Supernatural - S11E10 - The Devil in the Details
Previously on Supernatural, ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’
The winter premiere begins with a hilarious cold open (I still can’t get Mark Sheppard in a onesie out of my mind). We’re presented with a reimagining of Rowena’s recurring dream/nightmare in which she’s stuck celebrating Christmas with a grown-ass Crowley in a onesie opening presents - a Sam doll to be exact). Lucifer appears as Santa and kills Crowley with a candy cane and so begins the machination whereby Rowena betrays Crowley and Sam by tampering with the hex spell that was supposed to keep Lucifer imprisoned, but instead allowed him to trap Sam within the cage. By Rowena’s reasoning, Lucifer beat The Darkness once before and when he does again he’ll ascend to rule Heaven and take her to be his Queen.
Meanwhile, Castiel finds Amara (because of course the Angel’s smiting wouldn’t work), but she states how worthless he is and dispatches him with a warning that she’s coming.
Ultimately, this show is about the Winchester brothers and the majority of this episode concentrates on Lucifer’s attempt to convince Sam to allow Lucifer to use him as a vessel. Lucifer takes Sam on a trip down memory lane where he shows him various points in Sam’s life which illustrated how Sam was willing to do what it took to save the world. Lucifer surmises that the guilt Sam felt when he left Dean for dead in purgatory has caused him to grow soft. Lucifer reiterates the recurring problems between the Winchester brothers where they continually try to save each other no matter the consequences to the world. But, perhaps in a sign that Sam is finally learning, he rejects Lucifer because two greater evils roaming the world is worse than one.
Meanwhile, Dean, upon learning his brother’s fate, teams up with Crowley to get a witch catcher from the reaper Billy that allows them to force Rowena to cast the spell to send Lucifer back to Hell. As Lucifer starts beating on Sam, Dean and Castiel rush to the cage to try to help, only to wind up getting trapped in the cage as well. We get an all out 3-on-1 brawl (complete with ambient music) and although the boys all get their asses handed to them, they delay enough to allow Rowena to complete the spell banishing Lucifer back to hell.
But a somewhat touching moment between Rowena and Crowley in which she explains why she hates Crowley (because to not is to love him, which weakens her) is interrupted by Castiel, who allowed Lucifer to use him as a vessel before the spell took effect, thus creating a loophole that prevented him from banishment.
Finally, instead of that throne in heaven poor Rowena she gets her neck snapped as Lucifer is not taking any chances.
Supernatural S11E10
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Plot - 8/108/10
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Dialogue - 9/109/10
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Action - 8/108/10
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Performances - 10/1010/10
Summary
This was a great episode coming back from the hiatus. Although I’m not a fan of the darkness arc, I enjoy all the plotting between the various factions trying to combat Amara, who’s being portrayed as the ultimate evil. As the fight in the cage illustrates, this episode also shows off how ridiculous it is that mere mortals are fighting a deity. I can understand Castiel (who’s supposed to be an angel) being able to fight off Lucifer, but how the hell do Sam and Dean even survive that fight more than a second?
Looks like we’re finally getting the old Sam back, and the show will be the greater for it.
After the very dour mid-season finale, the winter premiere came back with a bunch of one-liners. From Lucifer’s “I’ll move to L.A. and solve crimes” (in reference to FOX’s Lucifer) after Sam asks him what he’ll do after he defeats Amara, to the various funny voicemail themes: Like Crowley’s “Thank you for phoning Crowley, King of Hell. For demon deals press 1. To report a sighting of that ginger whore Rowena press 2. Or Dean hijacking Sam’s voicemail and saying “Sam can’t talk right now cuz he’s waxing. Like everything. But leave a message” then we hear Sam in the background yelling “What are you doing with my phone?”
I wonder how long Misha Collins hung around Mark Pellegrino in order to can duplicate his mannerisms so well. I’m really looking forward to the new Castiel/Lucifer as Castiel’s character had become boring and his plotline stale.
Lastly, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about Rowena’s death, as killing off recurring characters is a Supernatural trait. I admit I didn’t enjoy the character of Rowena at first as I found her to be grating, but she eventually grew on me to the point where I looked forward to her appearances. R.I.P Rowena.
