Supernatural Castiel Timeline

A timeline of Castiel's relationship with Dean and Sam from the first time he showed up until he came back from the void. A little bit about his development as a character

Seasons 4

an introduction to angel fo the Lord Castiel and his cohort Uriel. Castiel appreciates humanity and has a conscience but is determined to do ANYTHING to stop the apocalypse. Because of Dean he finds a new way to live a new way to win. He is a recurring character only who ultimately betrays Heaven to help Dean and Sam fight on thier own terms.

Season 5: Castiel is a bad ass who is working with Dean and Sam as Armageddon looms. Lucifer and the Archangel Michael are getting ready to duke it out. Sam is Lucifer's chosen vessel and the angels want Dean to become say 'yes' to Michael the archangel. Castiel has become a main cast member and a true friendship between Cass and Dean blooms quickly. 

Season 6: There's a civil war in Heaven that Dean and Sam don't give a damn about they need Cass immediately for whatever they are facing. Cass is a little angst-y but is perfectly able to kick butt. In fact, more so than usually. In the end he deceives and betrays Sam and Dean, getting into a deal with the king of Hell Crowley. words he later uses to describe his actions. But what he does has an unforeseen side-effect and he basically goes mad with power.

Season 7: Mostly absent after a self-sacrifice, trying to fix what he broke.  Has amnesia or brain damage when he  returns in episode 17. He and Dean work out thier crap and  kill the bad guy. They get sent to purgatory.

Season 8: Dean escapes purgatory and a few episodes later, so does Cass. Completely and totally done with Heaven, Cass joins the brothers as a hunter and there is the strongest Destiel feel yet. The three of them are family. But his relationship with Dean is...special. The angel Naomi mind controls Cass for several episodes. The brothers to notice he's even more off than usual. There's an AMAZING episode with an absolutely glorious scene where a brainwashed Cass is beating the crap out of Dean who refuses to defend himself. Thier bond and the power of the angel tablet, breaks Naomi's hold over him. The season finale? ANGELS FALL. Like lightning from heaven fall to Earth.

Season 9: This is where Dean starts becoming a self-righteous jerk just for the sake of writing conflict into the show. Something that Thank God doesn't last more than this season. Dean kicks Cass out without explanation, lies to Sam about why and never even really explains to Cass why he kicked him out. Cass has tender moments of protectiveness and friendship with Sam. Dean starts getting affected by something called the Mark of Cain. Also features the only angel other than Castiel who gets how important humans are and shares his sense of honor. An angel named Gadreel who introduces himself as 'Ezekiel'. You can guess how well that went down.

Seasons 10-12 are them being brothers to each other through everything. Being family to each-other and growing closer. This is where Destiel moments started to feel like teases and just queer-baiting. Castiel runs away from them partway through season 12 and actually dies. Like they hold a funeral for him and burn his body. He comes back a few episodes into season 13 having pissed off an ancient entity so badly that it spit him back out.

Almost everything after that is well, old hashed on worn out tired inconsistent stuff. Dean resumes being poorly written and his anger and 'I don't give a crap' drill sergeant-ness becomes the norm. Lucifer's son Jack arrives and calls Castiel his father. Lucifer was basically a surrogate because while in his human mother's womb, Jack chose Castiel to be his father and protector. Jack dies, they bring him back to life in a way that damages his soul. The more the he uses his powers to protect them, the less of his soul will remain. They're in denial about how soulless he is for a long time. And when they admit how soulless he has become. That's when Dean becomes such an f-ing sanctimonious hypocrite and it is appallingly clear writers are no longer trying. If they were, Sam would have defended Cass. Dean rails against Castiel for 'having known (how bad Jack is) this whole time and never telling us' and being the father of an "inherently soulless monster that you've been defending". Eventually even holding a gun on Castiel's actual son Jack. After 5 episodes of this, Cass leaves the bunker. Not because Dean was wrong, only because Dean can't forgive him for his misjudgments and is holding onto anger. "You used to trust me, give me the benefit of the doubt. And now you can barely look at me.". Season 14 proves Cass is absolutely romantically in love with Dean, only because because no one would ever take THIS much crap from anyone and not think twice, unless they loved that person so completely it would never occur to them he was doing anything wrong or being unfair.

Dean needed to loose what he had in order to admit for the first time how much he'd taken Cass for granted and how badly he'd treated the man. And THAT was a beautiful moment. But what the writers used as an excuse in order to get there was pathetic. They were basically married for the final season. But the writers had long since stopped trying and the episodes made no sense. I HATED God and Death and Billie and any of it. The other two protagonists of these later seasons, thier mother Mary and another universes Bobby Singer disappeared with barely any explanation. Mary was written out before she was killed off. And everything went both inconsistent and nilistic. But still, we got between 8 and 10 years of absolute BFF goals out of these guys.