Supernatural: Lucifer Rising

The Last Temptation of Whatshisname
by Sylvia Bond
Supernatural Episode Review, Season 4, Episode 22
“Lucifer Rising”

It’s been a while since I’ve been creeped out enough to want to turn off the TV, but that was my reaction within five minutes of this ep, and it was only the teaser for crying out loud. In it, a priest is doing some priestly thing, and gets possessed. Shortly thereafter, a bunch of nuns are sitting and praying, and the possessed priest locks the door and starts hacking into them with a butcher knife from the kitchen. There was blood, and screaming, and at the end it was a slaughter that left nun bits everywhere. Which left the nunnery well-prepared for more dark doings. 

But that wasn’t the hard part. While I’m not pro-Catholic by any means, I certainly did have a hard time just sitting there and watching these ladies weep while the demon priest was talking about “my dad,” who apparently he thinks is big enough to beat up “their dad.” Or, in keeping with the whole deity thing, I suppose I should capitalize it as “Their Dad.” At any rate, I did didn’t know you could do that to nuns on TV, let alone allow them to be possessed by anything. I’m not saying you can’t, I’m just saying that the whole bit seemed to cross some invisible line into sacrilegious and became somehow rather brazen, because you don’t just mess around with that Lucifer stuff. I had to resist the impulse to just turn the damn TV off. But I had to keep it on and watch the whole thing because, you know. Boys. Soon to arrive.

Which they did, thank goodness, each looking as well as they should do, given the circumstances. And what are those circumstances? Oh, the usual. Armageddon. The freaking apocalypse. Certain doom. Just your typical end-of-the-world stuff. All the seals have been broken, you see. Save one. The identity of which has been the Magical Macguffin for the entire season. Early on, Dean had been asking, What is it? Where is it? Who is supposed to break it? All those lovely interrogative pronoun type questions your English teacher warned you would come in handy one day. 

Except in response to these reasonable questions (Dean and Sam were supposed to stop the apocalypse from happening), the angels prevaricated and evaded and did their little angel dance around the burning bush. Fat lot of help they were, and a complete source of frustration for yours truly. I have little patience for characters who consistently communicate with vague dialog because I can spot it a mile away as a writer’s trick to fill empty plots. As far as the angels are concerned, because less is always more.

The rest of the episode is split into chunks consisting of a large collection for Dean, a large collection for Sam, and then one teeny, tiny little chunk for both brothers together, worth more probably than all the rest. Though, in spite of my lack of enthusiasm for scenes where the brothers are apart, given the dramatic walk-out-that-door moment of Sam’s at the end of last week’s ep and the current circumstances, I thought it almost made sense. Plus it was just so very strange (and entirely appropriate) that Show took it as far as it did. 

Let’s talk about Dean first, okay? The little dreamboat is at Bobby’s, stomping around, pissed about Sam, not even bothering to take off his coat. He takes so much responsibility for everything so it was rather gratifying to see him still angry about Sam and his blood drinking habit, which is definitely NOT Dean’s fault. However, the key issue here is what Dean said to Sam last week: “If you walk out that door, don’t you ever come back.” Which is pretty much what The Dad said to Sam when Sam was to go off to Stanford. (See? The Dad is STILL in the Show. Sans lines, of course, but still, darkly handsome and causing trouble.)

In mature relationships, ultimatums like this one are pretty much against the rules, but while relationships among the Winchesters are certainly established (mature in one way), they are not exactly what you call healthy. Still, I thought it odd that Dean would be channeling The Dad like that. Dean’s relationship with Sam is co-dependant alright, but he never seemed the type to present an all or nothing scenario, especially not to Sam. He loves Sam just the way he is, and making a statement like that where one of Sam’s options is to leave is not a risk Dean would be willing to take. 

You can argue that he was at the end of his rope, that he’d just lost a battle of fisticuffs with his baby brother. That he was desperate. That the angels made him say it. Whatever. I feel that the writers took dramatic license here, having Dean say a line that would be the basis for the fallout between the brothers, and the hook that Dean hangs his hat on: HE left me. Rather than the other issue, that of Sam drinking blood and lying about it over and over and over. Yes, that’s still an issue between them, but seemed much less critical to Dean than the other.

