Pretzel Jello Salad

First, I must say, this is a recipe near and dear to my heart. It's been a family tradition for years now that someone always must bring the pretzel jello. Such a tradition has it been, that I'm reluctant to share it here on the interwebs.

But, you know what, this recipe has variations all over the place on the web, so it's not entirely a new concept. However! This particular version I'm going to share with you is a little more fancy pants than the others, and actually, in comparison, tastes much better if you add in these extra goodies. At least, to me. It's perfect for summer barbecues or even for Thanksgiving dinner. The world is pretzel jello's oyster!

Pretzel jello is something I've watched and helped my mom make for a long time, but I realized when I went to make it myself, that I'd never done it alone! And lo, I messed up a little bit. It seems like everyone messes up the pretzel jello salad the first time in some way, but it never fails to still be downright tasty anyway.

You know what I did? I didn't use enough butter in the pretzels, so they didn't really set up as a full layer on the bottom, which made it harder to spread the cream filling on without the pretzels moving around everywhere. Whoops! I also didn't realize my cool whip was not fully thawed when I went to fold it into the cream cheese either, so that was a little more work than it would normally be. But hey, you make those mistakes and you learn for next time!

Pretzel Jello Salad
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 18 pieces
Prep time: 00:20 

Cook time: 00:15

Total time: 01:00

The ultimate version of Pretzel Jello Salad, with jello full of delicious fruit.

Ingredients:

Bottom Layer:

• 2 cups crushed pretzels
• 3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) melted butter
• 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
Middle Layer:

• 1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1 8 ounce tub whipped topping, a la Cool Whip
• 1 cup powdered sugar
Top Layer:

• 1 large package strawberry jello
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 package frozen strawberries
• 3 mashed bananas
• 1 can jellied cranberries, whole berry
• 1 small can crushed pineapple (optional, add in extra 1/4 cup water if you don’t use)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix together the bottom layer ingredients and press evenly into a 9x13 pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool until no longer hot to the touch.
2. For the middle layer, beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar until fluffy. Fold in the whipped topping, then spread across your pretzel layer as evenly as you can.
3. For the top layer, in a large bowl mix together your jello and boiling water for a couple minutes until completely dissolved, then add in your fruit and mix around until combined. Stick that in the fridge for a bit until it starts to set up. Before it sets completely, dump that onto your other layers and smooth out. Stick that back in the fridge until fully set up before serving.
4. Make sure to store any leftovers in the fridge.

In Photos:

 Crush up your pretzels. To avoid a giant pretzel mess, stick it in a bag! They don't have to be super fine; it's nice to have a bit of a crunch.

Mix those pretzels with the butter and powdered sugar for the first layer.

Press that into your 9x13 pan and bake for 15 minutes.

Let the pretzels cool. While that's going on, you can get your cream middle ready. Beat together your softened cream cheese and powdered sugar until fluffy, then fold together with the thawed cool whip (or whatever whipped topping you prefer).

This is the part where you can experiment a little. What I used: a large box of strawberry jello, a tub of frozen strawberries, 1 cup boiling water, 3 mashed bananas, 1 can cranberries (whole berries). My family also usually adds in a small tin of pineapple, but I'm not a pineapple fan, so I nixed it and added a little extra water to compensate. Stick that in the fridge for a bit to start to set up.

While the jello is setting up, smooth your creamy layer on top of the cooled pretzels.

Yeah, man, layers are happening.

Once the jello has set up a little, put that on as your top layer. Apologies for the slightly blurry photo. Stick that back in the fridge to fully set up.

Once it's set up, you're ready to serve that baby! Such pretty layers on this dish! Anything not eaten right away can be kept in the fridge, but be aware the pretzels will get soggy!

Sorry I don't have a pretty photo of a single piece cut out, I was working on a deadline on this one. Perhaps when I make it again in the future I will add one!

SYTYCD S10: Boston Auditions

Tonight SYTYCD headed to Boston for the next audition episode. Wonder how many more audition weeks we have to go? Vegas is nearly almost always my favorite episode(s). Joining Mary and Nigel in Boston for judging is Adam Shankman.

