The Winchesters got to deal with a ghost in the first, no-Nephilim episode of the season. The son of Satan made no appearance in the episode, but someone else did. The reaper, Billie, whom Cass killed in last season, also made a come back with a "promotion." Mary and Lucifer were also a no-show.
A haunted heart and a haunted mansion
The episode started with the usual elements: two over-rebellious teenagers, one-cocky, the other cautious. Humpty and Dumpty went into a Haunted Mansion to videotape a ghost sighting, but they never came out alright. One kid went missing, and the other was found in hypnosis on the side of the road.
Back in bunkers, Sam showed the newspaper to Dean which covered the story of the kids. Dean was surprised to see that Sam was interested in hunting, and not in babysitting Jack. The Winchester brothers geared up for hunting, but Dean became suspicious of his over-friendly behavior when he pushed Dean to go to the local strip club.
Word to the wise, for the curious folks: No strippers were actually shown in the episode.
When the hypnotic kid also went missing, Dean and Sam decided to barge into the haunted mansion which served as a mental hospital back in the day. They successfully killed the ghost of the sadistic doctor-from-hell, but the ghosts were still trapped inside the building. Dean decided to "die" to talk to the angry ghosts and why they were unable to move on.
The story took a complete three-sixty degree turn when the reaper realized that it was Dean Winchester inside the veil. She alerted the boss of all the reapers, the Death. The twist in the tale was that after Dean killed death in Season 10, the post was vacant. The deal was that the first reaper to die would become the Death and hold the grim for the rest of the eternity.
The last reaper to be killed was Billie who got a promotion and becomes Death eventually. Billie forgave Dean for breaking the deal and making Cass kill her as she was promoted as a result. She told Dean that he has got work to do despite Dean’s subservient attitude. It was left to the imagination what that work would entail.
A heart-warming reunion at the end of the episode when Cass finally found his way back to Winchesters.
Final verdict
First class episode! Dean was broken since the first episode of the season. Somewhere he was blaming himself for the deaths of Mary and Castiel. Getting Cas back on his side was finally a ’win’ for the Winchesters.
