Supernatural: The Darkness Is Coming For Us All

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Sam and Dean Winchester have defeated scores of monsters, witches and ghosts, fought with and against Angels and the King Of Hell has them on speed-dial on his cellphone, they even helped avert the apocalypse. However in the eleventh season of the CW series “Supernatural,” humanities fate lies in the hands of a petulant prehistoric tween-girl named Amara.

Amara’s the physical-embodiment of a creature known as the “Darkness” whose been locked away since before time began, well until Sam decided to save Dean and rid his older brother of the Mark Of Cain. When the mark disappeared the “Darkness” escaped and so far Amara’s left a pretty long trail of blood and dead bodies as she’s evolved from an infant to a 12-year-old girl in about a month’s time.

Amara’s got just one source of nourishment human-souls and she possesses a voracious appetite, leading to her rapid growth. The soulless husks that remain have lost the capacity to experience any emotions and many without that moral compass within them start committing barbaric acts as much out of curiosity as anything else. Leaving “THE BOYS” to attempt to minimize the damage and clean up the mess.

This latest episode could have taken place anywhere, but show-runner Jeremy Carver and story-writer Nancy Won decided to send the Winchester brothers to New England and center it around the family home of Lizzie Borden. Borden grew-up in Fall River, Massachusetts and accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax in the late 19th century. Although acquitted on all charges, her community still believed her guilty taunting and persecuting her for the rest of her days.

We join a teenage couple in one of the rooms of the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast and Museum. The guy decides he wants to summon the spirits and the young woman though tentative is game. They put on a 78 RPM recording of  “Bicycle Built For Two” and the lights start to flicker and crackle. A closet door opens and creaks loudly startling the couple. He nervously approaches the closet and breathes a sigh of relief when he finds it empty. He turns around and sees his girlfriend’s standing next to a shrouded-hooded figure holding an axe and then plunges it into her back killing her instantly. The guy attempts to escape but fumbles with the chain on the door and we hear him scream and see his blood spurt outside the door.

Sam finds the story online and convinces Dean to go, mainly due to Sammy’s fascination with serial killers. They arrive at the inn to find the manager Mason Kemper trying to convince a guest not to cancel their reservation but fails. As he starts talking with the brothers his mother comes out of the backroom and yells at him for not cancelling a $200 order of Danish with no guests at the inn. They register and stay in the same room that the couple stayed in and Sam’s EMF detector’s going crazy.

They split up and scour the house and soon realize the place’s rigged with timers to make the lights flicker and speakers behind the wall. The only thing that spooks Dean out’s a man on the sidewalk taking a picture of the house with a 19th century box-camera. Sam finds an EMF transmitter in the attic and Dean says they’re leaving and he wants to find a joint to grab a lobster-roll.

Mrs. Kemper’s locking up before going to bed. She heads into her bedroom and we see a shadow on the wall of something killing her with the axe. We hear her scream and see her blood spurting and soaking the bedspread. Sam and Dean hear about the murder and head back to the house in their guise of FBI agents Collins and Gabriel. They tell Mason Kemper they’d registered undercover to investigate the couple’s murder and the man starts crying and asking why they didn’t save his mother?

The Winchester’s talk about the case with the local police officer working the case Detective Madsen and Dean asks about the guy with the camera. Madsen says the guy’s a local named Len and he went to high-school with him. He says the guy’s harmless however he’ll question him. Dean says he’s got enough on his hands and they’ll talk to Len.

As they drive to Len’s home, Sammy’s cellphone rings and Detective Madsen  informs them another person got murdered with the axe but this time it occurred at a home miles away from the inn. They split-up with Dean dropping his younger brother at the murder scene while he goes to talk to Len.

This killing took place at the Pinski residence as Mr. Pinski got out of his car on his driveway. His son Jordie about 12-years-old and his babysitter Sydney heard Pinski’s screams and came out to find his mutilated body sprawled on the driveway. Dawn Pinski walks into the house and her son runs to her, she displays not the slightest air of grief as she asks Sydney if Jordie saw anything. The babysitter responds they both were in the house when the crime occurred. Sam shows Pinski his FBI ID and says despite the tragedy can he ask her some questions and she tells him to leave her house now. When he asks if they can talk the next day she repeats her demand for him to leave.

Dean’s having a much more pleasant visit with Len whose a wee-bit strange but quite personable. To say that Len’s obsessed with Lizzie Borden wouldn’t begin to describe his complete immersion into her existence. He tells Dean that he’s a Super-Fan and a curator and Winchester asks what he’d label taking a picture outside the museum hours earlier. He says he tried to photograph Lizzie’s ghost with a Victorian-Era camera that was used to photograph spirits. He says he’s seen her spirit but he’s failed to capture it with a camera.

We learn that Len’s not allowed into the museum due to a restraining-order, he stayed in the building’s basement undetected for weeks when he snuck in for Borden’s birthday number 155. Winchester’s about to leave thinking Len’s just a harmless eccentric when he’s stopped in his tracks by a drawing of the Mark Of Cain on Len’s desk. Dean asked where he saw the symbol and Len tries lying, telling Dean he saw it online on some site about ghosts. Winchester threatens to continue the conversation at the local precinct when Len comes clean.