Ashley Goldman & Phillip Kudryavstev - Latin ballroom. They're pretty great. I'm not always entranced with the latin ballroom because it can get schmaltzy, but I enjoyed these two quite a bit. Straight to Vegas.

Natalie Vilos - Jazz with a giant lamp prop. Okaaay. Seemed like a gimmick, but actually had a good way to use it. Not good enough for the show.

John Tesoriero - Uses a beatboxer for his music. I'm more impressed by the beatboxing than the actual dancing, but they do work well together. Good as performance art, but as dance? Choreography. Not strong enough.

Katlyn Rodriguez - Salsa. Whoa girl, wear some more clothes, you look practically nekkid. Has her little brother stand in for normal partner. Decent, not amazing. Choreography. Makes it to Vegas.

Jennifer Jones - Ballet turned jazz. Quite beautiful dancing, her training shows through. Good at emoting. Looks so much older than 21, though. Vegas.

Tommy Tibball. Very strong. Adam especially loves him. Compared to Billy Bell and Jakob from seasons past. Vegas.

Jennie Begley - Ballet but uses very tribal music, which makes it much more interesting, though think maybe it's a little too fast of a beat in the music for her style. Vegas.

Jason Kidd - Animator. Definitely something inherently cool about this dance style in general. They don't even talk to him, just walk up there and give him his ticket.

Shannon Tarantino - Contemporary. Nigel's grin watching her is so creepy leery, guess it's been coming! To Vegas.

Elena & Gene Bersten. Latin ballroom married couple. Honestly thought it was only okay for me, but Mary calls them fantastic. Through to Vegas.

Ernest "E-Knock" Phillips - Hip hop, give him a lot of backstory about his cousin dying and him finding a purpose teaching dance in Vermont. Interesting. Music is very uplifting, also about loss, though movement comes across as very angry. Moves Adam to tears. Choreography. Not strong enough for Vegas.

Alexis Juliano - Tapper. Probably one of my favorite tapping auditions of all time, to be honest. Had a great ending, very cute. Vegas.

Anthony Bryant. Explosive past auditions. Half his audition done in silence without any music, interesting choice. Definitely a strong dancer, but not sure his personality will work on the show. They want to put him through to choreography, but he doesn't want to do that, so he leaves. Sheesh. Why does he even bother coming back ever?

Anthony Savoy. Professional contemporary dancer. Great lines, of course. Very powerful. My concern with the professional dancers is that sometimes they can't quite connect with the audience. Vegas.

Kate Kapshandy. Ballroom. Maybe go a little easier on the bronzer, girl! Gets a Mary scream. Through to Vegas.

Toshi Nakazawa - Hip hop with animation bits. He's actually really good, language barrier or no. You don't need to speak English well to be entertaining. Vegas.

Next week: Memphis.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

SYTYCD S10 Auditions - Los Angeles and Austin

Bit weird that they separated the Los Angeles auditions into two separate nights. I guess maybe they were expecting to have two hour episodes of the show each week? But then why not wait to keep last week's and this to this week? WEIRD. That's all there is to it.

Nicholas Stewart aka Slick. Flex dancing. Or otherwise known as pulling his arms in and out of their sockets? Yeesh. Gross! To choreography because he is "so amazing in your style." That's their code for thinking they won't be able to do anything else. Doesn't make it through.

Alex Kessinger. Cute blonde thing with compelling backstory and moves to back it up. Will probably be really good at doing choreographed routines from what I can tell. A little too much loving looks to judges, though. Get more into the dancing and less look at me, look at me, please! Straight to Vegas.

Sebastian Serra. Ballet dancer with kind of jungle vibe. Very interesting. Started stronger than finished, to me, but still good. Jesse mentions handsomeness too. Ha. Vegas.

Mariia Lebedeva and Misha Smagin. Latin ballroom. She has a smoothness to her moves whereas he is much sharper, interesting combo. Mary scream. Vegas. That dude seems a little smarmy though?

Emilio Dosal. Hip hop. Not amazing, but seems very moldable, like he could do well with other styles. Has a good personality for the character work required. To choreography. Through to Vegas.

