Recap / Supernatural S 06 E 10 Caged Heat

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Recap of Supernatural
Season 6, Episode 10

Caged Heat

Samuel: Is this what you boys do? Sit around and watch porno's with angels?

Castiel: We're not supposed to talk about it.

Story by Brett Matthews and Jenny Klein; teleplay by Brett Matthews.

Directed by Robert Singer.

Air Date: December 3, 2010.

Sam and Dean make a tenuous alliance with the demon Meg in an attempt to get Sam's soul back from Crowley, but find that Crowley can't get back in the Cage to get it and it is now irreparably damaged from being in the Cage with Michael and Lucifer.

Body Count:

For this episode = 1 shapeshifter, 3 demons, 2 ghouls, and 3 humans.

For the series so far = At least 435 humans (of which 6 were witches), 77 demons, 33 ghosts, 26 vampires, 19 zombies, 14 gods, 11 angels, 9 hellhounds, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 shapeshifters, 4 ghouls, 3 djinn, 2 werewolves, 2 dogs, 1 crocotta, 1 fairy, 1 lamia, 1 okami, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 reaper, 1 rugaru, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, and 1 wraith.

Tropes

• Badass Boast:
  Dean: I'll tell you who I am. I'm the guy you never want to see again. Because I'll make it out of here, trust me. The next time you see me, I'll be there to kill you.
• Big Bad: Crowley, who has blackmailed the Winchesters into working for him to find Purgatory's location. When the Winchester turn on him, Crowley tries to have them both killed.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Sam breaks out of Crowley's cell and saves Dean from the ghouls.
  • Castiel comes back just in time to stop Crowley from killing Sam, Dean, and Meg. He forces Crowley to admit that he can't get Sam's soul back, then burns his bones, killing Crowley.
• Big Damn Kiss: Meg steals a kiss (and a sword) from Castiel. Then he grabs her, throws her against a wall, and returns the favor. But doesn't take the sword back, because he didn't notice.
  Castiel: I learned that from the pizza man.

