15.12 Galaxy Brain
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| Title | Galaxy Brain |
| Episode # | Season 15, Episode 12 |
| First aired | March 16, 2020 |
| Directed by | Richard Speight, Jr. |
| Written by | Teleplay: Robert Berens Story: Meredith Glynn Robert Berens |
| On IMDB | Galaxy Brain |
| Outline | Dark Kaia's return leads Sam and Dean on a daring rescue mission, along with Jody, Castiel, and Jack. |
| Monster | God |
| Timeline | Four weeks after 15.09 The Trap |
| Location(s) | Earth 2 Sioux Falls, South Dakota Lebanon, Kansas The Bad Place |
| « Previous Episode | Next Episode » | |
Contents
Synopsis
Earth 2 -- Four Weeks Ago
Chuck walks into a Radio Shed and over to a display of TVs. The clerk describes all the options for TVs and asks what Chuck is looking for. Chuck says He is looking for an audience, and begins to describes how He made the world but wanted more, so He made other worlds. As He's speaking, some of these worlds appear on the TV screens. Chuck says He realized that the other Sams and Deans in the other worlds don't "spark joy" the way the Sam and Dean of our world do; our Sam and Dean challenge, disappoint, and surprise Chuck. Chuck has an epiphany that He needs fewer distractions, and begins destroying all the other worlds He created.
Sioux Falls, Our World -- Present Day
Sheriff Jody Mills is looking at a dead steer, when Alex calls to say dinner is getting cold. Jody tells Alex that the cattle mutilation is not a monster but human cruelty. Jody tells her to keep the lasagna in the oven and hangs up. She's investigating the barn when she is knocked out by a hooded figure.
At the Bunker, Sam, Dean, and Castiel are discussing Jack's deal with Billie. Sam is concerned that Jack doesn’t have a soul, has been in the Empty for months, and they don’t have a sense of what he's thinking or feeling about all of this. Cas says he trusts Jack, who trusts Billie. Dean agrees that he thinks Billie’s plan is the way forward and that even if she isn't telling them the whole plan now, Billie's strict adherence to rules and order makes him feel like he can believe in her.
Meanwhile, Jack is in the library and notices Sam's, Dean's, and Mary's initials carved into the table, and runs his hand across Mary's. Jack wanders into his bedroom and Merle, a reaper, appears. Jack has been “praying” to Death, but as she's busy, Billie sent Merle to find out what Jack wants. Jack wonders why Billie hadn't helped him earlier, when he was captured by the Grigori. Merle asserts that Billie knew that Jack could handle the Grigori and that Cas would save him. Merle tells Jack that he needs to follow the rules: lay low, wait for instructions, and don't use his powers. Jack agrees. Sam walks by and overhears part of their conversation and walks in to tell Jack how glad they are he is back.
Dean and Cas are having a drink and discussing Kelly Kline's faith in Jack’s goodness. Cas shares how he was so lost after Chuck killed Jack and how he just knew that Jack's story wasn't over. They toast to Cas being right. Dean proposes a toast to revenge, too, but Castiel clarifies that what sounds good to him is Jack fulfilling his destiny. Dean is excited about the possibility of Chuck being killed by His grandson and says it's fitting that they're going biblical on Him. Suddenly, Jody calls and tells Dean she's in trouble and to come get her or she is dead.
Sam and Dean arrive at the barn where Jody is being held. As they release her, Sam and Dean are attacked by Dark Kaia. She asks about her spear and Dean's promise to get her back to her world, "The Bad Place." Dean tells her that the spear was destroyed and recants their deal due to her attack on Jody. With Jody's help, they subdue Dark Kaia and find out she wants to go back to her world because it's dying. Dark Kaia is dreaming about her dying world through the eyes of Kaia, who is alive and stuck in the Bad Place.
Back in the Bunker, Cas and Jack are playing Connect Four when Sam, Dean, Jody, and Dark Kaia return. After chaining Dark Kaia to the kitchen table, they begin to search the lore and check magic supplies for a way to get Kaia back without using Jack's powers. Jack finds a spell, but one of ingredients is the liver of a mandragora. Sam and Dean chuckle and tell them that their father killed the last mandragora and recounted it in his journal under "A Hunt in Fargo." Jack leaves to help Jody and Cas look through the stores in the Bunker; Sam and Dean realize they are stuck without archangel or nephilim grace.
As Jody inventories magic ingredients, Cas leaves a voicemail for Sergei. Cas asks if Jody has told Claire about Kaia being alive. Jody tells Cas that Claire is out of cell phone range in Yosemite, following a presumed lead towards Kaia's killer. She explains how Claire loved Kaia and has spent years looking for revenge. Jody knows that Claire would do anything to save Kaia, but there's no time to get her involved and she's hesitant in case a rescue fails. Jack has overheard this whole exchange and goes to talk to Dark Kaia. Jacks apologizes for not being able to do more, but Dark Kaia angrily rebukes Jack. Jack asks why Dark Kaia came to this world; she tells him how she envied Kaia and her "peaceful" world, but Dark Kaia has realized she doesn't understand this world and is done with it. Dark Kaia pleads for Jack's help, so he dreamwalks with her to see Kaia in the Bad Place.
