How sweet is it that Rowena made her place accessible to Sammy? They really did have a nice connection in the end, and I think she thought he would make a great witch.

But first! Let’s head on over to Castiel, who seems to be vacationing in a small town, and making friends with the locals. He is going by Clarence, and I love it when he does that!

Castiel recognizes that there might be a case in this town, and gets to work. After revealing to the sheriff that he’s with the FBI, the sheriff wants him to call his boss, because he doesn’t believe. Castiel makes a call, cut to a pile of charging cell phones, each with a different label. Dean digs through the pile, finds the ringing FBI labeled one, and answers.

Excellent call back to both Bobby’s wall of phones, and Garth’s cell phone array. Dean answers as Assistant Director Kaiser, and then orders the sheriff to let him talk to Cass. Dean chastises the angel for not returning Sam’s calls, and tells him that Chuck is back on the table. It is a very sweet scene, and lets us know that Dean still cares about their friendship, and hopefully opens up the door to a Castiel/Winchester reunion.

Castiel is much better at this hunting stuff than he used to be, and is pretty sure there is a djinn in the woods, and heads off to find it. One of the missing boy’s mother insists on accompanying Castiel, and she is a predictably concerned mom who feels like its all her fault he’s gone missing, as she told her son to stop playing fortnite, and go out for some fresh air.

They find the kid, who was injured while escaping the monster, the Sheriff turns out to be the djinn, and Castiel stabs the djinn to death with his angel blade. Apparently, you can kill a djinn by stabbing it at least six times with an angel blade. Good to know!

The sheriff shoots Castiel twice, both times he is able to heal himself, but when it’s time to heal the kid, it takes all of Castiel’s strength to get it done. The mom and kid are duly impressed, but Castiel is spent, and this is very troubling for the rest of us!

Castiel realizes that it’s time to get back in the game, and I assume him and Dean will be making up in the next episode. GOOD.

MEANWHILE

Sam is working on his laptop in the bunker kitchen, and he senses something. Dean pops into the doorway, holding an empty box of cereal, and he seems to be in a good mood, reading the dorky joke on the cereal box, and laughing heartily. Sam is irritated that while he searches for signs of Chuck, Dean is in his room eating all the cereal.

Dean adds that he’s also marathon-ing Scooby Doo, and I am all, THANK YOU FOR CALLING IT MARATHONING, DEAN, AS THAT IS THE PROPER TERM.

(I have been mad for years now that people call it bingeing. It is called marathoning, thankyouverymuch)

Cut to Sam out for a run, and he again gets the eerie feeling. He stops and looks around, and that’s when the ghost of Eileen Leahy appears! YAY!!

Sam brings her back to the bunker, and she tells the boys about how she was dragged to Hell by the hellhound that killed her, and that she high-tailed it out of Hell the second the gates flew open, and has been having one heck of a time figuring out this ghostie thing.

It is mentioned, once again, that once a soul goes to Hell, it is not allowed into Heaven, and I am starting to think this is going to be a thing later in the season.

So Sam thinks that maybe he can store Eileen in a crystal, like Rowena did with the crystal bombs, so she doesn’t go all vengeful spirit on innocents, and they head off to her apartment. When they get there, they stumble upon one dead witch who had clearly been ransacking the joint. Sam and Eileen search the place, and just as Sam is about to give up, Eileen walks through a bookcase, and finds Rowena’s secret room.

Sam finds Rowena’s journals, and when he flips though one, a piece of paper falls to the ground. Turns out, Rowena had been working on a spell to restore Momma Winchester’s body, but since Mary was already back in Heaven, if never got finished. Sam is sure he can finalize it, and restore Eileen to flesh and blood.

But before they can get back to the bunker, a couple of witches hijack their plans by planting a hex bag on the Impala, causing Sam to collapse and spit blood. He is able to sign to Eileen to call Dean before they drag him off to their hiding spot in the moving van they’ve been surveiling from.

The witches have been waiting for someone to come along who can get into Rowena’s, and are dismayed to find that she apparently left all her goodies to Sam. The dead witch on the floor is one of theirs, and not only do they want all the contents of Rowena’s apartment, they are going to use the spell Sam found to restore their witch.

Sam finally agrees to help after the youngest witch, Emily, threatens him with a voodoo doll, and as he gathers Rowena’s stuff, he commiserates with her about being the younger sibling. Just as Sam thinks he’s gotten her sympathies, she’s all NOPE, and stabs the doll, causing Sam to bend over in pain.

Dean shows up in the nick of time, with the mother witch in tow. He tells them he’s got a gun full of witch killing bullets, and then everyone fights!

The dead witche’s ghost arrives, and Eileen swings into action, giving us her first genuine smile of the episode. Ghosts fight each other, and Sam and Dean fight witches, and its all very exciting! Dean is able to set the dead witches body on fire, after shooting Emily, releasing Eileen from being choked (Ghosts can choke each other?). Sam kills the mother witch with magic??

SAM IS TOTALLY A WITCH NOW, I DON’T CARE WHAT HE SAYS.

Dean agrees, I think.

Back at the bunker, ghost Eileen enters the tub full of spell-y goodness, and real life Eileen emerges. I like how Sam not only turns his back when he says the words, but forgets that Eileen is deaf, and says her name when he hears the water splashing around.

Eileen says Sam’s name, and he turns to her, relief washing over him. She thanks him, and they hug, and while at this stage in the game I do not ship our beautiful boys with anyone, I think an Eileen/Sam pairing would be super sweet.

Eileen heads off for some sleepy time, and Sam joins Dean at the map table. Dean is frustrated, not knowing what is Chuck, and what is just them. Sam gives a simple answer, the one that the show is basically constructed around:

“All I’m saying is we’ll find a way to beat him. We will. I don’t know how yet, but we will ’cause we’re the guys who break the rules. But I can’t do it without you. I can’t. Just like I couldn’t do it today without you. I need my brother.”

OH YES.

This whole season show has been using guest actors from previous seasons, and tonight was chock full of them. Keegan Connor Tracy, who played the witch mother, was Chuck’s editor with the butt tattoo in “The Monster at the End of This Book”; Jennifer Spence, the lost kid’s mother, played the harried manager in “Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie”; Art Kitching, the djinn, played the extra Frenchy writer, Serge LaDoucheur in “The French Mistake”; and Jodelle Ferland, the put-upon youngest witch, Emily, played the murderous kid from the painting all the way back in season one’s “Provenance.”

I love love love how much this show loves it’s history.

NEXT!

Christian Kane!! Well, this should be fun.