Supernatural came back swinging in its midseason premiere in a season which has potentially been its strongest since Season 5, at least thus far. Plenty to talk about here.
The main focus of this episode was Sam and his always interesting interactions with Lucifer. Lucifer brought up a lot of points and plots that fans and critics alike have been complaining about for a while. A good way for the writers to wink at the audience that not every plot has been a gem in recent years. That abomination of a storyline from Season 8 involving Amelia is brought up. Lucifer summed it up best by telling Sam, "this is the worst thing you have ever done." In a long list of poor decisions, that one's up there for sure.
Lucifer's other big point to Sam is that the brothers' actions involving the mark were not heroic. Lucifer tells Sam that he knew bad things would happen and innocent people would suffer, but that Sam chose to do it regardless. This is a point that should really be mentioned more and at least this season seems to be tackling the issue. In earlier seasons, Sam and Dean were pretty obvious heroes. In more recent years, certain actions have been questionable. Their utter devotion to one another and their inability to let either go has led to the deaths of many. Releasing the Darkness on the world is their fault and props for the show for stating that multiple times more or less this season.
The other happenings in this episode involve Dean obviously attempting to save Dean. It is obligatory at this point because it goes back to the brothers not being the best at letting go. Dean also needs Crowley and Rowena's help. Castiel also had his work cut out for him in his attempt to locate Amara along with the help of a fellow angel who just so happens to have the largest and most interesting pair of glasses I have ever seen. Luckily for us the audience, nothing went as expected. More on that later.
Not that the other things are not interesting, but this episode is truly a showcase for Pellegrino's Lucifer. Pellegrino's ability to blend menace along with humor has always been magic on the screen whenever he has showed up over the years. He truly is a talented actor and his take on Lucifer is one of my favorite TV villains period. He had a number of great lines this episode that involved making fun of Sam, breaking necks, mocking Michael, and poking fun at the new Lucifer series that is starting on FOX. This may have been the most screen time he ever got in a single episode ever and that is a great thing.
This babbling has persisted long enough, but that ending needs to be addressed. Many people seemed worried this Lucifer debacle would be wrapped up very quickly like Demon Dean and God Cas were. Luckily that seems to not be the case and the actual result was potentially predictable to some, especially if one watched the promos leading into this episode. Never the less, this is the best material Misha Collins has had to work with in a while. Many fans have complained about his lack of screen time lately and he has really not had much to do for some time. Castiel watching Netflix was only amusing for so long. Well Misha now gets to give his take on Lucifer, or as he is already being coined...Casifer. That creative name was surely created in some preexisting piece of fanfiction.
How Misha will compare to Mark remains to be seen, but so far so good. Despite what he did to Rowena in a very gruesome death scene for this show, I'm not sure Misha will possess the same level of menace that Mark has. Time will tell. Seeing an actor tackle a dual role can be endlessly entertaining and really highlight the depth of their acting. Look no further than some of the dual roles found within Whedon's Buffyverse. That is also my poor attempt to subtlety recommend Buffy/Angel to Supernatural lovers.
Overall Supernatural came back quite strong and shows great promise for the episodes to come. For those of us who have been watching for 10.5 seasons, we are witnessing a show that is very much alive once more.
9/10
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