Guess who’s back!

Also, Amanda Tapping (Naomi from season 8) directed this episode!

Then!

Rowena helped the Winchesters get the Black Grimoire. Lucifer burned Rowena to death. Asmodeus jailed Castiel and Lucifer.

Now!

A dude named Dale walks into a liquor store and gets love-spelled by a couple of witches, leading him to kill the proprietor and bring them money, and a whole bunch of (good) alcohol. Then they kill him with a sledgehammer! Yikes.

Sam and Dean have new flannels! They look so nice!! I love the idea of those two boys shopping for plaid together.

Ahem.

The boys are looking for a way to get to Jack and Mary back, who are still in the AU. While Sam reads, Dean heads out for beer, and gets love-spelled by the same witches as poor, dead Dale. Clearly, these ladies know who the Winchesters are, and they have targeted Dean.

Dean comes back to the bunker and confesses his newfound love to Sam, going as far as saying that he is gonna move her into the bunker. Hee. Goofy-in-love Dean is adorable.

The crazy part? She asks him for the Black Grimoire, which is the last giant red flag that clues Sam in that something is amiss. Sam takes Dean’s keys, and Dean punches Sam out (with an apology!) and walks back to town and his waiting ladies.

Jennie is very disappointed that he didn’t bring the car. Hee.

Sam arrives in Baby, and our beautiful boys get in a tussle as Sam finds the hex bag in Dean’s pocket, and Jennie and Jamie take off with the grimoire. As Dean is choking out Sam (with an apology!), a flash of purple light breaks them up, and enter Rowena! “Hello, boys.”

Back in the bunker, Rowena tells the boys about how she put a tracking spell on the grimoire, which is how she found them, and that she needs one page from it to break a binding spell that had been cast on her ages ago. Sam and Dean are not thrilled about helping her get more power, but Rowena seems confident that she will get her way.

When they break the news to her that Crowley died helping them, and trapping Lucifer in another reality, she is upset that her son is dead, and positive that Lucifer will return. SHE’S NOT WRONG.

Sam and Dean are willing to use Rowena to help them get the book back, but are smart enough to not leave her behind, so she rides in the backseat of Baby as they roll up to the “very mid-western” town that the witches are living in. Dean heads off to question some townsfolk, while Sam and Rowena have a chat. Rowena confesses to Sam how scared she is, especially since Lucifer showed her his real face before he crushed her skull and set her on fire, and they bond over the horror of being tortured by Lucifer. Sam admits that he has never really dealt with his Lucifer issues, and that concerns me! Talk to your brother, Sammy!

Dean meets Brenda, who hates the witches as much as she appreciates watching Dean walk away. Brenda gives Dean the sister’s address, and is awesome.

Rowena escapes the boys by casting a glue spell on Sam and Dean, and finds Jenny and Jamie, who have half-assed the spell to bring back their mom, and now have a Zombie Mom who is immune to magic. Sam and Dean hilariously escape from Rowena’s glue spell, and show up just in time to save Rowena, after a protracted fight with the “really weirdly strong” witch sisters.

Rowena plays Sam’s heart strings perfectly, and he lets her have the page from the book that breaks her binding spell, making Rowena’s eyes glow purple as she powers up. Good news, bad news, I am guessing.

Dean asks Sam why he let Rowena have the page, and Sam tells him that he understands the helplessness Rowena feels, and that he is worried that since there is no plan regarding Jack and their Mom, things will end badly. Dean, being the optimistic one today, tells his little brother, who is clearly awash in pain, that they will win, like they always do.

Meanwhile!

Castiel and Lucifer are snarking back and forth from their cells, and being taunted by a guard demon named Dipper. Oh Dipper, you dummy. Never taunt an arch angel with something to prove!

Lucy is aggravated because of his lack of power, and he asks Cass over and over for a taste of his grace so he can get back to full power. Cass tells him no, and then rubs it in, explaining to Lucy how kind and unlike him his son Jack is, even saying he reminds Cass of his mother more than anything.

Lucy’s rage is what ultimately focuses his energy, and he uses it to bust the warding on the cell bars, and he and Cass escape. And when Lucy asks Cass one last time for his grace, nicking him with an angel blade as a warning, Castiel “learns his lesson”, and stabs Lucy in the gut with his angel blade, most likely not killing him, but at least injuring him enough that his red eyes sputter and dim.

That’s all for them this week!

Quotes!

Dean: “I am, like, full-on twitterpated here. Seriously, I can’t wait for you to meet her, either. She, I mean, she’s. She’s sweet and she’s beautiful and she’s just kinda sorta perfect. Anyway, I’m thinking of asking her to move in with me here if that’s cool, ’cause this is big-time.”

Lucifer: “Thanks. So considerate. Appreciate that a lot. You’re not nice, and I don’t like you. You’re treating me like an everyday angel! And if I had just a little more power, I could tear this place apart! Just sayin’.”

Sam: “Uh, your spells tend to boil people’s brains. So maybe let us handle it.”

Sam: “Even if you do get the book, and even if you get your power back, it won’t matter. You won’t ever be able to change what happened. You won’t be able to change how helpless you felt, or how helpless you feel. You’re still gonna get scared. And that feeling that feeling never goes away.”

Rowena: “I just need a minute. I’m not fleeing. Don’t release the hounds.”

Dean: “Can’t believe I fell for a love spell. And got clocked by a witch with a hammer.”  Sam: “And zombie mom. Those are the details that sell the story.”  Dean: “Oh, yeah, yeah. Getting beat up by a girl, that’s a story I wanna tell someone.”  Sam: “Girls beat us up all the time.” Dean: “Mm. True.”

Sam: “I mean, I had a plan, you know. I, uh help Jack, um, bring Mom back. It wasn’t much, but it was something. It — it kept me from spinning off the rails. A-and now Jack is gone, Mom is still in Hell, basically, a-and I-I-I just…”  Dean: “We’ll figure it out.”  Sam: “Dean, we don’t have a plan. We don’t know what to do. So — so how?”  Dean: “I don’t know. But we will, you and me.”

Next! Jensen Ackles’ wife Daneel! I hope I like her!!