Supernatural S04E20 - The Rapture (2009)

Review

Dean receives a visit by Castiel in a dream with instructions on where to meet him the next day; Castiel has vital information for Dean. When the Winchester Bros arrive at the meeting place they discover a huge amount of destruction and a dazed and confused vessel, seems Castiel has been dragged back up to heaven leaving his vessel, a religious middle aged advert salesman named Jimmy Novak, with a lot of confusion.

Dean and Sam are not about to allow Jimmy to return to his wife in Pontiac Illinois as they correctly deduce the demons are going to be very interested in the vessel. Unfortunately Jimmy escapes while Sam is out getting a dose of demon blood and the Bros are forced to go get him. While on route the Bros are surprised by the appearance of Anna who can inform them that Castiel has really pissed off the powers that be. Things are not helped by demonic manipulations, with Dean and Sam needing a miracle to somehow resolve the situation.

Seems Castiel had decided to defy his masters and impart vital information to Dean but was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and dragged back to heaven for some attitude re-adjustment. While it happened off screen it would appear that Castiel didn't go lightly into the heavenly fold. What the information is that he had for Dean is never disclosed, though it was definitely vital for Dean and contrary to heavenly intents according to Anna who makes a well appreciated return. By the end of the episode Castiel is back on the playbook and basically tells Dean to piss off when the elder Winchester Bro asks him what the information was. I've got a hankering for full disclosure as well, which hopefully we'll get by end of season.

Meanwhile we discover Sam is addicted to demon blood, his abandoning of his post to get a hit leads directly to Jimmy escaping, and his powers are dimensioned when Ruby fails to come through with regular supplies. Like any addict Sam is desperate to get his fix which doesn't go unnoticed by Dean leading to a surprise development just prior to the final credits. I'm neither here nor there with the whole demon blood thing, it's one of those Supernatural ideas that leaks in and really outstays its welcome. Okay so Sam needs demon blood to get his mojo on, but what exact difference does this conjure up to say a Vampire needing human blood?

I'm really hoping the Sam demon blood thing doesn't stretch into another season

A lot of the episode is devoted to Jimmy and his acceptance of being a vessel for Castiel, regardless of the cost this will exact on his family. Notably Angel possession is a voluntary deal while Demonic possession is forced and opportunistic. We learn Jimmy has a wife and daughter and is devotedly religious making him the ideal host for heaven's coolest Angel. We spend quite some time with Jimmy pre-Castiel, then with Castiel making contact, till finally Jimmy is left on the benches as Castiel adopts the now trademark trench coat and suit. Interestingly his wife, who is also a believer, doesn't believe Jimmy is being contacted by an Angel, or the whole demon thing, but becomes a believer as the Demonic element enters the fray.

While the episode gives us some background on Castiel and his vessel it really doesn't overly advance things in term of the season's major plot arc, the breaking of the seals and the possible rise of Lucifer. For sure Sam is definitely firing up on demon blood to face down Lilith in the possible major battle at the end of the season but we only have two episodes left to get to that throw down. Too much of this season has been side tracking for mine, I mean you have the big evil waiting in the wings are we not going to get a curtain call at least for the Big D. The other thing I'm most intrigued by is what form Lucifer is going to take, remembering he is a fallen Angel who created demons by subverting lost souls. Will the big guy need a human vessel, in Angelic fashion, or are we in for a real treat as the Satanic Overload adopts a completely new form?

And another thing I've been wondering later, to paraphrase the Hoodoo Gurus, just how convoluted is the season arc turning out to be! Okay we have Sam addicted to love demon juice and being supplied, when she feels like it, by Ruby who displays all the finesse of a street dealer. Clearly Ruby has her own agenda which involves Sam being hopped to the eyeballs, not quite sure how that is going to work out. But, and this is a big but, the Angels are clearly hiding something from at least Dean, Castiel for sure has some sort of information tucked away that the Winchesters are going to need. Talk about your Angels and Demons, the Winchesters are caught betwixt and between the warring supernational forces with both sides attempting to use them as pawns.

Time to put it on the block, I don't think the Winchester Bros are going to stop the final seals being broken, even worse Lucifer is going to rise and be the Big Bad of season five. Why do I think this? - because very little of the second half of this season has dealt with the Demonic hordes working at releasing Lucifer into the wild. In short it has a feeling of inevitability to it, there's too much working against the Winchester and way too much they remain ignorant of. To be honest I'm going to be very disappointed if they pull a Hail Mary in the final ten minutes of the series to defeat the nefarious plans hatching around them.

Please note I'm taking zero time out of my schedule to discuss the final turn of the screw in this episode, that would be a tad too much on the spoiler front.

Look are the Producers of Supernatural fair dinkum about including the greatest hits of mullet rock or not! We get zero this episode, where's the odd Black Sabbath tune being belted out, hit Sabbath Bloody Sabbath during a witch episode y'all.

We are two episodes from the end of the season and are still not focusing on the major plot arc, though clearly Sam slurping down the demon blood has some part to play. I certainly dug The Rapture, which sort of exposed some Christian theology, but equally I was amused that the religiously centric are pretty much peripheral characters while the hard drinking womanising Winchesters take central stage. It's a good episode that throws up some interesting content, unfortunately you really need to be following the show to get the various nuances on the menu, but then of course you have been following the Winchester chronicles from season one episode one right?