Goodbye Stranger

Goodbye Stranger is the 17th episode of Season 8. It aired on March 20th, 2013.

Summary
Castiel returns when Crowley unleashes demons in a small town in search of Lucifer's Crypt. It's not the familiar Castiel the boys know, however. This one's got heavenly orders that could prove fatal to Dean.

Plot
 Dean stalks through a warehouse before Castiel appears, brutally beating him down and stabbing him dead with an angel blade. Afterward, the room's lights flip on, and Naomi appears congratulating Castiel on his readiness and lack of hesitation, while we see that the warehouse floor is littered with hundreds of dead Deans.

 Back on Earth, Dean pours through more Men of Letters relics while Sam looks up a string of deaths in a nearby town, doing his best to conceal from his brother a blood-spurting cough. The pair resolve to head to Indiana to investigate the bizarre deaths, but Dean covertly observes the bloody tissue left in the trash can. Once the boys reach Indiana, they question a man whose wife suddenly began acting strange, digging up different sections of the town and speaking to strange people on the phone. Before they leave however, the man shows off a model of the town his dead wife had been working on, and explains that he saw her eyes turn black for a moment.

Unsure of what to do with knowledge that someone seems to be killing demons for them, Sam and Dean investigate a woman with whom the man's wife had been in contact with, who explains that they were working to recreate a map of the town prior to a flood that destroyed it. A knock at the door brings three demons, who instantly recognize the Winchesters and attack, but Castiel appears and intervenes at the last moment to save Sam. Before they can kill it, one of the demons flies into the captive woman.

Castiel explains that he had been the one behind the rash of dead bodies, telling the boys only as much as Naomi, for all her mind control, will allow him. Lying that the demons have been after a parchment that will help them decode Crowley's half of the tablet, Castiel moves to interrogate the captive woman, killing her before she can say aloud that the demons have been looking for the angel tablet in one of Lucifer's hidden crypts. On the woman's confession, Castiel zaps to a hotel hideaway where the demons have been keeping a hostage, killing all the guards before Sam and Dean finally arrive. When they open the door, the hostage is none other than Meg!

Meg explains that she'd been leading most of her captors on a wild goose chase with regard to Lucifer's crypt and the angel tablets, which Castiel (poorly) pretends to have no knowledge of. Naomi urges Castiel to kill her, but Castiel reasons they can still find a use for her. The foursome return to the earlier man's house to point out the true location of Lucifer's crypt on a model, while Sam and Dean question why Castiel would have lied to them. After Meg and Castiel catch up (and flirt), the four prepare to visit the abandoned building apparently above the true crypt.

Back at the hotel Crowley resigns to take over the operation himself, while the four arrive at the warehouse and Dean orders Sam to stay topside with Meg given his weakened condition. Dean and Castiel make their way through the warehouse, finally finding the crypt downstairs, while upstairs Meg pries out of Sam the story of his whole year with Amelia.

Downstairs, Dean surveys the artifacts of the room, while Naomi urges Castiel to either throw Dean off the trail, or kill him if need be. Dean finds the chest containing the tablet, but hesitates to give it over when Castiel claims he'll take it directly to heaven, unraveling the angel's true intentions. Castiel beats Dean bloody when he refuses to hand it over, but upon hearing Dean's pleas finally manages to wrest himself from Naomi's control, and return to his normal self, uttering the angel's name in the process. Meanwhile, Sam and Meg take on a barrage of demons upstairs, until Crowley himself finally appears.

While Sam runs to get Dean, Crowley informs Meg of the Winchester's plans to rid the Earth of demons before the pair square off. Downstairs, a newly in-control Castiel apologizes for his actions, but insists he must protect the tablet even from Dean and vanishes from sight. Sam and Dean race back upstairs just in time to see a bloodied Meg get a shot in at Crowley, before he finally stabs her dead, and the Winchesters drive off

Downstairs, Crowley meets with Naomi to debate their mutual history and offer a deal, but the angel disappears before he can make his proposal. The Winchesters meanwhile continue on the open road, Sam finally admitting that the trials have affected him physically, as Dean assures him he'll help carry the load however he can. Elsewhere, Naomi laments the loss of her agent, as we see Castiel stashing the tablet in his bag and riding a bus to parts unknown.

