confronts Dean by the name of Rudy who called Dean to help him on this case. Dean tells him to fall back, but he doesn't listen. Dean eventually tracks down the vampires who killed the victim. The vampire in charge tries to use Rudy as a hostage, but Dean doesn't believe he will kill him. Dean fakes a lunge towards the vampire and the vampire kills Rudy. Dean walks over to the vampire and chops his head off. Dean cuts the female hostage's restraints off and she is scare because Dean she believes Dean didn't have to let the guy die. Dean heads back to the hotel and all he sees in the mirror is Castiel's bloody face and Rudy's bloodied body. Dean goes ballistic and destroys the hotel room and leaves.
Dean leaves and summons Death to an empty bar and makes Death a platter of Mexican food (Death is a foodie. Just go with it). Death is hesitant to trust Dean considering the Winchesters have tried to trick him before. Dean says that this isn't a trick and that he wants Death to kill him. Death explains to him that he can't kill Dean because of the Mark of Cain. He tells him that the mark isn't just a curse; it's a lock that keeps the darkness contained. The darkness is a force so powerful that is took god and the angels to contain it. It leads Lucifer to become jealous of humans, which got him cast out of Heaven and into Hell. Lucifer past it on to Cain who past it on to Dean. So Death says he can move him off the Earth, but the problem is that Sam will stop at nothing to find him.
Back with Rowena, Sam, and Castiel, Crowley has brought all of the things needed to cast the spell to get rid of the mark. Rowena is shocked to find out that Crowley has found the one thing she loves. A young bot who once helped care for her when she was weak. Rowena says that Crowley is horrible for making her do this. With this is going on. Sam gets a call from Dean telling him to meet him. Sam leaves while they perform the ritual.
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Sam gets to Dean who explains to him that he has to kill him in order to saves millions from his wrath. Sam doesn't believe this and punches Dean. Dean thanks him for going down fighting. Dean beats Sam down without mercy. Sam eventually surrenders, but tells him that he doesn't believe that it's him who doing and that the mark is making him do this. Death gives him his scythe and tells him to kill Sam or he will. Dean pulls back and swings...and kills Death.
Rowena is distraught about what she has to do, but kills the boy nonetheless. Rowena completes the spell and Dean is finally free of the Mark of Cain. Rowena then turns around and immobilizes Crowley and Castiel. She shows her true power and then puts a spell on Castiel and orders him to kill Crowley as she walkout the door.
Sam and Dean here a rumbling and leave the restaurant only to see black smoke coming from the ground in force and from all over the place. The boys try to escape, but their car is stuck in a pothole. The last thing we see is the giant dark cloud engulfing the Winchester's car.
Review: 8 out of 10
While the show was still good, it wasn't overly great. It kept all of the elements that will keep fans watching and bring in new fans, but they are still rehashing the Sam and Dean keeping secrets away from each other. Eventually this will get stale even if the rest of the show is amazing. We know that fans (this writer included) are fickle and will stop watching shows for little to no reason at all so why give them a reason. The writers of this show are excellent, otherwise there would be little to no expectations.