“The Devil in the Details,” written by Andrew Dabb and directed by Thomas J. Wright, sets up what can be a very compelling arc for the back half of season eleven.
Like the midseason finale, “The Devil in the Details” is an intense episode, and it’s thankfully not as rough around the edges (though it does have moments that leave me asking, “What just happened?!”)
It opens with a bizarre Christmas scene featuring Crowley (Mark Sheppard) in footsie pajamas and Rowena (Ruth Connell) wearing antlers and a blinking nose. Santa (Mark Pellegrino) breaks down the door and presents a sharpened candy cane to Crowley, which he then uses to stab and kill him. Rowena’s unfazed through this entire scene. Santa questions why Rowena’s having this dream, which she says is a recurring nightmare. Interestingly, when Santa removes his beard and shows his face, Rowena acts as if she recognizes who he really is: Lucifer.
Post title card, we learn that Lucifer is telling Sam the story of how he coerced Rowena to help him. Sam (Jared Padalecki) refuses to bow to Lucifer’s manipulation, citing his belief in his older brother Dean (Jensen Ackles) to save him.
The scene between Lucifer and Sam is unnerving, much as it was in the midseason finale, with Lucifer making not-so-veiled threats about what he can to Sam. The threat of assault – from sexual to physical – is clear. Lucifer speaks doublespeak, following his threats with assurances that his motives are genuine. He lays his hand on Sam’s head and takes him on a trip through memories to make his point: The first stop is teen! Sam(Colin Ford) studying with a girl in the park.
Meanwhile, Crowley threatens Rowena for her part in Lucifer’s deception. She threatens that she belongs to Lucifer, and if Crowley hurts her, Lucifer will make him pay. Rowena reveals, much as I’d hoped, that she has been playing a long con, allowing herself to be captured by Crowley’s minions (11×10). She foresees herself standing by Lucifer’s side. “So, unless you’ve got the Almighty in your back pocket, I suggest you sit down, shut up, and let him work.”
Elsewhere, Dean’s driving along an unknown highway and making phone calls. He leaves Sam a message, ordering him to call back “now.” He calls Crowley and gets an automated response system and hangs up. According to his recent calls, he’s called Castiel (Misha Collins) too. Suddenly, a wave of – something – hits Dean, and he pulls the car over so he can get out and vomit. Behind the Impala, another car is coming around the bend.
It’s Castiel. He pulls off onto the shoulder too and plays doctor, inspecting Dean’s eyes, tongue, and nearly taking his temperature. Dean’s clearly ill, and Cas asks how far they are from “the event.” Dean says they’re about a mile away, and Castiel diagnoses him with “smiting sickness.” This, Cas can’t heal, and the closer Dean gets, the worse the effects.
Cas helps him up and says the fallout won’t affect angels, so he’ll go in alone. Dean protests but nearly vomits, so concedes. He tells Castiel that if Amara is dead, “bring her body out.” “And if she’s not?,” Cas asks. “Run,” Dean answers.
Sam and Lucifer are watching the memory from Sam’s teen years (It’s so much fun to see Colin Ford back in this role!). Lucifer uses the comparison of 30-something Sam to teen-Sam to convince the former that his life has gotten off track, that he’s lost his spark.
Somehow, Dean arrives back at the bunker really quickly; was Amara smote nearby? He’s yelling for Sam when Crowley telephones with the news that Sam’s with Lucifer.
Lucifer’s memory trip takes Sam back to Stull Cemetery next, where a season five Castiel molotovs Michael while yelling “Assbutt.” Sam watches the moment he sacrificed himself to save the world. “You were willing to do the hard thing, if it meant saving the world,” Lucifer points out. “That’s not you anymore. You’ve gone soft, Sammy.” Sam looks tearful and pensive.
It’s dark at the scene of Amara’s presumed smiting. Castiel discovers Ambriel, an angel, also investigating the scene. Cas is surprised that heaven sent Ambriel, and she’s worried that he’s going to kill her. Her deduction skills in general are lacking though; she hasn’t even noticed that it’s dark out though it’s mid-afternoon.
