Supernatural finally returned with a new episode after five weeks away. Supposedly, this is just continued fallout from last year's writer's strike. Coming back from a long break and several "just okay" episodes before that, "Supernatural" finally managed to stop ignoring the angels and evil Sam storyline and continue moving towards the season finale and the Sam and Dean showdown.
Last we saw of the Winchesters Dean and Sam were acting okay after nearly trying to kill each other under a siren's spell. Cut to last night's episode, and two friends are leaving a bar. After a failed mugging, one guy gets what should be a killing shot to the chest. His friend is convinced he's dying, but he's somehow okay.
Sam and Dean get a call from Bobby to investigate a Wyoming town full of people unable to die. Sam is ready to work and Dean is still holding a grudge about Sam's name-calling under the spell, questioning if Sam would be better off doing the job on his own. They push their issues to the side as usual and show up in Wyoming as bloggers for a Christian website. After interviewing the still breathing mugging victim, Sam comes down on the evil side and Dean is on team leave it.
Sam finds out a kid was the last person to die and he wants to have a séance to talk to him. At the graveyard, Dean argues that good people could die if they figure out why the reaper isn't collecting, and Sam reminds Dean that's the natural order of things. In Sam's logic, both brothers are outside of the natural order. A guy shows up in the cemetery and accuses them of being devil worshippers. His appearance feels wrong, and it's the demon Alastair in another body. The boys had thought Alastair had burned up in their last confrontation, but Alastair laughs it off. He even makes fun of the fact the last guy he possessed wife is still looking for her husband. Alastair throws Dean and knocks him out. He goes to throw Sam but Sam has been working on his demon boy powers with Ruby. Not only can Alastair not throw Sam, he can't stop Sam from throwing him around. Sam is about to pull Alastair out of the latest body, but Alastair leaves in a cloud of black smoke before he gets the chance.
Sam gets an off-screen phone call from Bobby who tells him he was right and the reaper was kidnapped. Dean wakes up and immediately sees through Sam's version of what happened with Alastair, but puts that aside to deal with the missing reaper. Dean realizes they need to be ghosts to see the reaper and they need help.
The boys call their physic friend Pamela, who makes fun of their stupid plan but helps them all the same. They lay down in their beds and she does her thing. Both brothers sit up and are out of their bodies. Pamela knows her stuff. She tells the temporary ghosts that they've got a day to figure it out and then she's putting them back into her bodies. She tells Sam she's going to whisper the spell into his ear and takes the chance to comment on his "great ass" again, yes.
Sam and Dean the ghosts walk around while Dean enjoys sticking his hand in and out of his little brother's chest. Naturally they see the same kid they were planning on having the séance to talk to. The poor kid Cole is hanging around his house and playing Poltergeist with his mom, because the reaper that came to take him away disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Cole freaks out and disappears, and another reaper shows up.
It's Tessa, the reaper that came after Dean in the season two premiere. He doesn't remember her so she refreshes his memory in some kind of mind trip flash thing. The brothers manage to convince her to let them work with the kid until he can tell them where the missing reaper is. Sam goes to talk to the Cole alone. He promises to let the kid stay if he helps them and keep Tessa from taking him away. While Sam is lying to a dead kid, Dean admits to Tessa that he wishes he'd gone with her the first time they met. He's about to start in on his horrible hell stories when Sam coughs and the Cole reveals that the first place he saw the black smoke was at the funeral home.
More black smoke whirls in and snatches away Tessa. Dean and Sam are about to go fight when they realize they're still ghosts for a while longer. They have to learn how to throw things and fight as ghosts, but they've got a little boy who's been dead and with nothing better to do to show them.
Sam and Dean show up at the funeral home and the floor is covered in symbols surrounding the two reapers. The brothers are fighting a guy who's working for Alastair. Alastair traps the brothers between iron chains, which he knows they're ghostly selves cant break out of. He shoots them with rock salt while he explains that he needs to kill two reapers. Luckily he has a short attention span and pulls out a scythe he got from one of the four horseman of the apocalypse. Alastair quickly kills the first reaper and grabs up Tessa.
Back in the hotel, Pamela feels a breeze by the open window. She shouts that she' knows her attacker is there before trying to bring back the brothers. With their ghost mojo, Sam and Dean manage to knock the chandelier down and attempt to escape. Pamela brings Sam back only to be stabbed deep. Several seconds two late, Sam pulls the demon attacker out of the body without flinching, making this two Evil Sam moments in one episode. Sam wants to get Pamela help but she reminds him she can't die until Tessa comes to reap her.
Alastair finds Dean but disappears in a lightening bolt. Dean turns around and everyone's favorite angel Castiel is responsible. Castiel and Dean argue when Castiel tells him that Bobby didn't call them about this case. Castiel let the boys stop the seal from being broken by tricking them into thinking it was just another hunt. It worked, because this is one seal that didn't happen and they caught Alastair.
Dean goes with Tessa and they manage to convince Cole to move on. Pamela brings Dean back to life in time for him to get to see her die. She's bitter and mad at Bobby for introducing them, and not even Dean's talk of a better place will placate her. In her dying breath, she tells Sam that what he did to that demon is nothing good. Next week's preview shows Dean torturing Alastair and Castiel talking about angels dying, ending things on a dark note.