12.15 Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell
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| Title | Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell |
| Episode # | Season 12, Episode 15 |
| First aired | March 9, 2017 |
| Directed by | Nina Lopez-Corrado |
| Written by | Davy Perez |
| On IMDB | Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell |
| Outline | When a hellhound goes rogue and begins stalking a woman who hasn't made a deal, Sam and Dean team up with Crowley to kill it. |
| Monster | Hellhound |
| Timeline | Two weeks after 12.14 The Raid |
| Location(s) | Sheridan County, Nebraska Lebanon, Kansas Fall River, Massachusetts Coeur d'Alene, Idaho |
| [[{{{prevep}}}|« Previous Episode]] | [[{{{nextep}}}|Next Episode »]] | |
Contents
Synopsis
In Sheridan County, Nebraska, a young couple is camping out in the forest. The young girl, Gwen Hernandez, is going off to vet school soon and they'll be apart. Her boyfriend, Marcus, is confident they'll be able to maintain a long distance relationship and is secretly planning to propose to her; Gwen seems less than thrilled about continuing their relationship. While off gathering firewood, he is attacked by some kind of an invisible dog and killed. The dog comes after Gwen and has her trapped on her back; she grabs an axe and injures it badly, giving her a chance to run back to town.
The boys arrive back home from working several cases in a row and Dean is an absolute mess, wearing all kinds of monster bits all over him and smelling like fresh roadkill. He is remarking a bat with barbed wire that he claimed that John loved to use. They get another case from a supposed computer algorithm that Sam has made that calculates cases for them to take. Dean is ready to run out again but Sam tells him he better wash up because he smells like roadkill.
Castiel is in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, investigating the killing of angels as well as looking for Kelly Kline. A tabloid paper has reported on the angel attack that brought Dagon to Kelly's side and blamed the whole thing on aliens. He goes inside the restaurant to meet the owner, Herb Nelson, who takes him into a private bunker that he has set up in the back. Nelson tells Cass he's "woke" and believes his waitress was attacked by "reptilians". He shows Cass a video of the attack; Dagon's yellow eyes are clearly visible.
Meanwhile the boys are investigating the animal attack, only to find out that it is a hellhound that has killed the young man and that Gwen thinks that she is next. Sam wants to comfort her with lies about a bear whereas Dean wants to level with her and find out who made a deal with the demon. They enter the her house to speak with her but unbeknownst to them the hellhound is right behind them and comes into the house as well. As soon as they’re gone the hellhound attacks. Gwen tries to defend herself and runs into another room, only to find herself once again pinned down by the dog. Sam and Dean rush back into the house and chase it out a window by shooting it. Afterwards the boys sit Gwen down and tell her the truth about hellhounds and hunting in general.
Upon leaving the restaurant, Cass encounters Kelvin, an angel he has met once before. Kelvin attempts to convince Cass to return to Heaven; Joshua has a plan to deal with Lucifer's child, and it's an "all hands on deck" situation. He promises that, if Castiel hears them out and assists in the fight, he will be forgiven and welcomed back by his real family in Heaven.
Down in Hell Crowley has Lucifer tied to a chair with iron chains. He spends some time gloating over Lucifer's imprisonment and promises to pay him back harshly for the way Crowley was treated. He is interrupted by two of his demons demanding his attention on a long list of crossroads deals that require approval and other petty management issues. While he is in the middle of seeing to this boring business, Crowley gets a call from Dean asking him why a hellhound would be attacking someone who has not sold their soul. Crowley realizes that Ramsey, Lucifer’s hellhound, has escaped from Hell's kennel. He appears in Gwen's house, effectively ending the phone call.
In Crowley's absence, the two demons who had been meeting with him about crossroads deals sneak into the locked room where Lucifer is chained. They reveal that they were the ones who set Ramsey free to create a distraction so they could see what Crowley was hiding. After making Lucifer agree to their whims and demands, they unlock the chains and set him free. He immediately vaporizes them.
Sam, Dean, Gwen, and Crowley drive to the park where the attack occurred. They pull their hellhound glasses out of the trunk and put them on. Sam and Gwen stay with the Impala while Dean and Crowley go into the woods to look for Ramsey. They banter about how they’ve each changed over the years, and Dean thanks Crowley for saving Cas's life. Sam and Gwen drive along the highway, trying to stay moving and avoid the hellhound. She blames herself for what happened to her boyfriend; she went camping with him even though she knew the relationship was over. She regrets not being honest with him and is wracked with guilt. She becomes so upset that she has to ask Sam to pull over. As the two are about to drive off again Sam sees Ramsey directly in front of the car. The hellhound jumps onto the car, denting the hood and smashing the windshield. Sam grabs the demon knife and tells Gwenl to stay in the car. He gets out and Ramsey attacks. The hellhound get Sam on his back and the glasses are knocked away. Gwen bashes the beast with the green cooler, knocking it off of Sam. Ramsey makes one final charge during which Sam stabs her and kills her. The group reconvenes at the car and sees the hound has been defeated. After all of their efforts, Gwen thanks Crowley with a hug and he disappears. Dean sees Baby’s condition and is not happy.