Bobby has an interesting role to play this week, that of devil’s advocate. Almost literally, if you get my drift, heh heh heh. He makes some risky comparisons between The Dad and Dean, something about stubbornness and love, and then he mentions that The Dad was a coward, and that Dean should call his brother. Dean’s head swivels around in a dangerous arc: you insult The Dad at your peril. AT your PERIL. And then Dean says, “My dad was many things, but he wasn’t a coward.” 

It’s a beautiful moment for a lot of reasons. First, Dean is beautiful, but then, he always is. And second, I love the way that for all and everything that Dean has learned about The Dad, his loyalty and his love are rock solid. He knows The Dad didn’t do everything right, but he also knows that The Dad tried; love comes in many forms, even though in dire circumstances it might not look like love. (There are several bandwagons about The Dad, you can join one this week, and next week, you can join another, and that’s okay. Really.)

A second later, Dean is swept away to The Cage. For all it’s gilded in gold and draped in grey-green velvet, decked with chandeliers and marble-topped tables, sort of a faux Louis the 16^th (or 15^th, take your pick), there are no windows and no doors that can be opened and stepped through, so it’s still a cage. (At any second, I expected either Cogsworth or Lumiere to ascend upon the scene and for the furniture to start dancing, but that’s another movie, isn’t it.) Amongst this splendor, Dean is the young lion, pacing and fretting, and the whole scene (or collection of scenes) took on a decidedly surreal feel, that Show, to its credit, maintained throughout. It never tried to explain or excuse the room, it just used it to be exactly what it was: a place Dean couldn’t get out of. 

Of note is what’s on the table in the center of the room, and that is a bowl of cheeseburgers and a bowl of bottles of beer on ice. That the cheeseburgers are an exact replica of the best cheeseburgers Dean’s ever had (some place in Delaware when he was 11, which I thought was a nice detail), isn’t as important as what the cheeseburgers are supposed to represent. And that is, that they are what Zachariah thinks is what Dean would find appeasing. Sure, Dean is always going to appreciate a good cheeseburger (and who wouldn’t!), but he’s certainly not the type to be taken in and subdued into obedience by one. Or even a whole bowlful. 

That Zachariah thinks that Dean would be (or by the 70 virgins and two whores) makes it very clear that the angel has NO idea who Dean is, and has completely underestimated the purity of Dean’s soul. Sure, Dean is a man who (according to fan fiction and maybe even to Show) would take every single waitress he meets out to the back alley for a quick bit of up-against-the-brick-wall action, but he still manages to be altruistic and holy enough to be THE guy the angels want to take point in their battle against evil. He’s just THAT good, okay? Zachariah doesn’t get it, won’t ever get it, and I was totally jazzed that when he kept trying to tempt Dean, Dean (turning him down left and right) said, “I’m sick of your fat face.” 

Also fun was Ackles’ comedic style in making Dean irreverent throughout his stay in The Cage. Given the stretch of suspension of disbelief for the whole concept (not to mention the surreal not-of-this-earth feel), the room could have become a rather lame excuse to film at some swank hotel room or museum in Vancouver somewhere, or merely a writer’s trick to juxtapose Dean’s thick boots, bleachstained jeans, and rough haircut against the luxury of heaven. In trying to take itself too seriously, the whole concept might have failed. 

Instead, it felt like Ackles considered what Dean would actually do in such a room, and then he played it up. Because Dean, you know, after the first minute, would be totally unaffected by the splendor around him and would quickly start to fidget and roam. And then start breaking things. Which is what happens in one funny moment, when Dean knocks over an angel statue, on PURPOSE, and then rolls his eyes like a 10-year-old would as if to say, It wasn’t me! 

