Supernatural mid-season finales are often the most depressing episodes of the year. It’s when the writers decide to kill of the characters we’ve grown to love. In the fall finale of season 5, Ellen and Jo Harvelle were killed. In the fall finale of season 7, Bobby died. And now, in this year’s mid-season finale, another major character is tragically killed.

We also learn the truth about Sam’s angel possession (it’s NOT Ezekiel), the angel war gets very bloody and Cas becomes an angel again.

The Angel War

An all-female religious singing group walks into a biker bar. No, that’s not the start of my Glee/Sons of Anarchy crossover fan fiction, it’s an angel rumble. Angel blades come out and before long, the sweet, innocent ladies walk out of the bar and the bikers are all murdered. This brings Sam and Dean to town, where Cas has also arrived to investigate.

The bikers were actually on Bartholomew’s side and the glee club ladies are led by Malachi, which makes him the evil angel version of Mr. Schuester. Malachi calls for a meeting with Bart to suggest working together to fight Metatron and take back Heaven, but it’s a set-up and Malachi kills a bunch of Bart’s followers. In turn, Bart has his angels kill some of the glee club ladies.

Not Zeke

Sam, Dean and Cas meet up on the investigation and go out for a beer, but Zeke isn’t happy about Cas being around. Dean is getting sick and tired of Zeke’s vague answers, so Samzekiel goes outside for some fresh air. And he runs into Metatron.

Now we learn the truth about Ezekiel: He’s NOT Ezekiel. In reality, the angel possessing Sam is Gadriel (or Gad, as I’ll call him), who was in charge of protecting the Garden of Eden. After the serpent entered, Gad was sent to Heaven Jail where he’s been rotting ever since. So when the angels fell, the escaped prisoner decided to pose as a noble angel.

Metatron doesn’t want to out Gad’s secret, he wants to move on to Plan B, because a Heaven without any angels is boring as hell. His new idea is to reopen Heaven for a select few. Only smart and funny angels allowed. The plan is to rebuild Heaven with Metatron as the new God of sorts, though he would prefer to be called X.

Gad agrees to be Metatron’s vice president of New Heaven, but there are strings. Metatron will only do it if Gad kills the person whose name Metatron writes on a piece of paper.

Cas Gets His Groove Back

Cas says a prayer and gets a visit from Muriel, a neutral angel who wants no part in Bart and Malachi’s bloody war. But Malachi finds them and takes them prisoner, with Cas interrogated for information. Muriel is killed, but when it comes to Cas, Malachi’s second-in-command wants to make a deal with Metatron to defect from the war and go to New Heaven. Cas uses this opportunity to steal the angels Grace, thus becoming an angel again.

However, during his imprisonment Cas learned some valuable intel, namely that Ezekiel died during the fall. He calls up Dean to let him know that the angel who helped save Sam isn’t who he says he is.

R.I.P.

Knowing that Zeke isn’t really Zeke, Dean asks Kevin to come up with a spell that will make it so a possessing angel can’t listen in. He whips it up and then it’s time for Dean to finally tell Sam the truth. It’s brutal scene where Dean tries to explain as quickly as possible that he did it to save Sam’s life, but now it’s backfired and Sam needs to expel the angel inside of him.

Instead, Sam punches Dean. Well, it’s not Sam. Because we find out it was Gadriel all along as he overheard Dean’s plan and altered the sigils for the spell. And Gad decides to kill the name Metatron wrote down on a card. The name is Kevin Tran.

In the most depressing and painful scene since Bobby died, Gad places his hand on Kevin’s forehead and kills him. The prophet is dead. Dean shows up and is held back by Gad, who explains that Sam is gone and he has completely taken over. Gad leaves (with the angel tablets) and Dean is left sadly staring at Kevin’s dead body.

“Kevin? Kevin? …”

This is the powerful magic of Supernatural. Sure, other shows, like The Walking Dead, might kill off major characters, but they have large casts. Kevin had basically become the fourth main character since he was introduced, and his death hurts more than I ever thought it would when his character was introduced. I guess all of those warnings about being friends with the Winchesters were gloomy foreshadowing.

Next time on Supernatural: The show is giving us six weeks to let the pain of Kevin’s death sink in. When the show returns January 14, 2014, Dean and Cas team up with Crowley to help get Sam back from Gadriel.

(Image courtesy of the CW)

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.