Supernatural: Beat the Devil (13x21)

Well then. As we approach the end of this season of Supernatural, I can see that we're really not messing around.

Cons:

In order to get all the pieces in place for this exact scenario to work out, there's a little bit of contrivance that has to happen. Like we've got Rowena getting so riled up by Lucifer's taunting that she makes a HUGE mistake. Could she not have used her powers to shut him up before it got to that point? And I get that Gabriel is de-powered, but I don't quite remember why it is that Cas couldn't solve the Sam-Winchester-is-being-eaten-by-vampires problem. Why is he de-powered, again?

Pros:

This was a great episode. I don't want to bury the lead. Seriously, I was impressed. It managed to juggle some really funny, awkward moments with some really intense, traumatic stuff, and I was totally with it the whole time - I felt every emotion I was supposed to feel.

Let's start with Gabriel - it is so enormously refreshing to have him along for the ride. He added a lot of comedy to the earlier parts of this episode, what with all the innuendo about his angel-grace potency, and that hysterical moment with Rowena and Gabe... the looks on Sam, Dean, and Cas' faces when they walk into the room... that was classic stuff. Seriously great. We also get Gabriel's face landing in Cas' crotch when they fall through the portal, which was wholly unnecessary yet oddly also perfect. What works so well about Gabriel is that even though he seems to be around to provide comic relief, there are also the more serious beats. One of the best parts of this great episode is when Cas and Gabe talk about the possibility of Gabriel taking over Heaven and helping to get things back in shape. If there is an endgame for a character such as Gabriel, I suppose that's a good one. Chuck certainly isn't around to help out at the moment. There's also a very slight underrated moment that I want to talk about, which is Gabriel's reaction to Sam's death. When they're in the camp with Mary and Jack, you see him sitting there, looking really dejected and demoralized, and he remarks that he's not strong enough to have brought Sam back to life. You can tell that it really hit him hard.

Rowena was another unlikely MVP this episode. She obviously brought some great humor, but she also brought the pain of her trauma when it comes to Lucifer. The moment when she pushes him through the rift on accident was, as I mentioned above, a tad contrived... but setting that aside, I really felt Rowena's anguish. And, of course, there's her final scene in the episode, where she contemplates leaving, but decides to stay and try to fight for a way for the rift to remain open. There's absolutely no reason why she should have to do this - she could run off and leave them to their fate. But she actually has redeemed herself in some measure, and you can tell she really cares about the guys. Or, at the very least, she really cares about Sam.

Cas' role in this episode was to be a bad-ass, and also to be a supporting character for many of the other key players to work off of. He floats the idea to Gabriel about his ruling Heaven, and I like that we're continuing some B-plot story elements even as the A-plot takes over in a major way. We also get to see Cas' reaction to Sam's death, as he runs screaming after Sam into a tunnel full of vampires, and then tells Dean, his voice breaking, that they have to leave him behind - they can't save him. Cas is also the one to break the news to poor Jack when our heroes finally reunite, and Misha Collins does a great job of blending his own heartbreak with the need to be there for Jack in his time of distress.

Let's talk about Mr. Sam Winchester for a moment, shall we? I love the beginning part of the episode, when Cas says they need Lucifer's grace to open the portal, and Sam is really, really scared and hesitant about it. Jared Padalecki is doing such a great job of showcasing Sam's continuing PTSD about Lucifer. But we also get to see that Sam is a good strategist - he's the one who comes up with the plan to trap Lucifer and use him basically as a battery to not only open the rift to Apocalypse World, but keep it open. Gabriel assists with some awesome illusion magic, and the plan goes off without a hitch, which is satisfying to see once in a while. Dean notes that Sam seems happier now that they're executing their plan, and it's true - Sam is confident, and determined, and he can just feel that they're close to reuniting with Mary and Jack. So... naturally, this is when he gets torn apart by vampires right in front of Dean's eyes.

Let's get something out of the way: the tragedy of this scene isn't in the fact that Sam dies, because at this point the rules for death in this show work very differently than in most shows on TV. We know Sam isn't dead, or at least not permanently dead, for so many reasons. There are still two more episodes of the season. And there's a Season Fourteen next year. If there's anybody who watched this scene and thought Sam was gone for good, then they clearly haven't been watching this show for very long. But one of the brilliant things about Supernatural is that even though we know the death isn't permanent, there's always some added element to make it compelling and tragic to watch all the same.

Of course, Jensen Ackles absolutely murdered me with his reaction. At first, he's panicked and disbelieving, his expression horrified, as he tries to run down the tunnel where Sam was dragged. He pushes back Cas when Cas tells him it's too late, but seems to accept Cas' word that it's no use. I saw some people on the interweb complaining that Dean would have gone after Sam anyway, but I think this all makes sense - Dean reacted in a very similar way when Sam appeared to have died back in "Red Meat." He doesn't care what happens to him at this point, since he has absolutely no desire to live without Sam. But he goes in to this survival-mode, a denial of the truth so powerful he can block out the worst of his pain at least for a short time, until he can figure out what to do next. Dean lives in a world where death has proven to be less-than-permanent on so many occasions, that even as he despairs at Sam's loss, I'm sure he hasn't accepted its reality. For the rest of the episode, until Sam reappears at the end, Dean just looks gone. He looks hollow, completely dead inside, and nowhere is it more clear than when he and Mary reunite. He can't even be properly happy to see her, because there's just not room for anything in him but grief. He falls in to his mother's embrace, his eyes still dead and empty, and doesn't say anything when Mary asks where Sam is. He just starts to cry. Later, speaking the first words we've heard him say since Sam's death, he tells Mary that they have to go back and get his body. Again, Jensen does such a good job with stuff like this. His voice doesn't crack, he doesn't break down. He says it like a soldier, matter-of-fact, and it's one of those things where you just know that if he let himself feel the full scope of his loss, he'd fall to his knees and never get up again. He has to hold it together, or it'll drag him under.

Lucifer is the absolute worst, you guys. See, this is what I mean by the deaths managing to be interesting even if we know they won't stick. Lucifer resurrects Sam. He doesn't do it for the same reason he would have back in Season Five - he doesn't need Sam as a vessel. He wants to use Sam as a present for Jack, to try and get in good with his son. So poor Sammy has to let Lucifer come with him - he has to know that he's only alive thanks to his long-time tormentor and abuser. Jared does such a good job of making sure the audience can't forget all the pain Sam has gone through at Lucifer's hands. This stuff is intense. We end the episode on a cliffhanger of sorts, as Sam and Lucifer walk into the camp, and Lucifer greets his son. Obviously everybody is elated to see Sam alive, but the price of his return is steep, and we're about to see a lot of chaos erupt as we go forward into the final two episodes of the season.

I'm really invested, you guys. I really want to know what happens in these final two episodes, and if the vague spoilers from the cast and crew are anything to go by, I'm not going to see it coming!

9/10