SPN Rewatch Season 12
Rewatch of Supernatural 2022
Season 12
I’m back to my Supernatural season reviews after 3 months off to move from Chicago to North Carolina and celebrate the holidays in my new home! And my New Year’s resolution is to finish my SPN rewatch before my daughter has her baby next month! So on to season 12…
I remember not being very thrilled with season 12, and unfortunately my recollection was correct. I have a lot of issues with this season, though I am curious to see, after my complete rewatch, which is worse, season 12 or season13, because I wasn’t impressed with 13 either.
The main issue is the stupidity of the British Men of Letters arc. My gripes, in no particular order:
And then there’s Lucifer…In their episode commentary for ’The British Invasion’ writers Buckner and Ross-Leming talk about how much they love writing the dynamic of Lucifer humiliating Crowley. Personally I didn’t need any more interaction between them. Lucifer was so much more impressive in small doses back in season 5 when he was scary. Since season 11 he has just been a whiny kid with daddy issues. Sigh…
On to the episodes-
242. Keep Calm and Carry On (12.1)-W: Dabb/D: Sgriccia
Mary’s birthday is 12/5/54; Mary met John coming out of the ‘Slaughterhouse Five’ movie on 3/23/72; Mary and John were married in Reno on 8/19/75-Dean recites these instantly, dates he has clearly internalized as precious tidbits from his dad about his mom
Mary has been dead for 33 years
Dean tells Mary right away about time travel and that he saw her as a ghost
Toni makes a phone call to her son so the audience will see she’s not a total monster
Toni’s conversation with Sam makes no sense-she says ‘we’ve been watching you and your brother for years’ and then asks him for ‘Dead drops, meeting places, an organizational hierarchy’ which, if they’ve been watching the boys, they should know doesn’t exist
You tell her, Sam: ‘Screw you… I've been tortured by the Devil himself…You're just an accent in a pantsuit. What can you do to me?’
Mary says she was told Men of Letters was a myth
Mary has big reaction to Baby
Every crossing into Britain warded-no monster deaths since 1965
The blowtorch to Sam’s foot is awful! (Writers’ room: Let’s torture Sam, he suffers so prettily)
Cas takes man’s truck without apology and jumps right to violence with veterinarian-haven’t seen him this angrily focused for a while
Crowley-Why??? Why bring Lucifer back??? You’re operating on emotion, not thinking it through!
Smart Sam-even hallucinating he comes up with a plan to fake suicide to try and get out
Sam doesn’t escape but at least he shakes Toni up, though not actually a good thing as it makes her more careful
243. Mamma Mia (12.2)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Wright
Sam does not have a tattoo when in bed with Toni-supposed to be our clue it’s not real (Writers’ room: We haven’t seen Sam with his shirt off or in bed with a woman for a while)
Why is Dean in the bunker? He should be frantically looking for Sam!
Dean is asking Cas for advice about talking to Mom??? Cause Cas is so knowledgeable about human relationships…
Mary’s guilt trip that her actions caused the boys to become hunters ignores that if she hadn’t made the deal they never would have been born
Rick Springfield as Vince Vincente-here’s to stunt casting…
Crowley and Rowena are back together as antagonistic partners
Why do BMoL want to know about Ruby and Benny? Ruby’s gone and Benny’s old news
That car crash with Baby is a real shocker the way it was filmed!
Mick comes in playing good cop…but it really is just an act, he admits call scary Ketch in
Sam trying to talk to Mom is adorably awkward
When Mary asks Sam why he returned to hunting Sam says: ‘…this is my family. My family hunts, you know? It's is what we do’ which struck me as an odd explanation, though it fits with the ‘family’ theme of the season
244. The Foundry (12.3)-W: Berens/D: Singer
Then: explains ectoplasm
It’s always a shame when the good Samaritans bite the dust
Cas is going after Lucifer alone-always a good idea…
We are told that Cas did heal Sam’s foot and Dean fixed Baby after the crash
Mom is riding shotgun, Sam relegated to back seat
So they had time to make fake IDs with the Partridge Family names Mary picked?
Crowley finds Cas
Working the case by internet vs legwork disorients Mary (though her approach did get her important info)
Sam thinks Mom is struggling, Dean blows his concern off
Rowena pulls a fast one on Lucifer even though she is his prisoner-she really is a very smart witch
Rowena will help with Lucifer when he is cornered, not going to do the search
Mary: ‘…I'm still mourning…My baby Sam. My little boy Dean. Just feels like yesterday we were together in Heaven, and now I'm here, and John is gone and they're gone. And every moment I spend with you reminds me of every moment I lost with them. And I thought hunting, working, would clear my head...
I have to go’
Dean’s face conveys such hurt at the same time he’s trying not to show it
Mary goes to hug Dean, he recoils, she hugs Sam
245. American Nightmare (12.4)-W: Perez/D: Showalter
Then: goes all the way back to season 2 psychic Sam
Nasty opener of poor woman dying from stigmata
Boys as priests
Dean texts ‘Should I call you Mom or Mary’-he is really not understanding why she left and is hurting
Dean very much on edge, jumps to conclusions about who is responsible without real proof
Suits
Sweaters when they are playing social workers
Dean fumbling getting over the gate felt off, he has done incredible physical feats in the past so why would this trip him up?
Mystery motorcyclist drives past-supposed to be Ketch?
Sam loses his cool when talking to the mom about her dead daughter, unusual for him
They must change from sweaters to flannel in the car because Sam is staying to investigate and is now wearing regular hunting clothes
Sam states he doesn’t have psychic powers anymore
Child Protective Service sends minor on bus alone from Iowa to California?! And shouldn’t she be hospitalized for treatment of her wounds?
Dean admits he hates that Mom left but he will try to understand…and be less of a dick
Ketch killing Magda after Sam saves her sucks
I do not like this episode purely for the portrayal of humans being so horrible. Demons I can handle, people are too crazy for me.
246. The One You’ve Been Waiting For (12.5)-W: Glynn/D: Lopez-Corrado
Then: the Thule
Clumsy Dean knocks over artifact, less jarring than the fence thing though
Smart Dean notices secret door
Suits
Ellie running away from boys is big mistake
Sam won’t let Dean use the grenade launcher
Ellie comes through by grabbing the gun and shooting one of the bad guys even though she’s woozy from blood loss
Ends on a high note of Dean exuberant over killing Hitler
While the plot in this one is kind of out there it is put together in a way that makes sense, and Ellie, while annoying, is also memorable and we see her growth in the episode. I consider this one of the better episodes of the season. And Dean finally has a win…
Unrelated notes at this point in the season-the show has returned to being visually dark, it’s hard to pick out details in the creepier scenes. And Sam’s hair is really on point this season.
247. Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox (12.6)-W: Yockey/D: Badham
Then: Wendigo; demon possession
1980-Mary is driving a blue and white Chevy Camarro on her hunt. Where is that from? Did she have her own car, borrow it, or steal it?
