Supernatural: King of the Damned (9x21)

DEAN WINCHESTER YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE YOUNG MAN. YOU LISTEN TO YOUR BROTHER, DO YOU HEAR ME?! Argggh! This is so frustrating! What is even going on right now?!

So. Cas calls Sam and Dean over to help him with something. When they arrive, they see that Cas has a whole operation set up, with angels doing his orders. Cas explains that he wants to stop all the angels from killing one another, and that he doesn't really want to lead, but has no choice, all the other viable leaders having been killed off. Cas called in the brothers because they have one of Metatron's helpers, and they need to get information out of him. Dean seems all too eager to torture the angel for info.

Before he can start in on the torture, however, Sam deflects the situation by verbally taunting the angel, laughing at him and remarking that he probably doesn't even know anything about Metatron's plans. The angels, eager to prove that he's legit, starts spilling secrets. Apparently there's a portal to Heaven that can be moved at Metatron's will. He's also gathering a group of elite angels for some sort of secret mission, but their captive doesn't know much more.

Shortly after Sam and Dean leave the room, the angel is killed, ostensibly by one of Cas' angels. They discover that one of Cas' angels must be a spy, working for Metatron. Cas meets with Gadreel. Even though they are on opposite sides, they both treat one another with honor. A group of assassins turn up, and Gadreel and Cas are able to fight them off. This further proves that Cas has a traitor among his followers. He asks Gadreel to consider turning spy for him.

Meanwhile, Abaddon travels through time and gets Crowley's son, bringing him to the present day to use him against his father. Crowley is angry at his followers for betraying him to Abaddon, and he's also furious that he still has some humanity left in him, making it very difficult to watch his son suffer in front of him. Crowley makes Abaddon stop torturing Gavin, agreeing to set up a trap for the Winchesters. Abaddon's reasoning? If Sam and Dean kill her using the First Blade, Crowley will be next on their to do list. This way, they can both get the Winchesters out of the way and then focus on killing one another.

Crowley tells Sam and Dean where to find the First Blade - inside of a corpse. Ew. They almost get killed by a Hell Hound, but they call Crowley, put him on speaker, and he is able to call off Juliet, the Hell Hound. On the way to Crowley and Abaddon, Crowley is able to convey to Dean using a code word that the whole thing is a trap, and Abaddon will be waiting for them when they get there.

Abaddon, convinced that Crowley might try and pull something fishy, shoots Crowley with a devil's trap bullet, immobilizing him. Dean doesn't tell Sam that it's a trap, instead sending him to go check on the basement while he goes straight up to confront Abaddon. At first, Abaddon seems to overpower him by slamming him up against the wall. But Dean, channeling the Mark of Cain, is able to kill Abaddon with the First Blade. Sam shows up in time to see Dean cutting viciously into Abaddon's body, and it takes him a while to convince Dean to stop.

Crowley tells his son not to go back to his own time, since he was planning on getting on a boat that's destined to sink, killing everyone on board. Sam and Dean are furious that Crowley would mess with the past like that, but of course Crowley points out that Sam and Dean always mess with the rightful order of things, so why shouldn't he? Sam wants to hide the First Blade somewhere far away until they need it again to kill Crowley, but Dean says no.

Problems?

Well... I think Cas was underutilized here. Yeah, there's the part of me that loves Destiel and Team Free Will being together, so I was annoyed there were barely any interactions between Cas and the two brothers. But it's more than that. Even without that element, Cas was not even close to the focal point of this episode. He was a subplot that started and never really finished. The promo for next episode looks like he's much more involved, but it was sort of annoying to see him put to so little use here.

I liked Gavin for the most part, and I'll talk about that in a second, but... there were some moments where the comedy veered into eye-roll territory with this. The fact that Gavin was able to adjust to the modern world so quickly, and just accept that his father was the King of Hell... It got a bit silly in my opinion. For that matter, Crowley isn't Gavin's father, right? I mean, the human that Crowley used to be, yes. But with Meg I feel like we pretty clearly established the fact that demons are distinct from the humans they used to be. It sort of bothered me a bit.

Also, they kept Crowley alive. Obviously I didn't expect them to kill off Crowley at this point - that would be a terrible idea for the story. But usually, when Crowley and the Winchesters refrain from murdering one another, I understand why. They give good excuses for it. This time, there really wasn't even an attempt to explain why Dean didn't turn around and stab Crowley with the blade, too. That bothered me.

But then there's the good stuff.

Dean's descent into darkness is being handled so well. He's mostly still in control of himself, but his decision to keep the Blade at the end is very clearly a sign that he's going to do something very, very, bad very soon. His power is growing, and it's easy to justify why he wants that: they have a lot of really bad problems they need to deal with, and Abaddon is really only the start. Dean has a logical reason for wanting to keep the Blade, but I suspect that his main motivation is that he likes the way it makes him feel.

Sam is getting more and more worried as Dean worsens. I loved the moment where they interrogated Metatron's angel, and Sam was able to deflect Dean's violence and turn it into an opportunity for some laughter. Sam and Dean were closer to being brothers in that scene than they've been in a long time. And then later we see that, despite this moment of relative happiness, they are very far from okay. Dean lies to Sam out of a misguided wish to protect him, which is basically the major thematic problem of this season. Seeing Dean continue down this dark path just reminds me once more that things are only going to get worse before they get better.

Crowley as a father! Despite my slight confusion over how this all works, I was still so happy to see a new facet of Crowley's personality explored. Obviously, Crowley was a terrible father. He beat his son, was constantly drunk, etc. However, we see that Crowley's human blood addiction caused some complications, and he can't help himself from caring - just a tiny bit - for his child. His decision to help Gavin in the end was an interesting one, because it shows that he's willing to bend cosmic rules for family, much as Sam and Dean have done on numerous occasions. Crowley with a dash of humanity proves a very interesting character.

Abaddon is dead. Now at first, I was royally pissed off. Then, I was convinced that it was a trick, and she'd be back. I'm mad because we need more ladies on this show. I'm uncertain because it seemed a bit too easy to kill her. But ultimately... I realized that Abaddon was never a main villain. She was always a means to an end. Now that Abaddon is gone, the uneasy alliance between the Winchesters and Crowley is over, and we can go full speed ahead with Crowley and Metatron as our main problems. I have some problems with the killing off of another female character, but I do think it's consistent with the plot they've set up thus far.

Dean is worrying me, Crowley is confusing me, Metatron is annoying, Gadreel might have a change of heart... the last two episodes of the season are sure to be quite intense!

7.5/10