Supernatural: Our Little World (11x06)

Yikes. Things are gearing up in kind of a horrifying way. I actually have some big complaints about this episode, but I think the good stuff was good enough to sort of neutralize my criticisms. Let's jump in.

Cons:

In this episode, Cas finally finds Metatron. He gives us an important piece of relevant information: The Darkness is God's sister. But other than that, all the scenes with Metatron and Cas seemed to be just an excuse for a violent fight sequence, and a way to retread the same questions that we've already heard about Cas' place in the world. As Cas was bloodying Metatron to a pulp, Metatron kept going on about how Cas was everybody's puppet, and wasn't he tired of being used by his enemies and his friends? All of these points are totally important... but also totally obvious and rehashed. I guess what I'm saying is that Metatron's purpose in this episode could have been squished down to just a few seconds while he dropped his important plotty information.

There were some interesting editing decisions in this episode that didn't really work for me. The climax of the episode features Dean confronting Amara and Crowley in Amara's room, while Sam fights a couple of demon guards outside, and Cas beats up Metatron. The reveals come in quick succession - Sam sees strange visions of torture again, Metatron reveals that Amara is God's sister, and Amara tells Crowley she's done playing by his rules, and also tells Dean that she's fascinated by him. Dean is unable to kill Amara, even given the opportunity. All of these things are super critical pieces of information, and they were presented to us through this series of very quickly spliced moments between the actions of our three principal characters. It was a bit disorienting and I'm not sure what purpose it served to cut the scenes up like this in such rapid-fire moments.

Pros:

I've basically already gone over the plot. Despite not liking the strange way in which the information was presented to us in the climax, I like all of these reveals a lot. Several things are taking a big step forward. We now know that Amara is an explicitly set up counterpoint to God, which strongly suggests we'll be seeing God sooner or later. This is sort of like the Apocalypse plot line 2.0. While in Season Five we were dealing with two of God's children facing off (Lucifer and Michael), now we're dealing with God and a sibling. The setup has a lot of promise. Sometimes it's good to keep things black and white, or light and dark, if you will. It creates a clear framework through which many complexities can be introduced.

Chief among those complexities is Dean's strange connection to Amara. Dean feels a sort of protective instinct towards her, and she clearly feels a great connection to him as well. I loved the mounting tension in the scene between the two of them. When it comes down to it, Dean is safe from the Darkness in certain ways, but in even more danger in other ways. It seems unlikely that she'll kill him, but what's to stop her from going after Sam or Cas? I can't wait to see how they develop this. I don't really want it to become a romantic connection, but hey. Sam had his tryst with Ruby, so I guess we can be okay with Dean/Amara if it happens.

Cas is still recovering from his ordeal at the bunker, binging crap TV. Dean isn't sure of Cas is ready to get back out there, but Sam points out that it's crazy to keep their one and only angel friend on the bench. Cas is still in a funk, and has flashbacks of Hannah dying and of beating up Dean. That was an important scene to have, as we see that most of what Cas is going through is psychological. He needs to get back on the horse. Then, he sees Metatron on the TV, finds his motivation, and tracks him down. He finds Metatron filming exploitation videos of crime scenes, which was a pretty hilarious and fitting profession for him. I like seeing Cas step up and get back in the game, and I also love that he decides to let Metatron go. This season has been about getting back to basics, in many ways, and we can see that in Cas' decision to show the human Metatron mercy.

Similarly, we see Sam trying not to kill the demons he encounters. He wants to exorcise them and save their meat suits. We haven't seen either Winchester brother bother with that in a long time. Sam nearly dies because he's trying to avoid killing the three demons in the hall outside where Dean is confronting Amara. I love the fact that Sam is bad ass enough to take them all out, and he actually only kills one of them. Sam Winchester: don't mess with him if you want to live. I hope we see more and more of Sam striving to do the right thing, and hopefully he can pull Dean in to his renewed vigor for saving people.

Crowley and Dean's bromance got a mention here, as Crowley pins Dean to the wall with his powers and talks about how he's never been able to bring himself to kill him before because of their connection. Now, he thinks he'll finally get the job done. That's when Amara steps in and saves the day. I'm fascinated by the strange power dynamic between Crowley and Dean, and how we can pretty much guarantee that neither one of them will be killing the other any time soon.

The episode ends with Dean telling Sam and Cas that Amara got away because she was too powerful, but you can tell that Cas and Sam are a little suspicious of this. Dean is pissed off that Cas let Metatron get away, and things are in general pretty tense between the three of them. As much as I want eternal peace between Team Free Will, I also like seeing how their mounting peril is showing the cracks in their relationships. One of this season's themes thus far has been exposing the dysfunctional nature of these key relationships, and I think a bit of bickering might start to expose the problems that need to be solved.

Finally, there's that ending. Oh. My. God. Sam is having visions of the Cage! I mean, that was my guess earlier, and it's not a huge surprise, but still! They confirmed it! It's the Cage! Michael and Lucifer! (And Adam?!) I'm anxious for Sam to get some A-plot focus this season, since Dean has been the one dealing with the Mark and all that for the past couple of years. My heart is breaking for the poor thing flashing back to that experience, but I'm really glad we're seeing some continuity there. It looks like we're gearing up for God and Lucifer to make an appearance at some point. I'm thrilled!

That's what I've got. The few weird pacing and editing issues aside, this episode moved the story forward in a big way, and I'm excited to see what comes next.

8/10