This isn’t an easy recap to write by any means. So much has changed, and yet so much remains the same. Just when you think the Winchester boys have solved a problem they find they have an even bigger issue facing them. But before I dive into the whole “Castiel gone bad” thing, let’s look at what happened last night as best we can.

Lisa and Ben:

The first half of the finale focused mostly on Dean, as was expected. We find Crowley being his usual bastard self, kidnapping Lisa and Ben in order to get Dean and Sam to cease and desist. They’re getting close to finding him, and Crowley’s sweating bullets. So as long as they don’t come looking, Ben and Lisa stay alive.

But that’s not good enough for Dean. He has to find them. Eventually they enlist the help of Balthazar who tells them where he can find them (and in turn, they tell him about Castiel’s extra-curricular activities – more on this later). When they arrive, Sam is knocked out cold and locked in a room. Dean starts stabbing demons and taking names, until he stumbles across Lisa and Ben.

But the fun’s just started. Lisa’s possessed by a demon and puts a knife to her son’s throat, holding him hostage. Dean manages to free him by splashing holy water on Lisa, but she stabs herself in the abdomen. This means when the demon is exorcized, Lisa will die. Dean continues with the ritual and frees her from the demon’s grasp. As expected, she’s dying. They rush her to the hospital and hope for the best but soon find out she only has hours to live.

In comes Castiel. Though he and Dean are still having their own issues toward each other, Castiel steps in and heals Lisa. But not only that, he grants Dean one final request: he wipes their memories clean. They’ll never have any recollection of Dean and their lives together, or the pain they’ve suffered.

I was floored by this. Dean, who has already given so much, who has sacrificed more than anyone, has now sealed his fate. Any chance of him ever having a normal life is forever gone. He can never turn back. I know why he did it – to try to protect Ben and Lisa from future harm. But come on! He loved them so much.  And even if they don’t remember who the demons are, won’t the demons remember them?  Not sure what good wiping their memory is going to do.  Anyway, it was heartbreaking.

Dr. Visyak and Bobby:

What an interesting twist this story line took! We find out that H.P. Lovecraft was searching for a way to open the door to Purgatory, and when he did, Dr. Visyak came through. But of course, she’s not your typical monster and tells Bobby that they should feel lucky she was the one that emerged and not another monster. Reason being, she loves earth and doesn’t want to see it destroyed as others would. Bobby offers to help protect her but she replied (quite lovingly) that he’s just a man and she’d be fine.

Later we find out that Castiel found her and upon torturing her she told them what they would need to open Purgatory: the blood of a virgin, the blood of someone from Purgatory (namely, her) and a specific incantation. Bobby and the others find her in an alley, dying from her blood being nearly drained from her body. She tells them what she told them, but unfortunately she passes away before she could tell them Purgatory’s exact location. Still, they have lots of information to go on, and they make good use of it.

Sam and the wall that came crumbling down:

In the beginning of episode two, Sam is in a dreamscape. The exact details don’t have any importance to what was happening so I’ll skip those and just get to the heart of the matter. Castiel broke the “wall” in Sam’s head which was holding back his memory of hell. He did so because he needed to get Dean off his back for awhile and incapacitating his little brother would distract Dean long enough for Cas to do what he needed to do.

Sam slips into a coma and while asleep he encounters two versions of himself. The first version of himself was the only that knew what he did when he didn’t have a soul. Upon killing him, he regains all of those memories – they flood back into his mind. Then he encounters the second Sam, the one who remembers what his time was like in the cage.

I will say that it was hard for me to look upon this second Sam. Broken, battered and bloody, one could only imagine what he endured in that cage. This second Sam tells “our” Sam that he doesn’t think he should remember what happened; that he’s not strong enough to handle it. “Our” Sam tells him that he’ll do it anyway because if he doesn’t Dean would be alone in the world. And there you have it, the endless sacrifice between these two brothers. He stabs the bloody Sam and the memories of hell instantly flood back.

Feeling the strong effects of what he’s remembering, he stumbles to the warehouse to help Dean and Bobby. And now let’s get to the bigger picture here…

Castiel, Raphael, Balthazar and Crowley:

Castiel hasn’t been his usual “goody two shoes” self. We’ve watched him do some questionable things  like kill Dr. Visyak, get into an agreement with Crowley, etc. But when it comes to the second half of episode two, things get downright ugly. He broke the “wall” in Sam’s head. Is there even enough forgiveness to cover an offense like that? Any attempt he made at reconciliation with Dean totally went out the window with that action.

What’s worse is that Cas is a creature of his own making. HE chose to alienate himself from those he considered family by doing things that were morally wrong. And the more he alienated himself, the easier it became for him to keep going down that slippery slope. Enough philosophizing though, let’s get to what happened.

With the ingredients in hand and Sam incapacitated, Cas has all he needs to open the gate to Purgatory. He basically tells Crowley to “go scratch;” he’s not giving him any souls after all. Then Cas gives Crowley an ultimatum – “flee or die.” Crowley flees alright, but he runs to Raphael and gets him (her?) on his side.

Later Castiel finds out that Balthazar has sided with the Winchesters and is giving them insider information. Because of this, he kills him. No, it’s not fair in the least, but he did it.

Raphael and Crowley jump Castiel in the warehouse. Raphael can wear Cas inside out, so there’s no match there. Cas yields (or so it seems), gives the jar of blood to Crowley and vanishes.

As those two come together and do the ritual, Bobby and Dean show up. Crowley knocks them down the stairs and makes them wait for the ritual to be done, but once it’s completed nothing happens. Crowley wonders if he said it correctly, and Cas reappears and assures him that he did. But here’s the thing. He gave them a jar of dog’s blood while he took the virgin/monster blood for himself. (I’m a bit pissed that Cas is bleeding dogs – where’s PETA when you need them??)  So Castiel opened the gate of Purgatory on the sly and took all of those souls for himself. And now, Castiel is all powerful and he is pissed. With a snap of his fingers Raphael explodes like Cas did at the end of season 5.

Sam tries to stab him with an angel blade but it doesn’t work because Cas isn’t an angel anymore. He announces to Dean, Sam and Bobby that he’s their new god and they should bow down and worship him, or be destroyed.

Wow! So much to look forward to next season. We’ve seen Cas move from an angelic pushover to godlike in his own right. What can we expect to happen in season 7? We just have to wait and be patient, I suppose…as hard as that might be.