Another funny bit comes when Dean is railing at the Soap Angel about being a dick of an angel and not really helping Dean, about how the angel broke under pressure and all. Then Dean, being typically Deanish, pops the angle in the jaw. Only, yeah, it has no effect on the angel, and Dean turns away to hide the fact that now his hand hurts really bad. Here, Ackles makes his best holy cow face, again slipping in the humor into a dire circumstance, never forgetting that one of Dean’s most effective coping mechanisms is humor. And it is Dean’s humor that makes the scene realistic, because anyone going into a situation like this would find ways to deal, and whether it’s hanging from the ceiling or sliding across the highly polished floor or punching an angel in the face, we’d want to poke holes in it just in case it’s a mirage.

One of the things Dean wants Castiel’s help with (besides getting ouuuuuuuuut!) is to talk to Sam. Just five minutes. Just one. Just one second. Anything. He’s at the point, what with the end of the world coming an’ all, where he’s realizing that maybe some arguments aren’t worth it, and he wants to talk to Sam and patch up this rift between them. He’s able to make a phone call to Sam, and leaves a message, trying his best to say what he needs to say. Naturally he’s halfway through “I’m sorry,” when the time on Sam’s voice mail runs out, but it’s enough, we think, so that Sam will know that his brother still loves him, and that the metaphorical door between them is still open. Whew! 

At the end of Dean’s time alone in The Cage, he manages to convince the Soap Angel to help him. There’s an interesting struggle against the all, and some intense and sexual eye-play between the Soap Angel and Dean. There was something dark and dire there, and the expression in Dean’s eyes went from bright and sassy to round and shocked in 40 seconds flat. The angel takes Dean’s demon killing knife and slices his arm open. 

For one very shocked minute, I thought for sure that Dean was going to have to drink the angel’s blood and considered what an interesting mirror that would be to Sam’s drinking the demon’s blood all this time, and how neat and tidy that would be. But no, the Soap Angel draws some symbols on the wall that allow him to send Zachariah off somewhere. And then as everything starts glowing, he zaps Dean back into the real world, and he says, “It’s the archangel. I’ll fight them. I’ll fight them all. ” I must tell you, I fell a little bit in love with the Soap Angel at that moment, because while he is a dick and hasn’t been very helpful to Dean, there was something in his voice there. Strength of purpose. Courage. Even love. 

As for Sam. Oh, my holy freaking cow. Sam. SamSamSamSamSam. What are we going to do with the boy? He’s dug himself a pit so deep, he might as well be in hell. In his chunk of scenes, he’s with that Skank Ruby, and between them they manage to kidnap hell’s head chef. I’m not sure if this particular demon was going to boil or roast the babies she’d been kidnapping, but once again, Show takes the edgy direction with this in that it brings us the nastiest thing it can think of, because babies are the most innocent things ever, and likewise bunnies, and kittehs, and duckies.

Anyway, they’re in some abandoned house, and they’ve got Hell’s Chef laid out on a rough table, and Sam is torturing her to find out where Lilith is. He’s good at his task, using all his powers, his face dark and brooding and, to my eyes, totally handsome in a dark and troubled kind of way. His Samhair is flat, pushed away from his lovely forehead in an unhappy straight line, which I think the Hair Team did on purpose; Sam’s hair is always indicative of his emotional state, whereas Dean’s hair, also lovely, remains more static. Thus Sam’s hair at this point reflects his lack of weakness, his intent to do evil things, and his lack of willingness to back down. It’s like when he combs it this way, it’s his armor against the world.

Sam tortures while that Skank Ruby watches and encourages. The result of which, Hell’s Chef tells them where Lilith is going to be at midnight on the next day, which is, interestingly enough at that convent from earlier. With nuns having been murdered there, it’s a perfect place for the breaking of the last seal. What makes the place even more related to Sam’s situation is the fact that the nuns were murdered in 1972, which is around the time, or just before, eh, that The Mom made her original deal with the YED. And, on an even more interesting note, the October date is just a little more than 10 years before Sam was born. The demon speaking through the nun told the demon in the priest (who is, it seems, the YED) to find her a child, a special child. Which, turns out to be Sam. Rather a nice little rounded out story-line, I’d say, though I do tend to wonder, did Show mean this all along or had it taken upon itself the job of retconning the hell out of this entire season just to get to this one point? No matter. I’m pleased with the results and that’s pretty much what matters. 

