Television

Misha Collins, who plays the angel Castiel on The CW's Thursday-night thrill ride Supernatural, may not wield the awesome powers of a heavenly being in real life, but that doesn't mean he fails to make time to peruse his Holy Bible.

"I've actually spent a fair amount of time with the Bible," he says. "It's been on my to-do list for a long time. I wasn't raised in a religious family [and] I've never really devoted much time to it, so I'm spending a lot more time with it now."

Tonight, Supernatural airs "Heaven and Hell," its last original episode until January. A character introduced last week, Anna (Julie McNiven), remembers her past, and demon-hunting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles) discover why Castiel and his fellow angel, Uriel, want her dead.

But the Winchesters have other plans for Anna, while also fending off attacks from the evil Alistair (Mark Rolston) and his demonic minions.

Over its first three seasons, Supernatural dealt with a wide variety of folklore and urban legends, along with building its own mythology. But in season four, the show has taken on an ambitious storyline that features nothing less than Heaven vs. Hell, angels vs. demons, with the freedom of Lucifer himself hanging in the balance.

"It is ambitious," Collins says, "and it sounds so daunting."