Supernatural: The Rising Son (13x02)

Okay! We're really starting to dig in and establish the set pieces and character arcs for this season, and I've gotta say, I'm quite interested in where things are going!

Cons:

I'm not all that interested in the newest Prince of Hell, but that could be because we've just met him. I think I'm a little uncomfortable spending time talking about the leadership of Hell since Crowley isn't around. The scenes with all of the demon cronies arguing over protocol have never been the most interesting thing about Supernatural, and the one thing that made these scenes worthwhile was having Crowley there. I hope we can do something interesting and new with Hell, instead of doing the same old stuff, minus our favorite King of Hell to spice things up. That said, I'm not writing off Asmodeus quite yet. He could be interesting.

Pros:

Let's start with the subplot, actually: Mary and Lucifer are the strangest reluctant duo I can imagine. Lucifer figures that they need each other if they're ever going to get out of this parallel universe and get back to their sons. Lucifer's plan is to trade Mary to the Winchesters in exchange for Jack. Mary is going along with this plan somewhat, since she's obviously at a complete loss. Eventually, the two are accosted by a bunch of angels, but Lucifer is able to kill them all easily. He then comes face to face with the alternate world version of his brother Michael, who apparently killed his own Lucifer some time ago, and is ready to kill another one. The two begin to fight.

Lucifer is such a great villain, obviously, and it's fun in a sick sort of way to see him with his powers intact. He's able to wipe out a bunch of powerful angels no sweat, he punches through a human torso to stop a random hunter from hurting Mary, and he and Michael trade some seriously powerful blows. We briefly learn in this episode that Jack is destined to be more powerful than the angel that sired him, so it was cool to see Lucifer at full strength so we get a real idea of what we're talking about.

This alternate reality affords so many wonderful opportunities for callbacks and fun returns for characters. We see Michael played by a different actor here, but he's an angel, so that hardly matters. We could bring back fan favorites, see other returning names in different bodies, and so much more. Obviously I'm rooting for Mary to be reunited with her boys, but I wouldn't mind sticking around and exploring more of this world in the meantime!

The main story is basically just Sam vs. Dean in the argument about Jack. Sam of course thinks he can be raised to be a good person, while Dean is convinced that Jack is destined for great evil. They get some assistance in the form of the prophet Donatello, who is awed by Jack's power but seems slightly more on Sam's side of things, willing to treat Jack like a kid and learn more about him. Jack gets kidnapped by Asmodeus in the guise of Donatello, and Asmodeus convinces him to open a cage with great evil trapped inside. Sam, Dean, and the real Donatello arrive in time to stop Jack, and when Asmodeus starts hurting them, Jack unleashes his power at Asmodeus to protect his friends from harm. The episode ends with Jack stabbing himself over and over, and healing instantly. Dean catches him at it and tells him to stop. Jack wonders what he is, and Dean assures him that if Jack goes evil, Dean will put him down.

I appreciate that we're taking things a bit slow, and it looks like hopefully Jack will be a real part of the integrated plot moving forward. The setup here is genius. Of course Sam would feel connected to Jack in some way, given his own past with dark and inexplicable magic. And of course Dean would do what he always does, and try to be pragmatic to the point of losing his sense of humanity. There's a wonderful moment where Jack asks why Dean hates him, and Sam replies that Dean is angry and scared, and he's lashing out at Jack. Jack asks why Dean would be afraid, and Sam replies that Dean thinks it's his job to save everybody, and now he's stuck trying to figure out how to save people from Jack, while meanwhile Sam is trying to save Jack himself.

It was so cool to have the show acknowledge the reasoning for Dean's behavior, and it was so interesting that Sam was able to pick up on Dean's motivations with such accuracy. Obviously they've been through similar routines before, and Sam, true to form, is going to fight to keep Dean from falling apart. He gives another wonderful little speech to Dean towards the end of the episode, where he talks about how Jack is afraid of who he is, and he's afraid of Dean, too. Sam knows that losing Mary and Cas has been difficult on both of them, but they're the Winchester brothers. They claw their way back from rock bottom. It's what they do. As angry and closed off as Dean is, he's not completely shutting Sam out. He knows they disagree about Jack, but he's not about to start the murder attempt without Sam being on board. As messed up as they both are right now, they're still a team.

Jack is... adorable, I guess is the word. And so deeply troubled. I really like him a lot, much more than I was expecting to. We can already see the parallels between Jack's behavior towards Dean, and Dean's own behavior towards John Winchester. Jack wants to please Dean, but is also afraid of him, and doesn't understand what he's done to disappoint him. Dean doesn't want to be a father figure to Jack, obviously, but it's like he can't help himself. The final scene between them is so intense and strange and awful. The sight of Jack stabbing himself over and over was really haunting and disturbing. Dean was obviously horrified, too. He wants to believe, probably for his own sanity, that Jack is irredeemably evil, but I think he's coming to understand that maybe he's just a scared kid who has no idea what's going on. But the problem is... that doesn't mean he can be saved. That doesn't mean he's not too dangerous to live. This sort of dilemma is the kind of thing that keeps Dean Winchester up at night...

I think I've said all I need to about this one. I'm excited for Cas' return, whenever that happens, and I look forward to more development of the Jack situation in the future. So far, this season has me hooked!

9/10