Recap of Supernatural
Season 13, Episode 20:
Unfinished Business
Written by: Meredith Glynn
Directed by: Richard Speight Jr.
Air date: April 26th, 2018
Thanks to Rowena Sam and Dean are able to track Gabriel to Central City, Colorado in order to make him open a rift to Apocalypse World but find the Archangel in battle with a family of Demigods. Meanwhile in Apocalypse World Michael is making his final moves and leaves a devastating gift for Jack.
Tropes:
- Acting for Two: Richard Speight Jr. plays Gabriel, as well as Loki, the original Trickster, in this episode, while also directing it.
- A Day in the Limelight: The A-plot of this episode is centered around how Gabriel went from escaping Lucifer to being Asmodeus's prisoner, while also delving into how exactly he became the Trickster.
- The Big Board: The resistance on Apocalypse World investigates Michael's abandoned church and find a board map of the United States with all of Michael's forces assembled around a dimensional gate in the South. Mary thinks it's far too obvious of a clue and worries about it being a trap. It turns out Michael had prepared a different trap entirely—he was just being haughty and left the display unmolested on purpose as a "come get me" challenge to Jack.
- Brought Down to Badass: Gabriel's grace is running on empty thanks to a combination of killing Asmodeus and teleporting away from the bunker. That still doesn't stop him from shanking four demigods he has unfinished business with old school.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: Likely thanks to a "The Reason You Suck" Speech Loki gave him before he was killed Gabriel is a lot more willing to help the Winchesters out in their plans to stop Apocalypse!Michael, even telling the boys that "a deal is a deal".
- Chekhov's Gunman: Loki was first mentioned in the episode that introduced tricksters, "Tall Tales", which first aired eleven years prior, and Gabriel was revealed to have been using the name as an alias in "Hammer of the Gods". Here, we finally get to meet the Trickster proper.
- Decapitation Strike: Michael manipulates Kevin to wait for all the human resistance leaders to show up at Michael's abandoned church before blowing himself up to get into Heaven. Kevin was waiting for Bobby's arrival, but when it turns out that's not going to happen, he settles for trying to kill Jack and Mary.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Loki tells Gabriel that in the end he’ll die for nothing, cue two episodes later when he’s anticlimactically stabbed to death by Alternate Michael to buy everyone time to escape, only for Michael to make it to the main universe anyway.
- Heroic BSoD: Jack, when his overly-confident recklessness got the accompanying rebels, except Mary, killed by Apocalypse!Kevin's sigil that caused an explosion. Especially knowing that Apocalypse!Michael wants to break him.
- Intangibility: One of the perks of being Loki is that his projection of himself can be made intangible or solid at his whim.Dean: Oh, so you can hit me but I can't hit you?!
Loki: Get the real Trickster, get the real tricks! - It's All My Fault: Jack is left devastated after Kevin's spell kills the men he and Mary brought with him as he promised that no harm would come to them. Mary reminds him that this death is Michael's fault not his.
- It's Personal:
- The debilitating torture Gabe underwent at Asmodeus's hands means he wants to extract revenge against Loki and his family who sold him out in the first place.
- Loki sold Gabriel out in the first place because him interfering with the war between Heaven and Hell led to his father's death along with a bunch of other Pagan Gods by Lucifer's hands.
- Lured into a Trap: Michael and his forces abandon his base of operations completely, not even bothering to leave a skeleton crew garrison behind. As it turns out when the resistance goes to investigate this strange course of events, Michael has induced Kevin to go out in a Suicide Attack when their key leaders have shown up.
- Mis-blamed: Loki blames Gabriel for his father Odin's death — except that was Lucifer's fault, and not Gabriel's. In fact, Gabriel was the one telling the Pagan Gods not to tangle with Lucifer. Yet Loki still blames Gabriel for it by proxy of being Lucifer's brother.
- Not Your Problem: Dean considers helping with Loki's revenge a "waste of time", since he wants him to help them open a rift to the other universe.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Loki gives a brutal one to Gabriel, complete with a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- Rewind Gag: In the middle of Gabriel's flashback, Dean interrupts asking where the porn stars were. Cue Gabriel rewinding it and retconning it so that there were porn stars.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Gabriel wants revenge against Loki and his family for selling him out to Asmodeus which lead to his seven year long torture session at the Prince of Hell's hands.
- Shout-Out: Dean refers to Gabriel's revenge plan as a "Kill Bill fantasy" and actually refers to Gabriel as "Uma."
- Spiritual Successor: To "Hammer of the Gods", the Season 5 episode that heavily featured pagan deities, and where Gabriel faked his death.
- Suicide Attack: Apocalypse!Kevin is given a spell by Michael that blows himself up as well as anyone unfortunate enough to be in his way as one giant middle finger to Jack in order to show him that, even if he wins, he'll still lose.
- Thicker Than Water: Loki feels obliged to avenge his father with Gabriel's death despite admitting that his father despised him.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: Dean warns Gabriel that killing Loki and his family won't make him any happier but Gabe doesn't care. By the end of the episode Sam asks Gabriel if he feels better and while Gabriel says he's peachy, it's clear that Loki's "The Reason You Suck" Speech has left him rattled.