Dean leaves Cas a message to meet him at an address in Kennesaw, NE. Dean’s already there, and he knocks on a door. Billie (Lisa Berry) opens the viewing slot and demands the password. He reluctantly sings a couple of lines from “Camptown Races” to gain entrance.
When Dean realizes that she’s a reaper, he comments, “My brother says you want to kill us.” “No, I’m just going to make sure that when you die, you stay dead. Subtle difference,” Billie corrects. She gives Dean a package for Crowley and activates some symbols, opening a doorway to hell. “Watch your step, it’s a long way down,” she says. Dean hesitates – as he should for someone who spent decades being tortured and torturing in Hell – before he goes in, but none of that trauma is verbalized. He walks down the steps, and the door closes.
Next up on Lucifer’s guided tour of Sam’s memories? Amelia and the dog he hit (S8). Lucifer points out that if Dean hadn’t returned from Purgatory, “you’d be fine. But he did, so you’re not.” And now, Lucifer says, Sam’s so filled with guilt for not looking for his brother, that he will do “anything to save him, and he’ll do anything to save you, and that is the problem… so instead of choosing the world, you choose each other, no matter how many innocent people die.” Though Lucifer has something of a point, he’s clearly trying to wear Sam down to accept his possession. Sam looks pensive, as if he’s taking the devil’s words to heart.
It’s tea-time in hell, and Rowena and Crowely both request theirs with “honey and a splash of milk,” a commonality that leaves Crowley needing “to go vomit.” He leaves her alone in the room.
In the forest, Castiel is talking to Ambriel about how he never wanted “to be hated by [his] own kind.” Ambriel assures him that she doesn’t hate him and that they both have a lot in common, including “We’re both expendable…that’s why we’re here, right?” She goes on to add, “You help, but Sam and Dean Winchester are the real heroes…” At this point, I thought she was either Amara in disguise or acting under a dream-compulsion placed by Lucifer because her vision of Castiel doesn’t match up with what other angels have thought; it wasn’t that long ago that he took on the mantle of “Commander” at the angels’ insistence (9×22). Of course, he did then hand over that army just to save one man (Dean), so maybe they’re still smarting over the rejection?
Cas appears disturbed by Ambriel’s conclusion that if Amara kills them, “no big loss.” He tells her he’ll catch up, and they separate. Much as Sam did with Lucifer a few scenes ago, Castiel looks pensive, as if he’s taking the angel’s words to heart.
Crowley meets Dean coming down the stairs. He assures Dean that “Lucifer needs the moose; he’s not going to kill him. Probably.” Crowley says that they need to focus on Rowena, and he opens the box that Dean’s carrying: It’s a wicked looking device called a witch catcher. Dean asks what it does; Crowley replies, “Oh, you’re going to love this.”
In the woods, Ambriel finds Amara unconscious on the ground. The Darkness wakes and grabs the angel by the neck. Castiel hears noises and runs to find Ambriel. He’s too late: the Darkness is stealing her grace, and Ambriel falls to the ground apparently dead. Unlike humans, who can operate soulless, angels can’t operate graceless.
Amara absorbs the dark, and suddenly, it’s daylight again. She calls Castiel by name. “What did you do to her?,” he asks. “I consumed her, her grace, her spark, her memories, everything – she really hit the spot,” Amara says. Castiel pulls out his angel blade, and she scoffs. He challenges her, saying he’s not afraid to die, but she counters. “I know you are. You reek of fear and self-loathing.” He stabs at her, and she tosses him backwards.
Amara tells Castiel, “You are expendable, and weak – and why God took a special interest in you I’ll never understand. My brother always did have horrible taste in men.” Castiel says, “Just do it.” “Blue eyes, you’re not even worth the effort. No offense, but you look a bit used up.” She seems to realize something and adds, “Plus, I have a job for you.” She lays a hand on his chest and burns something into him, and he disappears.
