Last week’s Supernatural was, quite simply, a magical experience, and we’ve analyzed some crucial quotes to show you why.
Rowena returns from the dead and leads the boys on a merry chase in a triple-cross — in an act of self-preservation, she sends some young witch sisters to obtain the Black Grimoire (the powerful spellbook she was trying to get her hands on last season) from the Winchesters, “saves” the boys from said sisters’ love spell, and then helps track the Plum sisters down, eventually siding with Sam and Dean for real.
Rowena’s goal was to use a spell in the book to break the binding that the Grand Coven put on her natural magic, and with a little help from her new BFF Sam, she succeeds, becoming more powerful than we’ve ever seen her before.
Meanwhile, Castiel and Lucifer have their own side plot, as they finally manage to escape from Asmodeus’ dungeon. The brothers haven’t been too concerned about Cas’ absence, because Asmodeus, using Cas’ voice as a disguise, has been in daily contact with them — on their end, everything is fine.
Castiel himself is likely also aware of this, so he isn’t sitting around moping about being forgotten — instead, he’s biding his time and using every advantage he can scrounge up. The real worry about his imprisonment will arise next week, when we discover just how much intel the Winchesters have unwittingly shared with Casmodeus, and what he plans to do with it.
What started out as a little bit of farce soon unfolded as a hugely important episode, including massive, years-awaited turning points for both Sam and Castiel.
Over the last two seasons, writer Steve Yockey has made a name for himself as one of the boldest and most surprising contributors in the show’s 13-year history, widening the world and pushing these characters further than they’ve ever been pushed before, in ways that we almost didn’t think were even allowed.
“Various and Sundry Villains” really speaks for itself, but I’m gonna speak about it anyway, ’cause that’s what I’m here to do. Here’s an unpacking of 10 of the episode’s most important quotes.
‘That whole shapeshift-y thing he does? I didn’t give him that.’
It would not be a Steve Yockey episode without a little bit of pedantry. In his two seasons on the show, Yockey has become one of the most valuable Supernatural additions in many years, not least because he has proved himself to be a master of cleaning up after others’ messes. His episodes tend to always include bits of passing dialogue which canonically close plotholes, things that have been handwaved for convenience in the past.
Yockey’s own stories are airtight, but he also retroactively course-corrects things that didn’t make sense in prior episodes, raising the show’s overall quality. Here — and this is just one of a multitude of examples — Lucifer tells Cas that he doesn’t know what the deal is with Asmodeus’ power, adding a little more realism to the random choice to just make him a shapeshifter, when none of the other Princes of Hell ever displayed this ability.
‘I’m thinking of asking her to move in with me here, if that’s cool, because this is big time.’
The first twist of “Various and Sundry Villains” was, of course, the love spell that Jamie Plum casts on Dean, in order to make him bring her the Black Grimoire. It thankfully doesn’t last long, as Sam — who’s experienced this himself — susses it out immediately (Yockey shows his work here by throwing back to Becky Rosen), but it’s just enough to give Jensen Ackles’ comedy chops a chance to truly shine.
We don’t know how magically heightened this behavior is — quite a bit, we can assume — but I’m firmly of the opinion that any time a Winchester’s defenses are supernaturally revealed, we see shades of their inner truth. (See more examples here — I compiled a list after season 12’s excellent “Regarding Dean.”)
Dean, with all his damage, may never actually act this blissful even if he was legitimately in love — he certainly didn’t with Lisa — but it’s sweet to see him this open and sincere, with a spring in his step and a song in his throat.
The fact that his immediate impulse is to have his lover move in with him at the Bunker — and his later utterance that Sam is only holding him back because he’s jealous — raises the question: is romantic love, domesticity incorporated into his hunting lifestyle, the way the brothers mused about in “Baby,” something he secretly wants?
‘Jack would rather kill you than hug you. Seems relevant.’
Castiel has changed for the better since his resurrection, shedding a lot of his guilt and depression. This scene is loaded with riches, as we’re seeing how this emboldens him even more clearly now. He’s so much more sure of himself and his place in the world, which gives him the mental resources to use his strength, his smarts, and his sass in the healthiest possible way.
He’s utterly calm about his predicament, amused by Lucifer’s anguish, and we discover why: he’s manipulating Lucifer, more cannily than he ever has before. What looks like irritated banter to Luci and the guards is actually Cas quietly studying the situation, playing his cards to chest and fishing for answers. Castiel orchestrated the whole taunting-about-Jack conversation to intentionally get Lucifer’s powers up, effectively, once again, annoying his way out of a prison. (Life goals.)
