Supernatural Episode 822
“Clip Show”
Written By: Andrew Dabb
Directed By: Thomas J. Wright
Original Airdate: 8 May 2013
In This Episode...
Sam and Dean are going through the Men of Letters files on demon possession. They discover an old film reel and sit down to watch it. On it, a young priest and an old priest are performing an exorcism, the likes of which they have never seen. The older priest, Max Thompson, uses different language and forces the possessed to ingest some of his blood. The demon explodes out of the old woman’s chest, killing her instantly and disappearing. Sam discovers that Father Thompson died a few months after that film, but the younger priest, Simon, is still alive. The boys travel to St. Louis to speak to him. Father Thompson believed that a demon was merely a corrupted human soul, and that with the proper exorcism he could wash the taint away. Father Thompson believed demons could be cured. Simon turns over all of Father Thompson’s files to the boys.
The Winchesters take the files back to their bunker and sift through the contents. Father Thompson would have the demon chained up, and every hour inject him with his own, purified blood (apparently all that takes is some time in a confessional). By the eighth hour, the demon was begging for mercy. Father Thompson slit open his hand and force-fed the demon his blood directly from the source. The demon’s eyes glow and flash, and the humanity returns to the man’s eyes. He has been cured. So now all the boys need to do is set a demon trap, get some sanctified blood, and lure a demon in to be cured. But why lure one when they have one in pieces? The boys dig up Abaddon and sew her head back onto her body. They think they are hot shit because they cut off her hands and she has the pentagram bullet in her head, so there isn’t much she can do. A phone call interrupts the exorcism before it even begins - it is Crowley, and Abaddon is visibly scared. Dean and Sam take the phone call outside. Crowley has decided that the only way to hurt the Winchesters is to make their work for naught - he is killing those that the boys had previously saved. Tommy Collins, who the Winchesters saved from a wendigo; Jenny Klein, who was saved from hexed baked goods. He will kill someone every 12 hours until they turn over the tablet. The guys return to Abaddon - and discover she has gone. While they were outside, Abaddon telepathically called for her hand from a box on the table, had it crawl up and dig the magic bullet from her head.
Sam and Dean don’t have time to worry about Abaddon right now; they have to go rescue Crowley’s next victim, Sarah Blake. And where Crowley is causing trouble, there is bound to be a demon or two. They arrive at Sarah’s house, explain the situation, and cover the place with symbols and demon traps. Crowley calls and counts down the seconds to midnight, at which point Sarah begins to choke and collapses. He has decided to keep his demons away from the Winchesters until the trial nonsense was done. So what is killing Sarah is a spell. Sam and Dean rip the place apart looking for the hex bag, but they can’t find it. Sarah dies. In frustration, Dean throws the phone across the room. Turns out, the hex bag was hidden in the phone. Sam, overwhelmed with guilt, wants to accept Crowley’s deal; Dean is determined to kick ass.
Meanwhile, Metatron (who actually goes by Marv in public) has found Castiel and wants him to help close the gates of heaven. Marv’s thinking is that if you lock all the angels together in a room, they will be forced to work out their differences - or at least not let those differences leak out to earth. Like with hell, there are heaven trials, too. Marv is just a pencil pusher; he needs Castiel to be the muscle. But when the first trial involves killing an “abomination” (a human/angel hybrid), Castiel balks. The abomination is a sweet waitress who sees the men coming, knows what they are, and insists she just wants to live a normal life. They don’t leave, so she defends herself by choking Marv. Castiel stabs her.
Dig It or Bury It?
I do not trust Marv/Metatron. He seems to think locking his “family” in a room together is the way to solve all their problems. In my experience, it usually ends with at least half of the room injured physically, and everyone bearing emotional scars.
Prophecies?
Season finale time. Turns out, Crowley is the final trial - he is the demon that needs to be cured. And Sam suddenly thinks that they can win.