Supernatural season 11, episode 21, “All in the Family,” started the build up toward the final showdown with Amara.
The prophets are the high point of “All in the Family,” as we get a brief visit from Kevin Tran before meeting a new prophet, Donatello. After getting the Winchesters up to speed, Chuck brings in Kevin to vouch for him. Kevin does, and then Chuck frees him from the veil, sending his soul to Heaven. I miss that kid so much; he was such a wonderful addition to the show while he was with us. He brought such fresh energy that we really haven’t seen since his untimely death.
Speaking of wonderful additions, we also meet Donatello in this episode. He is the newest prophet to be called. An academic and atheist, Donatello has to come to terms with a completely new worldview as he meets God, Metatron, Lucifer and the Darkness in the span of a few hours. He is a delight as he tries to make sense of the mess he’s been thrown into. I was sad to see him get in a cab at the end of the episode since I wanted to see more of him. Hopefully he won’t suffer the same fate of other prophets on this show.
The rest of this episode, though, had the hallmarks of an episode written by Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner; their episodes often clash with the show’s canon or simply don’t make a lot of sense in terms of construction or story beats. That being said, I was not surprised when I underwhelmed by this episode, which is too bad since last week’s episode was so ground-breaking.
This episode features the Winchesters meeting Chuck-as-God. And while Jensen Ackles knocks his scene with Chuck out of the park, featuring not just the One Perfect Tear but two tears, I was disappointed to see Sam sidelined. We know Dean went from being an atheist to resentful toward God while Sam has continued to hold onto his faith, long after most would have lost it. Yes, we saw Sam praying earlier in this season and thought God was speaking to him (when it turned out to be Lucifer, a la Supernatural‘s Cain and Abel story) so he’s not bitter in the way Dean is, but I would have liked to see a bit more meat in the interactions with Sam since he did little more than fanboy.
Truthfully, that was a big complaint of mine all through this episode. Dean gets meaty material with both Chuck and Amara, while Sam feels relegated to the side. He works with Metatron — who, let’s not forget, killed his brother in the season 9 finale — and is sent off to rescue Lucifer, his tormentor, but there is not one word about it while Dean’s connection to Amara continues to play out in what feels like a repetitive manner.
I feel like the writers are having a hard time balancing the story between the brothers. While Sam was much more mytharc-centric in the first five seasons of the series, Dean was our point of view character. He was still front and center. However, now that Dean has become the mytharc-centric character, we’re not getting that point of view from Sam — and as a result, Sam feels shunted aside. The show is at its best when both brothers have meaty material to work with.
We also lose Metatron in this episode, and I can’t bring myself to be sad about it. While it was a check in his favor that he sacrificed himself for the good guys — and was humanity’s defender in the previous episode — it’s hard to forget all the havoc he caused, including murdering Dean. Did I mention that Metatron murdered Dean? Because Metatron murdered Dean.
Him trying to steal Sam’s beer was hilarious, though.
We also learn what was in those final pages Metatron read in the previous episode: Chuck planned to face his sister and sacrifice himself in exchange for the survival of the world. Dean doesn’t think it will work, to which Chuck replies that humanity will step up. He says that the Winchesters and his other chosen will rise up.
This was the most thematically relevant statement of the episode for me. God was an absent father for most of the series for a reason; at the core of the series was an exploration and celebration of humanity. The more the show gets away from that, like by bringing God in, the more the show feels off-kilter for me, so I hope that prophecy will come true; I’m invested in Sam and Dean. Humans.
And at the end of the episode, Chuck and Casifer come face to face for the first time since Lucifer was banished from Heaven for refusing to bow to humans. Those few moments were quite charged, and I have to assume we’ll get more of that in the next episode.
Watch a promo for the next episode