Makenzie Dustman. Contemporary. Somber. Emotional. Great music choice. Nice to see someone connect emotionally with the movement, translates to the audience. Vegas.


Austin up next. Minnie Driver the guest judge this time. Mary has some wackadoo hair.

Hayley Erbert. Self described as a "sexy" dancer. Actually quite pretty dancer, doesn't hurt that she's also quite pretty herself. Vegas.

Donovan Gibbs. Really like his dance style. Sort of contemporary with hip hop bits mixed in, or is it the other way around. Very strong, though pulls faces a bit. Bring up the dad for a battle, and the dad is pretty awesome. Vegas.

Dannon O'Brien. Halloween house kid into movie makeup. Seemed like could be a disaster based on prepackage, but actually good, into telling a story. Such a weird sweetheart. Vegas.

Shane Garcia. Stutterer uses dance as a way to get over it. Beautiful, fluid in his animation movement. Something so touching about his dancing. To choreography. Hope he can do it. Through to Vegas!

Daniela Bustillos. Good but not great. Want more from her dancing, kind of subdued, bit boring. To choreography. Makes it to Vegas.

Nick Muckleroy. Strength. Control. Gymnastic moves. Good music choice for his commanding style. Vegas.

Hampton Williams aka The Exorcist. Daughter and girlfriend Darleesha Goggins also come up, they have kind of prepared performance, all doing his sort of style, which is always so engaging. Vegas.

Next week: Boston.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 8x23 "Sacrifice"

Another season in the can, people! Started off a bit shaky to me, but picked up near the end here. And, as season finales tend to go, a lot of crap went down tonight. Shizz happened, yo.

Don't trust the short bearded fellow.

Sam and Dean are working on the final demon tablet trial - to cure a demon. Since they royally botched doing that to Abaddon, they work up a plan to do it to Crowley instead. A plan which Crowley falls for rather easily, though I guess he wouldn't know about devil's trapped handcuffs as they were hidden in that bunker for decades. Anyway, they trap him in a church, get the angel tablet from him, and get ready to start working the cure mojo on him, but Castiel pops in to ask for help.

You see, he was still conferring with Metatron about the next phase in the angel trials. That is, to get a Cupid to give him their bow. Before they can do it, though, Naomi's cronies find them and zap Metatron up to Heaven. So, Cas goes to find Dean to ask for his help in getting the Cupid's bow. Dean would rather stay with Sam, but Sam assures him he can do this thing on his own, so Dean reluctantly heads off with Castiel. They also get Kevin to start taking a look at the angel tablet in the bunker. Not sure why they haven't let him stay in the bunker until now, though.

Up in Heaven, Naomi has Metatron in her questioning chamber of sorts to figure out his dealio. She's very suspicious of the fact that he's been missing for so long, yet seems to know everything that's been going on so easily. Hmm. Good point, Naomi, good point.

Sam, you look like crap. Hot crap, sure, but still crap.

Back at the church, Sam is administering his purified blood to Crowley every hour as per the curing a demon ritual. They get interrupted, however, by a very pissed off Abaddon, who is not so happy that Crowley is the king of Hell. She beats him up for a bit, tosses Sam around some, but in the end, Sam is able to douse her in holy fire and she smokes out of there. Too bad, I liked that actress playing her. After that, Crowley starts talking a little less Crowley-like. Is that blood starting to work after all?

Dean and Castiel track down a Cupid and get her to give him her bow, which is really her hand, which is gross, but that's how they roll on this show. Anyway, Kevin calls up Dean to tell him he doesn't see anything about the Nephilim or the cupid's bow on the tablet, and that's when Naomi pops down for a visit. She basically confirms what Kevin was saying - Metatron is up to something that does not involve closing the gates of Heaven, but rather casting all of the angels out of Heaven instead. Sending them to Earth to live mortal lives. Castiel is convinced that she's lying, but when she tells Dean that the final demon trial is meant to kill Sam, he leaves Cas unattended to go help his baby bro. Never a good idea to leave Cas on his own, Dean, have we not learned this by now?

Brotherly moment of the night.

