Form and Void

Form and Void is the 2nd episode of Season 11. It aired on October 14th, 2015.

Summary
Dean helps Jenna (guest star Laci J. Mailey), the deputy he met after the Darkness fell, get back home safely and then sets off to help Sam deal with a town infected by a mysterious and deadly gas. However, when Jenna falls into dangerous hands, she calls Dean for help and Sam tells him to go back to her. Unfortunately for Sam, he isn’t able to handle the townspeople turned monsters as easily as he thought.

Plot
In Superior, Nebraska, Sam raids an abandoned hardware store and builds himself a taser. He uses it to capture another infected person, and he takes him back to the hospital, where he handcuffs him to a bed. He questions the man and attempts to learn more about therabid virus, to try and find a cure.

Meanwhile, Castiel, who is still suffering the effects of Rowena's attack dog spell, has been captured by the angels Efram and Jonah. They have tied him up, and are torturing him for information on Metatron's whereabouts. Castiel tries to tell them that he doesn't know where Metatron is, but the angels don't believe him. After leaving Deputy Jenna Nickerson and baby Amara at Jenna's grandmother's house, Dean heads back toward the hospital in Superior where Sam is dealing with the rabids. However, when he gets a call from Jenna about how Amara is able to make objects fly, he turns the Impala around and returns to help her.

Back at the hospital in Superior, Sam has not been having much luck - the man he had taken prisoner lies dead on the floor, having succumbed to the infection. He continues to search for a cure, when suddenly, he hears a woman's voice singing. Grabbing his gun, he goes to investigate and finds that the voice belongs to a reaper. She tells him she has a message for him - that with Death now gone, the times of Sam and Dean dying and then coming back to life are over. If one of them dies now, the reapers will toss them into what she calls the Empty, and no one comes back from there. She then adds that she knows that he is dying, and that he is unclean, in the Biblical sense. As she leaves, she reveals her name is Billie.

The angels continue to torture Castiel until Hannah arrives, who tells them "Enough!" and to get out. The others leave and Castiel and Hannah are left alone. As Sam's rabid infection worsens, he goes to the hospital's chapel to pray to God for help, and to give him a sign. Afterward, he experiences several visions of himself being tortured. Shaken, he yells out in exasperation, "What does that mean?" Dean arrives back at Jenna's and is surprised to find Crowley there, posing as a priest.

Hannah goes to unchain Castiel but he tells her to leave them on, saying that it's safer that way. Castiel asks if she can heal him and remove the curse, but she is unable to. Castiel tells her that the spell is affecting him deeper and deeper, even though he is doing his best to fight it. Hannah asks if it has anything to do with the events in Superior. He is surprised that Hannah knows about it, and she tells him that alarms have gone off - alarms that hadn't gone off in years. Castiel tells her that the alarms are for the Darkness - that the Darkness has been released. Hannah wants to know where the Darkness is, and then realizes that the Winchesters are the ones who would likely know. She demands that Castiel tell her where she can find them. He doesn't know, and starts to become suspicious about her questioning. He figures out that the whole thing was a setup, with Hannah coming in to "save" him from Efram and Jonah. The plan was that Castiel would be grateful enough that he would then tell Hannah all that the angels wanted to know. Efram and Jonah return, and when Castiel still refuses to give up the Winchesters' location, they shrug it off and tell him that it doesn't matter, because they'll just hack into his brain with torture.

Dean and Crowley go outside to talk. Dean asks if he thinks there is a demon, and Crowley replies, "Not even a little bit." Whatever is in that house is very powerful, so powerful that Crowley can feel it radiating from within. They hear a scream and run back inside to find Jenna's grandmother dead on the floor.

Efram and Jonah continue to torture Castiel until Hannah tries to stop them, unable to watch anymore. They get into a fight, and as they beat Hannah, Castiel manages to escape from the chair and kills one of the angels. Before he can get to the other one, Hannah is stabbed and killed. He and the remaining angel fight, ending with Castiel stabbing him.

Sam's condition has started to deteriorate rapidly, and as his vision blurs and he struggles to remain upright, he remembers the words Billie said - that he was Biblically unclean. As a last resort, he looks up Biblical purification, and finds that it can be done with burning holy oil. Stumbling over to the duffle bag he pulls out the holy oil and soaks a piece of gauze in it. He then lights the gauze on fire and uses tongs to hold it up to the black veins which have crawled their way up his neck. To his great relief and astonishment, they disappear and he is cured. Sam comes up with a plan to cure all of the rabids, and starts luring them into holy fire traps, curing them.

Dean and Crowley find Amara in a crib, and when Dean goes in for a closer look, he realizes that she has the Mark of Cain on her shoulder. They look for Jenna and find her in her grandmother's room. She is different, and Crowley reveals that she no longer has a soul. She attacks Dean, and they fight, until Crowley kills her. Dean tells Crowley that he thinks Amara is the Darkness, and they argue, which ends with Dean pinning Crowley to the wall by stabbing an angel blade through his hand. He goes back to where he'd left Amara, but she has disappeared, as has Crowley.

The brothers return to the Bunker where they find Castiel on the floor in a terrible state, pleading with them for help. Meanwhile, on a street somewhere, Amara, who has grown into a child, is seen walking along a sidewalk wearing a pink dress. A black van pulls up next to her. Crowley gets out, opens the sliding door to reveal a kidnapped family, and asks her if she would like some "candy". Her face breaks out into a smile.

Main Cast

 * Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester
 * Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester
 * Misha Collins as Castiel
 * Mark Sheppard as Crowley

Supporting Cast

 * Laci J. Mailey as Jenna Nickerson
 * Lee Majdoub as Hannah
 * Gracyn Shinyei as Amara
 * Lisa Berry as Billie
 * Dylan Archambault as Efram
 * Albert Nicholas as Jonah

Guest Cast

 * Christine Willes as Jenna's grandmother
 * Trevor Roberts as George

Featured Supernatural Beings

 * The Darkness
 * Rabid
 * Angels
 * Demons
 * Reapers

Trivia

 * Sam discovers that the cure to the condition of the Rabids is holy fire, that they are drawn to noise and that they are vulnerable to electric shocks.
 * It is revealed that The Darkness builds her strength up and subsequently takes on older human forms by consuming souls, human or otherwise.
 * The episode makes a clear reference to the popular supernatural comedy film Ghostbusters during the phone call between Dean and Jenna. There is also a clear reference to Scooby Doo and Gang when Dean and Crowley are sneaking through the halls of the house.
 * This episode marks the first time Sam has prayed directly to God himself for help as opposed to Castiel or other angels.
 * Crowley has an extensive network of contacts throughout the Catholic Church.
 * Reapers are now seeking vengeance against the Winchesters for the death of their master.
 * The Bunker is still in the state it was in when the Stynes broke in and attempted to burn the entire library but the bodies are gone.
 * True to form, Dean (unknowingly) helped The Darkness on her path to regaining her power.

Quotes

 * Crowley: Oh Dean. Adorable little Dean. I want that child, and I get what I want. You and Sam don't understand, I'm not your bloody sidekick! We've had some good times, so I'm gonna give you one chance. Just one to walk out that door, or I'm gonna take you apart, atom by atom. Do you understand?