dean and castiel’s timeline/story; a thread

—𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫

—4.01 “lazarus rising”
although it’s not shown on screen, dean has been pulled from hell. the episode starts with him waking up in a grave, confused and lost, having spent four months in hell (for him, that was forty years). upon arrival at a gas station, he notices a scar.

nearly a minute later, the radio goes to static and the windows and lights explode, with a high pitched ring in the air. dean leaves, heading to find his brother and bobby. after reuniting with sam at the motel, the glass ceiling shatters. confused, dean goes to a psychic.

at the psychic’s (pamela) house, they perform a ritual, trying to contact whoever raised dean from hell and has been causing glass to shatter. it’s discovered that the being’s name is castiel. castiel warns pamela not to look at his true form, but she does, blinding herself.

dean and bobby head to a barn, warding it and arming themselves before summoning castiel. castiel enters, and neither guns nor a demon killing knife kills castiel. he knocks bobby out, before turning to dean to talk with him.

castiel reveals he is an angel, much to dean’s dismay. he doesn’t understand why an angel pulled him from hell, and castiel simply puts it, “it was god’s command,” and they had work to do.

—4.02 “are you there god? it’s me, dean winchester”

dean, sam, and bobby are talking about dean’s previous meeting with castiel. sam and bobby seem convinced castiel is telling the truth, but dean is skeptical, believing castiel might be a demon, since no hunter has ever seen an angel.

it’s quickly proven though, that the only thing that could pull dean from hell is an angel. dean still refuses to believe it, arguing that “if there is a god out there, why would he give a crap about me?”

later in the episode, dean, sam, and bobby discover that the apocalypse is coming. by the end of the episode, castiel has appeared in bobby’s kitchen, with dean being the only one awake and talking to him.

castiel explains to dean that the seals to keep lucifer in his cage are breaking, and that’s why the angels have arrived on earth. castiel threatens dean, by saying “you should show me some respect. i dragged you out of hell. i can throw you back in.” castiel then vanishes.

—4.03 “in the beginning”

the episode starts with dean dreaming, visibly having nightmares. sam has already left the motel with ruby, so dean awakens to see castiel sitting on his bed. dean is startled, despite castiel’s calm nature, the angel even asking what dean was dreaming about.

castiel thens turns very vague, saying “listen to me. you have to stop it.” dean is confused, before castiel puts two fingers to dean’s head, sending dean back in time.

a little bit later into the episode, as dean is following john, he bumps into castiel. dean asks castiel what’s going on, and castiel asks what he think is going on. castiel then says again for dean to stop it, disappearing, leaving dean confused and frustrated.

farther along the episode, dean is driving when castiel suddenly appears in the passenger seat, startling dean. he then demands answers, and asks why he didn’t bring sam, to which castiel replies that sam wasn’t looking for him, and dean had to do this alone.

castiel tries to warn dean against changing anything about the past, but dean ignores him. in an instant, castiel is gone.

later, dean watches as mary makes a deal with azazel. castiel then appears, placing a hand on dean’s shoulder, and dean then wakes up, castiel still sitting on the bed. cas tries to comfort dean, telling him that destiny can’t be changed.

castiel tells dean where sam is, before leaving him with a warning, explaining his message earlier. “your brother is headed down a dangerous path, dean, and we’re not sure where it leads. so stop it. or we will.”

—4.07 “it’s the great pumpkin, sam winchester”

a little bit into the episode, dean and sam enter their motel room, to see two figures (castiel and uriel). sam pulls a gun on one of them, before dean stops him, explaining that it’s castiel. sam and castiel greet, before castiel turns to dean.

castiel asks if dean has stopped the rising of samhain. dean is confused, before castiel explains he found a hex bag in their walls from the witch. he then tells sam and dean that the rising of samhain is one of the seals to keep lucifer in the cage.

the angels then reveal that if sam and dean can’t kill the witch, that uriel will smite the entire town. dean begs for castiel to give him a chance to stop the witch, and they argue for a moment, before castiel decides to let the brothers try.

later, castiel and uriel are sitting on a park bench at a playground. uriel calls dean a mudmonkey, before castiel interjects, saying that he has faith in dean.

at the end of the episode, dean is on the same bench, watching kids play. castiel appears, and dean assumes he’s there to ridicule him, but castiel stops him, saying he wasn’t there to judge. he then reveals his orders were to follow dean’s orders, not smite the town.

castiel tells him it was a test to see how dean would perform. dean shrugs him off, before castiel tells him that he was hoping dean would pick to save the town. castiel says how he likes humans, and he even has his doubts about orders, and he doesn’t right and wrong anymore.

dean and castiel share a look, before castiel is gone.

— 4.09 (“i know what you did last summer”)

castiel shows up at the cabin with dean and sam, and uriel is with him. dean is relieved, thinking castiel is going to help, but he tells the brothers that he and uriel are there to kill anna, and the episode ends, to be continued.