Baby’s Rear View Recap: 11.21 “All in the Family”

This post is about Supernatural season 11 episode 21, “All in the Family” written by Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming and directed by Thomas J. Wright.

*****Spoilers below*****

“Holy crap.”

This episode opens right where the last one left off. Good. The boys are in shock and Dean angrily questions whether Chuck is real; to prove that he is, Chuck zaps the three of them to the bunker. And then Kevin steps out from behind him. KEVIN. Kevin expresses concern with how stressed they look (especially Dean) and tells them they can trust Chuck. Then an impatient Chuck zaps him up to heaven. Or something. The boys are understandably in shock.

“You know, I don't want to turn into a pillar of salt.”
“I actually -- I didn't do that.”

Sweet baby Sam is the cutest ever trying to talk to God. And DEAN. Dean just sits there, thinking and feeling. This was my favorite scene of the episode, no question. Sam is trying so hard to make God love him but Dean just won’t. He’s angry and hurt and he doesn’t understand. Chuck tries to explain that he left so that things would be better, but Dean just feels like he left them. And then Chuck has to go and bring up Dean’s dad. This was the first of many moments this episode when I just wanted to punch Chuck right in his super cute face.

“You're strong, Amara. You may defeat him. But you will never be him.”

The episode cuts to Amara torturing Casifer. She tells him to beg God to save him, but Lucifer won’t. He taunts Amara instead.

“Thus spake the Lord.”

Back in the bunker, Chuck tells the brothers he believes in them before heading off to take a shower. Before he can leave, the boys press him about Lucifer. But Chuck doesn’t want to save Lucifer, because he can’t trust him. And then he even throws shade at the brothers for letting him out. Moment number two when I wanted to punch Chuck.

“By choosing to ignore me, my brother is allowing this to happen. These and other things. I thought you should know.”

Amara can sense that something is different. She knows Chuck has come back. She gives Dean a vision of her and Casifer, blaming Chuck for allowing these things to happen. Meanwhile, the fog is rolling in on Lewis, Oklahoma.

“You told God to cool it?”

Dean and Sam are looking for Amara but are finding nothing. They talk about Chuck and their strange situation, and Dean tells Sam about his vision and the dangerous state that Cas is in. But then Chuck walks in and tells them they shouldn’t bother looking for Lucifer. Just then the breaking news comes in about an entire town who were killed by Amara’s fog. All except one man. Chuck tries to justify not saving those people and the brothers head to Oklahoma to try to find Amara.

“Events are moving swiftly and everything will change.”

Metatron also catches the breaking news as he reads God’s manuscript in a bar. I loved this scene with Metatron standing up on the bar to get a closer look. And then he just sinks and sits down on it. Then he calls the Winchesters, who are on their way to Oklahoma in the impala. When the boys make it to Oklahoma, they realize that the survivor, Donatello, is the next prophet. While Sam tells the prophet what’s up, Dean gets another vision from Amara. She wants to meet.

“He's a little nutted out about the whole booga-booga of it all, so maybe just dial back the -- the God stuff.”

Sam and Dean take a confused and shocked Donatello back to the bunker to meet God. Chuck’s watching curling sans pants and eating Chinese, and yet Donatello is still awed by him.

“It's not an autobiography. It's a suicide note.”

Then Dean and Sam head to the bar to meet Metatron. (Dean moving that guy with the beer over. HA!) Dean is just not having it today, nor should he be. Same with Sam. They don’t want to believe it when Metatron tells them Chuck plans to sacrifice himself, but they have no choice when Metatron shows them God’s manuscript.

“You started all of this, but does that give you the right to end it? You know, we're not just some toys you throw away. I think you owe us more than that.”

Dean meets with Chuck in a park to confront him about his plan. Chuck explains that he will trade himself for the safety of His creations, to be stuck in a cage for all eternity. Dean doesn’t trust that it will work and Chuck assures him that if it doesn’t, Dean and Sam and the other “chosen” will be able to step up and find a way. He tells Dean that the reason He saved him years ago was to be the firewall between light and darkness. Dean doesn’t feel up to the task and tells Chuck that it is his responsibility.

“What happened?!”

Dean, Sam, Donatello, and Metatron cook up a plan to rescue Lucifer and then use him to help Chuck defeat Amara. Dean goes to the woods to meet Amara so as to distract her while the jailbreak goes down. Donatello leads Sam and Metatron to the place Casifer is being kept. Metatron works on casting an angel spell to free Casifer from his bonds while Amara tries to convince Dean to surrender to her. Sam makes Lucifer agree to behave and they bust him out just as Amara realizes something is amiss when she touches Dean’s face. Donatello can feel her coming but Lucifer can’t muster enough power to zap them out of there. Sam grabs Casifer and gets him out but Metatron stays behind to take care of Amara. When Amara arrives, Metatron casts a banishing spell; only it doesn’t work on Amara. Amara kills Metatron before moving on to find the others. She stops the impala in the middle of the road, but before she can do anything, God zaps the entire car back to the bunker. (Poor Baby, she’s going to need new tires for sure.) Chuck heals Casifer and the two greet each other awkwardly.

“So in other words, adios.”

Donatello leaves, but he’s not sure where he’s going. Sam and Dean talk about what just went down and man do things look hopeless.

Questions:

Whyyyy is Amara warding herself against God? Counterintuitive much? I thought she wanted God to come to her? How can he do that if he can’t find her?

So Kevin has been stuck in the veil this entire time? Why is that again? And now he’s going to heaven? Just now? Is he going to be an angel? IS HE COMING BACK? Why couldn’t he continue to be a prophet? Could he be a prophet in that state? Why couldn’t Chuck bring him back to life? Whyyyyyy.

What really went down between Chuck, Amara, and Lucifer? Chuck denied Lucifer’s involvement but Amara confirmed it. Is there more to the story? And will we ever hear it?

How is Amara just now—at least an hour after Chuck’s miracle—realizing that something is different? Wouldn’t she have realized Chuck was back the second her fog trick failed the first time around? Or did she not know that all those people survived? But how could she not, given that she was in the heads of the victims?

If Metatron has God’s manuscript, and knows that Chuck plans to sacrifice himself, why doesn’t he already know that Chuck is with the Winchesters? Did Chuck not include that part of the plan in the book?

And was it always Chuck’s plan to sacrifice himself? And that’s why he had to write the book? So Metatron didn’t convince him to change his mind and Chuck just led him on for like an hour?

So was it Amara or Chuck whose God power made Donatello into a prophet? My guess would be Chuck because Donatello is certainly not helping Amara. But the brothers mentioned that it might be Amara and that’s throwing me off because they never addressed it again.

Why did Metatron stay behind? Even if the spell had been successful, it would have just banished Amara from that place, not from the bunker or the road between the two. I just feel like he didn’t have to die… and will God bring him back? Could he, since it was the Darkness that killed him?

So… What? Lucifer is staying with the brothers in the bunker now?! What even is this? And why was he even able to get in—they should have it warded against him. Can you even imagine how Dean and Sam must feel right now? This is the worst. I can’t even. Lucifer had better behave or so help me.

Conclusions:

Oh my ffffffff Jensen’s acting in this. I can’t even. I am now a Dean girl hellogoodbye.

And Sam. I’m a Sam girl too… I just feel so friggin’ bad for him. What a sacrifice that Sam had to go—not only rescue Lucifer—but actually physically carry him to the car and bring him into his home. LUCIFER. The guy who literally tortured him in every way for years in hell. The guy who raped him and drove him so literally crazy that he couldn’t sleep for months and had to go to a mental hospital. I can’t believe the show is doing that to him, after all they’ve already done.

But, thank Chuck that Cas is still okay. (Except not really because Chuck had nothing to do with it.) But really, I am so glad that Cas is safe, at least sort of, and at least for now.

Also I love Kevin. And poor Metatron.

This episode and last episode are my favorite story episodes so far this season. I normally like monster-of-the-week episodes best, but when we get these great stressful emotional episodes near the end of the season, I just die.

That’s not to say that I necessarily thought everything about this episode was good, just that I love how intense everything is at this point.

I'm real worried about how this is going to get resolved. It looks like just about everyone is going to show up next episode to band together against Amara, and I’m so nervous I’m actually dreading it.