Recap of Supernatural
Season 3, Episode 16:
No Rest For The Wicked
Dean: All I'm sayin'- Sammy, all I'm sayin' is you're my weak spot. You are. And I'm yours.
Sam: You don't mean that. We're... we're family.
Dean: I know. And those evil sons o' bitches know it, too. I mean, what we'd do for each other, how far we'll go. They're using it against us.
Sam: So, what, we just stop looking out for each other?
Dean: No, we stop bein' martyrs. Man, we- we stop spreadin' it for these demons. We take this knife, and we go after Lilith *our* way, the way Dad taught us to. And if we go down, then uh... we go down swingin'.
Written by Eric Kripke.
Directed by Kim Manners.
Air Date: May 15, 2008.
The episode begins with Dean waking from a nightmare of being chased by a hellhound. Bobby has found a way to find Lilith. Sam swears not to let Dean go to Hell, but as he's saying it, Dean sees him distorted as the portent of the hellhounds. They meet up with Bobby, who uses his ritual to find Lilith. Dean points out that they don't really have a good way to deal with Lilith, whether they do find her or not.
Sam wants to summon Ruby to borrow her "demon-killing ginsu". Dean, who still doesn't trust Ruby, vetoes the plan. Sam, however, doesn't listen. Unfortunately, Ruby refuses to give Sam the knife, but she does tell him that there's another way: Sam's long-dormant psychic powers, she claims, will let him kill Lilith. Then Dean makes his entrance, having predicted that Sam would try and summon Ruby for help in spite of his brother's discouragement. After Dean and Ruby get into a fight, Ruby finds herself trapped in a devil's trap painted on the ceiling by Dean, who then reveals that he stole her knife. The brothers take off after Lilith, leaving an enraged Ruby trapped.
Sam doesn't like this new plan, though, somehow not seeing the wisdom of attacking a powerful demon and her retinue armed with a medium-sized knife. Dean convinces him, though, and they're off to New Harmony, Indiana
, where Lilith is on "shore leave". Which, as it turns out, means terrorizing and killing her host body's family. But as Sam and Dean try to leave for Indiana, it seems Bobby was already a step ahead of them, sabotaging the Impala and refusing to let them run off by themselves and get killed. Along the way, Dean kills a police officer, seemingly without provocation, and it turns out the cop was a demon, and Dean can now see demons in their disguises as a consequence of being so close to his contract being called.
They find Lilith and her guards, and also find that Ruby followed them. Unfortunately, the ensuing fight between Sam, Dean, and Ruby alerts the demons, and the party gets chased into the house with Lilith. A tense search ensues, where they find Lilith asleep...except it's not her anymore; she's already vacated the child.
Sam tries to get Ruby to show him how to kill demons with his mind, but it's too late. The clock chimes, and the hellhounds have come. Lilith suddenly reappears and pins Sam to the wall while the hound tears Dean apart. The final shot of the season is Dean, trapped in Hell.
Body count
For this episode = 3 demons, 6 humans and 1 dog. This is the second real death of a Winchester brother.For the series so far = At least 260 humans (of which 3 were witches), 12 demons, 19 ghosts, 10 vampires, 6 changelings, 3 gods, 2 shapeshifters, 2 werewolves, 1 crocotta, 1 djinn, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shtriga, 1 wendigo, 1 zombie, and 1 dog.
Tropes
- Anyone Can Die: Body count for this episode is three demons, six humans (including Dean), and one dog.
- Batman Gambit: Dean uses one to get the knife.
- Blood Is the New Black: Lilith walks into her first scene drenched in the blood of the family dog, which she just killed for being mean to her. Her hands are covered in blood up to the wrist and her shoes squelch with blood when she walks. She doesn't seem to notice it until her host's mother asks what happened to her dress, and doesn't even consider changing clothes until her host's dad timidly suggests it.
- Body Surf: Aware that the Winchesters have arrived with Ruby's knife, Lilith slips out of the little girl and into Ruby's host (after kicking Ruby out and casting her back to Hell), unnoticed. Even though Dean can see demons's true faces, he only realizes the switch when it's already too late.
- Buffy Speak:Bobby: You're piercing the veil, Dean. You're glimpsing the B-side.Dean: Little less New Age-y, please?Bobby: You're almost Hell's bitch. You can see Hell's other bitches.
- Continuity Nod: Dean sees Sam with a zombie-like face at the beginning of the episode. "Crossroad Blues" showed that this was one of signs that starts happening to someone who's deal is close to being up.
