Reapers
Reaper | |
---|---|
Powers and Abilities |
|
Vulnerabilities | |
Appearance | Corpse-like phantom (true form) Human (altered perception) |
Episode(s) | 1.12 Faith 2.01 In My Time of Dying 4.15 Death Takes a Holiday 5.10 Abandon All Hope... 5.21 Two Minutes to Midnight 6.11 Appointment in Samarra 7.10 Death's Door 8.19 Taxi Driver 9.03 I'm No Angel 9.22 Stairway to Heaven 11.02 Form and Void 11.10 The Devil in the Details 11.17 Red Meat 11.23 Alpha and Omega 12.06 Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox 12.09 First Blood 13.05 Advanced Thanatology 13.19 Funeralia 14.10 Nihilism 15.12 Galaxy Brain 15.17 Unity 15.19 Inherit the Earth |
Dean: We're dealing with a reaper.
Sam: You really think it's the Grim Reaper? Like, angel of death, collect your soul, the whole deal?
Dean: No no no, not the reaper, a reaper. There's reaper lore in pretty much every culture on Earth, it goes by 100 different names, it's possible that there's more than one of them.
– Dean and Sam Winchester, 1.12 Faith
Contents
- 1 History
- 2 Characteristics
- 3 Episodes
- 3.1 1.12 Faith
- 3.2 2.01 In My Time of Dying
- 3.3 4.15 Death Takes a Holiday
- 3.4 5.10 Abandon All Hope...
- 3.5 5.21 Two Minutes to Midnight
- 3.6 6.11 Appointment in Samarra
- 3.7 7.10 Death's Door
- 3.8 8.19 Taxi Driver
- 3.9 9.03 I'm No Angel
- 3.10 9.22 Stairway to Heaven
- 3.11 11.02 Form and Void
- 3.12 11.10 The Devil in the Details
- 3.13 11.17 Red Meat
- 3.14 11.23 Alpha and Omega
- 3.15 12.06 Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox
- 3.16 12.09 First Blood
- 3.17 13.05 Advanced Thanatology
- 3.18 13.19 Funeralia
- 3.19 14.10 Nihilism
- 3.20 15.12 Galaxy Brain
- 3.21 15.17 Unity
- 3.22 15.19 Inherit the Earth
- 4 Apocrypha
- 5 See also
- 6 External links
- 7 References
History
The origins of reapers are unknown.
Reapers will gather in groups "at times of great catastrophe" or distress, such as disasters like the Chicago Fire of 1871, the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, and the destruction of Pompeii.[1]
At some point after the averted Apocalypse, a small subset of reapers became rogue operators, collecting souls or moving them between Heaven and Hell for a price.[2] Some reapers also appeared to work as bounty hunters, tracking down souls and individuals as well, to which Dean referred to them as "Delta Force Reapers."[3]
For the next few years, rogue reapers continued to operate until Billie became the new incarnation of Death and, according to the reaper Jessica, had all the reapers avoiding any direct interference, only assisting directly or indirectly on Billie's command.[4]
Characteristics
Reapers are divine supernatural beings that are responsible for escorting deceased souls to the afterlife, they refuse, or are unable, to tell the deceased what awaits them upon death. Reapers do however allow the deceased to choose to accompany them, or to remain in the Veil as ghosts, which eventually leads to the deceased becoming a vengeful spirit and the complete deterioration of their mental faculties. While reapers serve Death and are not aligned with Heaven or Hell, they too were locked out of Heaven with the angels when Metatron enacted his spell closing the gates. Their origins are unclear, and it is also unknown what relationship, if any, they have to other beings such as God or Fate.
In their true forms, a reaper appears as an incorporeal phantom, with a corpse-like visage and a white aura surrounding them. They tend to take on a more human appearance as a means to make it easier to convince a soul to pass on to the next plane of existence.[5] Reapers would typically be seen dressed in simple black suits and ties, evoking the image of a funeral director. Though, in later years, most reapers would take to appearing in more casual clothing.
Reapers personalities can vary, while typically no nonsense when it comes to reaping, some reapers have shown somewhat human qualities such as (like Death) eating food, using sex or in the case of the reaper Tessa and Dean Winchester, a kiss to restore memories. Reapers have also been known to show a range of emotions from joy and compassion to annoyance and anger, with one reaper known to have taken revenge and killed the human that bound and used him against his will. For the most part, reapers show an air of stoicism to what they do, and attempt to empathize and sympathize with those they are about to reap in order to get them to accept death and move on to the afterlife.
