Supernatural season 10, episode 17, “Inside Man,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
This week’s episode saw the brothers on two different adventures as well as conflict between Rowena and Crowley.
Team Sam and Castiel
We open with Dean calling Sam’s name while in the throes of a nightmare. Sam realizes Dean is getting worse, so he fabricates a story about going out overnight to see a French film. Instead, though, he teams up with Castiel to pry information from Metatron.
However, when they get to Heaven’s doorway, they’re stopped; Hannah takes a vessel to tell Cas that he’s not allowed in Heaven because she can’t let Metatron out.
Sam comes up with another plan. He and Cas go see Oliver, a psychic who had been working with the Men of Letters at the time of their decimation. Oliver is able to read Sam’s mind but not Cas — and he’s taken aback at learning Cas is an angel since he’s an atheist. Still, he agrees to help them contact a spirit in Heaven. Sam provides an object belonging to the deceased, reverently placing Bobby Singer’s trucker hat on the table.
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In Bobby’s Heaven, he’s drinking whiskey and reading Tori Spelling’s autobiography (the classics, he calls it). In a touching scene (seriously, Supernatural has missed Bobby Singer), Sam makes contact with his surrogate father and fills him in on the situation. Sam and Cas are hoping Bobby will be their inside man, opening the door to Earth from Heaven so Cas can sneak in to jailbreak Metatron.
Bobby agrees and distracts the angels by releasing a crowd of residents from their Heavens. He then opens door 42, and Cas comes sliding in while Sam, on Earth, takes down the angel guard. Bobby and Cas head to the jail, where Metatron is his usual charming self. However, he’s intrigued by the changing situation, so agrees to be jail-broken.
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When Cas and Metatron return to Earth and find Sam waiting (“Sam-tastic!” is Metatron’s hilarious greeting), Metatron starts making demands because he believes he has leverage in the situation. He underestimated them, though; Cas slices his throat and steals his Grace, rendering him mortal. Sam then shoots him in the leg. Whoops, leverage gone.
Metatron quickly becomes the sniveling thing we know him to be and admits that he was BSing when he told Dean, “The river ends at the source.” The only way he knows of to remove the Mark is God or Lucifer-level magic.
Please say we’re going to revisit Lucifer. Please?
Anyway, Metatron does say that he can return Cas’ Grace, so he’s not completely useless.
Team Dean, Crowley, and Rowena
Alone in the bunker, Dean messes with Sam’s stuff, even wiping Sam’s toothbrush in his armpit. Boys. He then goes to a bar and orders some nachos, but decides to hustle some college kids at pool. It’s classic Dean. When he finishes his work, though, he heads into the bathroom and is shocked when his eyes momentarily flash black.
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When Dean goes back into the bar, Rowena is waiting for him. She’d traced the call Crowley made for help when the Winchesters had captured him to a 10 mile radius and ended up in the bar. She put a spell on the college kids to make them attack Dean. Dean takes them down but doesn’t kill them.
While Dean is distracted, Rowena does a spell, but Dean is immune thanks to the Mark. He’s ready to kill Rowena, but she taunts him with the fact that he’s a hero — and the college kids will die from her spell if she doesn’t intervene. She also reveals that she’s Crowley’s mother; Dean has been a good influence on him, so he needs to go.
Dean lets Rowena go, so to try to gain some sympathy, Rowena bloodies herself and tells Crowley Dean attacked her. Crowley, though, thinks she got what she deserved for attacking a Winchester.
Later, Crowley goes to see Dean and the two chat over drinks. Dean tells him what really happened, and Crowley believes him. Dean also tells Crowley that, “Family don’t end with blood, but it don’t start there either.” Rowena may be Crowley’s mother, but she’s not family. This strikes Crowley, and he returns to Hell to kick Rowena out.
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Rowena, in an incredible scene, is tearful and furious. She swears to burn everything Crowley has down.
Letters from Heaven
When Sam returns to the bunker the next morning, he finds Dean there. They don’t fill each other in on their nights. Sam heads to his room and reads a letter Bobby wrote and Cas delivered.
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Bobby encourages Sam to give Dean some credit and not go behind his back. He then says Sam’s a good man, he’s proud of him, and hearing Sam’s voice was the happiest he’s been in Heaven, no matter what. And it looks like there will be consequences, as some angels arrive in his Heaven.
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There’s a branch in our eyes. Bobby Singer, we miss you.
Watch a promo for the next episode