Jack tells Sam and Dean he used his powers and has to save Kaia because he saw that she's running out of time. Merle appears to remind Jack of the rules and that risking their plan to save one life is "Winchester dumb." Merle threatens to tell Billie, but Jack calls her bluff and tells Merle she can go to tell Billie, but while she's gone, he's going to open the rift and save Kaia. Jack convinces Merle that not telling Billie and working with them to save Kaia is a better plan than Billie finding out that Jack went ahead with saving Kaia on Merle's watch and Merle being punished for it. Merle agrees and says the safest way would be to temporarily fix the cosmic warding in the Bunker that Amara destroyed. She explains that Sam and Dean only fixed the warding sigils that protects the Bunker from demons and monsters, but didn't come close to restoring it completely. They can't fully restore the warding in the short term, but she and Castiel can power it up temporarily, for Jack to open the rift to the Bad Place.
After they upgrade the warding, Sam and Dean pack for going through the rift. They acknowledge that they are taking a risk, but that it also feels good disobeying cosmic entities and doing the dumb, right thing. Jody initially wants to go with them, but Cas asks Jody to stay behind. He says he may never be able to make things right with Claire, but if they failed, she would be devastated, but she would recover since she already accepted Kaia's apparent death. They agree that Claire would never recover if Jody dies too. After Merle and Castiel strengthen the warding, Jack opens the portal and Sam, Dean, and Dark Kaia pass through.
In the Bad Place, Sam, Dean, and Dark Kaia are surrounded by creatures with red glowing eyes. Sam and Dean prepare to fight, but Dark Kaia stops them. The creatures are not after them, but they're afraid of the storm. They find Kaia in Dark Kaia's hut, and after embracing Dean they prepare to leave, but Dark Kaia chooses to stay behind, telling them she never belonged in Kaia's world and should never have left her home. After Sam, Dean, and Kaia make it back to the Bunker, a descending wave of water floods Dark Kaia and her world.
After Kaia has changed into some of Jack's clothes, Jody invites her back to Sioux Falls to live with her and the girls. Kaia asks if Claire will be there and Jody says “She will be, soon,” before the two thank the quartet and leave.
Merle says she believes the warding kept Jack's use of his powers off Chuck's radar and agrees that it was a victory. From out of nowhere, Billie appears and kills Merle with her scythe. Billie is disappointed that Jack is already bending the rules, telling him and the Winchesters how Merle was unable to keep Jack in line and had to die for failing her. Unlike them, she sees the big picture and that saving one life is nothing in the grand scheme. Billie reveals to them that Chuck is destroying every single world except the Winchesters' world, to prepare for "The End". When Sam asks what her plan is, Billie simply tells them that when she became Death, she inherited Death's knowledge and Death's Library, where everyone has a book detailing how they may die, including God. When asked why Chuck would write about His own demise, Billie tells Castiel that God didn't write about His own death, the books write themselves. Due to Chuck wanting to create more worlds, He needed to build Himself into the framework of the muliversal quantum construct for the worlds to keep operating in His absence. In turn, He created His only weakness, that He would one day die like everything else as Death prophesied to Dean ten years ago in Chicago. The details in each book are only known by Billie, unless she lets someone else read them. She informs everyone that Jack is in God's book, as are Sam and Dean. It's their destiny as the messengers of God’s destruction.
In the Radio Shed, Chuck is watching the dying worlds on the wall of TV screens. Chuck gets up to leave and the Clerk asks if he and his world will be spared. Chuck tells him it will be fine and leaves the store. In the sky above Him, which features two moons, flaming meteors fall to Earth. One lands directly on the Radio Shed.
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- Castiel
- Jack Kline
- Chuck / God
- Sheriff Jody Mills
- Alex Jones
- Billie / Death
- Kaia Nieves
- Dark Kaia
- Merle
Definitions
- Alcohol
- Alternate Universe
- Angel Lore
- Apocalypse
- The Bad Place
- Canids
- Chuck's Endings
- The Colt
- The Cosmic Balance
- Crew Cameos
- Death's Library
- Death's Scythe
- Dreamwalking
- Hugs
- Hunters
- Good Talk
- John's Journal
- Kaia's Spear
- Men of Letters Bunker
- Monsters
- Nephilim
- Portal
- Prayer
- Reapers
- Sam and Dean's Initials
- Season 15 Callbacks
- Soullessness
- Spells
- Table of Death
- Warding Sigils
Music
- "Pop Tart Heart" by Louden Swain
- (playing on the radio in the Earth 2 Radio Shed store)
- "Mary Mack" by Yadira Guevara-Prip
- (sung by Kaia Nieves in the Bad Place)
Quotes
Clerk: Sir, this a Radio Shed.
