Supernatural season 10, episode 21, “Dark Dynasty,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
Return of the Stynes
We open with the Styne family. One member is killing people and scooping out eyeballs, but when he’s spotted by a janitor, he flees back to his family. He ends up being tasked by the Styne patriarch to find the Winchesters and the Book of the Damned. Meanwhile, a cousin is sent to find Charlie; if the Winchesters don’t have the Book, she is next most likely to have it.
Meanwhile, Rowena is having trouble decoding the codex. The language is apparently beyond even her, meaning she hasn’t made enough progress for Sam’s liking. Frustrated, he heads back to the bunker and lies — poorly — to Dean about what he’s been up to. Dean, though, came across the case of the missing eyeballs, so the brothers head out.
Before the brothers leave, Sam brings in Charlie for help. He fills her in on what’s going on, and though Charlie is worried about going behind Dean’s back, she agrees to help Rowena with the codex. Sam also brings Castiel in to play referee. Cas is also unhappy about Dean not knowing, but he, too, agrees to Sam’s plan.
That is… Frankenstein
While at the crime scene, the Winchesters recognize the Styne family tattoo on their killer’s arm. That night, Dean heads out for pizza but on his way back, he’s attacked by this week’s Styne. Dean takes a few hits but quickly gets the upper hand and takes the man prisoner. Dean brings him back to the bunker, but for some reason, they only lock up one arm.
Cue a clunky exposition scene: Dean hasn’t been able to find much about the Stynes because they changed their name from the original: Frankenstein. (Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus after staying at their castle.)
This is appropriate as they do all kinds of body modifications with harvests from innocent victims and use their enhanced strength to do the most awful of awful things ever in the history of histories.
Meanwhile, Cas is growing increasingly frustrated with his duties as peacekeeper since Rowena keeps pushing Charlie’s buttons. Rowena warns Charlie that the Winchesters, who Charlie calls her brothers, will be her undoing. Foreshadowing. He calls Sam’s phone repeatedly, though at one point he gets Dean and is forced to make up a terrible lie on the spot before hanging up. He calls Sam again, pulling Sam from the interrogation of the Styne.
This leaves Dean alone with him, and he reveals that the Book of the Damned is indestructible. Dean leaves the room to confront Sam, but their prisoner takes the distraction to rip his arm off and flee. Why didn’t they lock both arms again?
It was a dark and stormy night
Charlie, increasingly frustrated with Rowena, leaves the safety of the hideout for some alone time. This seems spectacularly stupid for someone so smart. Anyway, she heads to a motel and is able to crack the code of the codex now that she’s not frazzled by Rowena. However, our Charlie-hunting Styne catches up with her and calls the now one-armed Styne.
Meanwhile, Dean confronts Sam about what he’s been doing. Sam continues lying, and Dean gets increasingly creepy as he pushes for the truth. It has echoes of the leviathan Dean confronting Sam in season 7. However, this is cut short when Sam gets a call from Charlie.
Charlie has locked herself in the bathroom while the one-armed Styne pounds the door in. The brothers encourage her to give him whatever he wants, but she refuses. She has made her choice to make a stand. Charlie uploads her notes and emails them to the brothers (presumably), trashes her tablet, and pulls out a knife to defend herself. The one-armed Styne then finds her.
RIP
Sam and Dean rush to her aid, but the room is trashed when they arrive and bloody footprints lead to the bathroom, where they find Charlie, dead in the bathtub. Sam looks like he’s about to throw up while Dean is furious.
We only wish we were surprised to lose Charlie. But the writing was on the wall when she declared the brothers family. We’re sorry you didn’t at least get an on-screen death worthy of your awesomeness, Charlie.
Meanwhile, Crowley…
Crowley finds out that Rowena has gone off the grid, so he sends demons out looking for her. Meanwhile, he converses with Olivette the Grand Coven hamster (as you do) and learns Rowena had a demon lover. He sends another demon in search of this individual.
Watch a promo for the next episode
