Later, a familiar face shows up, the Reaper Tessa, whom Dean met several times before. She insists that Castiel is the one who picks the angels (and her) to destroy themselves in order to put a dent in Metatron’s army. Cas makes a Lord of the Rings reference, then remarks to a surprised Sam how he’s pop culture savvy now. I wonder if this knowledge will ever prove more than to make Cas witty. The angel was always funniest in his simplicity and his socially awkward nature. We see a little bit of that when he gives the boys the aliases Agents Spears and Aguilera. It was also really funny to see Cas struggle opening a locked door after boldly announcing “I got this.“ It was amusing, but a clear indication that Cas’s stolen grace is burning out and he’s very close to the end of his rope. Castiel has to deal with the consequences of choosing humanity over his angel followers. By not killing Dean after Dean has murdered Tessa (by her choice), the angels have lost faith in their fearless leader and some begin to sign on to Metatron’s cause. Finally, Dean goes fully dark-side. When Gadreel approaches the Winchesters and Cas and appears to be a turncoat, Dean lashes out with the Blade and slices him wide open. The last seconds show an animalistic Dean steaming with rage. “Stairway to Heaven” has some of those humorous and fun moments that make Supernatural a joy to watch, like Dean rudely waking up Sam with loud rock music from his phone, the bowling-enthusiast angel, or the preschool joke written in Enochian, “Why is 6 afraid of 7?” A couple things didn’t work for me. Tessa the Reaper, surely a fan favorite, was treated as a throwaway character. The visual effects on the pathway to the fake door to Heaven were lackluster. The blades that came out of the walls looked way too cartoonish. Normally I let a lot slide when it comes to visual effects on television, given the extremely short production time. Is Metatron such a movie buff that he needed to throw that in there? This wasn’t a comedic episode of Supernatural like “Yellow Fever” or “Mystery Spot,” so the visual reference seemed out of place. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
