Angel on angel warfare, the return of Metatron and his idea for a new kingdom of Heaven, and the heartbreaking consequences of Dean tricking Sam into letting an angel possess him made this one of the most compelling Supernatural Season 9 episodes yet.

With God missing from Heaven, the angels haven’t really been able to work together, ultimately having one try and rise up to take command or control in his absence. There was Raphael and the war in Heaven in Supernatural Season 6, Castiel tried to dabble his hand as the new God in Supernatural Season 7, and then Metatron kicked all the angels out of Heaven leaving only himself in Supernautral Season 8 Episode 23.

And now, semantics aside, Metatron wants to be the new God and pick a select few, including some funny angels, to rebuild Heaven. So, you’d think that all the angels would band together to figure a way to stop him.

Instead, the angels are killing each other off at a rather rapid pace. Two major factions are led by Bartholomew and Malachi (c’mon, who’d want to follow the guy with a name straight from Children of the Corn?) in their quest to take back Heaven.

While a lot of corpses were left in the wake of the angel slaughter, the visual effects for such scenes as the biker bar battle, the taking out of Bartholomew’s members at the back-alley meet, or the elimination of willing church group members who were letting Malachi followers in was pretty impressive. Not to mention the fact that the civil war on Earth is an intense struggle between vying powers that leaves no room for any other supernatural being to get in the way.

I wonder what Abaddon is up to…

It’s pretty surprising that it took the angels this long to find Castiel, but his torture at the hands of Justin Long with a goatee and Zod’s sidekick villain from Superman II revealed that not all the angels survived the fall, including Ezekiel.

I know I had trouble trusting Ezekiel, really Gadriel, since Supernatural Season 9 Episode 1, but this was not the twist I was expecting.

We finally had backstory on Gadriel that allowed his reasoning to push Castiel away make much more sense. It wasn’t just concern for angels showing up, but the fact that he was pretending to be Ezekiel, and he was an imprisoned angel in Heaven. A fate he suffered for letting the serpent into the Garden of Eden and ultimately letting evil upon Adam and Eve.

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That’s a pretty heavy burden to carry, so for Metatron to manipulate an angel ashamed and guilty of his past faults, simply trying to be a good angel again was not going to end well for Sam and Dean. Being a human is tough in the battle of the supernatural.

I’m glad that Castiel was able to help (although, taking that one angel’s grace sounds like it’s going to have its own consequences down the line) and reveal to Dean he’d been duped.

Which made it fantastic that Dean decided to tell Sam the truth and he reacted how I thought he would, unfortunately Gadriel knew that Dean was up to something the whole time and messed with the sigil spell. Dean cannot catch a break.

The whole episode was a snowballing of chaos on Earth ending with the death of Kevin Tran. I was shocked when Gadriel grabbed him, even though I worried when Kevin mentioned getting screwed all the time by Dean’s plans.

And really that’s the heartbreaking thing, Dean was just trying to do right by his brother (and I guess you could argue, Gadriel is simply trying to right his own wrongs) but it ended badly. What a powerful scene of Dean calling out for Kevin as Sam/Gadriel left to end the hour in a way that had me stunned as the credits rolled.

Supernatural Season 9 Episode 9 was a gripping turn for the story that felt like a nonstop ride of epic proportions. So much happened from the angels fighting, that sneaky Metatron coming back to set his new plan in motion (I can’t wait to see Dean and Sam stop him), Castiel’s got grace, and the reveal of Gadriel before killing off a major character.

When Supernatural does it right, it nails it right on the head and reminds viewers that this show can be funny, dramatic, heartbreaking, action-packed and full of exciting moments. This was a great way to leave Supernatural Season 9 before it returns in January, and I’m looking forward to what the next step of the saga will be.

Sean McKenna was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. He retired in May of 2017. Follow him on Twitter.