Supernatural 8x19 "Taxi Driver"

Well, I must say, I was really not spoiled much at all for this episode, and apparently did not pay attention during the guest star names either, so whoa! Surprise for me! After last week's run of the mill episode, we return back to the season arc in full force, and with only a few episodes left to go, no wonder.

Things never end well when a crossroad is involved.

Kevin, ye olde dirty prophet, has started to believe he's hearing Crowley speak to him. Whether this is true or just in his mind, one cannot be sure. Nonetheless, it turns out he has also figured out what the second demon tablet trial is, so we've got a mission for this episode. Turns out, trial in question involves taking an innocent soul from Hell and releasing it to Heaven. Wait a minute. We can just travel to Hell now all willy nilly?

Apparently so, as it turns out! There are so rogue reapers about, who are basically ferrying souls in and out of Hell. The purpose, not sure, other than to help fit the plot of the episode. The boys go in search of one of these reapers, find one toot suite and get him to agree to take Sam down under. And the soul he's going to rescue? Why, it's Bobby! Wait, Bobby's in Hell? But he's a good guy. Yeah, it turns out apparently souls can be bargained with, and Crowley decided he wanted Bobby in Hell. O-kay. Dean, of course, thinks he should go too, but Sam is having none of that talk, so he heads off with the reaper to... Purgatory! Wait a minute, I thought we were going to Hell? Well, no, Sam now has to find the secret back door entrance to Hell within Purgatory.

It's hard knock life for vamps named Benny.

Meanwhile, topside, Dean is trying to reassure a distraught Kevin that despite the general badness of their lives, they must keep on living them. Kev really doesn't look so good, though Dean tries to give him some food other than hot dogs. But Dean, burgers and fries aren't much better. Neither are eggs and ham or whatever that was. Just saying. Anyway, while Kevin is having a sulk, Dean gets a visit from none other than Naomi. She tries to tell Dean that she's on their side, but Dean is rather reluctant to believe such nonsense as he's pretty sure she commanded Cas to kill him. Naomi tries to sweet talk him, but for the time being, it doesn't seem to work, though she does give Dean a tip about the reaper helping them. You know, that Crowley killed him, so he won't be able to bring Sam back.

Sam manages to find the entrance to Hell, and even manages to find Bobby incredibly, incredibly easily once in there. They only have to fight a few demons in order to get out of there and back up to Purgatory, only the reaper isn't there waiting to take them back to Earth like he said he would be, but as we know, he dead, yo. He dead. So now they're stuck in Purgatory, and Sam gets berated for not looking for Dean there during his lost year, much to probably all viewers' delight.

"Oh no. My hand!"

Back topside, Dean is understandably distraught knowing his brother is stuck in Purgatory. As soon as Purgatory got involved, you had to know we'd be seeing Benny again, and of course we do, because he's the only one Dean knows that can get into Purgatory, and also knows where the exit back to Earth is. It's all very melodramatic between them as they say their farewells, even though Dean thinks Benny will come back out with Sam. Dude, I think we all figured out that wasn't going to happen by this point. So, Dean has to cut off his head.

Down in Purgatory, Benny helps Sam and Bobby get to the portal. Sam does some mumbo jumbo to get Bobby's soul into his arm like Dean did for Benny, but when he goes to do it for Benny, he refuses. He has to go distract a pack of vamps who have found them, but also he wasn't fitting in on Earth anyway, and when Sam has to tell Dean he thinks he would've stayed, I think I agree with him.

Dean and Bobby make it back out and Sam speaks some, perhaps, Latin to release his soul. Only Crowley shows up, wanting to take it back down to Hell with him again. Things don't look so promising, but then Naomi shows up and scares off Crowley, then sends Bobby's soul up to Heaven, clearly trying to get on the good side of the Winchesters so that they'll find Cas for her. We all know she just wants that tablet.

Sam's like bzzzah who the heck is that? No time for explanations now, kid, just finish that trial ritual. He speaks some other stuff and gets the glowy hand of pain again, though he tries to say he's okay, telling himself that as much as he's telling Dean now, yeah.

They go back to find Kevin, only he's flown the coop. Whether because he had another hallucination of Crowley telling him he'd killed his mother, or because Crowley has actually found him and spirited him away, not sure, though the windows from when Crowley exploded them were perfectly fine, so it would seem we're on the side of hallucination. So, he's hidden the tablet somewhere unknown, and is now somewhere unknown himself. Gulp.

Random Thoughts:

- What did you think of the return of Bobby? I was just happy he wasn't magically brought to life again, though they certainly left that door open enough, despite his soul going to Heaven and having no body to return to on Earth.

- It seemed super easy to get into Hell and Purgatory. Like, why did we go through all of the previous seasons if it was so easy? And how quickly Sam found Bobby once he was in there was ridiculous. One corridor of cells and he's like the third one he looks in? Come on, son.

- Has this rule always existed that souls meant for Heaven could get sent to Hell instead simply because Crowley desired it? Then how did the Winchesters end up in Heaven apparently so many times previously, as was mentioned back in season five? Can Crowley only do that now that he's ruling Hell?

- Is Kevin actually hearing Crowley or is he losing it? Does it matter? What could the final trial be? What if closing the gates to Hell closes the gates to Heaven at the same time? I know there are two tablets, but that would be interesting.

- The next episode looks kind of silly. Shouldn't we be in full on end of season arc mode now?

Quotes:

Reaper: Gate crashing a Winchester into Hell seriously blows.

Dean: That's my pie.

Sam: The rabbit hole. This is nuts.

Sam: You knew somehow, right?
Bobby: Took a chance. 50-50.

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