Recap of Supernatural
Season 9, Episode 9:
Holy Terror
Oh, please. I know who you really are. And it isn't Ezekiel.
Written by Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming.
Directed by Thomas J. Wright.
Airdate: December 3, 2013.
Body Count:
For this episode = 19 angels and 28 humans.
For the series so far = At least 1085 angels, 961 humans (of which 8 were witches), 135 demons, 51 vampires, 49 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 21 gods, 19 zombies, 10 hellhounds, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 djinn, 5 shapeshifters, 5 werewolves, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 4 reapers, 3 dogs, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 rugarus, 2 Thule, 2 vetalas, 1 cat, 1 crocotta, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 familiar, 1 Khan worm, 1 lamia, the Mother of All, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shojo, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 Titan, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, 1 wicked witch, and 1 wraith.
Tropes:
- A God Am I: Metatron has plans to rule the new Heaven, though he refuses to take the title of "God", preferring "X".
- Arc Words: "I did what I had to", said by Theo, Castiel, Dean, and Gadreel.
- Back for the Dead: Kevin, who has only physically appeared twice all season, returns this episode and is smote by Gadreel in order to prevent him from further translating the tablets.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Dean, Sam, and Castiel, as they're posing as FBI agents again.
- Character Development: Castiel, who used to be a Bad Liar, has shown even more improvement this episode.
- Continuity Nod: Castiel still has the fake FBI badge Dean gave him, and uses it to investigate a crime scene.
- Curb-Stomp Battle
- Dead All Along: Ezekiel is revealed to have died during the Fall and someone else has been impersonating him.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Gadreel as Ezekiel.
- Didn't Think This Through: After Metatron expels the angels from Heaven, he realizes he's bored because he is the only angel there and has no one to rule over.
- Lonely at the Top: Metatron, the last angel left in Heaven, clearly did not think about the fact he would be the only angel left in Heaven and has no-one to interact with.
- Victory Is Boring: Metatron finds the fact he's the ruler of Heaven dull, especially since he has no one to rule over after expelling all the angels from Heaven.
- Downer Ending: Gadreel kills Kevin, completely takes over Sam's body, and leaves with the tablets to join Metatron. The episode ends with Dean weeping over Kevin's death.
- Enemy Civil War: The angels are at war with each other, as they're fighting for control of Heaven.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Gadreel explains to Dean that he heard all of Dean's plan to depower him with the angel sigil and modified the design so it wouldn't work.
- He's Back!: Castiel steals Theo's Grace to become an angel again, though he still doesn't have all of his power.
- Hope Spot: Dean asks Kevin to find a spell that would allow him to communicate with Sam and tell him what's going on. It seems to work only for Gadreel to reveal it was fake and he played Sam quite convincingly.
- Hyde Plays Jekyll: After hearing about Dean's plan to power him down Gadreel pretends to be Sam long enough to get confirmation that Dean intends to drive him out of Sam's body. He then knocks Dean out and kills an unsuspecting Kevin.
- I Did What I Had to Do/Trapped in Villainy: Some of the angels don't want to be involved in the fighting, but are only doing it to survive.
- The Arc Words for at least this episode.
- Killed Off for Real: Kevin Tran.
- Literary Allusion Title: Named for Frank Miller's Holy Terror.
- Make an Example of Them: Angels who chose to be neutral were killed to prevent others from doing so.
- Manly Tears: Oh, Dean...
- Oh, Crap!: When Cas tells Dean that Ezekiel is dead and when his plan backfires.
- One-Steve Limit: Apparently the angels have no identically named individuals; after all, they may have a much smaller population than humans. When Castiel hears the message that "a number of angels died when falling from heaven, including Ezekiel," he never considers the possibility that "maybe Theo meant some other angel by the same name."
- The Reveal:
- Ezekiel's dead and the angel pretending to be him is the one who guarded the Garden of Eden from evil and was imprisoned after his failure.
- Metatron orders Gadreel to kill someone to prove his allegiance, writing the name on a slip of paper, which is revealed at the end of the episode: Kevin Tran.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Theo, after betraying Malachi to attempt to join Metatron's side in the hopes of avoiding the war, is killed by Castiel after he lets the latter escape.
- A Simple Plan: Once Kevin has drawn the sigils it should be a simple matter for Dean to talk to Sam without Ezekiel eavesdropping, except Ezekiel, who's really Gadreel, was listening when Dean spoke to Kevin, and hacks the sigils.
- Spoiler Opening: Curtis Armstrong's name appears in the opening credits.
- Status Quo Is God: The main purpose of this episode is giving Castiel his powers back and removing Kevin and "Ezekiel" from the brothers' dynamic.
- Tempting Fate: Kevin tells Dean that whenever he trusts him, he always gets screwed, but does it anyway.
- Torture Is Ineffective: Castiel and Muriel are tortured by Theo for information for Malachi, who doesn't get any information out of them. Castiel asks to be killed quickly, as he really doesn't know anything.
- Wham Episode/Mid-Season Twist: Metatron reveals his plans, Gadreel is revealed to be the one possessing Sam, Castiel becomes an angel again, and Kevin is killed off.
- Wham Line: Metatron tells Ezekiel that he knows who he really is.
