Supernatural S8 Ep19 – Taxi Driver

I had to calm myself before starting this review so that it wouldn’t be just a mess of key-smashing and shouting BOBBY! BENNY! KEVIN! This episode is where the plot thickens as we get ever closer to the finale. They are pulling out all the stops this season. We’re getting deeper into the tablet/trial story arc and some major shake ups happen in this episode. It’s so refreshing after some disappointing Monster of the Weeks. If they keep this up I think the season will be back on track to being one of the best of the past few years. So hold on tight, we’re going to hell! Again!

Pull yourself together, Kevin. *rimshot*

I’m not even sure where to start with this episode because it was all good–in a painful way–so let’s just start at the beginning. Kevin Tran’s decision to treat translating the demon tablet as a never-ending all-nighter study session was really taking its toll. He did not look good, and to top it all of he started hearing Crowley in his head and experiencing either nightmares or hallucinations where his limbs fell off. Not my idea of fun. But he translated the second trial, so he called in Sam and Dean. And the next trial is, drum roll please: rescue an innocent soul from hell and deliver it unto heaven. Well, how hard could that be?

Sam, don’t leave the door to hell open. You’re letting the heat out!

Sam and Dean, via torturing a crossroads demon, found out that a rogue reaper could smuggle them into hell. So Sam hired one to bring him across. The only problem was that the reaper didn’t bring him directly to hell, he brought him to purgatory, so now Sam and Dean have both been to purgatory. Purgatory is hell-adjacent, as the reaper said, so it has a backdoor into hell, but Sam had to find it for himself. As for the reaper, he went back to earth to wait, but got killed by Crowley for letting Sam in. So now Sam had no way back and he didn’t even realize it. But he was on a mission to save a soul from hell and that soul was? Bobby!

This is Bobby’s face after being told he’s going to heaven. Really.

Bobby was sent to hell by Crowley when he should have gone to heaven, so we get to see Bobby again after almost an entire season without. I was so afraid that it wouldn’t really be Bobby or that he would be so messed up from his time in hell, but he was fine and he was real. And he was looking forward to going back to earth and helping fight the good fight again, so much so that Sam regretfully told him that to complete the trial Bobby had to go to heaven. Never has there been such disappointment at hearing that someone was going to heaven. Bobby told Sam that he wasn’t the retiring type and they better start looking for a way to spring him from heaven. Dare I dream, they might actually bring Bobby back for good? One of my least favorite things from season seven could be undone? It sounds too good to be true, but the goodbye from Bobby in this episode did not feel as final as the last one. Could we see him again, or is this just a tease? It felt so good to have him back and saying “Balls!” again. Don’t toy with my emotions, Supernatural! I’ve been burned before.

Kevin Tran: Trapped in the Closet

Meanwhile, with the rogue reaper dead, how were Sam and Bobby going to get out of purgatory to complete the trial? Naomi dropped by Garth’s boat where Kevin and Dean were staying (and Dean was trying to get Kevin to take better care of himself and stop being so paranoid–Kevin was staying in a freaking closet because he felt it was safer. Now, I could make a comment about coming out of the closet…). She introduced herself to Dean and told lies about her involvement with Cas trying to kill Dean, but she did offer a bit of help. She told him that the reaper had brought Sam to purgatory rather than straight to hell. Dean, completely freaked out–purgatory was his thing–went to go hunt down the reaper only to find the reaper murdered. Now what? Well, he knew one way into purgatory. He called Benny.