Supernatural 12.2 “Mamma Mia” Review

Welcome to my regularly scheduled review of the latest Supernatural episode! As usual, SPOILER ALERT.

 

This week, my biggest hope was that Sammy not think he was alone anymore. When we left him last week, I felt bad for him. I wanted to cry for him. He seemed so hopeless there at the end, sleeping sitting up in a cold basement.

When we joined him, I’ve heard reports there was some confusion. Having seen the teaser trailers for this week, I assumed it was all a trick and worked on that assumption. Tricky, Accent. Tricky. I mean it’s pretty clear to me at this point you can only attract Winchesters with honey. The rest is a bloody mess. Also, is it just me, or does Sam have an active fantasy life involving British chicks? 

 

So, anyhow, let’s leave Sam here, undergoing some easy torture.

I was #mega excited to see Ruth’s name in the credits. Some of you may not like her, but I just adore both Ruth and Rowena. She’s got to be my favorite foil since Crowley became more friend than enemy. I like her better than Lucifer, even. (blasphemy? Maybe.) So here’s the poor girl, trying to get her life back together, when who should appear but her ungrateful son, the demon. She gave me a good chuckle when she told Crowley she loved that guy she was talking to. Give me a break, Rowena. You do not.

I thought Crowley’s plan a bit foolish, but it was so nice to see him being Crowley again. King of Hell with a capital K. Smooth talking, smooth planning King of the Crossroads, I was nonetheless nervous for him when Luci walked into the room. Proven right, I was not surprised to see him tuck tail once again and run. I think he’ll need the help of a couple humans called Winchester to win this battle.

Speaking of Luci, let’s discuss him a bit, shall we? There’s a pocket of the fandom who want no one else than Mark Pellegrino to play Lucifer. I understand that. He’s my favorite screen Lucifer of all time. No one could possibly measure up. Misha came close, but I really don’t envision ever having a more favorite Lucifer. Prior to Mark, Peter Stormare in “Constantine” was my favorite. I think it’s the sass. And no one delivers that sass the way Mark does.

So when Rick Springfield was tapped as the next vessel, there were those in the fandom who resisted. But let’s be honest, we had to get a new vessel. Lucifer already mentioned he’d have to get a new one when he and Sam spoke in season 11’s “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”. The Nick vessel is no longer available, unless God rebuilds it. Which just isn’t going to happen anytime soon. He’s busy rebuilding Gabriel, one hopes.

The new vessel, a stronger one than the ones he’s been burning through, turns up in rocker Vince Vincente, played by Rick Springfield. No, he’s not Alice Cooper. He’s the guy that did “Jesse’s Girl’, for one. He’s also done some acting in things like General Hospital and True Detective. I went into it with an open mind. One, we don’t know how long he’ll be the vessel, so we might have to like him for a while. Two, no one is going to be Mark, OK? No one. Open minded as I can be, I will say my opinion is that Rick’s acting is good. It’s good, solid acting. The level I’ve come to expect from Supernatural. But is he our Luci?

No, he isn’t.

I’m not trying to bad mouth the guy. Like I said, the acting is good. But he is not our Lucifer. We’ve seen three different Lucifers (right? Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. Besides the visions.), and they all align. Memory refresh- Mark, Misha, and Jared have all played Lucifer. They’ve all been their own Lucifer, but they’ve all also had something at the core of them that was the same. Some sort of confidence maybe. Not a style, a feeling. That, no matter how much I wanted it to be there, is missing from Rick’s performance. But in the scenes he shared with Ruth, she elevated him. It’s good they’re together. Also, it was wonderful to see the wings of an archangel. I was a little intimidated.

Enough about them all. Let’s get back to our boys.

Sam’s reaction when Dean was pulled around the corner was perfect. So happy to see him, relieved he’s not alone, and the hint of another problem solved for the moment. Miss Lady Bitch underestimated Sam once again, though, when she thought hurting Dean would get Sam to talk. I’m willing to bet it would have taken a lot more than she was prepared to do. Sam knows Dean is tough. He can handle a little pain. He’s been to Hell, too. Pain is nothing new. And when Mary turned up? Pfft. You might think you have a handle on the situation when you have two Winchesters tied up in your basement (you don’t), but three in the same room?

Ha. Haha. Hahahahahaha. No.

It was nice they threw in that little reminder that Dean is smarter than he looks. I love it so much when they do that. He’s not just a monkey with a gun, he’s not a tool. He’s a smart man with a strong arm. He’s all superhero, all the time. He’s Batman.

Now, this new Man of Letters who let the Winchesters go? Too nice to be real, or live long. I don’t trust him, but I will tell you what part of the story he’s serving. You’re not going to like it. He’s there to show Miss Lady Bitch the error of her ways. He’s there to plant the seed of doubt in her head that maybe she shouldn’t make enemies of the Winchesters. And when he dies, she is going to switch sides. She will be a Winchester ally by the end of the season. Maybe even mid-season. Yes, we’re going to have to put up with them getting along. Which is OK with me. She can have Sam, Sam needs somebody strong.

Side note: Dean has Amara, so don’t ask. As I’ve said before, he’s always been at least a little in love with the Darkness. Now she is real, and she gave him his mom back. When he dies, he will go to her without a moment of hesitation. Will the writers do that? Will we see it happen? Probably not. But that doesn’t make it less true.

At any rate, who isn’t just in love with Samantha Smith at this point? Now I know where Dean gets his sassy mouth. His attitude. His humor, even. Sam and John always butted heads because Sam was just like him. Dean is his mother’s child. I don’t know about you but I think it’s perfect the way they’ve written that. But when she said, “he was a GREAT father”, it was a little awkward. Just a bit. There are a few things she needs to catch up on.

I took part in a conversation on facebook earlier today about the episode. The conversation started when someone said they found it a bit jarring that we went directly from the basement reunion to dinner. They felt maybe we got cheated out of Sam and Mary’s reunion. I countered with what I imagine happened between the two scenes. First, we don’t need to watch Dean and Sam hug again. Sam thought he was dead, he’s not, now everyone knows, we can move on. Second, I feel the writers skipped those scenes because we didn’t need to be a part of them. Pretty much what happened, as I imagine it:

Dean tells Sam what happened in the garden with Chuck and Amara, Dean tells Sam about what happened when he stumbled upon Mary, Dean tells Sam about hunting him down. Sam tells Dean about the British Men of Letters. They arrive at the bunker, Sam takes a shower, Mary orders dinner. All the while, Sam staring at his mother, as she aptly put it, “Like [she’s] going to explode”.

I feel the scene we saw in Mary’s room was in fact their first real conversation. The first time he hugged her. He has 33 years worth of issues to dig through. Breaking the ice was not going to come easy, but it made me cry all the tears when he did.

Dean looking at pictures, including a picture of the boys with Bobby, reminded me I hadn’t cried all the tears yet.

It’s going to be a rough road this season, but it’s off to a great beginning.