Supernatural kicks off its eleventh season with “Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire.” Written by Jeremy Carver and directed by Robert Singer, the episode broadens the show’s universe to include a Big Bad that predates… well, everything.
Season 10 ends with Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) killing Death, and Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) and Castiel (Misha Collins) collaborating with Rowena (Ruthie Connell) in a bid to remove the Mark of Cain from Dean. Rowena’s spell works, but it also releases The Darkness, an ancient evil kept in check by the Mark. The finale’s last scene features a dark cloud engulfing Dean and Sam, who have taken refuge in the Impala. Elsewhere, Rowena cast an attack-dog spell on Castiel, sending him after a bespelled and immobilized Crowley (Mark Sheppard).
“Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire” opens with Dean standing in the middle of swirling clouds; he sees the figure of a woman (Emily Swallow). The episode then flashes ahead a few hours: Sam regains consciousness, alone, inside the Impala. A rather awkwardly inserted flashback reveals that the Darkness had taken Dean, and the cloud’s concussive force had knocked Sam unconscious. Sam begins to search and finds his brother a mile or so away, unconscious and lying in the middle of wildflowers. Dean wakes as Sam approaches and says that the Darkness saved him. Cue the new season 11 title card, and Dean then shares that the Darkness also thanked him for setting her free. Back at the Impala by this time, Dean declares that they’re going to find her — after he gets the car un-mired (and washed, since the mud-splattered car is soon pristine).
Next, we see Castiel, who’s hiding in a ramshackle shed; his eyes are red, and he’s clearly still struggling against the effects of Rowena’s spell. A flashback shows the climax of his fight with Crowley, though it takes Cas a few minutes to sort his memories out and realize that the demon escaped his meatsuit just before Cas stabbed him in the back with an angel blade.
A man and two boys approach the shed and come across a dog’s bloody carcass. One of the boys pulls a gun on Castiel. The angel warns him, “Don’t make me hurt you….I can’t help myself. You have to run.” The boy doesn’t listen, and Castiel yanks the gun, pointing it towards the roof as he leaves the shed. Despite his fears, it seems Castiel is, in fact, able to help himself.
Back on the road, the Winchesters come across a roadwork site turned supernatural crime scene. Vehicles and machinery are abandoned, and dead bodies are strewn around. Dean and Sam investigate, and one worker, who has black veins etching along his neck and face, attacks. A young law enforcement officer, Jenna (Laci J. Mailey), shoots him from behind. She’s been injured by rebar, and the brothers decide to get her to the hospital.
Sam suggests that the Darkness’s smoke has “mutated” people. Dean’s open to the theory, especially since “couple of hours ago I killed Death…,” and anything seems possible now. Inside the hospital is mass carnage. Sam takes a look around while Dean takes care of Jenna. The younger Winchester discovers an infected man beating on a closet door; a baby can be heard crying inside.
While Dean sews up the deputy’s wound, they have a conversation. He assures her, “You did what you were trained to do…Those boys weren’t boys. They were monsters, and they were a threat.” Jenna’s not convinced, and says, “This job was supposed to be saving people.” “Sounds better on paper, doesn’t it?,” Dean asks. There’s another flashback of Dean with the Darkness. She says, “I haven’t felt this peaceful in a long, long time.” Dean makes his position clear: “I’m not here to bring you peace.” He tells her what Death said, but the Darkness doesn’t know Death and claims, “He doesn’t know me.” The scene shifts to Sam watching as the infected man attacking the closet collapses and dies. Sam goes to the door and tells whomever’s inside that he’s FBI. The person inside opens the door, and it’s a man with a baby.
Meanwhile, Crowley has traveled along an indeterminate distance and possesses a woman (Kristen Robek) outside of her house. Female!Crowley snaps her fingers, and when nothing happens, mutters, “Bollocks.” Grabbing a tire iron and going into the house, Crowley discovers that Marn had asked her husband if they could have sex with their best couple friends. The three adults have been waiting for Marn to get home so that they could tell her they were happy to “light this candle.” Obviously intrigued, Female!Crowley puts down the weapon.
At the hospital, Mike (Aaron Hill) is telling the Winchesters and Jenna that his wife died in childbirth after pushing “out this little dewdrop just like she was nothing.” (I still cannot believe that’s a real line of dialogue.) Mike explains that a truck of infected men arrived and attacked, and he ran back inside the hospital, got the baby, and hid in the supply closet. Unfortunately, Mike’s been infected, and he can tell something’s happening. He just wonders “how long till I become like them.”
