The introduction of prophet Kevin Tran’s mom to the world of Supernatural earlier this season was sheer joy. She’s so spunky and refuses to let anything get her down. She’s exactly what you would want a prophet’s mom to be, really. In “A Little Slice of Kevin” Mrs. Tran was in a bit over her head. She wasn’t afraid to ask for help, but when your son is a prophet of God, Craig’s List might not be the best option.

Yes, that’s right, Mrs. Tran went to where many of us go when looking for things locally, in this case, a witch to build a demon bomb. Personally, I wouldn’t trust a witch who advertised on Craig’s List, but Mrs. Tran is new to the game, and really doesn’t have a lot of options open to her. She did the best she could under the circumstances. Unfortunately for her, demons already had that base covered and her witch was a plant, leading Crowley right to their doorstep.

Meanwhile, Dean was having visions of Cas in very strange places. At least he thought they were visions, until he showed up. But something is up. Dean was right to wonder about it. Cas has no idea how he got out. They both remember Dean’s escape (and how cool was it that Benny rode along in Dean’s veins?), but Cas has no idea how he ended up on the side of the road. The best thing to come out of their walk down memory lane was Cas was able to put to rest Dean’s misinterpretation of events that he was at fault for not getting Cas out. Castiel chose to stay. For whatever reason, he let go of Dean’s hand. Dean really needed to hear that so he could stop beating himself up. It’s been a prevailing theme this year, and his pain has been a driving force in the decisions he’s been making. Maybe he’ll make different ones going forward.

With Cas back, the team set out to rescue Kevin, and the future prophets from Crowley’s clutches. We’ve very rarely had the opportunity to see Castiel the Angel is full regalia, but we were treated to it when he and Crowley went a bit “West Side Story.”  Crowley thought he was bluffing, as Cas sure didn’t look his best. When he spread his wings, there was no doubt God was on his side. Or was there?

Later, when Cas was talking to Sam and Dean, he was swept away to what appeared to be Heaven, but it was a Heaven Cas had never been to before. Of all people, Amanda Tapping was manning the desk as Naomi. She told him he wouldn’t remember the moment, but he would report in frequently and keep and eye on Sam and Dean. Really. What is up with that? Was it really Heaven? Who let Cas out of Purgatory? The last we heard, Heaven wasn’t in the best state, with God having taken a vacation and all, totally fed up with humanity. Is he back on the job? Or are there darker forces pretending to be Heaven? Maybe the Winchester Brothers are earning their own wings? So many questions.

I’m more curious than ever now to find out what happened to Cas. I’m so happy he’s back and apparently sticking around. Misha Collins has become as important to Supernatural as Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. Whether he’s here for good or evil, it’s all good in my book.

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There were two very excellent dynamics in play here, and the episode in whole was a complete juxtaposition to last week’s miserable “The Method in the Madness.” It even went so far as to contradict some of Brennan’s changes on the job, which I’ll get to in a minute.

Every since Zack was revealed as a serial killer in training two years ago (we don’t want to revisit that fiasco), we’ve been playing with Squinterns, a rotating bunch of interns with vastly different personalities. While at first the idea seemed illogical, it’s worked out in favor of the series, because things at The Jeffersonian don’t get stale. Just when you’ve had enough of Finn and his southern charm, for example, they bring in Fisher, and you wish to God Finn were back.

Due to a backlog of unsolved cases, Brennan brings in her five best interns to help churn out identities to the remains. We were treated to Wendell Bray, Clark Edison, Finn Abernathy, Colin Fisher and Arastoo Vaziri all working together in the same room, with Hodgins overseeing them. Immediately, they were certain of a competition for best intern, a new position opening and bodies were being identified left and right. The more obscure, the better. Only Vaziri hadn’t yet identified a set of remains. Here’s where the strange part with Brennan comes in.

Last week she was with everyone else on how the body they were identifying was a  human body and deserved respect, blah blah blah. This week, it was all about churning out identities. She questioned Vaziri’s use of resources and he reminded her of something she taught him; if he couldn’t use the resources at The Jeffersonian to give the victim back his identity when nobody else would, then nobody would ever know who he was. Could he really leave him an unknown again? Would that be fair?

So we had a turning point in room. The Squinterns realized they should be working together as a team and remembered the bodies were people, with families. Angels began to sing. No, not really. But, it was that kind of moment. As they poured all they could into this puzzling homeless man, they discovered he was so much more. A veteran of the first Gulf War. Homeless from PTSD. Married with a son. Killed not by murder, but from rescuing people in the Pentagon on 9/11 after he was injured outside by flying debris and ran inside to help.

Like some sort of superhuman, he crushed his knees and spine by lifting items weighing upwards of 400 pounds or more to free the injured. When it was all over, he drifted off into the night where he died, homeless, of a bleeding punctured lung. Thanks to The Jeffersonian, he was buried a hero.

Needless to say, the story hit all of them in some way. What worked was our ragtag group of interns comes from such a diverse background. There were near brawls about religion and misunderstandings about being raised in the south and race and all of it fit in well with the circumstances of the investigation. We also learned where each and every one of them was on 9/11. Cam was a coroner in New York City and personally identified over 900 remains, and notified their families. Brennan spent two weeks tirelessly running on adrenaline searching for survivors at the World Trade Center, telling Booth she never once cried. She did to Booth.

It’s amazing what the memories of that day can still do to people, and the way it was incorporated into Bones was done in such a way that it didn’t alienate anyone or pass judgement, but let everyone realize it was okay to feel. Just feel. Hodgins, who loves a great conspiracy theory, said the one conspiracy theory he finally took away from that day was that a bunch of people did things for extremist reasons, and absolutely nobody deserved to die on that day.

If for every applesauce episode we get one where we solve old cases and bring closure to loved ones, Bones can stay on the air as long as Fox wants it to run.

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So thin, in fact, I’d not mind exploring a few episode on the air where they brothers decide to live apart. Let’s see what their lives are like without each other. We’ve touched on that briefly in the past when Sam let Dean have his life outside of hunting. Let’s keep in mind how Dean has conveniently forgotten that entire chapter of their lives because he attempted to look for a Sam for a while before giving up and settling into that life. Anyway, it just doesn’t matter.

Sam is still pining for Amelia. When they flashed back to him greeting her at her door at the end of “Southern Comfort,” a part of me quickly thought he had hit the road. I should have known better. The boys are very good martyrs. It’s going to take one hell of a push for one or the other to make the first move.

I was shocked when Dean was under the influence of the penny and he said Benny was more of a brother to him than Sam had ever been. Not was now or at a particular time, but had ever been. Those words hurt, and in return Sam made sure Dean knew he might be the hunter who ran into Dean’s beloved “Blood Brother” Benny and iced him on day soon. It’s as if they’re just trying to hurt each other to see who will crack first. When even the lovable Garth can’t get them to crack a smile, you know things are fairly dire.

Let’s see a few episodes of Sam heading back to Amelia, reading the papers and keeping up on Dean hunting with Garth. Maybe even his blood brother Benny will give it a try. He’s sad enough that it might take his mind off of his plight and his uncertain future in this new world he’s come back to after so many years. It could also cause Sam to miss his brother. Whatever it is, we need something drastic to light a fire under their asses and remember, as Garth pointed out, how very lucky they are to have each other.

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