We learned in Dean’s scenes that Lilith is the last seal, and Sam’s got a big part to play. Having watched every single other episode this seasons, it was easy to figure out that Sam’s purpose in all this is to be the one to kill Lilith. But that in doing this, we find that when he does this, the end begins and the world will be wiped clean of the dark stain of humanity. This is both the angels’ plan, and the demons’, each probably thinking that they’d have the upper hand with the direction of the new world order, and each using whatever means necessary to get there, including lying. And stuck in the middle is Dean and Sam, both of whom have been, frankly, USED. 

Only Sam doesn’t know it yet. For all he’s killed and tortured and drunk blood, his interactions with Ruby take on an interesting lost tone. For example, when he’s riding in the car with Ruby and Hell’s Chef is in the trunk screaming and kicking (in a scene worth of Goodfellas), Sam is twitchy and nervous. That Skank Ruby chides him, because none of this isn’t anything he’s not done before. But Sam is having second thoughts.  And a Sam having second thoughts is a pitiful mess indeed. Padalecki gives it just the right note of detachment as if half of Sam’s mind is in the rain-dappled car with that Skank Ruby and the other half is thinking about what Dean said. I love the fact that though the fight between the brothers was harsh and seemed to have closed a lot of doors (there’s that door metaphor again!), the brothers are never far from each other’s thoughts.

Even more significant is the bit where Sam and that Skank Ruby stop by the side of the road in the middle of the night, the darkness thick around them. Ostensibly to have Sam partake of some demon blood. But there are more second thoughts from Sam. He stands there, his collar a little turned up against the chill. And he’s thinking. There’s nothing more beautiful than a thinking Sam, it’s his natural element, this sort of brooding Heahtliffy draw of his brows and a still hardness settling along his jaw. This is the moment where his second thoughts have screamed so loudly he takes the time to finally listen to them and to Dean’s phone message from earlier.

Remember Dean’s message? It was one of regret and explanation, and in the end of an apology said with as much love as any brother could, and with enough grit to keep Dean from emasculating himself by apologizing. (Apologizing is HARD!) There’s frustration there, but certainly no hate. However, the message Sam hears is full of hate and animosity and Dean’s promises to hunt Sam down and destroy him. In the background, that Skank Ruby smirks. 

Two things. One is that I believe that since the phone call was made from The Cage (and interestingly enough the second phone call Dean tries to make doesn’t go through) for which the angels controlled not only the vertical and the horizontal but also the whole Verizon network. Thusly, they can make the message say anything they want to. Since Dean knew he was able to make one phone call that pretty much says what he wants it to say, he’s sure that Sam’ll get the message. And since the message appears to be from Dean, Sam’s pretty sure his brother hates him now.  Sure, the demons could have hacked into and altered the message, but since it took place in The Cage, I believe the angels are at fault. After all, even the Bible says that angels are capable of falsehoods. When it suits them. Which rather, in this universe, places them in the same category as demons; self serving, lying hypocritical bastards. Nice, huh?

The second thing about the receipt of the false message is the look on Sam’s face. With the rest of his body utterly still, his emotions are all in his eyes. I think it might be my favorite scene in the ep, because here, Sam’s reaction to the phone message fill his eyes with liquid pain. I know that’s a dramatic way to describe it, but my reaction to the scene was so visceral, that my chest hurt watching Sam in his morass of utter despair. True to Sam’s character development this season, he doesn’t actually cry, but the intensity of his not crying is worse, and very effective. Sometimes I wish he would cry like he used to, full of passion and emo and just getting it OUT there. Instead of bottling it in like he has been. Though he’s pretty when he does, so I guess it’s a win-win for me either way.

Sam’s scene with Lilith goes pretty much how you figure it might. He snarls at her, she belittles him, and in the end, yeah, he kills her. Because while the ep might be about Lilith as the last seal, this scene is about Dean arriving at the last minute to save the day. Only that Skank Ruby closes the door, and locks Dean out. (More doors!) Dean screams and pounds, but to Sam’s ears, it is only an echo of something far away. 