Castiel is in the woods, hiding from a contingent of police and searchers. He prays to the other angels, addressing them as his brothers and sisters, and begs for help so that he won’t hurt anyone else. “Save me from doing worse,” he pleads. This is the most emotional moment of the entire episode for me; Castiel’s distress is palpable.
At the hospital, the Winchesters, Jenna, and Mike are discussing strategy. They recognize that the infected have a “shelf life.” Mike offers to go elsewhere if they’ll save his baby girl – specifically, if Jenna will save her. Despite her surprise and protest of “I don’t even own a guinea pig,” Jenna takes the baby. Mike thanks them all and leaves, though to go where, we don’t know. Dean asks, “Why do I get the feeling that is going to bite us in the ass?” Before anyone can answer, the sound of a vehicle gets Dean’s attention. Very angry-looking people pile out of the truck and head into the building.
At this point, the sense of time and even space seems off. They’re in the hospital, and infected people are somewhere in the building, but the Winchesters, Jenna, and the baby are seemingly far from the approaching madness. However this small bubble of calm happens, it allows the Winchesters to have a long-overdue conversation that gives me hope for the future of Supernatural. But first, Castiel has to break our hearts some more.
Dean, determined that they need to leave because if “we stay here, that baby dies,” tells his brother, “We did this, Sam. We broke it,; We bought it. You know there’s no other way.” Dean’s phone rings; he steps away to answer. “Where the hell are you, Cas?” Cas says that he’s okay, but Dean doesn’t buy it: “You don’t sound okay,” he counters. Castiel tells Dean that what he has, the hunter can’t help with.
Dean starts questioning exactly what Cas means, but the angel interrupts because he needs Sam to know that Rowena escaped with The Book of the Damned and the codex. He also asks about the Mark and cuts through Dean’s self-deprecating comments about not deserving Castiel’s worry. “Is it gone?,” Cas repeats. “Yes. I’m good – I mean, I’m not great,” Dean answers. “That makes two of us,” Cas says.
Sam approaches, so Dean puts the call on speaker. Cas learns that the Darkness is free and says, “that can’t be.” They assure him it is, but before anything else can be discussed, a twig snaps behind Castiel. He says, “Sam, Dean – Goodbye. It may be some time before we see one another again.” He hangs up the phone, even though Dean is calling his name. Castiel turns to face two angels, neither of whom look friendly. “Brothers,” he says. It’s already clear that this is not going to go well for the spell-ridden angel.
Back in suburbia, Crowley has enjoyed a murderous orgy and summoned two minions. One of them asks, “What do we call you?” Crowley answers contemptuously, “King.” There’s also a conversation about why Crowley didn’t call for help until after the orgy. The King of Hell’s response is a blunt “I apologize – for nothing.”
At the hospital, Dean and Sam are arguing; Dean’s frustrated because they “can’t save Cas,” and he’s determined to at least save the baby. His plan to forge ahead is based in the usual, “In order to get out, we go through.” Sam, though, asks a very important question instead of affirming his brother’s plan: “When did we forget how to do this?”
Dean doesn’t get his brother’s point at first, and Sam explains: “If we don’t change – right now – all of our crap is just going to keep repeating itself… this, kill first, question later….what happened to us?” Sam points out that there’s a cure somewhere for this infection, and Dean retorts with “How are you going to find it if you’re dead?”
Sam – thankfully – won’t let the point go. “Saving people means all of the people, not just that baby – not just each other.” They talk about choices, and Dean reminds Sam that he hadn’t wanted to be saved. Sam says that he’d make the same choices to save Dean again. Sam recognizes that this repeating cycle is the problem, and he tells Dean, “We have to change.”
Sam has a plan, too. Dean will get Jenna and the baby somewhere safe, while Sam leads the infected people away from their escape route. Sam makes a lot of noise, attracts their attention, and then runs into a closet, locking the door. The infected people are trying to beat the door down, and it’s only then that Sam realizes he’s not alone. The infected woman bleeds on Sam, though he does manage to kill her. When the “rabids” get the door open, they corner Sam, smell him, and then leave him untouched. Sam looks horrified as he realizes why.
On the way out of the hospital, Dean and Jenna run into Mike, who despite being covered with black veins and lumbering around, manages to tell them, “Her name is Amara,” before dropping dead. With the coast clear, the three head for the car.
