Last time, we ended on a bit of a sour note indeed. With his plan to reset the timeline blocked off by two of his older brothers, Gabriel found himself having to work to prevent the Apocalypse itself.
...he failed. Despite some changes in the timeline everything, as Gabriel of the Prime Timeline might say, inevitably went down the same road. Sam still killed Lilith, which still released Lucifer. The Apocalypse is nigh... and the Devil is rising.
So, what happens next? Well, as of this writing, I still haven't finished Season 4, but don't worry... I'm still going to mercilessly dig into spoilers for the show I haven't yet reviewed.
This universe's version of Sympathy for the Devil begins as the ruined Church is flooded by Lucifer's angelic presence and Sam and Dean are pulled away by God as in the Prime Timeline. With his work done, Raphael retreats to Heaven while Gabriel manages to get Castiel and Anna both out of the church before Lucifer annihilates them all. Regrouping, the group learns of the prophecy through Chuck concerning the "Michael Sword", and Gabriel is able to point it out for the trap that it is. He is also able to exorcise the demon from Bobby before he can be crippled. Castiel and Anna also manage to kill Meg, so we have that particular unnecessary thread lost before it starts becoming an issue.
...yeah, we'll get into that in my reviews when the time comes. Don't worry.
At John's lock up, seemingly just the boys encounter Raphael, Dumah, and surprisingly Balthazar. Raphael gives the speech that Zachariah gave in the Prime Timeline (being that Castiel and Anna killed him to save Dean during Lucifer Rising) about Dean being Michael's vessel. When Raphael tries to get "creative", as he puts it in the Prime Timeline, Dean and Sam pull out a variety of Enochian sigils and send the three angels packing. Castiel arrives soon after to brand the boys' ribs with protection sigils.
The wrap up pretty much goes the same, though again with Bobby not being paralyzed. Dean gives the "I've got a G.E.D. and a Give 'Em Hell Attitude" speech... and tells Sam the same thing he does in the Prime Timeline - he doesn't trust him after he chose Ruby over him. Gabriel pops in and tells him to get over himself, as they have much bigger things at stake. When confronted about Dean being Michael's vessel, Gabriel admits that he knew, but that it doesn't matter provided they can kill either Michael or Raphael and thus breaking their stranglehold over the timeline.
Meanwhile, Lucifer possesses Nick as in the PT.
Castiel comes up with the hairbrained plan of hunting down God, which he and Anna go to enact using Dean's necklace. Gabriel doesn't believe it will work, instead focusing on trying to bring down either Raphael or Michael, both of whom are trying quite hard to be incognito after the incident at John's lock up. Thus, the events of Good God, Y'all! play out much as they do in the Prime Timeline, including Sam and Dean splitting up at the end.
Free to Be You and Me sees Dean reunite with Castiel and Anna, who plan to summon Raphael to find out where God is. Sam, meanwhile, gets menaced by Lucifer, who tries to convince him to let the archangel possess him. Lucifer drops the bombshell that Sam is his one true vessel, and Sam is saved just in time by Gabriel. When asked if he knew about Sam being Lucifer's vessel, Gabriel is forced to admit that he did. His attempt to reiterate that it doesn't matter if they can just get the timeline reset falls on deaf ears, Sam still not trusting himself and telling Gabriel to leave him.
In The End, Dean is sent into the terrifying future of... 2014! This time, Dumah is the one who does the job, but is rebuffed just as Zachariah is in the PT. After Dean gets saved by Castiel and Anna, who manage to fend Dumah off, he reunites with Sam.
Fallen Idols sees the boys further patch up their relationship by killing Paris Hilton... as you do.
I Believe the Children Are Our Future sees the boys tackle the Antichrist. Jesse turns Gabriel, Castiel, and Anna into a collector's set of figurines before he willingly disappears to avoid being involved in the conflict between Heaven and Hell. While Castiel wants to pursue and stop him, Gabriel decides that it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.
The Curious Case of Dean Winchester happens. Moving on.
