Supernatural Revisited: 5x01 Sympathy for the Devil
Spoilers up to 15x04 Atomic Monsters
After four years of build-up, Supernatural finally shows us Lucifer's massive entrance (not a euphemism) in an episode surprisingly full of revelations and new information. I had unfortunately given up on the show a few months before this episode first aired, but the impact of this episode and its implications for the story would probably have been very exciting. The introduction of the Abrahamic bad guy as well as Dean's role in the Apocalypse raised the stakes and promised much spectacle and drama to come. However, it is a bit less exciting for those of us cursed with the gift of hindsight, as most of what was promised in series five never really came to pass. Or if it did, it was less than satisfying. The reduction of Lucifer to a pantomime villain by writers Buckner&Lemming, for example, utterly neutered him and stripped him of any presence. The show also promises a grand thunderdome smack-down between Lucifer and Michael to rival the War of Wrath in The Silmarillion, but this amounts ultimately to a slap-fight in 13x23, and a game of table-tennis in 15x19.
This raises the question, however, of how powerful Lucifer was in actuality. None of the other angels had seen or spoken to him for thousands of years, and what the viewer actually sees of Lucifer and his power does not live up to the hype. To be certain, his power seems impressive, but if we stick with The Silmarillion for a moment, he seems more like Sauron the lieutenant than he does Morgoth the dark lord. Maybe the angels were wrong all along, and Lucifer really was not all that.
To briefly summaries the episode, it begins exactly where 4x22 Lucifer Rising finished. Dean and Sam are in the convent with Lucifer breaking out of the cage. Then Dean and Sam are saved by deus ex machina (literally, as confirmed much later) and are magically teleported onto an aeroplane. Apparently unscathed, they make their way to Chuck's house to find Cas is dead.
In a hotel, they are later visited by Bobby and new character Becky, a fan of Chuck's Supernatural books. Becky delivers a message from Chuck about the Michael Sword and its location. Bobby gets angry with Sam after he finds out Sam freed Lucifer and sends him away. Then when Bobby has the information he needs from about where the Michael Sword is, he reveals himself to actually be possessed by a demon. Meg turns up in a new body and Dean almost gets killed. Bobby snaps out of the possession long enough to stab himself instead of Dean, then Sam turns up and Meg smokes out.
The Michael Sword was supposedly kept in John storage locker (the same one from 3x03 Bad Day at Black Rock), but this in turn is a trap laid by Zachariah et al who planted the information in Chuck's head. Dean is the Michael Sword, i.e. Michael's vessel. Dean refuses to comply in spite of threats and torture, until Cas turns up and saves him and Sam. Cas sends Zachariah packing with talk of God etc.
Bobby is hospitalised and probably permanently paralysed from the waist down. Dean takes charge and commits to fighting the apocalypse, but in the final scene states clearly that he cannot trust Sam. The end.
First things first: this episode is where Supernatural made a major storytelling mistake in my opinion. Even on first watching this episode in early 2015, I felt cheated and disappointed that Dean's importance in the apocalypse was just to be a vessel. A few episodes later, Sam is revealed to be Lucifer's vessel. The story ceased to be about Dean and Sam and became Lucifer and Michael's story. I do not care about Lucifer or Michael as characters: they are plot devices to get Dean, Cas, and Sam from Point A in their story to Point B. The narrative choice to reduce Dean and Sam's importance to the fact their bodies have the right genetics etc strips them of agency and makes them objects of the plot.
This is not to say this revelation completely strips them of their agency, as they must give consent to allow angels to possess them. Much of series five revolves around Dean and Sam's refusal to submit and be vessels. Their own actions and choices are however rendered futile in preventing the apocalypse because only Michael and Lucifer can settle the fight. Other people might have enjoyed this aspect of the story, but not me.
