| “ | I don't care what the witch calls it. It's not a door or a gate. What is it? It's a tear. God stamped his foot and... Hell ripped open. |
” |
The Rupture to Hell is a tear created by God leading from Earth to Hell itself.
History[]
After the Winchesters refuse to kill Jack Kline and defy him, God decides to end the world by opening every door in Hell and unleashing all of the souls upon the Earth. To this end, God creates the rupture in a cemetery in Harlan, Kansas from which souls and demons begin emerging. Though the Winchesters, Castiel, Belphegor and Rowena MacLeod succeed in containing the first souls to escape, more emerge from the rupture shortly thereafter.
Following a failed attempt by Rowena to use Rafforza l'incantesimo to strengthen the barrier around the town, Belphegor examines the rupture and determines that it is not a portal or a gateway but a tear in the Earth itself. As a result, the group begins formulating a plan around this to send the souls and demons back to Hell and seal the rupture. As the rupture itself is a wound essentially, Rowena suggests using the healing spell Sanetur Acre Vulnus to in effect heal the wound and close the rupture while Belphegor and Castiel travel to Hell to use Lilith's Crook to draw the souls and demons back in. Castiel and Belphegor are able to enter Hell by jumping into the rupture and traveling to the bottom.
After Belphegor begins blowing the Crook, which takes the form of a horn, the souls and demons begin to get sucked back through the rupture and Rowena and Sam cast the spell. Once the incantation is complete, Dean throws a hex bag into the rupture, causing it to immediately begin to seal itself. However, Castiel is forced to kill Belphegor after learning that the demon is planning to use the souls to get power for himself, inadvertently destroying the Crook in the process and stopping the flow of souls back into Hell.
The Rupture is sealed
Instead, Rowena performs a spell from the Book of the Damned to draw all of the souls inside of herself, one that requires the sacrifice of her life. After a final goodbye to the Winchesters and Castiel, who was able to climb back out of Hell, Rowena throws herself into Hell through the rupture, sacrificing herself to return all of the souls to Hell. The rupture seals itself completely moments later.
When the Winchesters and Castiel travel to Hell in search of the archangel Michael, they discover that Rowena is now the Queen of Hell. Rowena explains that following her sacrifice to send all of the souls and demons of Hell back through the rupture, she was able to take control of Hell as a damned soul.
Appearances[]
- Season 14
- Season 15
- Back and to the Future (effects)
- Raising Hell (effects)
- The Rupture
- Our Father, Who Aren't in Heaven (mentioned only)
Trivia[]
- According to Rowena, she could've used any number of spells to seal the rupture, though she appeared to choose the Sanetur Acre Vulnus healing spell due to the rupture's nature as a tear instead of a doorway.
- In Back and to the Future, Belphegor briefly refers to the rupture as a Hellmouth. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a Hellmouth is place in which dimensional barriers are particularly weak, allowing to relatively easily move between dimensions in such places. Thus, a Hellmouth is practically a gateway between different dimensions. Specifically, the town Buffy lives in, Sunnydale, is built just atop a rather dangerous Hellmouth, connecting Earth with an awful hellish dimension, that Buffy must prevent from being opened. A second Hellmouth is revealed to exist in Cleveland, Ohio in the Buffy series finale.
- In Our Father, Who Aren't in Heaven, Rowena calls the rupture a fissure while Dean calls it a rift in Back and to the Future, albeit before knowing the true nature of the rupture.