Recap of Supernatural
Season 11, Episode 15:
Beyond The Mat
Writer: John Bring and Andrew Dabb
Directed by Jerry Wanek
After attending a wrestling show in honor of a recently deceased wrestler, Sam and Dean find themselves with a case when more dead bodies begin popping up.
Body Count:
For this episode: 4 humans and 4 demons.
For the series so far = At least 1258 humans (of which 15 were witches), 1124 angels, 186 demons, 71 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, 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 Titan, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, 1 wicked witch, and 1 wraith.
Tropes
- Crush Blush: Sam is excited to meet Rio, the attractive, female wrestling manager. He stammers through a confession that Rio was his first childhood crush.
- Deal with the Devil: Gunner Lawless sold his soul for a shot at the title. The fact that he only had it for a week is par for the course for this trope.
- Dented Iron: It's obvious many of the wrestlers are dealing with the effects of accumulated injuries...and one of the ways they deal is with alcohol.
- The Dog Bites Back: As Lucifer previously mentioned, Crowley is still defiant and simply biding his time until an opportunity presents itself to strike back at Lucifer who has literally been treating the former King of Hell like a disobedient puppy. Sure enough, at the first viable opportunity, Crowley attempts to kill Lucifer. It was unsuccessful, but Crowley still escapes, presumably to head for the Winchesters, which will likely spell Lucifer's eventual doom.
- Meaningful Echo:
- Simmons uses Crowley's catchphrase to knock him out of his Villainous BSoD
Simmons: You're Crowley. The devil should be afraid of you."- This echoes Crowley, himself, from "First Born".
Crowley: You're good, but I'm Crowley.- Echoed later by Crowley himself.
Simmons: How did you...?Crowley: I'm Crowley- And Crowley gets one on Lucifer, after he mocks Crowley for believing he could double-cross the one who literally invented double-crossing. Crowley can and does it.
Crowley: You thought you could double-cross me? Me? I perfected double-crossing. And I mean literally. - Mistaken for Junkie: Shawn Harley thinks he sees Gunner in a meeting with his dealer, instead of the crossroads demon who owns his soul.
- Oblivious to His Own Description: Dean expresses surprise that the wrestlers would come to town and fight for little money and no glory. Sam points out that that is literally what they do all the time.
- Oh, Crap!: Crowley when he realizes that the power of the rod of Aaron was only good for one use and he accidentally wasted it icing a minor demon rather than taking out Lucifer.
- Although, in Crowley's defense, he was trying to kill Lucifer, but the demon jumped in the way.
- At least he gets to show the other demons that there are consequences for traitors.
- Although, in Crowley's defense, he was trying to kill Lucifer, but the demon jumped in the way.
- Special Guest / Real-Person Cameo: Rather fitting for an episode centred around an independent wrestling promotion, Shawn Harley is played by Mike Mizanin, better known as WWE superstar The Miznote
- Scar Survey: Dean and Gunner Lawless compare scars in a bar.
- Shout-Out: Lucifer gives his demon minions the "Always Be Closing" speech from Glengarry Glen Ross and the "every farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse" speech from The Fugitive.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: A demon has Sam and Dean pinned to a wall. After expressing his disdain that catching the Winchesters proved so easy, he attempts to launch into a villainous monologue.
- Demon: The name's...Sam: We don't care.Demon: ...Ok. Small talk over.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Lucifer. He is correct in seeing that Crowley's still defiant and is hiding something that could be useful to him. So he plans to stage his escape, so that Crowley himself would lead him to what he's hiding. When it seems to have worked, he mocks Crowley for his arrogance. He forgot two things Crowley's genre-savvyness, that lead him through many double-crossing, and the fact that pride is notoriously Lucifer's Fatal Flaw. That leads the whole plan to spectacularly backfire on him.