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Dean grabs Sam's arm just as he's about to stab the little girl—Lilith is no longer possessing her.
- Creepy Child: Not a standard portrayal, but Lilith in her child form is downright disturbing.
- Demonic Possession: Multiple cases: Ruby is still possessing Blondie, Lilith is now possessing a different little girl, and her Mooks are possessing various members of the neighborhood as well as the police officer who pulls Sam and Dean over.
- Dies Wide Open: Dean's eyes are still open after he's been killed by the hellhound and his soul taken to Hell.
- Downer Ending: Instead of the guys killing Lilith to break Dean's contract, they get caught by Lilith and she sets a hellhound on Dean, killing him and dragging his soul to Hell as Sam is Forced to Watch. The last scene we're treated to is of Sam scooping up Dean's lifeless corpse, sobbing, as Dean is in Hell, screaming in terror for Sam to help him.
- Dragged Off to Hell: Lilith has both Dean and Ruby dragged kicking and screaming to Hell.
- Dream Walker: It appears that hellhounds can do this, too. One enters Dean's dreams to turn them into nightmares in the teaser, complete with Impending Doom P.O.V.. Later on, its P.O.V. is used again when it reappears in real life, which suggests that it had indeed been a real hellhound in his dreams.
- Enfante Terrible: Subverted. Lilith seems to be a cute little blonde girl who terrorizes people and kills things for upsetting her in any way. Technically, though, Lilith herself is an ancient demon simply messing with people with her choice of hosts rather than an actual, human, evil child. The cute little blonde girl she appears as is just her innocent host, who appears to be just a normal kid.
- Evil Laugh: Lilith thinks it's hilarious when Dean gets killed by a hellhound.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Ruby snaps when Dean punches her. She quickly teaches him why it's a bad idea to pick a fight with her—namely, because she will kick his ass and she won't stop kicking his ass after she starts. It may not even be because of the one punch (though that definitely started it), but a culmination of her anger with all the ridicule, insults, and interference she has had to put up with from him over the past year.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Lilith, again.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: Averted. The Hell Dean is treated to is a stormy abyss filled with a spider-web of chains that go through Dean's flesh and hang him in place for demons to come play with.
- Forced to Watch: Lilith makes sure Sam can't do anything but watch as the hellhound tears Dean apart.
- Glamour Failure: Dean can now see a demon-possessed human's real face. Lilith gets around this by possessing Ruby's host.
- Hallucinations: Since his time is almost up, Dean starts seeing things, thanks to demons apparently wanting to scare deal-makers out of their mind before they even go to Hell. The only one of Dean's hallucinations shown is Sam looking like a demonically-possessed zombie.
- Hellhound: One hunts Dean in his nightmares before coming for him for real.
- Holy Hand Grenade: The same one Lilith used in "Jus in Bello" (S03, E12). Difference is, Sam is completely unaffected by it, much to his (and Lilith's) surprise.
- Horrifying the Horror: Lilith backs off, terrified, when she realizes she can't kill Sam, then flees Ruby's body.
- I Just Knew: Dean kills a demon-possessed cop, and is freaked out that he knew the cop was possessed because he could see the demon's real face.
- I Warned You: Ruby says this to Dean, telling him it is now too late to save him.
- Impending Doom P.O.V.: The hellhound's P.O.V. is used a few times when attacking Dean. Its vision seems to be more washed-out than humans'.
- Improvised Weapon: Bobby, he makes a lawn sprinkler system spray holy water.
- Invisible Monster: The hellhound, though only for Sam and the viewers. On the other hand, Dean and demons can see it. Bobby explains that they can see it because, like the hellhound, they are damned souls. He explains it in a...different way:Bobby: You're almost Hell's bitch. You can see Hell's other bitches.
- Jump Scare: At the start of the episode, Sam is trying to cheer Dean up after Dean wakes up from a nightmare. Which would be nice, except when we cut to Dean's P.O.V., we see Sam with a creepy Nightmare Face.
- Just Between You and Me: Defied when Dean asks Lilith what her plans are once she's killed Sam and dragged Dean off to Hell.Lilith: I don't have to answer to puppy chow.
- Layout of a Season: The 16th episode of any season is usually pretty dramatic, and often a season game-changer. This one was the season finale due to the writers strike, and includes Dean being dragged into hell.
