Supernatural: The Devil in the Details
January 27, 2016 5:38 PM - Season 11, Episode 10 - Subscribe

With Sam at the mercy of Lucifer, Dean ventures down to Hell to save him. Meanwhile, Castiel looks into the fallout of the massive angel smiting that hit Amara.

This show seriously needs another full time minority in the cast. I was really pulling for geeky asian girl angel but alas...

Oh Castiel... you fool...

And.. oh what the hell I'll do it: DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD!
posted by numaner (14 comments total)
 
I didn't have any particular love for Rowena, but it was so disappointingly typical of Supernatural to have her turn inexplicably stupid before they killed her. For her to suddenly treat Lucifer with blind devotion after she's spent her entire run on the show being completely focused on getting the upper hand over Crowley and the Winchesters; it's about as believable as Charlie running off to get killed in a hotel bathtub.

Misha's Mark Pellegrino impersonation, however, was spectacular. Can't wait to see him do it to Dean, that's going to be fun.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:01 PM on January 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


No need for Rowena's death to mean she's off the show, right? There she is, already in Hell. She should be a demon now, like Ruby became.
posted by tomboko at 7:34 PM on January 27, 2016


When Collins first showed up doing his Pellegrino impression, I had a moment where I genuinely thought they'd put some prosthetics on him or even that they'd found an actor with a similar look to Collins. Part of that was just how weird it was to see Castiel smile and look smarmy, but he seemed truly different somehow. Then he started talking and it was just uncanny.

I'm guessing they thought this one was going to air closer to the holidays. That Christmas morning stuff with Rowena and Crowley would have been hilarious in the promos!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 12:47 AM on January 28, 2016


Collins really did nail the Lucifer impression. It's amazing to remember how his performance as Castiel is a very specific choice by the actor, and that it isn't simply an extension of his natural personality type. I recall some Q&As with J squared where they mentioned being so concerned about working with Collins, as they assumed his interpretation of Castiel closer to who he was a person. Misha Collins is almost a chameleon when you consider his actual personality (or at least the face he puts on for cons/fan interviews, etc etc).
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 9:55 AM on January 28, 2016


Yeah, Misha Collins looks like he's going to be having a LOT of fun with that.

Lord, Rowena was just so godawful to watch, so yay for her finally being gone. Weaksauce way to go, though. And of course it was right before she confesses exactly why she hates her child.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:35 PM on January 28, 2016


I never got the Rowena hate. She seemed like a character the show's fans would embrace, a sassy, campy ginger witch who liked doing terrible things but wasn't 100% evil all the time. Kind of a female Crowley, come to think of it. There have been a lot of complaints about the show killing off female characters (to which my answer has always been: this show kills everybody) but people seem glad to have this particular female character gone.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:25 PM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I liked Rowena in the abstract but never liked how she was used in the show. The whole period where she was living with Crowley was awful and made both characters seem weak. I was pumped when they eventually parted ways and I guess it's too bad she didn't have a chance to do much before being female-character-in-Supernaturaled to death.
posted by brundlefly at 1:38 AM on January 29, 2016


I liked Rowena, she added a certain flavor to the show.

The whole period where she was living with Crowley was awful and made both characters seem weak.

I think that was kind of the point. That Crowley was weak because he couldn't just kill his mother, and she was weak because she didn't have the power to just take over Hell.
posted by numaner at 11:08 AM on January 29, 2016


I can see that. I guess I don't think the writing was strong enough to make that situation compelling viewing.
posted by brundlefly at 3:18 PM on January 29, 2016


I know that's her natural accent, but her voice was kinda fingernails on a chalkboard to me. For that matter, so was her behavior. She was rather insufferable and awful around Crowley and it wasn't cute/funny/touching...whatever they were going for. Just like, "gawd, kill her already and she makes Crowley look bad."
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:43 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


I liked Rowena well enough, and I thought Ruth Connell played her very well. (I didn't know until recently that she's actually over a decade younger than Mark Sheppard. I guess they played the mother-son dynamic well enough that I dumbly assumed she had to be older than him and she was just an unusually youthful-looking older lady.) But I'd agree that there was something frustrating about her scenes with Crowley. Crowley is more fun when he's smug, frustrated and sputtering isn't a good look on him.

I wouldn't be too surprised if we do see Rowena again, though... because if anybody's going to hell, it's Rowena. (Although if she did, I'm not sure how that would play out. Would Crowley just send her off to be tortured forever?)

The corridors of hell looked kind of Party City. It was a great big set, probably relatively expensive for this show, and it wasn't designed badly. But they needed to turn down the lights a little so we couldn't see the texture of the plastic so clearly.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:06 AM on January 30, 2016


Quotes

Rowena: [who has just gotten Dean, Sam, and Castiel out of Lucifer's cage] You’re welcome... anyone?
Dean: Bite me!
Crowley: I can make her do that.

Lucifer: Ass-butt? I still don't get that.

Sam's voicemail message: [Dean's voice] Hey, Sam can't talk right now because he's waxing. Like everything. But I will leave... [Sam's voice] Dean, what are you doing with my phone? Dean, come on.

Crowley's voicemail message: Thank you for phoning Crowley, King of Hell. For demon deals, press one. To report a sighting of that ginger whore Rowena, press two.

Dean: Where's Sam?
Crowley: Don't worry about Sam.
Dean: I'm sorry, have you met me?

Sam: Let's say you could gank her. Then what?
Lucifer: Go to L.A., solve crimes?

Lucifer: Dean? You're betting on Dean?
Sam: I always have.