Though the dead or dying are typically the only ones capable of perceiving reapers, reapers can take on a corporal form to interact among the living.[6] However, most reapers prefer to remain within the Veil and not interfere in the matters of humans. Reapers are also capable of possessing bodies, this act appeared to only be done by rogue reapers.
Upon death a reaper will give off a blinding light from their body.[7][8] Like angels, reapers can leave an imprint on the spot where they were killed.[9] As a part of the natural order of the universe, if an incarnation of Death is somehow struck down and killed, the first reaper that dies in turn, will take the place of Death, gaining all the knowledge of the Death or Deaths that came before.
Rogue Reapers
Rogue reapers are reapers that had decided to freelance their services for a price.[10] It was unknown what payment rogue reapers demanded for their business, only that the reaper Ajay agreed to offer his services to the Winchesters in exchange for the brothers owing him a favor at a later date. Rogue reapers also appeared to have additional capabilities, as according to the reaper Ajay, he had "special skills" when negotiating his fee with the Winchesters. The angel Bartholomew also remarked to the reaper Maurice that:
- "Some of you have taken your skill set to a whole new level..."
While the extent of these "skills" was never fully divulged, a captured crossroads demon disclosed that rogue reapers are known to have secret ways in an out of Heaven, Hell and the Veil. This knowledge would allow rogue reapers the ability to ferry individuals across the various borders. Rogue reapers were also used as bounty hunters, due to their ability to track down souls and bypass angelic and demonic wardings.
After Billie ascended to the position of Death, it appeared that reapers moonlighting their services were put to an end.
Powers and abilities
- Dreamwalking – Reapers are capable of entering a human's subconscious while they are dreaming or in a dream-like state.[11]
- Electromagnetic interference – The presence of a reaper can cause power fluctuations to electricity, as well as cause vehicles to lose power.
- Healing – A reaper is capable of transferring a person's life force to another, effectively healing them of any injuries or sickness. The demon Azazel possessed the reaper Tessa to heal Dean Winchester, whether it was Azazel or Tessa powers, or a mixture of both that healed Dean is unknown.
- Invisibility – Reapers can render themselves invisible to humans unless the person is near death or in spirit/astral projection form. Reapers may also become visible at their own discretion to mortals, as well as choose who they are visible to.[12][13][14]
- Levitation – In her true form, Tessa was shown levitating over Dean Winchester's body as well as floating quickly through the hospital.
- Memory manipulation – Tessa was able to restore Dean Winchester's memories of his time in the Veil during a near-death experience with a kiss.
- Perception – Reapers are able to perceive entities such as spirits, demons and angels from within the Veil. This perception also makes reapers experts at tracking down souls, intuitively knowing when a person is supposed to die.[15] The reaper Billie was able to collect a few 100,000 souls from the Veil into a Soul Catcher to help stop Amara / the Darkness.
- Perception altering – Reapers are capable of altering human perception to make themselves appear any way they wish, with the reaper Tessa having referred to the Veil as her "sandbox."[13] This is usually done as a means of easier communication with the deceased, as a reaper's true form can be frightening.
- Possession – While reapers can make their presence visible outside of the Veil, they are also capable of possessing humans.[16][17]
- Resurrection – While antithetical to their purpose, reapers can bring people back to life, though it is usually only done under duress.[13][17]
- Super strength – Reapers have strength that far exceeds that of humans. The reaper possessed April Kelly was able to knock Sam Winchester unconscious with a single punch.
- Telekinesis – Reapers can influence their surroundings with their minds, with a gesture a reaper can throw a grown man clear across a room.[17]
- Chronokinesis – Reapers are capable of stopping time.[12]
- Necrokinesis – Reapers can kill with a simple touch, though they will rarely outright kill people. When a reaper reaps a soul, they appear to need an inciting incident for the person's death. Evidenced when Billie required Mary Winchester to kill herself before reaping her soul, telling the Winchesters that “reapers don't kill.”[18]
- Teleportation – Reapers can teleport anywhere in existence, allowing them access to Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, the Veil and the Empty.[14]
- Weather manipulation – In some cases, the sudden arrival of a reaper could cause gusts of wind.
