Stranger in a Strange Land

Stranger in a Strange Land is the season premiere of Season 14. It aired on October 11, 2018.

Summary
Sam enlists everyone’s help in trying to track down Dean, who can literally be anywhere. Meanwhile, Castiel may be in over his head after meeting up with an unreliable source. After being drained of his grace in season 13, Jack is adjusting to life as a human, learning new skills and figuring out how he fits in to this world of hunters.

Plot
Three weeks after Michael took over Dean, the archangel visits Jamil Hamed, a Muslim man praying to Allah. After revealing himself he asks him the same question he has been asking leaders, holy men, and murderers all over the world; what does he want. The man says he wants peace and love but Michael accuses him of lying saying if he had wanted peace he would not have abandoned his friends to die in Syria and if he wanted love he would not have cheated on his wife. He blasts the man back and states he finds humanity not worth saving and leaves.

Sam returns to the bunker where Mary, Maggie, and the other Apocalypse World hunters are taking on cases and looking for Michael with Sam their appointed leader. Ketch is in London and Castiel is in Detroit looking for leads to find Michael and Dean though so far all efforts have been unsuccessful. Jack is training with Bobby and struggling to learn to fight and cope without his powers though Bobby assures him it takes time to learn.

Castiel meets with Kipling, a demon, demanding any information Hell has on where Dean and Michael are. After mocking Castiel and being unfazed by the angel's threats, Kipling reveals all the other patrons are disguised demons who attack and subdue Castiel.

Anael still posing as Faith Healer Sister Jo, is confronted by Michael who asks her the same question he's been asking; what does she want. Anael though perturbed by Michael's appearance and confused as to why Dean would say yes, answers that she wants various expensive trinkets. Michael accuses her of lying and tells her he knows she wants love and family calling it very human and disappointing. He reveals he knows that the number of angels in this world is extremely low and he had considered helping but believes they are not worth saving either.

In the bunker, Mary tells Sam that someone has woken up - revealed to be Nick, Lucifer's old vessel. He is alive and dealing with the aftermath of hosting Lucifer.

Sam then gets a call from Kipling on Castiel's phone demanding that he come alone. Kipling tells Castiel that someone asked him what he wanted and when asked he had no idea. When he took time to think about it, he decided he wanted everything.

Maggie, Mary, Bobby and Jack go to confront Kipling with Sam handing the demon killing knife to Mary. He goes in alone but Kipling knows he came with others revealing Maggie and Jack. Kipling offers to make a deal; he wants Sam's blessing to be the new King of Hell believing he needs the Winchester's support to be successful. With Crowley and Asmodeus dead, Hell is in turmoil. Sam rejects this offer and Mary and Bobby enter firing demon killing bullets.

Sam fights Kipling with Mary tossing him the demon killing knife, whilst Mary and Bobby fight the other demons. One demon manages to knock Bobby down which prompts Jack to step in and fight, though he is quickly knocked down as well. Mary gives Maggie an angel blade to fight with which she uses to kill a demon and Sam finally manages to kill Kipling. He shouts for the fight to stop and states that there will be no new King of Hell. The other demons smoke out of their bodies.

Back in the bunker, Sam tells Castiel that Ketch's trip to London to find the device that cast Lucifer out of the President to use on Michael has been unsuccessful as well. Castiel apologises to Sam for meeting with the demons but Sam admits it was a good idea and that if it meant finding Dean he would do anything. Castiel then goes to Jack who lets out his frustrations about not having his powers anymore and that he's useless and has nothing. Castiel tells him he has his family and that his grace should hopefully restore itself in time.

Sam gets a call from Anael who says that they have big problems. Michael meanwhile seems to have finally found someone to answer his question truly honestly and a species that seems worth saving - vampires - and states that they should work well together.

Main Cast

 * Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester
 * Jensen Ackles as Alternate Michael
 * Alexander Calvert as Jack
 * Misha Collins as Castiel

Special Guest Stars

 * Jim Beaver as Alternate Bobby Singer

Guest Stars

 * Mark Pellegrino as Nick
 * Samantha Smith as Mary Winchester
 * Danneel Harris-Ackles as Anael
 * Katherine Evans as Maggie
 * Shafin Karim as Jamil Hamed

Co-Stars

 * Dean Armstrong as Kipling
 * Patrick Sparling as Demon
 * Dumisile Owane as Woman

Featured Supernatural Beings

 * Angel
 * Archangel
 * Crossroad Demon
 * Demon
 * Nephilim
 * Primordial Entity
 * Prince of Hell
 * Rawhead
 * Seraph
 * Vampires