Because what happens when he goes up to Heaven to see what's going on? Naomi's got a drill in her brain and Metatron is there to basically gloat and take away Castiel's grace. Naomi was right, he's gotten Cas to be his patsy in performing a spell, and the last thing he needed was an angel's grace. He sends Cas down to Earth, apparently human.

Dean finds Sam just as he's about to complete the demon curing ritual on Crowley, who has completely changed his tune from nefarious to genuinely upset about what he's done. Though Sam is prepared to sacrifice himself to close the gates of Hell, Dean manages to talk him out of it in a rather touching brotherly moment. His arms stop glowing from the purifying stuff, but then he collapses in agony. Something is wrong!

They run outside to find there's some kind of weird storm a-brewing. Kevin, in the bunker, sees a bunch of red lights appearing on a map. Cas, cast out of Heaven, wanders around, looking to the sky. And there, falling from the broiling clouds are white lights. Angels. Falling from Heaven.

And... season eight! Dun dun dun!

Random Thoughts:

- Interesting, though not entirely unexpected, way to end the season, with the angels falling. What will that mean going forward?

- What happens to Crowley now? Will he stay semi-cured? Can Dean finish curing him, thus saving Sam from completing the third trial? Will that leave Abaddon an opening to take over Hell?

- I didn't really talk about that opening scene with Sheriff Jody Mills because it's not entirely needed to get the plot, but basically she was the next one Crowley was going after, and I was going to be pissed if she actually was killed because it would've just been another strong female killed off on this show, but thankfully she was not killed. Jody lives on!

- Did everyone see the lights falling from the sky? Because that would be some weird news in the real world.

Quotes:

Dean: How about what you did to Penny Markle in the sixth grade, how about you lead with that?
Sam: That was you.
Dean: ... Carry on.

Kevin: Is this a joke?
Castiel: No, it's the word of God.

Castiel: There was one... female.
Dean: What?
Castiel: I don't think she was female.

Abaddon: Hello, boys.
Crowley: That's my line.

Dean: Talk first. Stab later.

Dean: You finish this trial, you're dead, Sam.
Sam: So?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

SYTYCD S10 Detroit Auditions

To haunt all of our nightmares.

For the second round of auditions, SYTYCD heads to Detroit for the first time. Joining Nigel and Mary on the judging panel is season four favorite tWitch, who gives us all a treat when he briefly performs halfway through the episode.

Jade Zuberi. Really great pop locker/animator. Very engrossing. He wanted to tell a story with his movement and I think he did. Straight to Vegas.

Amy Yakima. Extended jazz thing with her dad, oh jeez. She has a tendency to be a hair flailer, but a decent dancer nonetheless, uses the whole stage. Straight to Vegas.

Morgan Williams. Great lines. Good control for being so tall, not gangly at all. Straight to Vegas despite Nigel trying to psych out with a fake out suggestion of sending him to choreo.

Will "Sysko" Green. The jit, style of dance created in Detroit, not really sure how to describe it. Kind of haphazard to me. Mary requests him to do hip roll and has to go up on stage and sit in a chair for him. I confess that's where he became much more interesting to me, and where that picture of Nigel above came from. To choreography. Tries to freestyle in choreography and told to head home.

Tyrone Cobham. Tapper. Probably one of the best tappers we've seen on the show, right? The judges are very effusive about him. Honestly I think he could go far if he can do other stuff. Straight to Vegas.

Darryl "Smiles" Harrell. Krump. Part of a crew, maybe called Fade or Fame. To choreo. Too much for him, no Vegas.

DeFonte "Prince Charming" Thomas. The other featured dancer from the crew. He's pretty all over the place, mish mosh of styles. Exotic dancing kind of showing through. Choreo. To Vegas for this one, he looked like he was a pretty quick learner.

Well, that's all for now! Next week: Austin. More Los Angeles.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

SYTYCD Season 10 Los Angeles Audtions

Well, guys, welcome back to So You Think You Can Dance. Can you believe this show has been on 10 seasons already? That is insane in the membrane! I've watched it since the first season, and honestly sometimes feel a little laggy about it now because it's hard to seem fresh anymore, but nonetheless it's a pretty enjoyable show. Looks like so far they're keeping the audition rounds shorter, but that may just be for this week. Tonight featured Los Angeles. I'm not going super in depth here, just touching on the contestants that were highlighted...

