9.06 Heaven Can't Wait
Title | Heaven Can't Wait |
Episode # | Season 9, Episode 6 |
First aired | November 12, 2013 |
Directed by | Rob Spera |
Written by | Robert Berens |
On IMDB | Heaven Can't Wait |
Outline | Dean and Castiel team-up to stop a rogue angel intent on ending human suffering, while Sam and Kevin strike a deal with Crowley to help translate the angel tablet. |
Monster | Rit Zien |
Timeline | |
Location(s) | Rexford, Idaho Lebanon, Kansas |
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Contents
Synopsis
A distraught man talks to a suicide hotline, but hangs up. Then he puts a gun to his head. A young man appears, promising to end the man’s pain. When he puts his hand on the distraught man’s forehead, the man explodes in a burst of pink goo.
Castiel, under the alias of “Steve,” works as a sale assistant at the Gas-N-Sip. His boss, Nora, is late because she is a single mom. She says she’s free the next evening, and asks Castiel if he is too. Castiel interprets this as an invitation to go on date.
At the bunker, Kevin tells Dean and Sam that he has translated some of the angel tablet by using an ancient codex. Sam suggests they do more research to see if they can translate this language. Dean gets a terse phone call from Castiel about the disappearances in Rexford, Idaho. Dean heads out for Rexford alone, telling Sam he is too weak because of the trials.
Dean arrives and meets with the local sheriff. The distraught man’s cabin is completely covered by a pink substance. The sheriff tells Dean that it’s made of hair, bone, organs, everything. Three other people have died in a similar way — a shut-in, and an unhappy couple. Dean calls Sam, who insists he should be there. Dean says no, all the while gazing at Castiel working at the Gas-N-Sip.
Back at the bunker, Kevin tells Sam there is some smudging on the tablet, as if the scribe did not want anyone to read it. He and Sam cannot translate it. Sam suggests they get Crowley to translate the cuneiform, but refuses. When Sam tries to reason with him, Crowley crumples the paper up and throws it in Sam’s face. Sam threatens to give Crowley up to Abaddon. Crowley asks for one phone call.
Dean visits Castiel at the Gas-N-Sip, making fun of Castiel's work. Castiel responds that there is a human dignity to his job.
A teenage girl is upset that her boyfriend broke up with her in real time, instead of over Facebook. When she says she wants to die, she turns and sees a man who tells her he “can help you with that,” and causes her to explode into pink goo. Dean brings Castiel to the crime scene. Castiel is scared - he recognizes it as the work of a Rit Zien. In battle, the Rit Zien were angels who tended to wounded angels. If the angels were too far gone, the Rit Zien put them out of their misery. Now, new to Earth, the angel cannot tell the difference between the ebb and flow of human pain.
At the bunker, Crowley proves that he can read the translation. Sam decides to let Crowley have one phone call. Kevin says letting the King of Hell and Abaddon communicate with each other is a terrible idea. The phone call involves drawing blood. When Sam starts to do it, Crowley demands Kevin’s blood. He says he has had enough of Sam’s blood, he wants something fresh. After some coaxing, Kevin agrees. He fills a syringe with his blood. With the blood bubbling in a bowl, Crowley contacts Hell. When he says he is their King, he is put on hold.
Dean drives Castiel to Nora’s house for his date. He convinces his friend to leave his blue work vest in the car, and unbutton his shirt. At Nora’s door, Castiel clips a rose and hides it behind his back for a romantic gesture. Castiel enters to find that Nora is going on a date with someone else; she wants Castiel to babysit her infant daughter, Tanya, assuring him that Tanya never cries. As soon as the door closes, Tanya starts wailing.
Crowley reaches Abaddon. Abaddon gleefully tells Crowley that she has doubled his projections by voiding his contracts and bringing more souls to Hell. She insults Crowley and tells him she will soon replace him. Crowley yells that you cannot rule Hell with chaos, and she will burn. “I can’t wait,” she snarls. Crowley passes the bowl back to Sam. Crowley asks for the transcripts, saying that he keeps his promises. Crowley reads the transcripts, and gives them the bad news: the angel spell is irreversible.
Castiel calms Tanya by singing the theme song to The Greatest American Hero. She quiets down, but as soon as he puts her to bed, she starts howling again. As he holds her, Castiel reflects on how she was pushed out into the world with nothing to guide her. He says he used to be able to stop her crying by one touch. When he puts his fingers on her forehead, Castiel feels that Tanya is running a fever.
When Sam is washing out the bowl of blood, he notices something amiss with the set of syringes. Opening it, he finds one gone. Crowley palmed one of the syringes. Heading to Crowley, he sees Crowley injecting himself with Kevin’s blood and leaning back, sighing with relief.
