Despair
Written by: Robert Berens
Directed by: Richard Speight Jr.
Air date: November 5, 2020
Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Jack race to confront Billie, her true intentions now revealed, as danger threatens everyone they love.
Tropes
- Always a Bigger Fish: While being cornered by Billie, Cas realizes that the one entity she fears the most is the Empty, who isn't too happy with her, and enacts his promise of achieving true happiness in order to summon the Shadow to Earth and take both of them.
- Back for the Dead: Bobby, Charlie, and Donna all come back in this episode only to get disintegrated by Chuck.
- Body Horror: After Dean mortally wounds her, parts of Billie's body visibly start to rot.
- Bury Your Gays: An egregious example with Castiel. His Dying Declaration of Love to Dean directly results in his death when the Empty takes him.
- Call-Back:
- While trying to kill Castiel, Billie makes sure to bring up the time he killed her.
- Castiel also leaves a bloody handprint on Dean’s left shoulder, a reference to the mark he left on Dean after rescuing him from Hell.
- Came Back Wrong: Possibly Jack after he is taken out of the Empty after the bomb goes off. He notes to Cas that he feels off and in the silo when he reaches for a plant it dies before he can touch it.
- Character Death: Castiel and Billie. And possibly the people dusted by Chuck, although their fates are ambiguous.
- Darkest Hour: Castiel is dead, everyone else except for Dean, Sam, and Jack are gone, Jack lost his power and possibly worse, and Chuck is still out there stronger then ever.
- De-power: Jack once again loses his power after he explodes in the Empty.
- Dying Declaration of Love: Castiel gives a long one to Dean before he sacrifices himself to defeat Billie.Castiel: Everything you have ever done, the good and the bad, you have done for love. You raised your little brother for love, you fought for this whole world for love, that is who you are. You're the most caring man on Earth. You are the most selfless loving human being I will ever know. Ever since we met, ever since I pulled you out of hell, knowing you has changed me. Because you cared, I cared. I cared about you, I cared about Sam, I cared about Jack. But I cared about the whole world because of you. You changed me, Dean.Dean: Why does this sound like a goodbye?Castiel: Because it is. I love you. Goodbye, Dean.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Castiel summons the Shadow to drag Billie into the Empty, knowing full well that it will take him as well.
- Enemies with Death: Death becomes enemies with Team Free Will when it turns out she really wants to become the new God and instill her own order where All Deaths Are Final.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: By the end, it seems that everyone else on Earth have died or vanished, leaving Dean, Sam, and Jack as the only survivors.
- Go Out with a Smile: Castiel spends most of his Dying Declaration of Love with a genuine smile on his face. When the Shadow arrives to take him, he doesn't fight back or scream, but dies still smiling.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Castiel summons the Shadow to claim himself and Billie, saving Dean from the latter's wrath.
- Killed Off for Real: Since this is nearing the climax of the final season, this is Castiel's final death and appearance... in the series, because he was apparently revived by Jack in the Series Finale.
- Killed Offscreen: Eileen never appears in the episode. Sam only knows she's gone because her texting stops.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Not only has Billie been backstabbing everyone all season she then drops the exploding Jack into the Empty to contain the blast. Her deeds finally catch up to her at the end when Cas summons the Shadow to take him into the Empty which also brings Billie along for the ride.
- The Last Dance: Billie is mortally wounded by Dean, and decides to spend what time she has left trying to kill him and Castiel.
- Manly Tears: Both Cas and Dean shed some tears after Cas says his goodbyes. Dean later ignores Sam's call and buries his head in his hands while mourning his friend's death.
- No Body Left Behind:
- Like Becky experienced back in "Atomic Monsters", people banished by Chuck are Reduced to Dust and leave no body behind.
- When Castiel and Billie are taken by the Shadow, they leave nothing behind.
- No-Sell: Billie reveals that the suicide spell Jack put on himself is only fatal if subjected to Chuck or Amara. When put up against the Shadow, which doesn't die from it, Jack comes out A-okay, barring the loss of his powers.
- Not Me This Time: Billie states that Chuck is the one making people disappear, hence why Donna gets dusted even though she isn't from the Apocalypse World. But she doesn't care, since she's enjoying the torment it has on the Winchesters.
- Oh, Crap!: None other than the Shadow, when it realizes that Jack is about to explode inside the Empty.
- Only Mostly Dead: When Dean strikes Billie with her scythe, she is mortally wounded, but manages to muster enough strength to corner Dean and Castiel into her reading room. It takes the latter summoning the Shadow to claim both of them to stop her.
- Out of the Closet, Into the Fire: Or in this case, the Empty.
- Scythe Drag: Billie drags her scythe against the wall while she's hunting Dean and Cas for the requisite Sinister Scraping Sound.
- Taking You with Me: Castiel summons the Shadow to take both him and Billie into the Empty.
- Tempting Fate: Sam telling Donna that she's safe. She's not from another world and has never been resurrected, so he'd be right if the deaths were part of Billie's plan.
- Uncertain Doom: As Chuck claimed that he only "banishes" people when he disintegrates them, Bobby and the others are implied to still exist somewhere, but as of now their fates are up in the air.
- The Unreveal: Chuck's death book has changed, but it's unknown what it is. Billie says that it is "interesting", though.
- Villain Ball: Billie grabs it after she leaves her scythe, the only thing that can kill her, out in the open while she is immersed in reading Chuck's updated death book. Sure enough Dean swipes it and slashes her, causing her to flee and leaving her scythe, Jack, and the death book behind.
- Wham Episode: Castiel dies saving Dean from Billie and everyone else on Earth, with the exception of Dean, Sam, and Jack, are possibly gone.
- Wham Shot: The scene where Donna vanishes. Up to this point, the only people who vanished are either migrants from the Apocalypse World (Charlie and Bobby) or back from the dead (Eileen). Donna is neither of them, which means Chuck is not dusting people who are not native of this world; he is dusting everyone.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: Billie reveals to Dean that the wound he inflicted on her with the scythe is spreading throughout her body and rotting her ensuring that, no matter what, she will die. She decides to spend her last few moments hunting Dean down.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Castiel's Dying Declaration of Love caps off one of these speeches to Dean.