That said, it was the brothers' relationship was stopped the apocalypse in 5x22 Swan Song, but only in a cheesy deus ex machina way foreshadowed by Bobby miraculously breaking free of his possession to prevent himself killing Dean. Speaking of which, Paula commented in her review of this episode that people only snap out of possession in order to stop themselves killing Dean. John did it in 1x22 Devil's Trap, Bobby does it in 5x01 Sympathy for the Devil, and Sam will do it in 5x22 Swan Song. When viewers still had hope that Dean would be given cool plots of his own and his apparent mystical abilities would be capitalised upon, Paula speculated that perhaps there was something about Dean specifically which allowed people to break free of possession. Part of him being a figure of such cosmic significance, perhaps. Alas, Dean's cosmic significance was not what we hoped, as this episode warned us.
Talk of cosmic significance raises the topic of Lucifer. As I am sure you already know, the word 'lucifer' means 'lightbearer' or 'lightbringer' (translation is more art than science), which makes his entrance in the form of an enormous pillar of blinding white light entirely appropriate. Attentive viewers will notice the high-pitched whining sound Lucifer's massive entrance makes (oh, stop it) and recognise it from when Cas tried speaking to Dean in 4x01 Lazarus Rising. When Dean and Sam are on the plane moments later, it is almost downed by the pillar of light. As it floods the cabin, Dean looks out of the window and sees...something. Paula suggested it might have been Lucifer's true form, in which case it is noteworthy that Dean's eyes were not burnt out by it.
In contrast to his name, Lucifer does not bring light to the world but rather a host of natural disaster, such as hurricanes and the swine flu (dating the show a bit). Lucifer's appearance is also reported on the news as a terrorist attack, implying the convent was destroyed. It is a shame none of this was shown, neither did the audience find out exactly what happened to the aeroplane Dean and Sam were teleported onto. Lucifer's appearance almost knocked it out of the sky, but the episode leaves the events up to the viewer's imagination. While this is okay in theory, in practice it feels like a cop out. A lot of this is likely due to the show having next to no budget (even though it was the thing keeping The CW network going, as shown by the network's implosion after the end of Supernatural).
But while all this is happening, Lucifer is busy haunting his would-be-vessel Nick. Nick is a widower whose wife and infant child were murdered. It is later revealed that the demon Abraxus carried out the killings on behalf of Lucifer. This was part of Lucifer's plan to manipulate Nick into consenting to being his vessel. Even were it true that Lucifer did not tell lies as he claims at the end of the episodes, he certainly does not need to in order to get what he wants. It is a shame that this information was not revealed until the middle of series fourteen as it would have done a lot to make Lucifer feel more devious and dangerous. I always felt he lacked gravitas and never felt like much of a threat due to his lack of presence.
Why precisely Nick is a vessel for Lucifer is never given a proper explanation (unless I have forgotten). He is not a 'true' vessel as Nick's body deteriorates towards the end of series five, but sufficient temporarily. I do not find Lucifer interesting in this show at all. He has next to no screen time in series five, and the little visibility he has mostly involves him standing around talking. Eventually I just find him irritating, but a storyline which did pique my interest was the impact the loss of Lucifer had on Nick in series fourteen. Reminiscent somewhat of the episode 7x15 Repo Man, Nick struggled with his powerless and the empty place in his psyche where Lucifer had once been, resulting in him becoming a serial killer. This was one of few cases where I felt the show did something interesting, creepy and believably dark with the traumatic effects of the supernatural world. Although they did flub the story at the end.
The other new character introduced was Becky. Becky is supposed to be over the top and annoying, and Emily Perkins clearly had a lot of fun with the role. For a long time, she was one of very few representations of female fans on the show and was seen as a mockery of women who watch the show and engage in the fandom. However, many women watching the show acknowledge that Becky represents and mocks a sub-section of the female fanbase who, honestly, make Becky seem rather moderate and reserved. She is obsessed with Sam and writes Wincest fanfics, has SamLicker81 as her handle, and does not respect Sam's bodily autonomy. ...kinda like Pamela with her creepy hands.