In Hell, Crowley finds Lucifer sitting comfortably on the throne. Lucifer displays his wings and full glory and attempts to smite Crowley, but with a snap of Crowley's fingers Lucifer is powered down and defenseless. Crowley reveals that the iron chains were irrelevant; every molecule of his vessel has been warded with the spells and runes from the Cage -- Lucifer is utterly under Crowley's power.
The boys arrive home and are talking to Cass on the phone; he reveals that Kelly is now under Dagon's care. After ending the call, Dean remarks that he'd sounded odd. Meanwhile, Castiel is on his way back to Heaven with Kelvin. Sam’s phone goes off with another case. When Dean asks for details, Sam admits that there is no case-finding computer algorithm -- all the cases they’ve been working had been found by the British Men of Letters. Sam apologizes for not telling the truth sooner but rationalizes his choice because they get results like the death of the Alpha Vampire. Dean reluctantly agrees to support Sam's decision, commenting on how they always work for the bad guys for the greater good, but insists that the moment anything about working with the Brits seems off, they will bail, which Sam agrees to before getting another call from Mick.
Characters
Definitions
- Aliases
- Angel Blade
- Angel Wings
- Castiel's Pickup Truck
- Costumes & Disguises
- Crowley's Lair
- Green Cooler
- Hellhound
- Hellhound Glasses
- Impala
- Men of Letters Bunker
- Metatron's Cube
- Nicknames
- Portal
- Table of Death
Music
- "Ballad of a Truck Driver's Wife" by Lorene Mercer
- (playing in the diner Castiel goes to investigate the angel deaths)
Quotes
Dean: Computers, heh. Monsters, porn. Is there anything they can't do? All right. Well, let's get to it, then.
Thomas: Which I think we can all agree, isn't enough babies... for a decent meal.
Crowley: Oh. It can always get weirder.
Sam: Of course. Dean, look, even if Ramsey circles back, as long as we keep moving, Gwen's gonna be just... You're talking about the car.
Dean: You tend to ride the brakes.
Sam: Dean, I know how to drive.
Dean: I'm just saying. Okay, just imagine she's a... a beautiful woman.
Sam: Oh, come on. Get out of here.
Dean: A beautiful, beautiful woman.
Sam: I'm done.
Dean: Well, okay.
Trivia & References
- Dean says this while holding a barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat that resembles Lucille from The Walking Dead. Lucille is the signature weapon of Negan. Both Negan and John Winchester are played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Jensen, Jeffrey, and fellow Walking Dead actor Michael Cudlitz had joked about a Walking Dead / Supernatural crossover on Twitter. The bat seen on the Impala is the one used in this episode. Also, similar to the state the characters from the Walking Dead find themselves in, Dean is also covered in gore from a ghoul, a wraith, and a siren.
Dean: The Brits?
Sam: Yeah.
Dean: Great. Who you gonna call? Douchebusters.
Herb: Well, not just aliens. Reptilians. You know... like the Queen of England.
- Reptilians are a race of aliens believed to be secretly controlling the world.
- The PalmPilot was a brand of handheld PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) popular in the '90s.
- Cujo is a horror novel by Stephen King (subsequently made into a movie) about a vicious rabid dog. Co-showrunner Robert Singer also produced the film adaptation.
- Reference to the Donald Trump presidential campaign slogan "Make America Great Again."
- This is a meta comment referring to the victims that the Winchesters save using a phrase used to refer to the victim of the week in TV episodes.
Crowley: That's not what I said.
Lucifer: Huh? What the...
Crowley: I'm glad you had a little taste of freedom. What I said was, I'm always ten steps ahead. I said you cross me, I crush you. You hit me... I hit you back twice as hard. You make me your dog, I'll make you my slave. That chain around your neck? Was nothing. A stylish accessory. This vessel... That's your true prison. It's been warded with runes and spellwork from the Cage, carved into every molecule. In there? I own you. I'm just getting started. So... I'm gonna put you back in your hole, and then I'm gonna go find your spawn, and I'm gonna rip him apart while you watch. And then? I'm still just getting started.
- Crowley's statement that the runes and spell-work from The Cage were carved into every molecule may be a reference to the recent development of a method to use a single magnetic atom to store Information.
- Dean's reference to having "Liam Neeson'd it up with Crowley" is a reference to the Taken series of films, in which Liam Neeson's character Bryan Mills has to team up with untrustworthy and bad people in order to stop a threat to himself or his family.