But it’s also all completely true, a validation of Jack as our lil baby hero, and on so many levels, this season has an overarching theme that embracing your truth will be the thing that sets you free. How this applies to Lucifer, we’ll have to wait and see — it seems like we’re teetering on the knife point of a redemption arc, but other factors of this episode made that unsavory possibility feel pretty unlikely.
‘Oh, one more thing. Where’s my son?’
Upon Rowena’s reunion with the Winchesters, while she’s catching them up on what happened to her and why she needs the Black Grimoire, the biggest elephant in the room is Crowley, or the absence thereof. Rowena is her elegant, charming, whimsical self, but “Various and Sundry Villains” dives much deeper into her character and explicitly reveals her trauma, proving her mannerisms to be a performance. This line, delivered at the close of the scene, is goosebump-inducing: it’s loaded with genuine concern, and the pregnant pause we leave the Winchesters on also speaks volumes.
When we cut back to the Bunker later, and see Rowena faced with the news that Crowley killed himself to save the boys, we start to get into the real meat of the episode — highlighting the destruction that Lucifer leaves in his wake, and reminding us how many people are living a nightmare because of him.
The boys are still very obviously seriously conflicted about Crowley and the role he played in their lives, and this serves as a reminder of that. They seem to think he gained redemption, but as Rowena says, in another chilling line, “I’d much rather have a living son, even one that hated me, than a dead hero.” Yet another world-shattering we can blame Lucifer for.
‘Tell me, did they get to fifth base?’ ‘There’s no such thing as fifth base.’ ‘Oh, you poor, sheltered boy.’
The hunter doth protest too much, methinks. Oh, the difference a nervous pause and a gulping swallow makes. Remember, this is the same Dean Winchester who once proved his identity to himself by admitting to a panty kink. This is the same Dean Winchester who once spent a demonic “Summer of Love” with Crowley. This the same Dean Winchester whose actor once started the popular headcanon that he turned tricks to get by. Jamie may not have slid into fifth, but he knows, alright — he just doesn’t want to admit it in front of his brother.
‘I, like, really believe in us!’
Just in case the sisters being first introduced literally in a mirror wasn’t clear enough for you, Jennie and Jamie Plum are a very obvious reflection of Sam and Dean. Two siblings, surviving on their own, on the road, lying for a living, avenging a dead parent, doing toxic things to achieve their ultimate togetherness — yeah. They even look somewhat like a gender-swapped version of our boys — they’re basically the Valleygirl darkest timeline iteration of the Winchesters.
It’s all very intentionally heavy-handed, down to the pep talk about Jamie being the big sister, “like, the strong one,” and their very own version of the Team Free Will mantra. How often have we heard Sam or Dean utter this same sentiment, that they’ll figure it out together, you and me, and so on? It was legitimately the closing BM moment of this episode.
Nothing wrong with believing in your partnership, of course, but the commentary also ran deeper than this — Rowena saved the boys from the girls by magically ordering them to simply “end it” — and in one of the most brutal scenes this show has given us in a while, Jennie and Jamie stab each other to death, destroying their partnership, their path of co-dependent destruction. Ultimately, their obsessive love for each other and their mother brought them to a dark, toxic end. Boys, take note.
‘I guess I don’t deal with it, not really. I mean, I pushed it down, and the world kept almost ending, so I keep pushing it down, and I don’t know. I don’t really talk about it, not even with Dean. I mean, I could, you know, he’d listen, but that’s not something I really know how to share.’
Yes, this is actually happening. Sam is finally talking about his experiences with Lucifer, and he’s able to open up about it with someone who’s experienced a similar violation firsthand. Talk about course-correcting — in one fell swoop, Yockey raised the bar on Sam’s entire series arc. There’ll be no more griping at the Supernatural writers about “forgetting” Sam’s trauma, thank you very much.
The subtextual undercurrent of Sam’s behavior, the way he flies off the handle whenever anyone underestimates Lucifer, the way he silently shrinks and quakes whenever he’s in the same room as him, his clinicism when he’s trying to get the job done — it’s an integral part of Jared Padalecki’s performance, and it’s all canonized here. Sam is deeply, permanently damaged, it’s never gone away, and he’s still not able to face it.
Prior to this scene, Sam spent the episode somewhat amused by Rowena’s behavior, rather indulgent, even, treating her as if she was naughty rather than deadly, but in this moment, there’s no going back for him and Rowena, much like there was no going back for Dean and Crowley after season 10. They’re kindred spirits, now, bonded by their abuse, and this is very, very, very important. I’ve been saying all season that Sam’s repression of his own repression is reaching a boiling point and the reveal that Lucifer has indeed returned to this world will likely blow the lid clean off.