Vulnerabilities
- Angel blade – Reapers are vulnerable to angel blades, and can be killed by them.[16][19]
- Angel cuffs – Special handcuffs etched with spellwork that are capable of binding and nullifying even a reaper's powers.
- Archangels – Lucifer appeared to be able to control a reaper in Carthage, Missouri, allowing him to see through its eyes. The Michael of Apocalypse World also claimed to have trapped Death and enslaved the reapers on his world.
- Cosmic Entity – The Cosmic Entity was shown to have the power to easily kill a group of reapers, as witnessed by Sam Winchester in Death's Library when the Entity was angry and looking for Billie.
- Death's scythe – Reapers, like all beings, can be struck down with Death's scythe.[14]
- Demons – Reapers can be easily overpowered by demons. They can also be possessed by demons, although the only demon that was known to be capable of doing this was Azazel, a Prince of Hell, who was more powerful than the average demon.
- The First Blade – Wielded by someone with the Mark of Cain, the First Blade can kill a reaper.
- Reaper trap – Reapers can be rendered powerless and vulnerable inside of a reaper trap.[14] These traps also appear effective when done in the subconscious of a human in a coma dream, if that is how they are being pursued by their reaper.[20]
- Spells – Reapers can be bound by spells.[21] The witch Rowena was also able to kill reapers by using a spell that incinerated them.
Episodes
1.12 Faith
Sue-Ann Le Grange uses black magic to harness a reaper, turning her husband Roy Le Grange into a faith healer by forcing the reaper to kill people whom she thinks are immoral and transferring their life force to Roy's ailing supplicants. A dying Dean Winchester was saved in this manner. The reaper was released when Sam smashed Sue-Ann's necklace, which allowed her to control the reaper. Once destroyed, the reaper quickly abandoned it's intended victim and appeared before Sue-Ann killing her.
2.01 In My Time of Dying
While in a state between life and death, Dean Winchester begins to witness strange things happening in the hospital he is staying at. After witnessing a phantom looking creature floating over his body, Dean realizes he is being stalked by a reaper. The reaper soon appears to Dean as a young woman calling itself Tessa, appearing to be in the same predicament as Dean, being stuck between life and death and tries to help him crossover. Dean is able to eventually see through Tessa's ruse, and realizes she is a reaper. When confronting her, Tessa tells him that souls who refuse to move on become vengeful spirits as a means to try and get him to come with her. As Tessa tries to get Dean to make his final decision to stay or go, Azazel possesses Tessa in order to return Dean to his body and fulfill his end of a deal he with John.
4.15 Death Takes a Holiday
When people in the town of Greybull, Wyoming stop dying, Sam and Dean learn that one of the 66 Seals involves killing reapers under the solstice moon is about to be broken by Alastair, and are forced to astral project themselves, with the help of Pamela Barnes, in order to speak with the spirit of the last person to have died in the town, Cole Griffith. When they find Cole, he tells him that when he died a reaper did arrive, but was consumed with black smoke and disappeared Tessa soon arrives to the town to set the natural order right once again, but after reawakening Dean's memories of her and his previous meeting, she is kidnapped by Alastair.
After Cole tells them the black smoke first appeared at the funeral home, they find it covered in Enochian symbols. Upon entering they find Tessa and the other reaper lying on the floor within a reaper trap, but before they can do anything, a demon appears and traps them within a iron chain circle. Alastair soon appears and reveals to the Winchesters that killing "death" twice is required to break the seal. With Sam and Dean trapped, Alastair performs the ritual implementing Death's Scythe to kill the first reaper.
An old friend lent it to me. You know, he doesn't really ride a pale horse, but he does have three amigos.
Before he is able to kill Tessa, Sam and Dean use their ghostly powers to cause a chandelier to fall and break the trap holding her. Now freed Tessa teleports and frees Sam and Dean from the iron, allowing all three to escape Alastair. With the seal prevented from being broken, and Alastair captured, Tessa begins reaping those who should already have died. Before leaving with Cole, Tessa gives a warning to Dean not to trust what the angels have planned for him.
5.10 Abandon All Hope...
Upon entering Carthage, Missouri Castiel notices reapers have gathered en masse, as dozen of old white men in suits are seen all standing still with their attention fixed on something in the distance. Castiel pauses to look at the nearest reaper, who ignores him before he excuses himself from the group to investigate why the reapers are in Carthage. Castiel's attention is caught by a reaper inside a building who turns away from the window, the first of the dozens to show any signs of life. Castiel teleports inside the building at the window, and walks down the corridor and enters a room where Lucifer greets him.
