‘Supernatural’ Just Killed Off 2 Major Characters

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 15, Episode 3 of Supernatural, “The Rupture.”]

People die all the time on Supernatural. But a lot of the time, it doesn’t take (especially when it comes to the Winchesters). However the latest deaths looks to be permanent, meaning the CW drama is planning to go out with quite the bang.

In “The Rupture,” Sam (Jared Padalecki), Dean (Jensen Ackles), and Castiel (Misha Collins) continue to work with Rowena (Ruth Connell) and Belphagor (Alexander Calvert) to try to wrangle the souls from hell. Ketch (David Haydn-Jones) recovers from the gunshot wound inflicted on him from Dean to rid him of the ghost possessing him.

And Ketch is the first casualty of the episode. The demon who enlisted him to find Belphagor confronts him at the hospital. He puts up a fight, but she gets the upper hand. He refuses to share where Belphagor is, and the demon realizes he’s protecting his friends. He confirms he won’t give them up “at any price,” and she rips out his heart.

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Meanwhile, Belphagor tells the others about Lilith’s Crook, a horn in her chamber in hell that can be used to bring all of hell’s lost creatures back home. The plan is for the demon and Castiel to go to hell to use the crook, Rowena and Sam to use a healing spell of sorts to close the rupture, and Dean to toss a “bomb” in.

Once in hell, Belphagor needs Castiel to read the Enochian on the box to retrieve the Crook. Only then does the angel learn (after an encounter with the same demon who killed Ketch) that Belphagor plans to use the Crook for his own gain: as a siphon to absorb all the ghosts and demons into himself. That power will make him a god, “or close enough.”

(Diyah Pera/The CW)

Belphagor sounds the horn, Rowena and Sam begin chanting, and Dean tosses the bomb into the rupture. But then Castiel manages to stop the demon and burns Jack’s body in the process of ridding it of Belphagor. So, to finish what they started, Rowena makes the ultimate sacrifice.

“Magic can do anything, Samuel, can contain anything, even the vast multitudes of Hell,” she explains. “I can soak them up for a time if I pay the price.” The spell only needs two ingredients: her own still-coursing blood and her final breath. She’ll absorb the ghosts and demons and return them to Hell, and when her body breaks down, they’ll be released where they belong.

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Since she doesn’t care about anything enough to take her own life but believes in prophecy, it’s Sam who must kill her (as written in Death’s books). “I know we’ve gotten quite fond of each other, haven’t we?” Rowena asks Sam. “But will you let the world die, let your brother die, just so I can live?” He has no choice (a fact Dean later reiterates to his brother).

After he stabs her, she absorbs the souls and walks to the edge of the rupture. Before she falls in, she turns to Sam, Dean, and Castiel, and tells them, “goodbye, boys.” (Like mother, like son.)

Later, Dean blames Castiel for deviating from their plan. They could’ve figured out what to do about Belphagor after, with Rowena, he stresses. With Castiel deciding it’s time for him to move on, should we consider his bond with the Winchesters the fourth death (including Jack’s body) of “The Rupture”?

(Dean Buscher/The CW)

If this episode proved anything, it’s that, even though there are some characters (including dead ones) returning, Supernatural fans need to be ready to say goodbye to fan-favorites.

Supernatural, Thursdays, 8/7c, The CW