The Bad Seed is the 3rd episode of Season 11. It aired on October 21st, 2015.
Summary[]
There was something about being there... It felt pure. This episode summary is an official CW press release. It may contain errors. DO NOT CHANGE! |
While Rowena (guest star Ruth Connell) tries to consolidate her power to protect herself from the Winchesters, Sam and Dean search for a missing baby connected to the Darkness. Meanwhile, Castiel struggles to heal and Crowley tries to find a way to use the Darkness for his own personal gain.
Plot[]
In an abandoned warehouse, Rowena is trying to gather new followers for her new coven, the Mega Coven, a name which unfortunately doesn't receive the awe she's looking for. Instead, her main intention of creating a new coven is soon revealed: she needs her fellow witches to provide her with protection from the Winchesters and her other enemies.
Rowena gloats that she murdered her own son, the King of Hell, by bewitching an angel to do the dirty work. One of the witches then mentions that a friend of hers just made a deal with Crowley recently. This news upsets Rowena, and when the other witches are about to leave her, she uses a spell from the Book of the Damned to incinerate them from the inside out.
In the Bunker, Sam and Dean are trying to uncover any information about the disappearance of baby Amara. When Sam mentions that God did put the Darkness away a long time ago, a chained up Castiel replied bitterly that he's not confident of that happening this time. God is not the only one they need to find; there's also Metatron, who might know about the Darkness since he was the scribe of God. After Cass has a violent reaction, Sam and Dean switch their efforts to finding Rowena, to force her to remove the attack dog spell from Cass.
In his lair, Crowley receives news from one of his minions that his mother was sighted alive, and commands that she be annihilated. Crowley then turns to Amara, who is studying various subjects, including a video of Hitler's Nuremberg speech. On his attempt to bond with Amara, Crowley learns that she seeks protection from God, so he can't seal her away again. However, Amara won't reveal to Crowley how God managed to lock her up.
At Café Elta, Rowena attempts to recruit a duo of witches into the Mega Coven, promising them status they could never get from the Grand Coven. Suddenly, a demon attacks them, killing one of the witches while Rowena manages to escape.
Meanwhile, in the Bunker, Dean is trying to get hold of Crowley's mobile phone, in hope that the King of Hell will help them find Rowena. Castiel is pessimistic that Crowley will hand Rowena over to help lift the spell, considering that he tried to kill Crowley the last time they met. Sam announces that Metatron is also nowhere to be found, since there are no incidents relating to a crappy '78 Continental Mark V, which offends Cass, since he's fond of the classic car.
When they're trying another way to find Metatron by searching places he might love to visit, Cass suddenly has convulsions and blacks out. Sam and Dean rush to Cass, and when he comes around Castiel says that he's hearing voices. This takes Dean aback, and asks if the voices are telling him to hurt people. Cass tells them that it's angel radio, and that the angels have doubled their efforts in capturing Metatron. Continuing with his research, Sam finds the news of the weird incident involving the three witches at a café in Denver.
Back at Crowley's lair, Amara is researching the Earth, when she finds her adult self in the standing mirror in her room. The little girl is amazed at God's creation after he sealed her away, but the adult Amara still wants vengeance. The talk between the two Amaras is cut short when Crowley walks in to check on her. Once again, when he tries creating a conversation with Amara, Crowley can feel that the girl will be a handful.
Somewhere in a pub, a demon is having a drink when an angel walks in. The demon stands up and flashes his black eyes, while the angel brandishes his blade. However, the demon just sits back down and goes back to drinking, the angel soon joins him and the two commiserate over how bad the situation is both in Heaven and Hell, something as big as God and Lucifer.
Following up on their info about the homicide at the café, Sam and Dean pay a visit to the police station where the surviving witch is being held. There they manage to convince the witch to help them by revealing Rowena's location through scrying.
In another attempt to get close with the Darkness as a little girl, Crowley brings her presents. But she doesn't seem to like the Earthly gifts - she's more interested in darker things, such as Dante's Inferno (in the original Italian). Amara suddenly says that she's hungry, but when her nanny brings sweets for her, Amara prefers a soul to feast on instead and consumes her demon nanny. This is another eye-opener for Crowley - the more Amara consumes souls, the more her mind broadens and becomes darker and hungrier.
While the Winchesters manage to capture Rowena, Castiel fails in his attempt to find his car when the computer suddenly goes on the fritz, and opens on a porn site. Not understanding what just happened, Cass shuts the laptop and soon has a flashback to the day he almost killed Crowley. The boys bring Rowena to the Bunker, and they discover that Rowena only has Nadya's Codex with her. When Dean sends Sam to get Castiel, the witch figures that Dean has unleashed something dark again into the world. Sam quickly comes back in a panic, and tells Dean that Castiel is gone.
Crowley has realized what Amara can do with all the souls she consumes, and he soon assigns a new nanny for the little girl (the demon that failed to assassinate his mother) and commands him to inform Amara that she will need to cut down on the number of souls she's eating.