The oddest transitions are the ones to Crowley’s story, and the demon’s last sequence occurs here: Re-entering his familiar meatsuit, Crowley declares, “Daddy’s home!” His minions, however, aren’t happy. They tell him that the Darkness has been released, but Crowley scoffs at the idea that the myth is real. But the minions have more news: Something happened in the Cage, and someone made a sound like a frightened animal. Demons believe that Michael or Lucifer is trying to warn them about the Darkness. Crowley listens to this news with his back to his minions, and his increasing unease is clear. “Half of hell is freaking out. What do we do?,” one of the minions asks. Crowley’s expression suggests that he has no idea.
The angels have Castiel bound and are ushering him inside a creepy-looking building. One angel is explaining that after Metatron’s escape, they moved the door of heaven. Castiel acknowledges it’s a good strategy, and he tells them that they need to find a witch or someone who knows spellwork before leaving the earthly plane. A hook hangs ominously from the ceiling, and one angel suspends Castiel from it by his arms. “You’re not taking me to heaven,” Cas realizes. The other angel carries over a black hood. “No, we’re not,” he answers before putting the hood over Castiel’s head.
Dean and Jenna stop at a gas station forty miles outside of town. Dean gives Jenna a pep talk filled with Darkness puns: “I know things might seem dark right now – hell, call it pitch black – and you might not be able to see it, but your way back is right there, [Dean points to the baby] you and her.” While Jenna takes the baby inside to change her diaper, Dean calls Sam. After telling his brother that he thinks the carnage is isolated in Superior, he asks if Sam’s okay. Of course, Sam lies and says he is.
We see another flashback of Dean asking the Darkness, “Why haven’t you hurt me?” She answers, “For the same reason that you’ll never hurt me.” She shows him that she carries the Mark: “We’re bound, Dean. We will always be bound. You helped me. I helped you. No matter where I am, who I am, we will always help each other.” The Darkness walks closer and closer to Dean as she speaks, and when the scene cuts away, they’re within kissing-distance. It’s an interesting scene to me because if the Darkness is part of Dean, and he’s part of it, then who or what is he really seeing when he looks at the Darkness? Depending on how this storyline’s handled, this could be really complex and intriguing.
Sam has been touched by the darkness, though. At the hospital, he examines his chest in the mirror, and the dark veins are already climbing up his neck. It seems to me his rate of infection is faster than Mike’s was, but maybe that will be explained later? Or perhaps it’s simply accelerated for story purposes?
In the bathroom at the gas station, Jenna’s diapering and dressing baby Amara. She notices a tiny mark on the baby’s chest, and while Jenna doesn’t recognize it, we do: The baby has the Mark of Cain. So is the baby the Darkness? Or just an aspect of the Darkness? And how much does Dean know about all of this?
In recent seasons especially, the first three episodes have been heavily linked, and viewing the premiere as a “to be continued” installment rather than a standalone glosses over some of the issues I see. At times, the main storyline feels a bit frenetic and some transitions are bumpy. Crowley’s adventures, while interesting, aren’t entirely relevant (yet); how will his storyline intersect with the Winchesters’ and Castiel’s? Also, I’m wondering how the Darkness’s connection to Dean and her connection to the baby will play out (and hoping it will do so in un-icky ways).
I really like Sam’s realizations, from his awareness of the mistakes he’s made and his inclination to make them again to his determination that things have to change. However, Dean is already keeping information from Sam about the Darkness and Sam is lying about his condition – so will we see real change? I do hope that the season delivers on this set up because the suggestion that the rinse and repeat cycle of brother angst and melodrama might truly end makes me very happy. There are other ways to create drama, and I’d like to see them used instead of the same old tactics.
I also love that we have interconnected storylines, at least between Team Free Will. Though the phone call between Dean and Cas is brief, it establishes a strong point of contact, and I hope we’ll see more of their interaction in episodes to come. (I particularly want to see TFW take out the angels torturing Castiel.) I’m also curious to see what comes of the Cage reference – might we see the return of Michael or Lucifer after all?
Next week’s episode, “Form and Void,” promises to reveal more about the Darkness and zir’s connection to baby Amara. Supernatural airs Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on the CW Network.
What did you think of the season 11 premiere and what do you think is in store for Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Crowley? Share your thoughts and speculations in the comments section below.