Lucifer: Did I ever tell you how much I respect you?
Sam: What?
Lucifer: Don't get me wrong, I never liked you, you're sort of prissy, but in this moment, when you stood toe to toe with me and won, I gotta say you had balls, kid.

Sam: No. My answer is no. This isn't because of Dean, or -- or the past, this is about me, having faith in my friends, having faith in my family. We will find a way.

Sam: [to Lucifer] I'm ready to die. And I'm ready to watch people I love die. But I'm not ready to be your bitch.

Crowley: Mother, why do you hate me?
Rowena: I hate you, because when I look into your eyes I see the woman I used to be, before magic, before the coven... when I was nothing but Rowena, the tanner's daughter... a pale, scared little girl, who smelled of filth and death. [Rowena starts to massage Crowley’s shoulders]. I hate you, because when you were born, your father said he loved me, then he went back to his grand wife and his grand house, whilst I lay pathetic and half dead on a straw mat... my thighs slick with blood. [Rowena bends down so that she is talking right into Crowley’s ear, tears spilling and whispering]. I hate you, because if I didn't, I'd love you. But love... love is weakness. And I'll never be weak again.

Castiel: [to Dean, holding up one finger] Let me take your temperature.
Dean: No, not gonna happen.

Billie: Password?
Dean: Crowley sent me, all right? Just open up.
Billie: Password?
Dean: [half-heartedly singing] Camptown lady sing the song du da du da, camptown du da du da -- all right just let me in.

Dean: My brother says you wanna kill us.
Billie: No, I'm just gonna make sure that when you die, you stay dead. Subtle difference.

Rowena: Lucifer has a plan and...
Crowley: And he's the devil.
Rowena: You say that like it's a bad thing.
Crowley: Oh, I'm a bad thing. He's a worse thing.

Ambriel: Are you gonna kill me?
Castiel: Is that what they say? That I kill angels?
Ambriel: That's the nicest thing they say.

Trivia

Sam asks Lucifer, "Well, lets say you gank her. Then what?" Lucifer replies, "I don't know, move to L.A. and solve crimes?" This is a reference to the TV series called Lucifer, based on a character from Neil Gaiman's comic The Sandman, in which Lucifer takes a vacation from hell and helps cops solve crimes.

When Castiel materializes at the address Dean asked him to come to, Billie the Reaper is reading the Neil Gaiman comic book Death: The Time of Your Life. It is a spin off of The Sandman comic series, dealing with the anthropomorphic personifications of metaphysical entities. The character of Death in this comic series has the task of collecting and escorting those who have died, a task that Reapers similarly perform. In this particular comic volume, a mother strikes a deal with Death to save the life of her son. The bargain is that Death will return at a later date, and the mother will have to take the place of her son by dying. This is ironically similar to the deals that have been made (or attempted) with various Crossroads Demons by Sam and Dean over the course of the series.

Misha Collins said during a panel that he was actually very sick whilst filming the scene in which Dean becomes sick from smiting sickness.

Lucifer playing Tavares "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel" may be doubly fitting: according to the Bible, Lucifer is "the fallen Angel", so heaven must be missing him, and to Dean Winchester, with his love of classic rock, disco music may very well be "the Devil's music".

The music playing in the background during the fight with Lucifer is the same music that was playing in the background when Castiel got his grace back ("The Book of the Damned", ep. 10.18).

Crowley is listed in Dean's phone contacts under "666", which is the number of the Devil.

Misha Collins is the 9th person to portray Lucifer on the show, in one form or another. These iterations include hallucinations (Jess, Dean, etc.), visions (Matt Cohen driving the Impala) and Kirsten Kilburn as a mouthpiece in season 4, before he was released from the cage. If you only count portrayals where the actors play the physical form of Lucifer, however, Collins was only the 3rd.
posted by orange swan at 11:59 AM on December 27, 2021


I flat out do not believe Castiel would have allowed Lucifer to take possession of him. Sam knew better than to do so, and Castiel is more intelligent and more knowledgeable than Sam.

Nice bit of acting on Misha Collins' part. He nailed Mark Pellegrino's affect.

Nice to see Colin Ford again. He's the best young Sam.

Rowena had previously told Crowley he was conceived during a solstice orgy, during which she "wasn't taking names", but now it appears the truth is his father was a wealthy man she had loved and who had used and abandoned her. Well, it explains her attitude towards him.
posted by orange swan at 12:02 PM on December 27, 2021


Not long ago I saw a little girl with AMARA monogrammed on her bowling bag in big pink script. She looked about the right age but maybe it’s a coincidence, or the parents just heard the name and liked it, but if not gosh I would’ve loved to hear that conversation.

I can understand Rowena making a calculated decision to back Lucifer against the Darkness, so did everybody else. But self-interest and manipulation seems so intrinsic to how she works as a character that suddenly throwing her sincere devotion behind him personally doesn’t make a ton of sense for me. That she seems to honestly believe he’s going to make her queen of heaven after all this is baffling.

You would hope Sam would have figured out by now that talking back to Lucifer when he talks to you never, ever works out.

“Where’s Sam?”
“Don’t worry about Sam.”
“I’m sorry, have you met me?”
Dean Winchester, everybody.

I guess I technically know Misha Collins’ natural voice is closer to Mark Pellegrino’s than it is to Castiel’s, but his Nick impression there was still pretty uncanny.

That moment at the end right before Rowena dies, Crowley absolutely realizes what’s about to happen and that there’s no point in doing anything about it, which is an extremely Crowley move but it looks like he even kind of hates it.
posted by jameaterblues at 1:31 PM on January 16, 2022


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