She is a controversial character among sections of the fanbase for this reason, and those who take issue with her generally do so in the context of the show's representation of women. Since I have discussed this at length before in my analyses of e.g. 1x19 Provenance, I will forgo a repetition but state that recurring female characters in the show are few and far between. Because of this, they are taken as representations of women and are therefore put under intense scrutiny in much the same way gay or ethnic minority characters tend to be.
That said, one commentor on Escaping Purgatory podcast compared what she saw as the differing representations of male and female fans with reference to episode 5x09 The Real Ghostbusters, Becky is a negative depiction of the female fans, in comparison to the male fans (described as 'dudebros', whatever one of those is) who are supposedly shown as cool and dressed up as Dean and Sam. It was at this point when I spat out my tea – or would have if I were drinking tea – and had to pause the podcast for a while. The male fans in 5x09 The Real Ghostbusters are anything but 'cool' or 'dudebros': they look like the kind of guys whose only socialising happens around a Warhammer table and who would get called a 'creep' or an 'incel' (another word which has become meaningless) in 2024. In other words, they look like the 'rejects' and the autistic boys all the other children bullied.
Returning to Becky, she is immature, obsessed, and divorced from reality. This is a representation of a subsection of the fanbase, e.g. the fans who gave Jensen's wife a voodoo doll full of fish hooks, or the girl who leapt at Jensen at a convention when he was getting into a lift. But there is no equivalent for the majority of the fanbase, i.e. middle-aged mums and Destiel fanfic writers. 10x05 Fan Fiction gives a more diverse depiction of the fans. Becky herself makes one final appearance in the show in the episode 15x03 Atomic Monsters (which I kept calling Atomic Kitten), whereupon she has grown up a lot and has a much more mature relationship with her fandom.
Her role in that episode (directed by Jensen) has also been much scrutinised as a mouthpiece for certain writers' hatred of the planned ending of the show. Every negative thing she said about the end of Supernatural in that episode could be said about 15x18-20. But time to move on...
This episode is surprisingly fast-paced and feels quite a bit shorter than its actual run-time. This is nice to see on the one hand as it keeps my attention and does not waste time. On the other hand, it is full of new information which is given little time to sink in, and much which could be shown is simply told, e.g. the natural disasters. The speed at which the episode clips by is also partially reliant on ellipsis i.e. the omission of things which can be inferred. The viewer can infer the aeroplane did not crash, that the brothers stole a car, that Bobby had surgery etc without needing to be shown these things, but it can at times feel like the different scenes do not have enough tissue connecting them to each other.
The most important new information in this episode is that of Lucifer's vessel as well as Dean being the Michael Sword. The reveal of Dean being the Michael Sword is done in such a strange way: Zachariah leads Dean and Sam on a wild goose chase to John's storage locker by way of a cryptic message mediated through Chuck via Becky, all in order to get Dean and Sam into the storage locker where he could reveal that Dean is an 'angel condom'. Why was all of this necessary when all of the necessary people were in a room together near the beginning of the episode?
The scene in question took place at Chuck's house, the first place Dean and Sam went after their aeroplane presumably did not crash. The scene began with Chuck whacking Sam over the head with a toilet plunger, and soon Cas is revealed to have been blown up by the archangel (Raphael? Michael? I have forgotten who) at the end of 4x22 Lucifer Rising. Nothing remained of Cas but splatters of blood and a tooth in Chuck's hair. The camera focusses on Sam for the reaction to the news, but Dean in the background appears more affected by the news than Sam.
While on the subject of Dean and this scene, Escaping Purgatory rolled their eyes at Dean having made an angel banishing sigil because – and this is not verbatim – he just has to be the cool one. A few episodes ago they also commented that the writers were trying to make a 'perfect character' with Dean. Given Kripke's own attitude to Dean (calling him a 'pussy'), the lack of mitigating circumstances and apologies given when he does something wrong, the higher standard he is held to, and the fact he gets dunked on way more than other characters speaks strongly against the idea there was ever any intent to make him a 'perfect' character. Quite the opposite: it seems the viewer is supposed to see Dean as the controlling, overbearing, even borderline-abusive older brother who is responsible for all the bad things Sam does.
