User:Sadvanii/Nihilism (Supernatural)

= "Nihilism" (Supernatural) = “Nihilism” is the 10th episode of the 14th season of the American television series Supernatural and the overall 297th episode of the series. The episode was written by Steve Yockey who has written a handful of episodes from Season 12  to Season 15 and the director was Amanda Tapping, also not new to the Supernatural universe. The original airdate was January 17 2019 on The CW.

In the episode Michael has re-possessed Dean Winchester and his army of monsters are moving in on Sam Winchester and Castiel who are trying to stop Michael from destroying the world. Sam creates a plan that can potentially stop Michael and potentially give Dean back control to his body.

Plot
The opening scene is an all-American dive bar complete with a jukebox, pool table and a customer passed out on a stool at the bar. The peaceful silence is abruptly broken by Pamela Barns who is complaining about the rowdy people at the grocery store who were acting like the storm outside is the end of the world. However, she happily states that she has successfully retrieved the limes for the house special and hands the bag to the bartender who is Dean.

Pamela asked if Dean has heard back from Sam and Dean replies that Sam is still dealing with a Ghoul case with Castiel in Wichita. Their conversation is interrupted by a woman in a suit who is a lawyer attempting to convince Dean to sell the bar. He declines and she heads back in the storm. Dean and Pamela have small talk in Dean’s office and take a shot. Pamela has a vision and says trouble is on its way. Dean quickly runs out of the walk-in fridge and a vampire enters the bar. The passed-out individual at the bar wakes up and is also a vampire. A fight breaks out.

Meanwhile, at Hitomi Plaza,  Michael still has control over Dean’s body. During a monologue, Castiel took advantage of Michael’s arrogance to create a distraction for Sam to throw holy oil on Michael. Castiel then captures Michael with the angel hand cuffs. Michael’s monster army is still breaking their way to the penthouse and out of desperation Sam calls upon a reaper for assistance who transports them back to the bunker.

Running out of options, Sam suggests to go into Dean’s dreamworld, the bar, and convince him to eject Michael out of his body. Quickly following through with the plan, Sam starts to set up the Men of Letter’s device allowing both Sam and Castiel to enter Dean’s mind.

Dean welcomes Castiel and Sam with open arms as he thinks they are returning from their Ghoul hunt. Pamela, who is dead in real life, appears and causes Sam to stutter. Sam picks himself back up and begins to convince Dean he has been trapped in a dream. While explaining, both Castiel and Sam experience the dream loop, where the first 5 minutes repeat itself. Sam does not give up and continues to tell Dean facts about real life so he realizes that his dreamworld is fake. He says that not only is Pamela blind she is also dead. This seems to work as Pamela slowly disappears. Dean does not fully believe what Sam is telling him. Sam remembered their code word that meant, stop everything and run. This causes Dean to remember.

It is too late, Michael has found them in the dreamworld. There is a fight that ends up with Michael trapped in the bar’s store room, essentially, making Dean “the cage” referring to Lucifer’s cage.

The monsters continue to make their way to the bunker but Jack uses his magic and destroys the invading monsters. This will have consequences.

Dean is in his room starring at a mirror. He is burying the pain Michael is causing while being locked up in his mind. Suddenly, Billie the reaper appears and shares some information with Dean. Billie describes to Dean that from thousands of possible outcomes Michael escapes and burns the entire world, except for one. She hands Dean a book from her library and tells him to use the information however he pleases.

Main Cast

 * Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester
 * Misha Collins as Castiel
 * Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester
 * Alexander Calvert as Jack Kline

Guest Stars

 * Lisa Berry as Billie
 * Katherine Evans as Maggie
 * Thunderbird Dinwiddie as Pamela Barnes

Views
In its original broadcast, "Nihilism" was viewed by an estimated 2.34 million viewers. It was neither the highest or lower amount of views for this season.

Reviews
"Overall, “Nihilism” is a fabulous episode of Supernatural. It features plenty of nail biting moments, evenly distributed action, and dialogue scenes wrapped into a solid return." - Bridget LeMonica from Den of Geek (January 18, 2019)

"This mid-season premiere was certainly entertaining, and I was glad to see they did something else with Michael taking control of Dean again, allowing us to have Dean but adding another layer of tension to the situation." - Katie Stoetzel from The Young Folk (January 20, 2019)

"‘Nihilism’ was a welcome reminder that Supernatural is still capable of being the most incredible show ever" - spnfan from Fangasm (January 24,2019)