Supernatural Review: The One Where Cas Goes To The Dark Side

The whole season has finally been revealed through the eyes of Castiel (Misha Collins), our lovable angel who has found his way to the dark side in his quest to stand up to Raphael and preventing the apocalypse from happening again. The episode is told through Cas’s eyes as he confesses to God on a stone bench, looking for a sign to guide him through his suffering over his choices.

We learn that right after Lucifer and Michael get locked in the cage, Cas returns to heaven to find a group of angels including Rachel, that are unable to function without being told what to do. They start to believe that God has brought Cas back in order to lead them. Meanwhile Raphael plans on re-starting the apocalypse and commands Cas to pledge his allegiance and then get Michael and Lucifer out of the cage.

In desperation Cas returns to earth where Dean (Jensen Ackles) has settled into his domesticated life with Lisa and Ben. The angel is reluctant to ask the hunter for help because of everything he has already sacrificed, and then that’s when Crowley appears. The newly crowned king of hell proposes a business transaction between them, where in order to beat Raphael he would need souls, lots and lots of them.

Crowley proposes that they use the souls of the creatures who after their death end up in purgatory. If they can discover purgatory’s location and harvest all the souls then Cas would have enough power to defeat his older brother. We know the decision the angel makes as he begins to work in tandem with the demon. They fake Crowley’s death and Cas spies on the hunters to make certain that they don’t know what’s really going on. Eventually though his lies catch up to him and Sam, Dean, and Bobby manage to trap him inside a circle of holy fire.

It’s tragic as we see Cas lose more of himself, being consumed by pride, arrogance, and greed. The angel himself admits that in hindsight, he had good intentions but knows that his choices weren’t ideal under the circumstances. Still Cas is unable to admit that he did anything wrong because in his eyes, everything he has done is justified for the greater good.

Mark Sheppard did an amazing job as Crowley and audiences are treated to a great performance from the king of the crossroads as he twists and seduces Cas with promises of glory and the triumph of good. To make matters more interesting, Crowley points out to the angel that he is no longer the good guy he thinks he is and he needs to accept that he’s sullied himself. Ouch. Of course these are manipulation tactics that the demon is oh so good at and the show paints such a vivid picture of how even an angel can fall and be corrupted, no different from any human. In fact, without the special powers angels are just like humans – sometimes they can’t think for themselves, they make mistakes, and they look for signs.

Watching Cas pour his heart out to God and asking desperately for any sign, then not getting any (we assume) is incredibly heart breaking. He seems so human at that moment and perhaps this is some kind of lesson that the almighty is trying to impart on his other children – testing their faith, learning to make mistakes and be responsible for those mistakes, and more importantly not leaning on him to make all the decisions. Perhaps this is God’s way of giving angels free will and seeing what they will do with that.

This was a fantastic episode that gave us so much new information. Crowley and Cas faked the demon’s death; Eve, though dead, still keeps laying eggs and it appears all her creatures are psychically linked to her that when her brain gets shocked her creatures feel it as well; Crowley brought Samuel back to specifically hunt for creatures after Cas said Dean was off limits; Cas brought Sam back to creature hunt as well, though whether or not he brought Sam back soulless on purpose remains unanswered; there is a demon counterpart to Bobby including trucker hat and facial hair; and of course Cas and Crowley want the souls in purgatory to secure their respective positions of power (they aren’t so different at this point are they?).

The saddest part comes at the end of the episode as Dean begs Cas not to do this, asking as a brother to trust him. In an earlier scene as Cas tells the hunters to run, he yells at Dean that nothing is broken, which is telling of the angel’s mentality. As conflicted he is about the difficult choices he’s made, he believes they were the best decisions he could make operating under the idea of the end justifies the means. As Dean and Cas talk inside Bobby’s living room, the elder Winchester attempts to make Cas understand that with freedom comes great responsibility and you can’t simply do whatever you want. The hunter calls the angel a child in exasperation and in a way he’s absolutely right. Cas hasn’t lived with free will for very long and it looks like he has to learn the hard way that for every action comes a price.

Now Sam, Dean and Bobby will not just be hunting Crowley, but Cas to. How unbelievably tragic.

Season 6, Episode 19: The Man Who Would Be King (originally aired May 6, 2011)

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Images courtesy of The CW and Jack Rowand