Season 8 Road So Far #1
Supernatural Season 8 premiered on October 3th, 2012 and concluded on May 15th, 2013. It consisted of 23 episodes beginning with the episode "We Need to Talk About Kevin" and ending with the episode "Sacrifice".
Season 8 begins with Dean escaping from Purgatory. He contacts Sam and Sam meets him at Rufus's cabin. Dean informs Sam that Cas didn't "make it" and that he saw enough. Sam informs Dean that he gave up hunting and was living a normal life. Dean also finds out that when he disappeared, Sam did not look for him. Although they had promised each other that they would not look for each other, they had always disregarded this before. It is discovered that Kevin the prophet had been trying to contact Sam for months, but because Sam had never checked the phone so he was unaware that Kevin had escaped from Crowley. Of course, this upsets Dean, as he felt that Kevin was their responsibility. They finally track down Kevin and discover that there is another tablet, a demon tablet. It tells how to shut the gates of Hell forever, so Kevin has been working on translating this. However, Crowley shows up and gets the tablet.
It is also revealed that Dean had escaped Purgatory with help for a vampire named Benny who hitched a ride with him back to civilization. Castiel also escapes from Purgatory but cannot remember how. Crowley kidnaps Kevin again and while having him translate the tablet, discovers there is another tablet called Angels. These tablets have been written by Metatron, the scribe of God. Castiel helps the boys rescue Kevin but in the process the tablet gets broken in half and they only escape with one half.
While all of this is happening, there is resentment building between the two brothers. Dean is upset that Sam did not look for him the year he was in Purgatory, and Sam is resentful because he is pulled back into hunting when he was living a relatively normal live with a woman he met and fell in love with, Amelia. Dean is also closer to Benny, and trusts him completely, while Sam is upset that Dean is associated with a Vampire. He believes that a vampire is a vampire, and that there is no chance that Benny could be an exception to the rule. It is also revealed that Castiel was rescued from heaven by angels. An angel by the name of Naomi is controlling him, but also has control of his mind so that he does not remember or know this. She is also looking for the angel tablet because if the Demon tablet can slam the gates of Hell, what can the angel tablet do? It finally reaches a point where Dean says goodbye to Benny and Sam chooses to continue with Dean instead of resuming his normal life. The relationship between the brothers finally starts to mend.
Kevin finally has luck with the translation and decyphers how to close the gates of Hell. God created a series of 3 trials and once these trials are completed, the gates will be closed. He has only translated one, which is to kill a hellhound. The boys set out to complete the first trial. Dean informs Sam that he will be the one completing the trials because he does not see a way out of the hunter's life, but he wants Sam to be be able to live a normal life. However, circumstances arise where Sam somehow is the one that completes the first trial so he decides he is going to complete all of them. Sam, Dean and Castiel track down some leads to the angel tablet and in the process, save Meg from Crowley. Dean and Castiel finally track down the tablet but Castiel refuses to give it up. He does however regain full control from Naomi's power and he disappears with the tablet. Unfortunately Meg gets killed by Crowley in the process.
The second trial is translated and it is to free an innocent soul from Hell. The boys find out that Bobby is in in hell, even though he shouldn't be and set out to free him. A rogue reaper transports Sam to Purgatory with directions on how to get to Hell and informs him to meet him in the same place in exactly 24 hours. Sam makes it into Hell and frees Bobby, but when they get back to Purgatory, the reaper is not there. He is killed by Crowley. Naomi contacts Dean, and although Dean does not trust her because of what she did to Cas, she informs him that the way to Hell is through Purgatory. Dean goes back to where they met the reaper and finds him dead. He calls Benny to ask for a huge favor. Benny can get into Purgatory by being killed. He asks Benny to do this for him and tells him to ride Sam out the same way he rode Dean out. Benny agrees. After Dean kills Benny, Benny tracks down Sam and Bobby in Purgatory and leads them to the portal. Sam does what he needs to get Bobby accross and tells Benny it is his turn. However, more vamps show up and Benny tells Sam to go back without him, that he wasn't a good fit up there anyway. Sam escapes and Bobby's soul is returned to Heaven. The second trial is completed. Crowley gets ahold of Kevin again, but is using demons to take Sam and Dean's form so that Kevin does not realize it.
The trials are taking a toll on Sam and he is experiencing numerous health problems but he convinces Dean that completing all three will get him back to normal. They track down Metatron and find that he has been holed up reading everything that humans have written. It fasinates him. Dean and Sam get upset and tell him that innocents are dying, and the Kevin is in the hands of Crowley. By this time, Kevin has figured everything else, but will not break and tell Crowley what he needs to know. Metatron ends up rescuing Kevin and the third trial is revealed, which is curing a demon. In their quest to find out how to do this, Crowley starts killing off anyone that the boys have ever saved, and says he will not stop until the boys back down. The boys agree, but it is all a trick and they trap Crowley in order to "cure" him, completing the third trial. In the meantime, Metatron has enlisted Castiel's help in completing the angel trials to shut the gates of Heaven. While Sam is working on the third trial, Naomi informs him that completing the third trial will kill Sam. After completing 2 of the 3 angel trials, Metatron informs them that he wants revenge because he was forced to flee Heaven and wants to expel all of the angels from Heaven, not close the gates. Castiel finds Metatron, and Metatron takes Castiel's grace from him, sending him back to earth, thereby completing the spell. Dean gets to Sam and tells him to stop, but Sam feels he must complete the trial. He has let down Dean too many times and does not want Dean to turn to another angel of vampire instead of him because he doesn't trust him. Dean convinces Sam that there has never been anything past or present that he would put in front of Sam. Although Sam does not think he can, he is consumed by the trials, Dean holds him and tells him to let it all go. It appears that this works but then Sam is struck down with pain. Dean carries him outside and in the sky, there appears to be thousands of falling stars. Sam asks what there are and Dean tells him that they are angels falling. This is how the season ends. We must now wait for Season 9 to see what happens.
Season 8 Road So Far #2