SUPERNATURAL Recap: The Darkness Wants to Dean to Join Her

Season 11, Episode 21 “All in the Family”
Directed by Thomas J Wright
Written by Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner

God (Rob Benedict) is still present in the flesh, and still a slob like one of us. It’s unnerving. And not only is it uncomfortable, but it is disheartening to think that God is not omnipotent, although it is because he has a sister who is equal but opposite.

He’s also annoying, but if you created everything, I suppose personal boundaries wouldn’t make any sense to you.

We start off at the exact minute that the last episode ended. God/Chuck whisks Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) off to talk. They are disbelieving at first, but God brings forth Kevin (Osric Chau), who has been dead for quite some time, and he vouches for him. Sam is all flustered and fanboy. Dean wants to take God to account for all the ills in the world, and for leaving them on their own. God explains that he tried being hands on, decided he had to back off for humanity to grow up, and thinks things have improved. He tells Dean that he shouldn’t confuse him with his father. That’s interesting because I think a lot of people see God the way that they see their parents. If they were kind, they see God as love. Authoritarian, they see God as vengeful. At any rate, I agree with Dean’s point of view. God has a lot to answer for.

God refuses to rescue Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino/Misha Collins) on the grounds that he could already have made an alliance with Amara (Emily Swallow) and it could be a trap. Amara gives Dean a vision of a tortured Castifer to spur him on.

Another fog is unleashed on another town. This time Sam and Dean don’t hear about it until it’s all over. Everyone is killed but one man, a professor (Keith Szarabajka) with a cat. The cat doesn’t make it. Instead of being afflicted with black veins, he was hit by a lightning bolt of knowledge. Dean and Sam decide that he’s a heretofore unknown prophet who was triggered by Amara’s God power.

They take off with the prophet (good thing the back doors are locked) and take him to meet God. Because they are in a hurry and I suppose because he’s a prophet and there won’t be any protecting him from this stuff anyway, they are brutally honest and brief. Sam does keep Dean from telling him about Santa Claus. Chuck is in his shorts eating Chinese takeout and watching something on Dean’s computer. Dean asks him to put pants on but he doesn’t. The new prophet has no trouble believing him, probably because he can feel it. He asks if it’s a problem that he was an atheist ten minutes ago. Chuck says “no, I believe in me, and free will is part of the package”. Centuries of people fighting over who is worshiping the right God, people placing all of their hope in faith, and God just doesn’t care. It’s a casually dropped profound theological statement.

Metatron (Curtis Armstrong) sees Sam and Dean on a bar TV. I don’t know if he sees them from the first or second fog attack. He calls them and tells them they need to know what God is planning. They show up and he tells them that God’s plan is not to take out Amara, but to surrender himself. He knows this because God’s memoirs are not memoirs, they are a suicide note.

Dean confronts God, who is watching children play at the park and talks about a kid who keeps rebuilding his tower when it blows down. He says he’s going to let Amara lock him up in exchange for his creation staying intact and going on. Dean says that Amara wants him destroyed and all of his creation with him. She told him herself. God says that if his plan doesn’t work, man will step in. He says that he, and I think that he means Dean personally, is a firewall between light and dark. That’s why he saved him all those years ago. I’m actually wondering which time. The time that he dragged himself bodily out of the grave? The time that he and Sam were apported onto an airplane? Dean really thinks God should take out Amara. I know that’s because he feels helpless to do it.

Sam, Dean and Donatello, the new prophet (named after the artist, not the turtle) gather around to discuss strategy. Metatron drops by. Actually, he circles around the bunker and sends Dean texts until they let him in. They are still suspicious of him. The plan is for Donatello to locate Amara, and for them to release Lucifer while Dean distracts her. She has been wanting to see him. Then Lucifer will teleport them out.

Dean and Amara meet at a place with really big trees. Redwoods, maybe? She wants him to join her, as in literally, become part of her.

Sam, Metatron and Donatello arrive at the silo or water tower where Amara has been keeping Castifer. The Impala pulls up with verve as exciting background music plays. Sam is driving for once. Metatron goes through a few spells before he finds the one that will unlock the captive’s bonds. Sam, meanwhile, tries to get the Lucifer part of Castifer to say that he will work with God and forget all the baggage they have between them. They get him free but he is in no shape to get them out of there. Amara realizes that Dean has talked to her brother and gets suspicious. Donatello feels her coming and warns them. Sam drags Castifer out and Metatron waves him on. He will stay behind to delay Amara. He draws a sigil with his blood, but the power in it washes over Amara with no effect. She disappears him in a curl of smoke. Poof.

Amara appears in front of the car as they are leaving. She stops it and it is just spinning its wheels and suddenly they are in the bunker with a bump. Not in the garage either. Chuck/God says sometimes he answers prayers. God and Lucifer greet each other and God heals him.

The boys say goodbye to the new prophet, who doesn’t know where he should go from here. He doesn’t feel like going back to academia and can’t be an atheist anymore. I think he should at least get another cat.

Dean tells Sam about Amara’s offer.

Thoughts: It’s a good episode. We have every sign that we are leading up to the finale. Metatron’s cycle of redemption is complete. He obviously cared very much for God, and wanted to protect his creation whether he’s disappointed in God or not. He made the ultimate sacrifice to let the others continue the war. He may have been a lousy angel, but he turned into a good man. I’ve been a fan of Curtis Armstrong’s since Moonlighting. Good job.

I like the new guy. He’s funny and a fresh face and viewpoint to this world. They need a prophet once in a while, and there hasn’t been one since Kevin died. They did miss an opportunity to add a female character to the Boys’ Club. A nice old lady professor with a bun of silver hair would have done just as well. I hope we see Donatello again. What he should be doing now is to study up on angels and devils and this whole world he didn’t believe in. The lore is out there and he can read it all.

I didn’t see any of Lucifer in Misha Collins’ performance this time. However, he was so debilitated as to lose any bluster he had.

God has every faith in Dean. Every time they talk God says that he believes in him, has faith in him, and knows he can do it. And every time Dean hears that I think he hears that this all he is going to get from him and he is on his own.

As much as I want Amara to keep her hands off Dean, it seems that maybe it would be a good idea for him to let her know that there are less fatal ways to consummate their relationship. Every entity in Supernatural is more good the more human it is. It is no accident that Metatron was stripped of his grace and made human before he redeemed himself. It’s probably been good for God to be Chuck all of these years, although he certainly picked up some disgusting habits. Amara is in desperate need of being stripped of her powers and made to be human for a while. She might develop some empathy for others.

Next week they will all join together to fight Amara: angels, demons and humans.

 

Supernatural shows on Wednesday nights at 9pm/8c on the CW.