Recap of Supernatural
Season 11, Episode 18:
Hell's Angel
Lucifer tries to assert himself into heaven; Crowley tells Sam and Dean they must take down Amara.
Writers: Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming
Director: Phil Sgriccia
Body Count:
For this episode: 1 angel and 5 humans.
For the series so far = At least 1266 humans (of which 15 were witches), 1125 angels, 186 demons, 71 vampires, 52 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 22 gods, 19 zombies, 17 werewolves, 10 hellhounds, 7 shapeshifters, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 djinn, 5 reapers, 4 dogs, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 3 Khan Worms, 3 Thule 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 rugarus, 2 vetalas, 2 zannas, 1 banshee, 1 cat, 1 crocotta, Death, 1 deer, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 familiar, 1 lamia, the Mother of All, 1 nachzehrer, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 pishtaco, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 qarin, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shojo, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 soul eater, 1 Titan, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, 1 wicked witch, and 1 wraith.
Tropes
- Back from the Dead: Rowena recovered from her broken neck.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Crowley versus Lucifer in Castiel's mind, though it's really more of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in the center of the mind.
- Blasphemous Boast: During his appeal to be made the new Ruler of Heaven, Lucifer makes one of these to the Host of Heaven around him.Lucifer: Hey. If it makes you comfy, you could call me God.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: What Amara does to Lucifer to make God appear.
- Crazy-Prepared: Rowena had magical protection in place to revive her in case someone tried to kill her.
- Death Is Cheap: Rowena uses a subdermal hex bag to circumvent the Reaper Billie's "What's dead stays dead" rule.
- Enemy Mine: Crowley, the Winchesters, and Rowena working together to exorcise Lucifer from Castiel.
- Genre Savvy: Amara asks Lucifer if he really thought she was so dumb as to trust him.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Lucifer gives this as his speech to win the angels to his side.Lucifer: Humanity gave us Hiroshima and got a redo.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Dean and Sam use warding and incantations to try to break through Lucifer's hold on Cas's vessel to talk to Castiel directly.
- I Shall Taunt You: Lucifer mimics Dean's anguished name cry, mocking the elder Winchester's distress at not being able to get through to Castiel.
- No-Sell: Lucifer's attempt to use a Hand of God on Amara doesn't end well.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Amara plans to kill God and destroy all of creation.
- Oh, Crap!: Lucifer's reaction to blasting Amara with a Hand of God doing nothing.
- After Amara makes a demonstration of her power, Rowena is freaked out enough to jump ship and work with her son and the Winchesters.
- Playing Both Sides: Rowena nurses Amara back to health and offers to be her right hand woman, while also covering for her son and the Winchesters in their plans to defeat her.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: While Lucifer is kicking Crowley's ass, he's also telling him that he's nothing, and that's why everyone he knows hates him.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Crowley ditches when Lucifer shrugs off the attempt to oust him from Castiel's vessel, and Rowena likewise flees shortly after when Amara shows up.
- Shout-Out: In the refuge of his own mind, Castiel listens to a parody religious broadcast from The Firesign Theater.
- Skewed Priorities: Because his ego is wounded, Crowley is more concerned with caging Lucifer than defeating The Darkness. Because he always puts family first, Dean is more concerned with saving Cas than recaging Lucifer. Because he's big picture-oriented to the point of missing the important small details (ie. Determined to kill Lilith to avenge the revived Dean's death and accidentally starting the Apocalypse), Sam is most concerned with defeating The Darkness even if doing so means Cas dying in the battle.
- Thrown from the Zeppelin: Zigzagged when Lucifer tries to take over Heaven while God is absent and his angels are unable to stop the Darkness from threatening all of existence. Two angels repeatedly (albeit nervously) display reluctance to accept his leadership. There's a brief musical buildup implying that Lucifer's about to kill one of them after one such remark. However, Lucifer settles for threatening him with a reminder of how he killed another angel who opposed him just before the meeting started.Lucifer: You know what they say: he who hesitates, disintegrates!
- Underestimating Badassery: Both Rowena and Lucifer underestimate Amara.
- Rowena heals and sucks up to Amara, wanting to be on the winning side but realizes how completely out of her depth she is upon seeing Amara unleash a fraction of her power on Heaven itself.
- Lucifer thinks all it will take is his own power and a God-touched artifact to put Amara down permanently. Then when it results in a No-Sell he tries to pull an Enemy Mine and offers to help her find God. She agrees he can be of use, but not of the kind where he does anything to help except scream under Cold-Blooded Torture until God shows up to save him.
- Villain Has a Point: Lucifer gives a speech about how Humans Are the Real Monsters. The thing is, he isn't exactly wrong...Lucifer: Humanity brought us Hiroshima and got a redo.
- Villainous Rescue: Unwittingly, Amara saves the brothers and Crowley by showing up just as Lucifer is about to kill them.
- Wham Shot: A relatively minor example, but Rowena revealing herself to still be alive.
- Woman Scorned: Rowena allies with Amara to get revenge on Lucifer for using and trying to kill her.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: For most of the season, it has been heavily implied that if forces converged to get the Winchester brothers, Lucifer, Amara and a Hand of God in the same room, The Darkness would be obliterated. Instead, it has no effect on her. Dean theorizes that Lucifer was the problem, since Lucifer got the boot.
