15.15 Gimme Shelter

Title	Gimme Shelter
Episode #	Season 15, Episode 15
First aired	October 15, 2020
Directed by	Matt Cohen
Written by	Davy Perez
On IMDB	Gimme Shelter
Outline	Sam and Dean get a lead on Amara's location and hit the road. Meanwhile, Jack and Castiel are put on a case involving murders based on the seven deadly sins.
Monster	Sylvia
Timeline
Location(s)	Missouri Lebanon, Kansas Pennsylvania
« Previous Episode | Next Episode »

Characters

• Sam Winchester
• Dean Winchester
• Castiel
• Jack Kline
• Amara
• Pastor Joe
• Sylvia
• Zack

Definitions

• Alcohol
• Aliases
• Cameras
• Castiel's Cars
• Costumes & Disguises
• Crossroads
• Crossroads Demon
• Dead Guy Robe
• Deities
• Demonology
• Healing
• Impala
• Men of Letters Bunker
• Prayer
• Queer and Gender Diverse Characters
• Sedation
• Table of Death

Music

• "Lover's Prayer" by The Clickettes

(playing in the diner where Sam and Dean speak with Amara about stopping Chuck)

Quotes

Jack: Sam was right. It's not a monster.

Castiel: Well, he was half right. Sometimes humans can be the worst kind of monsters.
Jack: Yeah, but it's kind of not our thing. Guess we should just go back to the Bunker and do nothing while we wait for Sam and Dean.

Castiel: No. No, we're gonna stay. We can help.

Amara: Hello, Dean. Miss me? You headed somewhere fun?

Dean: Well, we were headed to you, actually.
Sam: How'd you find us?

Amara: I smelled you from two states over. You have a very distinctive musk.

Castiel: My name is, um -- well, my name is not important. I do know what blind faith is. I used to just follow orders without question, and I did some pretty terrible things. I would never look beyond the plan. And then, of course, when it all came crashing down, I found myself lost. I didn't know what my purpose was anymore. And then one day, something changed, something amazing. I... I guess I found a family and I became a father. And in that, I rediscovered my faith. I rediscovered who I am.

Amara: Apologies, Dean, but you don't get anything. You see me sitting across from you. You see a woman. You see Chuck as a squirrely weirdo. But you can't imagine what we really are. We came into existence together. We are the same.

Sam: The former Death, he told us you were the firstborn.
Amara: Or he told you what you needed to hear. Chuck and I, we're twins. Creation and destruction, light and dark, balance. And when we split apart, all this was created.
Sam: The Big Bang?
Dean: When you split? So, when... when he threw you in a cage. When he betrayed you, when he trapped you for an eternity.

Amara: You can't play on that, not with me. Maybe I'm a fool, but I believe caging me hurt him deeply. And I know for me to do that to him would be an agony. I'm sorry. I can't help you.

Dean: Why?

Amara: I told you Dean, he's my--
Dean: No, no. No. Why did you bring her back? You said that you wanted to show me something, that you wanted to, uh, to teach me something. I don't know if you were following along, but your little experiment, it came to a not-so happy ending. My mom is dead. So what exactly did you want to show me? What was the point?

Amara: I wanted two things for you, Dean. I wanted you to see that your mother was just a person, that the myth you'd held onto for so long of a better life, a life where she'd lived was just that, a myth. I wanted you to see that the real complicated Mary was better than your childhood dream because she was real. That now is always better than then. That you could finally start to accept your life.

Dean: I'm not angry, Amara. I'm furious to know that all my life, I've been nothing but a hamster in a wheel stuck in a story. And you know whose fault that is? Chuck's. And it ain't just me. We're all trapped. Sam and Cas and Jack and even you. And you want to talk about the people that he's killing right now--

Amara: Stop.
Dean: Why? He's not stopping. And you're doing nothing to stop it. Think he gives a rat's ass about you? Well, now who's living in a dreamworld?
Amara: Can I... trust you?
Dean: I would never hurt you.

Amara: Then... I-I'll think about it.

Jack: I'm gonna die. When we -- when I kill Chuck and Amara, I'll die too.

