SUPERNATURAL: Teach Me To Sin

"Battlestar Gallactica" alumnus Ty Olsson has been cast in a major recurring role on Season 8 of "Supernatural." He will play Benny, a vampire who helps Dean (Jensen Ackles) escape from Purgatory a year after Sam (Jared Padalecki) gave up on finding his brother.

"Supernatural" fans may recognize Olsson, as he's played a different vampire on the show before. He had a small role in the 2006 episode "Bloodlust," as Eli, part of a pack of "good" vampires who have tried to live under-the-radar, feeling on cow's blood.

Benny won't just help Dean jump out of limbo without consequences.

"That character doesn't just go away. [He] will stick around and of course cause problems," Ackles tells us. "Because Dean is indebted to this character for his exit, it makes the situation very volatile. That's how the onion gets peeled back, through this crazy relationship with this new character." We'll see how Dean and Benny met through flashbacks as Benny complicates Dean's relationship with Sam in the present day.

Suffice to say, Dean won't be particularly honest with Sam about the vampire's motives. "Ultimately, they are pathologically dishonest with each other because John Winchester was pathalogically elusive to them," consulting producer Ben Edlund says. "They learned that the truth is this dangerous thing, and that you shouldn't speak it. He even taught them to keep secrets from each other for strategic purposes."

Edlund notes that Benny is not the season's "big bad," despite differing reports online. In fact, fans will be surprised to learn that there is no big bad for the season -- there's a goal, and several villains (some familiar, some not) who are hoping to reach that goal before the Winchesters do.