Big revelation that Mary continued to hunt sporadically after Dean was born
Nice recap of Asa’s life
Love the boys dropping in on Jody
So Ellen used to tell stories about Asa? Asa looked around 10 in the flashback so he would have been around 35 when the Roadhouse was around, so I guess that could track
Boys never go to hunter gatherings
Sam and Dean are legends and didn’t know it
Dean reiterates his ‘hunters die on the job’ expectation to Sam’s dismay
How Jody rolls with meeting Mary Winchester-Jody: ‘I thought you were…’-Mary: ‘I was’-Jody: ‘Wow…It’s so nice to meet you!’ and later how she lets Dean know she can tell he’s not all right: ‘…Is that why you spent the entire ride up here telling me in extreme, excruciating detail how you killed Hitler, but you neglected to mention the fact that your mom is back from the dead?’ and discussing how it would feel if her family came back from the dead: ‘…And it would scare the hell out of me…Because what if I’ve changed. What if they changed? What if it just didn’t work out the way I wanted?’ I love Jody
Mary still has John’s journal
Dean still bitter
Hi Billie! You really don’t like the way the Winchesters play fast and loose with the rules, do you
Odd that at the start of fighting the demon uses physical force then switches to mind force when in Jody
Round Robin exorcism-nice
Billie reveals how out of place Mary feels-offers her a ‘merciful’ way out
Reapers don’t kill people
Another episode I consider decent, the story and the characterizations make sense (and there’s only one plotline going on)
248. Rock Never Dies (12.7)-W: Berens/D: Sanchez
They gave Lucifer a reasonable way to power back up with his ‘magic feather’
Lucifer being surprised that Vince is famous seems a little odd since he’s in Vince’s head
Sam is looking up the BMoL in bunker files but doesn’t find anything useful…Hmmm, back in season 11 Sam found correspondence between MoL and Delphine of European chapter in 1943…
Lucifer getting off on being worshipped as a celebrity, going to take it as far as he can
Crowley and Cas have been working together for weeks looking for Lucifer
Dean casually picks up guitar in Vince’s room and noodles on it
Suits
Everyone they try to get info from is protecting their own interests, not concerned with ethics
Crowley volunteers to go with Cas as distraction to Lucifer-is he getting a conscience in his old age?
Fire alarm doesn’t work to empty concert so Dean shoots his gun
Sam holding doors open so kids can leave-iconic image of Sam’s strength, mental and physical
Lucifer gives a big boring speech on his abandonment issues
Dean calls it a win because they saved the crowd, Sam doesn’t because they didn’t save Vince
249. Lotus (12.8)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Sgriccia
Lucifer moving up the chain of power in his choice of vessels
Suits
President Jefferson Rooney (Guess he won instead of Trump)
Dean powered down bunker wards to let Crowley in-nice that was acknowledged, given how everyone seem to pop in randomly
Lucifer sics the Secret Service on Sam and Dean
Sam calls Mick from BMoL but hangs up before it’s answered-writing device to have BMoL show up
So much time in this episode spent on Lucifer…
Ketch does make an entrance
Ketch shows off all the fancy gadgets the BMoL have, including an ‘egg’ that can exorcise demons-Dean suggests using it for Lucifer
Lucifer’s baby is an abomination according to Cas
Why do Sam and Dean just stand around after they exorcise the president? They get Cas and Kelly to leave and then just stand there-what a dumb amateur move!!!
Boys in chains caught by Secret Service-this is really bad
Cas takes Kelly and she ditches him
Interesting note-Before starting this rewatch I had in my mind that the President arc was long and dragged out, but in actuality it is only this one episode. Also interesting that the actor hasn’t appeared to get any fan love even though he had the challenging job of channeling Pellegrino’s Lucifer.
250. First Blood (12.9)-W: Dabb/D: Singer
Boys are being completely silent when interrogated-no snark from Dean even-indication he knows just how screwed they are?
The older agent is more complex, goes against the ‘just want them punished’ mentality
Dean starts marking the days on the wall immediately
Haha, Mick’s old-fashioned typewriter has computer interface
Interlude where Mick tries to recruit Wally-I like Wally
When Crowley hears boys are in trouble he compliments them by saying he pities whoever has them
Mary and Cas go hunting since they can’t find the boys, meet up after 6 weeks, 2 days
Sam and Dean are dead
As they are going through woods-Sam: ‘6 hours to midnight…Dean, we gotta talk about this’-Dean: ‘…we will…later’
Cas calls the BMoL for help after Dean calls him
Ketch knows about ‘Site 94’ to show just how good the BMoL intel is
Dean to Secret Service agent: ‘You’re trapped out here with us’-it’s an impressive line…but I can’t put my finger on why it doesn’t feel completely Dean to me…too much braggadocio? On the other hand, he’s really pissed at the unfairness of having been imprisoned when he just saved the President…
Totally badass boys setting all the traps
Sam: ‘We’re the guys that save the world’-same thoughts as about Dean’s tough guy line
Ketch disturbed they left survivors, boys say soldiers were just following orders
Dean called Billie, she saw Sam, they made deal to be temporarily dead in exchange for Billie getting to reap one of them-in the Asa Fox episode Billie says she can’t kill, just reap, though temporarily dead might be a loophole; and it is totally out of character for Sam not to push the issue of who is going with Billie while they were running. It definitely should have been highlighted that he was worrying about what was going to happen at midnight!
Dean found solitary confinement worse than Hell…hmmm
Breaking the pact could have consequences on a cosmic scale (I don’t remember if that ever played out, guess the rest of my rewatch will answer that)
Mary will sacrifice herself
Cas: ‘…this sad, doomed little world needs you…it needs every last Winchester it can get and I will not let you die…you mean too much to me…’-Cas is becoming very humanized this season, both in expressing his love for the Winchesters and in self-flagellation for his failures (wonder who he learned that part from)
Ketch kills everyone the boys left alive to stop questions-wouldn’t finding all those bodies in a super-secret facility lead to more questions than just a couple of escapees who were being held without fanfare so their escape could be covered up by the agency???
Mick gets to Mary with his BMoL pitch…oh dear…
On the one hand this is a very dramatic episode with an edge-of-your-seat escape by the boys…on the other hand it felt more like a scene from an action movie than Supernatural, the dialog a little too glib. Or maybe I’m just so annoyed by their stupidity in being captured that I’m reacting to this episode unfairly.
251. Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets (12.10)-W: Yockey/D: Wright
Then: angels are soldiers
That angel makes a very long Enochian speech before being killed
Dean is pissed at Cas for saving them in spite of Billie’s cosmic consequences threat…really, Dean? (I guess since show has progressed to having Sam and Dean no longer being at odds they have to give Dean someone to be irrationally mad at every couple episodes…sigh)
Dean doesn’t like the other angels picking on Cas-only Dean can do that
1901 flashback inconsistency: Cas mentions that the first angel killed, Benjamin, had kept his vessel for a long time and we see that vessel in the flashback, and all the other angels except Cas are in the same vessels in present day. However one of the angels refers to jumping to earth as unusual, so how does it track that they have the same vessels for 116 years???
The reveal that Lily’s child was human is wrenching (Do all mothers die birthing a Nephilim or is that only if the father is an archangel???)
Cas’ apology is genuine
Dean semi-apologizes for being a jerk to Cas
And now the question of what to do when they find Kelly
252. Regarding Dean (12.11)-W: Glynn/D: Badham
Then: Witches
Creepy start with Dean alone chasing someone in woods
Aww, the cute bunny cuddle
Suits with overcoats
Dean staring in mirror trying to remember-devastating!
Rowena confesses to Dean that seeing how God and Amara weren’t happy even with ultimate power has her rethinking her life-she opens up because she knows Dean won’t remember the conversation
The post-it notes: ‘Stay’-and then the ones in the trunk directing him to the witch-killing bullets because Rowena knows Dean won’t stay put
Why did they make the bull-riding scene a montage at the end instead of inserting it as a flashback when the woman in the restaurant references it???
Best episode of the season!!! Emotionally involving with the boys front and center, coherent case, intriguing character development of Rowena, and no Lucifer or BMoL in the vicinity, with a stellar performance from Jensen!
253. Stuck in the Middle with You (12.12)-W: Perez/D: Speight
This episode is uniquely structured, with flashbacks of the same scenes only with more dialog, and title cards between scenes. I found out after the fact that this style is an homage to Quentin Taratino’s filmmaking. It made the episode fascinating to watch, it felt like assembling a puzzle.