Changing Channels... doesn't happen. Gabriel is still hell bent on going after Michael and/or Raphael and is off trying to make sure that that happens. Instead of tormenting Sam and Dean for an episode, we follow him as he tries to weave through his contacts that remain on Heaven's side, finding them dead in various locations and it's eventually revealed to us that Dumah and Balthazar are the culprits. They manage to escape, but it's clear that Gabriel has no friends upstairs to call upon.
The Real Ghostbusters happens. Moving on.
Abandon All Hope... is set up pretty much the same way, with Crowley willingly giving up the Colt to the boys and them heading to Carthage to try and kill the Devil. One of Lucifer's demons manages to trap Castiel as Meg does in the PT... but Anna is there this time to release him from it. Thus, they save the group from being taken down by the hell hounds and thus Ellen and Jo survive to fight another day. Lucifer is still not killed by the Colt, Death still rises, and Gabriel arrives in time to spirit everyone way. The episode ends on a bit of a better note, Ellen and Jo now recruited to Team Reset as well.
Sam, Interrupted and Swap Meat can pretty much go as they do in the PT. No real change there.
The Song Remains the Same doesn't happen. Anna hasn't lost her damn mind and thus Mary and John... somehow don't retain knowledge of Dean's appearance in 1973. Or, perhaps, something of the future will cause that to happen? More on that later... maybe.
My Bloody Valentine and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid go around about the same way as Gabriel, Castiel, and Anna are off trying to find a way to get to Michael and/or Raphael. They also deal a bit with Lucifer, though none of the lesser three angels are persuaded to join him.
Dark Side of the Moon plays out with Gabriel taking the lead to get Sam and Dean to navigate Heaven. Instead of trying to find Joshua, however, he wants them to find a way to open a door into paradise for him, Castiel, and Anna to enter. The boys travel through their heavens and find their way to Ash, who is only too happy to help them out as he is in the PT. Despite Raphael's continued attempts to go after them, the boys do succeed and open the door for their angels. While the angels square off, Sam and Dean are pulled away by Joshua. While he takes them to Eden, Gabriel and Raphael square off for the final time.
RAPHAEL: You're not going to succeed, Gabriel. You never learn.
GABRIEL: C'mon, Raphie. You know I don't learn. One of my quirks.
In the end, Gabriel proves to be the better swordsman and kills Raphael. When he snaps to reset the timeline... nothing happens. Michael arrives to taunt his younger brother, telling him that he - not Raphael - is blocking Gabriel's ability to reset the timeline. While Gabriel attempts to kill Michael, he quickly finds himself on the back foot and Castiel and Anna have to intercede to get him out...
...Castiel being stabbed in the chest by Michael in the process.
That's right, Castiel is dead. D-E-D, dead.
Joshua reveals to the boys what he does in the PT - God isn't interested in helping and will not be interfering any further, so they need to stop looking for him. The boys are sent back and relay this information to Gabriel and Anna, who also inform the boys of Michael's control over the timeline and Castiel's death at the first archangel's hands. With things looking more dire, Dean is clearly starting to lose hope and thus is leading us into 99 Problems.
The episode goes pretty much as broadcast. Anna retrieves the Cypress stake, her largely taking the place of Castiel in the episode on the whole, and Dean prepares to use it to kill the Whore of Babylon. Gabriel manages to arrive with the Horn of Joshua, having taken it from "a man who realized he didn't need it", and kills her before Dean can - giving some ambiguity if Dean is "a true servant of Heaven". However, the air is much the same and it seems that Dean is on a crash course to the...
Point of No Return. Dean gets locked in Bobby's panic room by Sam and Anna. When Adam is resurrected, Sam and Dean having met him the previous year in this universe's version of Jump the Shark, Gabriel goes to retrieve him. Being smart, he uses his powers to shield Adam's mind from Heaven. This has the unfortunate side effect of driving Adam... a little crazy. Dean manages to escape at some point and the host of heaven snatches him up. A showdown takes place, Sam, Gabriel, and Anna facing off against Dumah. Like he does to Zachariah in the PT, Dean turns the tables on Dumah and takes her out.