Bobby Singer later surmises that the reapers are all in Carthage because Lucifer plans on unleashing the Horseman Death, who has been locked away since Biblical times. Telling Dean that, "The angel of death must be brought into this world at midnight through a place of awful carnage", elaborating that Carthage was host to a bloody Civil War battle known as "Battle of Hellhole."
5.21 Two Minutes to Midnight
Crowley sees a neighborhood in Chicago "swarming with reapers." Death is in town planning to unleash a storm and other natural disasters that will kill 3 million people.
6.11 Appointment in Samarra
Dean induces a temporary Death in order to meet with Tessa to gain an audience with Death. When Tessa refuses Dean's request, Death appears before them and orders Dean to be quick. Wanting Sam to regain his soul, Dean asks if Death can retrieve it and his half brother Adam from Lucifer's Cage. Death forces Dean to choose between Sam or Adam, telling him he doesn't bring people back to life on principle, but might make an exception once, but not twice. He will rescue Sam's soul put up a wall to shield him from the trauma of his torture at he hands of Lucifer if Dean wins the wager Death proposes, where Dean must take over as Death for 24 hours.
Dean agrees to the wager, and upon putting on Death's ring is greeted by Tessa who has been chosen to escort Dean around so he can experience Death's rounds. With a list provided by Tessa Dean proceeds to kill the people who's time has come up, which Tessa subsequently reaps. Among these are an attempted armed robber, whom Dean allows to suffer for a bit from a gunshot would before killing, an obese man who dies of a heart attack, who Dean recites lyrics to Kansas' "Dust in the Wind" to upon asking "why". But upon being told a terminally ill 12-year-old girl is next on the list, Dean refuses. An act which reverberates, causing the death of a nurse who was able to leave the hospital early and forcing Dean to remove Death's ring to save her grief stricken husband from killing himself. However, despite Dean failing the wager, Death honors the agreement to retrieve Sam's soul. Telling Dean he never expected him to succeed, but wanted him to understand how he and Sam have screwed around with the natural order and that Dean and Sam are still of use and they need to continue investigating souls.
7.10 Death's Door
After Bobby Singer is shot in the head by Dick Roman, he slips into a coma. While traversing his own mind, Bobby's Reaper appears before him, intending to take him to the afterlife. The reaper reveals that due to Bobby's condition, it is unable to reap him through conventional means, and had to enter his mind to retrieve him. Bobby, needing to pass on a message to Sam and Dean Winchester, refuses to go and flees further into his own mind, much to the reaper's irritation.
Later, Bobby manages to temporarily imprison the reaper in a reaper trap, in an attempt to slow it down. The reaper tells Bobby it is not concerned, as the bullet slowly killing Bobby is also deteriorating his mind, and would eventually free him. Instead, it warns Bobby that if he does not go with him, he knows what will happen if he continued to persist, and assured him that he had done enough for the world and his boys. Bobby, disregarding himself, refuses and goes through the last door in his mind. After he wakes up and eventually slips back into the coma, the reaper is there waiting for him. It attempts to convince Bobby to move on one last time, assuring him that the Winchesters would be just fine without him, and warning him that he had just one last memory left. As Bobby smiles and watches Sam and Dean bicker on his couch they soon fade away, removing Bobby's smile. As the reaper asks Bobby one last time if he is going to stay or go, Bobby's answer is not heard.
8.19 Taxi Driver
Crossroads Demon: Rogue reapers. They got secret ways, in and out. Not just Hell -- the Veil, Heaven.
Sam: Rogue reapers smuggling people?
Sam: So, what? They're like Hell coyotes?
Crossroads Demon: People, souls...
Needing to sneak into Hell to perform the second trial, Sam and Dean approach rogue reaper Ajay to take them after learning that he and other rogue reapers like him can give passage in and out of Heaven and Hell for a price. Ajay is initially surprised that Sam and Dean know who he is and questions why they, as flesh and blood mortals, want his services. Ajay agrees to take Sam to Hell on the terms that the Winchesters will owe him a favor in the future, and reveals that Ajay was the reaper that took Bobby Singer's soul to Hell on Crowley's orders. The Winchesters agree to the deal, but Sam protests Dean joining him as he needs to complete the trial on his own.