This is not to say Dean is not 'cool', because he is, but his quick-thinking etc comes out of long experience. Of course it could have been Sam to draw the sigil and banish the angels, but I prefer the parallel with Cas banishing Zachariah in order to save Dean in 4x22 Lucifer Rising.
On the subject of which, Becky was right when she said introducing angels was a good idea because the demons were getting old. By the end of series three, demons had definitely run their course, so theoretically angels were a good idea, but ultimately a lot of angels end up being not too different from demons.
Zachariah being a case in point: I am aware the angels work like a corporate entity, but this robs them of their ethereal 'divine' nature and leaves us with middle management suits. Rather like the elves in Rings of Power who are just people with pointy ears who lack any of the grandeur, mystique, and aethereal beauty of the elves in Tolkien's work or in the Lord of the Rings films, angels in Supernatural just feel like people with superpowers. This is why I disliked American Gods and could not make it past 200 pages. I am aware there is not much the show can do because of its small budget, but Buffy did a lot with not much.
As a result of the financial restrictions, Zachariah's torture of Dean and Sam at the end of the episode is creative on the one hand, but 'cheap' on the other hand. Few effects are needed to have Sam scream in pain because of a broken kneecap or for Dean's stomach cancer to have him coughing up blood. Effective and economical. Something not mentioned in the episode though is that Zachariah's removal of Sam's lungs for a minute and a half could easily have killed him. Once Sam is shown collapsing, he does not move. It is possible for the body to function without breathing for a minute or two, but there was a very good chance Sam was dead. If the brain is without oxygen for ten to fifteen seconds, it is enough to cause unconsciousness and possible brain damage. Had Cas turned up a minute later, Sam would definitely have been dead.
...Which is one of the reasons why Sam strangling Dean in 4x21 When the Levee Breaks needed to be dealt with. Sam had his hands around Dean's neck for fifteen seconds, yet this is never brought up again. Sam offers apologies for 'accidently' freeing Lucifer in this episode, but everybody lets him forget he almost murdered Dean. Again. This episode offers nothing in the way of punishments, and his family seem willing to forget Sam's actions as quickly as possible in order to get back to how things were.
Dean spent the first part of the episode apparently determined to prevent Sam apologising under the pretence that 'everything is okay' and it does not need to be examined. This could well be Kripke wanted to rush past all the accountability and avoid the much-needed repercussions for Sam. It could also be because if Dean stopped pretending everything is alright, he would actually have a conversation in which he would not be able to keep up pretences any longer.
The only person to give Sam a hard time is the demon possessing Bobby. Everything demon!Bobby said was fair and no less than Sam deserved for everything he did, but all of this was undermined later when Bobby, sotto-voice and warm-eyed, reassures Sam that everything is alright.
What is noteworthy, though, is that Dean did not rush to Sam's defence when demon!Bobby told him to get out. This suggests Dean agreed with demon!Bobby. Dean might not be able to kick out a family member himself, but he stood his ground with Sam at the end of the episode in an assertive, mature, non-aggressive way. That should have happened a year ago or more, though. Harsher words and even a punch would have been appropriate, but Sam is spared all of that. Even Sam's apologies seem unconvincing, coming across as performances rather than genuine acknowledgements of culpability. His words sounded too cognisant, too emotionless, and too formulaic. This does not necessarily mean he is being manipulative, as people are allowed to be awkward and clumsy, but his choice of words grates on me.
“There's nothing I can do or say that can ever make this right again.” Then say nothing.
Some might be tempted to leap in here and say 'Nobody can punish Sam as much as he's punishing himself' or 'He has to live with the guilt of what he's done forever' (statements Sam pretty much makes himself). These are cop outs. The fact the show insists on making excuses for Sam and holding other people accountable for his wrongdoing hinders his development and prevents him being a likeable character. It also prevents storylines and character conflicts coming to meaningful, satisfying conclusion. The show does flirt with such a conclusion in the coming episodes, only to rescind it less than two episodes later.
