Blade Runners

Blade Runners is the 16th episode of Season 9. It aired on March 18th, 2014.

Cast
Main
 * Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester
 * Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester

Summary
CROWLEY SINKS DEEPER INTO HIS ADDICTION; NICOLE “SNOOKI” POLIZZI APPEARS IN A CAMEO ROLE — Dean (Jensen Ackles) is frustrated when he can’t reach Crowley (Mark Sheppard), who has promised to find The First Blade. When Crowley finally calls Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean, he tells them he fell off the wagon and has been injecting human blood and needs their help. To make matters worse, he had a demon (guest star Rebecca Marshall) helping him find blood, but she sold him out and told Abaddon that he and the Winchesters were searching for The First Blade. The brothers need to find the blade before Abaddon does, so they enlist the help of a former member of the Men of Letters (guest star Kavan Smith).

Plot
At the Bunker, Sam is researching the Mark of Cain, while Dean is frustrated as he repeatedly calls Crowley to no avail.

Crowley is holed up in a hotel room with a sexy demon named Lola, subsisting on sex, pizza and indulging his human blood addiction. His humanity is coming to the fore and he spends his day watching romantic movies and reading sad books. Lola, however, is reporting Crowley's degeneration to Abaddon, through a minion called Aldo. She passes on that Crowley provides little opposition due to his addiction, but also that he is helping the Winchesters look for the First Blade which can kill Abaddon.

Sam and Dean summon a crossroads demon - who turns out to be reality star Snooki. She tells the boys he was last known to be in the Western Pacific, and that even his supporters are considering defecting to Abaddon.

Lola returns to Crowley, but he knows she has betrayed him and kills her. In desperation Crowley calls the Winchesters for help. They take him back to the Bunker, and lock him in the dungeon to detox from the human blood he has become addicted to. Sam keeps watch and Crowley tells Sam of what he knows of the blade's current whereabouts which has ended up on the black market. Crowley gets sentimental, reminiscing about what he refers to as the bond he and Sam shared during the final trial. Sam is unmoved and reminds Crowley he is only alive because they need him to find the blade and kill Abaddon, who is even more evil than him.

Sam, Dean and Crowley meet with the blackmarketer Andre Devlin. He refuses to give them any information, but Crowley enters him in his incorporeal form, extracts information and then smokes back to his own meat suit. Crowley informs the brothers that the Blade is at at the National Institute of Antiquities in Kansas City, Missouri.

At the Institute, two demons have taken over the guards to the vault. When Sam and Dean arrive posing as FBI agents, they see the security footage which shows the guards kill a research assistant, and then shooting each other. The curator Dr. McElroy informs the boys the vault has been empty for weeks, claiming she couldn't authenticate the blade, so she had taken it from the vault with the intent of selling it. Dr McElroy in between flirting with Dean, reveals that she sold it to a buyer she knew only as Magnus. Once the curator leaves, Sam reminds Dean that that the Men of Letters used "Magnus" as a pseudonym and wonders if one of them survived the 1958 massacre.

Back in the Bunker, with Crowley's help, Sam and Dean try to find out if any of the Men of Letters survived the massacre. They discover a man called Cuthbert Sinclair, who was the Master of Spells and responsible for all the warding spells in the Bunker. He was expelled from the Men of Letters in April, 1956 because they saw his work as reckless. Crowley reveals that back then, he had tried to track Cuthbert so that he could use him to enter the Bunker.

Crowley takes the Winchesters to a site in the woods he had tracked Sinclair to. Sam and Dean introduce themselves as Men of Letters, and a portal opens up. When they enter, they find themselves inside a grand house, and are immediately attacked by vampires, which they kill.

Cuthbert Sinclair welcomes them, explaining that his house is invisible due to a spell. He still appears a young man, also due to a spell. Sinclair reveals that he is a collector of supernatural artifacts, and creatures which he keeps in zoo. The Winchesters tell him they are hunters, grandsons of Henry Winchester. Sinclair tells them he was Henry's mentor before he was expelled.

Dean explains the threat Abaddon poses, and why they need the First Blade, also showing that he has the Mark of Cain necessary to use it. Sinclair casts a spell, sending Sam back outside. Sinclair tells Dean he wants him for his collection and points out that Dean can't leave the house as it has no normal exits. Dean goes for his knife but Sinclair melts it with a spell and then steals Dean's pistol.

Sam starts reading through Men of Letters files from the trunk of the Impala, while Crowley keep insisting that they're a team.

Sinclair ties Dean up, and makes him take hold of the First Blade. As he does so, the Mark of Cain begins to glow, and pain and intense feelings come over Dean.

In the files Sam discovers a reference to what Sinclair had proposed to do to the Bunker - making it invisible and only able to be entered with a spell. Reasoning that is what he has done here, Sam sends Crowley to collect the ingredients for the spell.

When Dean refuses to cooperate with Sinclair, he uses a spell on him that removes his will. He warns Dean that with repeated use of the spell, Dean will eventually become under his control.

Once Crowley collects the components of the spell. Sam performs the ritual. The portal opens and he and Crowley enter the fortress. Sam finds Sinclair and takes him hostage at knife point. He orders Sinclair to take him to Dean, but when they get to the room where Dean is held. Sam is shocked to see the real Sinclair standing there. The shapeshifter Sam is holding transforms to another form and attacks Sam, who kills him.

Sinclair overpowers Sam and ties him up. He takes out a knife and prepares to torture Sam in order to compel Dean to obey him. However, Crowley, who has remained undetected, frees Dean. Dean grabs the Blade and decapitates Sinclair. The murderous rage he experiences does not dissipate after the act, and Sam needs to talk Dean out of the state.

Once they exit the fortress, Dean is distraught to find Abaddon's demons have attacked the Impala and engraved a warning in Enochian to Crowley "Be Afraid - your Queen". Sam reminds Dean that they should kill Crowley now they have the Blade. Before Dean can react, Crowley uses his power to pin them to the side of the car and tells them he's aware that he is also on their kill list. He takes the First Blade and informs them that he'll hold onto it until they find Abaddon, and then disappears.

Featured Supernatural Beings

 * Demons
 * Vampires
 * Shapeshifters
 * Unicorn (skull only)

Featured Music
Heroin by The Velvet Underground & Nico

Quotes

 * Sam: [talking about the spell to enter Sinclair's house] We're going to need some things. You actually might turn out to be useful, Crowley.