SPN 5.20 - Was this back or forward?
I had mixed feelings about this episode, as it provided some new twists and character development but it also seemed to leave too much unexplained. Devil You Know underscored a growing problem in the series. By making Sam and Dean potential vessels, this has taken a lot of the agency out of Sam and Dean's hands. Particularly for Dean, who is less contemplative and more action oriented, this is a poor fit. If the writers’ response to the “waiting for things to happen” dilemma had been addressed by having Sam and Dean learn new ways to fight, learn new skills, partner more with other human allies, etc., it could have defused the way both have become corks bobbing on the water who get scooped up by first one, and then another player, for their own ends. Instead the show could have demonstrated their growth as hunters and people.
But what we’ve been given is a continual deus-ex-machina in the form of angels or demons. With Castiel out of the picture, we had Gabriel hand them solutions in the last episode. Now with him dead we have Crowley return with the information they need, and a supposedly similar agenda. This means that Sam and Dean once again don’t know what’s going on, they’re just being led through the motions by someone else. And what’s worse, we don’t get any explanation in this episode of why Dean would suddenly do an about face and act as if neither brother has learned anything from the whole Ruby experience.
Let’s Start With the Good
(1) Having Mark Sheppard back as Crowley is definitely of the good. The character was intriguing in his first appearance, and the actor always brings something to the various shows in which he appears. At this point there must be a 6 Degrees game of Mark Sheppard.
(2) A decent explanation for how Crowley could find them. It’s not just the idea of the magical tracking device, which I could see the wily Crowley engaging in even if he had no further use for the Winchesters. I also liked the idea of him using it for intel. A guy like Crowley wouldn’t get where he did without using everyone in his path, and information in life and death situations is gold (even more so than toilet paper, sorry Chuck).
His explanation that he’s been in hiding is convenient, but also believable. By spreading rumors that Sam and Dean could pick up on, surely every demon out there would also know where the Colt came from. No one around Lucifer would have been pleased by this. Yet the recent twist of their hunting the Horsemen rings would have given him the motivation to take some new risks. It remains to be seen how much of anything Crowley is telling them is true, but at least the story is consistent.
(3) Sam. Although I haven’t been happy with what I consider a poorly developed arc in regards to Sam and Dean’s relationship this season, between the two I think Sam has been the one most consistently written. In part this is because Sam has simply had less to do, as Dean continues to get handed most of the dialogue and thus development with most of the other characters.
However, Sam’s arc of redemption has been pretty clear starting in 5.01 and it reached a peak in 5.18 where his consistency in trying to do the right thing culminated in treating Dean inversely to how he himself was treated last season. In the last episode, we saw how the two were working out being real partners, just as Dean acknowledged at the end of 5.18 that they must become.
In Bobby’s case, we see a clear set up for the end of the episode. He has nothing to offer Sam about Dean’s behavior other than that they’re desperate enough to take risks. This is true, and in Bobby’s case, his behavior is consistent. After all, in 4.21 he told Dean that perhaps they should trust Sam and release him from the panic room. In S4 Lilith's breaking of the seals was at least as important as stopping Lucifer now that he’s out. One of the dramatic problems with S4 was that Lilith was such a non-entity, with most of the seal breaking occurring offscreen and sometimes not even being referred to. This absence of tension made Sam’s decisions and anxiety about stopping her more about his own personality, when in truth it was a crisis that both he and Dean were morally obligated to stop. In a way, it was as if Sam and Dean were in separate shows last season, with much of what Sam was going through occurring on an unaired series.
However, in S5 the apocalypse storyline has been fairly consistent and the costs of it have been more prominent. We can better understand why the characters might take desperate risks. So when Bobby says that they’ve got no other options, it’s easier to see where he’s coming from, even though he felt the same way at the end of S4. So what are we to take from Sam’s use of alcohol in this scene?
