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2Previous: Recap/SupernaturalS05E16DarkSideOfTheMoon\
3Next: Recap/SupernaturalS05E18PointOfNoReturn]
4
5'''[[Recap/{{Supernatural}} Recap]] of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'''''\
6'''Season 5, Episode 17'''
7
8!99 Problems
9
10->'''Sam:'''Whats wrong with you? Are you... drunk?
11->'''Castiel:''' No...[{{beat}}] yes....
12->'''Sam:''' What the hell happened to you?
13->'''Castiel:''' I found a liquor store...
14->'''Sam:''' And?
15->'''Castiel:''' And I drank it.
16
17Written by Julie Siege.
18
19Directed by Charles Beeson.
20
21Air Date: April 8, 2010.
22
23Sam and Dean end up in Blue Earth, Minnesota, a town surrounded by demons. The locals are putting up a fight under the direction of Leah, the daughter of the local preacher. Leah is a prophet and hears messages from the angels, who tell her where the demons are planning to strike. Sam and Dean assist with an attack against one of the demons' bases that was located with her information. Things start getting fishy when, at the funeral of a local teenager, Leah announces that the town has been chosen and that everyone will enter Paradise on Judgement Day as long as they do what the angels command. She then issues a few commandments: no drinking, no gambling, no premarital sex. Sam is suspicious, but can't get Dean to care.
24
25Leah tells the townspeople that the angels are angry because not everyone is following their commandments. An angry mob attacks Paul, the local bartender. Dean and the preacher try to protect him, but he winds up getting shot. Meanwhile, Castiel finally shows up, completely smashed, and tells Sam that Leah is not really a prophet. She is the Whore of Babylon, a monster who tries to condemn as many souls to Hell as possible. She can only be killed by a true servant of Heaven. Of course, neither Dean, Sam, nor Cas fit that bill, so they enlist the help of the preacher. But in the fight, Dean winds up being the one to stab Leah, and she dies.
26
27Sam is concerned that this means Dean is planning to say yes to Michael. Dean assures him that he isn't, but then slips away and visits [[Recap/SupernaturalS03E02TheKidsAreAlright Lisa]]. He tells her that things are about to get very bad over the next few days, but that he's "making arrangements" so she and Ben will be okay. Lisa asks him to stay but he leaves.
28
29!!Body count
30For this episode = 2 humans and the whore of Babylon.
31
32For the series so far = At least 379 humans (of which 6 were witches), 61 demons, 33 ghosts, 19 zombies, 11 vampires, 9 hellhounds, 6 changelings, 5 angels, 4 gods, 3 shapeshifters, 2 ghouls, 2 werewolves, 2 dogs, 1 crocotta, 1 djinn, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 reaper, 1 rugaru, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, and 1 wraith.
33
34!Tropes
35
36%%* BadassPreacher
37* {{BFG}}: A fire truck spraying holy water.
38* BurnTheWitch: Played with--Leah orders the sinners be locked in a storeroom and burned.
39* ChristianityIsCatholic: Averted. They're Lutheran. (The minister ''does'' wear a clerical collar throughout the episode, even with his street clothes, but since some Lutheran clergy do indeed wear these this could be chalked up to the creators [[ShownTheirWork Showing Their Work]].)
40* CrisisOfFaith: Leah Gideon's father has one when he starts to question his daughter's words, and it only gets worse once he learns that his ''real'' daughter has probably been dead for months.
41* DarkMessiah: Leah Gideon poses as a Prophet of the Lord, but in reality she's the Whore of Babylon tricking the town into damnation.
42* DeadpanSnarker:
43-->'''Jane:''' I don't understand. How are we to get to Paradise now?
44-->'''Dean:''' I think you're headed in the other direction.
45* DespairEventHorizon: Cas (from the [[Recap/SupernaturalS05E16DarkSideOfTheMoon last episode]]) and Dean.
46%%* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything
47* DrowningMySorrows: Cas found a liquor store. And he drank it.
48%%* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: A more literal example than usual.
49* FalseProphet: The VillainOfTheWeek is the Whore of Babylon, whose goal is to damn as many souls to Hell as possible. She does this by convincing the citizens of a small town that she's a prophet and manipulating them to commit heinous crimes by using their devotion to God against them.
50* FunnyAnsweringMachine: Castiel's: "You have reached the voice mail of [I don't understand. Why--why do you want me to say my name?] [sound of numbers being pressed] [beep]".
51* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: The only way available to kill the Whore of Babylon demon, Leah, is to impale her with a stake made from a Babylon cypress tree, and even then it has to be wielded by a "true servant of Heaven".
52* LostInTranslation: According to Castiel, Leah's Enochian 'exorcism' actually translates as "You will breed with the mouth of a goat"; when he laughs at the translation and gets stares from Dean and Sam, he observes "It's funnier in Enochian."
53* MeaningfulName:
54** Think about the song that the title of this episode is based on. It makes a lot of sense when you find out that Leah is the Whore of Babylon.
55** This is the 99th episode.
56%%* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf
57* MonsterOfTheWeek: The Whore of Babylon, albeit one with a lot of importance to the story.
58* NeverGetsDrunk: Cas requires a massive amount of alcohol to feel its effects because he's an angel.
59* NotHelpingYourCase: A hungover Cas telling the preacher he's an angel.
60%%* NotHerself
61* ScamReligion: Leah Gideon presents herself as a Prophet of the Lord and convinces her 'followers' that they have to destroy the unbelievers among them to get into Heaven, when in reality turning on each other like that is more likely to send them to Hell.
62%%* ShapeshifterGuiltTrip
63%%* ShootTheDog
64* SpotTheImpostor: Castiel immediately identifies Leah Gideon as a fake because all angels have the names of all the prophets "seared into [their] brain" and he knows that Leah Gideon is not on that list.
65%%* TheyWereHoldingYouBack: Paul.
66* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: In her guise as a Prophet, Leah convinces people that it's all right to kill their neighbours to remove the 'sinners' from their midst so that the rest of them can go to Heaven.
67* WartimeWedding: Eight in the past week.

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