The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the audience is still supposed to view Sam as a victim in the whole situation. Kripke does not want Sam to be to blame. Ruby took advantage of him. He thought he was saving the world. He knew not what he did. Sam deserves sympathy. Poor Sam. Considering the only people who give him a hard time are bad guys – the demon possessing Bobby, the hunters in 5x03 Free to Be You and Me – there is also a subtle suggestion that holding Sam accountable for the crap he did is discouraged. Sam blaming Dean in 5x05 Fallen Idols backs this up.
Earlier I mentioned that Becky did not respect Sam's bodily autonomy. This brought a recent video to mind entitled 'How Supernatural Turned on Sam Winchester'.
Some good points were made in the video, but I fundamentally disagree with the overwhelming majority of it. Points are made lacking important context to present Sam as a victim and Dean as a controlling cunny-hole. While it might be an idea to write an essay at some point discussing the key points, for now I will content myself with one point. The video claims Dean did not respect Sam's bodily autonomy in 4.20 The Rapture and 4x21 When the Levee Breaks because rather than trying to talk to Sam first, understand his issues, and treat him with some sympathy, Dean locks Sam in Bobby's panic room. This act endangers Sam's life and Dean lets it happen because Dean would rather Sam die human than become a monster.
There is definitely an argument to be made for the fact that Sam's 'trauma' is a contributing factor to his blood addiction, and that this is not properly dealt with in the show. Given Sam's blithe dismissal and weaponisation of Dean's time in Hell, it is hard for me to care all that much. But it is true that the story provided opportunities to explore Sam's own damage in more detail to humanise him and make him more sympathetic. The show neglected to take advantage of these opportunities, however, which means that his demon blood arc makes him look like an absolute tool rather than a damaged guy who took the wrong path.
Returning to the bodily autonomy point, this is an instant where there are more important things going on than Sam's 'bodily autonomy', i.e. he was becoming the monster he had been prophecised to become and thereby endangering himself and the whole world. Sam was not a garden-variety alcoholic, and normal intervention rules do not apply.
Note that Bobby was omitted from this part of the discussion. If Dean violated Sam's bodily autonomy, then so did Bobby. While this might have been an unintentional omission, it places all the blame on Dean. Another apparent omission was the lack of mention of Sam's trying to strangle Dean to death in the very same episode. Considering the concern for a blood junkie endangering the world, it is surprising that no mention was made of Sam's disregard for Dean's bodily autonomy when he threw the first punch or almost crushed his throat. Or when Sam knocked Bobby out with a gun in that episode. Not everything can be discussed in a video, though.
Moving on, this episode sees Meg make a return. Rachel Miner's portrayal of Meg is definitely the same character if you pay attention, but something about the performance works more for me where Meg 1.0 did not. I dislike Meg 1.0 for the same reason I dislike Ames White in Dark Angel series 2: too cartoonish, too smug, too sneery.
For those who care about such trivia, Martin Cummings who played Ames White in Dark Angel (Jensen's first big role after Days of Our Lives) also played the cult leader in Jensen's first film Devour (2005): Beware spoilers.)
Meg 2.0 loves the sound of her own voice, but that is part of the point of the character. This episode was of course broadcast long before Rachel's multiple sclerosis diagnosis. Her appearances at the end of Supernatural had to be adapted to accommodate her disability, which is why she is mostly seated when portraying The Empty.
It is unfortunate that Meg 2.0 did not play a larger role in the show, but she made quite the impact with the few appearances she made. Some people dislike her, but far more seem to be fans who like her.
What I did not like about Meg 2.0's first appearance was her gross on-the-mouth non-consensual kissing of Dean, just like the vampire in 1x20 Dead Man's Blood (remember the implications in that episode that Dean used to use poco!Dean as bait? I remember. And 14x14 Ouroboros backs that up...).
