Supernatural Recap S9E16: Blade Runners

Last we saw Crowley he was after the first blade, searching the bottom of the ocean. Dean tries unsuccessfully to call him. The last call he received from Crowley sounds very much like a drunk dial. Sam isn’t surprised in the least that Crowley isn’t being responsible or reliable. He’s being well, Crowley, sexing it up with a demon. His little bed fellow, Lola, gets him a syringe of fresh blood, and Crowley injects it in his arm. With it flowing in his system, he lies back and enjoys the high. She runs out for some sustenance, and Crowley gets all emotional watching old flicks.

Lola is waiting for Abaddon, but she sends her a minion instead. She isn’t so pleased to give her information to the goon. She tells him that the King is off his game, all he’s interested in is sex, blood, and pizza. Furthermore she reports that the Winchesters keep calling, leaving rude messages, that mention the first blade. She makes it clear that when she reports next that it will be to Abaddon.

Sam and Dean construct a huge trap at a crossroads, and summons a demon. Snooki arrives, which explains a lot. Sam tells her they can do things two ways, the easy way, or knife out, the easy way. Snooki doesn’t know anything, and the boys tell her that under Abaddon’s rule all her fame and fortune will dry up. She spills that the last time that Crowley was spotted he was in the Atlantic, which is unfortunate because his kingdom is going up in flames, and with the king away, even loyalists are flocking to Abaddon’s side. Sam performs an exorcist on her.

Lola comes home from a bout of shopping, but she’s brought a gift for Crowley too. She tells him that she likes him when he’s on the upswing. But he knows of her betrayal, which is unfortunate, because he liked her. He wanted to keep her by his side, to help her, and she mocks him. He kills her. And injects himself with the blood she brought him. Surrounded by corpses, he really has fallen.

Sam looks over scans of the ocean floor. He wonders if Crowley found the blade, and double crossed them. Dean doesn’t think he’d do that, Crowley is the one that put him in the position of power, and he needs him to kill Abaddon. Sam asks if they can kill Crowley once he’s no longer useful. Crowley calls, he hasn’t found the blade, and he’s in a bit of a mess.

The boys head out to meet Crowley, and they see just how bad off he is. They give him an intervention, and Crowley can’t stand being human. He’s addicted, and he tells them of Lola’s double cross. Sam asks if Crowley told Lola about the first blade, and he’s not sure what he let slip when he was high. They plan some tough love for Crowley. Crowley ends up back in the bunker’s holding room. Crowley goes over his searches for the first blade, and where it was not. He stares at Sam, and Sam questions what he’s doing. He’s still a little tainted by the blood, a little sentimental. He tells Sam that they shared a moment back in the church, but Sam makes it clear that he’s only still a round because he’s the lesser evil.

Crowley’s actions ruin Sam and Dean’s stake out meeting, as he tries to steal candy from a vending machine. Dean shoos Crowley from the machine, in time for Devlin to arrive. He’s a facilitator he tells them. Crowley leaves his body and invades Devlin for a moment, shocking the boys. Devlin has no idea that Crowley was inside him, but Crowley now knows the location.

The Antiquities place get some demon possessed guards, and they open the vault. Unfortunately for a research assistant she brings the guards some food, and one of them slits her throat for her trouble. The boys, pose as FBI agents and check out the crime scene. According to the security camera the research assistant found the guards breaking into the vault when they committed the murder, followed by a suicide. The weird thing was that there was no record of anything in the vault.

Sam and Dean speaks with one of the ____ and she tells them that the blade was never on display. She says that she was in possession of the first blade, carbon dating confirmed the age of the blade, but she still could not authenticate the blade. The guards did not know that she took the blade, but it was sold to a man named Magnus. ____ gives Dean some serious sex eyes, and her number if they need anything.

The men of letters like to use the name Magnus when they are trying to stay incognito. The boys question Crowley about the men of letters. But Crowley cries them a river, blaming them for ignoring him, for turning him into a junky and letting his kingdom fall apart. Dean asks him what he wants. Apparently what he wants is whisky. They let him out of his “closet” and he gets to help out with the research. They look for a dishonored member of letter, at Crowley suggestion. They find his name, Cuthbert Sinclair, who was the first to become known as Magnus. He designed most of the warding that keeps the bunker safe, but he was erratic. He was put out before the massacre. Crowley has heard about him, hoping to use him to get into the bunker.

Crowley takes the boys to where his demons tracked him. Crowley doesn’t think that he’ll come out for the boys, but they’re sure that he will for legacies like them. They try to appeal to Cuthbert Sinclair, ask for his side of the story. Smoke, and swirly lights, the boys are teleported into some sort of house. A pair Vampires attack, and the boys easily kill them. Magnus is looking pretty good for a man of his age. He has quite the collection of supernaturals and antiquities. Magnus thought that the men of letters all died out, and the boys admit that they’re hunters, which tickles him pink. Apparently their grandfather continued to visit even after his shunning. Dean brings up Abaddon, and Magnus laughs. Some things never change. The men of Letters were little more than record keepers. Dean points out that Abaddon could be stopped, they need the first blade. He tells them that the blade is useless without the mark of Cain, but Dean has that. The blade lies behind them, and Dean vows to take down Abaddon if he hands over the blade. Magnus thinks it over, and decides to use some magic powder to make Sam disappear. Sam runs through the forest. Magnus separated the ordinary from the extraordinary. He has the blade and the mark now. He offers Dean a chance for immortality, but Dean turns him down. He wants to just steal the blade and go, but there’s no way out, no doors and his magic is too strong. Magnus welcomes him to the collection.

Crowley looks to make a connection with Sam, he wants to help ride in for the rescue. But Sam doesn’t want his help at all. Crowley points out that he has been nothing but helpful as of late, getting Dean the mark of Cain, getting Galadrial out of his head. Sam just wants silence.

Magnus wants Dean to give him a little demonstration, to see if it will all work, but Dean doesn’t want to play. He puts the first blade in Dean’s hand, and the mark flares to life. He drops the blade. Magnus tells him that he’ll get use to the feeling. Sam reads up on Magnus, and his ideas for the bunker. He wanted to make it’s entrance only by spell. Looks like Crowley will be of use after all. Magnus wants the mark, and he’s willing to take it. He incapacitates Dean. Sam mixes up a doorway, and the spell works perfectly. Crowley appreciates his décor, and the two search for Dean. Magnus lurks in the hallways, Sam manages to get the drop on him, or so they think. A shapeshifter posed as Magnus, and Sam is trapped. Magnus laments that he discarded Sam too quickly. He cuts at Sam, he doesn’t plan on killing him immediately, but before he goes all evil villain, Crowley releases Dean, and Dean beheads Magnus. Crowley watches as Sam coaxes Dean to drop the blade, which he struggles to do, but eventually drops it.

Crowley almost breaks his arm patting himself on his back. Abaddon’s demons searched Dean’s baby, and worst they keyed it. Sam urges Dean to finish off Crowley now that he has the blade, but Crowley now sober either has good hearing, or clear thinking. He binds the boys and takes the blade. He needs them to kill Abaddon still, but he won’t put his precious hide on the line. Moose gave it all away and now they’re bladeless.