Supernatural Recap: We Band of Brothers

Season 11, Episode 22 “We Happy Few”
Written by Robert Berens
Directed by John Badham

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother” ~ Shakespeare.

That’s from the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V. The big difference between Henry V, where they are doing battle against insurmountable odds, and this episode, is that Henry wins. However, they do manage to make alliances with wildly disparate forces to fight Amara (Emily Swallow).

Having rescued Castifer (Misha Collins) from The Darkness (Emily Swallow), the boys are now having to deal with an unrepentant dad and an angry teenager in their bunker. Really. Lucifer locks himself in his room and plays angry rock music. He also snaps his fingers at Dean (Jensen Ackles) the first time Dean mouths off and we find out he has been rendered harmless by God. Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean get them to sit down face to face since Lucifer says he wants an apology. Instead he gets God (Rob Benedict) defending his position. However, they do work it out. So, a centuries old theological debate gets resolved in minutes with Dr. Phil tactics.

Since they’ve persuaded God to fight, they realize they are short on fighters still. It took the combined forces of Lucifer, Michael (who’s still in the cage and lost the match) and a couple of other archangels that I think our boys ganked at some time or another, to trap Amara. The boys suggest Crowley (Mark Sheppard), the demons and the witches. Lucifer goes to heaven and gets nowhere with the angels. He has to let Cas out to persuade them, in a moment worthy of Sally Field in Sybil. Dean goes to Crowley, who just got laughed at by his own former lieutenants when he wanted to take back Hell. Sam goes to Rowena (Ruth Connell), who threatens to turn him into an actual moose. I’d like to see that, actually.

Rowena has persuaded another witch to flee to the past with her. That witch, Clea (Barbara Eve Harris) is more interested in helping God than she is, so they get a few more converts.

I shouldn’t have gotten so attached to the new prophet. Amara beats him up to get God’s location, which she does. “Kansas,” she reads from his mind.

Amara goes to the bunker, looking for God. They aren’t there. They’re in an abandoned power plant. Rowena telepathically tells Amara where they are. Amara quickly figures out that Rowena called her into a trap, so Rowena starts the first attack. The witches helping remotely get fried. Then there’s a smiting from heaven, and an attack from the demons. Amara makes it through the door, looking like she’s in bad shape. Castifer stabs her with a spear. He starts to do it again, but God stops him. They dialogue a bit. Amara accuses him of wanting to be big. With just the two of them, light and darkness, equal, there’s no one for him to be bigger than. He admits that’s true, but pleads for his creation.

 

In the planning stages, we find out that God and Sam had arranged for Sam to take the Mark of Cain. Dean was not happy about it, but accepted it. Realizing that Amara wasn’t budging, God takes the Mark from her to give to Sam. It starts appearing on Sam’s arm, but Amara resists, and wins. She totally flips out about being locked up again and attacks God. He does not counter attack. Lucifer does, but is knocked about badly. She attacks God with smoke and throws him to the floor! Oh no! She killed God.

 

Amara reveals that God is not dead, but is dying, and that she wants him to see his world burn before he dies. Rowena is outside, seeing a bright bright world. Supernova, maybe?

Much of this story relegates Sam and Dean to the sidelines. Old enemies are making new alliances, and sometimes apologies. Powerful supernatural beings are fighting while the humans hang back. But darned if they don’t act their hearts out anyway. You can see Dean’s heart bleeding for everything Amara suffers. You can see Sam brace himself for the Mark of Cain, and Dean’s anxiety about him getting it.

Giving Sam the Mark is a miraculously dumb idea. That’s what got them into this trouble in the first place. Parts of this episode were very funny. Crowley coming up and meeting God and saying, “Him?” My thought exactly. God telling Rowena that she is a guilty pleasure, and her being flattered. Lucifer dealing with God, Lucifer dealing with the angels (you’re a snake), Lucifer and Crowley, who he humiliated, Lucifer and Rowena, whom he killed — it was fun seeing him reap what he had sown. It might have been more fun if he had been played by Mark Pellegrino, rather than being Lucifer inside of Castiel.

Next week the previews show a weak God (not a reassuring thought) and the team coming up with a new plan that involves Dean becoming a bomb. It’s not my idea of a good plan. I’ve thought all along that Dean will have to become a sacrifice of some sort to win this battle. That he would have to take Amara up on her proposition and become part of her, or take the Mark back (evidently not an option anymore) or something that would persuade her that mankind and the whole of creation was worth something. Surely she would have found something in her short life on earth that she did not want to destroy.

There are hints that the boys are key to success, such as when God says that Dean is the firewall between the supernatural and mankind, or when he says that if his plan (which was originally to give Amara what she wanted in exchange for creation to exist) failed, mankind would step in. It would be nice if there were a higher meaning to all of this. It would reflect well on Chuck.

God specifically said in this episode that blowing up Amara could be the end of everything, since light and darkness both have to exist. And it looks like that’s what they are planning to do.

Kudos to Jensen Ackles for getting an Honorable Mention in TVLines Performer of the Week for his emotional conversation with God in last week’s episode. “To Ackles, we say, feel free to cry us a river any time.”

 

Supernatural airs Wednesday nights at 9/8c on The CW.