‘Supernatural’ Review: “A Little Slice of Kevin”

‘Supernatural’ season 8 scares up its seventh episode of the season “A Little Slice of Kevin,” as Sam and Dean find a restored Castiel (Misha Collins), while Crowley manages to get his hands on the prophet Kevin Tran and the boys attempt a daring rescue to prevent him from deciphering the tablet.

Last week’s ‘Supernatural’ episode “Southern Comfort” saw Sam, Dean, and a returning Garth (DJ Qualls) investigating a series of mysterious vengeance murders in the deep south, while Sam and Dean wrestled with the secrets they’d been keeping from one another.  So, what does the latest season 8 episode bring?  Will the Winchesters finally be able to rid the world of Crowley’s demonic scum, once and for all?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘Supernatural’ season 8 episode 7, “A Little Slice of Kevin!”

Among a group of children playing outside, a woman leads a young boy named Aaron to an outdoor restroom to clean some of the finger-paint from his face.  Once there, the woman’s demon eyes flicker,and she follows him inside!  A bright light emanates from the room, as storm clouds gather and scare off all the children, creating a tornado amidst the terrible rumbling.  When the smoke clears, the bathroom has been emptied.

Dean drives along the road, pulling a double take at a man walking along the side of the road that appears to the thought-dead Castiel.  The figure disappears once Dean stops, and he returns to his cabin at the Twin Pines (ha!) resort.  Sam brings him up to speed on the various disappearances around the country, all of which are associated with national disasters, but seemingly unrelated in their victims.  Elsewhere, Crowley tortures the angel Samandriel, looking for a list of names, while the kidnapped victims sit around a table in the next room.

Kevin Tran returns to his and his mother’s hideaway, and Kevin's mom brings him up to speed that she’d hired a witch from the internet named Delta Mandota to aid them in creating more demon-killing bombs.  Meanwhile, the Winchesters visit the home of the now un-posessed teacher, confirming demons to be the one doing the abductions.  Later, Dean sees another apparition of Castiel outside the hotel window, and remembered how in Purgatory Castiel didn’t put up much of a fight to escape back to Earth with him.

While Crowley attempts to get his captured potential prophets to read the Word of God tablet, Kevin and his mother meet with Delta Mandota, who demands to be paid up front for her help, and excuses herself to the ladies’ room.  Meanwhile in his own bathroom, Dean finds Castiel appearing before him, confirming his survival to the brothers.  Unlike Dean however, Castiel has no memory of his escape from Purgatory, and cleans himself up to the trench-coated, clean-shaven figure we all remember.  Dean vividly recalls the escape, putting Benny into his arm, fighting Leviathans, and Castiel’s half-hearted effort to hold on in the fissure back to Earth, noting that something must be wrong with Cas for him to have forgotten.

Delta returns from the bathroom, having betrayed the Trans, broken the salt lines, and allowed Crowley and his cohort access to the hide-out!  Crowley finally claims Kevin as his prize, and orders his mother killed, though the woman manages to hold her own for the moment by attacking Crowley’s demon servant with a holy water pistol!  Meanwhile at the Winchester’s hotel, Castiel recognizes Sam’s repetition of the kidnap names as the names of potential prophets, adding that only one prophet is ever active at a time.  The revelation (and discussion of Chuck!) is interrupted by a call from Ms. Tran, explaining that Crowley has her son.

In the warehouse, Kevin reluctantly agrees to translate for Crowley given no other choice, while the Winchesters meet with Mrs. Tran and extract a location form her captive demon.  During the interrogation, Dean remembers more of the Purgatory escape and demands to know why Castiel didn’t try harder, but the angel only responds that it wasn’t Dean’s duty to save everyone.

Having lost a finger to the torture, Kevin reads the tablet for Crowley, skipping past the established sections to reveal that the stone contains a farewell note from God’s archangel Metatron, which details a compendium of tablets beyond the initial two.  Meanwhile, Sam, Dean, and Castiel fight their way through the warehouse, taking out every demon they can, though Castiel’s strength seems vastly more depleted than they’d thought.  Even so, against Deans’ wishes Castiel confronts Crowley head on, flexing his angelic power as much as possible until the tablet splits in two, leaving one half in Crowley’s possession, and one in Team Winchester’s.

In the aftermath, Sam arranges for Kevin and his mother to stay under Garth’s protection, while Dean confronts Castiel one last time about his escape from Purgatory.  Castiel points out that Dean isn’t remembering it correctly, and shows him that he willingly let Dean go through the portal without him, rather than lose his grip.  Castiel never intended to escape, but rather remain in Purgatory as penance for his many sins on Earth.

While Sam, Dean and Castiel wrap up, Castiel suddenly finds himself standing in a sleek white office before the angel Naomi (Amanda Tapping).  Naomi explains that she and her followers liberated Castiel from Purgatory, and intend to put him to purpose aiding the Winchesters, though he won’t remember that he works for her now.  Back on Earth, Castiel shrugs off the momentary loss of focus, and the three move forward with their new quest.

Finally!  We know 'Supernatural' likes to do its case-of-the-week stories, but we'd been getting a little antsy without any developments with regard to Castiel, Crowley or the tablets.  We still don't have much of a clear picture of their significance, but the casual reference of Chuck should no doubt delight fans looking for a resolution to the character, while the introduction of the mysterious Naomi certainly sets in place an intriguing new side to the eighth season.  We're glad to have Castiel back as well, who seems to be taking a more active role than in seasons past, for the moment.  All in all, "A Little Slice of Kevin" proved exactly that, a tantalizing taste of more satisfying story to come.

Did you get your fill of spooky ‘Supernatural’ action?  What did you think about the episode? Join us next time for an all-new episode recap of ‘Supernatural’ thriller “Hunteri Heroici” on The CW!