(As I mentioned in my post announcing this rewatch project, there will be spoilers!)
Season 4, Episode 2: Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester
The recap is showing a lot of characters we haven’t seen in a while, like Meg and Ron.
We see someone sleeping on the couch, and her TV and lights start to flicker. Usually this means a ghost might be around…and it’s very cold. Yup that’s a ghost.
The woman goes to a storage closet and we see weapons, and she grabs an EMF reader. We hear a voice mail from Bobby in the background. She’s a hunter! She gets a shotgun (presumably with rocksalt rounds) and moves around her apartment.
Then she sees the ghost! She recognizes him and fires the gun. She makes a salt line at the doorway and sees the ghost again. She aims the gun and apologizes to the ghost – she seems to recognize him. Then she turns around and another ghost appears, and kills her! Yikes!
Then we see the boys at Bobby’s and Dean is trying to explain to Sam about his encounter with Castiel. Sam says whatever it is, Lilith is afraid of it.
Dean says if angels are real, wouldn’t a hunter have seen one sometime, somewhere? Sam says yeah – Dean just did.
Sam is clearly more willing to believe in angels than Dean.
Bobby interrupts and tells them to come see something. He has tons of lore that says an angel can snatch a soul from the pit. Dean asks what else could have done it – and Bobby says as far as he can tell, nothing.
Sam tells Dean this is good news – maybe he was saved by one of the good guys. Dean asks if there are angels, what’s next, God?
Dean really doesn’t believe that there is a God out there who personally gives a crap about him. Dean says he’s saved some people, but he’s just a regular guy. Why does he deserve to get saved? Why does he matter?
Sam believes. Dean asks what they know about angels.
Bobby gives them a stack of books and tells them to start reading – and Dean tells Sam to get him some pie.
We see Sam out on his roadtrip for pie, and Ruby is waiting. She asks Sam if it’s true – did an angel rescue Dean? Sam says he thinks so.
Ruby says bye. She says angels smite first and ask questions later – angels won’t care if she’s being helpful. She tells Sam she’s never met one but they scare her. She tells him to watch himself. Sam says he isn’t scared of angels. Ruby gives him a look and walks away.
Sam gets back to Bobby’s and Bobby says he’s heading out to check on his friend Olivia (the woman from the beginning of the episode). Sam and Dean go with him.
“Dude? Where’s the pie?” Son of a bitch!
Bobby and the boys enter Olivia’s apartment and find her – dead. Bobby leaves.
Sam and Dean notice the salt line and investigate the scene. Dean finds her EMF meter. Dean says he’s never seen a ghost do this to a person (rip a chest open).
Bobby comes back in and says he’s called some nearby hunters, but they aren’t answering their phones. Something’s up.
We see another house with a voicemail from Dean playing in the background. Like at Olivia’s, the TV is on, there is salt on the floor, and there’s a dead body! Another dead hunter, with his chest ripped open.
The boys call Bobby from the scene telling him that he’s dead. Meanwhile Bobby has found another dead hunter. Bobby tells them that until they figure out what’s happening, they’d better get back to his place.
The boys stop at a gas station on their way to Bobby’s. While Sam puts gas in the car, something watches them from across the road. Sam goes inside to the restroom while Dean sleeps in the car.
In the washroom the air has gone very cold – like a ghost is around! Sam sees Henriksen’s ghost in the mirror!
We get a Henriksen flashback.
He tells Sam he didn’t survive. Sam apologizes. Henriksen says he knows. This is Sam’s fault that he’s dead – Lilith was after him and Sam and Dean left Henriksen to pay the price. He attacks Sam.
Then Dean shows up and blasts the ghost away!
Back at Bobby’s, his lights are flickering and the air is cold. Bobby grabs a fireplace poker and moves through the house, hearing ghostly laughter while the radio and lights flicker.
Bobby sees a ball bouncing down the stairs. When he looks behind him, there are twin girls standing there.
In the car, Dean is trying to call Bobby, and asks Sam about Henriksen. Sam says he wanted revenge because they got him killed.
