Supernatural, Episode 280 “Devil’s Bargain”
Written by Eugenie Ross-Leming & Brad Buckner
Directed by Eduardo Sánchez
Then: Apocalypse dimension Michael tells Lucifer he might go to the Fallen Angel’s world and then takes some of Lucifer’s grace. The Devil escapes Michael and his cronies and returns to his rightful dimension, but is captured by Asmodeus. Lucifer and Castiel (who was also captured) escape, while Jack has transported to the Apocalypse reality where he finds Mary Winchester being tortured. Lucifer asks Cas if he can eat a little of his grace.
Now: Castiel stumbles through the woods, spitting blood, remembering he stabbed Lucifer. The screen goes black and the picture returns as one boy looks to show a friend the dead body he has found. Cas opens his eyes, frightens the boys off, and returns to where he stabbed the Prince of Darkness, but there’s no body. In Monroe City, Missouri, a young woman clumsily skates on the sidewalk, barely avoiding all pedestrians, though she gets too close to a baker, who drops his cake to save her from a nasty fall. A bald man smiles upon the smitten couple, until a hand grabs his shoulder and spins him around. Lucifer says, “Nice job. A very happy beginning. Right, Cupid?” Cue opening title card.
This has a lot going on, with nothing truly resolved, though each scene moves every story forward. Lucifer is hungry for grace, and for food, because in his diminished state he’s now feeling cold, hungry, and other uncomfortable human senses. He has to resort to panhandling and it goes exactly as one would expect. He gets the idea to beg for change by watching a young man named Gabriel do the same, but for entirely different reasons. It’s from Gabriel that Lucifer learns about Sister Jo, and she’s a very important character for everyone in this episode. The scenes between Lucifer and Jo are outstanding, bordering on erotic, but in a very one sided way.
The Winchester boys finally come up with a plan to get mother Mary, but it’s not exactly perfect. The biggest difficulty is that they need to open a portal. They have a very interesting artifact to get them there, they believe, but they need a familiar face to help them use it. While that fun character clucks over the artifact, Sam, Dean, and Cas want to find the weakened Lucifer and kill him. When they go to where he will be they instead encounter Alexander Ketch, who’s been hired by Asmodeus to kill the Devil. David Haydn-Jones appears all too briefly in the episode, but when he’s on the screen his evil and humor are undeniable. Asmodeus has three scenes and is best with the character back at the compound helping the boys.
Regarding Sister Jo, Danneel Ackles is great, and I’m not spoiling beyond what I’ve already stated.
The episode ends with an important relic coming to light, as well as the individual who’s supposedly going to wield it, while Lucifer makes a deal and ends in a very unique position. Just when you thought things couldn’t get more complicated for the heroes…
The good: The script by Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner is terrific, with Mark Pellegrino getting some fantastic lines which he delivers flawlessly, David Haydn-Jones, Danneel Ackles, and the double cliffhanger involving infamous supernatural characters.
Fun lines: “Lucifer! Where are you?!”, “Accidents can happen,” “It’s your vibe,” “Epically,” “Star power. Can’t fight it,” “I like that plan,” “Does anybody fact check this stuff?”, “Yo! Yo!”, “Guess,” and “Hail to the King, baby.”
The bad: The first killing broke my heart, not enough Haydn-Jones, and the relic reveal at the end did come off too quickly and too forced. However, these are minor nicks.
The final line: This would not be a good first episode for newcomers, but for long times fans this episode is Heaven. There are plenty of terrific moments and lines, with a lot of characters in action and moving about. Overall grade: A-
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