Baby's Rear View Recap: 11.10 "The Devil in the Details"

This post is obviously about the Supernatural mid-season premiere, "The Devil in the Details," ep. 11.10, written by Andrew Dabb and directed by Thomas J. Wright.

Spoilers to follow.

“Look mom, I got a Sam.”

The episode opens with Rowena’s recurring Christmas nightmare, AKA Satan radio, through which we find out that Lucifer has had vision-contact with Rowena as well as Sam. This sets up the episode nicely, building Rowena as a foil to Sam and giving us a sense of the magnitude of Satan’s plan. 

After the title sequence, we settle into the cage with our two favorite little brothers, Lucifer and Sam. Right from the start, Sam relies on his faith in Dean for strength, warning Lucifer that Dean will save him. Well, it’s really less of a warning to Luci and more of a comfort to Sam. Lucifer starts trying to break down that faith right away:

“You’re betting on Dean?”

Sam stands his ground:

“I always have.”

We cut from this to a parallel argument, this one between Crowley and Rowena. Rowena defends her faith in the devil while Crowley throws insults at her, some of these uncomfortably gendered:

 “You just gonna let the big strong man push you around”

“#girlpower”

When Rowena says “he’s changed,” Crowley derides this suggestion, saying “oh yes, of course. All he needed was the love of a horrible woman.” The implication is that she’s a silly, naïve little girl, just like all the other women.

Rowena doesn’t appreciate this line of insults; she retorts that Lucifer is not a man (well he isn’t, he’s a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent—though they still use male pronouns.) I think what Rowena meant was that he is more than just a man, or that she isn’t following him because of his maleness but rather because of his non-gendered devil-power.

But Crowley continues to draw attention to her gender throughout the episode, for example, by referring to her as “that ginger whore.” This focus on gender makes it all the more uncomfortable when Crowley enslaves Rowena later.

“…Smiting sickness.” “That’s a thing?”

Next, we see Dean in the impala on his way to find Amara after the smiting. He starts feeling sick and pulls to the side of the road, narrowly saving Baby from some nice drippy puke. Cas shows up just in time and Destiel share a nice but short moment where Cas expresses some concern for Dean, trying to check his temperature and asking if he’s alright. After that, Cas goes to check on Amara while Dean goes to check on Sam. The area surrounding the smiting is covered in darkness; while trekking through it, Cas meets Ambriel.

“Why are you here?”

But really. Why? Not a huge Ambriel fan; the actress seemed great, but the role was not. She existed literally just for that one conversation, and then died when it was over. I want to know, was she really as clueless as she came off, or was she trying to manipulate Cas? (Because it worked). That “expendable” conversation seemed a bit pointed to me, and then Amara unexplainably knew about it and used Ambriel’s comments to manipulate Cas. According to Wikipedia, Ambriel is supposed to “inspire clear communication” and is considered to be “an angel of general protection.” Ambriel is also supposed to specifically watch over those born in May. (Could this somehow have something to do with Sam?) According to this site, she helps you understand yourself and your potential and helps you see the path you need to take more clearly. I’d say she definitely did that for Cas, just not sure about the protection bit; the angel also apparently “always asks you to be your true self” and not hide behind a mask, which is kind of ironic in light of Casifer. This may not be relevant: it may be that they chose the name based on its association with Victoria’s Secret push-up bras, who knows.

But anyway, Amara eats Ambriel and the darkness turns out to be part of Amara herself, as she sucks it back in after getting her strength back. Maybe she could even hear through it, which would explain how she overheard the “expendable” conversation.

“Snapping necks and cashing checks, it’s what I do.”