When Amara, who had crouched down beside Castiel, stands, she totters unsteadily and falls forward, seemingly against the same tree Castiel bounced off of.
Castiel lands, loudly, at Billie’s. The reaper’s nonplussed and greets him with an unruffled, “Hey.”
Crowley approaches a tea-drinking Rowena and learns that she used a spell to overhear his conversation with Dean. Crowley trumps her with tea that makes her cough. (Or maybe he faked poisoning it so she would cough? I don’t know.) Dean slips up behind her, and clasps the witch-catcher around her neck. Crowley orders her to hop on one foot, and Rowena retorts, “I don’t know what kind of Oedipal Fifty Shades you’re playing at.” She’s as horrified as Crowley is amused when she begins hopping; when wearing the witch-catcher, she has to do as Crowley says.
In the cage, Lucifer reminds Sam that there’s a timeline for his decision. We get a brief reference to Michael, who according to Lucifer is sitting “in a corner singing show tunes and touching himself.” Lucifer promises, “I’m not the good guy…the Darkness? She’s the end of everything…We can beat her – you and me, together.” But Sam looks at Lucifer and says, “No.”
Rowena says that she needs five minutes to perform the spell and that it will put Lucifer back in his prison – unless Sam says yes. “If Lucifer finds a vessel, he’ll be anchored to earth, and the incantation won’t work,” she explains. Dean looks worried, in a subtle reference to his earlier-seasons concern that Sam would say yes to the devil.
Castiel bursts into the room looking haggard and beaten. “Amara – she’s alive. She sent this message.” He opens his shirt to show “I am coming” carved into his chest. “Is that a threat?,” Crowley asks. “Or a promise?,” Dean asks.
Back in the cage, Sam counters Lucifer’s claims, reminding him that he didn’t defeat the Darkness by himself. He also asks what will happen after the Darkness is defeated; he believes that Lucifer will jump-start the apocalypse. “This isn’t because of Dean or the past. This is about me, having faith in my friends. Me having faith in my family. We will find a way. I’m ready to die, and I’m ready to watch people I love die. But I’m not ready to be your bitch.”
With that refusal, Lucifer resorts to Plan B and begins whaling on Sam. Dean and the others hear the ruckus, and Dean and Castiel go running for the cage. Crowley yells, “Don’t,” but they either don’t hear or don’t care. When Lucifer sees them, he brings them into the cage. “Welcome to the party,” he says.
Dean and Castiel are ready for battle, but Lucifer plays music and dances. Dean and Cas exchange a look, and Cas lunges. Lucifer is stronger than Castiel, though, and he beats him pretty badly, and tells Castiel, as he did Sam, that only he can defeat the Darkness.
Dean goes to Sam, who says, “We can’t win.” Dean says that they don’t have to; they just need a few minutes. The ongoing fight between Lucifer, Sam, Dean, and Castiel is interspersed with scenes of Rowena completing the spell.
Lucifer gets Dean in a throat hold, and tells Sam, “Say the magic word or your brother dies.” Castiel attacks Lucifer, drawing his attention. He’s ready to kill Castiel when Rowena completes the spell. Lucifer disappears, and Dean, Sam, and Castiel are left alone in the cage – but the angel’s eyes are glowing oddly.
As the three leave the cage, Rowena says, “You’re welcome.” None of them say thanks, though. Sam asks what will they do now. “About the Darkness?,” Crowley asks. “No clue.” “We’ll figure it out,” Dean says. “Or die screaming,” Rowena offers.
“This has been a horrible train wreck, so we’re done,” Crowley declares. “Team up over….you lot, get the hell out of hell.” They leave via the very convenient staircase that Dean and Castiel used, which leads into Billie’s place. I can’t say I understand why/how there’s a door that offers such easy access; I’m also confused as to location in this episode. In 11×9, Crowley escorts everyone to limbo, where the cage could be erected and Lucifer summoned; here, the staircase seems to lead to hell, yet in the drawing room where Crowley and Rowena are hanging out, they can hear Sam’s yells from the cage in limbo. So… Crowley has a drawing room in limbo too? Or did the geography of hell/limbo shift between episodes?