Chuck: Dean says I'm not gonna get the ending I want. And I don't know. Maybe -- I -- I mean that shouldn't matter, right? I've gotten what I want from hundreds of Sams and Deans. I could get what I want from a hundred more. And I don't care. Those other toys, they don't -- they don't... spark joy. But Sam and Dean... the real Sam and Dean... they do. They challenge me... they disappoint me... they surprise me. They're... the ones.
Clerk: How 'bout a stereo?
Dean: Which part -- Jack's deal with Death? Or the part where she's got him eating angel hearts?
Castiel: What sounds good to me is Jack fulfilling his destiny.
Dean: Well, way I see it, that promise expired the minute you hurt our friend.
Merle: Yeah, I've been watching you screw up. One measly life on the line, and you're ready to risk it all? That's not just dumb. That's Winchester dumb.
Sam: Honestly? Feels like we're taking a big, probably stupid risk. Feels good. Disobeying cosmic entities, doing the, uh... dumb, right thing? Feels like we're back.
Jody: That'd kill her.
Sam: So you think the warding worked, kept us off Chuck's radar?
Billie: When I was a reaper, I believed in the rules. But then you killed me. And when I became Death, I inherited Death's knowledge... and Death's library. And in Death's library, everyone has a book. Even God.
Dean: So God can die?
Billie: He didn't. The books write themselves. After God made the world, He couldn't stop. He wanted more. But He needed to create a perfect harmony -- a Swiss watch, so this world could keep tick-tick-ticking in His absence. He had no choice but to build Himself into the framework. It's His only weakness.
Dean: So Chuck doesn't know what's inside the book?
Billie: No one can read their books unless I let them.
Sam: What about Jack? He's in God's book?
Trivia & References
- Earth-Two, a parallel world in the DC Multiverse; the home of DC's Golden Age heroes.
- The Earth 2 clerk's bemused response to Chuck's "monologue time" is a reference to Sir, This is an Arby's, a meme in which a put-upon service worker attempts to quiet a ranting patron.
- "Spark joy" is a reference to Marie Kondo, a Japanese organizing consultant whose KonMari method of organizing encourages followers to eliminate possessions which do not "spark joy."
- Supernatural has featured alternate realities, many subplots and two failed spinoffs - Supernatural: Bloodlines and Wayward Sisters.
Dean: What are the ingredients?
Jack: Basic stuff -- crystals, herbs, and the, uh... "liver of a mandragora."
- Stregheria is a form of witchcraft with roots in South Europe, as well as a connection to Italian Americans. Mandragora are a type of familiar demons that appear as dolls to act as counselors to sorcerers in times of need. Mandragora is also the Latin name of a plant genus of the nightshade family whose members are also known as Mandrakes which have been used in various supernatural practices throughout history.
- The "snap" is the term used to refer to the actions of Thanos in snapping his fingers while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet and wiping out 50% of all living things. It is also a reference to Chuck's affinity for snapping his fingers when he wants someone to die or disappear.
Minutiae
- "At the beginning of the season, Jared and Jensen spoke with the writers about the final season. Most of the convo was about the ending, but when loose ends came up Jensen made a point of wanting part 2 of the Dark Kaia spear saga. I felt it was important because Dark Kaia’s promise to Dean in 14.09 was so loaded, and we never resolved it. (The plan was to do it in S14 but it didn’t happen.) That Jensen agreed it mattered gave me some steam to push for it."
- "I don’t think they knew that part. I think with Jensen it came down to tracking the fact that Dean had broken a promise onscreen, wanting that resolved— mixed with, I suspect, that he’d enjoyed shooting his last fight with DK."
- The "failed spin-off" comment is in reference to Wayward Sisters. Writer Robert Berens tweeted after the episode "The arc of S1 of Wayward Sisters was always going to be broadly Dark Kaia vs the WaywardSisters, culminating in Kaia’s rescue and Dark Kaia’s tragic defeat. I always wanted to make that death right. But with limited real estate on #Supernatural I had resigned myself to Kaia just being dead. It was only by embedding it in S15 stories (Chuck, Jack’s return to the Bunker, Billie’s plan) it felt like it was possible to tie that loose end in a relevant and appropriate way. In addition, Chuck destroys the Bad Place in the episode which had been created for the Wayward Sisters spin-off.
- Billie casually greeted everyone in the Bunker with a simple "Hello, boys." just as Crowley and Rowena greeted the Winchesters on occasion in previous seasons.
- Billie explaining Chuck being apart of the framework of existence, is similar to Chuck telling Sam and Dean that he had written himself into the story in 4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book.
- We Got Work to Do is a repeated refrain throughout the show, first uttered at the end of 1.01 Pilot.
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
- 15.12 Galaxy Brain (transcript)
- Galaxy Brain script (Yellow Draft)
- Galaxy Brain script (Goldenrod Pages only)
