Hey, Dean.
- How long you been back? - A year.
- What you been doing? - Hunting.
You've been back this whole time?
- You finally had what you wanted. - I wanted my brother alive.
You wanted a family.
You only gave it up because of the way we lived.
But you had something, were building something.
I need you to go. You're a hunter.
You know your brother's there. Things are different.
- You don't wanna be here. - Yes, I do.
Me and Ben will be here, and you come when you can.
Just come in one piece.
You think we could pull something like that off?
It's worth a shot.
- Archangels are fierce. - They're absolute.
They're heaven's most terrifying weapon.
Raphael.
Come and get me, you little bastard.
Castiel?
When the oil burns, no angel can touch...
...or pass through the flames or he dies.
Castiel, I'm warning you, do not leave me here.
I will find you.
- What are you gonna do now? Heaven? - Return to heaven.
With Michael in the cage, I'm sure it's total anarchy up there.
Oh, come on.
What the hell?
Come on, man, let's get going.
Jerry?
Ed, I think I'm bleeding.
Hey, you.
Hey. Ahem.
Don't stop on my account.
Heh.
I'm done.
Last night was a, ahem, high point, if you don't mind me saying.
Good.
All right.
Well, I see you need to start your day.
When did you say you were heading out?
You didn't. Right.
Damn, you know how to play that mystery card.
Right.
I almost forgot.
Next time, you can call me on my night off.
If you want.
Okay.
- Hey. - Hey.
- I'm eight hours out of Campbell Base. - Uh, change of plans.
I need you to meet me. I'm in PA, town called Easter.
- What are you doing in Pennsylvania? - Caught a case.
A case?
- When? It's been a day and a half. - I like to work.
Apparently.
Glad we hashed that out. Call me when you roll into town.
Who died and made you boss?
Oh, you can do better than that.
Why are you calling me?
He's dead, right? That's it.
Now, I don't wanna talk about it.
We do what we do.
We go to work, we go to the funeral.
Calm down. This has nothing to do with you and me.
You're just working yourself up. Don't call me.
Idiot.
God.
Dispatch, this is... Ugh.
- Go ahead. - Please, I need...
Please.
Ben, I know you're lying.
Because I lie professionally, that's how.
Now, tell your mom that you broke the damn thing and take it like a man.
Okay? Okay, okay.
- Wow. - What?
You, molding the minds of tomorrow.
- Who knew? - Yeah, tell me about it.
- How did it go? - With?
You and Lisa. How did she take it when you bailed?
Shockingly cool, actually.
Better for everybody.
Yeah, I suppose.
Still driving the plastic piece of crap, huh?
- What's your mileage again? - Shut up.
All right, look.
Officer Gerald Hatch, a 17-year veteran.
Found dead in the ready room three days ago.
Whoa. Somebody was over-hydrating.
Heh. Basically, yeah. Guy just liquefied.
Most of the meat, bones, dense tissues, they just turned to blood.
- Okay, I don't get it. - Nobody gets it.
No, I mean, I get that.
If the guy was a mop job, what are we doing in the morgue?
- What's left of him to look at? - Not here to look at him.
Here.
Ooh.
- Bad news. - Officer Toby Gray.
They just brought him in.
Found him dead in his patrol car at a speed trap on the outside of town.
Extreme allergic reaction.
- Boils, covered from head to toe. - On the inside too.
His airways are chock-full of them. Starting to look witch-y to you?
That was my first instinct, but I've found zero signs of hex work anywhere.
Far as I can tell, witchcraft was not involved.
Gotta be some sort of link between, uh, Skidmark and Bubblewrap here.
- No question. - Well, can I get a witness?
Yep. Uh...
"Officer Ed Colfax."
Saw Hatch go from a solid to a liquid.
- Another cop? - Hatch's partner.
Were you, uh...?
Heh, were you racing me?
No. I was kicking your ass.
Very mature.
Hello? Officer Colfax? Whoa.
Looking sharp, Kojak.
Who the hell are you?
We're the Fed, Ed, here to ask you questions about your partner's death.
Don't worry about it. It's nobody's business.
- Officer Colfax... - Don't worry about it.
Dude.
Officer Colfax?
- Hey, man, you all right? - Don't worry about it.
Right.
Look, Officer Colfax, Ed, uh...
...we think that your partner died of unnatural causes.
Did he have any enemies that you know of?
- Unh. You might say that. - Oh, yeah?
- Who's that? - They both had it coming.
Me too.
I'll be the next to go, and then it'll be over.
And God will be satisfied.
Why does God want you all dead?
Because of Christopher Birch.
Oh, damn it.
- Who's Christopher Birch? - He has no face.
Ed?
