It’s been a while since we’ve visited the Winchester brothers so hopefully you’ve not forgotten them and their tribulations! 🙂
Continuing on from Sympathy for the Devil, we pick up Season 5 with Bobby still wheelchair-bound and in the hospital. Unfortunately after Castiel sided with the brothers, he’s been “cut off” from Heaven and its powers and as such is unable to help repair Bobby. Hoping to rectify this, he tells the brothers that he’s going to search for God and he needs Dean’s amulet to help him. Supposedly it will “burn hot” in God’s presence.
Rufus (who we initially met in Season 3 when the brothers were looking for colt and Bela Talbot) is at the core of this episode as is a somewhat interesting villain – namely the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, War, himself! Rufus heads to a town he thinks is under attack from demons, based on omens of a polluted river and a falling star. He calls Ellen and Jo and Bobby for help. Bobby not being able to go himself, sends the brothers out to the town, but when they arrive, they discover that Rufus and Jo have been separated from Ellen. Ellen has managed to coral some of the remaining townsfolk, but it looks the majority of the inhabitants of the town are now infected by demons.
Dean and Sam go for supplies, and while Sam is getting salt from a store, two teenagers with black eyes enter. Sam kills them with Ruby’s knife, but appears drawn to the blood & when Dean sees him, he fears that Sam is once again going over to the “dark side” in his struggle to obtain the power he needs. Sam persuades him that nothing untoward happened, and manages to convince Dean that he needs to remain behind to help guard the remaining townspeople while he and Ellen search for Jo and Rufus.
When Sam and Ellen go to find Jo and Rufus, they are attacked. Ellen escapes but Sam is captured by Jo and Rufus – who seem to think Sam is possessed. While he is held captive, one of the townspeople reveals that he is War – one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse and has tricked the people into thinking everyone is possessed, leading them to attack each other. In reality there is no demon infestation at all! The people that Sam killed were simply human. It’s all been a trick.
Returning, Ellen tells Dean that Jo thought she was possessed because she called her a “black-eyed bitch”, and Dean starts to suspect all is not what it seems. Checking the Bible he works out that these signs and the conflict herald the arrival of War. Shortly after, War, in the guise of a townsman, arrives and insists that they all need to attack the demons. As Dean and Ellen try to calm the panic, War turns the ring on his finger and the townspeople start seeing them as demons and attack. Dean and Ellen flee.
The townspeople form a force. They equip themselves with real bullets because they believe Dean had been a demon all along and lied about the effectiveness of salt. Dean and Ellen reach Jo and Rufus shortly before the townspeople arrive and manage to convince the two there are no demons and it’s all the work of War. Dean frees Sam and they rush to catch up with War and cut off the ring that was helping him deceive the townspeople.
Once the battle is concluded, the brothers have it out as Sam tells Dean that he can’t trust himself, and that he needs to take a break from hunting – and Dean. Dean agrees – he can’t focus on the job because he is worrying about Sam. They need to separate so that they can resolve these issues.