Meanwhile, Lucifer does his damnedest to manipulate and abuse Sam into “consenting.” He takes Sam through his greatest hits, which apparently includes teenage Sam making out with a random girl. While I enjoyed seeing Colin Ford back on the show, I thought this was a bit off. Next was a trip to Stull Cemetery and the “title fight” between Sam and Luci; I just love this scene—in contrast to the scene before, this one carries a lot of meaning. I think it likely that showing Sam this scene backfired on Lucifer, because the only reason Sam was able to overpower Satan in Swan Song was to save Dean, whereas in this episode, Lucifer wants Sam to forget Dean and save the world. All in all very odd choices for manipulations, but maybe we will see where it leads.

In a tie-in back to Rowena and Crowley, Lucifer’s insults are also quite gendered (not sure if this was intentional: the show just kind of has a history of using gendered insults). Lucifer berates Sam for being “prissy” and becoming “soft,” and says that he respects the Sam that had the “balls” to go up against him and win.

Lastly, Lucifer takes Sam to watch himself with Amelia. Lucifer calls this Sam’s worst moment, and says that this is where everything changed and Sam lost himself. Again, Lucifer brings up Dean, berating Sam for not looking for Dean while he was in purgatory. Again, I’m not sure that this is the best tactic because it’s reminding Sam of his love for Dean when it seems that Lucifer is trying to get to Sam through letting go of Dean and sacrificing himself for the greater good.

“Yeah, she’s a peach.”

Dean shows up at the gateway to hell, and there we see the return of the reaper Billie. I approve, and the general internets seem to as well. This is our only recurring woman of color on the show ever besides Mrs. Tran. I especially loved that she was reading a comic about Death (does anyone know specifically what comic this is?) Since they brought Billie back in a role that really could have been played by anyone, I’m starting to hope that she might be important to the story later. 

Also, I have some questions about the gateway to hell. Do reapers have some kind of magic for this, or could anyone use those symbols? Is the place important, or would the symbols work somewhere else? Basically, I’m wondering if we will see this mechanic in the show again. Prior to this, the boys had to go through purgatory to get to hell, so it’s an interesting development.

“Watch your step, it’s a long way down.”

So Dean’s back in hell for the first time since his season 5 escape, and Sam’s down there for his third time, after being trapped in the cage and rescuing Bobby as part of the trials. It’s obviously hard on both of them. The Devil hardly has a job to do, as Sam is tortured just being there. Dean deals with it by really leaning into his relationships, practically trusting Crowley for once and running heart-first to Sam’s rescue.

“Honey and a splash of milk” or “like mother like son”

We also see some direct comparisons here between Rowena and Crowley. The first is that they take their tea the same way. Then we see their mutual distrust; she tricked him with a hex bag, he tricked her with the tea. But, in this instance, Crowley’s betrayal is much more physically invasive and has higher stakes. He weakens her with poison and then literally makes her his slave. I kind of wondered why Rowena didn’t fight the collar more desperately—but on second watch I think it likely that she wanted to look in control even though she wasn’t, and that she hoped that Lucifer would save her momentarily anyway, which he (sort of) did.

“You and a shiny knife, sure, that’s gonna work”

While Crowley is overpowering Rowena, Amara is overpowering Cas. She taunts him, taking up the “expendable” conversation and telling him “you reek of fear and self-loathing” before carving words into his chest and sending him over to Billie and the hell portal.

So the words, “I am coming” –threat or promise? What do you think? Who was that directed to? Was it directed to Lucifer, whom she knew would soon be inhabiting that vessel? Can Amara see the future or is she just really really smart? She was a big part of Cas’s motivation to say yes to Lucifer, so did she plan this?

“Move to LA, solve crimes.”

When Sam asks Luci what he’ll do when he’s beaten Amara, Luci jokes he’ll “move to LA, solve crimes.” I appreciated that reference to the new tv show Lucifer. In this scene, Luci specifically confirms that Gabriel is dead, which is a blow to some of the fandom who are still holding onto the hope of Gabriel’s return. There is, however, no mention from Luci of Adam, which is a bit surprising as that should be another source of Sam-shame fodder for Lucifer. I guess even Lucifer has forgotten about Adam. After all is said and done, Sam declines to “save the world” with one last sacrifice, and says “no” to Lucifer.