Non-consensual kissing is not the worst thing in the world, but it is indicative of other non-consensual things which might have occurred. And speaking on non-consensual, Meg is possessing another body. After Sam kills her colleague, Meg evacuates the body which collapses onto the floor. ...And the audience is to assume that Dean and Sam did nothing to prevent her getting possessed again. This raises the issue of ellipsis again: a lot of events in this episode are left to assumption, meaning the viewer does not know what happened to Meg's host. Did Dean and Sam take her to hospital with Bobby and make efforts to keep her safe which were later scuppered? Did they actually tell her to get an anti-possession tattoo which she failed to get? Search me.
By the way, Rachel Miner was in the Christmas 1990 episode of Shining Time Station, the American repackaging of Thomas the Tank Engine. This leads me on a brief but very important detour to Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Shining Time Station, a variety show made to accompany episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine in America and Canada, was no part of Thomas the Tank Engine in the rest of the world. Consequently, my nine year old self was mightily confused upon going to watch Thomas and the Magic Railroad at Cineworld in the year 2000. I think my mum actually let me have the day off school to go and see it, though, so that was nice, especially because my year five English teacher was a man-hating bish and a bully.
I commented earlier that Dean did not defend Sam from Bobby's harangue, and this is a positive development for both brothers. Sam needs to learn to take responsibility and to be held responsible for his actions. Dean needs to internalise that it is not healthy for himself or Sam to defend Sam from consequences, or for Dean to absorb all the blame and guilt just to keep Sam in his life. A song I associate with Dean and Sam's relationship is Lacrymosa by Evanescence, particularly the lines:
I can't change who I am, not this time, I won't lie to keep you near me
Much of Dean and Sam's relationship is based on Dean not being truthful with Sam out of fear of driving him away. But this time Dean has enough self-respect to draw his boundaries with Sam and to state outright at the end, maturely, assertively, and non-aggressively, that things have changed and Dean can no longer trust him. This reminds me very much of Oz's reaction to finding out about Willow and Xander in Buffy series three. This newfound dignity of Dean's leads to a fraternal schism at the end of the following episode, one which is sorely needed but which, alack, is all too short.
Before finishing, there is time for a few non-sequiturs:
A note on 'Cas': the subtitles of the episode spelt it wrong. His name is Cas, short for Castiel. There is only one s there, so why does the show insist on misspelling it as 'Cass'? Whence, prithee, cometh the second s?
Removing Sam's demon blood addiction and powers was another instance where somebody just got bored with what he was writing and moved on to something else without satisfactorily wrapping up the storyline.
One of Paula's commenters also commented on Zachariah having cronies with him. Why would Zachariah need minions when confronting mortals like Dean and Sam? And if Cas can carve protective Enochian sigils into Dean and Sam's ribs, surely Zachariah must be able to do the same to his own vessel. So what does he need protection from? Lucifer, perhaps?
Discussion of Zachariah raises the topic of the storage locker at the end of the episode. In my analysis of 3x03 Bad Day at Black Rock, I discussed how expensive a storage locker that size would have been (and at a time when he left his sons without food and money for days or weeks at a time). For it to still be in his legal possession means that somebody paid for it for years in advance. Where did all that money come from?
This episode was generally good but contained quite a few info dumps with no time for absorption. The show's aversion to holding Sam accountable or making him deal with the consequences of his actions is still a detriment, but at least this episode shows it is possible for Dean to be something other than everybody's doormat. Bobby's handicap is an interesting narrative choice, but Cas's feels too convenient.
And finally, one of Paula's commentors noted that Lucifer's vessel's name is Nick, and that Old Nick is a name for the devil. This also links it to 'Hold Nickar', i.e. the 'pagan' gods in 3x08 A Very Supernatural Christmas.
Here endeth the analysis. You can read more of my analyses here:
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Series 4
Series 5
Sundry
You can read Paula’s review here and Demian’s here.
P.S. I really hope Dean stabs Zachariah in the face for this...
