After such a long season filled with episodes where not much happened to further the big, on-going storyline, this week’s Supernatural is so chock full of new mythology that it’s almost hard to keep track. The Word of God is revealed courtesy of Metatron (not a Transformer), a new prophet arises and Castiel speaks in crazy, nonsensical gibberish for the whole episode.
Kevin Tran: Boy Genius
Season 7 has introduced some great characters to the Supernatural universe, from Frank Devereaux to last week’s Charlie. Now we get another one in the form of overachieving teenager Kevin Tran (played by Osric Chau). He’s kind of snarky and I instantly take a shine to him.
Why are we watching a teen boy studying for the SATs? Because Sam and Dean crack open that hunk of red clay Dick Roman was after, and as soon as they do, storms hit the country, women give birth and a lightning bolt strikes Kevin Tran as he’s lifted off the ground and filled with some spiritual mojo that makes him a prophet. No wonder Chuck Shurley drank so much, that looks painful.
CrazY Cas Wakes Up
Another side effect of Sam and Dean cracking open the red clay is that it wakes up Cas. Meg calls up the boys and asks them to stop by. Cas has spent some time figuring out how to deal with the messed up Lucifer visions he took from Sam, and as a result, he’s kind of crazy. He knows he’s an angel, but it’s like someone scrambled his brain. For examples of his insanity, check this week’s best quotes, which will include almost everything Cas said this week. Ben Edlund was on fire writing this one.
Cas takes one look as the tablet inside the red clay and reveals that it’s the Word of God written by Metatron, God’s personal stenographer. Unfortunately, angels can’t read it.
The Prophet
Enter Kevin Tran, who became possessed by the lightning and tracks down the tablet, stealing it from the Winchesters. Sam and Meg stop him and figure out he’s a prophet and Wordkeeper, which is sort of like the Gatekeeper and Keymaster from Ghostbusters.
Angels show up to take Kevin to the desert where the Wordkeeper is supposed to be, but the Winchesters have other plans. Meg dusts off her angel-killing blade (because that woman has a weapon to kill anything) and Dean draws an angel sigil to send them away.
Cas Says He’s “Sorry”
While all the madness with Kevin is going on, Cas finds some time to apologize, sort of. In a chat with Dean he holds up the board game “Sorry,” which is the best he can do. I know I had problems with the last Castiel episode, but it’s mostly because this episode is necessary to complete that story.
We see a broken Cas, one who has taken on this trouble to atone for his mistakes. He wants to be punished because it’s the only way he knows to get forgiveness. In between his crazy comments about cat penises and unhappy dogs, we see the truly repentant man, quietly and solemnly accepting this as his self-inflicted punishment for daring to become God.
Crowley’s Not a Problem, Yet
Amidst the action this week, Supernatural may have planted a seed for season 8. Meg, is worried about the demons, but Dean tells her that Crowley isn’t a problem this year (a meta comment if ever there was one). She insists he’s always a problem, and I feel like the show just perfectly set up Crowley as the Big Bad for season 8. At least I hope they did.
Keeping Kevin Safe
Sam, Dean, Cas and Meg take Kevin to Rufus’ cabin so he can quietly translate the Word of God, which has a message about the Leviathans. That’s broken up when the angels track them down. Hester is seriously pissed off at Cas and almost kills him, but Meg kills her first. I like this brief glimpse of angels at this point, because it shows that, after Castiel took control at the end of last season, the angels are really lost and aimless.
The other angels disperse, leaving just Cas. He cryptically stats that he has no idea what he’ll do now, and then he disappears. We see the other angels taking Kevin home, but all is not well because the FBI agent talking to Kevin’s mom is actually Edgar the Leviathan. And it seems Leviathans can kill angels quite easily.
How to Kill a Leviathan
The episode ends with Sam and Dean getting Kevin’s translation, and it turns out the way to kill a Leviathan is using the bone of a righteous mortal that is washed in the blood of the three fallen, whatever that means. We find out one of the fallen is a fallen angel, so Cas offers up his blood. One down, two to go.
Next week on Supernatural: It turns out the other two “fallen” are Crowley and the Alpha Vampire. As if that isn’t problematic enough, the Alpha Vampire is conspiring with the Leviathans.
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