• Blood-Splattered Warrior: Meg gets sprayed with black hellhound blood as she slashes them all to ribbons with Castiel's angel blade. In the cold open, Crowley gets spattered with blood from the Alpha he's torturing/decapitating.
• Bloody Smile: Sam is cornered by two demons, only for them to stop in their tracks because they've stepped inside a Devil's Trap drawn in blood on the ceiling. Sam smiles at them with blood on his teeth, revealing he bit open his own wrist in order to draw the runes.
• Bond One-Liner:
  Crowley: [to decapitated Alpha Shapeshifter that's wearing his skin] Guess I kind of lost my head.
• Bullying a Dragon: Sam threatens to hunt Castiel down and kill him.
• Call-Back: Crowley's remains weren't hidden all that well.
• Chained to a Rock: Gender-inverted with Dean being shoved into a room with hungry ghouls and left there to be Eaten Alive.
• Comically Missing the Point: Castiel does not grasp the true purpose of the pizza man and the babysitter interacting in the adult movie he's watching.
  Castiel: If the pizza man truly loves this babysitter why does he keep slapping her rear? Perhaps she's done something wrong...
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Even after Sam, Dean, and Meg seemingly have Crowley right where they want him, he manages to completely overpower them so fast, it's almost ridiculous. Bonus points for the look of bored amusement on his face after this happens.
• Damaged Soul: Discussed. Cas thinks it might be better not to return Sam's soul to his body because of this.
• Double-Meaning Title: More than double, really. On the surface, there are dangerous beings and a fight ('heat') at Crowley's. From the previous few episodes, we still have the issue of Sam's soul (symbolically, souls are often connected to 'light' and 'fire', so 'heat' goes here, too) in the Cage. On top of that, there's Meg (a demon, so again - 'fire') being 'caged' in her meatsuit. It's a vague enough Symbolic Title to apply to a lot of elements in the story.
• Dynamic Entry: Dean kills Christian by sneaking up behind him and stabbing him with Ruby's knife before he even notices Dean is there.
• Enemy Mine: The Winchesters and Meg vs Crowley.
• Faking the Dead: As it's revealed later in the season, Castiel and Crowley are actually in cahoots with each other, so Castiel "killing" Crowley is a trick to throw Sam and Dean off the scent.
• Fan Disservice: Seeing some skin is always nice, but can we please stop getting it through possessed women stripped naked and strapped to a rack with male demons cutting them up?
• First Kiss: Meg takes Castiel's first kiss, much to the fury of shippers for other pairings. Megstiel fans, on the other hand, were quite pleased.
• Foe Romance Subtext:
  • Meg and Dean. She sits in his lap while he's tied up and playfully banters with him.
    Meg: Okay, officially over the foreplay. Satisfy me or I please myself.
  • Also, Meg and Castiel. This episode launches the trend of their sizzling chemistry getting a little less subtext.
• Gambit Pileup: Let's see, there's Meg's plan to kill Crowley, Sam and Dean's plan to help Meg and then betray her, Samuel Campbell's plan to betray the Winchesters, and (as it turns out later on in the season) Castiel trying to both help the Winchesters and keep Crowley alive.
• Groin Attack: A seriously horrific example: it is very strongly implied that when Christian is torturing Meg with a blade just off-screen, he's sticking it in her vagina and cutting her there with it. That's bad enough, right? Except the blade he's using is Ruby's knife. Even Dean and Sam look horrified by what happened to Meg.
• Hellhounds: Crowley sends a pack of them after Sam, Dean, Castiel, Meg, and her subordinates once they've come into his hidey-hole. As Dean remembers what happened the last time he encountered Meg and hellhounds in the same place, he is grimly pleased that she will be ripped up by them. Though they get her subordinates, she chooses to hold the dogs off for the rest of the group and actually kills the hounds instead.
• Kiss of Distraction: Meg kisses Castiel to distract him and steal his angel blade from his trench coat. Backfires when Cas spins her around and kisses back, dumbfounding not only Meg but the Winchesters as well.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "Castiel. Haven't seen you all season."
• Oh, Crap!: Meg, when she realizes she can't vacate her meatsuit.
• Off with His Head!: Crowley to the alpha-shifter...while it looks like him.
  Crowley: Guess I kinda lost my head.
• Parental Betrayal: Well, grand-parental.
• Raging Stiffie: Castiel after watching the pizza man porno.
  Dean: Great. Now he's got a boner.
• Scenery Censor: The leather straps holding Meg to the torture table.
• Shout-Out: "Shawshank's a great flick, but let's skip the shower scene."
• Shower of Angst: Implied. We don't actually get to see it.
  Dean: Sam, now I need a daily rape shower.
• Stealth Hi/Bye
• "Take That!" Kiss: Meg may have had an agenda when she kisses Castiel, but Castiel seems to be simply showing off just how much he enjoys kissing the demon.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!:
  Dean: [to Meg] Payback's a bitch, bitch!
• Too Kinky to Torture:
  • Meg approves of Dean's suggestion that he tear her to shreds, specifically because she likes how "kinky" it is. Must be the demon in her. Or possibly Alastair's influence. When it comes to actually being tortured, though, she isn't turned on in the least and is obviously in a lot of pain and discomfort (since she's got Ruby's knife through her...you know), but she does manage to criticize Christian's torture technique (even saying he's sticking the blade in all the wrong places) and flat-out laughs when she realizes he's about to be killed by Dean.
  • Meg also insinuates that Dean enjoys being tied up by demons more than he lets on.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Subverted when Meg tries to flee her host and abandon Sam, Dean, and Castiel to the hellhounds...but can't leave her meatsuit. The "undignified" part of the trope stays in with Meg standing there foolishly with her mouth hanging open for a few awkward moments before she realizes that it just ain't working. Castiel then says that Crowley must have warded the building so that everything inside is locked inside their bodies to prevent this very situation. She finally does leave after she sees Crowley die, escaping before Dean could kill her. Dean admits that it was smart on her part.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Dean and Samuel trade these. Dean comes out better.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Downplayed towards the end when Team Free Will (plus Meg) try to escape the warehouse.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: We learn that Crowley never had Sam's soul. It's still in the cage with Michael and Lucifer. Crowley and Cass agree that getting it back might be the worst thing that could happen to Sam. Experiencing a year's worth of indescribable torment in an instant? Not phenomenal.

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