Supernatural season 10, episode 9, “The Things We Left Behind,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
Supernatural‘s mid-season finales are infamous for breaking our hearts and leaving viewers 21 and older searching for alcohol. (Please drink responsibly.) Last season’s mid-season finale, for instance, saw Gadreel, in Sam’s body, killing beloved prophet Kevin Tran.
That being said, Supernatural season 10, episode 9, “The Things We Left Behind,” took a different approach. Rather than focusing on the brothers, the focus of the A and B plots were on Castiel and Crowley respectively. Dean’s worry about the Mark of Cain came in after that. It was a surprisingly quiet episode for the final episode of the year.
Taking responsibility
The episode followed Castiel, inspired by Hannah’s departure to Heaven in order to put humans first, finding his vessel’s daughter, Claire, and trying to take responsibility for her.
Claire, though, has turned into something of a delinquent since we last saw her in season 4. After Castiel left with her father’s body, her mother left “to find herself” and left Claire with her grandmother. And when her grandmother died, Claire went into the system. And she fell in with a makeshift family of bad influences who she returned to after Castiel busts her out of the group home.
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With no clue what else to do, Castiel calls the Winchesters for help. Dean, though, isn’t particularly pleased about being called away from the grilled cheese Sam made for him and the Three Stooges flicks they were bro-bonding over at the bunker.
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However, Dean also has other concerns, as he’s been having bloody dreams, compliments of the Mark of Cain. He’s worried enough to ask Cas to take him out if he goes dark side.
No father of the year awards
After Cas stops Claire from robbing a convenience store to get money for her surrogate father, Randy, to pay off loan sharks, Claire gives him and the Winchesters a mad dressing down for ruining her life before returning to Randy — only for Randy to sell her to the loan sharks to pay his debt. But Cas and the Winchesters arrive while Claire fights off her would-be rapists.
After knocking out Claire’s attackers, Cas, Claire, and Sam run to the Impala while Dean is held back by the other loan sharks. Cue a horrible sound, Sam running back into the house in slow motion, and Dean covered in blood in a not-so-subtle parallel to the dreams he’s been having.
Sam drops to his knees, cups Dean’s face in his hands, and begs Dean to tell him he had to kill the guys — humans, remember — and Dean replies he didn’t mean to.
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And, surprise surprise, Cas doesn’t take him out.
Meanwhile, in Hell
It’s been weeks since Crowley’s realization that Rowena is his mother. Rowena has been held captive while Crowley angsts over what a bad mother she was while he had his own merits.
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However, when Crowley finally agrees to see her, she masterfully plays to his desire to be loved — remember Crowley’s conversation with Sam in season 8’s “Sacrifice”? — and Crowley eventually kills his second-in-command to save her life and frees her from her captivity.
Oh yeah, she’s good.
Other notes
Thematically, this episode was a major exploration of parental issues, between Claire and Jimmy/Castiel, Crowley and Rowena, Claire and Randy, Castiel and God, and even the Winchesters reminiscing about John Winchester. Where that’s going, though, remains a bit unclear.
It should also be noted that Castiel answered a long-held fandom question tonight: Jimmy Novak’s soul has been in Heaven since Lucifer killed Castiel in “Swan Song.”
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