9x16 Blade Runners Review

Summary:

After going AWOL, the Winchesters find out Crowley has been shooting up with human blood; meanwhile, his kingdom is falling to Abaddon and hell is going to hell. The boys lock Crowley up in the basement to detox while trying to track the first blade and retrieve it before Abaddon gets her paws on it. The footprints lead them all the way back to the Men of Letters and a rouge member known for his specialty in spells. Sam and Dean seek out this Magnus character and find their selves in a sticky situation when Magnus wants to add Dean and his Mark of Cain to his collection. Ultimately, Crowley helps Sam retrieve Dean and the blade, Dean gets to feel the power of the Mark and the First Blade together, and Crowley takes the blade for safekeeping until the time to take Abaddon down.

Review:

This episode deals mainly with the Sam-Dean-Crowley relationship and re-introduces the subject of addiction in reverse from Sam’s demon blood phase. From the get-go, there is tension between the brothers regarding Dean’s apparent chumminess with the King of Hell; they can't get a hold of Crowley with news of the First Blade except for the drunk voice mail messages on Dean’s phone. Sam expresses his contempt for the demon and underhandedly questions Dean’s stance on using the blade on Crowley the second he is no longer useful though when they finally get a hold of him, their relationship to the former King of the Crossroads becomes a bit more complicated.

The sorry state of the King of Hell almost invokes pity from the Winchesters when they find what has become of him: the once fearsome and untrustworthy Crowley has been reduced to a sentimental, empathetic conundrum. Sam and Dean conduct an intervention and command that Crowley needs to quit cold-turkey to be of any use to them. Meanwhile, they keep him in the basement and briefly take him out on a leash. While waiting for an informant on the First Blade they incredulously comment on the King of Hell attempting to steal candy from a vending machine and wonder just how different this demon had become on human blood.

Crowley also proves to be incredibly helpful: smoking into possible informants, recounting his dealings with the Men of Letters and helping Sam with a spell. He even says, “I did good, eh moose? I’m growing on you aren't I?” and isn't far from the truth. While Crowley has been outwardly expressive of his fondness towards the Winchesters, the boys reluctantly share in that fondness and it wouldn't be a Winchester relationship if it wasn't 50 shades of unhealthy and complicated. 

When it comes to the relationship with addiction, The Kind of Hell makes it very clear that they did this to him; pumped him full of the good stuff and left him to rot. Part of Sam’s dynamic with Crowley has to to with the guilt of making him a junkie no matter how much he may despise him. Another part of him seems to feel like his relationship with Dean is being threatened by this demon so he deals with this frustration by hating Crowley. For Dean, the feeling of camaraderie stems through their shared experience of finding Cain, retrieving the mark and searching for the blade. The emergence of dark feelings in Dean also contrast the very human feelings in Crowley, creating a Yin to his Yang. 

When they finally retrieve the blade only to have it snatched away by a clear-headed Crowley, the would-be betrayal has more of a bitter sweet quality. Crowley holding the boys at bay while taking the much needed item is not an unfamiliar scene but the dynamic between the three has changed in their time together. Crowley acknowledges this by saying, “You can’t trust me, but I can’t trust you either.” implying that both parties have been betrayed by this turn of events.

Questions, Problems, Concerns:

My main gripe with the writing in this episode is the fact that Crowley supposedly perused the Pacific Ocean when it is a large mass of salt water. They could’ve easily had the blade thrown in a volcano or made the intent of Cain throwing the blade in the ocean  purely so no demon could retrieve it.

I was also a little disappointed that they didn't make more use of Magnus’s great collection of supernatural items. Surely they could’ve raided the mansion or kept the place marked on the map for future notice but I guess the phrase “out of sight, out of mind,” applies literally here.