Hell Ghosts
| |
| Hell Ghost | |
|---|---|
| Powers and Abilities | |
| Vulnerabilities | |
| Appearance | Varies; a skeletal apparition or the form of the deceased, which may have visible signs of trauma or decay. |
| Episode(s) | 14.20 Moriah 15.01 Back and to the Future 15.02 Raising Hell 15.03 The Rupture |
I mean, the spell is it's not gonna last forever, and these aren't your normal ghosty-ghosts, you know. They're more dangerous.
History
Hell ghosts are like normal ghosts, which are the spirits of people who remain connected to the mortal realm, but as souls from Hell they can either manifest as ghosts or inhabit corpses, reanimating them as zombies. All the souls from Hell were released by Chuck / God, who decided to end the world after killing Jack Kline. These spirits include ghosts vanquished by the Winchesters over the years.
Characteristics
Hell ghosts, due to being neither full-fledged demons nor normal ghosts, take on a more skeletal, incorporeal appearance after escaping Hell. Souls are also able to manifest into their human appearance (more or less).
Powers and abilities
- Flight – Unlike typical ghosts, souls from Hell can take on an incorporeal skeletal form and attain flight, much like demons in their smoke form.
- Superhuman strength – Souls of the damned are just as strong as normal ghosts, and can easily overpower a fully grown person.
- Possession – Like demons and ghosts, souls from Hell can possess people and objects.
Weaknesses
- Angel blades – Contact with an angel blade can eject a spirit in the same manner as iron.
- Iron – Contact with iron can keep them at bay, as well as eject the spirits from whatever body they may be possessing.
- Lilith's Crook – A special horn forged by Lilith, that when blown is able to draw all of the souls and demons of Hell back and can pull them into the body of the user.
- Salt – Spirits cannot cross salt lines and can be dissipated with rock salt.
- Smiting – Castiel was able to smite the spirits from their possessed corpses, forcing them to be ejected.
- Spells – Certain spells can blast spirits out of their possessed bodies, as well as trap them within a perimeter. Another spell was able to pull the ghosts into Rowena's body to send them back to Hell.
Episodes
14.20 Moriah
After Castiel calls on God to help deal with a soulless Jack,[1] He appears with a solution -- a weapon that will kill Jack at the cost of the shooter's life. Dean takes the weapon, and tracks Jack and Castiel to a cemetery. Dean ultimately refuses to use the weapon. Chuck tries to motivate him to kill Jack in exchange for reviving Mary, to no avail. Sam realizes that Chuck has been watching them, and has manipulated the Winchesters their whole lives for His amusement. When the Winchesters no longer want any part of Chuck's sick story, Chuck kills Jack Himself and starts to leave. Sam uses the weapon to shoot Chuck, hitting Him in the shoulder, which enrages Him. Acquiescing to the Winchesters' demands, He tells them the story is over and welcomes them to the end.
The sky goes dark, and souls from Hell erupt from a crack in the ground. Several ghosts previously defeated by the Winchesters appear nearby: a man pulls his car over upon seeing the Woman in White aka Constance Welch[2]; a mother opens the door to find John Wayne Gacy in his Pogo the Clown outfit[3]; and Bloody Mary, aka Mary Worthington[4], appears in a young girl's mirror.
In the cemetery, Castiel and the Winchesters are surrounded by a horde of zombies. They arm themselves as best they can as the zombies descend upon them.
15.01 Back and to the Future
Overwhelmed, Sam, Dean, and Castiel fight off the horde of possessed corpses, using their iron bars to force the souls out of the bodies. Escaping to a nearby crypt, the horde attempts to break in, but cannot due to the iron doors. The demon Belphegor arrives suddenly and offers his assistance in dealing with the zombies. Performing a spell using cemetery dirt and angel blood, Belphegor is able to blast all the souls out of the bodies.
Belphegor reveals that 2-3 billion souls may have escaped from Hell, and suggests that the best option is to contain the spirits to buy some time to find a way to close the rift. As the ghosts descend on the town of Harlan, Kansas, Sam helps lead an evacuation. He is confronted by spirits, including John Wayne Gacy and Mary Worthington, while Dean and Belphegor contend with Constance Welch as they attempt to perform the spell to contain the spirits within Harlan. After Dean is able to banish the Woman in White, Belphegor successfully performs the spell just as Sam and Castiel lead a mother and daughter across the barrier line with Gacy and the other souls in close pursuit. The spirits become trapped within Harlan.
15.02 Raising Hell
With Harlan warded against any of the damned escaping out into the world. Hunters guard the perimeter to prevent any ghosts from breaking through the barrier. However, some citizens from Harlan still sneak into the quarantine zone, only to end up being possessed and killed by the ghosts roaming the town. Francis Tumblety alerts a group of the damned to their situation, and asks for a call to arms, telling the ghosts to gather as many that are remaining in the shadows to join them, as with strength in numbers they can possibly find a way through the warding.
The Winchesters and Rowena attempt to stop the ghosts using the soul catcher, but the device is not as powerful as the original used to create the soul bomb, and is only able to capture a handful of ghosts at a time. After finding the weakest point in the barrier, Tumblety leads a group of hundreds of ghosts in an attempt to break through. Possessing Ketch, Tumblety gets a hold of the soul catcher, but before he can use its power to break the barrier down, he is shot with iron rounds by Dean, forcing him out of Ketch's body and into the soul catcher.
With Tumblety's threat neutralized, the Winchesters, Castiel, Belphegor, and Rowena look on as souls continue to flood out of Hell and into Harlan.
15.03 The Rupture
After a failed attempt to strengthen the barrier using the Book of the Damned, the Winchesters, Castiel, Belphegor, and Rowena come up with a plan to use Lilith's Crook to draw the demons and souls back into Hell and then use a spell of Rowena's own creation to seal the Rupture. Though Rowena and Sam succeed in casting the spell, Belphegor betrays them to gain power in Hell and is smote by Castiel, destroying the Crook. Rowena sacrifices herself to perform a spell to draw the ghosts into her own body and cast them all back into Hell.