Sam agrees and Ajay tells Dean to return in 24 hours to retrieve Sam. Entering an alley, Ajay uses his powers to open a passage that transports him and Sam to Purgatory. An angry Sam berates Ajay about changing there deal, but Ajay assures Sam that it is not smart to gate crash Hell with a Winchester, and gives him directions to where a portal to Hell exists that acts as a backdoor. Ajay tells Sam to meet him where he dropped him off in exactly 24 hours and leaves.
Crowley having learned of Ajay's dealings with the Winchesters from one of his minions, appears in the backseat of Ajay's cab and questions him. After learning that he helped Sam sneak into Hell and that he is due to pick him up in 17 hours, Crowley kills the reaper with an angel blade to prevent the pick-up and trap Sam in Purgatory.
After 24 hours, Dean returns to the agreed upon spot, only to find Ajay dead in the front seat of his cab.
9.03 I'm No Angel
In order to find Castiel who has warded himself from angels, Bartholomew hires rogue reapers to hunt him down. One reaper named Maurice is given a lead and begins tailing the Winchesters, but is soon captured by them after they notice him following them. Binding him with "angel cuffs", Dean tortures Maurice with an angel blade for information and after Maurice tells him all he knows, Dean stabs him through the neck with the blade, killing him.
Another reaper possesses a woman named April Kelly and locates Castiel. She pretends to take him in on a rainy night, and cleans his wounds. Eventually leading the two to engage in sex, but the next morning as Castiel is looking for his things, April reveals her true intentions and ties him up. She proceeds to torture Castiel for information on Metatron with his angel blade, but Castiel repeatedly tells her he didn't know what Metatron was doing and that he was tricked as well. Telling her that while he doesn't know the spell that Metatron used to expel all angels from Heaven, but if his grace was the final ingredient, he may be the key to reversing it. At that moment, Sam and Dean arrive to rescue Castiel, but Castiel is killed by April when she stabs Castiel's blade into his chest, and then proceeds to disarm Dean of his own angel blade and throws him and Sam across the room, knocking Sam out. However, while she is distracted with Sam, Dean pulls the angel blade out Castiel's torso is able to kill the reaper. Ezekiel takes control of the unconscious Sam's body, and resurrects Castiel, healing the damage April inflicted on him.
9.22 Stairway to Heaven
Learning that Tessa has joined Castiel's cause against Metatron, and that she was acquainted with a recent angel suicide bomber, Oren. Dean tracks her down to an auditorium, but as she tries to leave, he notices a sigil carved into her chest, realizing she is planning to blow herself up, he places angel cuffs on her to prevent her from going through with her plan.
While questioning her at the angel's base of operations, Tessa revealed to Dean that with Heaven boarded up, not even reapers are able to gain entry to ferry the souls of the dead. This caused the souls to become trapped in the Veil, which eventually built up to the point that Tessa became suicidal because she could hear the screams and the confusion and pain of the lost souls unable to move on. Unbeknownst to everyone, at some point she was captured by Metatron and brainwashed into becoming a suicide bomber for Castiel's cause. When Dean tries to get her to give the names of other potential bombers, using the the First Blade to threaten her, Tessa questions what Dean has done. Telling her he did what he had to, she tells him "welcome to the club" before thanking him and driving the First Blade into her abdomen, killing herself.
11.02 Form and Void
A reaper appears to Sam in a hospital, telling him that while Death found their constant resurrections humorous, with his demise there is only one rule in the universe -- "What lives, dies." The reaper informs Sam that if he or Dean dies, they won't be going to Heaven or Hell, but will be thrown into the Empty so they cannot return, due to their role in killing Death. She tells Sam she knows he's dying, and will see him soon, telling Sam that he is "unclean in a biblical sense," and reveals her name is Billie before departing.
11.10 The Devil in the Details
Dean is sent to Kenesaw, Nebraska by Crowley to meet with the reaper Billie, who is to give Dean a package and access to Limbo. When Dean recalls that Billie is the reaper Sam told him wanted them dead, she corrects him and tells him she is the one who will makes sure they stay dead, before sending him on his way to Hell.