In Bobby’s case (and in Dean’s in the past) it has signaled despair. We can understand why Sam would feel it here. Despite what he thought and what Dean had said, he’s suddenly dumped their partnership with no good explanation. He’s heading down a path Sam himself knows quite well, and which he rightfully fears is likely to be a bad idea. They know nothing about Crowley, and he’s done less for them than Ruby did. After all, in her first big gesture to them in Sin City, she too “brought” them the Colt (and through Bobby, whose opinion on her we never did get. However, this past event where he worked with her again lends continuity to his behavior here).
Although Bobby and Sam have often had transactional chats on the show – in which they discuss case issues and propose actions (which they are doing here as well) -- rarely have their talks had a serious emotional component. One exception I can recall, is in 3.01 when Sam talks to Bobby as he researches demon deals. It was an expositional talk for purposes of setting up the season, but it was also one where the two were connecting over an issue of concern to them both. I remember back then I’d expected to see much more of them working together over S3, but it hardly happened.
Yet here, Sam is finally talking to Bobby about himself, as much as Dean or the case. This is without doubt the most important scene the two have ever shared, in one of the most important episodes for Sam in any season. We see “thinking Sam” in action here, pondering an issue that we last saw months ago. He doesn’t mention that John, too, broke Azazel’s hold on him for a few moments, but there would be no reason to since John isn’t around for Sam to consult. But I’m going to give Sam the benefit of the doubt and assume he hasn’t forgotten that it’s not just a “one in a million” occurrence. Back in Children Are Our Future, he and Dean heard yet another story of a human taking control from a demon in a situation where the human was in a state of extreme agony. So I think Sam is on the right track pursuing this line of thought.
The important phrase is Sam’s “not unless we all agree” – the very opposite of what Dean has just done. It’s easy to see Sam’s suggestion of luring Lucifer as a rerun of his S4 overconfidence. But Bobby’s rejoinder to him is exactly what he needs to hear: “You of all people ought to know.” Sam isn’t just taken over by the need for demon blood, he was possessed himself and nearly killed his brother with hardly any memory of the fact, and no apparent control over it – something which has always gone unexplained and unexplored. Given Sam’s fears that season about turning evil, you’d have thought that an up-close-and-personal encounter with real evil controlling him would have been a wake-up call. Its fallout was worth exploring in future episodes. But this was, like some other Sam issues, a dropped thread in S2.
Bobby's main concern is “You can’t even control yourself.” Sam takes that to heart. He’s sorely tested in this episode, but succeeds in holding himself back – temporarily at least. Bobby’s not wrong, Sam’s got a lot of weaknesses. But Sam’s testing himself, and at least in this episode, he passed. But the fact that he’s drinking all through that call? It does not bode well.
We also get an interesting piece of back story of Sam’s time in Stanford. Brady would have become his best friend during their freshman year, since he was possessed a year later. Sam met Jessica either then or, likely, in his junior year after Brady’s first efforts to corrupt Sam failed. And Sam apparently spent a good deal of time trying to get his friend back on track. I’m guessing he must have partially succeeded if Brady finally graduated and spent time moving up in the corporate world, although rising to such a position in a big pharmaceutical company is unlikely in just five years (particularly since Brady would have graduated with only a bachelor's degree). We'll have to assume major demon interference for some time.
One thing I thought was a little off there was how Brady called him Sammy. Certainly he would have gone by only Sam in college, so I’m supposing the demons appropriated his family name.
I’m also guessing, given Crowley’s story about their being lovers and his reference to “Something else we have in common, apart from our torrid passion, of course, craven self-preservation” that demon Brady at least, was likely to be hooking up with someone besides “bitches and drugs.” Otherwise, Crowley’s story wouldn’t have been all that credible, and Brady would have known it.
