Recap: SUPERNATURAL Makes Lucifer POTUS
Season 12, Episode 8 “LOTUS”
Written by Eugenie Ross-Lemming and Brad Buckner
Directed by Phillip Sgriccia
When we last saw Lucifer, he had dumped Vince Vincente’s body and was headed for bigger things than an aging rock god. What bigger things? Nothing less than being LOTUS, Lucifer of the United States.
So what did he do when he was LOTUS? He did what they all do, had an affair with a young assistant.
Sam (Jared Padaleci), Dean (Jensen Ackles), Cas (Misha Collins), and Crowley (Mar Sheppard) are all hot on Lucifer’s trail. The boys find a story about someone who died with his eyes burned out. They think that he was Lucifer’s next possession. The coroner tells them that their colleagues are already in there when they show up. Sure enough, Cas and Crowley are inside. Dean rips a badge off Crowley’s shirt, which is mean. The guy on the slab is a wealthy donor for the church. They track down the next person he possessed, an Archbishop (Michael Querin). Unfortunately for the people involved, the church also realizes he’s possessed. The crosses that turn upside down by themselves are a dead giveaway. By the time Sam and Dean get there, he’s killed everyone including the Archbishop.
We see him take over a man sitting on a bed in a moment of prayer, asking for divine guidance. I guess that’s enough to be the required invitation. The man turns out to be President of the United States (David Chisum). He’s also just fine internally with handing over the reins. He’s helpful and friendly to Lucifer (also David Chisum). The poor guard hears them talking. They were using their out loud voices instead of their inner voices. Lucifer kills him.
It looks like a natural death and LOTUS has to say a few words for everyone there. An attractive woman starts handling things when he doesn’t know what to do. Aha, I think. They are involved. She hands him a Bible and he has to come up with a few words while it’s burning his hand.
They end up in bed together, to Lucifer’s surprise. He says, “It’s almost like I’ve never done this before”. I hope that was referring to quality, because he certainly slept with the groupie Roseleen when he was Vince. Kelly (Courtney Ford) talks about wanting to get married and have a family some day. Evidently this is a possibility because this POTUS is a widower and probably a nice guy. Lucifer is like, hmm. A family.
LOTUS warns the secret service about the Winchesters and a possible assassination attempt.
Crowley figures out who Lucifer jumped into after the the Archbishop. The boys are horrified and discuss the difficulties of getting to him. Sam calls the number of the Men of Letters, London Chapter, but hangs up.
Crowley goes to fetch his mum. She’s in the middle of a scene. Her boyfriend is dumping her for richer pastures. He makes the mistake of standing there and continuing to be a jerk when Crowley pops his head. Rowena (Ruth Connell) said it was the sweetest thing he’d ever done for her. It was sweet, and way over the top, and really gross. Even though it was campy, it was worth it for Crowley’s smile when his mum praised him.
Cas feels a disturbance in the Force and drops two coffee cups. The entire angel world can feel that a Nephilim was conceived. Kelly does, too, because she figures out pretty quickly that she’s pregnant. She’s not thrilled. Lucifer tells her that he is, off screen but we don’t get to see it. He says it’s the only time he’s created something.
Sam, Dean and Castiel get pulled over by the Secret Service, who have been hunting them down. They are hampered by the fact that they really don’t want to kill these guys, because they are good guys and on the side of the law. The motorcyclist that has been following them around, who’s called to torture people and handle hard cases, shows up and launches a grenade launcher into their car. He orders Castiel to wipe their memories. Say what? Since when does Castiel do Jedi mind tricks? Cas is acting weird anyway. Well, weirder than he normally does. He lets the grenade go past him and hit the car and doesn’t stir. No ducking, nothing.
The new guy’s name is Arthur Ketch (David Haydn-Jones) and he is handsome, in a plastic way. Like you imagine when you think of plastic surgery. He looks a lot like a doll. This is the Men of Letters answer to James Bond. He also has a bunch of gadgets. A vampire irradiator. An exorcism bomb. The boys really need that bomb because they need to rescue the president alive and exorcism is a dicey business. Most people die, especially if they’ve been used for any length of time. They also need something to give them a an edge against Lucifer.
What we need to remember at this point is that this is the same man who shot a young teenager that Sam and Dean had rescued. He killed her in a women’s restroom in Missouri because she had psychokinetic powers.. They don’t know that, but we do.
They get their hands on the president’s mistress and try to persuade her to help. They do it pretty badly, what with introducing people as witches, angels and the King of Hell. She’s somewhat convinced when her hand on the Bible starts smoking. They set a trap. The president is to meet her in a cabin. After all, it is in her own best interest to have her lover free of Satanic influences.
Cas uses Jedi mind tricks to convince the Secret Service that Kelly is alone. Though, honestly, your best way of hiding is to keep a door shut that should open? LOTUS walks in and attacks Kelly when she says she can’t have the baby. Really, killing the mother of your child is no way to keep the child alive. They attack Lucifer. Rowena uses spells and Sam handles the exorcism orb. Lucifer gets pulled out of the president’s body. Cas sneaks away with Kelly. The Secret Service bursts in and arrests the boys.
Kelly slips away from Cas and says that she has changed her mind, she’s keeping her baby.
It was an eventful mid-season finale. It’s setting it up so that the Nephilim will be the big bad of the next half of the season. I mean, it could happen later, but supernatural growth is usually very fast. The Nephilim in myth are progeny of fallen angels and human women. They are giants, with vast appetites. It will be interesting to see what Supernatural will do with it.
There are some jarring elements in this. Cas, for one. We haven’t seen much of him lately. I don’t know if they have forgotten what he can or can’t do, or if I have, or if something else is going on. Ketch seemed to think he could tell if people were lying or not and used him as a character reference. He also told him to mind-wipe people and he did. Cas has spent a good deal of time Graceless, or wingless, or otherwise not at full power, and it could be that I have forgotten. Or it could be something else.
The exorcism orb appears to be a Deus ex machina, but it isn’t. I don’t think it worked. I thought I saw light go down into a floor vent, and I thought Sam saw it, too. Who knows if Lucifer will just pop right back or possess someone else? The president did get exorcised, and I hope that means that the boys won’t be held long, because there’s nothing wrong with him. I think, however, that the whole rescue and sharing of magic items was intended for just that result, that the boys succeed in rescuing the president and then go to jail. The Men of Letters, London Chapter, think that they are a menace to society. Everything worked out perfectly for them. I can’t see a rescue coming from that direction unless they need them to deal with the Nephilim or Lucifer.
When Supernatural returns in January, the previews make it look like the boys are still in jail. Not a modern jail, either. It looks like they were thrown into an oubliette to be forgotten.
Supernatural returns on January 26, 2017 on the CW.
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