Proverbs 17:3
Written by: Steve Yockey
Directed by: Richard Speight Jr.
Air date: November 14, 2019
Sam and Dean investigate the deaths of several people linked to werewolves and end up in a surprise encounter with an old foe.
Tropes
- All for Nothing:
- Lilith regards her sacrifice to release Lucifer as a colossal waste of effort since her master ended up dying anyway.
- At the same time, all the effort the brothers put into killing her in seasons 3 and 4 gets reversed by Chuck at a whim, just to rub it in their faces how powerless they are.
- Back from the Dead: Lilith is brought back by Chuck from the Empty.
- Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: The ghost pepper jerky Dean is a little overconfident about eating.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Lilith makes her first onscreen appearance since the ending of season 4; this time she was sent by God/Chuck.
- In Sam's visions, either Lucifer!Sam, who was last seen in Season 5, kills Dean by burning him or Demon Dean, who was last seen in Season 10, kills Sam by stabbing him with the first blade.
- Cain and Abel: The two werewolf purebreds we meet are a classic by-the-numbers instance of this trope — one loyal to their dead father's values against killing humans, one defiant against them, both tormented by their love for each other conflicting with their beliefs. Lilith later tells us Chuck set all that up as Foreshadowing for his preferred ending involving a Winchester murder-suicide, since for some reason he's obsessed with this trope in particular (including having written the Trope Namer).
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Lilith would love to kill the Winchesters, but Chuck has forbidden it for the sake of his story.
- Continuity Nod: The boys use their "Agents Ford and Hamil" Fish and Wildlife badges from back in the third episode.
- Death as Comedy: Ashley's sudden, random and completely pointless death is shocking even for a female guest star on a Supernatural MOTW episode... and there's a hilariously long uncomfortable silence as Sam and Dean try to process it, until she suddenly sits up and reveals who she is.
- Decoy Damsel: The only survivor of the werewolf attack turns out to be possessed by Lilith, who engineered the episode's events to find and destroy the Equalizer.
- Despair Event Horizon: Dean crosses it when Lilith tells him Chuck's ending: that he and Sam will kill each other.
- Disc-One Final Boss: The werewolf brothers are set up as the Monster of the Week, only to die exactly halfway through the episode.
- Downer Ending: Lilith gets away, after destroying the Equalizer, leaving Sam and Dean no real way to fight back against Chuck, whom they now know is gunning for them.
- Foreshadowing: There are repeated hints in the first half of the episode that everything is going too quickly and easily for a MOTW case. Lilith reveals, in a Leaning on the Fourth Wall explanation, how this is a sign Chuck is getting involved in the Winchesters' lives again, and that the familiar clichés of a typical Supernatural episode reflect Chuck's philosophy and are intentional foreshadowing for his planned ending.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The episode starts as a Monster of the Week story but something feels off until the whole episode is revealed to have been conceived by Lilith acting under orders of God.
- Honey Trap: According to Lilith, Chuck's plan included her sleeping with Dean after being rescued, but that was derailed by her accidentally getting impaled.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Lilith (accurately) comments that Sam only beat her last time because she let him, to free Lucifer. Now, she's no longer holding back and is shown to be considerably stronger.
- Lampshade Hanging: Lilith rolls her eyes at how on-the-nose the dialogue she was given to seduce Dean was, and at Chuck's name for the new Colt.Lilith: The magic gun. The one he gave you.Dean: The Equalizer.Lilith: I'm... not calling it that.
- Murder-Suicide: Andy decides to kill Josh and then himself, having regretted their actions.
- Plot Induced Stupidity: Sam and Dean have Lilith bound and nearly powerless after shooting her with a Devil's Trap bullet, but when she goes white-eye and starts shaking the motel, they skedaddle...even though Sam was standing less than three feet away from her, with Ruby's knife in his hand.
- It is possible, but has never been confirmed, that Lilith is immune to the knife. Alistair (the only other white-eyed demon that's ever appeared on the show) couldn't be killed with it.
- Psychic Link: Sam and Chuck have one, courtesy of the Equalizer.
- The Reveal: Sam's nightmare visions of himself and Dean killing each other are possible "endings" that Chuck has thought up, which Sam can access because of a link forged between the two of them by Sam shooting Chuck with the Equalizer.
- Running Gag: People commenting that Dean's old picture in his Fish and Wildlife badge doesn't look like him.
- Series Continuity Error: Dean claims he never wanted to be anything but a hunter, but in "Devil's Trap" he said he used to want to be a fireman.
- Stupid Crooks: There's a lot of questionable decisions the werewolf brothers make in their killing spree — like letting a victim go who apparently knows their names and address, or kidnapping only Ashley when a sleeping Dean was right next to her — that all make sense in the end when it turns out they were just pawns in Chuck's morality play.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: While possessing Ashley, Lilith pretends to be a scared victim of the werewolf brothers and even bonds with Dean. It's only after Andy and Josh are killed that she unmasks herself.
- Writers Suck: Lilith shares her low opinion of Chuck's writing."[God] is not exactly Shakespeare. He's more of a low-rent Dean Koontz. I had to listen to his whole "writing philosophy", and his very weird, very pervy obsession with you."
- Yank the Dog's Chain: The whole plot of this episode seems to be a cruel prank on Chuck's part, letting Sam and Dean think their lives are back to normal and they're helping save people from monsters again, before rubbing it in their faces that they're back on the "hamster wheel" of his manipulations. The reveal leaves Dean near tears and almost broken by the end of the episode.