When they get to Bobby’s, they have their shotguns out and find Bobby’s discarded fireplace poker. Dean goes upstairs while Sam goes outside to check the car graveyard. Sam calls for him, and we see Bobby laying in one of the old cars, with the girls holding their hands over his mouth to keep him quiet.
Upstairs, while Dean looks for Bobby, he encounters the ghost of Meg Masters! It’s definitely been a while since we’ve seen her.
She tells Dean she’s not a demon – she’s the girl the demon possessed. She was walking home one night when she got jumped by the demon. She was a prisoner – she was awake and had to watch while the demon used her body to murder people.
Dean apologizes but she reminds him that he threw her off a building. Meg says she kept waiting and praying for them to help her – they’re supposed to help people. Why didn’t he help her?
Dean says he’s sorry and Meg hits him. Dean says they didn’t know. Meg says they just attacked. Did they ever think there was a girl in there? No, they just charged in.
She asks if he thinks he’s some kind of hero. Dean says no. “Damn right,” Meg says, grabbing him. As she does, Dean notices some kind of scar on her hand.
Meg asks if he has any idea what it’s like to be ridden by pure evil, while your family has no idea what happened to you. Dean says they did the best they could. Meg hits him again.
Meanwhile we see Bobby being taunted by the little girl ghosts, telling him he could have saved them but he didn’t.
Sam starts looking in the cars for Bobby.
Meg tells Dean she had a little sister. He knows how little siblings are, right? Her sister was never the same after Meg disappeared. And Meg’s sister killed herself – because Dean was only thinking of himself and his family. Meg says that blood is on his hands. “You’re right,” Dean says.
Sam finds Bobby, just in time!
In the house, Meg is still taunting Dean. He pulls out a gun and shoots an iron chandelier above Meg.
The boys and Bobby meet back downstairs and they figure out it’s the ghosts of people they couldn’t save. They talk about the mark on the ghost’s hands and Sam draws it for Bobby. Bobby grabs some books and tells the boys they’re going “someplace safe, you idjit”.
Bobby has a pretty major panic room in the basement! There are devil’s traps, iron walls, a mega weapons cache, a cot, radio, salt…Bobby locks them inside. Bobby says it’s completely coated in salt – 100% ghost proof.
Dean tells Bobby he’s awesome.
The brothers prepare salt rounds. Dean says this is why he can’t get behind God. If he doesn’t exist, bad stuff happens to good people and there’s random evil, and he gets it. But if he is out there, where is he while decent people are hurt? Why doesn’t he help?
Bobby figures out what the symbol was on the ghosts: the mark of the witness. These ghosts were forced to rise. They woke up in agony. Someone rose them, on purpose. Whoever it was, they used a spell so powerful that it left a brand on the ghost souls.
This is called the rising of the witnesses that figures into an ancient prophecy, from Revelations. Bobby says this is a sign of the apocalypse!! OMG!
Dean is a little sceptical of this Biblical apocalypse. Bobby says the rise of the witnesses is like a mile marker.
Sam asks what they do now. Dean says they should take a roadtrip. Bobby says they need to survive those ghosts first. He finds a spell to send the witnesses back to rest. “It should work”. Bobby says they have everything he needs at the house – but not in the panic room.
The spell needs to be cast over an open fire, so they need to make it to the fireplace in Bobby’s library.
They prepare to leave the panic room and Bobby tells them to cover each other, aim carefully, and don’t run out of ammo until Bobby’s finished the spell. He opens the panic room door. They slowly make their way out and head for the stairs.
At the top, Ron Reznik’s ghost is sitting there waiting for Dean. Ron says he’s dead because of Dean. As he yells that Dean was supposed to help him, Bobby blasts Ron away.
“If you’re gonna shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.” Classic Bobby.
They go upstairs and make it to the library. They make a salt circle around the desk and the fireplace and Bobby starts a fire. He tells them he needs a hexbox from the upstairs linen closet. Sam heads upstairs.
From outside the salt circle, the little girls show up. Dean blasts them away. Bobby sends Dean to the kitchen for some supplies.
The girls come back and taunt Bobby.
Upstairs, Sam heads for the linen closet and grabs the box. Then Meg shows up!
