Appointment in Samarra

Family physician Dr Robert (guest star Robert Englund) temporarily kills Dean in order for him to summon the reaper Tessa. Dean asks her to call Death, but she refuses. Death, however, appears and Dean asks for his help in getting Sam's soul back - and intact. Death agrees, but only if Dean wears his ring for a day.

After telling Bobby and Sam of his plan, Dean sets off with Tessa where he encounters an armed robber and an overweight man, who suffers a heart attack. When he comes across a young girl with a heart condition, Dean refuses to reap her. However, by changing the natural order of life and death, a nurse ends up dying in a car accident and her grieving husband tries to kill himself. Dean attempts to stop the man, and is forced to take off the ring, causing him to fail in his deal. Dean then puts on the ring back on to reap the girl, in order to make things right.

Meanwhile, Sam summons Balthazar to find out how to keep his soul out his body. Balthazar tells him that he needs the blood of the father for the spell to work. With no father alive, Bobby becomes his target. But just as Sam is about to kill his best friend, Dean arrives and knocks him out.

Death arrives to reclaim his ring, which surprises Dean - who realises his game with Death’s was rigged. Death then decides to retrieve Sam’s soul – but only because there is something about the human soul that he needs to understand.

The episode ends with Death clutching Sam’s soul…

Death takes a holiday in the next episode of Supernatural