Fik-Shun, despite having a stupid moniker (for some reason it really bothers me when they always give themselves these other names, tWitch being the exception of course), was really awesome. Great control, the way he was on the ground and pulled himself up and down. Very cool. Straight through to Vegas.

Malece Miller. Nothing special to me. Not strong enough in my opinion, though they gave her a lot of backstory and she had the funny deaf/not deaf joke. Ends up going through to Vegas. She has potential for growth, I guess?

Paul Karmiryan won So You Think You Can Dance in Armenia. Somehow I don't think he should then be able to try out for this show as well? Seems a bit hinky to me, but he gets through to Vegas anyway. Suckling at the mother teat? Sorry, I'm being super critical!

Elijah Laurant. Aka tutu head. Strong, though a bit weird. I just don't like when people are so concerned about being an artist and sharing their vision. Oh goodness. To Vegas he goes.

Taylor Ward. Former softballer turned dancer totally dislocates her knee when warming up. Looks really disgusting but pops it back in. Actually quite pretty dancing, though can tell the knee is a little wonky. To choreo and through to Vegas.

Morris Isby. B-Boy. Goes to choreo. Apparently used to be number 1 in the world or something, but doesn't make it through to Vegas.

Armen Way. Rapper and ballroom dancer? Seemed like he might be a joke based on intro package but actually good. Straight to Vegas.

The Great 1-8ers, Eric & Lorenzo Chapman. Pop & locking. They get the inspirational cut, started their own kids dancing program. They're so nice and lovely and stuff, but not good enough for choreography on this show, ha. I'm not sure if I should be happy they highlight these types of things because it does help local communities, but seems very pat-on-the-back-y.

Not sure I'm super pumped about any of these yet, but it's still early. What about you?

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Supernatural 8x22 "Clip Show"

A return to the classic Supernatural opening, sort of, this week, with a couple young people seemingly having a nice old time until something goes terribly wrong. Of course, it turns out that one of the young people in question is all the way back from season one's wendigo episode. That was only episode two of the entire series! Wow. Anyway, the dude ends up dead from like, bleeding eyes and a possibly exploding head. Dun dun dun!

Dean, I'm sorry for all the subtext.

Meanwhile, back at the bunker, Sam and Dean are in full research mode, trying to figure out what it could mean to cure a demon, per the third trial on the demon tablet. Castiel is moping around like a kicked puppy, begging forgiveness from Dean, the ever grudge-holder. Good luck with that unless you're about to kick the bucket.

They find something in the archives, though, that appears to be helpful. A video of an old exorcism from back in the '50s labeled "Weird!!!" Basically, this priest is doing an exorcism, but in a different way than normal. Namely, some different Latin and by also cutting his and and slamming his blood into the demon's mouth.

Not clear what exactly happened, but the point was he was trying to "cleanse" the demon or something, which we can take to mean "cure" in this case, I suppose. Later, he does a similar thing to another demon, only pumping him full of his own purified blood while doing the exorcism stuff, which apparently eventually gets the demon to be more empathetic again, then does the bloody hand face Latin, and voila, demon cured? Unclear on what happens to the person they were possessing though if they can just keep hanging out in the body.

Rather hilarious they needed popcorn for this.

Now that they have all of this info, they figure it's time to get themselves a demon to try it out on and finish the trials. Dean figures they should use one they already know the whereabouts of, so they dig up Abaddon from some episodes back and put humpty dumpty back together again. Well, except for her hands. Those, they cut off.

However, before they can get to the ritual, they get a phone call from Crowley, and here is where they act like FOOLS. FOOLISH FOOLS! They leave Abaddon alone in this warehouse, thinking she is down for the count because her hands are cut off and she has a devil's trap bullet in her head. Right. She is able to move her hands outside of her body and pulls the bullet out of her head. Dummies! Never leave demons alone!

They're about to be epic stupid. Sigh.