Rapid intercut from planning the job to suddenly being in the middle of a fight
Wally from ‘First Blood’ episode reappears
Slow motion walk of group setting out is a little odd
Crowley’s backstory makes complete sense, timeline accurate!!! Whoa!!! Kudos to this writer!!!(Dean dropped the Colt after trying to shoot Lucifer in 5.10 and it was not referenced again until this episode)
Crowley intercedes-unsuccessfully--for the Winchesters with Ramiel
Cas’ dying speech is over-the-top in my opinion: ‘…Knowing you has been the best part of my life…I love all of you’- again, he sounds awfully human
Badass Sam takes out Ramiel with the spear
Crowley does the right thing to save Cas! He really must care about Cas and the boys
Mary stole the Colt for the BMoL!!! No!!!
At least she gives Ketch hell for bad intel-how come the vaunted BMoL knowledge was wrong here? Not so omnipotent after all?
Crowley has Lucifer? Noooo
I give this episode high marks as well because it was fascinating to figure out, the writer actually gave Crowley a great backstory, and Mary’s duplicity was wrenching. Its only fault is Cas’ overly emo speech.
254. Family Feud (12.13)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Pesce
Then: Gavin, Crowley’s son
Scary music fake-out in teaser
Fast switches from Sam and Dean to Mary and Ketch to Crowley and Lucifer to Kelly and Dagon…the multiple plotlines in this episode are really choppily put together
Crowley fixed up Lucifer’s old vessel Nick-why, Crowley? You used to be smart enough not to let hubris take over
That scout leader dies in a ridiculously big bathroom
Smart Dean recalls that The Star was Gavin’s ship
Suits
Ketch praises Mary as being her best as a hunter
Boys propose Gavin goes back to The Star knowing he will die
Crowley and Rowena fight over Gavin
Gavin heroically wants to do the right thing
Sam does the spellwork
Their reaction to Mary saying she’s working with the BMoL is heartbreaking-Sam: ‘…And for obvious reasons, like broken ribs and burnt feet...We don't trust the Brits’-Sam tries to reason with Mary, Dean just shuts down
Rowena drives an emotional dagger into Crowley
Rolling Stones ‘Playing with Fire’ is perfect for montage of Mary and boys, Lucifer, Crowley, and Dagon and Kelly
This episode jumped around so much none of the storylines got enough time, especially the boys-I wanted more regretful discussion about sending Gavin, a decent guy, back to his death (they could have cut the Crowley/Nick scenes for it)
Fun note-back in season 6 ‘Weekend at Bobby’s’ Rufus steals Gavin’s ring from a Massachusetts museum exhibit of The Star (so when Abaddon brings him forward in time in season 9 what happens to the ring?)
255. The Raid (12.14)-W: Berens/D: McCarthy
Then: vampires; Colt lore
Really glad we got the conversation between Mary and boys that was in the montage last ep
Dean is really pissed and hurt: ‘So between us and them‘-Mary: ‘It's not like that’--Dean: ‘Yeah, Mary, it is. And you made your choice. So there's the door’-Mary instead of Mom
Then Dean turns on Sam for not being as overtly pissed as Dean is
Mary is driving a black SUV now
BMoL ‘old men’ want Sam and Dean on board-why?
Sam is driving a different car to the BMoL place-where did it come from?
Mary says her motivation is to make it so her boys don’t have to hunt any more
Hello Alpha Vamp!
Ketch claims he and Dean are the same-killers
New hunter in BMoL briefing refers to working a case with Rufus
Dean and Ketch bond over being macho by going after the vamps with machetes not fancy gadgets
When BMoL attacked Sam takes charge immediately-go smart Sam!
BMoL intel about alpha vamp totally wrong-second time their intel is bad…maybe they’re not so great after all?
Dean can’t stomach Ketch’s gratuitous violence even to a monster
Mary confesses she stole Colt from Ramiel in heat of battle, Sam doesn’t have time to react
Badass Sam vs vamps!
Impressive move getting bullets to Sam in front of alpha vamp-props to Mick for seeing Sam’s ploy
Sam takes out Alpha Vamp-he is really on a roll this season
Dean to Mary: ‘When I thought something might've happened to you, nothing else mattered…We're adults. You're gonna make your own choices, even if I don't like 'em. Even if I really, really don't like 'em…Okay, Mom?’
Sam falls for BMoL project even with flaws…
This is another episode I actually like because of the interaction between the boys and Mary and Sam’s awesomeness. The backdrop of the BMoL worked here because the boys were the focus, not the BMoL machinations. And it was exciting to watch.
256. Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell (12.15)-W: Perez/D: Lopez-Corrado
Then: Hellhounds
Hitting a hellhound with a stick chases it away-who knew? Sam should have tried that back at the end of season 3…
Dean carrying bat with barbed wire in nod to JDM’s Negan in ‘Walking Dead’
Suits
The young woman has an awfully big, nice house for a kid going off to college in a few weeks
Crowley is so in over his head with Lucifer
Another multi-plot episode-here’s Cas looking for Kelly…
Badass Sam takes out the hellhound even though he lost his special glasses
Okay, not a big Crowley fan but he actually is 10 steps of Lucifer!!!
Sam confesses he’s working with BMoL
Sam: ‘…because of Mick and his guys the Alpha Vampire is dead’-no, Sam, the Alpha is dead because of you! If you hadn’t been there all the BMoL would be dead…Arrgh
Dean doesn’t like it but will follow his brother
257. Ladies Drink Free (12.16)-W: Glynn/D: Kaderali
Then: Claire; werewolf lore
Girl in teaser cites horror movie trope and falls victim anyway
Mick gives impression that he’s a researcher who hasn’t done much field work
Sam gives away that Garth is a werewolf that they let live because he can control himself-Mick is surprised, something else the BMoL intel didn’t know…
Suits with overcoats
Mick lies first that girl wasn’t bitten and then to cover up that he killed her
Dean mentions Magda’s case to Mick for meriting second chances, doesn’t know the BMoL killed her
Dean: ‘Things aren’t just black and white out here’-he’s come a long way
Mick references ‘The Code’
Wow, that was some overacting writhing when Claire took the werewolf cure
258. The British Invasion (12.17)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Showalter
Then: Eileen
1987-Kendricks Mick vs friend-how stupid is that scenario! Why would you want to lose 1 of every top 2 students??? And wouldn’t parents be concerned about the fatality rate of kids enrolled there?
Every hunter is looking for Lucifer’s kid
One key opens all MoL bunkers
Eileen is a really good hunter-she found Kelly before Sam and Dean using internet
Crowley’s parading of Lucifer in front of all the demons is so stupid and the beginning of the end of Crowley being smart
Still no plan for when they find Kelly
Eileen really shook up about killing the BMoL (This incident highlights how hunters are above the law-if this really happened she would have been arrested and charged with manslaughter. Instead all legal consequences are ignored)
Mary is sleeping with Ketch-seems like in his pathological way he wants a relationship with her…he confesses when he first met her he thought he’d have to kill her…and he keeps emphasizing that she needs to choose between the great hunter she is or being a mom
Dagon tells Kelly the birth will kill her
Ketch kills Mick-he deserved better
Sudden emphasis on ‘The Code’
Dean has the Colt back
Cas MIA
Hess decides all American hunters must be exterminated
The Kendricks business and The Code are so stupid-I can’t believe the BMoL would have survived as long as they claim with such harsh and inflexible ways of doing things
259. The Memory Remains (12.18)-W: Bring/D: Sgriccia
Cas still MIA
Suits with overcoats
Weird return of Dean to his horndog ways that have been gone for a while
Also extra emphasis on his food piggishness
Pot-smoking Daryn is sympathetic character
The sheriff was trying to do the right thing to get out of the family’s monster-driven wealth
BMoL invasion of the bunker-in one day they catalogued everything in there? The boys have lived there for 4+ years and still haven’t done that
Dean’s fall over the balcony should have hurt him a lot worse
Another notch for Sam as he kills the god Moloch to save Dean
Dean: ‘What do you think our legacy's gonna be? When we're gone, I mean, after all the stuff we've done, you think folks will remember us? You know, like, a hundred years from now?’-Sam: No…guys like us, we're not exactly the type of people they write about in history books, you know? But the people we saved, they're our legacy. And they'll remember us and then I guess... we'll eventually fade away, too. That's fine, because we left the world better than we found it, you know.’
