Borax

Name	Sodium borate aka Borax
Manufacturer	Power Clean
Powers	Temporarily burns and weakens Leviathans.
Location/Owners	Supermarkets around the world.
Episodes	First Appearance: 7.06 Slash Fiction Last Appearance: 15.09 The Trap

The thing to know about Leviathan is these monsters are as old as time, and strong as all get-out. Sodium borate – commonly known as borax. Decapitation… Splash them liberally. Repeat. …is the key. Then put that head in a box. These are the Superman of monsters. But don’t use… ...from the black hole of Purgatory. Send it to the moon if you can. They die. They can shapeshift… They don’t die easy. Take your face, your memory – the works. The top boss is Mr. Dick Roman. He runs the show. – Frank Devereaux, 7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo

History

Borax, or sodium borate, is a compound found in most cleaning supplies and is a salt of boric acid. Its use as a weapon against the Leviathans came by happenstance when Sheriff Jody Mills spilled a bucket containing the cleaning solution -- Power Clean -- which dripped through the floorboards of Rufus's Cabin onto the Leviathan Chet, causing an acidic reaction in his body. The effect is only temporary, but it can allow time to get close enough to decapitate the Leviathan. While weaker Leviathans appear to take longer to heal, the Leviathan leader, Dick Roman, showed higher resistance to borax, healing his burns near instantaneously after exposure and treating it as more of a nuisance than hindrance.

Episodes

Chet's body after prolonged exposure to borax.

7.06 Slash Fiction

As Bobby is testing out various methods to kill the Leviathan Chet, he becomes frustrated that nothing appears to work, Chet begins mocking Bobby by taking his form and telling him how he plans on eating him. As Bobby raises his machete to strike, several drops of a liquid fall from the ceiling onto Chet's arm and burn his skin, causing Chet to panic and plead for Bobby to get it off of him. The skin on Chet's arm turns yellow, then black, and black steam rises. Another drop falls and Chet's arm continues to burn, causing more pain. Another drop falls onto Chet's face and a large patch on his arm is black, at which point Bobby decapitates Chet once more. Bobby rushes upstairs to find the cause of the acidic effect on Chet, to find Jody Mills, who had been scrubbing the floor and knocked over a bucket containing borax in the cleaning solution. With this information, Bobby places a call to Dean and instructs him to use anything with sodium borate -- any soaps or laundry powder with "borax" on the label.

Dean has Sheriff Osborne locate cleaning supplies with borax. In a fight with Leviathan!Sam, Sheriff Osborne throws a bucket of borax onto the Leviathan, allowing Dean to decapitate it with a fire ax. Dean and the sheriff then rush to the interrogation room, where Leviathan!Dean is preparing to eat Sam. Dean bursts into the room, douses the Leviathan with Power Clean, and cuts off his head with the ax.

7.09 How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters

After Bobby is captured by the Leviathans at Richard Roman Enterprises, Sam and Dean stage a rescue that night, equipping themselves with pressure sprayers containing Power Clean. At a warehouse, Edgar and a truck driver are walking towards two men in suits who appear to be bodyguards. Dean and Sam enter and spray the bodyguards, Edgar, and the truck driver, who start to scream and writhe in pain as their skin burns.

Dick Roman is alerted to Sam and Dean's arrival and leaves Bobby in his office while he goes to deal with them. Sam empties his pressure sprayer on Dick, who begins healing faster than the other Leviathans, casually wiping his face with a handkerchief. As he advances on Sam, Dean begins throwing more borax on Dick from behind, causing him to burn, marginally annoying him and allowing for Sam to slip past Dick and make his escape with Dean and Bobby.

George's face after being dunked into a bucket with borax.

7.16 Out with the Old

When confronting Joyce Bicklebee and her assistant George, in the ensuing fight, Joyce grabs Dean and throws him into a glass cabinet, while George throws Sam over a desk. As Sam tries to defend himself with punches, George grabs Sam around the throat and clues him to the bucket of borax next to them. He tells Sam to dunk his head into it before Joyce sees them talking. Joyce throws Dean onto a table, which breaks as Sam dunks George's head in the bucket. The sight of George's half burned off face with exposed skull disgusts Joyce, who throws Dean into some glass doors. George alerts Sam to a sword in a display cabinet, and as Joyce advances on Dean, Sam is able to sneak behind her and decapitate her.