They escape, although Gabriel was hoping to put the Horn of Joshua - a Hand of God - to use on his brother and put an end to all of this. Michael is, unfortunately, smart enough to stay away and that plan is a bust. Dean insists that they'll find another way... forcing Gabriel to reveal the plan with the four rings of the Four Horseman, two of which Sam and Dean already possess.
Hammer of the Gods goes a little differently, with Gabriel once more taking on the Loki persona to try and convince the pagan gods. Instead of trying to convince them to run to the hills, however, he attempts to enlist their aid. Mercury still betrays them as in the PT, however, and Lucifer arrives to slaughter all of them. Gabriel faces off against his brother properly for the first time since the latter's fall from Heaven. As in the PT, the two squaring off results in Gabriel taking an angel blade to the chest from a tearful Lucifer.
Also, as in the PT, Gabriel doesn't actually die. Instead, his "trick" serves a purpose in making sure that both Heaven and Hell think he's out of the game... and thus, thinks that Team Reset is officially dead. It is Gabriel's hope that this will draw Michael out so they can complete their plan. For the time being, however, Sam and Dean decide to continue pursuing the rings of the Horseman in the hopes of trapping Lucifer as an alternative.
The Devil You Know has Sam get a little catharsis for Jessica's death (Sam taunting Brady by telling him he'll have the satisfaction of killing him twice for what he did, which only serves to confuse the demon) and stopping the Croatoan virus from being distributed across the world.
In Two Minutes to Midnight, Crowley is obliterated by Gabriel and Anna (we'll be getting to my problems with him when we get to him - spoiler alert, very similar to the ones with Meg) when he attempts to con Bobby's soul from him, the two angels managing to locate Death without him needing to take a soul to do so. Death does give the ring to Dean as in the PT, informing him that he'll have to let Sam jump into the Cage if it comes to it... there is no stopping it. He also is aware of the break in the timeline, telling him that they need to sort it out.
By Swan Song, the plan has been set. Sam offers himself up to Lucifer, Lucifer seemingly fully takes over, and it seems that the Apocalypse is nigh. This, however, is all according to plan. While Dean, Anna, and Bobby all despair, Gabriel hunts down Chuck and finds out about where the fight between Michael and Lucifer will take place...
...and that's where everything goes belly up and fast.
Dean tries to talk to Sam through Lucifer, but Lucifer has already worked out the plans of Team Reset and is having none of it. Anna arrives in time to use an angel molotov... on Lucifer. Michael, possessing the gibbering insane Adam (who managed to escape from Bobby's place), atomizes her for her attack on Lucifer. When Bobby attempts to fire off some shots to stop him, Michael runs him through with an angel blade and then he and Gabriel go head to head once again as they did in Heaven. Gabriel attempts to put the Horn of Joshua to use and, while he succeeds in damaging his brother, Michael ultimately destroys the weapon and beats Gabriel to a pulp.
At Gabriel's urging, Dean uses the Rings to open up Lucifer's Cage, dropping both the archangels into it. Lucifer arrives just in time to see the Cage close up with Michael and Gabriel still within it. Outraged, he rounds on Dean, only for Bobby to use an angel-banishing sigil to send him away. Dean rushes to Bobby's side just as he dies, telling Dean to run... and run Dean does, taking to the Impala and driving off.
...and that's where Part 3 will end. The Apocalypse has been stopped, but at a terrible cost. Michael and Gabriel are trapped in Lucifer's Cage, Lucifer is still in possession of Sam's body, and now Dean is all alone with the only archangel alive being the Devil himself. Team Reset managed to avert the Apocalypse, or so it seems, but the timeline persists...
...but is this world doomed? Not quite, says I. After all, with Lucifer still on the loose, this story definitely isn't over.
When we return to the Trickster Timeline, we'll see us going even more off-script as Dean now must find a way to save the day... all on his own... or does he?
Be there!
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