After a few weeks on the road chasing various monster-of-the-week cases, the Winchesters are back on the trail of finding something—anything, really—that can stand against the Darkness. Their first clue comes from the likeliest of unlikely foes…Crowley.
Starting off in the last place one would guess for a Supernatural episode, we catch up with the deposed King of Hell in Saudi Arabia where he meets up with a former “client”. Knowing his ten years are nearly up, the man trades the Horn of Joshua for Crowley’s word to tear up said ‘ten years of wonder for your soul’ contract. Horn in hand, Crowley puts down the man and his guards then reaches out to the Winchesters. He’s all for giving the pair the Horn on one condition: Lucifer must be put down. The brothers point out that, with no Rowena or Book of the Dead, this may not be the easiest of tasks. But Crowley is focused on tossing Lucifer back down into the Cage. While Dean’s all for booting Lucie out of Castiel and into a new host—a proposition Sam doesn’t agree with in the least—they still have the problem of ‘how’. That how is answered when Rowena drops word that she’s alive and ready to collaborate.
But how? Didn’t Lucifer snap the red headed witch’s neck like a chicken? Well yes but, as she tells the story to a still on-the-mend Amara (thanks to that Heavenly smiting), Rowena is always prepared. Now, the reason for her teaming up with Rowena? It may not be the same as her crush on alpha male Lucifer, but the reasoning is the same: she wants to hitch her bag to the prized stallion. That is, until she gets a peek of Amara’s true power and realizes the Darkness is not the being she wants to win the race.
Checking in with the Morningstar, we find Lucifer in Heaven, selling his point of view to the rest of the Host. He’s peddling hard his crusade and past actions. “Humanity brought us Hiroshima and got a redo,” he points out. “I merely questioned His priorities.” The angels are very wary of Lucifer’s slick words but when Heaven’s hit with the Darkness bomb, it plays right into his hands.
Fast forward a few hours and Rowena’s hooked up with Crowley and the boys, preparing a spell to hold Lucifer fast while Dean focuses on reaching Castiel long enough to book Lucifer out of his skin. They summon Lucifer and hold him fast but Dean doesn’t have enough time to reach Cas before Luc takes it over. Seeing that the wards are failing, Crowley makes a desperate gamble, jumping into Castiel’s host in order to have a face-to-face with the angel. It’s no surprise when Luc shows up and beats the bloody hell out of his subordinate. When they get Crowley’s ‘help me’, the Winchesters cast him out in time to save him. But then Lucifer’s back in action and the wards are down. He takes the Horn and, after giving them his usual slick talk, adds a deadly caveat: “There comes a time when every relationship has run its course.” He’s ready to end the persistent threat of the Winchesters but, before he can, in comes Amara.
Overconfident per his usual, Lucifer blasts Amara with the Horn of Joshua…with absolutely zero effect. “I think you and I need to have a nice, long chat,” she tells Lucifer before the two of them disappear. While the brothers contemplate what’s next on the docket to take Amara down, the latter listens to Lucifer try to convince her that he can be useful to her. She agrees, but not in the way Lucifer meant. If killing angels and humans doesn’t get God’s attention, maybe He’ll show up to save His first and favorite son. And then Lucifer is reminded of the meaning of pain.
The Good
- We’re finally back on the path to taking down Amara. More than that though, how about Misha Collins channeling his inner Mark Pelligrino (who also makes a quick cameo)? His performance is what acting is all about.
- Amara touches on a very interesting point as it pertains to Lucifer and God. He was, at one point, the favorite son. Will Amara’s plan work? Will we see God/Chuck by season’s end? One can only hope considering that, for all the good they’ve done, the Winchesters are well and truly out of their league.
The Bad
- Though a fine episode in its own right, there were several moments of unevenness and time jumping that took away from an otherwise smooth run.
- Maybe we’ll find out later but how did Rowena track Amara down? Sure, her reasoning is sound but the mechanics of it are lost in that aforementioned time jump issue.
The Supernatural
- Can it be a true Supernatural year without someone being raised from the dead? I love Rowena’s ‘break in case of death’ plan, though it was a bit too perfect for the story’s sake. Still, it’s a surprise more powerful beings haven’t had a similar plan though her possession of the Book of the Dead may have had a hand in that as well.
- At his heart, Lucifer’s a salesman, throwing out propaganda to the masses and nothing encompasses this particular trait as his attempt to sell Heaven on tapping him as their new leader. His greatest response is after an angel points out to him being cast as evil incarnate: “It’s Marketing. He’s creating a need in the consumer’s mind. You can’t be a super savior if you don’t have a super villain.” Pretty ironic since he’s one of the best marketers out there.