Castiel: What?
Jack: Billie's spells have been turning me into some kind of bomb and when I go off, God and Amara will cease to exist. And... I won't survive. Don't tell Sam and Dean.
Castiel: Oh, yeah? Why not?
Jack: They won't understand. But I know... this is the only way they'll ever forgive me.
Castiel: No. I watched you die once and I will not do it again.

Jack: It's not your choice.

Dean: Wait. What's happening? Where are you going?

Castiel: Going to look for another way. I have to.
Dean: What the hell are you talking about?

Castiel: Dean, in case something goes wrong and I don't make it back, there's something you and Sam need to know.

Trivia & References

"Gimme Shelter" is the opening track to the Rolling Stones album, Let It Bleed, as well as the title to the documentary film that chronicled the infamous Altamont Free Concert.

Sylvia's murders are an homage to those in the movie Se7en, where people who are deemed to have committed one of the seven deadly sins are killed in a manner related to that sin. The messages on the TV and the finger trap the third victim is in is reminiscent of the SAW franchise.

Dean: Well you go "Highway to Heaven" that bitch!

and
Zack: Wait, are angels solving people crimes now? Like "Highway to Heaven" but with murder or something?

Highway to Heaven was an '80s TV series starring Michael Landon as an angel who works with a cop to help people in need.

Castiel and Jack use the aliases "Agent Swift" and "Agent Lovato" respectively. This continues Castiel's tradition of using the surnames of female pop stars as his cover -- in this case Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato. Jack holds his badge upside down, as Cas used to do when he first went undercover.

Sheriff Adams: In the field long Lovato? You look greener than Baby Yoda!

To be "green" is to be inexperienced at something. Baby Yoda is a (green) character in the series The Mandalorian. Emily Swallow who plays Amara, played the Armorer in the first season of the show.

Jack: I just graduated from CSI.

CSI stands for Crime Scene Investigation. Jack possibly picked up the term from one of the many TV shows in the CSI franchise.

Jack: Did anyone find any small bags with chicken bones inside?

Castiel: Anyone smell any sulphur? Jack: Or feel cold?

A bag with chicken bones may be a witches Hex Bag, Sulfur can indicate the presence of demons, and cold spots the presence of ghosts.

Dean: Thank you.

Amara: And I got wind of your friend Castiel's angelic APB. I knew you were looking for me.

APB is an abbreviation for "All Points Bulletin" which is a police form of general alert.

Amara: First, lunch.

Dean: Pierogis?
Amara: You're hungry. I'm hungry. I like new earthly experiences and I have never had a Pennsylvania pierogi.

A pierogi is a boiled filled dumpling-like pastry which originated in Eastern Europe. In the US they are most popular in Pennsylvania due to the large immigration there from Poland and the Ukraine.

Minutiae

This was the first episode of television show that Matt Cohen directed.

Steve Bacic, who played Pastor Joe, previously played Dr Sexy M.D. in 5.08 Changing Channels.

Nicole Muñoz, who played Sylvia, previously played Nora -- the little girl whose parents get killed in 2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown.

The picture of himself that Castiel uses to summon a crossroads demon is an image from 13.06 Tombstone.

We learn from the crossroads demon Zack, that Rowena has instituted a "no deals rule', believing that people will end up where they belong.

Amara reveals the the Big Bang was created when she and Chuck split apart and that they are in fact twins. The original Death seemed to be unaware of this fact, considering Amara claimed upon the release from her imprisonment that she did not know Death and he did not know her.

The crossroads demon Zack asks Castiel if he and Jack need a driver, given he cannot make deals anymore, but he is dismissed. At the end of the episode, Zack appears as the deputy driving Sylvia, suggesting an intention to make a deal against Rowena's orders. Or after his conversation with Castiel decided to help solve people crimes and drive a police car.

It's revealed that Billie's spell is turning Jack into some kind of bomb that will cause Chuck and Amara to cease to exist. However, Jack won't survive it.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

• 15.15 Gimme Shelter (transcript)

Promotion

• Synopsis
• Photos