- Little Miss Badass: Stick full-grown adults, demon hunters, rebel demons, and sweet-faced little Lilith in a room together, and sweet-faced little Lilith will curbstomp them all in thirty seconds flat. Thirty minutes, if she wants to have some fun first.
- Loves the Sound of Screaming: Pointedly averted by Lilith, who hates it and warns her host's mother not to do it because it'll make her mad.
- Mangst:Sam: Dean, if this doesn't go the way we want, I want you to know that—Dean: Oh, no, no, no.Sam: "No" what?Dean: You're not going to bust out the misty-eyed goodbye speech, okay? I mean if this is going to be my last day on Earth, I do not want it to be socially awkward.
- Manipulative Bitch: Ruby owns up to being one. She hadn't told Sam before that the thing she's been promising all season will save his brother is his Psychic Powers because she knew he wouldn't even consider it until he was desperate enough; she is a demon, after all.
- Manly Tears: Sam weeps while holding Dean's torn-up corpse.
- Mood-Swinger: Lilith.
- Mooks: The demons under Lilith's command who are possessing the neighborhood; they are kept at bay by Bobby and his holy water sprinklers fairly easily.
- Neck Snap:
- How Lilith kills the grandfather.
- Ruby threatens to snap Dean's neck like it's a chicken bone if he doesn't give her back her knife.
- No-Sell: Lilith's Holy Hand Grenade doesn't harm Sam in the slightest.
- Not Afraid to Die: Played With Played straight at first, as Dean is resigned to his fate, but by the time hellhounds are pursuing him and as he is being torn apart, he's absolutely, and heartbreakingly, terrified.
- Percussive Prevention: Mr. Freemont refuses to lock himself in the basement without his wife. Rather than argue, Dean knocks him out.
- Prophet Eyes: Lilith's eyes roll white twice, when she's talking about being in Ruby's host body and when she tries to kill Sam with her demon ray gun.
- Psychopathic Womanchild: Lilith acts like a little girl, even while possessing an adult body.
- Rousing Speech: Dean even rehearsed it.
- Season Finale: The final episode of Season 3, which was cut short by the writer's strike.
- Say My Name: "Sam! Saaam!" After Dean gets taken to Hell.
- Shoot the Dog: Sam, Dean, and Bobby decide that they must kill Lilith for everyone's sake, not just Dean's, even though this means killing the innocent little girl she's possessing as well.
- Shout-Out:
- Lilith as a powerful Creepy Child holding her own family hostage to her whims resembles It's a Good Life.
- "Hell, she probably wants you to become her little Anti-Christ superstar"
- Slut-Shaming: Dean calls Ruby his and Sam's own "slutty little Yoda."
- Songs of Solace: Dean coaxes Sam into a sing-along of "Wanted Dead or Alive".
- Take Our Word for It: We don't get to see what Ruby's true from looks like ourselves, but according to Dean it's pretty damn hideous.
- Take That!: Bon Jovi rocks!...on occasion.
- "Take That!" Kiss: Lilith plants one on Sam in front of a visibly
squicked-out Dean. Apparently, his lips are soft. - That Thing Is Not My Child!: Mrs. Freemont says this about her possessed daughter.
- Too Dumb to Live: When Dean stops Sam from going with her plan, Ruby calls Dean this almost word-for-word and says that in that case he deserves Hell.
- Trailers Always Spoil: In possibly the worst case in the show's history, the original promo showed Sam crying over Dean's corpse.
- True Sight: Dean's 11th-Hour Superpower, enabling him to see a demon-possessed human's Nightmare Face.
- True Companions: Why Bobby insists on coming along. "Family don't end with blood!"
- Wham Episode: At the end, Dean is in Hell while Sam is curiously immune to Lilith's power.
- Wham Line:Dean: That's not Ruby, it's Lilith!
- "What Now?" Ending: Dean is in Hell, Ruby is gone and Sam is devastated.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Dean's initial reaction to the thought of killing Lilith in the child's body.
- Would Hit a Girl: Dean has no reservations about slugging Ruby. She responds by beating the crap out of him—Sam, too, when he gets in the way.
- Would Hurt a Child: Sam, Dean, and Bobby, albeit only when there's no other option. Dean in particular finds the prospect hard to swallow, even if it means saving his life—he only goes along with it when they remind him that they need to kill Lilith for the greater good. When Sam is about to kill the girl, however, Dean sees that Lilith has already vacated, and stops him.
- You Don't Want to Know: Ruby says that Lilith is on "shore leave." When Sam asks what that means, Ruby replies with this trope.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Poor Dean.
