Supernatural – Devil’s Bargain

By: Stacy Miller

Castiel (Misha Collins) is wandering at night in the woods. We see his last confrontation with Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) in which they stab each other with angel blades. The next morning, two young boys stumble upon him. “I told you I found a body,” says one of the boys as he pokes the angel with a stick. They scream and run away when Castiel wakes up. Castiel continues his search. “Lucifer, where are you?” he asks.

Somewhere else, a girl on skates almost falls down but is caught by a random guy on the street who says he’d catch her anytime. A man in the distance smiles as he watches. “Another happy ending right Cupid?” Lucifer says to Cupid (Robert Rozen). Lucifer cuts Cupid’s neck with an angel blade and sucks his grace then asks “Where can I find more angels? I need seconds.” Cupid says he doesn’t know, adding that there aren’t many of them left. Lucifer reminds Cupid to be careful because he lost some of his grace and accidents happen. Lucifer then kills Cupid “Like that.”

At the Men of Letters bunker, Dean (Jensen Ackles) asks Castiel where Cas has been since the last time the spoke a couple of weeks ago. Castiel explains that it was Asmodeus (Jeffrey Parise) who stole his (Castiel) phone that Dean was talking with. The angel continues telling Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean that the Alternate World’s version of Kevin Tran (Osric Chau) used a spell in the Angel Tablet to open a rift into their world so the Alternate World’s version of Michael can create the apocalypse on their Earth. Castiel explains that he met with Lucifer because Lucifer wanted to stop it. Sam and Dean are doubtful that Lucifer wanted to help anybody but himself.

Meanwhile, Lucifer continues to search for angels to replenish his grace supply. He is cold and hungry and doesn’t appreciate being gawked at on the street by a man who’s never seen a Prince of Hell before.

Asmodeus tells Ketch (David Haydn-Jones) that his first thought was to capture Lucifer, but now he wants Ketch to kill the Archangel. “Kill the Devil?” Ketch asks. Asmodeus says that in Lucifer’s weakened condition due to the loss of his grace, a quick angel blade to the heart and he should go down easy…maybe. “And if he doesn’t?” Ketch asks. “Then we’re all dead,” Asmodeus answers.

Lucifer tries to beg for money, but his “Give me money” doesn’t get any takers. A guy who has a box to take donations tells Lucifer that he’s giving off the wrong vibe that makes him unapproachable.  The man asks whether Lucifer is hungry. When this man stands, we see he is on crutches.  But instead of taking the money he collected and going inside the Italian restaurant, this man heads straight to the dumpster, telling Lucifer that the lasagna is better the next day.  The man says that he’s saving the money to use for ‘the leg fund’ meaning that it’s going to Sister Jo, a faith healer. “She doesn’t come cheap, but she can heal anything,” the man tells Lucifer, who insists that Sister Jo is a fake. The man tells Lucifer that Sister Jo is the real thing and when she touches you there’s this glow and then you’re healed. Lucifer’s interest is piqued.

Sam returns to the Men of Letters bunker with Donatello (Keith Szarabajka). Dean tells him the plan. Grab Lucifer and use his grace to open a rift to the Alternate World where they’ll find Jack and Mary and escape with them and close the rift before Michael can follow. And although they don’t have the Angel Tablet, they do have the Demon Tablet. Since it is also a word of God and more than likely has the same spell as the Angel Tablet, Dean says as a prophet Donatello can translate. But Donatello tells Dean that a project of this magnitude requires food; preferably a large supply of buckets of chicken.

Meanwhile, Sister Jo (Danneel Ackles) works her healing miracles for a fee of three hundred dollars. In the background, Lucifer watches with a sinister smile.

Sam, Dean and Castiel happen upon the crime scene where Lucifer killed Cupid. The crime scene photos show that Cupid’s throat was slit. Castiel tells Sam and Dean that means Lucifer fed on the angel’s grace to regain his power. And if Lucifer gets his power back, there’s no way they’ll be able to grab him and use his grace to open the rift.

