Rewinding ‘Supernatural’: “Two Minutes to Midnight”

This week’s episode of Supernatural served as a part two to the last episode, resolving some of last week’s questions. Pestilence, still on the loose, is serving as a doctor in an Iowa hospital, in order to infect patients with a combination of viruses that kills within seconds and leaves contagious green vomit behind.

Meanwhile, Dean is enraged about Sam’s plan to accept the devil in order to kill him, calling it, “The stupidest idea ever.” Bobby, however, nonchalantly stays out of it, remarking, “This ain’t about me!” Just then, Dean gets a phone call from Castiel, who has been missing since his confrontation with unfriendly angels in “Point of No Return”. Castiel doesn’t know how he survived, just that he appeared from out of nowhere on a shrimp boat. Because he has lost his powers and seems to be human now, he’s in the hospital and it will be a while before he can get to them.

Sam and Dean head to Pestilence’s hospital. While Dean punches out a guard who didn’t believe his grandmother’s name is Eunice Kennedy, the demon nurse notifies Pestilence of their presence. The vanquished horsemen were his brothers, so despite Lucifer’s orders; he plans to kill the Winchesters. As he starts randomly infecting people throughout the building, Dean starts violently coughing and stumbles because of blurred vision. Sam finds Pestilence and his nurse just as Dean passes out in the doorway. As Sam starts coughing, Pestilence gloats and threatens that things are going to get worse. Dean tries to reach for his demon-killing blade, but Pestilence stops him. Castiel suddenly runs in, explaining that he “took a bus”. Castiel begins to cough, making Pestilence so fascinated that the human angel cuts off the horseman’s ring, making him powerless. After Castiel kills the attacking demonic nurse, they all head back home.

It is there that Bobby informs them that Death is going to Chicago, where he will kill millions in a terrible storm. Crowley appears, urging Bobby to tell them the big news. Apparently, Bobby “pawned” his soul in order to find Death. Dean is understandably concerned, but Sam is preoccupied with whether or not he kissed Crowley in order to seal the deal. Crowley revels in showing photographic proof before he reveals that the pharmaceutical company is behind a “grade A Croatoan virus”-filled vaccine for swine flu. Suddenly, we see Death arriving in a windy Chicago street, where he randomly kills a rude pedestrian.

Castiel, feeling useless, looks for sympathy from a grumpy Bobby, who tells him, “Quit pining for the varsity years and load the damn truck.” Crowley not only gives Dean an extremely powerful sickle that can kill almost anything, but reveals that due to his deal, Bobby can walk again. Bobby thanks him, but Crowley shuns his praise.

While driving to the vaccine factory, Castiel tells Sam that his idea of capturing the devil is interesting, but to beware of the consequences. Accepting the devil would require Sam to ingest a lot of demon blood, which nearly turned him into a monster before. Also, Michael has chosen a new vessel: Adam, which is why they haven’t seen him.

Despite the antics of a pesky demonic foreman, they are soon inside of the factory. As the demons face off against Bobby, Sam helps innocent factory workers out of the building. Castiel validates himself by shooting a demon who nearly killed Sam. Meanwhile, Crowley tries to lead Dean to Death, despite frequently disappearing and re-appearing.

Inside a pizzeria filled with dead bodies, the mystical sickle burns Dean because Death is here. Unlike the other horsemen, Death calmly invites him to sit down and eat before calling him a snarky bacteria. After going into a lengthy speech about his and God’s old age and how he’ll kill God someday, Death offers Dean a deal. He’ll give Dean his ring, if he promises to do “whatever it takes” in order to get Satan caged, even if that means killing Sam. Evidently, Death is tired of being enslaved “to a bratty child having a tantrum.”

At home, the rings make buzzing noises and magnetically stick together, which makes me think that they’ll combine into a really powerful pair of brass knuckles. Dean, however, is worried about Sam and Death, but Bobby consoles him, thinking that the plan might just work. Next week, Sam accepts Lucifer in the season finale.

Other than a few bits of tackiness, this episode was quite good. Adding to its eeriness was the fact that I watched this episode in Chicago, where it was airing during two minutes to midnight (because of baseball) and a thunderstorm hit the area. However, the question remains of how the apocalypse will be satisfyingly contained in one episode.