“I’m not ready to be your bitch” (more gendered implications?)

Lucifer loses his fun façade and starts beating on Sam. When Dean hears his brother’s shouts, he starts running and Cas follows. We see a bit more here on the theme of being scared—they always say that they are not scared, but why in hell wouldn’t they be?

Cas pulls out his little knife—wait but why? First of all Cas must already have the plan to say “yes” to him, but also—can they kill Lucifer if he doesn’t have a body? Lucifer technically doesn’t have a vessel right now at all. He came down to the cage in Sam’s body, so all that’s down there is his soul and no body at all. I assumed that that body was just a projection in the boys’ minds, but it’s got to be one strong projection if it can beat up the Winchesters...

So the cage match commences while Rowena completes a banishing spell for Lucifer under Crowley’s influence. Though the Winchesters think that spell was successful, we know it didn’t work because Lucifer had already merged into Casifer.

“you two go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”

We have another moment between Dean and Cas(ifer) which connects nicely back to the beginning. Here, in a slight flip of the earlier conversation, Dean asks Cas if he’s alright. He’s obviously not, but the boys have been through enough tonight and they hit the road for home.

“I hate you because if I didn't, I'd love you. But love, love is weakness, and I'll never be weak again.”

So the Winchesters are out and we’re nearing the end of the episode. We see Crowley sitting on a chair, recovering from his long night. Rowena, still shackled, is giving Crowley a massage. This is another “punishment” that seemed a little gendered, and was probably very humiliating for Rowena. (Though probably not as upsetting as the earlier exchange where Dean said to Rowena, “bite me,” and Crowley said, “I can make her do that.”) When Crowley demands to know why Rowena hates him, she gives a stirring monologue explaining the pain of her existence as a powerless tanner’s daughter and her abhorrence of anything that could make her feel like that person again. Then Casifer walks in, reveals his true nature, and frees Rowena from her chains. Though Rowena clearly worships the Devil, he snaps her neck after she reveals that she is the only one with power over the cage. So Casifer killed Rowena, to my displeasure. Thanks, Cas. Then, to end the episode, Casifer turns to Crowley and says “Let’s chat.”

So this leaves us with lots of questions about the rest of the season:

What is Lucifer’s plan? How does Crowley figure in? Will Rowena come back? What will Amara do now? Will Cas work as a vessel for Lucifer—will his angel grace allow him to heal himself, or will the vessel begin to break down; if it does, will Lucifer go to Sam? Will Dean ever forgive Cas for such a huge betrayal? Now how will they ever get together to make our Destiel dreams come true?!

Conclusion:

Over all, I liked the episode. It answered the questions brought up in the mid-season finale, and it spawned a whole host of interesting new questions to be solved in the remainder of the season. There were lots of touching brotherly love moments, and just knowing what Sam must be going through during this brought up plenty of feels. I personally loved the surprise ending because it's a new direction and means that we get to see more out of Misha. I also enjoyed seeing Misha playing Luci pretending to be Cas and thought he did a great impression of Mark Pellegrino. The rest of the main cast also did a great job, with a special mention for Ruth Connell, who played Rowena. I adored her final monologue, and it really resonated with me. I'm real mad that she's gone right at the moment I most wanted to see more of her. I get that they may have needed her gone to justify things that will happen in the future; I also think she made a solid foil to Sam in this episode--she betrayed her family, trusted the Devil and died while Sam trusted in his family, betrayed the Devil, and lived. I can get behind that, although it saddens me to lose yet another female recurring character.

I did not like Ambriel's character. Although the actress (Valerie Tian) seemed really great, the character itself was tropey and boring. She literally only existed for Cas's development, and it came across as a pretty sloppy mechanic to boot. I also did not understand Lucifer's manipulations--they seemed unfocused and random to me. I think the actors did a great job with what they were given, and when all was said and done, I had enjoyed watching and was on a sort of surprise plot-twist adrenaline high. So, well done.