Characters

 * Dean Winchester
 * Sam Winchester
 * Castiel
 * Crowley
 * Meg
 * Naomi

Quotes
Castiel has just sternly offered an explanation for his absence and left the room
 * Dean: Well, he puts the 'ass' in Cas, huh?
 * Sam: He's definitely off.
 * Dean: Off? He hasn't been right since he got back from Purgatory. We still don't know how he got out of there.
 * Sam: I don't know, Dean, if he's so sketchy, then why were you praying to him?
 * Castiel: (offscreen) You know I can hear you both; I am a celestial being.


 * Sam: Wait a second. Did you just say..."angel tablet?!"
 * Meg: You know, I get why Crowley calls you "Moose" now.


 * Dean: You really think we can trust uh, "Meg-stiel?"
 * Sam: No. But what choice do we have?


 * Meg: Do you ever miss the Apocalypse?
 * Castiel: No. Why would I miss the end of times??
 * Meg: I miss its simplicity. I was bad. You were good. Life was easier. Now, it's all so messy. I'm kind of good, which sucks. And you're kind of bad... which is actually all manner of hot. We survive this... I'm gonna order some pizza and we're gonna move some furniture around. You understand?
 * Castiel: No, I--I... wait. Actually, I...
 * Dean: All right, let's roll, campers.


 * Meg: Hold on, there's one part I don't understand. You hit a dog and stopped. Why??
 * Sam: That whole story, and that's your takeaway?
 * Meg: Oh, I heard the rest. You fell in love with a unicorn. It was beautiful, then sad, then sadder. I laughed, I cried, I puked in my mouth a little. And honestly I kinda get it.
 * Sam: Really?

(Crowley appears after Sam and Meg have dispatched two demons and wields an angel blade)
 * Meg: (to Sam) Go. Save your brother...and my unicorn.


 * Dean: Listen, I may not be able to carry the burden that comes along with these trials, but I can carry you.
 * Sam: You... realize you kind of just quoted Lord of the Rings, right?
 * Dean: Come on, man, but it's the Rudy hobbit. Rudy hobbit always gets a pass. Shut up.

(Meg and Crowley see Sam and Dean exit the Crypt without Castiel and climb into the Impala) (Meg stabs Crowley through the shoulder with an angel blade causing him to kill her with his. Sam and Dean watch horrified and then speed away)
 * Meg: No Cas in the backseat. Your stone is long gone!

Featured Music

 * Goodbye Stranger by Supertramp

Continuity

 * Crowley makes reference to Sam Winchester killing his favorite Hellhound. (Trial and Error).
 * Meg and Castiel talk about their kiss in "Caged Heat".
 * Meg reminds Sam that she once possessed him. ("Born Under A Bad Sign").
 * At one point in the episode Dean finds a peculiar square box that he thinks nothing of. It is later revealed to be the key used to open Oz in the Season 9 episode Slumber Party.

Trivia

 * This is the first appearance of Meg since the season 7 finale, "Survival of the Fittest" and her final appearance on the series.
 * A reference to Family Guy can be noticed when both Sam and Dean say "Shut up, Meg".
 * Meg's comment "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" is a reference to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It references the scene that Luke Skywalker comes to rescue Princess Leah in a stormtrooper uniform.
 * At the beginning of the episode, Dean is holding the Spear of Destiny. This item appears identical to the 'Spear of Destiny' from the movie Constantine.
 * Busty Asian Beauties makes another appearance, this time as the retro version "Voluptuous Asian Lovelies"
 * Aliases "Agent Lynne" and "Agent Tandy" refer to Jeff Lynne and Richard Tandy of the Electric Light Orchestra, aka ELO.