Anyway, their phone call with Crowley basically amounts to him telling them that people they've helped save in the past are turning up dead, and that they should check it out. They find another past save dead, and Crowley then tells him he's going to keep killing these people every 12 hours unless the boys decide to give him the demon tablet and quit doing the trials. Yeah, sure, that's gonna happen.

They say as much, so Crowley directs them to his next victim, none other than fan favorite Sarah from way back in season one. They think they've got it covered by putting up devil's traps and all other demon warding stuff, but when the time comes, she starts choking to death. Turns out, it was a spell. They search the room frantically for the hex bag that must be there, but alas, are unable to find it. Sarah is dead meat, which makes Sam feel really terrible, particularly when he finds out she's married and has a kid who's almost one year old. Ah, shizz. Another girl bites the dust. Never kiss Sam, kids, if you want to survive.

Crowley has some words that hit rather close to home for the boys - namely that the only reason the hunting they've done in their lives has had meaning was because of the people they saved, and when you take that away, what do they really have anymore? Sam is feeling rather defeated after all of this and thinks maybe they should just take the deal, but Dean says NO SIR, WE SHALL FIND A WAY! And maybe they will, when they're not being stupid and leaving super powerful demons alone to outsmart them. JEEZ.

Meanwhile! Castiel wants to make amends with Dean, so he decides to go to the local mini mart and basically get Dean's dream package - jerky, Busty Asian Beauties, beer, toilet paper... he even attempts to get him some pie, but we all know that Dean never actually gets his pie, so Cas is sadly thwarted in his good efforts. Metatron shows up before he throttles the kid at the convenience store for not having any pie and tells him that he's not so happy with what Heaven's become lately, and he thinks they should perform the trials to close the gates so the angels can figure their shit out.

The angel he wants to perform the trials? Castiel, of course, a fellow free thinker. The problem is, the first trial consists of Cas having to kill/pull out the heart of a Nephilim. You know, a child of an angel and a human. Apparently only one exists in the world. Cas doesn't want to do it, as it's not her fault, but when they follow her later, she gets rather uppity and tries to kill them, going all glowy eyed and strong-armed. So, he shoves his angel sword through her throat. Does that count as completing the first trial, because nothing really seemed to happen to him like it did to Sam after he completed his.

Random Thoughts:

- Are people outraged about Sarah's death? Is it the writers just playing into the whole thing about anyone whoever got it on with Sam in any way ends up dead? I just think it's sad that really the only girl that anyone ever liked with Sam on this show has now finally ended up dead. Also, her face looked crazy skinny. RANDOM!

- I got a laugh out of the call coming in from 666 being Crowley. One thing you can say about Crowley, he certainly has style.

- How did Crowley get the hex bag in their phone anyway? Hmm. Not sure about that.

- I mean. Boys. You really left Abaddon alone? Come on, son!

- Apart from Sarah, the people chosen to represent the past saves dying were kind of random. Maybe that was the point? Wonder if they actually chose those ones on purpose or if they had to scout around for which actors were available and did it that way?

Quotes:

Castiel: I like this bunker. It's orderly.

Sam: So, we have a dungeon.
Dean: Finally.

Castiel: Where's the pie?
Merchant: I think we're out.
Castiel. No, you don't understand. I need pie.

Sam: This is gonna be disgusting.
Dean: Uh huh.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 8x21 "The Great Escapist"

Ummm can we all agree that maybe that was one of the best episodes of the season so far? Maybe the best? Right? I started thinking that halfway through the episode, then remembered it was written by Ben Edlund, and was like oh well derrr de derr, obviously. I'm not sure I have disliked any of his episodes. Not to say that the episode isn't planned out before the specific writer gets his hands on it, but would any of the other writers come up with that story about the farty donkey? Come on.

Before I wax too effusive about his dialogue, because surely it is some of my favorite, I'll restrain myself and rather get down to the biznatch.

Look out Winchesters, I've got a gun on you! Unheard of! Uncanny!

