14.08 Byzantium
Title | Byzantium |
Episode # | Season 14, Episode 8 |
First aired | December 6, 2018 |
Directed by | Eduardo Sanchez |
Written by | Meredith Glynn |
On IMDB | Byzantium |
Outline | Desperate to save Jack, Sam calls Lily Sunder, who has a solution which involves a dangerous trip to Heaven for Castiel, who runs into an old adversary. |
Monster | Cosmic Entity |
Timeline | Immediately following 14.07 Unhuman Nature |
Location(s) | Lebanon, Kansas Heaven |
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Contents
Synopsis
Jack is sick in his bed, Dean is stood gripping an antique record player with frustration, Sam teary eyed is sat next to Jacks bed and Cas is stood not knowing what to do. Suddenly Jack sits up, coughing requiring oxygen. Dean storms out and Cas goes to tell him that Jack needs him. When they both re-enter Sam tells them that he has died. All three of them are distraught. Cas tries to go after Sam to comfort him but Dean says to give him his space so he does.
Dean calls Mary to let her know about Jack. Some moments later Dean asks Cas where Sam is and he tells him he left the bunker. They race after him and find Sam crumpled against Baby crying. He had tried to make a pyre but the axe broke. He feels like he should have done more. They speak about how wrong it all is and decide on Dean’s suggestion to get drunk.
Sam Dean and Cas sit in the bunker kitchen at the table drinking whisky, sharing memories of Jack and eating nougat . After a lot of whisky Sam gets up and leaves as does Cas leaving Dean alone who gives one last toast to Jack wherever he is.
The boys, Cas and Jack are together on a sunny day at Shippers Beach cafe eating burgers and trying to read a map. Dean’s image suddenly flickers and the sky darkens. Jack suddenly finds himself in Heaven running from rapidly advancing black ooze.
In the bunker kitchen spread across the table Dean hung over wakes up amongst empty whisky bottles. He hears voices and staggers in to the map room to find Sam and Cas with Lily Sunder. Sam explains that he called her and Dean ever sceptical is eventually convinced by Sam to let her help. She tries to read Kevin’s translation of the Angel tablets but is unable to and Dean dismisses her She says that she is dying so offers to save Jack with her magic by taking some of his soul to power his body in return for entrance to heaven when she dies. Dean is against the idea but is convinced by Sam and Cas who say Jack should decide.
They find a solution for getting Lily in to Heaven by summoning Anubis who decides where you go after death.
In a lush green garden Jack finally finds his mother Kelly Kline. They hug and he tells her she is in heaven. Then she realises that he is dead also.
Back at the bunker Dean is still sceptical but Sam is prepared to try anything. Cas arrives saying there is an emergency in heaven and has to leave immediately. Lily explains that she wants to go to heaven to be with her daughter May.
In Heaven Cas finds Israel an angel, dead, evidence of black ooze and Duma barely alive. They find themselves back at Shippers café where Naomi appears. She explains that the black ooze is the Shadow from the Empty. She wants to give Jack to the Shadow to save heaven and the billions of souls but Cas refuses as she gets overtaken by ooze.
Back at the bunker Anubis has been summoned. He places Lily’s hand on an abacus with black and white discs. Unfortunately the result is that she is going to go to hell. Sam urges him to change it. He says that he doesn’t decide, neither does God .He says we do with our individual choices. He threatens that keeping him trapped may alter Sam and Dean’s final destination and they let him go.
Jack and Kelly are in her house when they hear Cas. Jack opens the door and Cas gives him a huge hug. He turns to Kelly and hugs her, apologising for not having saved Jack. Cas quickly explains the plan to Jack, explaining that the empty will leave Heaven if Jack is still alive .In that moment Duma reveals herself to be the Shadow.
Lily prepares to leave but Dean implores her to keep her end of the deal and not make them suffer as she did losing May.
The Shadow is destroying Cas during their fight, Kelly tries to defend him but is cast aside and knocked out.
Back in the bunker Jacks body is lay on the table surrounded by candles. Everything is ready. Dean prays to Cas and we see Cas receive the prayer, his eyes turning white for a second.