As they leave Billie’s, Castiel hesitates. Dean pauses and asks, “You alright?” Sam waits at the car as the two talk. “I think so – I will be.” Castiel refuses Dean’s offer of a lift: “You two go on ahead, I’ll catch up.” Dean nods and heads for the car. Castiel stares at Sam, who’s been watching their conversation. Sam salutes and smiles, and the Winchesters get into the car.
Sam looks back towards Castiel and asks Dean, “Is he alright?” Dean answers, “Tough day.” He asks Sam if he’s good, but Sam’s not sure; he worries that Lucifer was telling the truth. Dean tells him, “The Darkness is bad. Her and the devil? That’s a nightmare.” Sam nods, and Dean starts the car.
In hell, a still-shackled Rowena is massaging Crowley’s temples. He asks, “Mother, why do you hate me?” Connell delivers Rowena’s answer with stirring emotion:
“I hate you because when I look into your eyes, I see the woman I used to be before magic… when I was nothing but Rowena, the tanner’s daughter… I hate you because when you were born, your father said he loved me, and then he went back to his grand wife… I hate you because if I didn’t, I’d love you but love – love is weakness, and I’ll never be weak again.” Rowena has tears in her eyes as she finishes, and Crowley appears deeply affected – until the clanging of the doors startles them both.
“Castiel,” Crowley says. Rowena immediately knows what’s happened, and as Castiel’s mannerisms change, it’s clear this is not Cas; it’s Lucifer. Via flashback, we see Lucifer drawing his fist back for the death blow, just as Rowena completes the spell; Castiel asks, “Can you really beat her?” “I can,” Lucifer promises. “Then yes,” Cas says. The bright flash isn’t Lucifer leaving the cage; it’s him possessing Castiel. I realized belatedly that Castiel may very well not know that Rowena is moments from completing the spell; what if he thinks, like Sam did until Dean told him otherwise, that there is no way they can win against the devil?
Alarmed, Crowley jumps to his feet, but Lucifer flings him against the wall. Rowena declares Lucifer her liege, and he thanks her, removing the witch-catcher. He tells her that she deserves “a reward.” It’s a sensuous moment, and Lucifer’s about to kiss Rowena when he asks if anyone else can open the cage. “Just me, “ she assures him.
Here, I may have screamed at my television screen – but alas, another popular recurring female character’s arc unnecessarily ends, and all my hopes of seeing Rowena and Lucifer raising hell together are foiled. Lucifer tells Rowena, “Good,” and snaps her neck before tossing her to the floor. It’s a brutal scene.
Frankly, I don’t see the sense in Rowena dying. She’s been a bright spot in season eleven, and to end that for the sake of – what exactly? – just seems unwise for the overall narrative arc. Casifer – or is it Lustiel? – then turns to the demon whose mommy issues were just exacerbated and says, “Okay, let’s chat.”
The episode ends there. Collins does an amazing job of channeling Pellegrino’s Lucifer, and it’s unsettling – in a very good way – to see him switch from Castiel to Lucifer. Now, I’m wondering how long it will be before Dean and Sam discover the possession. Will Crowley spill the secret? Or will his desire for self-preservation win out? How many episodes of Casifer (or Lustiel) will we have (Hopefully more than three)?
Other thoughts and questions:
- The parallel between Sam and Castiel works so well in this episode; Sam finds his faith and doesn’t succumb to temptation, but Castiel does this time. How will this work out? And where does that position Dean in all of this – especially since it’s often he and Castiel that are paralleled?
- What happened to the Casmobile? Will Casifer (or Lustiel) retrieve it?
- What’s up with Amara? Did the smiting event weaken her? Or did she have a reaction to something about Castiel, whom she reiterated has been a special interest of God’s?
- Is there any chance that Rowena’s not dead? After all, she has had access to The Book of the Damned – what else has she learned from it?
Up next is the Monster-of-the-Week episode, “Into the Mystic.” Supernatural airs Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on the CW Network.