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Recap of Supernatural
Season 11, Episode 10:
The Devil In The Details
Writer: Andrew Dabb
Director: Thomas J. Wright
Lucifer tries to get Sam's permission to possess him while Dean and Castiel investigate whether or not the angels successfully smited Amara.
Body Count:
For this episode: 2 humans (one of which was a witch) and 1 angel.
For the series so far = At least 1205 humans (of which 14 were witches), 1123 angels, 182 demons, 69 vampires, 52 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 22 gods, 19 zombies, 12 werewolves, 10 hellhounds, 7 shapeshifters, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 djinn, 5 reapers, 4 dogs, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 3 Khan Worms, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 rugarus, 2 Thule, 2 vetalas, 2 zannas, 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 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shojo, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 Titan, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, 1 wicked witch, and 1 wraith.
Tropes
- Audience Surrogate: Lucifer serves as one when complaining about the various morally-grey or outright stupid actions that Sam and Dean have been taking since Season 8, as well as how codependent their relationship has become.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Amara does this to Castiel when he finds her, but refrains from killing him because she thinks he's too weak and pathetic now to be a threat, and to send a message.
- Deal with the Devil: Lucifer's literal offer to Sam, and he knows it.
- Fantastic Nuke: The massive smite-bomb unleashed by Heaven is like this, according to Castiel. Dean tried to get closer to the epicenter of the blast, but the after-effect sent him into vomiting convulsions, reminiscent of the effects of radioactive fallout after a nuke. Castiel tells him the last time such a blast occurred, it turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Sam knows this lesson well and applies it when turning down Lucifer.
- For Inconvenience, Press "1": Crowley's voicemail."Thank you for phoning Crowley, King of Hell. For demon deals, press 1. To report a sighting of that ginger whore Rowena, press 2..."
- Godzilla Threshold: Defied by Sam, but played straight with Castiel: after personally seeing Amara shrug off divine wrath itself and kill Ambriel without a thought, he becomes desperate enough that he allows his vessel to become Lucifer's new host.
- #HashtagForLaughs: When Rowena talks about boosting her power through an alliance with Lucifer, Crowley asks her, "Whatever happened to the super-duper awesome coven, hashtag girlpower?"
- Have You Seen My God?: As Lucifer puts it when trying to convince Sam, "God went out for a pack of smokes and never came back."
- Have You Told Anyone Else?: After taking over Castiel's vessel, the first thing Lucifer asks Rowena is if anyone else knows how to seal him again. She replies no. And then he breaks her neck.
- Hope Spot: It looks like Rowena re-sealed Lucifer away in time before he could kill the Winchesters and Castiel...until it turns out Castiel agreed to be his new vessel and set him free.
- Large Ham: At the episode's end, it's clear that Misha Collins is thoroughly enjoying imitating Mark Pellegrino's mannerisms as Lucifer and even taking the smarm up a notch.
- Last of His Kind: Lucifer tells Sam that he's the only one who has ever defeated The Darkness. Sam reminds Lucifer that the last battle was won with the combined forces of God and four archangels. God is AWOL, Raphael and Gabriel are dead, and Michael is still trapped in the cage.
- Lesser of Two Evils: Lucifer frames Sam's choice this way when trying to persuade him to become Lu's vessel again. Sam defies this in the end and tells Lucifer that he's not a lesser threat than Amara at all, and will go right back to bringing about the Apocalypse he always wanted even if he does defeat the Darkness.
- Loophole Abuse: Lucifer does escape the Cage, but in Castiel's body instead of Sam's. Castiel agrees to it out of sheer desperation after he faces Amara's power.
- Neck Snap: Lucifer does this to Rowena after she says she's the only one capable of opening his Cage.
- No-Sell: It turns out that Bolt of Divine Retribution from the last episode was only enough to stun Amara for a few moments.
- Put on a Bus: Castiel gets possessed by Lucifer at the end of the episode. Lucifer has remained in control of Cas since, essentially meaning Cas has been removed from the show until/unless Lucifer either leaves or dies in a future episode.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lucifer's central argument to Sam about why he needs to let him in. He claims Sam has become weak from guilt over the time when he let Dean stay in Purgatory, and that the old Sam who defeated Lucifer in Season 5 is long gone. He also claims that Sam is weak because he would sacrifice the world now to save Dean, rather than have the strength to allow him and any other loved ones die to defeat the Darkness.
- Shout-Out: When a suspicious Sam asks Lucifer what he plans on doing afterwards if he does succeed in beating the Darkness, the devil responds "Move to L.A, solve crimes?" Earlier, a reaper was seen reading Death: The Time of Your Life.
- Significant Anagram: Satan appears in Rowena's dream dressed up as Santa.
- Slave Collar or Supernormal Bindings: Crowley has a "witchcatcher" for Rowena that makes a witch do his bidding if collared. It works.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel" playing over Team Free Will's fight with Lucifer.
- Time for Plan B: Lucifer's plan A is to convince Sam to say yes. Plan B is to beat him senseless until he does.
- Villainous Breakdown: After using all his compelling arguments and powers of persuasion on Sam to become his vessel to fight Amara, Lucifer completely loses his shit when Sam still says no. Lu's plan B involves punching Sam until he says "yes," then threatening to kill Dean and Cas.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: One symptom of Dean's smiting sickness.
- Wham Episode: Lucifer escapes his cage in Castiel's body, which he trades voluntary.
- You Are What You Hate: Crowley asks Rowena why she hates him so much while he has her collared and under his control. She tells him he reminds her of herself when she was weak and pathetic before she became a witch, and that she'd love him if she didn't believe love was a weakness.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Amara has this reaction to Cas pulling his Angel Blade on her. She points out Heaven just hit her with a Fantastic Nuke and just barely managed to hurt her.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Telling the Devil you just helped to free that you're the only one who can re-imprison him was not Rowena's smartest move.
