‘Supernatural’s’ new Lucifer is anything but scary

One of the common moves “Supernatural” takes at the end of each season is splitting up the Winchesters. It happened in Season 11 and now, in the second episode of Season 12, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) have reunited once again. And with Mary (Samantha Smith) back in the picture, the term “family business” takes on a whole new meaning.

Thursday’s (Oct. 20) episode, titled “Mamma Mia,” not only showed off a little more of the punch Mother Winchester is packing, we got more insight on the Men of Letters threat. And from what we’re seeing, it looks like the British sect of the supernatural crime-fighting organization is going to be Sam and Dean’s biggest enemy this season. And that’s weird to say, because Lucifer (Rick Springfield) just returned.

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Maybe it’s our fondness for Mark Pellegrino’s performance as the head honcho of hell, but so far, we’re not quite feeling Rick Springfield’s take on the devil. Could it be that Springfield still carries with him the ’80s rock star mojo, that when he appears as Lucifer, it’s hard to stifle the inevitable eye roll?

It’s not like Springfield is a bad actor or anything — we appreciated his work on “Californication,” “General Hospital” and “True Detective” — but Pellegrino’s evil swagger is a necessary element that we’re really missing.

Not to mention, having a supernatural entity take the form of an aging rockstar felt almost like something the Vampire Lestat would do. And that’s because he did do that, in “Queen of the Damned,” to lackluster blockbuster results.

Yet, sometimes we have to pause and take a step back when talking about “Supernatural.” After all, it feels that — much like what has happened in the majority of the show’s episodes after Season 5 — Lucifer’s misdeeds will become background fodder until the story deems it necessary for him to step forward. We even have a feeling Crowley (Mark Sheppard) and Rowena (Ruth Connell) will get the boys in on their mission to sideline the beast… we just don’t know when that’ll happen.

What we do know, though, is that it’s about time Sam and Dean get back to hunting. And with mom tagging along, things are sure to get real interesting.

“Supernatural” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

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