11.17 Red Meat
After Sam's apparent death, Dean takes drastic measures by consuming a handful of pills in order to overdose as means of having a meeting with the reaper Billie. Dean's overdose goes as planned and once he is out of his body, Billie appears exiting a white blinding light. Knowing Dean isn't the kind to commit suicide, she asks him what he wants. When he tells her he wants Sam resurrected and is willing to trade his life for Sam's, Billie has no idea what he is talking about. But Dean pleads with her that Sam is the only one that can stop the Darkness, which will destroy everyone and everything -- including Billie. Billie asks him how, but Dean has no answer. She tells Dean that even if Sam could stop the Darkness, she still wouldn't make the deal. Telling him the Winchesters are all out of second chances. She extends her hand to Dean, and tells him the Empty is waiting. As Dean stares blankly at Billie, Dr. Kessler injects a syringe of adrenaline in his heart reviving Dean, prompting a dismayed Billie to walk out of the room and into the white light from whence she came.
11.23 Alpha and Omega
At Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Sam and Dean collect as many ghosts and vengeful spirits they can for their proposed soul catcher against Amara, as they leave, Billie reveals herself from the shadows, watching. Curious as to what they were doing at Waverly Hills, Bille follows them to the Men of Letters Bunker and questions them. After finding out about the soul catcher to kill the Darkness, Billie agrees to help, taking hold of the stone, Billie "raids the Veil" of a couple hundred-thousand souls before taking her leave.
12.06 Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox
When hunters begin dying at the wake of Asa Fox, Billie soon arrives to reap the souls. When Dean gets magically locked outside of the house, he makes a deal with Billie for her to get him back inside in exchange for owing her a favor.
The next morning when the dead hunters are given a funeral pyre, Billie appears before Sam, Dean and Mary Winchester. She tells the three that she knows Mary feels out of place, and that if she wants, Billie will reap her soul. When Mary declines, Billie departs, but before leaving she tells all the Winchesters that if any of them change their mind, all they have to do is call her name.
12.09 First Blood
After being locked away in solitary confinement at Site 94 for nearly two months, Dean makes a desperate play and calls on Billie. The Winchesters strike a deal with her, where they are temporarily killed so they can be moved to the site's morgue, where they will be resurrected on the condition that at the strike of midnight, a Winchesters will have to die, permanently.
When midnight arrives, Sam and Dean are confronted by Billie to honor their deal, telling them there are consequences on a cosmic scale if they break their deal with her. Mary, in a bid to save her sons, offers herself, reasoning that a Winchester has to die, and she is a Winchester. Billie agrees to the terms, and as Mary is about to shoot herself in the head, Billie is stabbed in the back by Castiel with an angel blade, killing her.
13.05 Advanced Thanatology
After Dean briefly commits suicide to find out from the ghosts trapped in a house where their bodies are, he encounters a reaper named Jessica, and rudely rejects her, who soon realizes who he is and teleports to Death's Library to announce that Dean Winchester is in the Veil.
After Dean finds the location of the bodies from Shawn Raider, he is greeted by Billie who reveals that she is the new Death. Billie explains that one of the rules of the universe is that when one incarnation of Death is killed, the next reaper to die will take his place. While talking with Billie, Dean makes a deal to free the souls trapped in the Meadows house. Billie sends Jessica to the home where she escorts the souls to their rightful resting place.
13.19 Funeralia
In a bid to gain the attention of Death, Rowena begins targeting people, and their reapers, involved with Pirodine Pharmaceuticals, a company that improperly labeled their drugs which led to the deaths of many people.
The reaper Jessica makes her presence known to the Winchesters, revealing that she is their "babysitter", assigned by Death to keep an eye of the brothers. She reveals to Sam and dean that people have been dying outside their assigned times due to Rowena, and offers her assistance. Which Sam and Dean reject. But upon learning that reapers are also being killed with the victims, Sam and Dean summon Jessica to get more information. Jessica reveals due to Rowena killing these people before their time, she is throwing off fate and the greater machinery of death. The ripple effect of these early deaths will lead to more early deaths, which in turn will force Death and the reapers to hit "reset" with a mass kill off, similar to the Black Plague or a midsized war.
As Rowena is confronting James Melford, the CEO of Pirodine. She uses her abilities to pierce the Veil and see his reaper, Martin. She asks Martin if he has a message for her from Death, telling him this will all end with a simple chat, to which Martin tells her Death does not negotiate with witches. The answer forces Rowena's hand as she kills Melford and Martin. Agreeing to a meeting with the Winchesters, she reveals to the brothers she wants an audience with Death in order to bring back Crowley, realizing upon hearing of his death that she failed him as a mother and that he deserved better. Rowena is able to abscond with Sam while Dean is forced to fight her bodyguard Bernard. In her hotel suite, Rowena summons Death by attempting to kill Sam, the only person that is prophesized to kill her.
