This week our favorite queer woman of letter returned from oz (I love the fact that sentance makes sense) and what a ride it was! So, let's get to it! We opened on a mystery man being chased down. Is his prusuer a monster? A demon? The IRS? NO! It's...Charlie Bradbury (guest stat Felicia Day). but this isn't the silly sweet Charlie we know, this chick has a hard core hair cut and is rocking leather pants. Also a "who doesn't love a little torture" attitude! What's happened to our sweet hacker?
We have to wait a while to find out. Sam and dean are still huddled down in the Men of Letters bunker trying to find a way to fix Dean. Sam is on the phone with Cas, who we assume is off looking for anwers about saving Dean while sending him sweet texts full of heart emoticons. Dean's solution to stop being bad it to be...really good. Like SAM good which to him means eating right, no drinking and gettineight hours of sleep/ The egg white omnlettes and green smoothies really don't seem to be helping much though. Dean gets a break from his clense when sam stumbles upon something, no, not info about the mark - video of Charlie torturing mystery man from the opening. Shocked that Charlie who wouldn't hurt a hobbit would do such a thing, the boys go to track her down. (Dean get the shakes while picking his gigantic knife (not a euphemism) and it's ominous.)
The boys easily track down the DA Charlie tortured and Dean goes a bit Jack Bauer of the guy himself to get him to admit charlie was after names. You see, this DA was involved in the case against the drunk driver who killed Charlie's father and rendered her mother braindead. What Charlie is after is suddenly kind of clear, as the culprit was never brought to justice - apparently because he bribed his way out of it. The DA gives the guys the same name he gave Charlie, a city counsel woman.
After getting no answers from the couselwoman and a kale break (it's deliciouys, Dean, be quiet and eat your greens) the guys catch Charlie breaking into the woman's house. Suffice it to say the woman they see holding the counselwoman at knife point is very different from the friend they watched saunter off to Oz last season. She tells them she had her adventure and it frred her from a restrictive good guy code. The boys don't want to hurt her, they say, but they will stop her. This doesn't phase Charlie, who bolts from the room. She manages to take down Dean with a Black Widow syle thigh choke hold. I can't even say who I'm more jealous of in that scene.
To add insult to injury, she slashes baby's tires before she runs. Luckily aother car drives right up as the boys flolunder. And the driver is...Charlie?
Story time ina nice bar. Turns out there was a war in Oz, and to win in the Wizard of Oz used the inner key of Oz to release Charlie's inner darkness. Dark Charlie single handly won the war, but what she did to do it appaled Light Charlie, who wanted to shut her dark side away and never see her agan. To win her back, Dark Charlie came home to punish the man that detroy her family. Good Charlie explains that being good is a bit of a drag, for instance, she only wants to send the hot bartender to college rather than check out her ass. The boys try to convince her tht dark Charlie isn't really her...but she is. She's a twisted ark version, sure, but it's still her. Just so we're clear, the parallels here to Dean's issues with the Mark of Cain are pretty huge and deliberate. Gotta love narrative mirrors!
The key to getting Charlie back happens to be with the Wizard in oz, by the way, and Dark Charlie broke the key into Oz. It's a mess. Luckily, they track down he man responsible for killing Charlie's family by following clues from Dark Charlie andhacking some bak records. Well Sam hacks, Good Charlie is too good to do it herself. The team agrees to split up. Dean with protect the bad guy, Russell, and Sam and charlie will head bac to the bunker to see if they can find another way to oz to fix her.
Dean sits enjoying some almonds and medittion tapes (well, not really enjoying it) until Russell gets to his real estate firm's office. Eventually Dean can't wait in the lobby and has to stall Russell. Meanwhile, Sam and Charlie discover the first man of letter to go to Oz and come back was man named Clive, who returned and reired and may still be alive. Just as Dean is telling Russell how much he really enjoys bubbles, the light cut out. Dar Charlie has arrived. Dean leaves russell to wait and stay safe and tries to talk to Charlie. She's heard it all though.
All she really wants though, she tells Dean, is to let Russell see what he made her and to make him feel guilt for his crimes. She gives Dean her weapon and he, I guess hoping that someone who has gone "dark" like him can be trusted, lets her talk to the guy. He begs her forgiveness..and she gives it! And then she slams the door on Dean and shanks the dude with a letter opener. Ooops.
After telling charlie and Sam the bad news, and getting info on where they are going to track down Oz-visiting Cilve, Dean finds himself in a bar. he seriously contemlating his clean living decissions when Dark charlie pops in. She has no regret about lying to dean, and tells hims thta it's freeing to embrace your darkness. Dean would know, right? He resists and tells her she'll be back in the bottle soon; to whish she responds by going to go hit on the bartender. Or not. She's actually stealing baby! Dean hotwires a minivan and head towrads light Charlie and Sam, since he gave Bad charlie false info.
Sam and Good Charlie have found Clive...wh it turns out suffered the same light/dark split as Charlie, only his dark half became the wizard of Oz! This means he can't get into Oz, but he can bring the wizard to him. See, what hurts one half of a person hurts the other, so Clive shoots himself. Cue one issed off wizard busting in. In the mean time, Charlie followed Dean and goads him into fighting her. They go at it while the wizard ries to Kill sam and good Charlie. Clive, wounded, begs Good Charlie to end things and the poor sweet thing does, shooting Clive and kiling him and the Wizard. To bad Dean is still beating the crap out of her other half and injuring both of them. Sam carried god Charlie outside and Charlie and Charlie finally meet, bloody and battered. They understand and forgive eachother before being reunited. Dean of course is shell-shocked from having just,essentially, realy hurt his friend. Things are not happy.
Back in the bunker, Charlie is feeling neither god nor bad, just balanced. She's going to keep moving forward, which in this case means going to Italy to find a book to help with the Mark of Cain. She tells a guilt-ridden Dean she won't let wht happened to her, happen to him. He protests it already has, but also tells charlie he's sorry. She implores him to prove it by learning to control his darkness, which can't be shut away.
Afterall, Cain lived with the mark and he didn't even have the advantage of being a Winchester. With a sweet "arrevderci, bitches" Charlie takes off, leaving Dean to confess he is not okay, and Sam to reassure him they will work it out.
Other Highlights:
- Dean and Sam's aliases were double on point this ep! First they were Gabriel and Collins, a shout out to Gensis, but also a delight to fans of Sam/Gabriel. Then Dean was Mr. Presley. Elvis is a DeanCas fanfic thing, so a few fans went wild for this.
- Felicia Day knocked both performances out f the park!
- Dean versus health food was consistently amusing.
Shipping News:
I'm not over Sam talking to Cas about Dean TWICE this episode. Even off screen Dean's boyfriend is super concerned and trying to help. And for the second episode n a row we were reminded tht cain lived with the Mark. But he did it with the love of his "angel" Colette. Huh. What other angels with A seven letter C name do we know who unconditionally love a bearer of the Mark of Cain?
Come back next week for an ep that will give us a teenage dream Dean!
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