Continuity

 * The episode picks up three weeks after the events of the Season 13 finale Let the Good Times Roll.
 * Anael previously appeared in the Season 13 episode Bring 'em Back Alive.
 * Nick previously appeared in the Season 5 episode Sympathy for the Devil.
 * He made an appearance as Lucifer's unconscious vessel in the Season 12 episode Family Feud and in the Season 13 episode Let the Good Times Roll.
 * Demons were previously featured in the Season 13 episode Bring 'em Back Alive.
 * A vampire was previously featured in the Season 13 episode Breakdown.
 * The Apocalypse World version of vampires were previously featured in the Season 13 episode Beat the Devil.
 * A rawhead was previously featured in the Season 1 episode Faith.
 * The demon-killing knife was previously featured in the Season 13 episode The Scorpion and The Frog.
 * Demon smoke was previously featured in the Season 13 episode Bring 'em Back Alive.

Trivia

 * The episode was watched by 1.49 million viewers and got a 0.5 rating.
 * This is the least watched season premiere of the series.
 * This is the third season premiere to hit the below 2 million viewer count with Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire (Season 11; 1.94) and We Need To Talk About Kevin (Season 8; 1.85) being the first two.
 * This episode marks Castiel's 10th year anniversary on Supernatural.
 * The title of the episode is a reference to the 1961 science fiction novel of American author Robert A. Heinlein about Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth.
 * It also might a reference to Alternate Michael's status, as a visitor (stranger) from the Apocalypse World, who is in the main universe, which at least for him is a strange land.
 * This is the first season premiere since Keep Calm and Carry On in Season 12 to feature a regular demon.
 * This is the first season premiere to have a character from the Apocalypse World on the Main Universe.
 * This is the first season premiere where all main characters are present and alive since Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire in Season 11.
 * This is the third episode to have a character from the Apocalypse World on the Main Universe with Exodus and Let the Good Times Roll in Season 13 being the first two.
 * This is the fourth season premiere to feature an Archangel with Sympathy for the Devil in Season 5, Meet the New Boss in Season 7 and Lost & Found in Season 13 being the first three.
 * This is the first season premiere to feature an Archangel that's not Lucifer.
 * This is the fourth season premiere to feature Mary Winchester with Pilot in Season 1, Keep Calm and Carry On in Season 12 and Lost & Found in Season 13 being the first three.
 * This is the eighth season premiere to feature a version of Bobby Singer with In My Time of Dying (Season 2), The Magnificent Seven (Season 3), Lazarus Rising (Season 4), Sympathy for the Devil (Season 5), Exile on Main Street (Season 6), Meet the New Boss (Season 7) and I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here (Season 9) being the first seven.
 * Mark Pellegrino plays Nick, Lucifer's vessel, for the first time since Season 5. However, as it is now known that he was resurrected by Crowley to house Lucifer, he made unconscious cameos in Season 12's Family Feud and Season 13's Let the Good Times Roll when Crowley reinserted Lucifer into his body and after Lucifer's death respectively.
 * This is the first episode of the series to feature the "true form" of an Archangel or any angel.
 * Alternate Michael is the first celestial being to show his true form on the series.
 * It is revealed that Jack's powers are not truly gone and will return as his grace slowly recharges. However, Jack is still currently completely powerless.
 * This is the first ever episode to not feature Dean Winchester.
 * Lucifer's vessel Nick is revealed to still be alive, confirming that Crowley did in fact resurrect Nick to be Lucifer's vessel and didn't just restore his body. Sam speculates that the reason he survived is that the archangel blade is designed to kill the archangel within and not the vessel though Nick has a slowly healing wound where Dean fatally stabbed Lucifer. This is different than an angel blade which kills both the angel and the vessel no matter what.
 * During the premier of the episode, a small portion of the scene with Sam asking Nick about Michael is intercut with a trailer for the movie Halloween. This intercut trailer occurred before the episode actually showed Nick alive.
 * As of this episode, the position of Ruler of Hell is forcibly abolished by Sam following the death of Kipling, the most recent demon to want the position. According to Kipling, the recent deaths of Crowley, Asmodeus and though he doesn't mention him, Lucifer, have left Hell without a leader for the first time in a very long time.
 * The demon Kipling reveals that when he was human he served with Genghis Khan and "burned half the world" while in his service.
 * Michael's choosing the vampires to be a species worth saving is very ironic, as Dean loathes vampires and is an expert in hunting them.