She tells Sam that he saw how she suffered for months. She thought he must have learned something – but what he’s doing with that demon Ruby…how many bodies has she burned through? How many girls just like Meg? And Sam doesn’t send her back to hell. She calls Sam a monster. Sam shoots at her.
In the kitchen, the doors close and Henriksen’s ghost appears to Dean. Dean says it’s his fault he’s dead. The minute he heard about the explosion, he thought he should have protected him. Henriksen says not so fast. He thinks he left and Lilith came and they died in a blast of light? If only. He tells him that for 45 minutes, Lilith tortured them. Nancy the virgin secretary – Lilith filleted her skin of piece by piece and made them watch. Yuck. Henriksen was the last.
Dean feels terrible. And Henriksen reaches in and grabs Dean’s heart! Thankfully Sam shows up and shoots him just in time.
They head back to Bobby in the library with the supplies. Ron shows up again and taunts Dean.
Bobby begins the spell. The windows and doors blow open, turning the pages of Bobby’s book and blowing the salt line away. Sam and Dean shoot at the ghosts who appear while Bobby performs the spell. Dean has run out of bullets as Henriksen approaches but he grabs the fireplace poker.
Sam gets pinned behind furniture but tells Dean to cover Bobby. Suddenly Bobby is attacked by Meg! Oh shoot! Dean grabs the bowl as Bobby drops it and Bobby yells at him to throw the contents in the fireplace. Dean does, and we see the ghosts disappear. Phew!
That night as Sam and Dean sleep in the library, Dean hears something. He wakes up and turns to the kitchen, seeing Castiel.
Dean goes over to him. Castiel tells him they did an excellent job with the witnesses. Dean sarcastically thanks Castiel for the angelic assistance.
“I almost got my heart ripped out of my chest.”
“But you didn’t,” Castiel says.
Dean says he thought angels were supposed to be guardians with fluffy wings and halos, not dicks. Castiel tells him to read the bible: they’re warriors of God. Castiel is a soldier. He isn’t here to perch on Dean’s shoulder. The angels had larger concerns.
Dean asks where God is, if there is one. Castiel says there is. Dean asks what he’s waiting for. At what point does he lift a finger and help?
Dean asks if Bobby was right about the witnesses – is this a sign of the apocalypse? Castiel says that’s why the angels are here. Big things are coming. The rising of the witnesses is one of the 66 seals, and the seals are being broken by Lilith. She rose the witnesses. 20 other hunters are dead.
Castiel says it doesn’t matter that they put the souls to rest, the seal has been broken. The damage is done.
Dean asks why break the seals. Castiel tells him to think of the seals as locks on a door. Dean asks what happens when the last one opens. Castiel tells him Lucifer will walk free. Dean thinks there’s no such thing.
Castiel reminds him: “Three days ago, you thought there was no such thing as me.” Good point!
Castiel asks him, why does Dean think the angels are there for the first time in 2000 years? To stop Lucifer.
Dean tells him they’ve done a bang-up job so far.
Castiel says they tried. There are other battles, other seals. Some they’ll win, some they’ll lose. They lost this one. Their numbers are not unlimited. Six angels died this week – does Dean think the armies of heaven should just follow him around? There’s a bigger picture and Dean should show him some respect. He dragged him out of Hell and he can throw him back in. Then Castiel is gone.
That was an intense and fantastic scene!
Dean wakes up the next morning as Sam comes over to the couch, with a cup of coffee. Dean asks Sam if he has no problem believing in God and angels, and Sam says no, not really.
Dean asks if that means he believes in the devil. Sam wants to know why Dean is asking.
Dean just looks at him.
Lore:
-ghosts
-angels
Overall Thoughts:
I didn’t really remember this episode going in, but it was great! I loved getting to see characters from older episodes come back, like Meg, and it was awful to hear about what happened to Henriksen and the others when Lilith showed up at the station in the Jus in Bello episode.
And of course, I loved that scene with Dean and Castiel. Castiel is such a tough guy in these older episodes, and he’s so menacing when he talks to Dean. I like that the angels are warriors and a little scary.
And now we know what they story for the season will be: trying to keep Lilith from breaking enough seals to set Lucifer free and stop the apocalypse! So epic!
