[This is a review of Supernatural season 11, episode 3. There will be SPOILERS.]
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I think there should be a support group for all of the babies who quickly grew up into young adults (mostly women) with ungodly powers on science fiction and fantasy shows. It's a tired trope that is being visited here in season 11 of Supernatural. But at least Amara is interesting, and downright menacing.
Crowley picked her up at the close of the last episode with the promise of fresh souls to eat, and through the course of 'The Bad Seed,' it seems she developed a taste for demons as well. He has visions of ruling the world by her side, but "The Darkness" is clearly a primal force on par with God. So the King of Hell is in far over his head on this one, and he doesn't even know it. And based on the closing moments, he may be about to find out.
Amara took another age jump and now looks like she's entering her rebellious "teenage" years. "I'm hungry," she declares. And when Crowley tries to divert her, she simply repeats it more emphatically. Crowley is used to being able to control and manipulate things, but Amara may prove beyond his grasp. Mark Sheppard continues to absolutely kill it as Crowley; a villain so deliciously duplicitous you can't help but love him, even as he's betraying the Winchesters over and over again. I'm actually worried for him here, though, as Amara could well kill him. Every time I see his name in the opening credits as a well-earned regular cast-member, I want to applaud.
And while I'd like to say they wouldn't kill him, we've lost beloved cast-members before, including Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver), who was easily the third-most popular character on the show before Castiel (Misha Collins) showed up. The Winchesters may be safe -- and now Castiel -- but there's no guarantees for anyone else. Plus, that would be a major death that could rock this show to the core.
I loved Amara telling Crowley that his visions of a world consumed by evil were short-sighted. She is thinking so beyond good and evil, but what is she thinking? Would she just wipe out humanity, demons and angels altogether? They do seem to be her major food source.
On a lighter note, I find myself falling more and more in love with Rowena as well. A lot of that has to do with Ruth Connell's smart and funny portrayal, but it also has so much to do with her flaws. Crowley succeeds because he fumbles and screws up, making him all the more human even as he's the "King of Hell." Rowena is an incredibly powerful witch in her own right, but she's also rather insecure. Every time she tried to recruit another witch into her "mega-coven," I wanted to laugh right along with those witches. What a ridiculous name, and yet she was innocently so proud of it. She's naive about the ways of the modern world, but she has her own agenda and is determined to survive in it. She's clearly not the bigger threat right now with Amara on the loose, but I like her out there trying to create her "mega-coven."
It was a little disappointing that the curse on Castiel was lifted so quickly. It reminded me a lot of last season, when Dean's "curse" was removed so early in the season, too. Yes, there was residual fallout, but nevertheless it was about this same time last year that a main character who'd been turned evil was set right in a rather abrupt way. I get that this show has tread familiar ground over and over again, and we are basically dealing with two guys fighting the forces of evil, with angels and demons running around. Some familiarity is to be expected, but don't set up the same essential arc and just slot a different character into that role.
Beyond that, it's disappointing when an interesting challenge for all of the characters (like evil Dean or cursed Castiel) is wrapped in in three or four episodes. It's a long season, so why not play with it a little more? We know it's going to work out in the end, so what's interesting is the journey. So stop cutting that short.
Again following a somewhat familiar formula, next week is another of the lighter episodes of the show ... or at least it's being promoted that way. Entitled 'Baby,' it's the long-awaited (was it?) episode focusing on Dean's beloved '67 Impala.
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Supernatural continues next Wednesday with ‘Baby’ @9pm on The CW. Check out a preview below: