It’s hard to believe that we’re already halfway through season 11 of Supernatural, partially because we’re still stuck with so many questions and unresolved plot lines. It feels as if not much has happened this year, and in many ways, nothing really has!
This week’s episode opened with the familiar sight of Amara (Emily Swallow) killing innocent people, this time devouring a circle of religious protesters in a park. Amara’s older now, but she still loves wearing little black dresses and acting like a spoiled brat. Her most recent major malfunction is to blame God for everything, destroy souls, and then wonder why God won’t talk to her. If this didn’t make her annoying enough, she eventually tells Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) her plans for world domination, which include the two of them ruling “as one”. In case what she meant by that wasn’t obvious enough, she then pulled him in for a passionate kiss. Dean’s answer to all of this is try to stab her with the standard angel/demon knife, but it just crumbled apart in her presence.
One prevalent fan theory is that Amara’s obsession with Dean and her powers of mind control will result in the two of them conceiving a child. While the prospect of a(nother) baby Darkness is intriguing, it’s more likely that she’ll meet the same fate as all of the Winchesters’ love interests: death or disappearance. Considering that a newly organized army of angels is now firing attacks at her, it’s only a matter of time.
Meanwhile, in one of Supernatural‘s silliest plot points, Sam (Jared Padalecki) has turned to Crowley (Mark Sheppard) and Rowena (Ruth Connell) for help in his ridiculous quest to talk to Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino). His visions of the cage and prayers to God have somehow convinced him that the only way to stop the Darkness is through the devil himself. Crowley’s happy to guide him through a dimly lit corridor of Hell, and after a random spell from Rowena, The Cage appears.
When we last saw the Cage (back in season five), Lucifer, the Archangel Michael, and Sam’s half-brother, Adam (Jake Abel), were all trapped inside, but for the purposes of this episode, only Lucifer’s shown. To make an extremely long conversation short, Lucifer tells Sam that he can defeat Amara, but only if he can use Sam as his vessel. When Sam refuses, symbols start glowing and he finds himself trapped inside the Cage with Lucifer, who tells him that he’s been sending him visions in an effort to entrap him. That’s a pretty shocking reveal, but can we believe it? Judging from the unsurprised look on Rowena’s face during all of this, I doubt it.
Has anyone noticed how most of the CW’s mid-season finales ended on a downbeat note this year? Someone died on Arrow, there were big break-ups on iZombie, and now Sam’s crying in a cage in Hell. What a way to ring in the holidays! But Supernatural did leave us with a little gift: the sight of Crowley finding a Sam Winchester Funko Pop figurine underneath the Christmas tree. Other than that particular dream sequence, we’ll have the return of Castiel (Misha Collins) to look forward to when the series comes back from the winter hiatus on January 20th, 2016.