(4) Sam takes revenge on Jessica’s killer. Of course, they thought they had done this back when Dean shot Azazel. But in the final moment, Dean had called that for Mary. Here, Sam finally ends his quest (even if he didn’t know it before) by taking down Jess’ killer. Although it’s certainly not as triumphant as the S2 finale, I did like that she got her own moment of justice. I also think that this was meaningful largely for Sam’s development. When he first set out from Stanford with Dean, he could have never guessed where his search would end. (Side note: we don’t know where they are, we’ll have to assume Nevada – although having been in west Nevada, it’s not too much to assume Crowley had them double back into California, perhaps not that far from Stanford). But one thing is clear, and that’s that Sam is more sure of who he is now than he ever was before. Stanford was always, in some way, a lie. Is this Sam largely the truth? He srrmd better able to sift the truth from his own fears, but is this the end of part of Sam's arc, or is he still lying to himself, but in different ways?
Also, from a series standpoint, since it’s been suggested that S6 will start with a fresh slate, I’m glad that having Jess’ storyline tied up here is part of that.
(5) Calling people on their BS. One thing that always irritates me in scripts is when one character begins acting as if the other character has no memory and isn’t likely to defend themselves when accused of things. There were several such moments here that forestalled this problem. The first was when Sam puts the blame for Jo and Ellen’s deaths on Crowley. As Crowley shoots back, that was hardly his decision. I appreciated this in particular, because back in my review of that episode, I pointed out that it makes no sense that Sam and Dean would be working with any partners at this point because Sam and Dean themselves are (in the short term) immortal, whereas no one else is. They are thus at little risk themselves in any mission they take on, but everyone else around them is. It also, to my mind, hangs a lantern on the fact that Ellen and Jo were in that episode for the sole purpose of dying.
Another example, is when Bobby tells Sam that they just talked Dean down from the ledge, why is Sam now volunteering to jump? This brings a nice sense of continuity to bear, as well as highlighting where Sam’s head is here, despite what he says.
Lastly, and most critically, Sam asks Dean how his behavior is different from Sam’s with Ruby. This similarity is highlighted from the very first scene with Crowley where he tells Dean to call off his dog, echoing Ruby telling Sam to put a leash on Dean in Malleus (another Edlund episode). It continues throughout the episode, including how Sam is sitting on a bed, waiting for the sound of a car, much as Dean ended up doing when Sam kept sneaking out on him in S4. In fact, several pieces of the story echo Malleus in Ruby's behavior compared to Crowley's (more on that later).
Unfortunately, Dean never answers Sam's challenge about Ruby, which leads us to…
And then there’s the rest
(1) Ben Edlund has a tendency to write well paced scripts that can make a point without being clumsy, and often have a pivotal emotional moment that makes it memorable. Usually when it comes to structure, he’s pretty good, and I think that this episode holds together pretty well on this front (unlike the anything but seamless MBV).
But while I understood Dean and Sam’s turn to partnering with the gods in the last episode, this episode title would have been a lot more fitting there. Aside from Gabriel being very much “the devil they know,” they were in a crisis situation with one concern only – escape (and freedom for the human hostages). They were not engaging in any kind of long-term partnership (although, as I mentioned in comments later, the idea of bringing in other gods on either side of the apocalypse throughout the season would have been a more interesting idea than the ham-handed use of them in just one episode).
Here, however, the episode title highlights the central problem with Dean’s actions. He doesn’t know anything about Crowley other than that he gave them the Colt, which didn’t work in assaulting Lucifer (and still no talk about angel swords!) Why would Dean trust him now? Unlike in the last episode, Sam and Dean could walk away at any time, and neither they nor any hostages are in immediate danger. Crowley is asking them to play a medium-range game, not proposing a short alliance. Why would Dean go along with this?
Dean’s shocked that Crowley killed the security guards. As Crowley said, “Now you’re squeamish?” What else did he expect? Ruby once took a dead body to appease Sam. She helped him rescue humans from possession with his powers, saving their lives. She killed possessed humans to save Sam and Dean, but we didn't see her kill humans for her own purposes (though she never suggested she wouldn’t). Crowley hasn’t made one concession to either of the Winchesters yet. What is Dean thinking? Why is he not making demands? Instead, he meekly goes up in the elevator alone, just as Crowley is changing the plan on him, essentially delivered to a floor full of demons with no idea what’s going on. What?