Dean: ‘I wonder what's gonna happen to this place. After we're gone, you think some hunter'll move in, keep fightin' the fight?’-Knowing now how the show ended, this line killed me…
Boys carve their initials into the table-my heart!
Ketch starts the cover-up for Mick’s death
260. The Future (12.19)-W: Berens & Glynn/D: Tapping
Dean pissed off at Cas disappearing but is mad because he was worried
Cas: ‘Could either of you kill an innocent?’
Sam comes up with grace extraction idea
Dean says Team Free Will is back-and then Cas disappears with the Colt
Cas: ‘I will kill the girl so Sam and Dean don’t have to’
Cas offers Kelly a ticket to heaven and she kind of goes along
Kelly: ‘…maybe everything that I've been through…is happening for a reason. Maybe it's part of some plan’-looking at this line after season 15 you have to wonder…
Kelly’s insistence that the baby is good vs Cas’ conviction that it will destroy the world really sucks the viewer in, similarly to wondering if Ruby was really a good guy or not back in season 4
Angel Joshua has different vessel
Goodbye Colt
Nephilim baby saves Cas
Cas leaves Sam and Dean unconscious and unprotected! Not cool!
So is Cas compromised???
(I deliberately ignored the Lucifer parts of this episode because ugh)
261. Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes (12.20)-W: Yockey/D: Speight
Then: Witch lore
Dean asks Mom to call because he’s ‘spun out’-he’s really in a bad place when he admits to being vulnerable
Max Banes is really annoying
Borrower witch idea was first mentioned by Rowena seasons ago
Ketch tells Mary that ends justify means-Mary becoming disenchanted with him
Ketch continues to cover for Mick
Dean watches Tasha’s mothering style and sees how different it is than what he has
Dean and Mary play phone tag all episode with unfortunate results
Mary discovers Mick’s body
Mary wins the fight against Ketch (which includes an audible crack of his arm though that is ignored going forward) but then he cheats with a taser
Max’s reaction to finding his mom dead is sad, he has to be feeling terrible for blowing off Alicia’s concerns
Dean shoots the witch to stop Max from taking her offer
Boys try to console Max
Why on earth did they drive off without taking the ring for safekeeping??? Knowing that Max was devasted and vulnerable! Sam: ‘Dean, you couldn't let Max make some deal for his soul’-Dean: ‘Sam, we do terrible things all the time to save each other. I mean, that's what you do for family. Who am I to stop him?’-so did Dean leave the ring on purpose?
And Toni starts brainwashing Mary
262. There’s Something about Mary (12.21)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Pesce
Sucks how Eileen was killed!
So Ketch borrows hellhound from Crowley who is working with BMoL-the deal is he only gets souls of people stupid enough to make crossroads deals
Sam takes Eileen’s death hard-Dean stays calm for him
The whole brainwashing Mary into killing hunters seems a) really convoluted-why do they need her to do it when they have the info and manpower? and b) very farfetched, and it really jumped the shark for me
Toni to Mary about John: ‘After you died, your beloved John was a man slowly going mad, searching for revenge…Your boys didn't tell you? The drunken rages? The weeks of abandonment?’ (Because this writing team can’t stand for John to be seen in any kind of good light)
When boys start searching for mic in bunker they tear the place apart, then find it under the main table. Why not look in the more obvious places first???
Why would demons want to work for Lucifer who kills them off when they can’t do the impossible? Okay, Crowley does that too, but Lucifer seems more blatant about it
When Mary realizes she’s unable to stop being manipulated she wants Ketch to kill her, tries to kill herself
Smart boys capture Toni
Someone please wipe the smugness out of Toni…
Crowley loses to Lucifer-goodbye Crowley…you never should have brought him back…
Badass Sam grabbing Toni and shooting around her when bunker invaded…until Mom shows up and has switched sides
Toni brags about turning Mary, Dean tries to reach Mary
Ketch chooses to make them suffer by suffocating them (and Toni) in the bunker instead of just shooting them (which ends up being lucky for us)
263. Who We Are (12.22)-W: Berens/D: Showalter
Then: Roy and Walt
Mary is now full killing machine for BMoL
Toni diverts Dean from killing her by saying only she can unprogram Mary-she switches sides awfully easily
Sam suggests using a spell to get out of bunker and it almost works but Ketch anticipated that possibility
Boys bonding in what looks like their last moments-Sam says it was easier to follow BMoL than to lead, Dean regrets they didn’t get Blaze of Glory death
Dean gets to use the grenade launcher finally!
He did it! But that is one nasty-looking leg wound
Boys warn Garth, then head to Jody-did they call and warn her first? Presume they did, when Sam walks into Jody’s he says ‘Where is she?’
Sam decides they should fight back, not hide from BMoL-gives inspiring speech to other hunters called to help: ‘I want you to follow me. Take the fight to them. To hit them before they hit us. We go in fast and hard and we fight and we beat them down until they give up or until they're dead. Look, they're well-trained and well-armed. Some of us might not make it back. But we will win. We will take down the bad guys because that's what we do. They're scared of us. Yeah. Good. They should be’
Also forgive Roy and Walt really easily LOL
Dean not going because of leg-Sam: ‘I’ll take a jacked up Dean Winchester over any ten other hunters any day’-but Dean is going to save Mom
Boys hug, ‘bitch’-‘jerk’
Dean has to drive Toni and Mary back to bunker-with his bum leg-for unprogramming equipment
Toni mentions seeing her son again for sympathy
Dean’s speech to Mary almost makes the dumb brainwashing arc worth it-he is nakedly vulnerable like never before
Intercutting between Dean/Mary and BMoL fight keeps tension high
Hess says Sam needs BMoL because Lucifer is back which Sam didn’t know-but he says pass anyway
Jody shoots Hess when she goes for gun (again, there are a lot of humans killed by the hunters and Sheriff Jody just killed someone which would normally lead to an investigation-but they just blow the whole place up…)
Mary says she pulled away from her boys because of guilt from making the deal with Azazel
Mary’s brainwashing only lasted for 2 episodes yet it is one of the most prominent aspects of this season in my memory because of how much I despised the illogic of it. I hate it…and I have to forgive it for giving us Dean’s speech to her…
264. All Along the Watchtower (12.23)-W: Dabb/D: Singer
Crowley gets to do a ‘Lazarus Rising’ number with the hand coming out of the dirt
Rowena is burned to a crisp-gross and unfortunate
Dean still limping
And we get AU world…with teaser about who it is that Cas meets there
Crowley having existential crisis about being King of Hell and hating it but he knows where to go: ‘Well, whenever there's a world-ending crisis at hand, I know where to place my bets. It's on you, you big, beautiful, lumbering piles of flannel’ and he says he will seal the gates of hell after Lucifer taken care of
A power outage is the clue to nephilim’s location? And they get an actual address on-line? Wouldn’t the power company have gone there then?
