Supernatural: On the Head of a Pin

No photos yet, but here’s the official description for episode 4.16 of Supernatural, which should air on March 19th.

“On the Head of a Pin”
SOMEONE’S KILLING ANGELS — Someone found Lucifer’s sword and is using it to kill angels. Castiel (Misha Collins) and Uriel (guest star Robert Wisdom) have captured Alastair (guest star Christopher Heyerdahl) and ask Dean (Jensen Ackles) to use the torturing skills he learned in Hell to extract information from him so they can stop the murders. Sam (Jared Padalecki) is concerned Dean can’t handle the job but Dean agrees to do it. However, when Alastair reveals some shocking information, Dean’s world is shattered. Mike Rohl directed the episode written by Ben Edlund.

My thoughts which may be spoilery (or not, since I’m only guessing) are behind the cut.

First off, the title comes from the saying, “how many angels can dance (stand) on the head of a pin.” The reference is used as a metaphor for wasting time on trivial matters like the medieval theologians who spent way too much time discussing such things.

However, I’m not sure the title is meant to be taken in that context as more shocking news for Dean can hardly be counted as trivial in the world of Supernatural. Alastair tortured Ruby not long ago, perhaps he found out that Ruby has been treating Sam to demon-blood cocktails, that would surely shake Dean up and play into the variety of spoilers we’ve heard. I don’t have any first hand knowledge about that storyline, just what I’ve read around the web, so don’t hold me to it! But from what I hear, Sam’s got an intervention in his future and someone we know and love (Bobby?) is going to die. Of course, on Supernatural, dead doesn’t mean gone, so I’m not too worried about that.

What do you think Alastair will reveal that could “shatter Dean’s world?”

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Stacey

Short of saying that Sam isn’t his brother, I don’t really know what exactly could shatter Dean more….oh god that won’t happen right LOL!
Evelyne

It’s very weird because the new promo for “Death takes a holiday” show Dean torturing Alastair… So are they showing us the wrong promo?
About the shattering news? Maybe Sam is, again, hinding something major from his brother…
KaeDee

The only thing I can think of is if were something about Sam, or if it were Dean who actually turned Lilith on to breaking the seals to set Lucifer free. We know Dean was torturing souls himself for 10 years. Maybe he came across the information and relayed it to Lilith. That would surely shatter Dean’s world – that the plan for the Apocalypse was all his.
Cynthia

Evelyne,

I think the “Death Takes a Holiday” promo actually includes scenes from several upcoming episodes because they couldn’t Possibly include all of that in one ep.
Evelyne

Thanks Cynthia, you’re right. :)
I just remember reading somewhere that Dean’s gonna discover that when Castiel freed him from Hell, it allowed Lillith to breaks the seals. She couldn’t before but Dean’s exit unsealed the first one, I think… Like he needs more weight on his shoulders. :(
http://www.sfuniverse.com Ashley

Well whatever could shatter Dean’s world, it has to have something do with Sam or the Apocolypse..my moneys on Sam keeping something huge from us and his brother, but..who knows? I can’t seem to be able to predict Supernatural anymore, and I love it!
ima

Cynthia, I think someone who gonna die is Pamela. She is considered close since the boys asked for her help twice now. I still holding out hope that Sam is not drinking blood because that just ridiculous, but I’m prepared though. I don’t know I’m more concern about drinking blood than him screwing Lilith. The last sentence of the episode description is really turn off factor in my opinion. Who care what shattered Dean’s world because the guy is coming back from hell and the worst that happened to him already happened in S2. What gives?
Evelyne

I surely hope the person close to them to die is not Bobby! I will never forgive them! Me too, I’m thinking Pamela, it would be sad because she’s a very cool character but better her then Bobby, sorry. Because if Dean survives Bobby’s death, he’s really not human, a guy can take a lot but not this much…
Tavore

I think what will shattered Dean’s world is something that is something to see with Hell , what he did in it . Dean haven’t revealed all , or it something is wasn’t aware of … That’s why in the promo Cas said ‘he’s doing God works’ , meaning by torturing Alaister . Dean seemed to enjoy it in the promo
Sharon Avon

My opinion is that it probably will have little if anything to do with Sam. That’s just the vibe I’m getting. The whole demon blood thing? Whatever. I’ll take it.