I understand things from Crowley’s perspective. Sure, it was a good idea to get Dean to present a tempting target by being clearly misinformed. But the execution made no sense. What made him think Dean would be able to escape back into the lobby where Crowley was waiting? Why would Crowley’s presence not trigger all sorts of demon warnings in the building while Dean was up there spinning his story? Couldn’t Crowley just teleport up to Brady’s office and hood him while Dean was still talking? It’s not like we saw any evidence of Brady’s bodyguards.
However, Brady being the target certainly explains why Crowley didn’t want Sam involved and concentrated on Dean. I’m not convinced Crowley went anywhere to confront other demons, but instead was putting on a performance for both Brady and Sam and Dean (who, for obvious reasons, would not react well to hellhounds, and would instead react as believably as Dean had earlier).
And yet the moment when Dean (literally) puts the brakes on the plan is when Crowley tells him they can’t join Sam? And then, given what Dean knows about Sam, he brings Brady to him anyway. First he cuts Sam out when there’s no need to, and then he inexplicably brings him back in when he knows what the stakes are? Crowley’s supposed to be mysterious and villainous, yet he's easier to understand than Dean. He may be lying about his motivations regarding Lucifer, but it’s a believable lie.
On the one hand, Dean tells Sam that he wanted to trust him and that’s why he brought Brady there. We could see this as a reversal of what Sam did with Dean, trusting him to overcome his despair and stick with the plan. Here Dean trusts Sam to overcome his anger and stick with the plan. However, it still begs the question of why Dean didn’t trust Sam’s instincts in the first place when Sam mistrusted Crowley. And if, in the end, it turns out that Dean was right to do so, it’ll even further beg the question of why what Sam did was at all wrong. By going along with Crowley, two innocent people were killed in the Brady raid. How is that less wrong than Sam draining a possessed nurse to kill Lilith? I'm not clear if it was the writers' intention, but this episode ends up reversing any moral ground Dean had about Sam's decisions in S4.
Indeed, when Sam asks why Dean trusts Crowley, he mentions how he had trusted Brady in college. This underlines the idea that Sam and Dean can really only trust one another – something Dean isn’t actually doing here. Thus I think it’s also symbolic that (absent a panic room) Sam locks Dean in the bathroom when he goes off to deal with Brady. With Dean partially backsliding, Sam does as well.
(2) The spread of the Croatoan virus did not make a whole lot of sense.
Let’s start with the scene in the hospital. It explains that Pestilence has been spreading swine flu and we get the somewhat anvilicious discussion of the need for a vaccine. In general, this is a good idea – topical, recent, and it hints at controversy to come over the issue of vaccination which is now (in the U.S.) a flash point of controversy and a rather dangerous urban myth.
That SPN would run with the dark side of this myth is understandable. That’s what the show’s about – making those urban myths literal. So here we’re supposed to understand that the disease is just a Trojan horse for the virus – that the real purpose is to infect massive numbers of people through widespread distribution of a deadly “vaccine.”
Unfortunately, the opening scene made this plan completely incomprehensible. Presumably one of the lab techs was shot full of the virus, leading to an instantaneous reaction. I don’t think I’m reaching in saying that the first time this vaccine was administered anywhere, people would stop administering it when the first recipient started tearing other people apart. This may be a dramatic moment, but it rather undermines the whole stealth vaccine issue.
Let’s say though that the vaccine has lower doses resulting in a longer gestation period (I think, in The End, Dean mentioned it took about a day or so to reach full power, although symptoms could be seen in a few hours). This would still lead to the vaccine being withdrawn pretty quickly, particularly since, not mentioned although true in the case of any vaccine, is that health workers will be the first to be inoculated. This means that within a day there would be no one to administer the vaccine leading to a complete breakdown in treatment, since health workers would become the first to be infected. And even if they hadn’t, the cause for a sudden burst of homicidal behavior would be traced pretty quickly.
