- Dean and Sam are killed by the hunters Walt and Roy. They awake in heaven and Castiel contacts Dean and asks him to seek out the angel Joshua. Meanwhile Zachariah is chasing them in Heaven to force Dean to be Michael's vessel.
- When ambushed by hunters aware of their angelic situation, Sam and Dean are shot and killed. In Heaven Castiel urges them to search for an angel named Joshua who can help them find God. Meanwhile Zachariah is searching for them in Heaven.—Anonymous
- THEN
We're reminded of the fact Sam and Dean have each died and come back before; that Sam gave Dean an amulet a long time ago which they later found out happened to be a talisman that glows hot when God is near. Dean lent it to Cas.
NOW
The episode opens on a close shot of Dean's bed at the motel. A half-consumed bottle of whiskey lays on its side. Dean (Jensen Ackles) is slowly waking up...to the sight of a masked man shoving his shotgun's barrel in his face. He turns to look at Sam (Jared Padalecki), who's already up and has a gun trained on him as well, held by another man.
When one of the men speaks, Dean recognizes his voice -- it's Roy (Kerry van der Griend), another hunter. Which means the other guy must be Roy's partner Walt (Nels Lennarson). Roy and Walt take off their masks, and Walt coldly reveals word has gotten around about what the Winchesters did, and asks Sam if he really thought he could flip the switch on the Apocalypse and get away with it. He racks a round into the chamber. "See you in the next life, Sam."
Sam tries to explain, but Walt shuts him down by blasting him twice in the chest. Sam falls back on his pillow, stone cold dead. Walt instructs Roy to do Dean, who is staring angrily at his dead brother and at the other hunters. Roy balks, saying killing Sam was right, but Dean didn't do anything.
Walt snarls, "He made us, and we just snuffed his brother you idiot. Do you want to spend the rest of your life knowing Dean Winchester's on your ass? Because I don't."
Dean, fuming, turns a cold glare on Roy and tells him to do it. "But I'm gonna warn you -- when I come back, I'm gonna be pissed." Roy's finger curls around the trigger, but he can't do it.
Walt sighs. "Come on, already," he says, turning his gun on Dean and pulling the trigger.
One bloody credits card later, Dean wakes up in the Impala (as "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" plays on the radio.) It's dark and cold -- he can see his breath. Confused, he gets out and sees he's on a road, right in the center. Suddenly the young version of Sam comes running across the road with a dairy crate filled with fireworks. He urges Dean to follow him. "Weird dream," Dean remarks.
They head to an open field and fire off a few Roman candles. Dean suddenly remembers this was the 4th of July, 1996. Sam smiles and happily thanks Dean, saying Dad never would have let them do this. He gives his brother a hug. Dean smiles but still looks confused. They light off the whole box fireworks. Dean smiles brightly. Then the scene is abruptly intercut with the memory of Roy and Walt's shotgun blasts. When everything rights itself, Sam is gone. Dean is in the middle of the field alone.
Confused, he calls out for Sam, then heads back to the car. As he's leaning on the hood, trying to get a handle on what's going on, Castiel's voice crackles in over the radio. Dean tells him to stop poking around in his dreams. Cas (Misha Collins) tells him to listen very closely: "This isn't a dream."
Dean asks what it is. Cas says, "Deep down, you already know." Dean remembers the blasts again.
Cas explains his connection is breaking up. Dean and Sam are dead and in Heaven. He asks what Dean sees, When Dean tells him about the road, Cas gets excited. He tells Dean to follow the road to find Sam. The radio connection expires. Dean turns the key in the ignition and drives until he pulls up on a perfect Victorian house under a impossibly perfect starlit sky.
Inside, Sam is sitting at a table with a family and eating turkey. Next to him is a pre-pubescent girl in braces who obviously has a crush on him. She reaches over and squeezes his thigh, and he jumps.
"Wow. Just....wow," Dean says with a grin as he walks in the room. The family doesn't seem to notice Dean, but Sam does.
"What are you doing in my dream?" Sam asks. When he gets up from the table to talk to Dean, the family continues to chat with his empty chair, not noticing his absence. Dean tells him they're in Heaven.