Cas says he got vision that Kelly’s baby will make a paradise on earth-we still don’t know whether he’s being misled about that…
Cas heals Dean’s leg
When Cas says the rift leads to an alternate world Sam says: ‘…like the place we got zapped to where we were…actors on a TV show’
Surprise, it’s AU Bobby Singer in the AU where Sam and Dean were never born because Mary didn’t make the deal
Crowley planned ultimate sacrifice of himself to thwart Lucifer (Note: After the episode aired Mark Sheppard released a fund-raising t-shirt that said ‘Even when I lose, I win,’ his final line which was cut from the episode. And that was too bad because it would have been a nice counterpunch to all of Lucifer’s taunting. I heard it in my head when watching.)
Looks like the plan to trap Lucifer is working, Sam and Dean just have to jump back through the rift-and Cas charges Lucifer?!? Dear God, what a dumb, dumb, dumb move!
And Lucifer stabs Cas coming back to our side of the rift
Mary goes after Lucifer-when he pulls her by the arm back through the rift it resembled Sam/Lucifer pulling Adam/Michael into the Cage
Kelly’s corpse is very unmessy for someone who just died giving birth…
So Cas is dead, Mary is gone, and the Nephilim has been born…Sam and Dean are having a really bad day…
Out of 23 episodes, one was really stellar: ‘Regarding Dean,’ where he loses his memory; Dean killing Hitler and the Asa Fox episodes were good; ‘Stuck in the Middle’ (raid on Ramiel’s house) is worthwhile in large part because of its unique presentation; and the prison break episode and the alpha vamp’s return are exciting enough that I can overlook their flaws. The second-to-last episode gets placed on my worth-rewatching list solely for Dean’s speech to Mary. 30% ratio…let’s see how season 13 fares.
Season 12
I’m back to my Supernatural season reviews after 3 months off to move from Chicago to North Carolina and celebrate the holidays in my new home! And my New Year’s resolution is to finish my SPN rewatch before my daughter has her baby next month! So on to season 12…
I remember not being very thrilled with season 12, and unfortunately my recollection was correct. I have a lot of issues with this season, though I am curious to see, after my complete rewatch, which is worse, season 12 or season13, because I wasn’t impressed with 13 either.
The main issue is the stupidity of the British Men of Letters arc. My gripes, in no particular order:
- Why didn’t the BMoL follow up when the American branch went radio silent in 1958 after Abaddon wiped the American MoL out? Wouldn’t there have been a smidgen of concern about losing contact with an entire country?
- If you want to start a partnership with someone why would you start by shooting and kidnapping them??? (Total side note-this same tactic was used in ‘Walker’ season 3, so maybe I am just not up-to-date on the revised guidelines for how to win friends and influence people?)
- The BMoL intel was so good about America and yet they hadn’t noticed the pattern of hunters being independent operators? Toni wanted Sam to tell her the hierarchy of the American hunters-the BMoL hadn’t figured out there wasn’t one? Really?
- Given the size of America relative to England, how could the BMoL system of warding all points of entry possibly work here?
- Later in the season we see child Mick have to kill his friend in order to advance in the Kendricks school. Hess acknowledged that both kids were excellent students, so how does it possibly make sense to kill half of your top prospects if you want to populate your organization with the best? And wouldn’t the parents sending kids to Kendricks notice the mortality rate of students???
And then there’s Lucifer…In their episode commentary for ’The British Invasion’ writers Buckner and Ross-Leming talk about how much they love writing the dynamic of Lucifer humiliating Crowley. Personally I didn’t need any more interaction between them. Lucifer was so much more impressive in small doses back in season 5 when he was scary. Since season 11 he has just been a whiny kid with daddy issues. Sigh…
On to the episodes-
242. Keep Calm and Carry On (12.1)-W: Dabb/D: Sgriccia
Mary’s birthday is 12/5/54; Mary met John coming out of the ‘Slaughterhouse Five’ movie on 3/23/72; Mary and John were married in Reno on 8/19/75-Dean recites these instantly, dates he has clearly internalized as precious tidbits from his dad about his mom
Mary has been dead for 33 years
Dean tells Mary right away about time travel and that he saw her as a ghost
Toni makes a phone call to her son so the audience will see she’s not a total monster
Toni’s conversation with Sam makes no sense-she says ‘we’ve been watching you and your brother for years’ and then asks him for ‘Dead drops, meeting places, an organizational hierarchy’ which, if they’ve been watching the boys, they should know doesn’t exist
You tell her, Sam: ‘Screw you… I've been tortured by the Devil himself…You're just an accent in a pantsuit. What can you do to me?’
Mary says she was told Men of Letters was a myth
Mary has big reaction to Baby
Every crossing into Britain warded-no monster deaths since 1965
The blowtorch to Sam’s foot is awful! (Writers’ room: Let’s torture Sam, he suffers so prettily)
Cas takes man’s truck without apology and jumps right to violence with veterinarian-haven’t seen him this angrily focused for a while
Crowley-Why??? Why bring Lucifer back??? You’re operating on emotion, not thinking it through!
Smart Sam-even hallucinating he comes up with a plan to fake suicide to try and get out
Sam doesn’t escape but at least he shakes Toni up, though not actually a good thing as it makes her more careful
243. Mamma Mia (12.2)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Wright
Sam does not have a tattoo when in bed with Toni-supposed to be our clue it’s not real (Writers’ room: We haven’t seen Sam with his shirt off or in bed with a woman for a while)
Why is Dean in the bunker? He should be frantically looking for Sam!
Dean is asking Cas for advice about talking to Mom??? Cause Cas is so knowledgeable about human relationships…
Mary’s guilt trip that her actions caused the boys to become hunters ignores that if she hadn’t made the deal they never would have been born
Rick Springfield as Vince Vincente-here’s to stunt casting…
Crowley and Rowena are back together as antagonistic partners
Why do BMoL want to know about Ruby and Benny? Ruby’s gone and Benny’s old news
That car crash with Baby is a real shocker the way it was filmed!
Mick comes in playing good cop…but it really is just an act, he admits call scary Ketch in
Sam trying to talk to Mom is adorably awkward
When Mary asks Sam why he returned to hunting Sam says: ‘…this is my family. My family hunts, you know? It's is what we do’ which struck me as an odd explanation, though it fits with the ‘family’ theme of the season
244. The Foundry (12.3)-W: Berens/D: Singer
Then: explains ectoplasm
It’s always a shame when the good Samaritans bite the dust
Cas is going after Lucifer alone-always a good idea…
We are told that Cas did heal Sam’s foot and Dean fixed Baby after the crash
Mom is riding shotgun, Sam relegated to back seat
So they had time to make fake IDs with the Partridge Family names Mary picked?
Crowley finds Cas
Working the case by internet vs legwork disorients Mary (though her approach did get her important info)
Sam thinks Mom is struggling, Dean blows his concern off
Rowena pulls a fast one on Lucifer even though she is his prisoner-she really is a very smart witch
Rowena will help with Lucifer when he is cornered, not going to do the search
Mary: ‘…I'm still mourning…My baby Sam. My little boy Dean. Just feels like yesterday we were together in Heaven, and now I'm here, and John is gone and they're gone. And every moment I spend with you reminds me of every moment I lost with them. And I thought hunting, working, would clear my head...
