Supernatural season 10, episode 19, “The Werther Project,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
Flashback
Our cold open this week focuses on a family in the 1970s. When the teenage daughter, Suzie, is asked to do laundry, she heads to the basement and ends up taking a sledgehammer to the wall in frustration. In doing so, she finds a funny-looking safe. She tries to open it and colorful smoke comes flying out. It knocks her out and floats upstairs.
Some time later, Suzie comes to and runs up the stairs. She finds food burning and realizes something is very wrong. In her father’s study, she finds him dead from a gunshot wound. In the living room, her brother hangs himself as she walks in. She runs to the kitchen and holds onto her mother, just as her mother slits her own throat.
Codex
In the present, Sam and Rowena discuss the terms of their arrangement. In exchange for deciphering the Book of the Damned, Rowena wants Sam to kill Crowley. Sam agrees without a moment’s hesitation. Rowena informs Sam that for her to translate the book, she needs a codex. The witch who completed it, though, was killed by the Men of Letters and the codex was locked away.
During the conversation, Sam gets a text from Dean asking if he wants in on a vampire nest. He heads to meet Dean after his meeting, but Dean’s already killed all the vampires when he arrives. Sam’s unhappy, but Dean isn’t seeing the problem. He just wants to go back to the bunker and watch Speed 2 with a beer.
After Dean falls asleep, Sam digs into the Men of Letters lore in an effort to figure out where the codex was hidden. He finds a recording of a meeting in which our old friend Magnus discusses the Werther Box, which he created to hide the codex.
However, its enchantments killed two Men of Letters, and the leaders want him to shut it down. Magnus refuses, so the Men of Letters are forced to hide it away. They do so in one of their chapter houses — only for it to be uncovered by Suzie in the 1970s.
Finding the box
Sam calls Rowena for a spell to open the Werther Box and she gives him one; however, she says it’s difficult for beginners and offers to come, but Sam refuses. Writing down the address of the house, Sam heads out.
He’s about to sneak into the house when its owner — an older Suzie — points a shotgun at him. Sam flees back to his car, only for Dean to drop into the front seat. Sam convinces Dean that, as legacies, it’s their responsibility to shut down the dangerous Werther Box, so Dean goes with it.
He knocks on Suzie’s door and pretends to be from the neighborhood watch. She lets him in and the two talk, though Suzie remains suspicious. Meanwhile, Sam sneaks into the basement and starts preparing the spell in front of the Werther Box.
The spell lets the same colorful smoke out of the safe, and it infects Suzie and Dean. Suzie is confronted by the spirits of her dead. She eventually shoots herself. Sam gets into the room too late, but Suzie’s spirit then confronts him, accusing him of going too far for Dean. However, when she tries to push him to kill himself, the spirit is dissipated by Rowena’s sudden appearance.
Hallucinations
Sam and Rowena find Dean completely locked away in his head. He’s found himself back in Purgatory where a hallucination of Benny (everyone’s favorite Cajun vampirate) follows him around and tells him that Purgatory is his happy place — it’s pure.
Sam realizes that if they break the spell on the Werther Box, that’ll snap Dean out of the spell, so he and Rowena head back down to the basement. They translate the words on the safe and Sam realizes it requires the blood of a Man of Letters, so he cuts his arm. The safe starts opening, but it seems to want more, so Sam bleeds more. He’s fading as Rowena encourages him.
Like the other hallucinations, Benny tries to convince Dean that suicide is his only option since he can’t leave Sam and Cas to take him out when things go sideways. Dean, though, reminds his hallucination that the Mark of Cain won’t let that happen. He also knows the real Benny would never let him kill himself, so he kills fake Benny, which brings him back to reality.
Opening the box
This is just in time as Sam has nearly killed himself with blood loss. Dean stops him and adds his blood to the mix, as he’s also a legacy. As the Werther Box opens, Rowena disappears — she was a hallucination all along. We should’ve known from the eye shadow.
Dean destroys the Werther Box and asks Sam about the codex, but Sam lies about knowing what it is. Dean says that the one thing he does know is that they’re stronger together, and they head back to the bunker.
Later, Sam meets with Rowena. She fawns over the codex, and Sam shackles her. She’s going to translate the codex and find the cure — and nothing more. Once she does that, Sam will keep his end of the deal, though he also plans to burn the Book of the Damned.
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