This episode featured a theme of unbinding in so many ways, literal and metaphorical, and what that means for Sam is finally addressing the horrors of his past. What kind of power or reward that will grant him, we don’t yet know, but this is as crucial and game-changing a scene as Dean’s interaction with Billie in “Advanced Thanatology,” another Yockey episode. Strap in, boys, you’re on the home stretch to self actualization.
‘This is me, learning from my mistakes.’
Oh, Castiel, yes. This is such an interesting and validating development. Cas is a character somewhat known for making terrible choices — always, as he and Dean have discussed, for the right reasons, but he’s made some really bad calls. This episode even reminds us of one such occasion — the time that he, while human, killed another angel to steal some grace, in order to be of use to the cause once more.
Cas has been so plagued by guilt and blame, making mistake upon mistake in an attempt to make up for his past. With his latest death and newfound sense of purpose, he’s dropped some serious baggage, wiped the slate clean, and become a lot more perceptive and confident. So he does what any smart cookie would do in this predicament — he tilts up his chin, squares his shoulders, and straight up stabs Satan in the guts the second he gets a chance.
Said chance arises after Cas uses Lucifer’s powers to escape, and allows Lucifer to think they’re on the same side against a bigger problem. We know it didn’t actually kill him, but the intention was there. Between Sam and Rowena’s shared torture and this victorious act of cold-blooded vengeance, the idea of a redeemable Lucifer slips away to nearly nothing — and thank God for that. It’s all too easy in TV-land to allow an enemy to become an anti-hero as the enormity of their crimes slips away into fiction, but not this time.
Lucifer has been trying hard to make both the audience and the characters forget how evil he is, but the more that we’re reminded of his violation of our heroes, the more shallow his attempts at humanization become, and the more the narrative will absolutely forbid any more chances for him. The only question now is who will get to land the killing blow: Sam, Rowena, Castiel, or Jack.
‘Getting beat up by a girl — that’s a story I wanna tell someone.’ ‘Girls beat us up all the time.’ ‘Mmm. True.’
I just really love this moment because it proves the growth of the show. After Dean’s comment, I did an involuntary sharp intake of breath, ready to object aloud to this absolutely nonsensical statement, but instead, Sam does it for me, deepening the moment to something much less offhand.
Instead of problematic, it’s a demonstration of how Dean may still have a few go-to visceral hang-ups: he still sometimes automatically spouts the John-Winchester-mandated ideals of manhood, but they don’t truly reflect his beliefs, and they don’t reflect the liberal worldview of the show. Sam’s call-out, and Dean’s agreement, is a subtextual message about how much Supernatural itself has learned from its unconsciously misogynistic mistakes, and how it continues to improve as an environment for women.
‘I know what Rowena is dealing with. And she’s not the only one who feels helpless.’
Getting literal about power for a minute: I have longed for Sam to embrace magic in a more serious way, and Rowena could be the right teacher to help him channel that — or to encourage him to tap into his psychic powers once more, with or without demon blood. There’s an easy and thematically appropriate fix to their disappearance, and it is called repression.
If one drop of blood in childhood gave Sam abilities akin to plenty of the natural and non-evil physics we’ve met over the years, then no amount of detox is going to truly purge the power that the gallons he drank in season 4 gave him. They’re gone because he repressed them away, because he believed himself to be wrong and evil and unclean. Given his connection to both Rowena and Jack, aiding their development of power, it’s only fitting.
It could be the ultimate closure for him, taking that “original sin,” the one that placed him in Lucifer’s path, and using it very literally to empower himself. Or he could go full Dark Willow… either way, I bet you Rowena will be there by his side. Here, just from the eye contact Sam gave Rowena when extracting the Black Grimoire from her grasp, I knew for sure that he’d slipped her the spell she needed.
I do believe that Rowena has changed — that she started changing a long time ago — and this release of her true natural powers (the truth will set you free) is not exactly framed as a corruption or a threat. What she truly wants, aside from protection, we don’t yet know — perhaps she’ll end up taking over Hell, and keep the demons in line — but I think we’ll see her helping Sam to feel less powerless, in the same way that he’s helped her.
Sam doesn’t open up to Dean here about his real damage quite as much as he did to Rowena, but the surface is, at the very least, scraped. The threat of Lucifer is going to draw something big out of Sam, very soon. Whether that’s emotional or paranormal — or both — I can’t wait to find out. It’s about damn time.