'Supernatural': Misha Collins on Castiel, his meat suit, Dean, Sam & demon blood

Before last Thursday's "Supernatural" episode, Castiel had been a pretty big mystery. But in "The Rapture," we got the backstory behind his meat suit: Turns out Jimmy was a religious man with a wife and kid, a pretty good life... until Castiel came along, stealing Jimmy's mind and body, taking him away from his family.

Definitely not the most angelic thing to do, dude. 

The good news is Castiel got called back up to Heaven, which meant Jimmy was back in control of his body. But the Big C of course returned and has highjacked Jimmy's body once again... just in time to deal with the potential rising of Lucifer. 

With hopes of getting dirt on what the rest of the season holds, KTV correspondent Marisa Roffman chatted actor Misha Collins (Castiel/Jimmy) up on his two characters, Sam's addiction to demon blood and what he thinks really happened to Cas while he was gone...

First of all, I just want to say how brilliantly you played both Jimmy and Castiel last week. Was that difficult trying to portray two people who are so different from each other?
MC: Well, you know, I think it made it easier that they were so different. I think that if Castiel and Jimmy had been similar characters, it would have been a lot harder to flesh out. Just from the writing [of the episode], it was so clear that they were not at all alike, so that made it easier to make a distinction [between the two] and create a different character. More than anything, it was kind of fun [playing two people]. You don't get to do that very often. You get to play two sides of one character, but not two sides of two characters. In the flashbacks, I got to play the old Jimmy and the new Jimmy, and the old Castiel and the new Castiel. It was a lot to work with. It certainly kept me busy for the eight days of shooting.

You are one of the few cast members that is already confirmed to be coming back next year. Have they discussed what kind of role Cas or Jimmy might play in season five?
MC: If they have talked about it, they haven't talked about it with me! So, I don't know. But I do know that I am going to be back. I just don't know what my role is going to be. I have a suspicion it's going to be Castiel and not Jimmy though.

The last episode seemed to indicate that Jimmy was giving himself over to Castiel for good. Is Jimmy gone forever?
MC: I wouldn't even want to hazard a guess. It seems on "Supernatural," it doesn't matter how dead or gone you think someone is, there's always a chance that they come back. So, I'm sure that holds true for Jimmy as well.

It's probably best that Castiel will have control over Jimmy's body since the apocalypse is coming. What can you tell us about these last two episodes?
MC: There's a lot going on between Sam and Dean. Sam is going through the DTs. He's been locked up by Bobby and Dean, and they are sort of forcing him to go cold turkey [off of the demon blood]. And not having the demon blood is putting Sam through some serious withdrawal, so he's not happy with Dean. And that's driving a bit of a wedge between the two brothers in the next two episodes. That's putting it mildly. It's more than a wedge. And then the final battle is boiling down to the final seal and Sam and Dean trying to prevent it from breaking. That's what they're after in the end. Beyond that, I don't know what I should say.

Can you talk about where Castiel fits in with everything? It seems like he'd be vital in trying to prevent the seal from being broken. 
MC: I wish I could tell you [where he fits in], but I can't. I can't think of anything to say without giving away too much. He's going to be there. I can tell you that. But that's not a very good spoiler, is it?

Well, at least we know he'll be there, and hopefully he can assist the boys. Since Sam is dealing with the demon blood addiction, is there any chance we'll see Cas interacting more with him in the future? 
MC: I think that's entirely possible. I don't really know what's going on in the future. [But] this season, the next couple of episodes, the relationship [that] is going to be more played out  [is the one between] Sam and Dean. What happens next season is anyone's guess. I think it would be interesting to explore [the Sam and Castiel] relationship more. 

It would be nice, since Sam was the one who always believed in things like angels, while Dean didn't. 
MC: Yeah. It's interesting the arc they chose to take with the two brothers because Dean was clearly, well, I don't know about atheist, but certainly the more agnostic of the two. And for him to be the one who's primarily interacting with the angels and for the more devout one [to have taken the route Sam did], it's interesting. And I think it's more interesting to have the believer be [drinking demon blood]. It just pushes them both. And for the same reason, I think that, as Sam is wrestling with the demon qualities, it'll be more interesting for him to have interaction with Castiel, the angel, next season.

That influence would be especially important now that Castiel is back in Jimmy's body and he seems to be back to following the angel rules. Is that correct to assume that Cas has changed back and is no longer questioning authority? 
MC: Yeah, that's definitely what's] going on with him. My own personal take on what happened [when Castiel left Jimmy's body] is he was somehow tortured or very seriously rebuked and threatened when he was up in Heaven, and he now is towing the party line again. But I think that he still has some internal conflict about it, I don't think he's ever going to be the perfect little soldier [again], and he hasn't been turned into a [robot] totally. So he still has a lot of the same thoughts that he used to have [before he disappeared], but he's definitely back to being a good little soldier.

Is there any chance we might get some kind of indication on the show what happened, like a comment or a flashback of sorts?
MC: I don't know how they would do that, because Castiel -- outside of Jimmy's body -- would be an angel, and we know that angels can't be seen by human beings without their eyes being burned out. So if they did show that, they would have to burn out the entire viewing audience's eyes. Which I think would be some sort of liability for the CW.

Not to mention that "Supernatural"'s viewership might take a serious hit.
MC: Exactly. Unless they were starting to make a shift to a purely audio version of the show, like a radio play. In which case, it might actually be a good move because it would save a bundle on production costs.

All the fans could just listen to "Supernatural" on their iPod.
MC: Exactly. [Laughs] I don't know why I'm not a network executive. These are good ideas!