I have to go’
Dean’s face conveys such hurt at the same time he’s trying not to show it
Mary goes to hug Dean, he recoils, she hugs Sam
245. American Nightmare (12.4)-W: Perez/D: Showalter
Then: goes all the way back to season 2 psychic Sam
Nasty opener of poor woman dying from stigmata
Boys as priests
Dean texts ‘Should I call you Mom or Mary’-he is really not understanding why she left and is hurting
Dean very much on edge, jumps to conclusions about who is responsible without real proof
Suits
Sweaters when they are playing social workers
Dean fumbling getting over the gate felt off, he has done incredible physical feats in the past so why would this trip him up?
Mystery motorcyclist drives past-supposed to be Ketch?
Sam loses his cool when talking to the mom about her dead daughter, unusual for him
They must change from sweaters to flannel in the car because Sam is staying to investigate and is now wearing regular hunting clothes
Sam states he doesn’t have psychic powers anymore
Child Protective Service sends minor on bus alone from Iowa to California?! And shouldn’t she be hospitalized for treatment of her wounds?
Dean admits he hates that Mom left but he will try to understand…and be less of a dick
Ketch killing Magda after Sam saves her sucks
I do not like this episode purely for the portrayal of humans being so horrible. Demons I can handle, people are too crazy for me.
246. The One You’ve Been Waiting For (12.5)-W: Glynn/D: Lopez-Corrado
Then: the Thule
Clumsy Dean knocks over artifact, less jarring than the fence thing though
Smart Dean notices secret door
Suits
Ellie running away from boys is big mistake
Sam won’t let Dean use the grenade launcher
Ellie comes through by grabbing the gun and shooting one of the bad guys even though she’s woozy from blood loss
Ends on a high note of Dean exuberant over killing Hitler
While the plot in this one is kind of out there it is put together in a way that makes sense, and Ellie, while annoying, is also memorable and we see her growth in the episode. I consider this one of the better episodes of the season. And Dean finally has a win…
Unrelated notes at this point in the season-the show has returned to being visually dark, it’s hard to pick out details in the creepier scenes. And Sam’s hair is really on point this season.
247. Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox (12.6)-W: Yockey/D: Badham
Then: Wendigo; demon possession
1980-Mary is driving a blue and white Chevy Camarro on her hunt. Where is that from? Did she have her own car, borrow it, or steal it?
Big revelation that Mary continued to hunt sporadically after Dean was born
Nice recap of Asa’s life
Love the boys dropping in on Jody
So Ellen used to tell stories about Asa? Asa looked around 10 in the flashback so he would have been around 35 when the Roadhouse was around, so I guess that could track
Boys never go to hunter gatherings
Sam and Dean are legends and didn’t know it
Dean reiterates his ‘hunters die on the job’ expectation to Sam’s dismay
How Jody rolls with meeting Mary Winchester-Jody: ‘I thought you were…’-Mary: ‘I was’-Jody: ‘Wow…It’s so nice to meet you!’ and later how she lets Dean know she can tell he’s not all right: ‘…Is that why you spent the entire ride up here telling me in extreme, excruciating detail how you killed Hitler, but you neglected to mention the fact that your mom is back from the dead?’ and discussing how it would feel if her family came back from the dead: ‘…And it would scare the hell out of me…Because what if I’ve changed. What if they changed? What if it just didn’t work out the way I wanted?’ I love Jody
Mary still has John’s journal
Dean still bitter
Hi Billie! You really don’t like the way the Winchesters play fast and loose with the rules, do you
Odd that at the start of fighting the demon uses physical force then switches to mind force when in Jody
Round Robin exorcism-nice
Billie reveals how out of place Mary feels-offers her a ‘merciful’ way out
Reapers don’t kill people
Another episode I consider decent, the story and the characterizations make sense (and there’s only one plotline going on)
248. Rock Never Dies (12.7)-W: Berens/D: Sanchez
They gave Lucifer a reasonable way to power back up with his ‘magic feather’
Lucifer being surprised that Vince is famous seems a little odd since he’s in Vince’s head
Sam is looking up the BMoL in bunker files but doesn’t find anything useful…Hmmm, back in season 11 Sam found correspondence between MoL and Delphine of European chapter in 1943…
Lucifer getting off on being worshipped as a celebrity, going to take it as far as he can
Crowley and Cas have been working together for weeks looking for Lucifer
Dean casually picks up guitar in Vince’s room and noodles on it
Suits
Everyone they try to get info from is protecting their own interests, not concerned with ethics
Crowley volunteers to go with Cas as distraction to Lucifer-is he getting a conscience in his old age?
Fire alarm doesn’t work to empty concert so Dean shoots his gun
Sam holding doors open so kids can leave-iconic image of Sam’s strength, mental and physical
Lucifer gives a big boring speech on his abandonment issues
Dean calls it a win because they saved the crowd, Sam doesn’t because they didn’t save Vince
249. Lotus (12.8)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Sgriccia
Lucifer moving up the chain of power in his choice of vessels
Suits
President Jefferson Rooney (Guess he won instead of Trump)
Dean powered down bunker wards to let Crowley in-nice that was acknowledged, given how everyone seem to pop in randomly
Lucifer sics the Secret Service on Sam and Dean
Sam calls Mick from BMoL but hangs up before it’s answered-writing device to have BMoL show up
So much time in this episode spent on Lucifer…
Ketch does make an entrance
Ketch shows off all the fancy gadgets the BMoL have, including an ‘egg’ that can exorcise demons-Dean suggests using it for Lucifer
Lucifer’s baby is an abomination according to Cas
Why do Sam and Dean just stand around after they exorcise the president? They get Cas and Kelly to leave and then just stand there-what a dumb amateur move!!!
Boys in chains caught by Secret Service-this is really bad
Cas takes Kelly and she ditches him
Interesting note-Before starting this rewatch I had in my mind that the President arc was long and dragged out, but in actuality it is only this one episode. Also interesting that the actor hasn’t appeared to get any fan love even though he had the challenging job of channeling Pellegrino’s Lucifer.
250. First Blood (12.9)-W: Dabb/D: Singer
Boys are being completely silent when interrogated-no snark from Dean even-indication he knows just how screwed they are?
The older agent is more complex, goes against the ‘just want them punished’ mentality
Dean starts marking the days on the wall immediately
Haha, Mick’s old-fashioned typewriter has computer interface
Interlude where Mick tries to recruit Wally-I like Wally
When Crowley hears boys are in trouble he compliments them by saying he pities whoever has them
Mary and Cas go hunting since they can’t find the boys, meet up after 6 weeks, 2 days
Sam and Dean are dead
As they are going through woods-Sam: ‘6 hours to midnight…Dean, we gotta talk about this’-Dean: ‘…we will…later’
Cas calls the BMoL for help after Dean calls him
Ketch knows about ‘Site 94’ to show just how good the BMoL intel is
Dean to Secret Service agent: ‘You’re trapped out here with us’-it’s an impressive line…but I can’t put my finger on why it doesn’t feel completely Dean to me…too much braggadocio? On the other hand, he’s really pissed at the unfairness of having been imprisoned when he just saved the President…
Totally badass boys setting all the traps
Sam: ‘We’re the guys that save the world’-same thoughts as about Dean’s tough guy line
Ketch disturbed they left survivors, boys say soldiers were just following orders
Dean called Billie, she saw Sam, they made deal to be temporarily dead in exchange for Billie getting to reap one of them-in the Asa Fox episode Billie says she can’t kill, just reap, though temporarily dead might be a loophole; and it is totally out of character for Sam not to push the issue of who is going with Billie while they were running. It definitely should have been highlighted that he was worrying about what was going to happen at midnight!