"How are we in Heaven?" a confused Sam asks.
"All that clean livin', I guess," Dean jokes. Sam is seriously confused. Dean in Heaven, he gets. But how did he get here? Having, you know, sucked on demon blood and started the End of Days and all? Dean doesn't have an answer beyond pointing out Sam had good intentions.
Besides, Dean adds, "If this is the Sky Mall, it sucks. I mean, where's the triplets and the latex, you know? A guy has needs."
They look back on the happy family, Sam realizes their life is flashing before their eyes. The 4th of July was one of Dean's memories. The house and the family is one of Sam's memories from when he was 11. It was his first real Thanksgiving. Dean, perplexed, points out they had plenty of Thanksgivings.
"We had a bucket of extra-crispy, and dad passed out on the couch," Sam says, correcting his brother.
Suddenly the house goes dark and begins to shake as a bright light shines through the window. The boys duck out of sight, avoiding the light. (The family continues its conversation as if nothing is happening.) When the light passes, Dean is resolved to "take the escalator back downstairs."
He starts fiddling with the radio, calling for Cas. This time Cas shows up, grainily, on the TV set. He tells the boys not to go into the light because it represents Zachariah (Kurt Fuller), searching for them. If he finds them, Zachariah will return them to their bodies -- they can't say yes to Michael if they're dead. The boys are fine with that but Cas says not so fast.
He explains this situation presents them with a rare opportunity -- they're behind the lines. They can find the angel to whom God speaks, Joshua (Roger Aaron Brown), and find out what God isn't saying. He instructs them to keep following the road, which leads to the Garden, where Joshua stays.
Dean is ready to follow their new mission, which Sam sees as odd, considering his brother isn't the most reverent man. Dean points out prayer is the last refuge of the desperate, and they open the front door. The road is gone.
They can't figure out what to do until Dean starts looking everywhere in the house -- closets, guest rooms, anywhere. He finds a small remote control car and a track. He recognizes it from his childhood. He sends the car around the track once, and when they look up, they're in Dean's childhood bedroom.
Stranger still, Dean is wearing a T-shirt with a teddy bear on that reads, "I Wuv Hugz." A female voice calls to Dean, asking if he's hungry. The woman pokes her head into his room. It's their mother, Mary. Sam looks shocked and incredibly lonesome for her.
Dean and Sam head down into the kitchen. Sam tries to talk to Mary but she doesn't hear him. Dean explains this is his memory, and sits patiently as she cuts the crusts off of his sandwich and serves him lunch. Sam is pained to witness a part of his family's life he can't participate in.
Sam tells them they should go. Dean begs for them to stay for a moment -- he's savoring the memory of their mother doting on him. The phone rings, and she answers. It's John. They're in an argument. Dean explains, he's moved out of the house for a couple of days.. Sam can't believe what he's witnessing -- their dad always made it seem they had a perfect marriage. Dean reveals the truth, their marriage was only perfect after she died.
Mary hangs up the phone and looks upset. Dean goes over and comforts her with a hug, assuring her dad still loves her, and he loves her and will never leave her. She smiles, fights back tears and calls him her little angel. She asks if he wants pie. Sam suddenly realizes Dean has been cleaning up their father's messes for a long time.
Dean snaps out of his reverie. "Whatever. Let's keep moving."
They search the house for anything taking them back to the road, and find a postcard in a junk drawer that says "Route 66." Sam says he's seen it somewhere before.
They shift into one of Sam's memories, where the postcard is joined by many other postcards on the wall. A dog come into the room and whines happily as Sam greets him -- "Bones!"
Bones is his dog, he tells Dean, who angrily realizes they're in Flagstaff, where Sam ran away to in order to escape Dean and his dad. Sam happily explains for two weeks it was just him and Bones living on Funyuns and Mr. Pibb. Dean can't believe this is a good memory for Sam, who ran away on his watch. For those two weeks, he was worried sick and searching everywhere for him. He thought he was dead.