Lily begins the spell as Jack, rushing to save Cas is grabbed and strangled by the Shadow. Desperate to save Jack, Cas offers himself to the Shadow. When it says that he is already his Cas says that that maybe eons away. Instead he will go willingly..now! The Shadow still in the form of Duma says to make him suffer it will come and get him when he is finally experiencing happiness. Cas accepts and the Shadow leaves Duma’s body leaving her shaken on the floor. Cas tells Jack that he and Sam and Dean love him and are fighting for him in that precise moment …and we see the scene in the bunker. He tells Jack that he is at peace with his choice and that he doesn’t want Sam and Dean to worry ..so not to tell them. Jack and Kelly say a tearful goodbye and Cas putting his hands either side of Jack’s face illuminates everything
Back at the bunker Jack suddenly wakes up, coughing. Sam thrusts the spell into his hands telling him to read it. His eyes shine gold. He says he feels good .Dean hugs him. The boys turn to thank Lily and find her slumped in a chair dead.
Lily is in an old accountant’s office with Anubis. He urges her to try again with the abacus and this time she goes to heaven.
Castiel meets Naomi in Heaven’s corridor. She thanks him for his sacrifices and as a reward tells him where Michael is.
At the bunker kitchen table, cas, Sam, Dean and Jack celebrate with beer and burgers, happy that Jack is back, now knowing where Michael is and everything seems hopeful.
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- Castiel
- Jack Kline
- Naomi
- Kelly Kline
- Dumah
- Lily Sunder
- Cosmic Entity
- Anubis
Definitions
- Alcohol
- Angel Blade
- Angel Radio
- Deals and Pacts
- Deities
- The Empty
- Enochian
- Healing
- Heaven
- Hugs
- Impala
- Men of Letters Bunker
- Prayer
- Resurrection
- Soul
- Soullessness
- Spells
- Tablets
- Table of Death
Music
- "Please Call Home" by The Allman Brothers Band
- (playing as Sam, Dean and Castiel drink to Jack's memory)
Quotes
Dean: Don't give me that 'meant to be' crap. This isn't part of some damn plan.
Sam: A -- A -- A deal? What? No. I -- I was trying to build a pyre. I couldn't -- I-I couldn't even do that for him. I should've done more.
Dean: Sam.
Sam: I should have tried harder. You know, I mean, everything we got -- the spells, the lore -- what good is any of it if we couldn't even save him? At least you were there for him.
Sam: I don't love it, either, but taking risks, making crappy deals -- that's what we do.
Dean: Yeah, and they usually bite us in the ass.
Sam: So, what do you want to do about it? Leave Jack in the morgue? Burn him?
Dean: I didn't say that.
Sam: Because, for me, not doing this -- that -- that would be like letting him die all over again.
Lily: Apology accepted.
Dean: Except something's been bothering me. Uh, you know, if this magic of yours is so great why'd you stop using it? You're letting yourself get old. You're letting yourself die. Why? Why risk going to Hell if you don't have to? There's something you're not tellin' us.
Sam: We never met? I mean, we've died.
Dean: Yeah. A lot.
Anubis: I'm more of a 'back of the house' kind of guy. Death and her subordinates get all the face time. I get stuck with the paperwork.
Cosmic Entity: You?
Castiel: I'm the one you want. I'm the one who woke you up.
Cosmic Entity: You? But you're already mine.
Castiel: Not for years, eons maybe. But if you'll agree, I will go now, and I will go willingly.
Castiel: Because I made a promise. Because I love you, Jack. And Sam and Dean -- they love you. And they are fighting for you at this very minute.
Kelly: Shh. It's okay. Go. Have a great life. I'll be waiting. I love you so much.
Sam: No, not at all.
Dean: Just damn glad to have you back. Yeah. And we know where Michael is. Not quite sure how you pulled that one off.
Castiel: Well, we, uh -- we still don't know where Dark Kaia is or the spear.
Sam: Yeah, but we will. We'll figure it out. We'll find her. I mean, we found her before.
Trivia & References
Sam: I don't know.
Jack: Then it's gonna be an adventure.
- "To die will be an awfully big adventure” is a line said by Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, a character created by Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie in 1902.
- The number 46,750,000,000 comes from The Republican Vol. I by Richard Carlile, published in 1819. The book theorizes that 46,750,000,000 is the number of damned heathen souls.
Minutiae
Sam: Yeah, the -- the weighing of the heart ceremony, right, but that wasn't Anubis. That was Osiris. We met him.
Dean: Major dick.
Castiel: Osiris is Anubis's father, and Heaven passed over him when they enlisted his son.
- We learn that Anubis, like Atropos and her sisters, was brought in to work with Heaven despite being a "pagan god." Sam also mentions his and Dean's encounter with Osiris from 7.04 Defending Your Life. While Osiris determined a person's fate based on how much guilt they felt, his son Anubis weighs up the good and bad deeds a person has done.