Supernatural - S11E9 - O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Previously on Supernatural, ‘Just My Imagination’
After two straight standalone episodes, Supernatural continues the season-long arc of the Darkness released on Earth. Amara, now all grown and played again by Emily Swallow, is searching for big brother God and is killing all of his disciples in order to get his attention. This gets the attention of Sam and Dean, who desperately decide to follow Sam’s vision from God (after Sam gets a sign from God in the form of a burning bush) to go to Lucifer’s cage.
They go to Crowley who, decides to help once he finds out Amara is God’s sister, but claims that the will need the book of the damned in order to protect Sam. It just so happens Crowley’s minions have caught Rowena (who has the book) and force her to concoct the hex to protect the cage. While Crowley, Rowena, and Sam go visit Lucifer’s cage, Dean goes to investigate a mass murder at a church and comes across Amara herself.
Funniest Moments
For the first time that I can remember watching Supernatural, this episode had no funny moments at all. It was all about the seriousness of the Darkness and Lucifer’s cage. The only thing that was somewhat amusing was Rowena’s school girl infatuation with Lucifer causing Crowley to tell her to stop drooling.
Dean and Amara
Once Dean catches up with Amara, she reveals her plan to eliminate pain from humanity by devouring the world. Dean tries to stab her with an Angel blade but it shatters on impact. She grabs his face and at first it looks like she’s going to suck his soul, but she only ends up making out with him. Three angels appear and ask her to give up in the name of justice or else all angels will smite her at once. She kills the angels, but transport Dean to a safe location before all the angels smite her.
Sam and Lucifer
Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) is summoned by Crowley to talk to Sam, Sam asks for help with the Darkness as even Lucifer is not out of harm’s way. Lucifer agrees, but only if Sam allows him to take over his body. Sam doesn’t agree, but before he can leave, Rowena’s spell wears off and Lucifer traps Sam in the cage with him. At first, Sam’s not scared as everything is going according to his vision from God, but then Lucifer tells Sam that it was him, and not God, who was sending him the visions.
Supernatural S11E9
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Plot - 6.5/106.5/10
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Dialogue - 7/107/10
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Action - 8/108/10
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Performances - 8/108/10
Summary
Supernatural finally gets back to its season-long arc. Unfortunately that story just isn’t very interesting. I do enjoy the Sam and Lucifer portions, but that is mainly because Mark Pellegrino is charming as hell and hams up the part to perfection. Crowley and Rowena were just there to get Sam to Lucifer and added nothing to the story. Also, I didn’t like that Supernatural is now starting to take shortcuts for plot’s sake as last time we saw Rowena, not only had she escaped with the book, but if I remember correctly she was more powerful than Crowley. So how is it that his minions could so easily catch her.
But the main issue is that the entire arc rests on Amara being the big bad and she’s just plain boring. She’s killing religious people because she wants to draw out God. For what? To talk to him? Battle him? It’s never explained. It is just as senseless as her infatuation with Dean. Why is Dean so special? Because he released her? Actually, it was Sam so that doesn’t make any sense either. Ultimately, I just don’t care about this character so when the whole season depends on her it just makes it that much worse.
The winter finale ended with two cliffhangers: Amara smited by all Angels at once. One can only hope that she was destroyed, but we all know that will not be the case. The other is Sam now trapped in Lucifer’s cage with Lucifer. I liked that Sam declined Lucifer’s offer because in past seasons that was something he definitely would’ve accepted, but now that his faith in God is destroyed it will be interesting if he does allow Lucifer to take over his body.