Sam apologizes. Dean coldly brushes him off and says they have to keep moving. Sam pets Bones one last time, and the dog whines. They head out of the front door, where the road waits and it suddenly turns dark. When Sam turns around, his Flagstaff home is gone. Dean asks what memory this is. Sam claims he can't remember. Dean suddenly realizes Sam does remember -- it's the night Sam ditched them for Stanford. He can't believe this is in Sam's Heaven, since it was one of the worst nights of his life.
Dean is now enraged all of Sam's happy memories involve bailing on his family. Sam points out he never got the crusts cut off of his PB & J. "I just don't look at family the way you do," Sam says.
Dean replies he is Sam's family, they're supposed to be a team. It's supposed to be Sam and Dean against the world.
"Dean...it is," Sam says.
"Is it?" Dean says snippily, but before Sam can answer, a light shines down on them...it's Zachariah. He's found them. They run into the dark woods as the angel materializes a few feet behind them, gloating they're on his turf now and they can't possibly outrun an angel, especially one who intends to "tear them a cosmos of new ones" before sending them back to Earth. To prove his point, he turns night to day with a snap of his fingers, and waits for a moment as Dean and Sam crouch behind a log.
They try to take off, but Zachariah is right. Everywhere they run, he's right behind them, smiling coldly. Then suddenly they turn to see a figure in a cape and a Mexican wrestling mask, beckoning them to follow him. Dean and Sam run after the mysterious figure, who runs to a dilapidated shed and writes a symbol on the door before opening it. They follow him inside and suddenly disappear off of Zachariah's radar.
As it turns out, the door is a portal...to the Roadhouse, or some memory of it. The man in the mask removes his mask to reveal his identity -- it's Ash (Chad Lindberg), the Roadhouse's resident hillbilly hacker.
"Buenos dias, bitches!" Ash crows.
Ash explains this is his Heaven, the place where he ruled on Earth. He shotguns a beer and belches, then goes on to tell them there are as many Heavens as there are souls in it, to stop thinking of Heaven as one place. Everyone gets a slice, and a few people share in special cases -- soul mates. "It's more like a buttload of places crammed together. Like Disneyland, but without all the anti-Semitism." At the center of it all is the Garden, the Magic Kingdom.
Once Ash settled in, he figured out a way to open doors into other people's Heavens. He's visited Einstein, Johnny Cash, Andre the Giant. He even found the author of the Kama Sutra. "That boy's Heaven?" Ash rolls his eyes. "Sweaty, confusing."
Ash tells them now that he's dead, he's really living -- and a whole lot more. He's rigged up his own Heavenly scanner. When news came over the airwaves from the angels the boys were up, he had to come find them. Again. He tells them they've been in Heaven before -- they've died more than anyone he's ever met -- but naturally the angels wiped their memory.
Sam asks about Ellen and Jo, if he's found them. Ash is surprised to hear that they died. Ash says he's been looking for John and Mary Winchester, and can't find them.
He surprises them by saying he has someone who wants to chat with them, and heads through a door, returning with -- Pamela Barnes (Thunderbird Dinwiddie), the blinded psychic. Only now, she has her sight back. Sam sits with Ash as Dean shares a beer with Pamela. She gently slaps him for getting her killed.
"If it makes you feel any better," Dean says by way of apologizing, "we got Ash killed too."
"I'm cool with it!" Ash calls from across the room.
Pamela reminds Dean that when she was dying, he said she was going to a better place...and he was right. She says her Heaven is nothing but a nonstop party at the Meadowlands. Dean doesn't buy it, saying with angels in control, it's more like The Matrix. Pamela shrugs. She insists she's at peace. She suggests Dean should allow Michael to take him out for a test drive. After all, the worst that will happen is everyone on Earth dies and ends up in Heaven. Not so bad.
Ash cuts in -- he's found a direct road to the Garden.
Ash writes some symbols on the door and warns them the angels will be watching every road. Pamela gives Dean a deep kiss. Ash says, "Gentlemen, I don't mean to be a downer, but I'm sure I'll see you again soon." The Winchesters thank their friends and open the door, stepping into ...the Winchester's living room at night.
They're confused -- why aren't they in the garden? Mary Winchester comes in and asks Dean why he's up. Dean apologizes, saying he loves her, but he has to go. She asks if he had a nightmare. He tries again to leave. "Then, how about I tell you about my nightmare, Dean? About the night I burned?" The familiar spot of blood pools on her white nightgown.