Honestly, I’m gonna kick back and relax while Kripke takes us deeper into the story. He’s got the wheel, and that’s cool with me.
cryptonomicon

I think if Dean has the possibility of getting back at the demon that tortured him for 30 years and then got him to torture other people for other 10, I find it humanly impossible to take the high road and not enjoy it! Add as a bonus the intel is mighty important and you get a free pass for a – more or less – angst free conscience.
Carol Annly

Now the general consensus that the new burden Dean has to bear is that with him being pulled from Hell – it set the Apocalypse into motion. As for the death in one of the upcoming episodes, it’s Pamela.

And it does seem that Sammy has been drinking demon blood. Which seems odd because in AHBL, Azazel shows him being fed demon blood (Better that mothers’ milk) Sam rightfully took it as a violation against him. Slippery slope, brother………..
Tavore

Okay , so in saving Dean Cas allowed the breaking of the seals to begin , there is two possibilities : God didn’t know that it was going to do it , or He knew and took the risk … If He took the risk , that means Dean is really important but some angels don’t think so …
Angie

Let me see if I understand this: Sam using his powers to try to stop Lilith and save human hosts from possession is evol and bad and the Angels say he must be stopped. But enlisting an agreeable Dean into torturing a demon with specialized Hell skills and thereby killing the host is . . . fine and dandy? Yeah, that’s not hypocritical at ALL. To make it even worse, while Sam is painted as “dark” for trying to do good with something bad, Dean is going to be given pep talks from Angels about how special and worthy he is for doing bad with something bad.

I resent the hypocrisy of this and all it implies, and frankly, it makes me feel like Dean does not deserve to be pumped up by Angels. I definitely feel like Sam doesn’t deserve to be damned by them, especially considering that out of the two brothers, Dean is the one who has sold his soul to Hell. Literally. If anyone deserves an Angel watching over them at this point, it’s Sam.
raiko

what could be the bad news that Dean heard from Alistair that will ‘shatter his world’ ??? I think it’s about Sam, something to do with his demonic powers that will probably be the main key for the breaking of the 66 seals …we know for sure that Sam is getting darker and darker with the development of his new demonic powers but how far will he go from here …i like Sam with his ‘puppy dog look ‘ not the one with the ‘ dark evil eyes’.. Please Sam , don’t turn into ‘ the yellow eyes demon’ or else Dean will have to kill him like his Dad told him to …i only hope that it won’t end this way because I don’t want Sam & Dean to turn against each other ..they are brothers and they love each other … and i don’t think there will ever be any kind of evil that wll seperate them ( unless of course both brothers are under a spell )!!!!.
jenny

ok , i agree with so many of your ideas , but id like you all to consider something that i havent heard talked about yet…. ok , so in AHBL P1 and P2 sam is dead, right? but for how long, a couple days ? well what im getting at is , ok so deans soul is gone , what about sams ? hes the one with the demon blood ,where will he end up when hes dead ?demons go to hell , so if sam is half demon then whats with that? im going to takes a swing at this and say he was dead for 2-3 days. if he DID go to hell then maybe this big news is about him!! OMG!! so if you realy want toknow how long 3 days works out to do the math , i did ,you will be amazed at the final results . HAHA!! big question!!
Michael

I might be wrong but I think that alastair will reveal that he has to kill sam to prevent the 66 seals from opening, or that his father after he died became a demon and turns against Dean and Sam this might be completely wrong but its what i think is going to happen.
jenny

good ideas, and i agree with you there. those would be a great storyline if they did happen , but if they are true than would dean still want to help the angels …..i dont think so. but then with C and U’s point of view there is no use for him. and like they said , he can be replaced……
lunastars

I can imagen that Alastair reveals to Dean that he tortured a soul he/we knwo….

I think the Angels are very worried that Sam is developing his demonic skills because it could also be a weapon against them!
Michael

I heard somewhere that there is going to be a third winchester returning to the show. I wonder if its their father or mother or maybe an unknown family member.
jenny

yes , also thinking the same .i thought ( that in a totaly weird twist )that the third winchester brother could be someone dean knew from hell , and when they said that the brother was turning into something un-human , they ment that maybe he already is a demon (getting worse ).and if so, would be terrified of dean !!
dark

Deans going to learn mommy made the deal that started this whole mess. Since mommy agreed to let yellow eyes come back for her boys.
TiamatStormkeep

First off, Dark: they covered that already in S04E03. Mary DID make a deal with Azazel (Yellow Eyes) to save John Winchester’s life before they were married, and it DID lead to this whole bloody mess things are in now.

