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" THEN! Kevin Tran - prophet of the Lord - may be able to seal the gates of Hell forever, but the evil Crowley currently has the tablet that holds the key... NOW! After a string of rather enjoyable standalone episodes, Supernatural returns to the season arc this week - with help from an unwilling Alfie the wiener angel, Crowley (Mark Sheppard) has convened a motley crew of potential prophets, while Kevin (Osric Chau) and his mother - who&amp;#039;s emerged from her stupor - are in hiding and on the run... To be honest, we wish Linda Tran (Lauren Tom) had stayed in her coma - like Garth last week, her &amp;#039;comedy&amp;#039; antics fall flat. This time round, the Tran clan team up with a Wicca to build &amp;#039;demon bombs&amp;#039; as part of their plan to take down Crowley, while the King o&amp;#039; Hell himself searches for possible replacements for Kevin...   On the trail of the missing would-be prophets, Dean (Jensen Ackles) is experiencing visions of Castiel (Misha Collins) - though it&amp;#039;s initially unclear whether it&amp;#039;s a genuine apparition or just his guilty conscience playing tricks. Refreshingly Dean shares this development with Sam (Jared Padalecki) straight away and for the first time opens up about his time spent in Purgatory - or at least his efforts to escape. In new flashbacks, Dean, Cas and Benny (Ty Olsson) finally track down the portal out of the nightmarish landscape. Dean and Benny literally become blood brothers to ensure their escape - frustratingly we appear to have skipped over the shared experience that saw the pair form their seemingly unbreakable bond. The last time we visited Purgatory, Dean and Benny were still rather at odds, now we&amp;#039;re told that the vampire has &amp;quot;earned&amp;quot; the hunter&amp;#039;s respect. If Supernatural expects us to buy this bromance, it could at least show us why it came about in the first place.  At the portal, the trio are attacked by Leviathans - who&amp;#039;ve been a far more effective threat this season than last, when they were the chief baddies. In the aftermath, it appears that Dean did not abandon Cas as we&amp;#039;d expected, but loses his friend despite his best efforts to save him... But back in the present, we learn that Dean&amp;#039;s not losing his mind and that Cas is finally, truly, 100% back, but with no memory of how he returned to Earth. The avenging angel ultimately reveals the truth to Dean - he chose to stay in Purgatory as penance for his past sins. It&amp;#039;s a twist that we didn&amp;#039;t see coming, but one that makes perfect sense. More plot developments follow; Castiel was rescued from Purgatory by a squad of angels, but there&amp;#039;s a catch - he&amp;#039;s been dethroned and is now the new Queen of Heaven&amp;#039;s bitch, forced to rat on the Winchesters against his will. Another great twist and one that implies a larger role for Misha Collins in the coming weeks - fantastic news, if indeed the case.  Crowley&amp;#039;s plot to employ a future prophet throws up yet more revelations, chief among them that Chuck (Rob Benedict) is apparently dead. Hopefully Cas was lying or wrong - writing out such an important character off-screen with a perfunctory remark would be so unsatisfying. Of course, it&amp;#039;s possible that Kevin was able to become a prophet because Chuck never was one, and was in fact - as many have speculated - God Himself... Overall, this week&amp;#039;s Supernatural is a bit of a mixed bag. The majority works very well indeed, especially the Castiel thread, but the tablet/gates of Hell plot is still failing to grip this writer. It&amp;#039;s telling that the recent standalone episodes of this season have been far stronger than the early arc-heavy instalments. In short, we&amp;#039;re thrilled to have Cas back, but could&amp;#039;ve done without the little slice of Kevin.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/supernatural/review/a438324/supernatural-cas-makes-a-shock-return-in-a-little-slice-of-kevin/>