The end is nigh for Supernatural, and the premiere of the fifteenth and final season revisited some old monsters to menace Sam and Dean Winchester. Showrunner Andrew Dabb has said that the big bad of Season 15, who is none other than God, will bring back some "old familiar faces" to toy with the brothers, and photos released ahead of the second episode of Season 15 revealed one big return: Osric Chau as Kevin Tran.
As Supernatural fans know well, Kevin is dead a few times over by this point. The Winchesters finally said what seemed to be their last goodbye to Kevin when God sent the student-turned-prophet to find peace in Heaven back in Season 11. Kevin was gone, but to a happier place. Or so fans (and the Winchesters) thought, anyway. Showrunner Andrew Dabb spoke with CinemaBlend about Osric Chau's Season 15 return, saying this:
One, I think we're really happy to have him back. And then two, I think it's a matter of the last time we saw Kevin, God said basically, 'I'm gonna send you to Heaven,' and as we have learned subsequently, God may not be the most trustworthy guy out there. So we'll see the fallout of that in this episode. [Kevin] never catches a break.
Kevin really can't catch a break, can he? Not even in death! The Season 14 finale reveal that God is far from the benevolent figure he'd seemed means that pretty much everything he ever told the Winchesters should be taken with a grain of salt, and that includes what happened to Kevin. That's not to say that we should assume God flung him into a fiery pit of Hell second only to the cage (which may not hold Michael and Adam much longer); we just can't take it for granted that God did right by Kevin.
Besides, one of the promo pics for the second episode of Season 15, called "Raising Hell," doesn't quite indicate that Kevin has been tortured by demons ever since he was last seen on Supernatural. Does he look kind of rough and like he's seen better days? Sure. He's looked worse, though! Check it out:
Kevin doesn't even look particularly unkempt, even if his clothes aren't in good condition. If anything, he looks like a man on a mission with some people backing him up. It's not clear just yet if that's a mission that Sam and Dean will approve of, especially if Kevin is back because God deliberately plucked him out of wherever he's been to mess with the boys. If he's on Team God rather than Team Free Will for some reason, things could get ugly. That's a big if, though.
Unfortunately, the official description for "Raising Hell" doesn't mention Kevin at all, although it does reveal two other returning guest stars. In "Raising Hell," Sam, Dean, and Cas send out on SOS to Rowena as part of the mission to keep the evil souls at bay, as their efforts in the Season 15 premiere only locked away a limited number of souls. In the process, they get an unexpected assist from Ketch.
Whatever happens, hopefully Kevin ends the episode with some version of peace himself. If the Winchesters will get such a thing at the end of the series, as Jared Padalecki has said, then surely Kevin deserves it as well! If "Raising Hell" is a one-off return for Kevin, Supernatural fans can find him in the Arrow-verse's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover playing a character who could be key.
See Kevin Tran's return to Supernatural when "Raising Hell" airs Thursday, October 17 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.