I’ve got to agree with lunastars’ comment that Dean tortured someone he knew. My cash will be on John Winchester.
Rachael

It can’t be John because he’s upstairs (or someplace better) according to Kripke and Co. This is a spoiler so read on at your own risk, but in the Space promo for this episode (it’s on youtube) Alistair says “And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in Hell.” I’m guessing Dean is the righteous man and he went to Hell and obviously shed plenty of blood. So he pretty much started the apocolypse, which I’m okay with because that leads to angst and all that good stuff.

Oh, and to Angie, Sam is using a power that A) is corrupting him and B) comes from demons. That alone makes it bad. His intentions may be good for now, but the more he uses his power and keeps toking from the mojo bong (SPOILER: Which, judging by the promo looks like it’s drinking blood from Ruby) the darker he’ll get and he’ll lose perspective.

Dean torturing Alistair is necessary because they need to get him to talk (SPOILER: because someone is killing Angel’s with Lucifer’s sword) so they don’t have time for his BS. They get Dean in there to use Ali’s torture tactics against him and there’s a slight chance he’ll open up, though it seems as if he opens up about the wrong thing. What Sam is doing isn’t necessary to save the world because he could use the knife and he wouldn’t pose a threat of becoming the next baddie, while what Dean is doing IS necessary.

That being said, other than Castiel I think most the Angels are very cold. They don’t care what happens to Dean as long as they get the info that they need. Castiel will finally put his foot down though. I think he will take Dean’s memory so he doesn’t have to live with knowing he started the apocolypse (SPOILER: we know he ends up in the hospital at the end of this episode and that he also has a lost memory the next one).
cryptonomicon

To Rachel: that is the most articulate theory I have read in a long time. Hope you nail it. In any case, it is extremely insightful, whatever happens. Let’s hope writers go that way. Thanks.
turrin

alistair will reveal to dean that he broke the first seal when he was convinced to torture people in hell allowing the other 599 seals to become fair game for lilth to unseal. This will cause Dean to question why the angels brought him back if he was the one thats sin allowed the process of breaking the seals to begin. Alistair will then tell him that the final seal is broken when a man who has feasted appon the flesh and blood of a demon appears before the final gate/seal.

Dean will then realize that this probably refers to Sam being the one who is destined to release the final seal freeing Lucifer and that the angels brought Dean back inorder to either stop Sam from feasting on Ruby’s flesh(aka fucking her) and drinking her blood to become more powerful or if given no other choice kill Sam before he can appear before the last seal.

Simply put their are two definite seals that have to be broken to free lucifer that only the Angels and higher level demons know about. The first is for a good man to spill blood in hell and the last is for a man to feast apon the flesh and blood of a demon to substain himself. Essentially it works into the arrival of the anti-christ a human who drinks the blood of demons and feasts apon their flesh is the anti christ.

After dean finds this out Castiel will erase Dean’s memory because dean isn’t ready to here what his true destiny is yet.
Carol Annly

Wow! Turrin, that’s some interesting stuff you’ve put forward. Do you have some inside information or is this very interesting conjecture on your part? Sounds plausible enough to imagine that Kripke would ‘honest and for true’ go there. Noooooo!
Ali

So… if that’s true, why wouldn’t the angels just tell Sam all of this themselves, or kill him themselves? Sam is magic, remember… he has telekinesis and stuff. Dean can’t kill him.
hermit

turrin, nice hypothesis, but some things don’t make sense to me. Why would the angels wait for Dean to break before they rescued him, thus allowing Lilith to start breaking the seals if now they are going to use him to stop Sam?

Dean is human, how is he going to stop Sam? And if the angels know Sam is the last seal, which I think they do, then why don’t they just kill Sam now, or Ruby for that matter?

Why would they need Dean to kill Sam when a monkey with a well placed bullet can kill Sam?

I would hate to think that the only reason Dean was saved from hell was to do a job any Joe off the street could have done.

I also have a hard time believing the angels needed Dean to stop Sam, when they can do it much better.

So, no offense, but the whole, Dean was saved from hell just because he’s the only one that can stop Sam would be truly anticlimatic. I hope Kripke doesn’t go there. It would make no sense to me, especially since Castiel warned Dean that they would and I really doubt Sam is so important that God is going to move heaven and earth just to save Sam. Especially since Sam has a free will, and he’s chosing the path he’s walking on his own free will.
Turrin

I don’t have any inside info this is just what i have gathered from the hints that the writers have put forward in season 2, 3, and 4. The Grim Reaper tells Dean that if he thinks the Angels brought him back for some noble reason he is mistaken this heavily implies the angels brought Dean back to stop Sam.

