The Supernatural season 10 finale, “Brother’s Keeper,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
To save a life
We open with Sam filling bullets while Castiel paces around the bunker. Sam is stuck without Rowena willing to translate the Book of the Damned and perform the spell. However, Cas is concerned about the whole Biblical consequences thing, but Sam retorts that no one knows for sure what the consequences of using the spell are, and he’s not willing to let Dean succumb to the Mark on a guess.
Meanwhile, Dean wakes up hungover in a motel room, ignores a call from Sam, and assures himself he’s okay. Later, a fellow hunter, Rudy, asks for some backup on a vampire hunt. But when Dean heads to the dump site, he insensitively slut shames the victim.
When Rudy arrives, Dean tells him to leave. It turns out there is another girl missing — the victim’s friend — so they need to find out where the vamps are holed up. Dean interviews the victim’s family and continues to slut shame the daughter until the father attacks him. When Dean leaves the house, the victim’s brother follows and tells him that he brought the girls to a remote cabin, not realizing what would happen.
A dangerous deal
Back in Kansas, Sam and Castiel confront Rowena and threaten her. She calls their bluff, though, and demands her freedom with the Book of the Damned and the codex in exchange for doing the spell. Cas is hesitant, but Sam agrees.
Rowena translates the spell’s ingredients: the forbidden fruit, the golden calf, and something the witch casting the spell loves. When Crowley is rejected, Cas probes her mind and discovers a young boy she become fond of 300 years earlier named Oscar.
While Sam gets a call from Rudy, filling him in on his meeting with Dean and sending over the location, Cas is charged with getting the ingredients. He summons Crowley (because Crowley wasn’t in his contacts list) for help; Crowley makes him beg, and Cas does. Crowley agrees to help and heads off to get the ingredients.
Over the edge
Meanwhile, Dean heads to the cabin where the vampires were holed up with their victim. When he enters, he finds a vampire holding a knife to Rudy’s throat. Rudy begs Dean to listen, but Dean taunts the vampire and startles him into stabbing Rudy. Dean uses the distraction to behead him and free the girl, who is upset at just watching two murders.
Later, Sam arrives at the crime scene and finds the bodies. Dean, meanwhile, is haunted by visions of the violence he’s unleashed lately and ends up trashing his motel room. Some time later, Sam tracks down the motel room and discovers its wrecked state as well as a note on the bed — “She’s all yours” with the Impala’s keys.
Crowley, meanwhile, after tracking down the first two Biblical ingredients, ends up in a diner. He has realized that the waiter is actually Oscar. Rowena, having grown fond of him all those years ago, granted him immortality.
Lock and key
Elsewhere, Dean holes up in a defunct Mexican restaurant and summons Death, complete with an offering of chips and queso. Dean asks Death to kill him, but Death replies that he can’t kill Dean with the Mark. The Mark, Death explains, is designed as a lock and key for an ancient Darkness that precedes life itself.
God and his archangels defeated it and locked it away. God then gave it to his most trusted archangel, Lucifer. The Darkness corrupted him, though, and God banished Lucifer. Lucifer would then give the Mark to Cain before Cain passed it on to Dean. To remove the Mark from a host would be to unlock the Darkness, which would destroy everything. Death, however, offers to send Dean somewhere he can’t harm anyone, though he’ll be alive.
Brother vs. brother
Dean calls Sam and summons him to the restaurant. Sam, naturally, is shocked to see Dean and Death waiting for him. Sam wants to talk Dean out of letting Death reap him, but Dean replies that the way out is with Sam‘s death.
Sam can’t believe what he’s hearing, but Death says that Dean has accepted the bargain, but Sam will continue fighting to free Dean until he succeeds, and they can’t afford that. (Plus, Death is still stung Sam stood him up in the season 9 premiere.)
Sam tries to talk Dean out of this, but Dean isn’t listening, so Sam punches Dean. The brothers fight, but Dean quickly takes the upper hand and brings Sam to his knees. Sam relents, telling Dean to do it. However, as Death hands over his scythe, Sam assures Dean that he will never believe the real Dean is evil. He pulls out the pictures of their family and gives Dean the Impala keys as a means of one day finding his way back to himself.
Dean tells Sam to close his eyes, swings the scythe…
And stabs Death, who crumbles into dust.
Darkness rising
Back in Kansas, Crowley returns with the ingredients, including Oscar. Rowena is shocked but hugs him before tearfully stabbing him in the neck and using his blood. Nothing is worth more than her freedom at this point. She quickly completes the spell. Power sparks and shoots through the roof of the distillery and into the Mexican restaurant where it hits Dean and removes the Mark.
Rowena then freezes Castiel and Crowley. She uses her magic to make Castiel attack Crowley while she leaves with the Book and the codex.
Meanwhile, Sam and Dean leave the restaurant, but the sky above them starts swirling and darkness shoots from the ground. They hurry to the Impala, but the car is stuck in the mud. Sam and Dean can do nothing as they are overtaken by a giant wave of ancient darkness.
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