Recap: SUPERNATURAL – The Darkness Searches for God

S11E9 “Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou”

But don’t we all? Search for guidance and meaning in our lives? The difference is that Amara expects to hear back from God and is doing more and more damage to his followers to get his attention.

Little Amara is all grown up and is now being played by Emily Swallow full time and not just in little snippets in a mirror. She makes a fountain run red with blood and fries people with lightning who are listening to a preacher in a park. They were right-the end was near.

Sam is still having visions. He asks for confirmation that it’s from God. A bush bursts into flames. Sam and Dean argue about it. Dean is finally convinced to at least check out the possibility that they need to ask Lucifer some questions about the Darkness, so they go to Crowley for help. They want to know if it’s possible to visit Lucifer in the cage safely, and point out that the Darkness will go after Crowley too, so he has incentive to help them. Crowley is still jealous that Amara preferred Dean, and accuses him of not having control over his girlfriend. However, he does think that what they want is possible. It will require the Book of the Damned. And Rowena.

Meanwhile, Amara sucks the souls out of all the people in a church, including a very nice priest. She tried praying first, for about two seconds. She obviously has very little patience. She kills them after sucking their souls out, so she may have decided that having the soulless running around is a bad idea. Dean shows up to check it out, and feels her presence in a park nearby. She teleports him to another location. It is isolated and in front of mountains.

When they tell Rowena that the cage holds Lucifer, she tries to hide her reaction but you can tell that she is a big fangirl for Lucifer. Rowena figures out how to summon Lucifer and put wards around the cage to keep Sam safe. She tells Sam to tell Crowley to bring a hand cart, because they are going to Hell. Ironic, because the phrase “going to Hell in a handcart” means that things are going bad quickly and no way to stop it.

Amara and Dean talk. She tells him she is just trying to get God’s attention. He tries to convince her that killing people and sucking their souls is wrong. She says the people are still with her and therefore have a kind of eternal life. But of course there is no choice in that. Does Amara ask people if they want to be in Darkness for eternity? She also says that she wants everything. She was first. The beginning and the end, but not the light. She is the Darkness. At this point Dean tries to stab her. I’m not sure which blade he used but it won’t be used again because it shattered on contact. She moves to suck out his soul but kisses him instead and says that they will be joined one day. It’s fate. He wore the Mark and she was the origin of the Mark.

Sam and Rowena and Crowley go to the nethermost regions of Hell. Rowena sets the wards. Poor Sam, it is obvious that he is scared out of his mind. Sam tried to call Dean and couldn’t get him. He had asked Sam not to do anything until he got there. The cage is empty, with fiery glyphs and a wall of fire between them. Then Lucifer appears. He tells Sam that God sent him there to be his ride out, basically, so he could help. And you have to do what God says. But you know, you don’t. Dean never gave in to being Michael’s vessel. Rowena and Crowley watch from a platform as they talk, looking like they are enjoying a prize fight.

The lesser angels have decided to take matters into their own hands and several of them appear in front of The Darkness. One of them is the one that had the conversation with the demon a few episodes ago where things were going to Hell in a hand basket and management wasn’t doing anything. Amara slaughters them all, despite Dean’s protests and the angel’s warning that the entire heavenly host will show up and smite her. The skies grow dark and stormy and Amara sends Dean to safety with a flick of a hand and the angels smite her.

Sam gives a firm no to Lucifer’s request. After he does, the glyphs quit glowing and the flame dies down. Crowley reacts with alarm but Rowena tells him to follow her and discretion being the more likely part of valor with Crowley, he goes with her. It’s nice to see her show some concern for her son after trying to get him killed.

Lucifer pops Sam into the cage. Sam is still keeping his cool because of the visions, which showed Lucifer touching his face but him still remaining calm. That is, until Lucifer tells him that he was the one who sent the visions and not God. The escape of the Darkness rattled the cage so badly that there were cracks, and he was able to reach out and contact Sam’s mind. That explains the earlier visions of cracks in the stone and fingers poking out.

Thoughts: My strongest reactions were that these all powerful beings should keep their hands off my boys! Amara, don’t suck Dean’s soul out. Don’t kiss him. Lucifer, leave Sam alone! I can’t stand seeing him scared to the point of tears.

One of the reasons that love interests never work out on Supernatural is that the female fandom hates potential love interests and they have used that very well in this story arc. Amara is easy to hate, and there’s that uneasy feeling that something bad will happen to Dean if he goes any further with her. Or if he doesn’t.

Amara is also intractable. She felt the need to explain herself to Dean when he was unhappy with her actions but she did not agree with him and she didn’t listen when he tried to stop her from killing the angels. He has no influence over her at all.

It’s amazing that this episode seemed to move so much when most of it is people talking to each other and getting nowhere. A little fire, brimstone and smiting create a kickass episode.

New information: Sam learned from Lucifer that The Darkness wants to take over everything and throws tantrums. We knew that from her actions. But we did learn that her power is equal to God’s, but she has less experience. We also know that she can’t be killed by the blade Dean used, and when the show returns we will find out that the angels were ineffective against her as well. The bit about the Mark of Cain may be important. When she was imprisoned the first time, Lucifer carried the Mark, which corrupted him, and passed it on to Cain, who was corrupted by it, and he passed it on to Dean. When it was removed from Dean it wasn’t passed on to another, and that’s why the Darkness was released. It may be that the Mark has to be removed from Amara to contain her again. I’m still hoping she comes to some sort of resolution with her brother.

Questions: There are a lot of them in this episode. Is Lucifer telling the truth that he was the source of the visions? Some of the visions are of Sam being tortured. That doesn’t seem like it would advance his cause. Some were of the damage to the cage and fingers poking out. Sending Sam a vision to tell him you’re escaping in some small respect doesn’t seem smart.  Did he play the part of young John Winchester? And with all the mucking about in Sam’s head, you would think Sam would recognize his “voice” by now.

How much did Rowena contribute to the devil getting Sam into the cage? She was excited when she heard it was Lucifer. It appeared obvious that Lucifer’s ability to reach beyond the cage with his powers is what caused the wards to die out, but she reacted very quickly when it happened.

Where is the Archangel Michael? He is supposed to be in the cage with Lucifer in an endless battle. Sam and Dean’s half-brother Adam was his vessel and should be in the cage as well. I could buy the idea that we weren’t seeing the whole cage, just some small dimension of it, but when Sam was in it  and we were seeing from the point of view of inside the cage I would think we would see if there were other inhabitants.

This was the mid-season, or mid-winter finale, as the show called it. Supernatural will return on January 20th. I kinda doubt that the Christmas stuff in the previews will happen in the show, but it’s remarkable how cute Mark Sheppard is in footie pajamas running for Santa..and was that  Lucifer under that white beard? The rest of the previews show a glowing hand on Sam’s forehead (eek) and a return to Stull cemetery, the gateway to Hell.