Perhaps, though, it would be enough that pockets of the virus would develop all over the country simultaneously. As we know, five years later, there’s still quite a few people who managed to avoid it. And certainly knocking out the health care system by infecting all health care workers would be a pretty deep first blow. I like this idea of taking down the system rather than the population, since it spreads panic and leads to a collapse in social order.
However, I wonder how many people would have gathered this from seeing the episode. Too much of this is implied rather than spelled out. Instead, we have an expensive scene of Sam and Dean in the hospital making inexplicable comments about crying statues when the same information could have been conveyed in the Impala with Sam reading a news report. Indeed, the next scene with Bobby would have been enough to set up the storyline. At least it did give us our sole female speaking part during the episode though.
I did like the swipe at Big Pharma in the opening scene. There’s not many people who will feel any sympathy for them, although obviously any real criticism can be obscured because they’ve been taken over by demons.
(3) The blood cup form of communication is an interesting callback but I have to wonder why cell phones wouldn’t be more convenient. Back when Meg first used it in S1, it made sense if she had been communicating with someone in hell. I mean, even if you’re only in NY you have problems with getting a connection (especially if you’re on AT&T). Later though, we discovered she’d been communicating with Azazel, who wasn’t in hell either. I can only guess, given that we always hear only one end of the conversation, that the blood serves to open a sort of telepathy between sender and receiver. I find this concept rather interesting, considering how demons and angels need humans to operate on a number of levels. They are, in fact, the bridge between the lower and higher orders.
But, you know, those cups are clumsy to travel with and there isn’t always a victim handy when you want one. I still think cell phones have them beat.
(4) The Brady Twist. On the one hand, it was interesting to see the writers go back to an idea that had been there since the first drafts of the SPN pilot. The original idea had been that Jessica would be the one possessed, because Kripke wanted Sam to have been spied on by the demons the whole time. Presumably, part of this came from the idea, which was fleshed out in the comics, that the Winchesters had been hunted by demons since Mary’s death. Thus John’s paranoia was simply a justified fear of losing Sam to them at some point.
Since Kripke decided to instead use Jessica’s death to launch Sam back into the business, the writers have apparently decided to utilize a close friend for the role. Brady serves the convenient purpose in this episode of creating a figure that would galvanize, as Bobby listed, Sam’s fear, grief and rage all in one go, while targeting the chinks in his armor, namely his fear of himself.
It also makes sense that someone who was apparently in on the Lucifer plan from the start would still be around, playing an important role now. Also, given that he’s afraid he’s going to be killed no matter what happens, Brady has every reason to provoke Sam into doing so as it will likely be quicker than what he’d face at his bosses’ hands.
However, what I don’t like about this storyline is that it seems love is always twisted and unreal in the SPN verse – unless it’s the one between Sam and Dean. Although Jessica remains innocent (a position that was forced on her, ironically, by both the demons and Sam), their relationship is now as tainted by manipulation as John and Mary’s was by the angels. I really don't care for this overtone in the SPN verse.
Also, what was the purpose of killing Brady off so quickly? They trusted him to deliver Pestilence? Granted, his usefulness would probably be over after that, but why not keep him around to see?
Lastly, I can understand the purpose of Sam killing Brady rather than trying to save him. Chances are the real Brady would have been long dead without the demon maintaining his body. They can’t afford to just let the demon go by exorcising him to find out. But I did think it was off that a person who Sam was once so close to, and who, through no fault of his own, has been forced to endure years of horror even worse than what Sam has been through, should be someone he walks away from just like that. There was no moment of saying goodbye to the real friend, or closing his eyes, and he just left the body in a rainy alley. If Sam blames himself for Jessica’s death, he surely now blames himself for Brady’s as well. I can’t tell if the absence of any tenderness on his part is supposed to be saying something about Sam, or it just underscores the continual indifference by the writers to possessed bodies unless it’s convenient for story purposes.
