“You got to stop poking around in my dreams. I need some me time.” Yeah, well he shouldn’t poke around in your dead visions either. Castiel bluntly points out this isn’t a dream and deep down he already knows what this is. Dean flashes again of he and Sam being gunned down, except this time we get the delightful vision of Dean with the empty eyed stare on the bed. ”I’m dead,” Dean says in a flash of clarity. ”Condolences,” Castiel replies. Ha, a snarky angel even in these circumstances.  Dean wants to know where he is. ”Heaven,” Castiel replies. Dean is shocked, asking how he got to Heaven. Castiel tries to move things along, for his connection is difficult to maintain. Dean gets real worried though, not at all concerned about Castiel’s issues. ”If I’m in Heaven, then where’s Sam?” Oh, how wonderful, he’s worried that Sam probably ended up downstairs.

Cas wants to know what he sees. Dean doesn’t understand the question. Cas explains some people see a tunnel or a river. What does he see? He’s in the car on a road. Cas tells him to follow the road.  He’ll find Sam if he follows the road. Castiel’s voice fades away and the radio goes dark. Dean starts the car and drives. There’s a weird visual of the sky, which is literally the purple skies and numerous stars circling the dark side of the moon. Which is freakishly close. Some interesting imagination there. If this is inspired by some sort of film or other thing, please point it out, but otherwise it’s pretty cool. They’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.

 
 
Dean arrives to a lone house swarmed by Heaven’s sky and stops. There’s some sort of space age music that I only ever remember hearing during films at the science center. I think someone on the crew had the same warped childhood I did. Suddenly someone is carving a turkey and there’s Sam being served a portion. He’s in a shirt and tie and he’s all smiles, thanking the man. There’s a whole family there, including a little girl with braces next to him that’s all googly eyes for him. The man, who is apparently Dad, says to Sam he hears he’s new to McKinley. ”Yes sir, two weeks.” Interesting,must be a childhood memory thing. Dad mentions “Stephanie over here can’t seem to stop talking about you,” and I swear she looks like Blossom with braces. She of course gets all embarrassed, but manages to cop a feel of Sam under the table anyway. Lucky girl.  

 

Sam looks up and there’s Dean. ”Wow, just wow.” Sam’s a little confused. ”Dean, what are you doing in my dream?” Time for the rude awakening. Next Sam is in the other room with Dean, but the family carries on like Sam is still there with his seat now empty. Nice touch. ”Heaven,” Sam asks, very shocked to hear that. Dean say yes. ”How are we in Heaven?” ”Clean living I guess,” Dean jokes. Sam explains further. ”You, I get, sure, but me? Maybe you haven’t noticed I’ve done a few things?” Dean defends rightfully so that he thought he was doing the right things. ”Last I checked it wasn’t the road to Heaven that was paved with good intentions.” Dean has a good answer for that. ”Well if this is a Skymall it sucks. Where’s the triplets and the latex you know? Come on a guy has needs.” You tell us Dean. They’re your memories.

Sam turns back to the Thanksgiving dinner and something clicks. ”You know when you bite dust they say that your life flashes before your eyes.” Dean doesn’t get the point. Sam says the house is one of his memories. Dean gets it now because he woke up to one of his memories. He even tells Sam it was that 4^th of July where they burned the field down. Sam doesn’t even smile over remembering that.   Uh oh. Sam concludes maybe that’s what Heaven is, reliving your greatest hits. ”Wait, so playing footsy with brace face over there, that’s a trophy moment for you?” Sam defends he was eleven years old and that was his first real Thanksgiving. ”What are you talking about, we had Thanksgiving every year,” Dean says not getting the jaded point. ”We had a bucket of extra crispy and Dad passed out on the couch.” Dean gives him a “touch锝 expression.

Suddenly, the room starts shaking and everything goes dark. Sam and Dean have the right mind to hide while the family carries on with Thanksgiving dinner like nothing’s happening. A bright searchlight shines through the room and Sam and Dean fight to avoid it. Everything goes back to normal after a few seconds and Sam and Dean try to figure out what’s going on. ”I don’t know but we’re taking the escalator back downstairs,” Dean says as he goes to the radio and tries to summon Cas. Sam is a little freaked out over what he’s doing. ”What does it look like?” ”Like you’ve lost your mind.” Now Dean explains that Cas talked to him that way before.  

Dean shouts for Cas and gets “I can hear you,” on the TV. Cas’ face is all distorted through the static and this is so a 1984 reference. Dean explains he found Sam and saw the weird beam of light. ”Don’t go into the light,” Castiel warns. ”Okay, thanks Carol Ann,” Dean says. For those that didn’t get that reference, that’s Poltergeist. Castiel says the light is Zachariah looking for them. ”You can’t say yes to Michael and Lucifer if you’re dead, Zachariah needs to return you to your bodies.” Sam sees this as a good thing, problem solved. 
 


Castiel needs them for something else. They’re behind the wall and this is a rare opportunity. They need to find an angel named Joshua. ”No offense, but we are kind of ass full of angels. You find him,” says Dean.   Castiel can’t, since he’s not allowed to return to Heaven. From what I see, he ain’t missing much. Sam wants to know what’s important about Joshua. Rumor is he talks to God. ”So,” Dean asks. Cas gets all angry. ”You think that maybe, just maybe, we find out what God isn’t saying!” ”He’s touchy,” Dean says to Sam. Cas just needs them to follow the road. What road? ”It’s called the Axis Mundi. It runs through Heaven. Different people see different things. For you, its two lane asphalt. The road will lead you to the garden. You’ll find Joshua there. And Joshua can take us to God.” He again repeats the garden and asks them to hurry before the transmission goes out.
 
Sam asks Dean what he thinks, and Dean is ready to hit the “yellow brick” and find Joshua. I knew a Wizard of Oz reference would make it in this scenario somewhere. ”Really?” Sam asks incredulously. Dean is surprised he doesn’t. Sam is surprised Dean does, since he has been breaking out the “nos” and now he wants to help. ”Come on Sam, we are royally boned. So prayer, the last hope of a desperate man.” What’s interesting here is Sam has no idea just how much at wits end Dean is. I like how Dean’s attitude is making sense to us but perplexing Sam. Poor boy is in for some eye opening.

They leave the house and there’s woods all around. No Impala, no road. They go back inside and Dean starts looking around, so Sam wonders what he’s doing. He’s looking for a road of course. ”You think the road is in a closet?” ”We’re in Heaven Sam, our memories are coming true, Cas is on TV, finding a road in the closet would pretty much be the most normal thing that happened to us today.” Dean then finds an old racing set in the closet. He remembers having one when he was a kid. He puts the car on the track and next thing he and Sam are in a different place. I should note of love this POV of Sam and Dean from the closet. If I ever get around to directing my movie, I’m borrowing some of these tricks.