With the fifth episode of Season 15 of Supernatural approaching, viewers may be looking for a quick recap of what has happened so far. Here’s what Sam and Dean have been up to as their latest case turns out to be anything but routine.
Last season on Supernatural, the Winchesters found out that Chuck (aka God) had been manipulating their lives all along as if it were some kind of cosmic TV show.
Predictably, Sam and Dean refused to be Chuck’s puppets, which resulted in an apocalyptic falling out. Chuck smited Jack and opened all of Hell’s cages, expelling the souls to Earth.
Sam shot Chuck with the Equalizer gun, a weapon designed by God to kill Jack but that would also take the life of the shooter. Both Sam and Chuck were wounded and Chuck vanished, leaving the Winchesters to stop the Ghost-pocalypse.
Season 15 opens right where season 14 left off. The Winchesters and Cass spent a few episodes trying to fix everything, enlisting the help of Rowena, Ketch, and some other hunters.
They face down the ghost of Jack the Ripper with some unexpected help from the ghost of Kevin Tran, who has actually been in Hell this whole time. Kevin chooses to roam the Earth as a ghost rather than return to Hell as a soul, since he can’t get into Heaven without Chuck’s help.
Ketch had been hired to assassinate the Winchesters’ new demon ally Belphegor – a good soldier with style who is wearing Jack’s body and cool sunglasses. He’s an abomination that Cass can barely deal with. Ketch abandoned his assignment to help the Winchesters, but is ultimately killed by the demon who hired him. He finally redeemed himself by giving his life to protect his friends.
Long story short, they did save the world, but not without sacrifices. Belphegor claimed he liked hell the way it was and wanted to help return all the souls. And he seemed sincere enough at first, even casting a spell to quarantine the area around the hellmouth, but what he really wanted was to be king of Hell. In the end he betrayed the Winchesters in order to use Lilith’s horn to absorb the power of all the souls, but Cass was able to smite him before he got very far.
Unfortunately, this still left millions of souls free and the hellmouth open. Rowena had to give her own life to absorb the souls and close the rift, an eventuality she was ready for from the beginning. She died at Sam’s hand, just as Death foretold, but only because she made him do it.
Dean blames Cass for everything that went wrong, especially for hiding his concerns about Jack last season. This is just the latest abuse Cass had taken for the performance of a thankless task. When the world is safe, Cass says its time for him to move on and leaves gracefully and without recrimination, making Dean look like a perfect ass.
Meanwhile, Chuck’s confidence is low after his falling out with the Winchesters and isn’t at full power due to his wound from the Equalizer. The wound connects him with Sam, but neither of them knows it yet.
Chuck went to visit his sister Amara to ask for help, but the two are still not on good terms after their retreat together. She decided to abandon him like he abandoned her.
This brings us up to date through episode three, leading into the recap for episode four. There’s lots more to wrap up before Supernatural’s fifteenth and final season comes to a close – including whatever grand plan Chuck has in store for Sam and Dean.
Supernatural airs Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW.