Supernatural S13E13 Review: Devil’s Bargain

Last night’s episode of Supernatural pushed our plot ahead nicely. We watched Lucifer regain his power, new alliances formed, and Asmodeus revealed his Ace in the hole.

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Every week Supernatural recaps the alternate universe happenings, but we don’t return to the alternate universe. While we didn’t actually return to the alternate world to check up on Jack and Mary, we did see some progress toward getting them back. We also were introduced to a new angel, Danneel Ackles’ Sister Jo, who aligns herself with Lucifer. Let’s take a deep dive into this week’s episode.

“Being human sucks.”

Lucifer has walked away from Castiel’s attack last week and finds himself in Monroe City, MO. There, he catches Cupid at the tail end of a matchmaking job. Lucifer wastes no time stealing Cupid’s grace and killing  him. Stealing Cupid’s grace is not enough, however, to bring him back to his full strength. He is still human. And being human comes with certain inconveniences. Like being hungry and cold. Lucifer, the ultimate evil being, is reduced to becoming a panhandler. As he’s begging for money, he meets a fellow homeless man. This man tells him he’s doing a bad job at panhandling, and putting off people. When he’s done, he packs up his money and invites Lucifer to get some food.

Lucifer is appalled when they don’t go in the restaurant to eat, rather go back to the dumpster to get food. He, comically, insists that they just take all that money the homeless man wants to use to fix his bum leg to get real food, because a doctor can’t fix his leg. The homeless man answers that he’s not going to a doctor, he’s going to see Sister Jo, a faith healer.

Lucifer’s reaction is just the same as mine. I literally just watched the first faith healer episode from season 1. So my brain has started turning to see how Sister Jo is actually healing these people. When the homeless man explains how Sister Jo heals, Lucifer and I come to the same conclusion at the same time: she’s an angel.

“Monumentally stupid.”

Oh look! It’s Asmodeus! We haven’t seen him since he kidnapped Cas and Lucifer. And look at that, it’s also Ketch. The British Man of Letters who no one asked to return. They’re debriefing after learning of Lucifer and Castiel’s escape. Ketch points out that it was a stupid idea to try and keep Lucifer prisoner. Asmodeus agrees. They come up with a plan for Ketch to go try and kill Lucifer while he is still in his weakened state.  And he should be successful, or else Lucifer will come back and kill them all.

“Buckets of chicken wings”

The Winchesters are very confused about how Cas could have been held captive by Asmodeus this whole time, yet they had just talked to him on the phone the day before. Cas catches the Winchesters up to speed on Michael, and Lucifer, and how Lucifer managed to jump dimensions. When Cas explains that other world Kevin Tran reading from the angel tablets is how Michael managed to open the portal, the boys come up with their own long shot plan.

Enter Donatello. Rather than reading from the angel tablet, which has been destroyed, Donatello needs to read from the demon tablet.

Castiel gets news of Lucifer from angel radio and he and The Winchesters rush off to track it down, leaving Donatello on his own, which was probably not the best idea. Asmodeus catches wind of the prophet and shape shifts into Castiel to confront him. Donatello is exiting the chicken wings store when Asmodeus finds him. Asmodeus commands him to inform him of everything he finds in the tablet.

“Should I quake?”

Lucifer tracks down Sister Jo and watches her do her thing. She lays her hands on the sick, and a bright light shines and the person is healed.

Yep, she’s an angel. And Lucifer wants her grace.

When they’re alone, Lucifer confronts Sister Jo about using her gifts for money. Sister Jo explains that she’s an excellent business woman. She learned very quickly after the fall that it’s expensive on Earth if you want to live a good life, so she started using her powers to earn money. And, being the good business woman that she is, she manages to negotiate Lucifer for her life. She offers to become his source of grace. Instead of taking all of her grace at one time, Lucifer will siphon some, let her replenish it, and then siphon again.

When she finds out Lucifer has already killed Cupid, she gets them out of there. By the time The Winchesters and Castiel show up, all they find is Ketch. Obviously they’re not happy to see him, and Castiel uses his powers to knock him out and they throw him in the trunk of the car before trying to track Lucifer and Sister Jo down.

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“Satan’s Gal Pal.”

The Winchesters find the pair holed up at a motel. Sam and Dean get Sister Jo out of the room, thinking they’re protecting her against Lucifer. Castiel recognizes her as a former button pusher in heaven. A nobody.  However, once they get into the room, they quickly learn that they were bamboozled. Lucifer is definitely not in a weakened state, and Sister Jo was definitely not a hostage.

Before escaping, Lucifer relishes in using his powers against The Winchesters and Cas. Just when hope seemed lost, Ketch comes in the room and tries to kill the angels, but instead, he helped facilitate their escape.

Ketch, The Winchesters and Cas resolve to work together after much convincing from Ketch. He also reveals that he’s been working with Asmodeus to try and gain the brothers’ trust. He finally convinces them by telling them not only will he have information, he’s also the “lesser of at least three evils.” Ha!

“Hail to the king, baby.”

Lucifer and Sister Jo go to the remaining angels for help. Naturally, they all want to kill Lucifer. However, he wins them over by telling them that he can replenish their numbers. But with a catch. He wants to be named undisputed ruler of heaven. Oh, and he’ll return their wings. The last scene of Lucifer in this episode is probably one of the best of this season so far. Lucifer is seated on the white throne in heaven, surrounded by kneeling angels, Sister Jo at his side. Amazing scene visually. Gave me goose bumps.

Ketch, meanwhile, is back with Asmodeus. He reports that Lucifer is back at full strength, but Asmodeus doesn’t seem worried. He opens up a cabinet and pulls out the archangel blade. The only way to kill an archangel. When Ketch points out only an archangel can wield the blade and kill another archangel, we get probably the best reveal all season. There, in Asmodeus’ dungeon is someone we have thought dead for seasons: Gabriel.

Performer of the Week.

Mark Pellegrino. Do I need to say more? He was amazing this week, just as he is every week he is on the show. He can do humor like nobody’s business. And he can do the pure evil of Lucifer effortlessly.

The scene where he panhandled is pure gold. The realization that he’s human and can feel all of these things he’s never had to deal with before was great. His quiet scenes in the bed with Sister Jo were also amazing. I’m personally hoping they boys don’t kill Lucifer this season, because I would love for Mark to stick around even more.

Next: Supernatural recap: Who is that in Asmodeus’ dungeon?

What did you think of last night’s episode? Do you think we’ll be seeing more of Danneel Ackles this season? Where has Gabriel been since we last saw him? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Supernatural returns on Mar. 1 at 8/7c on The CW.