He tells Dean about meeting a young girl outside the museum a couple of nights before, she was on the sidewalk in front of the inn and he asked her if she was staying there or lost. She replied she wished she was staying there, then tells Len that she’s read all about Lizzie and she says her parents were very mean. He replied that he also thinks she’s innocent and the girl responds she think Borden killed her parents. She’s got serial-killer eyes. Len gets a little freaked out and says he asked her how old she was?

Dean says what about the mark and Len says she had it on her shoulder, he wasn’t sure if it was a scar or a birthmark. He says she told him her name was Amara and Dean asks how old was she and Len responds about 12. He realizes Winchester knows her and says he needs to see her again as she changed him somehow. We realize from the rest of his story that she consumed his soul.

He then looks Dean in the eyes and says he’s always been odd and quirky but he had a life with friends and interests. Since that night all the things that brought joy to his life have lost their meaning. He just sold his entire collection to some guy from Michigan. Then he says all the things that used to creep him out suddenly don’t bother him. He feels like a robot/puppet-man just going through the motions.

Dean calls Sammy and informs him that Amara’s involved and she consumed Len’s soul. He says that might explain the way that Dawn Pinski reacted after her husband got killed. Sam and Dean try contacting Pinski and then head to her home, but there’s no sign of her or Jordie.

Sam calls the babysitter Sydney the next morning and asks if she’s got any idea where Dawn Pinski could be and she says that Dawn told her she wouldn’t need her that day. Sam thinks she’s hiding something and says she’s involved in a Federal murder investigation. She says that Dawn’s got a “special friend” named Kenny and she gives him the address.

The brothers drive to pick-up Len after they decide they can’t tell him that Amara consumed his soul. So they decide at least temporarily to be his babysitters. However that plan doesn’t remain in effect for very long as the former Borden curator talks endlessly about the recent changes he’s gone through. When he says that it feels like something evil’s hatching inside him Dean brusquely tells him that he no longer possesses a soul as Amara sucked it out of him. Sammy berates Dean for his lack of tact, but Len says it feels better to know. When they arrive at the address Dean handcuffs Len to the Impala’s door-handle, telling him he just wants to keep him out of trouble.

The house looks deserted, but Sam picks the front-door lock and they enter brandishing their weapons. They split up with Dean going into the basement. The lights aren’t functioning so he grabs his flashlight. He looks all around and he’s ready to go back up to the main floor when he sees a folding cot. He opens it to find Dawn Pinski’s mutilated corpse, he turns to head upstairs when someone knocks him out with a blow to his skull.

Sammy finds Jordie bound and gagged in the closet and as he tells Jordie he’ll soon have him free he hears the cock of a rifle trigger and turns around to find Sydney behind him holding the rifle and grinning ear-to-ear. She soon has both brothers tied to chairs in the basement and when Dean wakes up she says she’s glad he’s alive she thought she killed him. Turns out that Sydney killed all the victims, the guy in the first murder dumped her to shack up with the girl she killed. Mrs. Kemper fired her from the museum and never paid her for two weeks. Pinski dealt meth and Dawn was a tramp and she’s going to raise Jordie as her son.

She tells Sam and Dean they’ll become sacrifices for her new friend and Dean asks if Amara’s her new bestie? She’s shocked that he knows her and then she tells them how they met at some roadhouse bar called Molly Hatchet’s. Sydney got trashed and Amara approached her in the parking lot and begged her not to drive or she could get killed. Sydney asks her what’s she doing there and asks if her parents abuse her, as she suffered an abusive childhood.

Amara tells her she’s there alone and Sydney takes off her jacket and puts it around the girl’s shoulders. Sydney says they’ve got to get her to some place warm and she introduces herself. Amara tells the young woman her name and then smiles and tells Sydney she’s going to help her and takes Sydney’s hand.

Sydney lets out a deep-throated pleased laugh and says that was Ecstasy-Orgasmic-Chocolate Cake. She hugs the girl and says you’re an Angel. Amara’s face turns to steel and she says I’m not one of those wimpy-winged-creatures. Sydney asks then what are you and Amara consumes Sydney’s soul. She says that she’s been free ever since, the voice in her head that used to restrain her from doing bad has left. Now she’s free to fulfill what ever she desires.

Sam’s worked the rope binding his hands together off and right then he gets up from the chair trying to catch Sydney  off-guard. She aims the rifle at Sammy but suddenly her aim goes wild and she falls to the floor with blood streaming from her. Len ripped his hand apart getting the handcuffs off but walked in at the perfect time and killed her with the same axe she used in the murders. Her dying words are the Darkness is coming for us all.

Jordie’s going to live with his Aunt Kathy. After Dean bandages up Len’s now thumb-less hand, he says to Winchester that he can feel that unless he’s stopped he can feel he’ll kill again. He asks Dean to kill him and Winchester says that he’s sorry but he can’t do that. So he decides that he’s going to confess to committing all the murders so they’ll put him away forever. Dean praises his nobility and Len says he’s going through the motions, while he still can.

Dean and Sam start driving back to the Men Of Letter’s building in the final scene and as they pull out of the parking-lot Amara emerges from the trees and waves to the car and smiles. She says bye-bye Dean, see you soon.

The Story Resumes Next Wednesday Night at 9:00 pm on The CW.