Recap / Supernatural S 10 E 23 My Brothers Keeper

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Recap of Supernatural
Season 10, Episode 23:

My Brothers Keeper

Written by Jeremy Carver

Directed by Phil Sgriccia

As Dean's condition gets steadily worse, Sam must rely on the help of friends and enemies alike in order to cure the Mark. Meanwhile, Dean contacts Death in order to remove the Mark for good. However, unbeknownst to both brothers, a new danger is bubbling below the surface, and the destruction of the Mark may have far greater consequences then anyone could imagine.

Body Count:

For this episode: 3 humans, 1 vampire, and Death.

For the series so far = At least 1141 humans (of which 9 were witches), 1112 angels, 180 demons, 69 vampires, 51 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 22 gods, 19 zombies, 12 werewolves, 10 hellhounds, 7 shapeshifters, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 djinn, 5 reapers, 4 dogs, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 3 Khan Worms, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 rugarus, 2 Thule, 2 vetalas, 1 cat, 1 crocotta, Death, 1 deer, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 familiar, 1 lamia, the Mother of All, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 pishtaco, 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 present in this Episode:

• The Ageless: Oskar, unlike Dean with the Mark, remains a young adult but can be killed.
• Arc Welding: The Mark becomes a retroactive explanation for why Lucifer turned against God.
• Back for the Dead: Death ironically.
• Big Bad / Greater-Scope Villain: The Darkness, which is the original source of evil within creation.
• Cliffhanger: The season ends with Rowena using her rabid dog spell to set Castiel on Crowley and The Darkness having escaped its prison and rolling over Sam and Dean inside the Impala.
• Complete Immortality: It's revealed this episode that the Mark is so dangerous that not even Death (who once casually mentioned he would someday reap God) is willing to kill its host (because Death doesn't want to unleash the Darkness). The only way for the host to rid themselves of this is to either transfer the Mark to someone else, like Cain did to Dean, or destroy the Mark entirely (which if you read the rest of the tropes on this page is a very bad idea).
• The Corruption: The Mark became this as a result of serving as the sealing mechanism for The Darkness — in addition to what it's been doing to Dean and what it did to Cain, it's revealed that it was also what originally caused Lucifer to turn against God.
• Cosmic Keystone: It's revealed that the Mark is actually this since it is the "Lock and Key" used to keep The Darkness from returning to the world. Once the Mark is destroyed The Darkness wastes no time in escaping its prison.
• Despair Event Horizon: Dean crosses it after causing Rudy's death, summoning Death to kill him, and later being willing to kill Sam so that Death will in exchange lock him away somewhere.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • Instead of killing Sam, Dean drives the scythe into Death himself, who crumbles to dust.
  • Rowena successfully cast a mortal curse on Castiel despite angels being immune to most spells.
• Greater-Scope Villain: It's revealed that The Darkness was the original source of evil in the Universe, not only the primordial force of nature that controlled everything before God and his angels, but also the one responsible for turning Lucifer evil.
• Hope Spot: After the spell is used to cure Dean of the Mark it initially looks like there will be no negative consequences and the brothers can leave. However then lighting starts striking the ground, causing massive holes to appear and then black smoke begins billowing out and gathering together in a clearing...
• Kill the God: Dean does this to Death, using his own scythe to turn him into dust.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: This episode might as well be named "Nice Job Breaking It Heroes" — not only does Rowena escape with the Book of The Damned and the codex needed to decrypt it, but the spell used to destroy the Mark has released the most powerful force of evil in creation from its prison.
• Primordial Chaos: The Darkness was what existed before God and His archangels drove it back and sealed it away, allowing them to bring about Creation.
• Prison Dimension: Death says he can't kill Dean or remove the Mark, because doing either one will release the Darkness. Instead he offers to send Dean to one of these, where he won't be able to hurt anyone once the Mark inevitably takes over. His only condition is that Dean kill Sam, because he knows damn well that as long as Sam is alive, he won't rest until he finds a way to bring Dean back.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dean tells Sam that they only attract evil, which ruins the lives of people around them or gets them killed outright. Sam doesn't argue.
• Remember the New Guy?: Rudy, another hunter who has been mentioned before but never seen, and who doesn't survive the episode.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Darkness has been sealed since before the dawn of time, with the Mark of Cain serving as its "Lock and Key".
• Scenery Dissonance: The scene with the Darkness emerging from the ground, freed from its captivity, happens on an extremely sunny day, in the middle of a previously peaceful field of crops.
• Trailers Always Lie: The trailer for this episode makes it seem that the condition Death wants Dean to meet before he will cure the Mark is to take over as the new Death. In the episode, however, Death tells Dean he won't kill him or destroy the Mark because doing so would release The Darkness into the world. The condition that he wants Dean to complete instead is to kill Sam so Sam won't be able to destroy the Mark.
• Vagueness Is Coming: Rowena released "The Darkness". Whatever it is, it's definitely not good.

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