But Stop Sam from doing what? Dean makes the mistake in believing that the Angels want him to stop Sam from using his powers as a psychic aka exercising demons, having visions, etc…because right after the epesiode in the begining Dean sees Sam using his mind to excercise the a Demon.

However what the Angels are refering to is Dean drinking the blood of ruby and fucking her to increase his own psychic abilities to a level where he can fight off Demons like Lilth and Alistair. The Angels haven’t made a move on Sam themselves yet because for most of Season 4 he hasn’t been using Ruby’s blood anymore and just started to do so again after the events of chris angel ep.

The angels were hoping that Dean could convince Sam to stop using Ruby’s blood before they downright try to kill Sam or tell Dean he has to afterall thats why they said the only reason they haven’t done so is because Sam is usefull.

If Sam was to train and use his basic Psychic powers as well as his demon hunting skills he could become a very good hunter allied with the angels and dean. However Sam is taking the easy way out by quickly boosting his powers with the use of Demon Blood and Flesh which is a sin.

The reason why i predict Alistair will tell Dean that the final seal is a person who has feasted apon demon flesh and demon blood to substain oneself is because it fits into the idea of Sam being said to be the Anti-christ by ruby in the second epesiode they met. The appearance of the Anti Christ is also the final sign of the end of days.

If Lucifer is sealed outside of hell and this world there must be a place where he is sealed like in the case of the Demon Gate. Likely there is a final seal on the Gate that can only be removed by the Anti-Christs appearance at the Gate or Seal. Sam become the Anti-Christ by feasting on the flesh and blood of a demon.

Why did YED feed the children demon blood and why did he say he only need one. Because his end game was to prepare a child to open the final seal to release lucifer that was Yed’s job in the grand scheme of how the higher level demons work to release the seal.

So why would lilth try to kill Sam is the real question. The answer is lilth probably didn’t think Sam was the Ant-christ because of the fact that he was suppose to rise up after the events of Season 2 and become the next leader of the Demons, but he never did and instead went on slaying demons showing no sign of being the Anti-Christ so she figure she would just kill him.

Is it any suprise then that after the events of Season 3 final where sam was unharmed by her white blast that she has no longer directly gone after the boys. Its no suprise then that she had alistair tempt dean into opening the first seal and began removing the seals after the end of season 3. Because now lilth knows that Sam has the potential to open the last seal.

Its also no suprise how ruby was able to get out of hell because Lilth released her after seeing that ruby was right and Sam was capable of releasing the final seal.

Personally i think the final three epesiodes of the seris are going to be Sam vs Dean where Sam wants to open to final seal on Lucifer so that he can kill him with his powers. Remeber there was talk about cutting the head off the snake and dean said the snake has to many heads to cut off, but Sam probably will think if Lucifer is killed that will be the true head of the snake.

So Sam will continue to increase his powers to kill Lucifer and Dean will have to stop him. Probably resulting in Dean being unable to bring himself to kill Sam and Sam releasing the seal on Lucifer but failing to kill Lucifer with his powers. Then Season 5 the final season will be about Sam and Dean trying to aton for their sins by finding a way to kill Lucifer before Lucifer is able to destroy the world.

Its really the only way that i can see season 4 ending and season 5 still having the two brothers working together.
Turrin

Lets me answer some questions about my theory:

Q1:Why would the angels wait for Dean to break before they rescued him, thus allowing Lilith to start breaking the seals if now they are going to use him to stop Sam?

The reason why they didn’t resque Dean before the first seal is broken is because they probably didn’t know that Lilth planned on breaking the seals at this point. They also may have not known what the first seal was. As i theorized i don’t think Lilth thought it was possible to release the seals during this generation of children because she thought Sam had failed to become the right child to do it and she would have to wait on the next generation of Yed’s children and create her own

However at the end of the third season when Sam was uneffected by her demon blast she realized that he was the destined one and thats why she began the process of opening the seals a process the angels were as of yet unaware of

Q2:if the angels know Sam is the last seal, which I think they do, then why don’t they just kill Sam now, or Ruby for that matter?