After all the followers have left, Lucifer approaches Sister Jo saying that he needs healing. He tells her that he knows she’s an angel and she says she knows he’s Lucifer. The Devil is surprised that his presence doesn’t make her quake in fear. And that as an angel, she charges to heal people. “Not very Heavenly,” Lucifer says. “We’re not on Heaven, we’re on Earth. And if you noticed, the good life ain’t cheap,” Sister Jo responses. She explains that after the fall, all the angels were a mess searching for any vessel. So she listened and realized that humans are so desperate for life that they’d do anything. “I was a so so angel but as it turns out, I’m an excellent business woman,” Sister Jo tells Lucifer. He lunges towards her to take her grace and kill her. But Sister Jo has another suggestion. Instead of killing her and taking all her grace, why doesn’t he keep one premium angel on tap? That way, he can suck her grace when needed and give her time to recharge. It’s a win for both of them. After all, she’s still a business woman. Lucifer agrees.  Once he finishes sucking her grace, Lucifer comments that it was much better than his last time when he had to kill the guy. “That was you?” Sister Jo asks, “That was all over angel radio.” She’s concerned that his carelessness will lead other angels to them who won’t be there to share their grace with Lucifer.

Meanwhile, Sam shows that man on crutches a photo of Lucifer and the guy identifies the Devil, saying that they had a good conversation about faith healer Sister Jo. But when Sam, Dean and Castiel go to find Lucifer, they run into Ketch instead. Ketch thinks that being shot by them the last time they met should make them even. Not by a long shot says Dean. Ketch says that he’s there to kill Lucifer, and Sam asks who Ketch is working for. Ketch doesn’t reveal his employer. He thinks that finding Lucifer will go faster if they work together. That’s not going to happen because neither Sam, Dean nor Castiel trust Ketch. Dean knocks Ketch out and puts him in the Impala’s trunk. He thinks they should take Ketch back to the bunker, find out what he knows, shoot him, burn his bones then flush the ashes to make sure he says dead.

At a motel, Sister Jo tells Lucifer to go slow when he takes her grace. Afterwards, Sister Jo tells him how she feels almost on the brink of being human when she loses some of her grace. She feels emotions. Sister Jo explains that her job in Heaven was pushing a button to count the new souls as they arrive. But she had ideas on how to improve Heaven but no one wanted to hear what she had to say.  Lucifer tells Sister Jo about his daddy issues and how now he’s a father. He wants to get his power back so he’ll be the great Lucifer again.

A lackey tells Asmodeus that they’ve located the prophet. Shape shifting into Castiel, Asmodeus finds Donatello and learns about the boys’ plan for saving their mother and Jack. Turning back into his own form, Asmodeus orders Donatello tell him first anything he finds out from that tablet.

Sam, Dean and Castiel arrive at the motel where Lucifer and Sister Jo are staying. Sam pretends to be from the front desk and tells her that there is a problem with her credit card so he’ll need to ring it again. Sister Jo tells Sam she’ll be right down. Sam tells Dean and Castiel that at least she’s alive. When she arrives, Sister Jo is surprised to see Castiel. She explains that Lucifer is weak because of his grace loss and asks for their help. She returns to the motel room and knocks on the door, telling Lucifer that she forgot her key.  When the Devil opens the door, he’s surprised to see Sam, Dean and Castiel. Sister Jo tells Lucifer that they made her tell them about him being weakened due to the loss of his grace. Dean tells Sister Jo to stand back and is caught off guard when she uses her angel powers to toss Sam across the room, giving Lucifer time to deal with Dean and Castiel. Suddenly, Ketch appears and throws a demon bomb into the motel room.  But Lucifer and Sister Jo vanished before it went off.

Lucifer asks Sister Jo why she helped him. “Like I said I help you, you help me,” she says.

Ketch explains that he thought that in Lucifer’s weakened state the demon bomb would do the trick.  But obviously Lucifer is stronger than they thought, thanks to his new gal pal. Ketch urges Sam, Dean and Castiel to trust them. As proof of his sincerity, he tells them that he’s working for Asmodeus and can pass on information to them. Ketch says that he draws the line at some point and letting Lucifer free on the Earth is his line. “I’m the lesser of at least three evils,” Ketch tells the group. All he asks is that they wait to kill him until after he proves his loyalty.

Lucifer and Sister Jo meet with the angel Duma (Erica Cerra). He tells them that he knows they are low on angels and as he was there when they were born and saw how the old man did it, he can create angels. And in return from his generosity, Lucifer wants to be named the undisputed ruler of Heaven. When we see Lucifer next, he’s sitting on the throne of Heaven with Sister Jo standing by his side.

Asmodeus tells Ketch that he has a rare artifact: An Archangel Blade. It is the only think capable of killing an archangel when wielded by an archangel. “Mr. Ketch, allow me to make an introduction,” Asmodeus says bring Ketch to a cell where we see a prisoner, “The Archangel Gabriel (Richard Speight Jr).”