Written by Nadia Dardon
After Gabriel left the Winchesters in episode eighteen, we were left wondering what happened to him. Where did he go? What is he up to now? Is his grace back at full power yet? Well… This week’s episode certainly answered a lot of questions regarding the archangel!
Finding Gabriel
The episode starts with Sam and Dean finding Gabriel thanks to a tracking spell made by Rowena. The Winchesters located the town Gabriel is currently in and plan to go after him. Thankfully for the boys, they didn’t have to go far.
After an intense hand-to-hand battle with a monster, Gabriel is seriously injured. He goes to the motel where Sam and Dean are staying and asks for their help. He had been hoping that the brothers still had some of his grace, which he seems to be running low on. Except they used the grace to open the rift to the Apocalypse World, so Gabriel is forced to heal the old-fashioned-way with some rest.
While they are discussing the possibility of Gabriel helping them with Michael (which the archangel still refuses) the brothers of the monster Gabriel killed find them at the motel. Sam and Dean fight them off, and Gabriel uses a wooden sword to kill one, but another escapes after seeing his brothers die. Dean makes sure Gabriel can’t escape as well and handcuffs him.
On Norse Demigods
The Winchesters want answers from Gabriel, and seeing as he’s unable to go anywhere any time soon, he starts talking. Right after Gabriel faked his death in season 5, he needed to lay low and asked for help from some people who had helped him before. But news travelled fast about the Apocalypse and Lucifer rising to power and those helping Gabriel didn’t want to be trapped in between all of it. They knew that they needed to get rid of Gabriel, so they sold the archangel to Asmodeus.
Now, after all these years, Gabriel is planning his revenge on the people who sold him out. He made a kill list, which he shows to Sam and Dean. However, since Gabriel doesn’t have his grace back, he needs to kill them the old-fashioned-way: with wooden swords. It is then revealed that the people Gabriel is after is Loki and his three sons. Which brings up the question: Isn’t Gabriel Loki?
Again, Gabriel tells more of his story. A few thousand years back, Gabriel saved Loki’s life. When Michael and Lucifer started going at each other during the Apocalypse, Gabriel asked for Loki’s help as a favor. Loki helped Gabriel to ditch his identity, allowed him to copy his face and taught him all the tricks of the trickster.
So when Gabriel was forced to fake his own death, he asked Loki for help again until he was sold and now Gabriel wants his revenge. Dean does not think that revenge is the answer. In fact, he believes that Gabriel’s whole plan is a waste of time when they should be worrying about Michael and the Apocalypse World. But Sam convinces Dean to help Gabriel, only so they can make a deal with him. They help him on his little revenge plan, Gabriel helps them back with Michael.
The three of them go after Loki and his final son. Gabriel manages to kill the son, but Dean ran after Loki all on his own. When they realise this, Gabriel and Sam go after him as the archangel wants to kill Loki himself and Sam wants to make sure Dean does not end up dead. While Dean is faces off with Loki, Dean learns why they sold Gabriel to Asmodeus. Turns out, it was just another revenge plan. Gabriel had been responsible for the death of Loki’s father, Odinn except we all remember back in season 5 when Lucifer killed Odin. Loki explains that his father would’ve never been in that room if it weren’t for Gabriel. When Loki gave his identity to Gabriel, the archangel promised to leave all of his family affairs behind. When he decided to enter that hotel room to face Lucifer, he broke his promise and it cost him Odin’s life.
When Dean tries to kill Loki, he finds out it is just a hologram. The real Loki comes face-to-face with Gabriel in the hallway. After a brutal hand-to-hand fight, the brothers reach them and give Gabriel the wooden sword to kill Loki. With the sword in hand, he puts it through Loki’s chest. Now that Gabriel’s plan has been completed, Gabriel informs the Winchesters that he will help them with Michael and the Apocalypse World.
Traps in Apocalypse World
While Sam, Dean, and Gabriel are off fighting Norse demigods, Jack and Mary are still fighting angels in the Apocalypse World and helping the humans. Jack has won multiple battles against the angels, which leaves him feeling very proud of himself. News reaches them that the angels are leaving their headquarters, and Jack insists on going to investigate.
The headquarters are indeed empty and it isn’t until they find Kevin Tran in a dungeon that everything starts to crumble. Kevin tells them about the spell Michael has been working on, and how he plans of opening a rift to invade Mary’s and Jack’s world. Jack wants to go after Michael immediately, believing he is powerful enough to take him down. However, Mary convinces him to wait just one more day until Bobby reaches them so they can form a solid plan.
Their plan of waiting for Bobby does not last long and Jack decides to go after Michael anyway. Mary tells him that she doesn’t want to lose another of her boys, and that makes Jack hesitate. Kevin then reveals a sigil that has been carved into his chest and announces that he can’t allow Jack to leave. Michael had told Kevin to wait until Bobby arrived, but he can’t wait any longer as Michael promised that Kevin will be able to see his mother again in Heaven if he did as Michael ordered, which was to kill everyone with that sigil. Jack insists that the spell won’t kill him, but Kevin says that Michael doesn’t want to kill Jack, instead he wants to break him.
Kevin touches the sigil, which lets out a bright white light and Jack reacts in time to cover Mary with his wings, but unfortunately, everyone else in the room dies.
Final Thoughts?
I am a big fan of Gabriel, and I was glad to see an episode that included a lot about his backstory and that he has agreed to help. Now all he needs to do is get back his grace so they can go to the Apocalypse world.
Dean’s tendency of leaving Sam behind while he deals with everything on his own makes me nervous. However, I guess it is understandable when you think what happened the last time the Apocalypse happened (spoiler: Sam died). But I can’t wait to see what happens!
It feels as if everything is moving rapidly in the lead up to the finale, which I am not ready for. I want to see what happens in the Apocalypse World. What happens to Jack and Mary, what will the Winchesters do, what will happen with Michael, and just everything. We’re getting closer and the stakes are getting higher!