7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo

When Charlie Bradbury is given Frank Devereaux's hard drive to hack, she finds a file on Leviathans and learns what borax will do to them. After witnessing the Leviathan Tarrell shapeshift and eat her superior, Pete, Charlie flees to her apartment where she is met by Sam and Dean. To prove to her that they are not Leviathans, they pour borax onto their arms, assuaging Charlie's fear when they do not begin to burn. Dean, in turn, pours borax on Charlie's hand to prove that she is human.

Effects of the borax bomb on a Leviathan.

Learning that Dick is having a package delivered from a excavation site in Iran and will have 42 minutes to intercept the package at the airport, Sam, Dean, and Charlie formulate a plan. They successfully switch out the briefcase with one containing a bottle of Power Clean rigged with explosives, creating a borax bomb. When Dick receives the briefcase and opens it, his look of self-satisfaction quickly turns to confusion as the borax bomb counts down and explodes. The explosion causes the lower portion of Victor's face to melt, leaving him lying prone on the floor. Dick casually walks over him, with burns on his face, and orders the building locked down. With Charlie trapped in the building Pete begins stomping towards her, but he is knocked down by Bobby who inadvertently sends him into Charlie, breaking her arm. Sam and Dean proceed to crash through the glass doors, and upon Charlie telling them Pete is a Leviathan, Dean throws a jar of borax into his face, causing him to collapse in pain.

7.22 There Will Be Blood

While trying to get the blood of the Alpha Vampire for their weapon against Dick, Sam and Dean attempt to persuade the Alpha Vampire that the Leviathans are the ones poisoning the vampires. When Edgar arrives, Dean tells the Alpha Vampire that they will need soap or cleansers, anything with borax in it, only to have the Alpha Vampire order his children to lock Sam and Dean up in his study.

While speaking with Edgar, the Alpha Vampire questions him about the side effects of the Leviathan additive, which Edgar answers with indifference, telling him he wants the Alpha and his children to burn. He reveals that the additive kills werewolves, shapeshifters, anything with a taste for human flesh. Angry, the Alpha Vampire tells Edgar "they" come from "them" and that he is a son of Eve, all of which Edgar belittles, saying that the other monsters are nothing but mutts and that Eve was a whore. Edgar's insult to his mother provokes the Alpha to bare his fangs and lunge at Edgar, sending him into the wall. Grabbing a chilled bucket from the table, he splashes it onto Edgar, causing his flesh to burn from the borax. The effects are short, however, as Edgar is able to straighten up and attack the Alpha Vampire. As Edgar's face transforms, he is quickly decapitated by Sam.

Meg splashes Borax on the Leviathan guards at SucroCorp.

7.23 Survival of the Fittest

With the plan to kill Dick set, Sam, Dean, and Castiel enlist the help of Meg to act as a distraction by crashing the Impala into the front sign of SucroCorp. Meg exits the driver’s seat of the Impala with a bottle of Power Clean and machete in hand, as the Leviathan security guards begin opening fire. Meg begins retaliating, throwing Power Clean onto Leviathans and decapitating them.

Inside a SucroCorp laboratory, Dick Roman samples the new additive-laced creamers as Castiel, holding a bottle of Power Clean, and Dean teleport into the room.

8.01 We Need to Talk About Kevin

When Sam returns to Rufus's Cabin he is met by Dean, who pushes him to the floor and douses him with holy water and borax, much to Sam's annoyance. When Sam refuses to do the same to Dean, Dean splashes himself with holy water and borax to prove he isn't a demon or Leviathan either.

After tracking down Kevin Tran's location to an abandoned church, Sam and Dean are greeted by Kevin who begins to shoot them with a large water gun containing borax, until Dean assures him they are not Leviathans.

15.09 The Trap

In preparation for their trip to Purgatory, Castiel fills a bunch of shotgun shells with borax. Dean later threatens a Leviathan with the borax-filled shotgun to get him to help them. After being attacked by Leviathans working for Eve, Dean takes one down with a borax round.