Supernatural executive producer Jeremy Carver teases what fans can expect from the back half of season 9. Spoilers ahead.
The aftermath of Kevin’s death
The biggest controversy that took place in the heartbreaking Supernatural mid-season finale was the death of young prophet Kevin Tran.
“Dealing with the events that led up to killing Kevin Tran is the most intriguing and felt [like] the most grounded way to tell the story this season,” Carver tells TVLine. This is because Kevin’s death “puts the strongest possible exclamation point on the idea that it was Dean who let the angel now known as Gadreel into Sam.”
“[I]t would take a towering death to have a certain effect on Dean that would affect the brother’s relationship in a way that we’re moving. And unfortunately it’s his,” Carver tells TVGuide.
“Dean is understandably crushed by that death and being betrayed by Gadreel,” he adds. “And I think he feels incredibly guilty about all of this and incredibly determined to right his wrongs.”
The fallout then “is that Dean is going to do whatever it takes to track down Gadreel and eject him from Sam,” which includes “making certain alliances that he never thought he’d be forced to make” in order to “right what he considers to be one of the biggest mistakes he’s ever made.”
“Kevin’s death, in a slightly perverse way, is going to open up channels into other less savory alliances” (including Crowley) because, Carver explains, “[i]t’s a crushing blow to Dean and it’s one that’s going to stay with him for a while, absolutely.”
The issue of a new prophet being called in the wake of Kevin’s death “will be addressed” as well.
As for Sam…
Sam’s response to being freed of Gadreel may be unexpected, Carver tells ScreenFad. “This is how Sam would react to any eventual rescue, as it were, being rescued from Gadreel.”
More than that, “what the brothers have to wrestle with is…Dean has made a couple of big decisions at the end of last season [and] at the beginning of this season.” So Sam and Dean “aren’t just struggling with the small problems of ‘you lied to me about this’ or ‘I lied to you about this’, it’s more about what are these incidents saying about where these two brothers are at this point in their lives?”
He adds, “As these brothers grow older and more mature, it’s becoming more and more evident that they view each other and their life’s work and where they fit in this world in vastly different ways.” This boils down to “some of the decisions made these days cut[ting] a lot deeper than just a single argument,” meaning they have “a profound effect on the underpinnings of the boys’ relationship.”
The angel formerly known as Ezekiel
Gadreel is “going to be put through his paces a lot more before he earns Metatron’s trust,” as “[g]etting Metatron’s ultimate approval is probably going to be a harder journey than what we’ve seen so far.”
We will be learning a bit more about the previously imprisoned angel, though. Carver describes him as “desperate to reclaim his name and his image.” But his willingness to do so “in not the best way will be his cross to bear.”
The newly angel-fied Castiel
When asked about Castiel getting his grace back, Carver says the goal was to “watch this guy, almost like a young child, discover what it is to be human and to figure out how to make a go of it. In a very quiet way, Cas ‘made’ it [as a human being] when he became a clerk at the convenience store,” which Carver described as “a very noble pursuit.” His success in human endeavors “was a victory of sorts.”
Of course, things were too good to last, and Castiel was “once again faced with the central question of, ‘Is this all there is? Is this really what I’ve been put here to do?'” Carver adds that “it seems very apt that, at a certain point,” Castiel, like the Winchesters, “would come to this realization that he couldn’t sit out this fight any longer.”
As for what comes next, Carver says that “there is no question that his time being human will affect his thinking going forward. And he’s going to find himself in the angelic fray, as it were, more than ever. And he’s going to find himself at a point of decision that he never considered a few short months ago,” a situation Carver describes as “a little bit of a be-careful-what-you-wish-for.”
However, “In terms of having another angel’s grace in him, it’s something he’s not necessarily focused on, but it’s something that he may have to deal with in the future.”
The king of Hell
On the demonic front, “Crowley will have a very important role,” Carver previews. “We have just started to scratch the surface…in terms of this King of Hell who is finding himself fighting to hold onto his kingdom, but also struggling with this feeling he experienced last year of being human.”
Other teases
Other things fans can look forward to in the back half of season 9 include the return of “more beloved characters that I can let on right now,” Carver says. “There are a good handful coming and for all different reasons.” This includes Garth, who we saw in a recent promo.
Carver also previews “an episode where the boys are working a case that seems to have been hijacked by The Ghostfacers,” which we previously reported on.
The show will also “be delving even deeper into the world of the Men of Letters, and digging at some more history that had an effect, not just on our brothers, but on the organization as well.”
Also showing up in season 9 is Tim Omundson’s Cain, who Carver calls “a fascinating character with a fascinating past. Of course, Supernatural “put[s] something of a twist on what is considered to be… known history.” His appearance “does sprout some wonderful mythology for us to be dealing with as the season continues.”
Supernatural returns with new episodes on Tuesday, January 14 on The CW.