So! Lest we forget, Kevin was taken away by Crowley a few episodes back. At the time we were maybe supposed to question whether he just lost it and ran away, but all of that questioning was dispelled post haste when we found him holed up, working on the tablet, with a fake Sam and Dean bringing him the half that Crowley took earlier on. It was fairly obvious that they weren't the real Sam and Dean, and Crowley must've thought Kevin was easily duped too. But, no. Kevin Tran ain't no dummy.

Meanwhile, however, the boys are back in the bunker, with not much of a clue what to do, and Sam appears to be getting worse rather than better. He thinks he'll start feeling better once they get back to working on said trials, and pretty much as soon as he says that, they get a video message from Kevin saying he must be dead and here's some info on the last trial. Dean is sure pissed about another innocent dying, but don't worry Dean, he's not really dead. Calm yourself. After Sam looks through the stuff, he notices this same symbol has been appearing throughout the notes, and he happens to remember that same symbol from a class he took back at Stanford. Now, this seems super convenient until we realize the trials are making him remember all sorts of minute details about his life. Anyway, basically, he thinks that the messenger of GAHHG, Metatron himself, is holed up on a mountain with some Native Americans. Or Indians, if you're Dean.

Yeah, like you're the first one to do that. Puh-lease!

While all of that is going on, we also catch up with Castiel, who's been in the wind ever since he got the angel tablet. He's been flitting from Biggerson's (or is it Big Gerson's?) around the country to mask his trail, and so far has been rather successful. But, they manage to catch him by killing a bunch of the people at one of his previous stops. Naomi is mad, duh, and wants to know where the angel tablet is. Cas isn't saying, and before she can do anything more than punch him around a bit, Crowley shows up with a special angel-killing gun, scaring her off. It turns out, Castiel didn't bury the tablet per se. Since touching the tablet dissolved his psychic link to the home office, why would he stop touching it? Exactly. He stuck it inside his body, which Crowley takes out. Ruh-roh.

In the mountains, Sam and Dean track down the elusive Metatron, who has been hiding out for centuries, not wanting to get involved in any of the demon and angel shenanigans after GAHHG flew the coop. But, when the Winchesters confront him with all of the death and despair, he decides to lend his help.

Crowley takes the angel tablet back to Kevin, who reveals that he's known for a while that the Sam and Dean visiting him weren't real, mostly because they were too nice. Ha! Crowley gets ready to smack him around, but suddenly he goes all white angel-ly and disappears. Metatron got him out of there because he's like, a super special angel who can re-write angel warding stuff or something. Anyway, Kevin doesn't even get to do the big reveal of the final trial thanks to Metatron stealing his thunder by blurting that it's to clean a demon, or basically turn a demon back human or something. Kevin's all who the hell is this, taking my moment?! Metatron could've gone all "I'm you're prophetic father, SON!" but refrained.

So, the brothers now have the final trial in their sights - cleanse a demon or whatever it was called. Alas, I did not write it down and am clearly too lazy to turn to the TV back on and rewind the thing. Sam already feels better now that he has a purpose. They're discussing this while driving when they happen upon a figure lying in the road... none other than Castiel. Reunited!

Random Thoughts:

- You guys! I had seen theories around about the trials purifying the demon blood out of Sam and thought how that would be awesome but probably unlikely given how awesome, and look! Look! It's happening! What!

- Is it a coincidence that the messenger angel's name is METAtron when he started talking about how the greatest power of humans is their ability to tell stories and come up with all sorts of worlds, become mini GAHHGs themselves? While on a TV show created by humans! It's so meta!

- I love delirious Sam, he's so unintentionally hilarious.

- Kevin brought back the other half of the demon tablet with him, but did he leave the angel tablet with Crowley? I mean, I guess Crowley can't decipher it without him, but still.

- Can we have more random childhood stories, please? I think we all love them, yeah? Farty donkey ones, especially.

Quotes:

Crowley: I was born to direct.

Dean: You really think this Metatron is hanging out in the mountains with a bunch of Indians?
Sam: Yeah! Yeah, I do. ... You're not... you're not really supposed to say Indians...
Dean: ... You are delirious.

Sam: Ohhh you rode a farty donkey!

Crowley: I am the daringest devil you've ever met, love.

Sam: You really haven't heard of us? What kind of angel are you? We're the freakin' Winchesters.

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