It’s one of those episodes where you know, deep down, that it will end okay, but the experience getting there is harrowing. I spent a good amount of the episode trying to figure out how Sam and Dean were gonna get out of this mess. Excellent storytelling, even if it was ultimately just a placeholder.

Then!

Werewolves, reapers and Casifer. (Hi, Tessa!)

Now!

Fight! Fight! Fight! Holy crap, that is one brutal fight! And just like that, Sam is shot in the gut, and it looks bad. You can’t just sew that up with some dental floss.

48 hours earlier: Wait! You’re just gonna let us hang like that??? Listen, the flashbacks are just a cute way to tell the story, and it really isn’t too relevant to the fact that Sam is bleeding out on a cabin floor! The one interesting thing about the flashbacks, is how good of a mood Sam is in. He’s jokey, and charming, and it is a huge difference between DeathsDoorSammy.

Sam, ever the hero, tells Dean to help the two people tied up. Dean, as we know, will not let his brother just bleed out, so he yanks the bullet out of Sammy’s gut, and then Sam patches himself up(!!!) as Dean gets the couple out of their constraints.

How much you wanna bet that dude talked his lovely bride into hiking through the National Parks as a honeymoon? Thanks a lot, beardo.

Dean, being Dean. pretty much only wants to save his brother, and goes out to gather branches to make a litter to carry Sammy out of the woods. Sam knows this, and tells the couple to just go, but instead, this douchcanoe decides to smother Sammy to death. To death! Was it the werewolf venom that was already coursing through his veins – Sam sees the bite on this murderers arm as he dies – that made him do it? Or is he really that much of an ass?

Dean, seeing a car approaching, comes back to the cabin to find his brother dead on the floor. How many times are we gonna have to see that look on Dean’s face as he looks down on his dead brother? Aaaaargh, it hurts so much!

Jensen Ackles just nails all of this. He is so good.

It’s day by the time the trio make it back to the road. Dean soldiering on, the only thing he knows how to do is to lead these people to safety. Beardo basically admits to Michelle, his bride, that he killed Sam. Geez, what an ass.

Dean flags down a Ranger, and when he turns to get back to Sam, the Ranger tries to stop Dean, Dean punches the Ranger, the Ranger tasers Dean. Whoopsie!

Everyone is at Urgent Care, and Michelle is starting to understand that her new husband is kind of an ass. She goes to visit Dean and apologize, indirectly, for her murdering husband. She tries to comfort Dean by saying “Death, it’s not the end.” which gives Dean a really bad idea. We know how crazy Dean gets when Sam dies.

Cut to Sammy, NOT dead on the floor. He was only Mostly Dead! As Sam is coming to, Dean takes a handful of pills in front of Michelle, and Oh My God Dean, Sam isn’t dead! Quite a pickle.

Sam. seeing the werewolves pull up, painfully drags himself down to the basement, like a Boss, and somehow summons the strength to clobber them in a fight that looks super painful. AND THEN, he makes his way back to Baby, makes a call to Dean that gets cut off by dodgy cell service, and gets in the car and drives to go save the day. (How big is Sam’s phone when it looks that big in his giant hands?)

Sam MF-ing Winchester. Let’s not forget that Sam is just as driven as Dean when it comes to his brother. They are two sides of the same coin on this subject.

Dean dies, has a chat with Billie, the reaper, where she reiterates that she will do whatever it takes to make sure Sam and Dean stay dead this time around. I wonder if she has some grudge against our beautiful boys that we don’t know about, or if she’s just that irritated by these two circumventing the natural order of things. After Billie calls Dean’s bluff, she drops that Sam isn’t , in fact, dead. Just then, the good doctor revives Dean, and our reaper makes her exit.

By now the terrible husband has turned, and after killing the doctor who just saved Dean, and then sticking his hand through the Ranger’s chest in front of Michelle, he tells her that he’s gonna turn her so they can live happily ever after as werewolves, because even as a monster, this guy is such a jerk he needs someone to be with at any cost, or some such idiocy. (Gawd, I hate this guy.) Dean jumps in and takes the guy down before he has a chance to lay a wolfy hand on Michelle. Being a monster, he gets the drop on Dean, and as he is choking out Dean, Sammy shows up and shoots the guy dead, as we hear Michelle scream “No!” down the hall.

Michelle, I know you are sad and upset and changed, but really, you are so much better off without this guy in your life. FOR REALZ.

Sam freakin’ Winchester walks out of the urgent care center, like No Big, after some meds and stitches, just as cheery as he was at the beginning of their hunt. I’m not sure if this makes Sam resilient, or bonkers. And while Dean lied to Sam, when Sam asked him what he did when he thought he was dead, I think Sam knew Dean was lying, but he let it go. Because why push it, you know? A nice evolution in the boys’ relationship. It’s sweet!

Quotes!

Sam: ” You know, we always talk about taking a break, going camping. This could be like camping. It could be fun.” Dean: “Yeah, which part? freezing our nuts off in the middle of the woods on a thin lead?” Sam: “Yeah, that part!”

Bobbi: “Of all the ways, I thought you’d go, heart attack, some fang, choking on a burger while watching Charles in Charge.” Dean: “Well, it was peak Baio.”

Sam: “Hey, so what did you do? When you thought I was dead. What did you do?” Dean: “Thought about redecorating your room. Put in a Jacuzzi, a nice disco ball, really class up the joint.” Sam: ‘Yeah, right. Seriously.” Dean: ‘I knew you weren’t dead.” Sam: “Right.” Dean: “I new.”

Next!

Lucifer makes his way up to Heaven, and the boys team up with Crowley This should go well!