I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here

I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here is the premiere of Season 9

DEAN IS FRANTIC AFTER SAM COLLAPSES - Dean is horrified after Sam collapses and the doctor tells Dean that his brother isn't going to make it. Desperate, Dean sends out an all bulletin via prayer to every angel in the area asking them to help his brother. In return, Dean will owe that angel a favour.

Plot
 The episode began with a montage of Season 8, with glimpses of the brothers' various kills and important plot points.

Out on the road, Sam wonders how could humans explain the angels falling as a meteor shower, before Dean reveals they have a larger problem: Sam actually fell into a coma from his injuries in the trials, and they're currently inside his head. Meanwhile in the real world, Dean learns from a doctor that Sam likely won't recover, and prays to Castiel for help. When that fails, Dean invites any angel to come assist, offering his help in exchange, as we see several across the country hearing the call.

Inside Sam's head, Sam struggles to process how to fight his way out of the coma, whether to listen to his hallucination of Dean, or Bobby as the path to freedom. While the trio argues, Castiel wanders down a road in the real world, hearing the faint voice of angels before jumping out of the path of a truck. Seeing that he's human and bleeding, Castiel accepts the man's offer for a ride into town. Castiel arrives to a gas station, nearly getting into an altercation with a biker before a young female angel named Hael recognizes him.

Dean mistakes the hospital's grief counselor for an angel, before realizing that the still-in-his-trunk Crowley might be able to help Sam. Before he can open the trunk however, Dean finds himself accosted by a rogue angel who demands Castiel's location, until another wounded angel arrives to intervene. Dean manages to impale the aggressive angel in the scuffle, before the other passes out from his injuries in the fall. Dean traps the angel in holy fire until he awakens, identifies himself as Ezekiel, and swears his belief in Dean and Castiel's cause, ultimately offering to save Sam.

Castiel consoles Hael that life on Earth might not be so bad, leading Hael to propose they start by visiting the Grand Canyon she once created. Meanwhile inside Sam's head, Sam elects to listen to the Bobby side of his conscious mind, and walks through a lush forest. Bobby reminds Sam that he saved the world on multiple occasions, and should feel entitled to leave things behind once and for all. Meanwhile in reality, Ezekiel begins the healing process as Castiel finally calls Dean to check in. Castiel confirms that Ezekiel can be trusted, but Dean warns Castiel not to place his trust in any fellow angels that might want to harm him. After hanging up, Castiel is surprised by Hael knocking him out with a plank, while Dean begins angel-proofing the hospital room against impending reinforcements.

While Dean begins evacuating the hospital, Castiel awakens on the road to find Hael driving with an angel blade in her lap. Hael quickly blames him for the angels falling, expressing her intent to merge with Castiel's stronger vessel before her current body deteriorates. Meanwhile in Sam's mind, Bobby directs him to a cabin that will end his suffering, before a vision of Dean stabs Bobby, and begins attacking Sam to get him to fight back. Sam insists he has nothing left to fight for, dissipating the vision of Dean before entering the cabin to find Death waiting for him.

Dean finds himself badly beaten by the attacking angels, before a moment of inspiration allows him to draw an angel banishing sigil, regardless of where beside Heaven it might take them. Inside the hospital room, Ezekiel reveals that his healing efforts have failed to save Sam, though Dean may not like the possible last-ditch effort of Ezekiel possessing Sam's body. Dean wonders if Sam would even accept such a solution, to which Ezekiel shows Dean a vision of Sam ready to accept Death's offer. Elsewhere, Castiel buckles his seatbelt and swerves Hael's car off the road.

Ezekiel insists to Dean that his possessing Sam would heal both of them, after which he'd promise to leave the body. Acting as a bridge, Ezekiel allows the real Dean to enter Sam's mind and plead for his brother not to accept Death's offer, and Sam ultimately agrees, unaware what his “yes” means for Ezekiel. Meanwhile, Castiel awakens from the crash to find Hael's mangled body outside the car. Hael insists she can ultimately protect Castiel from the other angels who want him dead for his actions in expelling the others from heaven. Castiel refuses her help and she warns him that she would reveal his location to every angel via "angel radio", but Castiel kills her to stay quiet.

In the aftermath of all the chaos, the doctors find Ezekiel's disoriented vessel alone in the hospital room, while Sam/Ezekiel and Dean make a stealthy getaway. Ezekiel assures Dean that he can slowly heal Sam so long as Sam never finds out about the angel sharing his body, for fear of rejecting it. Ezekiel even offers to wipe Sam's memory of the entire experience for safety, to which Dean reluctantly agrees. Elsewhere, Castiel enters a laundromat and goes to clean his bloody clothes, but the sight of a vending machine leads him to borrow someone else's clothing and pay to nourish himself, leaving the trench coat behind.

