‘Supernatural’ season 12, episode 9: Sam and Dean’s shocking deal; Castiel’s kill

Tonight’s new episode of “Supernatural” was the first one of 2017, and there was a key question that it had to resolve over the course of the hour: Whether or not the Winchesters were going to continue to be jailbirds at the hands of the United States Government.

The challenge for the writers entering the episode was simple: The brothers were obviously going to get out. This isn’t a show that creates this sort of obstacle and then makes it permanent. They have a tendency to resolve things fairly quickly, so what was more interesting was how the brothers were able to both get away from prison and secure their safety. Some of the credit has to go to them for their own skills at getting themselves out of tight spots. Then, some of it goes to Castiel and Mary for their intuitiveness when it comes to getting the right people involved. She got on the hunt once more, and she recruited some of the folks from the British Men of Letters.

While it’s already been established that this group is not comprised of some of Sam and Dean’s favorite people in the world, they were still integral in locating them.

Everything seemed all neat and pretty at around the 8:50 p.m. mark of the episode — the boys were out, and were seemingly safe. Unfortunately, this is when the reaper Billie entered the fray once more. Dean made a deal with her to ensure that they could get out, but it would lead to a Winchester sacrifice. When Mary offered herself up, we assumed that this was it, and we were going to lose Sam and Dean’s mom from the show once more. Well, about that. Castiel chose instead that he would rather do away with the reaper himself, allowing everyone to stick around. His speech was pretty poignant, as he made it clear that he couldn’t stand losing another Winchester at all costs — even if it meant him being the one to break the deal. Who thinks that there will be some serious consequences to that?

All in all, this episode was a crazy start to the second part of the season, especially since the conversation between Mary and the British Men of Letters at the end of the episode could have consequences of its own…

Next week – Get ready for a big Castiel episode! Head over here to know more. (Photo: The CW.)