(5) “We’re the ones you should be afraid of.” Um, not based on this episode anyway, nor a lot of others. As I said at the start of this essay, everything that happens in this episode puts the lie to that. All the events are manipulated by Crowley. Sam and Dean are as well. And the experience may have just highlighted to them that they’re not as united a front as they thought. When Brady asks why Sam allowed demons to whisper in his ear over and over again, it seemed to me pretty clear that he no longer does – and yet, Dean seems to think that his own judgment is different.
Of course, the show could actually be creating an intentional dichotomy here, showing how Dean’s the one who’s deluded these days – about himself and about Sam and what they can accomplish. I guess that will remain to be seen.
Questions Not Particularly Answered
1) It struck me in the last episode where Crowley appeared, that he was “the boss” spoken of by the crossroads demons. While Lilith might hold the contracts, we know that Crowley makes them. There’s certainly no indication that Lilith herself was out making deals, but given her power, there’s no reason that she couldn’t take ownership of them after the fact.
This explanation also suggests why Crowley might have become Bela’s lover, as we could certainly understand why he, as the boss of CRDs, would be someone she would try to ingratiate herself with. Perhaps she could even have broken her contract had Lilith not come along. Plenty of reason for her to want to steal the Colt and give it to him, in hopes that he could kill Lilith before her time was up. It might also explain why she would have lied to Sam and Dean at the 11th hour, to send them after Lilith rather than Crowley, since she was the real problem.
Less clear then, is why Crowley seems to be coded as gay or bisexual. I didn’t think anything of it when he kissed the businessman in his first appearance, as I could certainly see him wanting to twist the knife. He was at the deal site primarily for the purpose of luring in Castiel and as far as we know, it's part of sealing any deal. However, in this episode we again see him bringing this issue forward by suggesting to Brady that he’s revealed that they are not just partners-in-crime, but lovers. Presumably, that would only be a useful tactic if it were understood that Crowley would be likely to have a male partner. The reference to having possessed a NY literary agent as well as his concern for haberdashery might have been additional nods in this direction.
However, I don’t understand the purpose of revealing this about the character since it doesn't seem to have any bearing on the storyline (unlike, say, Corbett). Where are they going with this? Edlund did something similar in Malleus when he suggests Ruby had a relationship with demon!Tammy. (He also had Dean tell Sam "I told you so" even though, as in this case, he was wrong in the short term, whereas here we have the reverse with Sam).
2) So War and Famine aren’t dead, but they’re simply out of commission? And if Brady isn’t lying, restoring their rings isn’t the key to putting them back in the game.
Other Bits
1) Dean is going to be so upset about the Impala’s upholstery after Sam put a hole in it and there was a bleeding body all over the backseat. 2) Aside from Sam’s reference to Meg in this episode, I at first wondered if Brady would be Meg. (Except there would be no reason for Sam to react any worse to her than Dean did). It did make me wonder why Meg was brought back at all, given her absence from a season where I expected (from her surprise appearance in 5.01) that she’d be seen repeatedly. 3) Nice touch of the body carved sigil. It’s a callback to Meg’s use of the binding symbol in S2, and also of Castiel carving himself one a few episodes ago. 4) I liked the touch of Sam knocking over the bottles in the scene where Dean pushes him away from Brady. That nicely underlined his call with Bobby. 5) Funny how abandoned houses always still have the water turned on. 6) “Get me out of here and I’ll tell you everything I know.” “Shut up.” Hee! 7) “I told you!””Well, good for yooouuu.” Hee! A wonderful sibling moment, that. 8) It was kind of interesting seeing the invisible hellhound fight, largely because this is what the actors always see – nothing, until the CGI is added later. 9) “Mine’s bigger.” Guess we’ll have to take your word for it – should we trust a demon? 10) Interesting mural choice for the final scene with Brady. 11) I really liked the staging of that final shot.