Supernatural has seen many badass female characters introduced over the years and just as many get killed off. Yet in the most recent episode, “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets,” a new killer lady had her debut and shockingly she made it out of the episode alive. Lily Sunder lived on to fight, and maybe kill, another angel someday. Supernatural left the door open for Lily to come back by implying that one day she might execute Castiel. However, Lily’s return doesn’t have to mean Cas’ demise. There are plenty other ways Lily could come back to Supernatural and none of them involve our favorite angel dying. But is Lily’s return something that fans would even want to see?
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The Case for Lily’s Return
Besides the fact that Alicia Witt did a very good job in bringing all aspects of Lily to life, the character could really serve some story purpose. Lily’s introduction was heavily tied to the idea of Nephilim and their dangers but she is also an angel expert. Cas, as an angel, should be able to trump Lily’s knowledge but Supernatural has proven before that Castiel isn’t infallible. He has made mistakes and been unaware of things, even those matters concerning angels — actually, especially those matters concerning angels.
Lily returning to help or be involved in the hunt for Lucifer’s love child would be incredibly interesting. It would be intriguing not only to see her reaction to that mission but how she would handle it given her own past (and rightful) hatred of angels. Lily could be the way for Supernatural to answer some very compelling questions about morality.
As good a job as Alicia Witt did bringing Lily to life, the show barely scratched the surface with her character. She only shared a couple of short scenes with Sam and Dean. This is a shame because they do have a lot of compelling similarities. Because of a death in her family Lily has spent her unnaturally prolonged life hunting angels. Because of a death their family Sam and Dean have spent their unnaturally prolonged life hunting demons, monsters … and sometimes angels. Lily is the perfect Winchester ally. Then there is the fact that Lily is losing her soul and Sam already lost and gained his back. If anyone is going to get Lily her soul back it is probably going to be Sam and Dean.
The Case Against Lily’s Return
Yet outside that soul thing there is not a lot of (personal) story left to tell with Lily. She could be involved in the Nephilim search but she would be a side character there. We could get to know her character a lot better but “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets” told her complete story. We saw Lily’s origin story, we got hints of what her life has been like since that origin and we saw her mission come to an end. There is something to be said for just letting her exist as a one-off character. There is no need to continue a story that is already over.
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While conceivably Sam and Dean could help keep Lily from losing her soul, because conceivably they can do anything at this point, this is still something that also needs to be addressed. Lily is dying every time she uses her powers and if she comes back in any way she is going to be using her powers. The character would be living on borrowed time.
Lily got what she wanted in “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets” — she avenged her daughter and killed someone who was undoubtedly evil and deranged. It would make perfect sense for the character to just move on and retire to do whatever 100+ year old women do when they finish their revenge mission against God’s warriors. Supernatural could make her return work but they’d probably have to provide a pretty good reason for it to make total sense.
But what do you think? Is Lily a good enough character to come back for one or more episodes? Should the character just stick to the one episode? Did you even like Lily and want to see her again?
Supernatural season 12 airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW. Want more news? Like our Supernatural Facebook page!
(Image courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