Officer, are you all right?
Who is Christopher Birch, Ed?
Ed.
Christopher Birch is a kid with no face.
And a planted gun.
Uh. You, uh...
You got a little something.
Yeah.
Damn.
My head's been itching like a dirty jock.
Ed?
Dead.
You hear that?
Sweet. Blood, boils, locusts.
Three of your more popular Egyptian plagues.
Yeah, but these guys ate their way out of a cop's melon.
I don't quite remember that in the King James.
Meanwhile, a kid named Christopher Birch...
...was shot in the head last month after a vehicle pursuit.
Hatch, Gray, and Colfax were the officers involved...
...and they filed the same police report.
"Suspect exited vehicle brandishing a firearm.
We were forced to fire."
Just a kid with no face and a planted gun.
Bunch of dicks.
So they popped the kid, planted the piece.
Maybe Colfax is right.
Maybe heaven has a hate on for bad cops.
So we're listening to the guy with the bug in his custard?
That's the, uh, theory you wanna go with?
Dean, angels gotta have something to do, right?
Now that we're post-apocalypse.
Maybe.
You should call Cass.
You're kidding, right?
Dean, I tried.
It was the first, and second and third thing I did...
...soon as I got topside.
Son of a bitch won't answer the phone.
Well, let's give it a shot.
Now I lay me down to sleep...
...I pray to Castiel to get his feathery ass down here.
You're an idiot.
- Stay positive. - Oh, I am positive.
Come on, Cass, don't be a dick.
Got ourselves a plague-like situation down here and...
Do you...?
Do you copy?
Like I said, ahem, the son of a bitch doesn't answer.
He's right behind me, isn't he?
Hello.
- Hello? - Yes.
Hello. Hello?
Uh, that is still the term?
I spend all that time trying to get through to you.
- Dean calls once and now it's hello? - Yes.
So, what, you like him better or something?
Dean and I do share a more profound bond.
I wasn't gonna mention it.
Cass, I think what he's trying to say is that he went to hell for us.
He really took one for the team, remember that?
And then he comes back without a clue...
...you can't take five minutes to give answers?
If I had any answers, I might have responded, but I don't know, Sam.
We have no idea who brought you back from the cage or why.
So it wasn't God?
No one's even seen God.
- The whole thing remains mysterious. - What does that mean?
What part of "I don't know" escapes your understanding?
Cass, look, if Sam calls, you answer.
Okay? You wing your ass down here and you tell him, "I don't know."
Just because we have some sort of a bond or whatever...
You think I came because you called.
I came because of this.
- Well, it's nice to know what matters. - It does help one to focus.
Wait, so you and the Halo Patrol aren't the cause of these killings?
No. But they were committed with one of our weapons.
There's only one thing that could have brought this into existence.
You call it the staff of Moses.
The staff?
It was used in a dominance display against the Egyptians, as I recall.
Yeah, that one made the papers.
Well, I thought the staff turned, like, a river into blood, not one dude.
The weapon isn't being used at full capacity.
I think we can rule Moses out as a suspect.
Okay, well, what is Chuck Heston's disco stick doing down here anyway?
I mean, don't you guys put away your toys?
Before the apocalypse, heaven may have been corrupt...
...but it was stable.
The staff was safely contained.
It's been chaos up there since the war ended.
In that confusion, a number of powerful weapons were stolen.
Wait, you're saying your nukes are loose?
Yeah, I'm afraid so.
But you've stumbled onto one of them.
We must find the weapon that did this.
I need your help.
That's rich, really.
Sam, Dean, my "people skills" are "rusty."
I have spent the last "year"...
...as a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent.
But believe me, you do not want that weapon down here.
Help me find it, or more people will die.
All right, okay.
Well, if the angels didn't pull the trigger, then that brings us back to motive.
- What? - Back to the case.
And now we got three dead cops.
Only thing linking them is this.
"Father of slain suspect calls for investigation."
Come on, Dad, how many times are you gonna read that thing?
You know what?
- We should just throw it away. - Go out back and play.
- Cass, a little warning next time. - How'd you get in?
Mr. Birch, settle down. Federal agents.
- But you can't just walk in here. - Quite a collection you got there, huh?
- What are you trying to...? - Look, we know the truth, all right?
Chris didn't have a gun on him when those cops shot him.
- They set him up. - Yeah.
They're all getting theirs.
And who's giving it to them, Darryl?
Darryl, did you kill Toby Gray and the others?
Me? I didn't kill anyone. Look at how they died.
You smote them with the staff of Moses.
What the hell kind of Fed are you?
We don't have time for this.
- Where is it? - Leave my dad alone.
- Is that...? - Yes.
- Shouldn't it be bigger? - Yes, it's...