Sam awakens out on the road with Dean, apparently without any memory of the day after the angels fell, and eager to get to work in fixing the mess they've made.

Characters

 * Sam Winchester
 * Dean Winchester
 * Castiel
 * Death
 * Gadreel (posing as Ezekiel)
 * Bobby Singer
 * Hael

Featured Supernatural Beings

 * Angels
 * Horsemen

Featured Music
Who Do You Love? by George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

Continuity

 * The new season picks off just a few moments after the events in Sacrifice.
 * Bobby was last seen in Taxi Driver, this is also the first season premiere to feature him since Season 7's Meet the New Boss. This is also the last appearance of his character until Season 10's Inside Man.
 * Death was last seen in Meet the New Boss.
 * Holy Oil was last used to trap an angel in The Man Who Would Be King.
 * The Angel Banishing Sigil was last used in Reading Is Fundamental.

Quotes

 * Doctor: I'm afraid that's in God's hands now.
 * Dean: You're a doctor. You're a--a medical professional. You're trying to tell me that my brother's life is in God's hands? What, is that supposed to be a comfort?
 * Doctor: I'm sorry.
 * Dean: God has nothing to do with this equation at all.
 * Doctor: I didn't mean...
 * Dean: That's not good enough!


 * Dean: Cas, are you there? Sammy's hurt. He's hurt, uh, he's hurt pretty bad. And, um... I know you think that I'm pissed at you. Okay, but I don't care that the angels fell. So whatever you did or didn't do, it doesn't matter. Okay, we'll work it out. Please, man, I need you here.


 * Dean: (when getting beaten up be an angel) Anybody ever tell you, you hit like an angel?


 * Sam: So what...I just die?
 * Bobby: Just die? All the good you've done, all the people you've saved, all the sacrifices you've made. You saved the world, son. How many people can say that? How many people can say that they have left this godforsaken hunk of dirt that much a better place? What you call dyin', I call leavin' a legacy.


 * Castiel: If you could do anything, what would it be?
 * Hael: There's a place. I built it when I was last here - many years ago. A grand canyon.
 * Castiel: The Grand Canyon.


 * Dean: I've got the King of Hell in my trunk.
 * Grief counselor: I...I'm sorry, is that a metaphor?


 * Death: Well I must admit, when I heard it was you, well I had to come myself.
 * Sam: I bet you get off on this.
 * Death: Perhaps, but not in the way you assume. I consider it to be quite the honor to be collecting the likes of Sam Winchester....I try so hard not to pass judgement at times like this - not my bag you see - but you? Well played my boy.

References to Popular Culture

 * The title "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here" is a tune from the musical Annie, and is sung when the orphan Annie arrives at the mansion of Millionaire Oliver Warbucks. The title may also refer to Sam's acceptance of death, or the opportunity for the fallen angels to explore earth and free will, or Ezekiel's possession of Sam.
 * Sam:  "and now we're gonna go to Disneyland?"
 * Refers to the chain of Disney theme parks

Trivia

 * At the end of the episode Sam says "We've got work to do." He said the same in Pilot. Dean said the same in All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two. In Of Grave Importance, the line was said by Bobby to explain his presence as a ghost.
 * This episode was shot second although it aired first.
 * Crowley is in the Impala's trunk, though he does not physically appear. The indication he is in there is when he knocks on the trunk.
 * This is the first time Death appears in an episode without eating junk food. In Two Minutes to Midnight, he ate Chicago style pizza. In Appointment In Samarra, Death ate a bacon dog. In Meet The New Boss, he ate pickle chips. Death's association with junk food is still referenced when Ezekiel as Dean mentions that he would have brought cronuts, but didn't have the time.
 * Sam's acceptance that he was going to die might be a reference to Survival Of The Fittest, where Bobby told them that if it was their time, they should pass on. The fact Bobby appeared as his desire to pass on further reinforces this.
 * While other episodes have had the Winchesters banish, trap and kill angels, this is the only one where all three are used in the same episode. It is also the first time the Angel Banishing Sigil was used since Reading Is Fundamental and the last time it has been used so far.

Possible Goofs

 * When the doctor talks to Dean, Dean is looking at an MRI of the brain and an MRI of a knee. An MRI of the brain may help determine the cause of a coma, but it is hard to understand why an MRI of the knee would be performed on a patient who is in a coma.
 * Sam has a single IV, blood pressure cuff, and a nasal cannula for oxygen. A comatose patient is typically on a ventilator and has a nasogastric tube and a foley catheter.
 * Coma also appears to be confounded with brain death with the doctor suggesting the machines will keep him alive, but Sam will technically be dead. But Sam is not attached to any machines that are keeping him alive. He is breathing on his own.