Dean found solitary confinement worse than Hell…hmmm
Breaking the pact could have consequences on a cosmic scale (I don’t remember if that ever played out, guess the rest of my rewatch will answer that)
Mary will sacrifice herself
Cas: ‘…this sad, doomed little world needs you…it needs every last Winchester it can get and I will not let you die…you mean too much to me…’-Cas is becoming very humanized this season, both in expressing his love for the Winchesters and in self-flagellation for his failures (wonder who he learned that part from)
Ketch kills everyone the boys left alive to stop questions-wouldn’t finding all those bodies in a super-secret facility lead to more questions than just a couple of escapees who were being held without fanfare so their escape could be covered up by the agency???
Mick gets to Mary with his BMoL pitch…oh dear…
On the one hand this is a very dramatic episode with an edge-of-your-seat escape by the boys…on the other hand it felt more like a scene from an action movie than Supernatural, the dialog a little too glib. Or maybe I’m just so annoyed by their stupidity in being captured that I’m reacting to this episode unfairly.
251. Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets (12.10)-W: Yockey/D: Wright
Then: angels are soldiers
That angel makes a very long Enochian speech before being killed
Dean is pissed at Cas for saving them in spite of Billie’s cosmic consequences threat…really, Dean? (I guess since show has progressed to having Sam and Dean no longer being at odds they have to give Dean someone to be irrationally mad at every couple episodes…sigh)
Dean doesn’t like the other angels picking on Cas-only Dean can do that
1901 flashback inconsistency: Cas mentions that the first angel killed, Benjamin, had kept his vessel for a long time and we see that vessel in the flashback, and all the other angels except Cas are in the same vessels in present day. However one of the angels refers to jumping to earth as unusual, so how does it track that they have the same vessels for 116 years???
The reveal that Lily’s child was human is wrenching (Do all mothers die birthing a Nephilim or is that only if the father is an archangel???)
Cas’ apology is genuine
Dean semi-apologizes for being a jerk to Cas
And now the question of what to do when they find Kelly
252. Regarding Dean (12.11)-W: Glynn/D: Badham
Then: Witches
Creepy start with Dean alone chasing someone in woods
Aww, the cute bunny cuddle
Suits with overcoats
Dean staring in mirror trying to remember-devastating!
Rowena confesses to Dean that seeing how God and Amara weren’t happy even with ultimate power has her rethinking her life-she opens up because she knows Dean won’t remember the conversation
The post-it notes: ‘Stay’-and then the ones in the trunk directing him to the witch-killing bullets because Rowena knows Dean won’t stay put
Why did they make the bull-riding scene a montage at the end instead of inserting it as a flashback when the woman in the restaurant references it???
Best episode of the season!!! Emotionally involving with the boys front and center, coherent case, intriguing character development of Rowena, and no Lucifer or BMoL in the vicinity, with a stellar performance from Jensen!
253. Stuck in the Middle with You (12.12)-W: Perez/D: Speight
This episode is uniquely structured, with flashbacks of the same scenes only with more dialog, and title cards between scenes. I found out after the fact that this style is an homage to Quentin Taratino’s filmmaking. It made the episode fascinating to watch, it felt like assembling a puzzle.
Rapid intercut from planning the job to suddenly being in the middle of a fight
Wally from ‘First Blood’ episode reappears
Slow motion walk of group setting out is a little odd
Crowley’s backstory makes complete sense, timeline accurate!!! Whoa!!! Kudos to this writer!!!(Dean dropped the Colt after trying to shoot Lucifer in 5.10 and it was not referenced again until this episode)
Crowley intercedes-unsuccessfully--for the Winchesters with Ramiel
Cas’ dying speech is over-the-top in my opinion: ‘…Knowing you has been the best part of my life…I love all of you’- again, he sounds awfully human
Badass Sam takes out Ramiel with the spear
Crowley does the right thing to save Cas! He really must care about Cas and the boys
Mary stole the Colt for the BMoL!!! No!!!
At least she gives Ketch hell for bad intel-how come the vaunted BMoL knowledge was wrong here? Not so omnipotent after all?
Crowley has Lucifer? Noooo
I give this episode high marks as well because it was fascinating to figure out, the writer actually gave Crowley a great backstory, and Mary’s duplicity was wrenching. Its only fault is Cas’ overly emo speech.
254. Family Feud (12.13)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Pesce
Then: Gavin, Crowley’s son
Scary music fake-out in teaser
Fast switches from Sam and Dean to Mary and Ketch to Crowley and Lucifer to Kelly and Dagon…the multiple plotlines in this episode are really choppily put together
Crowley fixed up Lucifer’s old vessel Nick-why, Crowley? You used to be smart enough not to let hubris take over
That scout leader dies in a ridiculously big bathroom
Smart Dean recalls that The Star was Gavin’s ship
Suits
Ketch praises Mary as being her best as a hunter
Boys propose Gavin goes back to The Star knowing he will die
Crowley and Rowena fight over Gavin
Gavin heroically wants to do the right thing
Sam does the spellwork
Their reaction to Mary saying she’s working with the BMoL is heartbreaking-Sam: ‘…And for obvious reasons, like broken ribs and burnt feet...We don't trust the Brits’-Sam tries to reason with Mary, Dean just shuts down
Rowena drives an emotional dagger into Crowley
Rolling Stones ‘Playing with Fire’ is perfect for montage of Mary and boys, Lucifer, Crowley, and Dagon and Kelly
This episode jumped around so much none of the storylines got enough time, especially the boys-I wanted more regretful discussion about sending Gavin, a decent guy, back to his death (they could have cut the Crowley/Nick scenes for it)
Fun note-back in season 6 ‘Weekend at Bobby’s’ Rufus steals Gavin’s ring from a Massachusetts museum exhibit of The Star (so when Abaddon brings him forward in time in season 9 what happens to the ring?)
255. The Raid (12.14)-W: Berens/D: McCarthy
Then: vampires; Colt lore
Really glad we got the conversation between Mary and boys that was in the montage last ep
Dean is really pissed and hurt: ‘So between us and them‘-Mary: ‘It's not like that’--Dean: ‘Yeah, Mary, it is. And you made your choice. So there's the door’-Mary instead of Mom
Then Dean turns on Sam for not being as overtly pissed as Dean is
Mary is driving a black SUV now
BMoL ‘old men’ want Sam and Dean on board-why?
Sam is driving a different car to the BMoL place-where did it come from?
Mary says her motivation is to make it so her boys don’t have to hunt any more
Hello Alpha Vamp!
Ketch claims he and Dean are the same-killers
New hunter in BMoL briefing refers to working a case with Rufus
Dean and Ketch bond over being macho by going after the vamps with machetes not fancy gadgets
When BMoL attacked Sam takes charge immediately-go smart Sam!
BMoL intel about alpha vamp totally wrong-second time their intel is bad…maybe they’re not so great after all?
Dean can’t stomach Ketch’s gratuitous violence even to a monster
Mary confesses she stole Colt from Ramiel in heat of battle, Sam doesn’t have time to react
Badass Sam vs vamps!
Impressive move getting bullets to Sam in front of alpha vamp-props to Mick for seeing Sam’s ploy
Sam takes out Alpha Vamp-he is really on a roll this season
Dean to Mary: ‘When I thought something might've happened to you, nothing else mattered…We're adults. You're gonna make your own choices, even if I don't like 'em. Even if I really, really don't like 'em…Okay, Mom?’
Sam falls for BMoL project even with flaws…
This is another episode I actually like because of the interaction between the boys and Mary and Sam’s awesomeness. The backdrop of the BMoL worked here because the boys were the focus, not the BMoL machinations. And it was exciting to watch.
256. Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell (12.15)-W: Perez/D: Lopez-Corrado
Then: Hellhounds
Hitting a hellhound with a stick chases it away-who knew? Sam should have tried that back at the end of season 3…
Dean carrying bat with barbed wire in nod to JDM’s Negan in ‘Walking Dead’
Suits
The young woman has an awfully big, nice house for a kid going off to college in a few weeks
Crowley is so in over his head with Lucifer
Another multi-plot episode-here’s Cas looking for Kelly…
Badass Sam takes out the hellhound even though he lost his special glasses
Okay, not a big Crowley fan but he actually is 10 steps of Lucifer!!!
Sam confesses he’s working with BMoL
Sam: ‘…because of Mick and his guys the Alpha Vampire is dead’-no, Sam, the Alpha is dead because of you! If you hadn’t been there all the BMoL would be dead…Arrgh
Dean doesn’t like it but will follow his brother
257. Ladies Drink Free (12.16)-W: Glynn/D: Kaderali
Then: Claire; werewolf lore
Girl in teaser cites horror movie trope and falls victim anyway
Mick gives impression that he’s a researcher who hasn’t done much field work
Sam gives away that Garth is a werewolf that they let live because he can control himself-Mick is surprised, something else the BMoL intel didn’t know…
Suits with overcoats
Mick lies first that girl wasn’t bitten and then to cover up that he killed her
Dean mentions Magda’s case to Mick for meriting second chances, doesn’t know the BMoL killed her
Dean: ‘Things aren’t just black and white out here’-he’s come a long way
Mick references ‘The Code’
Wow, that was some overacting writhing when Claire took the werewolf cure
258. The British Invasion (12.17)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Showalter
Then: Eileen
1987-Kendricks Mick vs friend-how stupid is that scenario! Why would you want to lose 1 of every top 2 students??? And wouldn’t parents be concerned about the fatality rate of kids enrolled there?
Every hunter is looking for Lucifer’s kid
One key opens all MoL bunkers
Eileen is a really good hunter-she found Kelly before Sam and Dean using internet
Crowley’s parading of Lucifer in front of all the demons is so stupid and the beginning of the end of Crowley being smart
Still no plan for when they find Kelly
Eileen really shook up about killing the BMoL (This incident highlights how hunters are above the law-if this really happened she would have been arrested and charged with manslaughter. Instead all legal consequences are ignored)
Mary is sleeping with Ketch-seems like in his pathological way he wants a relationship with her…he confesses when he first met her he thought he’d have to kill her…and he keeps emphasizing that she needs to choose between the great hunter she is or being a mom
Dagon tells Kelly the birth will kill her
Ketch kills Mick-he deserved better
Sudden emphasis on ‘The Code’
Dean has the Colt back
Cas MIA
Hess decides all American hunters must be exterminated
The Kendricks business and The Code are so stupid-I can’t believe the BMoL would have survived as long as they claim with such harsh and inflexible ways of doing things
259. The Memory Remains (12.18)-W: Bring/D: Sgriccia
Cas still MIA
Suits with overcoats
Weird return of Dean to his horndog ways that have been gone for a while
Also extra emphasis on his food piggishness
Pot-smoking Daryn is sympathetic character
The sheriff was trying to do the right thing to get out of the family’s monster-driven wealth
BMoL invasion of the bunker-in one day they catalogued everything in there? The boys have lived there for 4+ years and still haven’t done that
Dean’s fall over the balcony should have hurt him a lot worse
Another notch for Sam as he kills the god Moloch to save Dean
Dean: ‘What do you think our legacy's gonna be? When we're gone, I mean, after all the stuff we've done, you think folks will remember us? You know, like, a hundred years from now?’-Sam: No…guys like us, we're not exactly the type of people they write about in history books, you know? But the people we saved, they're our legacy. And they'll remember us and then I guess... we'll eventually fade away, too. That's fine, because we left the world better than we found it, you know.’
Dean: ‘I wonder what's gonna happen to this place. After we're gone, you think some hunter'll move in, keep fightin' the fight?’-Knowing now how the show ended, this line killed me…
Boys carve their initials into the table-my heart!
Ketch starts the cover-up for Mick’s death
260. The Future (12.19)-W: Berens & Glynn/D: Tapping
Dean pissed off at Cas disappearing but is mad because he was worried
Cas: ‘Could either of you kill an innocent?’
Sam comes up with grace extraction idea
Dean says Team Free Will is back-and then Cas disappears with the Colt
Cas: ‘I will kill the girl so Sam and Dean don’t have to’
Cas offers Kelly a ticket to heaven and she kind of goes along
Kelly: ‘…maybe everything that I've been through…is happening for a reason. Maybe it's part of some plan’-looking at this line after season 15 you have to wonder…
Kelly’s insistence that the baby is good vs Cas’ conviction that it will destroy the world really sucks the viewer in, similarly to wondering if Ruby was really a good guy or not back in season 4
Angel Joshua has different vessel
Goodbye Colt
Nephilim baby saves Cas
Cas leaves Sam and Dean unconscious and unprotected! Not cool!
So is Cas compromised???
(I deliberately ignored the Lucifer parts of this episode because ugh)
261. Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes (12.20)-W: Yockey/D: Speight
Then: Witch lore
Dean asks Mom to call because he’s ‘spun out’-he’s really in a bad place when he admits to being vulnerable
Max Banes is really annoying
Borrower witch idea was first mentioned by Rowena seasons ago
Ketch tells Mary that ends justify means-Mary becoming disenchanted with him
Ketch continues to cover for Mick
Dean watches Tasha’s mothering style and sees how different it is than what he has
Dean and Mary play phone tag all episode with unfortunate results
Mary discovers Mick’s body
Mary wins the fight against Ketch (which includes an audible crack of his arm though that is ignored going forward) but then he cheats with a taser
Max’s reaction to finding his mom dead is sad, he has to be feeling terrible for blowing off Alicia’s concerns
Dean shoots the witch to stop Max from taking her offer
Boys try to console Max
Why on earth did they drive off without taking the ring for safekeeping??? Knowing that Max was devasted and vulnerable! Sam: ‘Dean, you couldn't let Max make some deal for his soul’-Dean: ‘Sam, we do terrible things all the time to save each other. I mean, that's what you do for family. Who am I to stop him?’-so did Dean leave the ring on purpose?
And Toni starts brainwashing Mary
262. There’s Something about Mary (12.21)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Pesce
Sucks how Eileen was killed!
So Ketch borrows hellhound from Crowley who is working with BMoL-the deal is he only gets souls of people stupid enough to make crossroads deals
Sam takes Eileen’s death hard-Dean stays calm for him
The whole brainwashing Mary into killing hunters seems a) really convoluted-why do they need her to do it when they have the info and manpower? and b) very farfetched, and it really jumped the shark for me
Toni to Mary about John: ‘After you died, your beloved John was a man slowly going mad, searching for revenge…Your boys didn't tell you? The drunken rages? The weeks of abandonment?’ (Because this writing team can’t stand for John to be seen in any kind of good light)
When boys start searching for mic in bunker they tear the place apart, then find it under the main table. Why not look in the more obvious places first???
Why would demons want to work for Lucifer who kills them off when they can’t do the impossible? Okay, Crowley does that too, but Lucifer seems more blatant about it
When Mary realizes she’s unable to stop being manipulated she wants Ketch to kill her, tries to kill herself
Smart boys capture Toni
Someone please wipe the smugness out of Toni…
Crowley loses to Lucifer-goodbye Crowley…you never should have brought him back…
Badass Sam grabbing Toni and shooting around her when bunker invaded…until Mom shows up and has switched sides
Toni brags about turning Mary, Dean tries to reach Mary
Ketch chooses to make them suffer by suffocating them (and Toni) in the bunker instead of just shooting them (which ends up being lucky for us)
263. