Supernatural: Devil's Bargain (13x13)

Okay. I... Hm. I have some thoughts.

Cons:

So, I went into this episode having seen the promo, and obviously I knew Danneel was going to be in it, but somehow I had missed that it was a fucking Bucklemming episode. The minute I saw their names on the screen I cringed, ready for the worst. The odd thing is, I actually thought things were going... okay, at first. Sure, I could detect that typical stilted nature to the writing, and there were moments where the cool factor was deemed more important than the "consistent" factor or the "follows logical path" factor. But I can put up with all of that. When Danneel Ackles' character, Sister Jo, first appeared, I didn't hate her either. I was ready to see what came next. And then... creepy sexual vibe immediately with new female character. And she's evil, of course. Oh, great. So we're doing this. Oh, and in case you were missing another staple of Bucklemming, we've got stupid McGuffins that pop right the hell out of nowhere, like an "archangel blade" that can only be wielded by another archangel. Okay? What?

It baffles me that they keep hiring these two guys to write episodes. Literally why. I always feel like the characters revert back into former versions of themselves, the plot is always presented in this very hokey, over-the-top way, the women are over-sexualized, people are bad-ass for the sake of it to absolutely no end... it's just so frustrating.

To be more specific, you've got Ketch strutting around, you know, existing, and it's just annoying. He has all of these one-liners and the Winchesters are actually stupid enough to agree to work with him. It's just insulting at this point. Ketch's character was serviceable, but he wasn't nearly as interesting as that other MOL guy who got killed off, and the fact that he's still here feels absolutely pointless.

And then there's the fact that I'm pretty sure this episode tried to make me sympathize with Lucifer. Can you maybe... not do that? We've had plenty of plot threads in this show that make the villain sympathetic. And you know what, Lucifer has a compelling backstory with reasons for being the way he is. But that's not the same thing as forcing us to listen to him doubt his abilities as a father, pouring his heart out to an disgustingly sympathetic victim of his angel rape, as portrayed by Danneel Ackles, AKA Sister Jo. I do not need to be literally sympathizing with the devil, you guys. It just does not need to be a thing. Got it?

The thing about Sister Jo is that there's a version of this character that does work, in the hands of better writers. When she came out of the hotel and saw the boys and Cas, I thought maybe she really had just been biding her time waiting for a chance to kill the devil. But... nope. Apparently she really is working with him now. It's a waste, because we could have had another morally ambiguous, complicated character, but instead Danneel is going the way of... well, of most of Supernatural's female villains, honestly. At least with Ruby it was a surprise.

Pros:

There have been so many episodes like this over the history of Supernatural, ones that are difficult to pin down as downright despicable, but still leave a bad taste in my mouth. But, as is often the case with even Bucklemming outings, there are always a few elements that still really come together.

As I mentioned, they often like to make characters bad-ass for no good narrative reason. But sometimes, bad-ass Castiel, Angel of the Lord, is exactly what I'm looking for. I adore the fact that because Cas is such a familiar sight, and since we've seen him go through so much crap, it can be easy to forget how powerful he is. The moment when he flipped the blade over and then knocked Ketch out just by touching him was... magnificent. More of that, please.

Dean and Cas had a good moment where Dean apologized for not realizing that Cas had been in trouble, and Cas immediately attempts to absolve him of his guilt. Little moments like this are what deepen our understandings of characters and relationships. From this one moment, we establish quite firmly that Dean has a "saving people thing" a la Harry Potter himself, and that Cas trusts the Winchesters, knows he's important to them, and knows what they would do to save him if they could. We learn that Cas is willing to stand up for himself but acknowledge when he makes bad decisions, and we know that Dean is always going to worry, but maybe he'll lay off a bit on the yelling at Cas for every little mistake. If we could get more short scenes like this, we'd be really off to the races. Unfortunately, this was a very small piece of the episode.

Lucifer wants to lead Heaven, make more angels, and take down Asmodeus. I'm oddly okay with this as a ramping up sort of thing for the A-plot of the second half of the season. Not sure where it's going, but Lucifer has always had this powerful duality based on his origins. He is an angel, in the very act of his creation, but he's also incredibly demonic, for obvious reasons. If he makes more angels, how is that going to shake out?

Of course, the reason that I can't write this episode off as just stupid crap comes at the very end. We introduce this absolutely stupid idea of an archangel blade, and then we introduce the idea that only another archangel can wield it. So of course at this point I'm thinking: Michael will have to do it. This plan is super awful. How is this going to work? Oh, how about... Gabriel?

I mean - was not expecting that. I know I talk about this a lot, but one of the greatest things that Supernatural has going for it at this point is its longevity. Sure, the show has had a lot of weak moments, even weak seasons, over the years, but any show with a mythology stretching back thirteen years has such a large pool to draw from. We've seen Gabriel pop in once or twice over the years, but he was last seen as a real player like eight years ago - and he was introduced a decade ago on this show. And now we see him, broken, his mouth sewn shut, a captive of Asmodeus. How did he get there? What is his mental state? How will he react to Lucifer, to the Winchesters, to Cas, given everything that's happened to everybody over the years? This is the kind of twist that I can really get behind.

So, yeah. Bucklemming strike again, and it's a bummer, because I can see a much better episode peaking its head around the corner, straining to be noticed. This didn't suck the worst that one of their episodes has ever sucked, but it still would have been better in someone else's hands.

6.5/10