WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Supernatural Season 15, Episode 8, "Our Father, Who Aren't In Heaven."
The long-speculated -- and eventually confirmed -- return of a character not seen on Supernatural for almost 10 years occurred tonight in the final midseason finale. Adam Milligan, the long-lost half-brother of Sam and Dean Winchester, had been trapped in Lucifer's Cage in Hell since the end of Season 5, with nothing but a half-mad archangel for company and, for a time, the Devil himself, after "Team Free Will" put a stop to the Apocalypse.
Now, a break in Sam, Dean and Castiel's frantic search to find God/Chuck's Achilles heel forces them to go looking for their father's youngest son, while knowing that a decade's worth of torture below ground probably won't have endeared either Adam or archangel Michael to any of them.
The idea to visit the Cage came from a discovery ex-Prophet, Donatello, made in the Demon Tablet that the brothers still have stashed in the Bunker. As Dean explains, the tablet -- which contains written instructions from God on how to defend against demons -- exists because there's "a crack in Chuck's invincibility shield." Essentially, it's a fail safe God put in place to guard his chosen creations should anything happen to him. Knowing that God was able to seal away his equal counterpart, The Darkness, Dean surmizes doing the same thing to Chuck should be possible -- as long they can find an exploitable chink in his armor.
Lo and behold, Donatello discovers annotations made in the margins of the tablets' script by Chuck's scribe, Metatron. "The All Mighty guards a secret fear, but it is always there. This, he shares only with his favorite." Castiel works out that, as Lucifer had already been cast out when the tablet was created, Chuck's "favorite" would have been his son, Michael. As if to confirm that they're on the right track, Chuck -- using his link to Donatello -- possesses the former Prophet and threatens those close to Sam and Dean should they continue to pick at this particular thread.
Of course, the trio ignore this warning and plow ahead, knowing that the best way to keep their loved ones safe is by taking Chuck out of the picture for good. Using a spell of Rowena's, they teleport to Hell and go looking for Adam/Michael. Unfortunately, they're far too late: when Chuck blew open the dimension's doors, the cohabiting duo used the opportunity to make their way topside.
We find Adam and Michael in surprisingly good spirits. The archangel watches on -- in Adam's mind -- in curiosity as the Winchester sibling tucks into some fast food; a literal first taste of freedom. It isn't long before the two start swapping stories on their complicated home lives. "I met my family once," Adam says, "and they let me rot in Hell." Despite this statement, Adam is actually in a far more forgiving mood than his angel counterpart. Michael's bitterness and distrust of Sam, Dean and Castiel runs much deeper on account of them setting him alight and cancelling his Apocalypse, which isn't helped when the three of them end up luring him into a holy fire trap and then manacling him with some "angel cuffs."
In the Bunker, we get some insight into Adam and Michael's unconventional relationship. Dean is shocked when Michael allows Adam to take the wheel periodically, to which Adam explains: "In the Cage, we came to an agreement. We only had each other." It's stinging comment for the older brothers who abandoned him even, as Michael reminds them, when they enabled both Sam and Lucifer's escapes from the same prison. However, it seems that all the talk we've been hearing about the two of them being "mad" isn't strictly true. Sure, Adam talking to Michael looks like, from the outside, as though he's talking to himself, but in reality, having company during his ordeal has had the opposite effect -- preserving his sanity rather than breaking it.
The Adam we first met in the earlier seasons was a listless, angry young man who was easily manipulated into giving into the demands of others. This Adam is level-headed and self-assured enough to make his own decisions and put his troubled past behind him now. When Michael maintains, naively, that God's return means he will usher in paradise, Adam argues that while he doesn't fully forgive Sam and Dean he knows -- from unfortunate experience -- that their commitment to their cause is unshakable, and therefore doesn't believe they're lying. He even suggests that Chuck is having something of a "mid-eternity crisis." It takes the intervention of Castiel -- forcing Michael to see visions of everything Chuck has been up to while his "favorite" son languished in Hell -- for the archangel's hero worship of his father to finally crack.
Begrudgingly, Micheal confirms to Dean and Castiel that Chuck can indeed be sealed away like he helped the deity do to his sister millennia ago. For both of their help, they're allowed to walk away free, but not until Dean offers his youngest brother the most sincere apology he can muster. "You're a good man. You didn't deserve that." Pragmatically, Adam replies, "Since when do we get what we deserve?"
The reunited Winchester brothers part on neither good nor bad terms. There's a lot of love lost between them, but nothing beyond repair. Adam wishes Dean "good luck" and excuses himself from the coming battle, though it's doubtful that Chuck will allow the last remaining archangel of this world to keep himself off the board for long -- especially after he shot the messenger that was Lilith when she approached him on Chuck's behalf in the diner. For now though, Adam and his archangel interloper are finally free to walk (and fly) the Earth again.
Airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, the final season of Supernatural stars Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins and Alexander Calvert. Following the mid-season finale, the show will return January 16, 2020.