In the 18th episode of season 11 everybody is scheming. That's pretty much the whole episode.
So this is a Buckner & Ross-Leming episode and, surprise surprise, I have a few complaints. Obviously this focuses more on the mythology and is not a monster of the week story, which means there is less chance of their fucking up/offending people and makes this is one of their better scripts. But I still would not call this great.
Let's divide this up by the characters.
Crowley and the Winchesters
Crowley has tracked down another Hand of God and wants to work with the Winchesters to defeat Lucifer and Amara. Now, I'm not saying that the sequence where the three of them argue over what to do is out of character. It is totally in-character. And their arguments are in-character. Crowley wants revenge on his personal humiliation, so Lucifer is number one on his list. Sam thinks they should see if Lucifer can actually defeat Amara, so Lucifer is not his priority. And Dean... Dean just wants Cas back, so he thinks they need to get Cas to give Lucifer the boot.
But I don't think it is necessarily all that interesting to see them argue who's plan to follow. Because Crowley is right, he has all the leverage, so there's really no question.
Also, how sad is it that Cas is so deeply locked into himself that he can't help himself even when Crowley goes into his head to convince him. It is going to be very difficult for Dean to save him.
Rowena
Surprise, Rowena is back. I have to say, I didn't exactly miss her and I think I have figured out why I don't really like her. Firstly, her plotting is always so obvious and it makes everyone who falls for it look incredibly stupid. Secondly, I don't understand her motives. She wants to destroy Crowley because he was born, really? Look, I'm not a parent and I don't have any plans to ever be a parent, but even I can't imagine resenting a child this much. And, this is going to sound cruel, there was nothing forcing her to stay with him. It would have been easy to just leave him to die (or even finish the job) and move on, she was a witch, so I'm sure she could have done that. So yeah, I don't understand this blind hatred, though her wanting revenge on the Grand Coven and Lucifer is easier to understand, but most of the time her motivations are just really unclear for me. Which leads to the third point, I don't know her end game. What does Rowena actually want? Power, yes, but most of the time she seems to be just fine being the adviser, being the one beside the power (first Crowley, then Lucifer and now Amara). Most villains on this show have a goal, have an end game, but Rowena doesn't seem to have one.
Now that I have gotten that off my chest, let's talk about Rowena in this episode. I guess Dean is right and Rowena thought Amara was her best bet at surviving this battle and then changed her mind when she realised just how powerful Amara is. She saw that Crowley had found another Hand of God and thought maybe Amara can be defeated. Now she is probably fucked since Amara knows Rowena betrayed her.
Here's what I don't get though. What was the point of her being there when they trapped Lucifer? She provided few sigils (that didn't work well, I'll get to that) and hid behind a wall. Seriously why was she hiding? So Lucifer wouldn't realise Rowena was still alive? But then why did she stay? Why not hide somewhere else? It did not look like she was needed. Seriously, all she did was stand behind a wall and look scared.
Oh, and Rowena being alive is such a cop out because now there actually is a way to put Lucifer back into the box without God getting involved.
And what's with the Holy Oil (and other traps) fading really quickly? That has never been an issue before. Dean pulled the fire alarm in 'Changing Channels' so that Gabriel would eventually get out. Raphael conjured a storm that (probably) put the fire out of the ring Dean and Cas trapped him in in 'Free to be You and Me'. So I call bullshit on that new information.
Lucifer
So Lucifer decided that since he was out he should also take over Heaven. I think this was pretty boring. We don't know what is going on in Heaven. After Hannah died we have not seen anything concerning Heaven's politics, hierarchy or anything. Every single angel we have been introduced to, apart from Metatron (now human), Michael (in the Cage), Cas (currently housing Lucifer) and Lucifer is dead. So why should I care about Lucifer going to Heaven and manipulating the angels into helping him?
Okay, I'll admit, everyone side-eyeing the angel who dared to call Lucifer evil... That was funny. But I still don't care about any of this.
Why was everyone so surprised when Lucifer failed to kill Amara with the Hand of God? I guess I can get behind Lucifer being so arrogant that he thought he could do it, but still. Why is everyone on this show refusing to think logically? If it took four archangels and God to do it last time, why does everyone think one archangel with a little power from God can do it?
Amara thinks that God may show up if she tries to kill his favourite son. Maybe Lucifer was that eons ago, but I think the whole defying God and the Apocalypse may have changed things. But maybe God will show up to save Cas. I mean, he has brought him back so many times, so what's one more time, right?
And what's up with Amara calling Lucifer God's "first son"? Because that is a mistake or an attempt to rewrite some stuff. I mean, the whole Sam/Lucifer and Dean/Michael parallels were based on the fact that Dean/Michael was the first-born and loyal to daddy, while Sam/Lucifer was the rebellious younger brother.
I know I'm being harsh on this episode and maybe I'm biased because of my severe dislike of these two writers, but this essentially feels like a big set-up to an event that is obviously going to fail, and, as such, it is not very interesting to me.
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