The scene is cleverly filmed in slow motion, only Sam moves at almost the regular pace, while thankfully that Skank Ruby’s screams enjoining Sam to hurry up are mercifully almost silent. We get lovely close-ups of Sam’s confusion, his sweet face looking young and conflicted as he tried to focus on Dean’s faraway shouting, and I wanted to scream at him, listen to DEAN!!! But he doesn’t. Instead, he does the deed, and as the blood pools on the floor, that Skank Ruby explains that SHE was the instigator, that she all along had betrayed him. (Well. I win THAT bet.) Sam collapses on the altar, his ruin is complete. Most interesting was Ruby’s Dumbo remark, that the blood wasn’t a demonic steroid or even an infection to feed his addiction. No. The blood was like Dumbo’s feather in that it was the symbol by which Ruby led Sam down the thorn-laden path right into hell. It was Sam’s own choices that he himself made that placed him right where he was. 

Sam’s fallen for the classic double blind, in doing good he turns out to have been doing evil. It’s the worst trick you can play on anyone frankly, because you set it up so that they only have themselves to blame. Ruby is laughing, and I never hated her more. Which, I guess, makes her a very effective bad guy. Enter Dean onto the scene, and when she says he’s too late, he says, in typical Deanish fashion, “I don’t care.” This is where it gets brilliant, for as he pulls out his demon killing knife, Sam grabs the skank and shoves her towards Dean, who stabs her as he twists the blade. It’s a perfect moment of the brothers working together, at last, at last, because now, it places the brothers on equal footing, having done the bitch in together.

Even more poignant is Sam’s regretful, “I’m sorry,” and Dean’s intense gaze, his eyes blazing from his pale face. Of course he forgives Sam, but that doesn’t mean he’s not still pissed off. Little brothers should always listen to their older brothers, and though the episode was about more than that, this theme has always been central to their storyline; siblings have very unique and carefully balanced relationships, and you can’t muck about with the order of things. Mostly.

The floor starts to blaze, and Sam and Dean (to my delight) clutch at each other. The scene is brightly lit, and I thought it was perfect. Dean tugs on Sam’s jacket to get him to GO before anything bad happens, and Sam tugs on Dean’s jacket to get him to stay because, uh, Lucifer is coming. Which again is creepy, and demonstrates Show’s guts in going there. How they’re actually going to, or whether they’re going to, portray this rather famous character from the Bible is beyond me. Maybe Lucifer will look like an ordinary demon, which might be more effective than showing him as he looks in those Sunday school pictures of hell. Maybe he’ll look like Alistair’s twin, sort of acerbic and somewhat unassuming, which would make Lucifer even more horrifying.

The ep is a complete story of the brothers being at odds and fighting their respective battles against angels and demons, further developing the really huge story arc of Sam’s darkside destiny, and yet it is a cliffhanger. But then the final ep of the season for Show usually is, and fans will spend the summer moaning and groaning about lack of new eps, why do we have to wait so long in this Show-less desert, when is September going to get here, how will Sam and Dean deal, and so on. Me, I’m well satisfied with this year’s offerings partly because Season Three delivered one clunker after another (well, it did!), and in comparison, what we got this year was a collection of rock-solid eps that told good stories, had good brotherly stuff going on, lots of angst, glares, shoutings, and punches. No shovings-against-the-wall, but then, there’s always next year. (Lucky fans get a fifth season!!)

Among this stellar collection were a few eps that I did not quite so much care for, for example, Metamorphosis (too much monster, not enough boys, and yeah, I clocked it.) or Monster Movie which bordered on inappropriate silliness. Wishful Thinking was a visual treat (but then, since the boys just got prettier and prettier, all the eps were) but it bordered on goofy and in retrospect, not so much. On the other hand, there was Aftterschool Special with the Wee boys, and especially Wee Sam who was shown his personal heaven (college) by a kindly teacher only to have it taken away, and what could be more sad than that? Or how about In the Beginning, which had a young Mary and John before they were married and Dean got to travel back in time to meet them. (And attempt to avert the curse on the Winchester family as well. Of course, he failed at that, as we can see, but it was brilliant to watch him get some quality The Dad time with John Winchester before he was The Dad.) All in all, a terrific season with a batting average WELL above normal.

