Supernatural - The Song Remains the Same, S05E13

One of the things that Supernatural does best is that it does not forget about anyone. Jo and Ellen may have disappeared for several seasons, but we did eventually reconnect with them. That those events soon led to their deaths is rather beside the point.

And not so long ago, I had been wondering what had happened to Anna (Julie McNiven). The last time we saw her, Castiel (Misha Collins) betrayed her to the other angels. I had thought she had been killed, but that was not the case. She had been locked up and tortured...so now we know where Lucifer first learnt that habit. And we found her again, having escaped from the dungeons of Heaven (which has a very wrong feel to it).

Her new plan was to stop the Apocalypse, which might have made her a good ally had her method not been to do so by killing Sam (Jared Padalecki), cutting him into teeny tiny pieces and spreading his molecules out across the galaxy so that he could not be brought back.

Whether or not this would in fact stop the Apocalypse is not the point - Sam's death is not an option for Dean (Jensen Ackles) or for Castiel, so when she travels back to 1978 to murder Mary and John Winchester before they have their sons, the boys follow. Besides, while they have no problems not being born, they do have issues with their parents being killed, again.

Poor Sam, confronted with the younger versions of his parents - the mother he never knew and the father he thought he hated. Being able to tell both of them how he felt, despite the fact that afterwards their memories were wiped and that they didn't realize at the time that he was their son, may have actually been a salve on the pain he feels about the whole situation. Dean, meanwhile, wanted to protect his father from going down that path as long as he was able to. Touching to see where both boys got their attitudes and tendencies.

And while we still got laughs (Dean comparing weakened Castiel to a Delorian without plutonium, and Cas not comprehending the reference), the serious discovers we made are what stay with me.

Meeting Michael, finally, and in the body of John, was something close to horrible. The Archangel believes that Free Will is an illusion, and considering the effort put into the union of Mary and John to produce sons who would be able to be vessels to angels as powerful as Michael and Lucifer without ill effect...with the Apocalypse coming, as has always been foreseen, and with the lives of Sam and Dean so obviously effected by Fate and Destiny, the entire idea of Free Will seems naive.

And so, Team Free Will (Sam, Dean, and Castiel) will continue to fight the good fight, while Michael and Lucifer sally forth with their plans. And after what happened to Anna - she was incinerated by Michael for daring to try to stop the end of the world - and to Ellen and Jo, I can only pity anyone who wants to help our boys.

Would you be willing to risk everything for them?