The Angels didn’t know Sam was the last seal until after Dean released the first Seal and they did their home work on his brother. At that point Sam was already insanly strong. Remember Ruby Said that Sam’s powers have weakened because he was taking it easy with Dean. This probably means Sam was much stronger during the first epesiode of the seris then he even was during the epesiode where he exercised Samhain.

Remember that the Angels thought Samhain was insanely strong and if he was released it would be very bad yet Sam defeated him pretty easly and its implied that this is after Sam’s powers had begun to weaken. Because of this is very likely that before Dean was brought back Sam was already powerfull enough that the Angels would have been unable to kill him or suffered a huge amount of losses at the hands of him with no guarentee of success and who knows who Sam would have turned to and how powerfull he would have become to fight against Angels and Demons

Q3:Why would they need Dean to kill Sam when a monkey with a well placed bullet can kill Sam?

As i said Sam was probably alot stronger then he was shown throughout most of Season 4 until possibly the current epesiode which means even the angels would have struggled with him and as we saw there are ways for Sam and Ruby to ward away Angels. Remember the hex bag that Ruby gave them during the episode where they were hiding Anna.

The reason they need Dean is because:

A)Dean has served to weaken Sam and delay his progess(think of how powerfull Sam would be right now if Dean hadn’t come back and caused Sam to stop using Demon blood until the Chris Angel Ep)

B)Dean is able to cross the barries that the Angels can’t. Had the Angels gone after Sam ruby would have made the hex bag and they could have just continue to increase their powers until Angels weren’t a threat. In Just two epesiodes worth of time Sam went from being easily defeated by Alistair to defeating him easily and it seems like Alistair was stronger then both Castiel and Uriel.

C)Dean is Sam’s weakness no matter how dark Sam becomes or how powerfull he become in the comming eps i doubt he will be able to give his 100% when fighting Dean. Because of the fact that Dean is human and can cross through barriers the angels can’t and with the colt gun can kill anyone or anything and he can make sam Faulter he is the only one that can really have a chance of killing a Sam who has full realized or matured his powers(other then God and Lucifer)

So eventhough the Angels act all tough i seriously doubt any of them could have killed Sam by the time that they realized he could be the last seal. Sam’s potential to grow in power with the use of Ruby’s blood that he can go from being pwned by Alistair to causing him to run in fear with ease and the fact that Alistair was shown to be stronger then two of the stronger angels strongly suggest that had the Angels gone after Sam during anytime after he started using Demon Blood that Sam could have escaped them that time and then Ruby would have prepared the hex bag and simply had herself and Sam hide out practicing his Demon Powers till he had reached this level of power where the Angels aren’t that much of a threat and he could easily beat them.

The Angels probably brought Dean back to weaken Sam and hope that he stops Sam and worse comes the worse kill sam exploiting Sam’s weakness which is his brother which is why Season 3 focused so much on the fact that the brothers were each others weakness.
seraph73

Didn’t Bella steal the colt gun? or was it with Ruby last.I can’t remember!But i know there’s a reson it keeps disappearing.
ima

Way to make God is very stupid not knowing Lilith is planning to break the seal.
http://ufc.br john

Tavore you’re brazilian,right?
mike

k this is what happened..
Dean tries to torture Alastair but fails. Alastair escapes because of a leaky faucet which made a gap in the little devils trap on the ground. Alastair starts beating Dean til hes almost dead and Alastair was about to kill him until Cas jumps in and attacks Alastair. Of course Alastair is stronger than Cas and was about to send Cas back up to heaven since he couldnt kill Cas. Then Sam comes to the rescue with even more powerful evil whatever he has and squeezes Alastairs demon heart or whatever and then Alastair couldnt take it anymore so he tells Sam that the demons arent behind it.
The person responsible behind the killings was Uriel(the other Angel) and he stole Lucifers sword and was killing angels who refused to join him against God. Uriel wanted to let the Apoc. happen because he wanted to follow Lucifer who use to be an angel or whatever that defied God. Uriel was about to kill Cas( who had doubts about God) when Anna(the hot redhead) comes to the rescue and stabs Uriel. There!
mike

oh and the news that Cas reveals to Dean is that since he shed blood(did the killing) in hell, he broke the first seal, which allowed Lilith to start her seal breaking spree. The first seal was that (Alastair Stated) “The righteous man who breaks the first seal must shed anothers blood while in hell” (something like that). But Cas tells Dean that it was actually “The righteous man who starts it must end it”..