As for next year, I can make no predictions. I’m not very good at them, you see. And besides, other than figuring out that that Skank Ruby was working for Lucifer, which was an easy guess, my predictions would naturally be ballot-stuffed with wishful thinking. As long as you understand that, however, there’s no harm in my giving you my I Want list. I want Sam and Dean to dispatch Lucifer back to hell, and for Show to get that over with in one or two eps. I want Sam and Dean to have some really good, knock down, drag out fights as they deal with the fallout of their decisions during Season Four. After all, both of them got screwed by their respective teams, so neither one is smelling a whole lot like roses at this point. Besides, I like brotherly fighting. And I would like for them to actually deal with it, rather than ignore it, in the way Show continued to ignore the opportunity to demonstrate Dean’s PTSD from his time in hell. Maybe some quality time in a mental institution might be in order?

And lastly, since I’ve been a very good fan this year (and I have, ask anyone), I would like for Show to do me a favor. I would very much like it if, after the Lucifer thing and the shoving-against-the-wall fights, Show gave me a continuation of the good old-fashioned saving people, hunting things storyline. No one, perhaps not even Show, knows whether the boys will end up dead and/or battered and will have to settle down because they can no longer hunt. (Perish the thought!) Maybe Show will decide how fun and dramatic it would be to have character death, but I would advise against that. As a fan, I would STRONGLY advise against that. I think I would rather Show do something more fun, and of course, Show is under no obligation to me, but then again, I’ve been very good this year. 

Show can’t kill Sam or Dean, though there are plenty of other characters I wouldn’t mind seeing the demise of, and Show wouldn’t want to end on a downer by having the boys retire. Show wants, Show should want, to end on a high note, so this is what I recommend. Picture this: Last ep of Season Five, last ep of Show, and the boys have just finished up a gig, have talked with the civilian, maybe gotten a kiss or two, and are now in the car, and are headed towards the interstate. Any interstate, it doesn’t matter. (I fully believe that while Sam and Dean prefer the back roads, they will take the main highways from time to time.) They are at a stop sign, or maybe one of those annoying blinking red lights you find on those less-than-busy intersections. 

And there they sit. Dean’s at the wheel, his hands at ten and two, with Sam at his side, looking through maps. Because it’s coming on sunset, he’s got his little flashlight out, spreading a glowy circle on the paper so he can read it and tell Dean which way to turn. Dean’s sitting there waiting, ready to click the blinker one way or the other. He’s not impatient, he’s just waiting, because as a Winchester, that’s what you do. Sam looks up, his eyes focused on the hood of the Impala as it catches the last of the sunset’s light. (Yeah, I think he loves that car almost as much as Dean does.) Dean says, “And?” And then Sam says, “Ghost or zombie?” And Dean goes, “As if you have to ask.” At which point, Sam tells him which way to go, Dean puts on the blinker, turns the wheel, and the boys and their trusty steed drive off into the sunset. Sweet, huh? Well, anyway, that’s what I’d like. You can make up your own ending. Really.

Sylvia Bond is a ten-year technical writing veteran with too many degrees under her belt to count. She lives in Colorado, but does not ski, preferring instead to spend her money and time at the annual Great American Beer Festival, taking road trips across the United States, and reading historical fiction from the comfort of her fluffy green arm chair. She has been involved in fandom since 1993 and been writing fanfic since approximately 1993. What she finds most amazing about fandom (besides the open heartedness of fans and the sheer amount of creativity) is how visible fandom has become. “In my day,” she says, “we had to hide behind P.O. boxes to get fanfic. But nowadays, people wear t-shirts that shout their affiliation and share their shiny toys on the internet.” It’s a wonderful world.

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