Synopsis: “Four years ago, Sam and Dean helped a woman named Nora exorcise a demon that was systematically killing women in a small town. They managed to save the postal worker, Jeffrey, while vanquishing the demon but now it seems the black-eyed monster has reared his ugly head and returned for a second helping. The brothers visit Jeffrey, who has been locked in a psych ward since the incident, to see if he can remember any of the demon’s plans while he was possessed.”
If you have not seen this episode yet and do not wish to be spoiled, do not continue reading!
The opening of this episode could have been one of the lost episodes of season 3 due to the writers’ strike. It was neat to hear the Lilith shout out and remember that she had once plagued the boys minds in place of the Leviathan. Supernatural provided a strong opening. I mean that in both story and the brothers’ firmness toward the demon. They really roughed up the possessed Jeffrey’s body while trying to get information out of his possessor regarding its superiors and Lilith. They succeeded in their plan before sending the demon back to hell and dropping Jeffrey off at the local hospital before he bled out.
Once we got back into the present, we remember that the boys have been through a lot since the Lilith days. However, Sam and Dean do not let their current Leviathan task at hand interfere with noticing something was up in that town they visited four years earlier. Similar murders to the ones years ago have been occurring. Sam tells Dean that they need to check the place out because it was on them if they didn’t finish the job.
The Winchesters traveled to the town, but they were not alone. Well, Sam wasn’t alone anyway. Mark Pellegrino reprised his role of Lucifer by camping out in Sam’s noggin during the case. He has been around off camera for the entirety of the season, but he was strongly trying to get Sam to acknowledge him here. This was the highlight of the episode. Pellegrino’s performances as Lucifer have always exceeded expectations. This episode was no exception. His Lucifer was as sarcastic as ever and it really showed that Sam has been fighting hard to keep him out of his reality.
Outside of the actual case they are working, this episode strongly focuses on Sam’s dynamic with his scarred soul. There were many humorous scenes of Lucifer toying with Sam, like intentionally getting in Sam’s line of vision during a stakeout and his eventual breakthrough with Sam. The most concerning scenes involved the bystanders in the library smashing their faces off of desks and Sam’s bed igniting at the end of the episode. These scenes, with the latter telling us that Lucifer will be more in Sam’s forefront now that he let him in, showed truly how horrifying Sam’s mind really is. It is not going to be easy at all from here on for the younger brother.
Back in the case, the brothers met with Nora, the local woman that led them to the demon the first time around. They decided to check in on the possession victim in case the demon made his way back to a familiar place. Dean worked closely with Jeffrey and his new dog for the majority of the episode while Sam (and Lucifer) followed up on a lead that Jeffrey gave him based on memory of his time under possession.
Right away I thought that there was something strange about him. He was a little too odd to me. I proved to be right when we learned that Jeffrey was truly behind the murders. He was forcing the Nora’s hand by holding her son hostage in order for her to perform a resurrection of the demon into his own meat suit. The sicko mailed her son’s ear to her as a threat toward his life if she refused to help. Jeffrey led the brothers back there because he needed the blood of the one that exorcised his demon for the spell he needed to perform.
Jeffrey needed Dean all along. He explained to a tied up Dean that he realized that he was nothing without the demon. He wanted the demon to reclaim his body and make him someone again. I actually like when the writers make a human the monster in this show. Jeffrey was truly disturbed and the boys are not as good at handling human foes compared to the typical monsters. This does not happen often, so the boys are always caught completely off guard when it does.
The resurrected demon entered the woman’s son instead of Jeffrey. It then danced a surprisingly creepy dance with Jeffrey before Sam, thanks to Lucifer breaking into his mind’s foreground with the advice that he was set up, came to save the day. After some scuffle action, the demon strolled right into a conveniently placed devil’s trap. This is my main problem with the episode. They were in Jeffrey’s evil secret lair, so why was there a devil’s trap?! Anyway, the boys send him back to hell again after Jeffrey’s psychopathic world met its end.
As mentioned earlier, back in the hotel room we learn that Sam had destroyed his protection from the Devil when he let him in to assist the case. Sam would usually grab the scar on his hand to distinguish what was reality for him, but that was gone the moment he allowed Lucifer to help him. The episode ends with a glimpse of what Sam will be facing after the show returns from its, what seems like, seventeenth winter hiatus this season.
Rating: 4.5 Lucifer visions out of 5