On their way to find Castiel, Rowena reveals to Dean that she once made a deal with Sam, regarding the Book of the Damned, that should make Sam kill Crowley in return. Dean doesn't look so pleased at this. Sam gets off the hook when he finds that the GPS on Cass' phone has stopped moving and they are close. The three of them split up to find Castiel, and after a little searching Dean finds the angel almost strangling a woman to death in a warehouse. When Dean tries to calm him down, Cass turns to beat Dean. Before Cass can harm Dean further, Sam arrive with Rowena, who then lifts the spell off Castiel. When Dean welcomes the angel back, Rowena takes the chance to escape.
Back in the Bunker, the boys are relaxing after everything and discussing their next step. Dean shows his apology to Castiel by refusing the angel's offer to cure the wounds on his face from Cass' beating, saying that he had it coming since he almost killed him.
Meanwhile, Crowley has new matters at hand: a teenaged Amara, who is even hungrier and more vicious than before.
Characters[]
Main Cast[]
- Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester
- Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester
- Misha Collins as Castiel
- Mark Sheppard as Crowley
Recurring Cast[]
Guest Stars[]
Co-Stars[]
- Emily Swallow as The Darkness
- Gracyn Shinyei as The Darkness (child)
- Yasmeene Ball as The Darkness (teenage)
- Lane Edwards as Head Angel
- Adam Hurtig as Unnamed Demon
- Courtney Richter as Claudette
- Chantal Bui Viet as Magda
- Deni DeLory, Christa Andersen and Raven Sto as Three Unnamed Witches
- Daniel Deorksen as Demon Waiter
- Tasya Teles as Nanny
- Sergio Osuna as Demon #1
- Masae Day as Woman
- Fei Ren as Asian Woman #1
- Tina Pham as Asian Woman #2
- Leanne Wang as Asian Woman #3
Featured Supernatural Beings[]
- Angel (Head Angel)
- Crossroad Demon (Crowley)
- Demons (First Demon Nanny, Second Demon Nanny, Unnamed Demon)
- Primordial Entities (The Darkness; God, mentioned only)
- Seraph (Castiel)
- Witches (Rowena MacLeod, Three Unnamed Witches, Claudette, Magda; Olivette, mentioned only)
Continuity[]
- Rowena previously appeared in the Season 10 episode, Brother's Keeper.
- Amara has once more taken on an older form upon consuming hundreds of demonic souls while under Crowley's care.
Trivia[]
- The episode was watched by 1.59 million viewers and got a 0.6 rating.
- The title is a reference to the 1954 novel and the 1956 film of the same title.
- This episode marks Mark Sheppard's fiftieth appearance as Crowley.
- This episode marks Ruth Connell's thirteenth appearance as Rowena, making her the longest recurring actress since Cindy Sampson, who appeared twelve times as Lisa Braeden.
- This is the fifth episode Jensen Ackles has directed on the series with Weekend at Bobby's, The Girl Next Door, Heartache and Soul Survivor being the first four respectively.
- Demi DeLory was previously seen in season 2 episode, Crossroad Blues. She played a Surgeon who sold her soul to a crossroads demon.
- Castiel makes reference to Metatron's love of waffles, which they shared during the period where the two first met to discuss Metatron's supposed trials.
- Dean makes reference to the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, when Rowena is chained up in the Bunker.
- Cafe Elta, the place where Rowena tried to recruit two witches, is a reference to Danneel Harris-Ackles, Jensen Ackles' wife. She later portrays the angel Anael in Season 13 and Season 14.
- In the bar scene between the demon and angel, the Louden Swain song "Big One" is playing in the background. The lead singer of Louden Swain is Rob Benedict, the actor who plays God on the series.
- Amara is shown Adolf Hitler's Nuremberg speeches translated into English, as well as Dante's Inferno in the original Italian.
- This episode marks the first occasion that an ordinary demonic and an ordinary angelic grunt are shown to be on amicable terms with one another.
- At the start of the episode, Rowena is trying to recruit three witches. There is a gray haired older witch, a black haired middle aged witch and a young goth-styled witch. The Maiden, Mother and Crone, is a common pagan motif, often associated with the Triple (Moon) Goddess. That Rowena ends up killing the three witches who fit the iconography, could be seen as symbolic of her overthrowing the old order to assert her own agenda.
- It's revealed that Metatron stole Castiel's car in Book of the Damned when he escaped. However, he hasn't had any accidents or moving violations with it which surprises Castiel as a former shut-in and Scribe of God wouldn't be thought of as a good driver.
Quotes[]
- Sam: God kicked this thing's ass once before, right?
- Dean: Yeah, it'd be nice if he put down the Mai Tai and showed up for work.
- Castiel: I wouldn't count on that.
- Amara: Good, evil, Heaven, Hell, people. It all seems so unimportant.
International Titles[]
- German: Die Finsternis erblüht (The Darkness blooms)
- Hungarian: Velejéig romlott (Rotten to the Core)