From the sheriff, Dean learns that the husband of the couple was “filled with divine glory” and recognizes the truck he saw outside Nora's house.
Ephraim turns up at Nora’s because he he could feel Castiel’s pain. The angel says that Castiel has given up his responsibility to his own kind, that choosing a human life means choosing death. Castiel tries to draw an angel banishing sigil with his blood, but the angel stops him. Dean bursts in, but the angel flicks him across the room. Before the angel can smite Castiel, Dean slides him the angel blade and Castiel stabs him.
Dean leaves Castiel at the Gas-N-Sip. At the Gas-N-Sip, Castiel sees on TV that no one can figure out the cause of the “meteor shower” — which is how the angels falling is being explained by the media.
Characters
Definitions
- Aliases
- Angel Banishing Sigil
- Angel Blade
- Angel Cuffs
- Angel Lore
- Busty Asian Beauties
- Castiel's Cell Phone
- Castle Storage
- Cupid
- Deals and Pacts
- Devil's trap
- EMF
- Gas-N-Sip
- Goblet of Blood
- Grace
- Hell
- Hex Bag
- Impala
- Men of Letters
- Men of Letters Bunker
- Moose
- Nephilim
- Nicknames
- Porn
- Rit Zien
- Serial Killers
- Smiting
- Spells
- Sulfur
- Tablets
- Tattoos
- The Fall
- Thule Society
Music
- "Theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)" by Misha Collins
- (the "lullaby" sung by Castiel)
Quotes
Sam: Yeah, he's unreachable. He took a sabbatical to live amongst the Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea. Needless to say, we're pretty burnt.
Dean: Well, there's one guy there who is nothing if not well-rested.
Sam: Crowley?
Castiel: Nachos, too.
Crowley: It's by no means my favorite of the ancient tongues, but yes.
Crowley: Which is?
Sam: Give you up to Abaddon.
Crowley: You think you can threaten me with that hack?! She's all fury, no finesse.
Castiel: No, Dean. I'm not. I failed at being an angel. Everything I ever attempted came out wrong. But here... at least I have a shot at getting things right. I guess you can't see it, but... there's a real dignity in what I do – human dignity.
Castiel: What?
Dean: The girl.
Castiel: No, Dean, it's not. Nora, she's a very nice woman. I'm pretty sure she's not a reaper intent on killing me, and she's asked me out. Going on dates, that's something humans do, right?
Castiel: Thank you, Dean. But there's something Ephraim said. The angels — they need help. Can I really sit this out? Shouldn't I be searching for a way to get them home?
Trivia & References
Writer Robert Berens said it referred to the film of the same name and also that, "Cas and Crowley have been sidelined, Cas in his human life, Crow in the bunker. But the call of heroism/villainy beckons."
- Chatty Cathy was a talking doll manufactured from 1959–1965. In popular culture, Chatty Cathy has taken to refer to someone who is a talkative person.
- This is a reference to a line from Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs when he says "Mmh. If I help you, Clarice, it will be "turns" with us too. Quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself. Quid pro..."
- In Enochian, "Rit Zien" translates literally as "mercy of my hands."
- Jack Kevorkian was a pathologist and prominent euthanasia activist. He advocated the right to die by physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. He helped a number of patients with ending their lives, which earned him notoriety as "Dr. Death". He even went to prison for his direct role in a case of voluntary euthanasia. After that, he remained active in the field since, as he put it: "dying is not a crime."
- A reference to serial killer and sex offender Jeffrey Dahmer.
- Tony Manero is the suave ladies' man lead character in the 1977 movie about disco, Saturday Night Fever.
- "Short Round" was the name of the Indiana Jones' Asian kid sidekick in the 1984 film Jones and the Temple of Doom.
- Howdy Doody was a Western-circus themed children's tv show that ran from 1947-1960. It featured Bob Smith as the show's host, Buffalo Bob, and the show's star, puppet Howdy Doody.
Minutiae
- Professor Morrison is an Anthropology professor in Seattle that Sam and Dean consulted about the Amazons (7.13 The Slice Girls), and later to translate ancient Mayan (8.03 Heartache). Sam informs Dean that the professor has moved to Papua New Guinea to study the Trobriand Islanders.
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
Promotion
- Episode title and character information by Spoiler TV
- Official Synopsis by WFB
- Interview with Mary Galloway by the examiner
- Promo
- Sneak peek
- CHCH promo
- Listen to Winchester Radio's discussion of this episode
Episode Meta
- Chan, Suzette. 2014. Supernatural Talk: Tarts talk about 9.06: Heaven Can’t Wait. Sequential Tart, January 13; archive link
- Scott, Lyda. 2013. TV Review: 'Supernatural' - 'Heaven Can't Wait.' Blogcritics, November 16; archive link