- Been sawed off. - Leave him alone, it wasn't him.
Aaron, get out of here.
- What did you do to him? - He's all right, he's just sleeping.
Cass, take it easy.
Listen, we're not here to hurt you, okay?
But we need to know. Where did you get this thing?
Please don't kill my dad.
It was me. I did it.
Okay, nobody's killing anybody.
What's your name?
Aaron. Aaron Birch.
Okay, Aaron Birch, where did you get this?
- You won't believe me. - Try me.
It was an angel.
An angel?
Those liars, they killed my brother and nothing bad even happened to them.
It's not fair.
So I prayed to God every night he would punish them.
God didn't answer, but he did.
His name. Did he give you a name?
No. He just said I could have justice.
But I was gonna have to take it myself.
He gave me the stick.
He just gave it to you?
Come on.
He didn't just give it to you, did he, Aaron?
I bought it.
You bought it? Heh.
With what? What's your allowance?
What did the angel want for it?
What did you give him for it?
My soul.
You sold your soul to an angel?
- Can that even happen? - It's never happened before.
An angel's buying souls. That could explain why he cut the staff into pieces.
Why?
- More pieces, more product. - More product?
- Who is this guy? - We'll find him.
- What did you do that for? - Portability.
Cass, you realize you just kidnapped a kid.
If the angel we seek truly bought this boy's soul...
When a claim is laid on a living soul, it leaves a mark, a brand.
What, like a shirt tag at camp?
I have no idea.
But I can read the mark...
...and find the name of the angel that bought the soul.
- How? - Well, painfully, for him.
The reading will be excruciating.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.
- Dean. - He's a kid, Cass, a ki...
Sam.
- Any permanent damage? - What?
Physically, minimal.
Then by all means, stick your arm right in there.
Dean, if I get the name I can work a ritual to track the angel down.
I'm for that, but come on.
- There's gotta be another way. - There is no other way.
- You're gonna torture a kid. - I can't care about that, Dean.
I don't have the luxury.
He'll rest now.
Did you get a name? What is it?
I thought he died in the war.
What, he was a friend or something?
A good friend.
Your frat buddy is now moonlighting as a crossroads demon.
Balthazar, I wonder.
- So we can find him now, right? - Balthazar.
Thanks, Castiel, we'll make good use of the name.
And by the way, Raphael says hello.
My car.
Okay. Silver lining.
He's gone.
All right, Cass, who was that guy?
A soldier of Raphael.
He must have followed me when I answered your call.
Raphael? The archangel?
- I'm sorry, what's going on here? - I can explain later.
- Right now, we have to... - No, not later, now.
Stop, all right? There's too many angels, Cass.
I don't know who's on first, what's on second...
- What is second? - Don't start that.
It is simple, Raphael and his followers...
...they want him to rule heaven.
I and many others, the last thing we want is to let him take over.
It would be catastrophic.
You're talking civil war.
Technically, yes.
Which is why we have to find Balthazar and his weapons before Raphael does.
Whoever has the weapons wins the war.
- Help yourself. - What happens if Raphael wins?
I mean, what does he want?
To end the story the way it was written.
- The apocalypse, the one we derailed? - Yes, that one.
Raphael wants to put it back on the rails.
Why?
- I need myrrh. - Myrrh?
Frigging angels.
Why does Raphael wanna bring back all this crap?
He's a traditionalist.
Why didn't you tell us this?
I was ashamed.
I expected more from my brothers.
I'm sorry.
- Now I need your blood. - Whoa, whoa, hey. Agh!
- Why don't you use your own? - Wouldn't work, I'm not human.
Ugh.
Uh, Cass, how long does this spell take?
- Got him, let's go. - Whoa, whoa, wait, what about him?
Don't you think the police will take him home?
Huh.
I was expecting more Dr. No, less Liberace.
Cass.
You're here.
- Balthazar. - It's so good to see you.
- He told me you were floating around. - He?
I believe you two have flown together. Ha-ha-ha.
Well, you know, the old frog in the throat.
Even I know that's a bad joke.
I grieved your death.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry about that, you know.
I wanted them to think, you know, so they wouldn't come looking for me.
What is all this?
- What are you doing? - Whatever I want.
This morning I had a mAŠnage a'...
What's French for 12?
You stole the staff of Moses.
Sure, sure.
I stole a lot of things.
You were a great and honorable soldier.
We fought together.
Yes, too many times to count.
I know you. You're not some common thief.
Common? No.
Thief? Eh.
- I need your help. - I know, I've been hearing all about you.
And as far as I'm concerned, you and me, Cass, nothing's changed.
We're brothers.
- Of course I wanna help you. - Thank you.
