Roxanne Powell

Staff Writer

Yes, yes, we all know your fandom’s going through a rough time, too. What with all the midseason finales airing left and right, it’s hard to imagine all those hearts breaking at once.

Well, if you’re a Supernatural fan, you’ve learned that a broken heart can quickly lead you to do something reckless. Or stupid. Or brave. Or a mixture of the three.

Or you could just be an honorary Hunter.

Kevin Tran’s (Osric Chau) death sent a ripple through the fandom. In a recent interview with the show’s executive producer, Jeremy Carver, Entertainment Weekly got us the scoop on what’s going to happen when the show resumes in January.

We’ve seen multiple characters murdered, but that doesn’t make Tran’s departure from the show any less of a heartbreak. Carver assures us, however, that he may make a comeback.

“With any luck, being Supernatural, there will be a way to perhaps see him sometime down the line, but it’s with a very heavy heart that we see Kevin be murdered.”

Last season we saw Dean convince Sam not to close the gates to hell. This season Carver says we’ll get to see Dean trick his brother into accepting the angel Ezekiel—or try to, anyway. Ezekiel also used to be Gadreel, so that adds another twist.

“[Dean] made these two crucial decisions that affected the boys’ mythology [at the beginning of the season] and to watch particularly the second one turn into a heartbreaking failure is really what’s going to be driving Dean from here on out in the season, starting with he’s going to do whatever it takes to track down this angel and eject him from Sam.”

These decisions will force Dean to make new choices that the old Dean would not have dreamed—night or day—of ever making in his lifetime. But he’s a Winchester, and Winchester’s fix what they break.

With so much bad piling up, Dean will revert to his go-to response: blaming himself. Carver reveals that we can expect this for several episodes as Dean comes to terms with his roles in recent events.

So Dean’s beating himself up, Sam’s possessed by Gadreel, and Castiel has his powers back.

“Now that he’s an angel again, he’s going to have to find his place in this angelic battle, and it may not be the place he imagined for himself, which is going to confront him with some choices he perhaps never thought he’d have to make. So he’s right back in the fire, as it were.”

Major plotlines will unfold, the Ghostfacers will return in some of the standalone episodes, and there will be hugging.

Oh, and the boys are splitting up.

Carver claims that the team goes where the story takes them. Good writing develops a mind of its own, and sometimes that means taking the cast in a new direction every once in a while.

“So to cut right to it, the boys might be apart but they’re not apart that long. We’re invested in good story but we’re also not crazy.”

Only as crazy as the rest of us, Carver.

The Winchester’s, Castiel, and the rest of the cast return to Supernatural on January 14, 2014 on the CW.