SUPERNATURAL: Darkness. No Parents.

Episode 11.1 “Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire”

[Photos: Diyah Pera/The CW]

Hello Darkness, my new friend..

The boys broke the world. Again. The new season opens minutes after the last one ended. Darkness has been unleashed on the world due to Sam and Dean successfully removing the Mark of Cain from Dean’s arm. It comes in the form of a smoke storm, a storm of the same sort of billowy stuff, streaming out of the ground, that is the form an angel or demon takes before it possesses a human body, but with wind and fury. Sam and Dean can’t run away from it because the Impala has a wheel stuck in a puddle the size of Kansas. It washes over the car; Dean disappears and Sam loses consciousness.

Sam finds Dean a mile away from the car, completely untouched by the supernatural storm. Sam is still bearing the cuts and mouse under his eye that he got from Dean at the end of last season, a nice bit of continuity. Dean fared better than Sam in that fight and has no bruises to show, and also no sign that he’s been tossed around by a storm. He has very little memory of what happened.

Meanwhile, Castiel is in terrible trouble. The spell that Rowena cast on him that caused him to kill Crowley is still working on him, as you can tell by his bloody eyes. He feels guilty about Crowley’s death. Way too guilty, in my opinion. It’s only Crowley, after all. After a while, he realizes that Crowley is not dead: he got away by pouring out of the body as red smoke and down a drain. Castiel hides in a barn and the family, all armed, are looking for him. There’s a dead dog there and it is presumed that he (sniff) killed it. He encounters the youngest boy and appears to disarm him and get away without hurting him.

The plots in this season’s premiere rely on two boneheaded mistakes. One of them is that Cas, in his extreme desperation, prays for help. His fellow angels show up and they are not happy with him. They do keep him from hurting anyone-they tie him up in Metatron’s old cell.

Dean gets Cas on the phone long enough to let him know that he is free of the mark, and to ask him about The Darkness. His reply, “The Darkness is a woman?” It’s obvious that one of their sources of knowledge about the supernatural has no information for them.

Crowley has entered the body of a random middle aged woman, complete with hot flashes. It is her birthday and her husband has arranged a swinging party with their best friends. Crowley does not turn him down.

Dean and Sam encounter a scene of mass murder on the road. A family is dead, and there are dead road crew lying around. A young, inexperienced and very pretty police officer confronts them and asks them to show some skin. Dean’s reply, “Is this a Magic Mike moment?” They claim to be FBI, show off their necks, and are attacked by a road crew member with black veins. The police woman, Jenna, shoots him. Jenna is injured, by an accident with a rebar, which is important because it means that she was not injured by a physical encounter with anyone on the road crew, and they take her to the nearest hospital to patch her up.

The hospital has been overrun, so Dean patches her up. And I have to say, I hope he found some local anesthetic because although he says it will hurt, there should be more screaming and crying. I’m sorry, it’s hard enough to believe that our intrepid heroes could sew up their own wounds with barely a wince, but now anyone off the street can take it.

Sam watches one of the rabid people, people infected with Darkness, trying to get into a locked closet. After a while, the rabid keels over and dies. Hearing a baby crying, Sam finds a father and new baby in the closet.

It turns out that the father is infected, showing that the Darkness is contagious, and leaves the baby with Jenna while he is still in his right mind.

Dean and Sam have a discussion about what to do. There is some seemingly contradictory dialogue. Sam asks Dean when they forgot how to do this, and then insists on doing things differently than they have before. I agree with Sam, though, they are dithering. How can they not know how to handle this? Of all the people in the world, these two are the ones you would want to have with you when there’s a zombie apocalypse. Or something very much like it.

I also agree on doing things differently. Dean’s theme is self-sacrifice — as long as he is the one who takes the hit, everything will turn out fine. This is something he’s undoubtedly learned since childhood, to sacrifice his own wants and needs and life for others. But Sam is right, it doesn’t work. The events of last season show this plainly. Some of the worst problems they have endured have been because Dean has sold his soul, or taken the mark, and those who love him risk everything to save him.

Sam argues that the infected people should be saved as well as the baby and Jenna. Sam offers to lead the Rabid away while Dean takes Jenna and the baby out of the hospital. Sam has observed that the infected don’t live very long (Darkness in the veins CAN’T be good for your blood pressure) and plans to wait them out. Dean and Jenna encounter the father on the way out, who tells them the baby’s name and then promptly dies. Her name is Amara. Otherwise than that, their journey is uneventful. The Darkness has not reached the next town over yet.

Sam is chased by the Rabid into a supply room. Unfortunately he has not checked out this room ahead of time (mistake number two) and is attacked by a nurse who is already there. A knock-down drag-out fight in close quarters ensues. He grossly cuts her throat and she drips blood into his mouth. We know that he is infected because the people after him sniff him and leave, having lost interest in him. Getting infected by Darkness is not going to help him persuade Dean to accept his plans in the future.

Crowley kills everyone at the orgy, is reunited with his lieutenants, and gets his body back. Screams have been coming from the cage where Lucifer and Michael are contained. They think it’s a warning about The Darkness. Crowley says it’s a fairy tale to frighten young demons. He also knows nothing that can help Sam and Dean.

All during the show, we see flashbacks to Dean’s time after The Darkness is unleashed. He meets her (played by Emily Swallow) and she thanks him for releasing her. She also tells him that they are bound together and will always help each other now. During the last flashback, she shows him that she has the Mark of Cain now. When Jenna is changing the extremely cute and adorable baby that is playing Amara, we see that she has the mark, which means nothing to Jenna.

I am not at all surprised by the revelation. As King Haggard said, I know a portent when I see one. The baby’s mom died after an easy birth right when the darkness is loosed: dad is infected but stays alive long enough to protect her and pass her to someone else and name her. What I wonder is whether Dean decided to accept Sam’s plan to distract the infected people because he is learning to listen to Sam or because he is under a geas to protect the baby?

The previews for next week look like they are going to try to exorcise The Darkness from the baby.

I want to add here that Supernatural deserves congratulations for starting an eleventh season. Six seasons after the original five that the creator, Eric Kripke planned for. I remember David Duchovny talking about how much work it was to do a show with just two leads, and The X-Files only lasted seven seasons. Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki both have a great work ethic and for that I am extremely grateful.

Supernatural airs on Wednesdays, 9/8 central on the CW.