The Winchesters get wind of some funky murders in this week's Anytown, USA, where the eyes of the seemingly unconnected victims were burned right out of their sockets. When they question the widower of one victim, they learn his wife had been acting strangely for the week leading up to her death, collecting bits of dirt from all over town and showing off her brand-new, all-black eyes. The trail leads them to a PhD candidate who's been working to reconstruct an old map of the town. Up to now, the story has been a bit slow. But then, while the Winchesters are hanging out with the budding cartographer, a bunch of demons barge in to take possession of her map. Fisticuffs ensue! In the middle of the fight, Castiel materializes to pretty up the scenery a bit. And also to smite him some demons.

One of the demons escapes into the cartographer, so Castiel ties her up and tortures her a bit. Dean's all, "My angel came!" But Castiel's like, "I didn't come for you." And Dean's like, "Frowny face!" Castiel and the demons are all looking for Lucifer's secret crypts. Under Naomi's control, he lies and says he's hunting for something that will allow them to finish translating the Demon Tablet. He learns that the other demons have a hostage who is feeding them info about the crypts. Castiel kills the possessed cartographer before she can blab the truth about his real intentions. Dean is suspicious, to say the least.

They track down the hostage, who turns out to be none other than Meg the demon. They rescue her, she flirts with Castiel, Castiel flirts back. They make tentative plans to have unholy nookie once she can get a hot oil treatment for her crazy hair. They all head over to the local crypt. If you were expecting something really creepy and sinisterly majestic, you'll be disappointed. It's not much more than a dusty old storage shed. Once there, it becomes clear that Castiel is actually looking for the Angel Tablet. When Dean doesn't hand it over, Castiel beats the snot out of him. Naomi commands Castiel to kill Dean, but he can't bring himself to do it, even though Naomi has been training him to kill imaginary Deans for months now. Naomi tells him to choose. "Them or us!" He chooses Dean -- er, humanity. When he picks up the tablet, it seems like his connection to Naomi is completely severed. Castiel flits off with the tablet, saying he has to protect it not only from Heaven, but from Dean as well. For some reason, this involves him taking the bus.

Meanwhile, Crowley shows up to taunt Sam and kill Meg. We all knew she was doomed once she started penciling in that booty call with Castiel, right? It's actually a little bit sad, even knowing all that Meg has done over the years.

In other subplots, Sam's trialberculosis is rapidly worsening. Castiel says he's been changed on a subatomic level, and damaged in ways that even he can't heal. Sam and Dean actually manage to have a mature discussion about the importance of telling the truth that doesn't end with Sam flaring his nostrils. Stay tuned for the full recap, where I'll go into more detail about this and other surprising developments.

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