14.10 Nihilism
Remembering that Billie assigned Jessica to watch over himself and Dean, Sam calls on her for help in escaping Hitomi Plaza, only to be met by another reaper named Violet. Violet reveals to Sam that reapers now take shifts keeping an eye on the Winchesters due to how often they screw things up. She is invisible to everyone in the room except for Sam and Michael, who tells her that his angel army kept Death locked away and enslaved the reapers in Apocalypse World. When Sam asks for her help, Violet tells him she can't interfere, but is then stopped mid-sentence as everyone in the room is teleported to the Men of Letters Bunker. Violet says that she didn't teleport them to the Bunker before disappearing.
After trapping Michael in Dean's mind, Billie appears in Dean's room, disclosing that she was the one that sent everyone to the Bunker. She also tells Dean not to let anyone know for her "taking a calculated risk." Billie goes on to divulge that all the notebooks in Death's Library have rewritten themselves, revealing that Michael escapes Dean's mind and uses his vessel to burn down the world in all the notebooks except one. She gives Dean the only notebook where Michael loses and Dean reads its contents. When Dean asks what he's supposed to do with this new information, Billie tells him that it's up to him before leaving.
15.12 Galaxy Brain
Death assigns a reaper by the name of Merle to watch over Jack and ensure he sticks to Billie's rules. When Jack decides to defy Billie's instructions and uses his powers to rescue Kaia from the Bad Place, Merle threatens to tell Death, but is blackmailed by Jack and the Winchesters to help, telling her they will open a rift either way. After Merle reluctantly agrees to help mask their presence by boosting the cosmic warding in the Bunker, she is struck down with Death's Scythe by Death for failing to do her one task.
15.17 Unity
When Sam uses the Key to Death to enter Death's Library in search of Billie, he finds the Cosmic Entity slaughtering several reapers. The Entity forces the last reaming reaper in the library to pray to Billie, but when she doesn't appear, the Entity kills the reaper by telekinetically snapping his neck.
15.19 Inherit the Earth
As a peace offering to the Winchesters, Jack and Michael, Lucifer produces a bound and gagged reaper named Betty, and promptly kills her. Confused by what Lucifer had done, Lucifer reminds Sam and Dean that Betty was the first reaper to die after Billie was taken to the Empty, making Betty the newest incarnation of Death. Upon reviving, Betty manifests a ring and new scythe and demands Chuck's Death Book so she can read it.
After deciphering the text, Betty is prepared to reveal how God "ends", but as she begins, Lucifer snaps his fingers, killing Betty and pulling the book to his chest.
Apocrypha
- A reaper named Daniel appears in the spin-off novel Supernatural: Carved in Flesh, where he assists Sam and Dean in stopping an attempt to restore the Norse goddess Hel to corporeal form.
- A manifestation of the Grim Reaper appears in the anime adaptation episode, 1.16 In My Time of Dying. Where, rather than Tessa, the Grim Reaper takes on the appearance of Mary Winchester as a means of convincing Dean to let go and move on.
See also
External links
Meta
- Soul train: Rogue reapers and purgatory in “Taxi Driver” by outpastthemoat (April 2013); archive link
References
- ↑ 5.10 Abandon All Hope...
- ↑ 8.19 Taxi Driver
- ↑ 9.03 I'm No Angel
- ↑ 13.19 Funeralia
- ↑ 2.01 In My Time of Dying
- ↑ 9.22 Stairway to Heaven
- ↑ 4.15 Death Takes a Holiday
- ↑ 8.19 Taxi Driver
- ↑ 13.19 Funeralia
- ↑ 8.19 Taxi Driver
- ↑ 7.10 Death's Door
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 1.12 Faith
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 2.01 In My Time of Dying
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 4.15 Death Takes a Holiday
- ↑ 7.10 Death's Door
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 8.19 Taxi Driver
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 9.03 I'm No Angel
- ↑ 12.09 First Blood
- ↑ 8.19 Taxi Driver
- ↑ 7.10 Death's Door
- ↑ 1.12 Faith