She tells Dean she never loved him, she was shackled to him. "Look where it got me," she whispered, and her eyes flash bright yellow. Sam and Dean notice all the doors and windows are walled over with bricks. Mary continues with her story, telling in deep detail about what it was like to burn alive, the smell, the pain, that for a second she thought she left a pot roast in the over burning, but no, it was her meat. She said the one silver lining was by dying, it got her away from Dean.
"Everybody leaves you Dean," Mary coos. "Have you noticed? Mommy, Daddy, even Sam. Ever ask yourself why? Maybe it's not them. Maybe it's you."
Zachariah steps into the room and tells her to ease off, he's just getting started with his many tortures. He says he's gotten quite fond of the blessed memory of their mother, and kisses Mary on the neck as she smiles. He tells the boys he plans on logging a lot of time with her. "She's quite the MILF!"
"Gloat all you want, you dick," Dean growls. "You're still bald."
Zachariah tells them in reality he has six wings and four faces, one of which is a lion. The only reason they're seeing him this way is because they're "limited." He snaps, and Mary disappears. Zachariah walks over to Dean and starts punching him in the gut. He bellows that at one time, he had great respect, he was employee of the month, forever. Until he was assigned the Winchesters. Everybody is laughing at the fact Zachariah can't close the deal on these two. He tells them the last person in creation that they want as their enemy is him.
"And I'll tell you why," Zachariah says. "Lucifer may be strong, but I'm petty."
Before he can start in on Dean again, a soft spoken old man steps up behind Zachariah and politely excuses himself, saying he needs to speak with Sam and Dean. Zachariah tries to brush him off, but the man insists -- on the boss's orders.
"Fire me if you want, but sooner or later he's going to come back home. And you how he is with that whole wrath....thing."
Zachariah considers this for a moment, then he and his goons disappear.
Sam and Dean are suddenly whisked into Heaven's garden which, to them, appears as the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, where they went on a field trip way back when. The man introduces himself as Joshua and reveals God is on Earth, but he doesn't know where.
Dean asks why God is talking to Joshua when He's not speaking to anyone else. Joshua theorizes he thinks God knows he can sympathize, gardener to gardener. Joshua tells them he thinks He gets lonely. Sam asks Joshua if he can give God a message, and Joshua counters actually, God has a message for them...
"Back off."
Joshua says God knows everything they want to tell Him. He knows what the angels are doing and the Apocalypse has begun. He just doesn't think it's His problem. Joshua goes on to enumerate all the things God has done already: He put them on that plane. He brought back Castiel. He granted both of them Salvation, adding, as he turned to Sam, "and after everything you've done, too." It's more than He's intervened in a long time, and now He's finished. They won't be able to find Him with the amulet.
Joshua doesn't have an answer as to why He won't help.
Dean tries to put up a brave front and shrug it off. "Just another deadbeat dad with a bunch of excuses, right? Well, I'm used to that. I'll muddle through," he says.
Joshua knows the truth: Dean doesn't know if he can this time. He's losing faith, in his brother, in his ability to keep fighting, finally in God, his last hope. Sam asks how they know Joshua's telling the truth. Joshua can't believe that they think he would lie.
"I'm rooting for you boys," he says. "I wish that I could do more to help you...I do. But...I just trim the hedges."
Finally, he sends them back..."But I'm afraid this time won't be like the last. This time, God wants you to remember."
There's a flash of white, and the boys wake up in their motel bed, their clothes still bloody and full of holes from the shot. Dean immediately calls Cas.
Castiel can't believe God has abandoned them. He turns his face to the ceiling and says, angrily, "You sonofabitch. I believed in you." He slowly turns and gives Dean his amulet, telling him he doesn't need it anymore, saying it's worthless. He vanishes.
Sam insists they can still stop it all.
"How?" Dean asks.
Sam says he doesn't know, but they'll find a way together. Dean looks at him coldly, then walks to the front door of their motel room. He pauses for a moment to drop the amulet into a trash can, then exits, leaving Sam crushed.
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