- I need the weapons. - Don't ask that.
Why take them? Why run away?
Because I could.
What?
What? I mean, you're the one who made it possible.
The footsteps I'm following, they're yours.
What you did, stopping the big plan, the prize fight.
You did more than rebel.
You tore up the whole script and burned the pages for all of us.
It's a new era.
No rules. No destiny.
Just utter and complete freedom.
And this is what you do with it?
Hey, screw it, right? I mean, Dad's not coming back.
You might as well blow coke and jump on the bed.
You proved to me we could do anything, so I'm trying everything.
- What difference does it make? - Of course it makes a diff...
- It's civil war up there. - I know.
If we can beat Raphael, we can end this.
- Just give me the weapons. - Ha, ha.
Do you know what's funny about you?
You actually believe that you can stop the fighting.
It will never stop.
My advice, grab something valuable and fake your own death.
You've gone insane.
Your little holiday is over. Raphael knows you're alive by now.
Oh, Raphael can try me anytime.
I'm armed.
I'm sorry, Cass.
All else aside, I'm really, really happy to see you.
Even though you still have that stick up your ass.
Was that you?
Oh, that's my cue, then.
Tell, uh, Raphael to bite me.
Watch them. They're all snakes.
Hey there.
Yeah. I got one of those too.
- You think you can knife fight an angel? - Who's fighting?
Peace out, douchewad.
You're making a mistake.
Please, there is another way.
Brother, please, I don't wanna hurt you.
Why won't any of you listen?
They don't listen, Castiel, because their hearts are mine.
Somehow, I don't think God will be bringing you back this time.
Hey.
Look at my junk.
No.
Same thing happened to Lot's wife.
Iodize the poor sucker and your kitchen is stocked for life. Ha, ha.
You came back.
Well, now Raphael will have to go shopping for a new vessel.
Should give me a nice long head start on him.
- Until next time. - Next time?
No time like the present.
Holy Fire.
You hairless ape. Release me.
First, you're taking your marker off Aaron Birch's soul.
- Am I? - Sam.
Unless you like your wings extra-crispy, I'd think about it.
Castiel, I stood for you in heaven.
- Are you gonna let one of them...? - I believe the hairless ape has the floor.
Ha-ha-ha. Very well.
The boy's debt is cleared. His soul is his own.
- Why are you buying up human souls? - In this economy?
It's probably the only thing worth buying.
Do you have any idea what souls are worth?
What power they hold?
Now, release me.
Suck it, ass clown, nobody said anything...
- Cass, what the hell? - My debt to you is cleared.
Fair enough.
Cass, are you out of your mind?
Cass?
Oh, frigging angels. Come on.
Gosh, I didn't realize I had this much stuff back here.
Well, ahem, I need some space.
Kind of picked up some stuff along the way.
What the hell is that?
Oh, that's, uh, Ben's Halloween costume.
- Wendigo? - Yeah.
Accurate.
Hey, so, uh...
- Are you okay? - Me?
Yeah, I'm great.
Really? Because there's been a few times you got me wondering.
- Come again? - Well, like where were you when Cass...
...was giving the holy-Taser treatment to that kid?
I was right there.
Really? Because, honestly, I felt like I was the only one raising a card.
Right. I mean, I was with you.
But, I don't know, we needed the intel.
Yeah, I know, but we tortured that kid to get it.
I just didn't get the feeling that you even cared.
You're wrong.
I mean, I'm just trying to figure this out, because something's different with you.
- You know that. - Yeah, yeah, I know.
- Really? - Yeah, I mean...
I've been hunting nonstop for the past year.
Kind of out in the wild, you know?
So yeah, I suppose I'm a little rough around the edges.
Yeah, I get that.
But I just don't think I'm getting the whole scoop.
You went to hell, Sam.
And believe me, I know what that does to a guy.
- To you. - What?
You know what it does to you.
It tortured you, you know?
I think it still does.
But, Dean, heh, I'm okay.
So you're saying, what, that you're stronger than me?
No. I'm just saying we're different.
Monsters lately.
Is it me, or is it weird?
Vampires?
These aren't vampires, man, these...
These are douchebags.
- Explain to me what's going on. - I can't bring this crap home to you.
- Your work. - I'm talking about my life.
Anyone in town who asks aloud for the truth invokes Veritas.
She doesn't give it to you, she slams you with it.
- Why the hell am I telling you this? - Because I'm cursed.
Sam, I asked for the truth, and, uh, guess what, I'm getting it.
So like I said, I have questions for you.
- Dean, are you all right? - It's Sam, Bobby.
You got my back.
No matter what happens, I can always count on you, right, Sammy?
Yeah. Of course, Dean.