‘Supernatural’ Review: “The Born-Again Identity”

'Supernatural’ season 7 scares up its seventeenth episode of the season, as Sam finally breaks down from the visions of Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) in his head, and Dean seeks the help of a mysterious healer with a very familiar face, as Demons converge on both their positions.

Last week’s ‘Supernatural’ “Out With the Old” saw Sam and Dean investigating a number of cursed objects that led to a clash with a pair of Leviathans looking to buy up real estate in the town,  so what will the latest episode bring?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘Supernatural’ “The Born-Again Identity!”

Sam Winchester runs along a railroad track, clearly losing his mind, when a junkie offers to knock him out to escape Lucifer’s constant tormenting.  The pills only work for a short time, and Lucifer continues tormenting him that the longest a human survived without sleep was 11 days, before Sam accidentally runs into the path of a speeding car!  Talk about a moose in headlights.

Dean finds his brother in the hospital confined under psychiatric hold, and assures him they’ll find a way to get Sam better, in spite of the seeming impossibility of it.  Sam continues stewing in the ward, having hallucinations of Lucifer and maggots in his food, while a young girl seems fixated on him, as Dean makes calls to everyone he knows in search of a healer.  Finally, (after a book eerily seems to move itself, but more on that later) Dean finds a card the points him in the direction of an “Emmanuel,” who by all accounts seems to be a genuine healer with no Supernatural evil about him.  But there's always a catch...

Sam slowly makes friends with the young girl stalking him, as Dean arrives at Emmanuel’s house to find his wife held captive by demons in search of capturing Emmanuel for Crowley.  Dean swiftly takes them down with his knife, before Emmanuel himself arrives back at home, looking suspiciously like...supposedly-dead Castiel!  While “Emmanuel” has no memory of Dean or even that demons exist, they untie his wife Daphne, who supposedly found him by a river naked with no memory.  Meanwhile, Lucifer continues tormenting Sam to stay awake, asking an orderly for information on Marin, the girl fixated on him.

Emmanuel agrees to help Dean and the two set out on the road, while Sam meets Marin and tacitly share the mutual stories that landed them in the psych ward.  Not wanting to clue Emmanuel in on his past as Castiel, Dean lays out Sam’s condition without explaining to Emmanuel that he was the one responsible for destroying the “wall” in Sam’s head in the first place, and that he has a hard time forgiving “Cas.”  Dean goes for a pit stop at a local gas station, when several more demons confront him.  He takes them out before fellow demon Meg appears, wanting to form a temporary alliance, as she doesn’t want Crowley to have Castiel either.  Emmanuel immediately recognizes her as a demon as well, but accepts her presence on Dean’s urging.  Plus, she's cute!

At the hospital, Sam learns that Marin isn’t actually crazy, but rather being haunted by the vengeful spirit of her brother, and realizes he can perform the simple exorcism.  Though Lucifer and the spirit attempt to intervene, Sam and Marin manage to banish her brother’s ghost.  The orderlies then grab Sam and his sleeplessness condition worsens, to which the doctor informs him they need to talk about a surgical solution.

Emmanuel senses an awkwardness in the car between him, Dean and Meg, but before long they arrive at Sam’s hospital, which is guarded by demons on the outside.  Dean doesn’t want to risk jogging Emmanuel’s memory of who he is, but Meg insists that the Castiel inside of him could easily dispatch the demons.  Emmanuel reasons out on his own that he’s the Castiel Dean has been talking about, and though he doesn’t remember how to smite demons, Dean assures him it’ll come back.  Emmanuel relatively easily burns the demon out of all those guarding the hospital, in the process recovering his memories as Castiel.  He seethes to Dean that he shouldn’t be alive, and that Dan should have told him the truth.  Dean assures him that he did the best he could in a bad situation, and gives back the trenchcoat he’d been keeping in his trunk.  Just...a little bloodier

One of the hospital orderlies reveals himself to Sam as a demon, and puts him through violent electroshock therapy, before Castiel appears to smite him.  Despite his best efforts however, Castiel seems unable to remove Lucifer from Sam’s visions.  With no way to repair the damage, Cas does something drastic by absorbing Lucifer into himself, now experiencing the visions instead of Sam.  With Sam now cured, the brothers reluctantly leave Castiel in the psych ward, and demon Meg gets herself a job at the hospital to watch over the fallen angel.

All that time, just to re-abandon Misha Collins to the psych ward!  Bummer!  And where are the Leviathans in all this?  Could 'Supernatural possibly be biting off more than it can chew?  And for the record, whats the deal with objects mysteriously moving themselves around Dean all the time?  We'll find out before the end of the season!

Did you get your fill of ‘Supernatural’ action?  What did you think about the episode? Join us next week for an all-new episode recap of ‘Supernatural’ drunk killing-fest “Party On, Garth” on The CW!