Reception
On its initial broadcast, the episode was watched by 3.99 million viewers. It received generally positive reviews from critics. Karla Peterson of The San Diego Union-Tribune gave the episode an "A", deeming it "everything the season-closer needed to be". She noted that episode reveals why Azazel killed Jessica and Mary Winchester, and enjoyed the "creative way" Meg Masters was killed off, feeling the exorcism to be "amazing". Peterson also praised the cliffhanger ending, believing it to be "capable of pulling your eyeballs right out of your head". The acting was also praised, with Jensen Ackles being able to "wring every ounce of blood, sweat and torment out of Dean's photogenically haunted psyche", Jared Padalecki making Sam "real and conflicted", and Jeffrey Dean Morgan giving "his best and most believable performance of the season". Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune collectively referred to "Devil's Trap" and its two preceding episodes as a "really strong trilogy" of "must-see episodes". She found the possessed John to be "Morgan's finest work on the show to date", believing that he "was really on fire in that scene" and "brought a whole new intensity to his performance". She also thought that Bobby Singer's introduction and Meg Masters' exorcism were "well done".
Diana Steenbergen of IGN also praised "Devil's Trap", deeming it to be the episode that "moved Supernatural from the list of television shows that liked to the 'must-see' list". Like Peterson, she cheered the twist ending, and was "completely taken by surprise". Steenbergen also felt that Jim Beaver as hunter Bobby Singer was "an excellent addition to the cast", and applauded Ackles, Padalecki, and Morgan for their performances in the episode's climactic confrontation between Azazel and the brothers. She found the possessed Morgan to be "menacing", and enjoyed his sadistic sense of humor; Padalecki to have done a "good job embodying the newfound strength" Sam develops in defying his father's order to kill him in order to stop the demon; and Ackles' defenselessness to be "affecting". However, she believed that Azazel's reference to having a family " quite make sense", and noted that it seemed implausible for Sam and Dean—having been raised as hunters—to not have known that Meg was a demonically-possessed girl. Brian Tallerico of UGO also had issues with the plot, though mainly with the episode's outcome. He felt that the writers should have followed Buffy the Vampire Slayer's pattern of killing off the season's foe, as "fans don't like villains to be strung out for too long". He also would have liked for John Winchester to have died in order to "free the brothers up for a little second season revenge and a little less family angst".
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