Recap of Supernatural
Season 13, Episode 18:
Bring 'em Back Alive
Written By: Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming
Directed By: Amyn Kaderali
Air date: April 12, 2018
Dean and Ketch search for Jack and Mary in Apocalypse World but find someone they didn't expect. Sam and Castiel deal with and try to protect a seriously traumatized Gabriel. Lucifer attempts to take charge as ruler of Heaven.
Tropes
- Always a Bigger Fish: Turns out even an an empowered Prince of Hell doesn't compare to an Archangel.
- Being God Is Hard: Lucifer tries to fill God's role for a while, but he gets bored rather quickly and dismisses all those praying to him as whiners. He gets more interested when he notices a Hollywood Exorcism taking place somewhere and intervenes, but the priests don't take it well when he subsequently announces himself as Lucifer.
- Berserk Button: Lucifer does not like it when Anael tells him that he might as well be back in the Cage for all the good he's doing. He grabs her by the throat and nearly smites her.
- Billing Displacement: Felicia Day in a strange case. Typically, if a familiar reoccurring actor gets their name pushed to the end credits, it's to keep their appearance a surprise. However, in this episode, Day appears as an alternate version of Charlie, fairly early on, before the opening credits begin. Making her credit being saved for the end rather odd.
- Breaking Speech: Asmodeus attempts one to Gabriel. It doesn’t work.
- Cool Shades: Lucifer dons these along with a nice suit when he decides to try to act more like God.
- The Devil Is a Loser: Anael accuses Lucifer of this in her "The Reason You Suck" Speech. She says it's not humanity or God making Lucifer look bad, but his own failures. She says he can't replace God, can't create anything, and might as well be back in the Cage.
- The Dog Bites Back: Gabriel incinerates Asmodeus, who tortured him and stole his grace.
- Domestic Abuse: Lucifer chokes Anael after she pushes his Berserk Button, which results in Anael leaving him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Anael is disgusted with Lucifer when he reveals that he can't restore the angels' wings.
- He's Back!:
- Gabriel finally musters up the courage to speak, his first words to Sam being to correct him: they were porn stars, not hookers.
- A far more dramatic version occurs later, when Gabriel is once again able to use his archangel mojo. He fights off the demons trying to capture him, then when Asmodeus tries to talk him down Gabriel heals himself, spreads his wings, and burns the Prince of Hell to ash, snarking about how he always hated his suit.
- Holier Than Thou: The demon cosplaying as the Exorcist-girl lampshades it when she exposes the older priest's addiction to webcam girls.
- Hollywood Exorcism: Lucifer drops in on a very familiar Demonic Possession scene and expels the minor demon with a gesture. He then vaporizes the two priests for lack of gratitude. The demon in question was apparently just messing with the priests for shits and giggles.
- I Choose to Stay: Charlie stays to defend her own world and Ketch to keep tabs on Michael.
- I Lied: Lucifer admits to Anael that he was lying about being able to create new angels or give the few remaining ones their wings back.
- Karmic Death: Asmodeus is killed by the Archangel he tortured and sucked the grace out of.
- Knee-capping: Dean does this to a hunter who shot him in order to get info on where the angels took Charlie. And probably some payback, too.
- Last of His Kind: With the death of Asmodeus, every Prince of Hell is now dead.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Before he leaves, Gabriel thanks Team Free Will for rescuing him and giving him a "Redemption Arc".
- Like Father, Like Son: Invoked by Gabriel when he refuses to join Team Free Will and Castiel calls him a coward for abandoning his Father's creation. Gabriel counters that God abandoned his own creation first; he's just following in his dad's footsteps.
- Man on Fire: Asmodeus is burnt to death by Gabriel once the latter is back up to full strength.
- Never My Fault: Lucifer pins his own failures on everyone else.
- Oh, Crap!: The demon Anthony's verbatim reaction to Lucifer showing up at the exorcism.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Lucifer, who so far never told a lie and is reputed for his use (and abuse) of Exact Words, outright admits to Anael that he told a lie to achieve his ends.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Lucifer throws a bit of a tantrum... again.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Anael, who seems to have already had it with Lucifer, tells him that his bad reputation isn't due to propaganda from his father, but stems from his own failures.
- Refusal of the Call: Gabriel doesn't want to help against Alternate Michael. Fitting, considering he's been tortured for years on end and only just finished recovering.
- Room Full of Crazy: The walls of Gabriel's guest room are entirely covered in Enochian, telling the story of what happened after his apparent death.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Gabriel declines to stay to fight the other world's Michael despite Castiel and Sam begging for his help.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Lucifer dons a spiffy suit when he finally tries to make a sincere effort to act like the Ruler of Heaven.
- Shout-Out: The Hollywood Exorcism which Lucifer interrupts looks very much like the most famous example.
- Sorry, I'm Gay: Inverted. The Apocalypse World Charlie asks just how close he was to the Charlie from the main 'verse.Dean: She was into chicks.
Charlie: I like her already. - Tom the Dark Lord: The demon possessing the woman is named "Anthony". Unlike Tom, Meg, and Ruby, this is apparently the demon's real name.
- Unholy Matrimony: Lucifer refers to Anael as his de facto "First Lady" since he's now running Heaven with her help, but they're apparently experiencing some marriage problems because he's essentially doing nothing while she wants him to act more kingly. Another angel, Dumah, snarks that relationship counseling isn't in her job description when Lucifer asks her for input.
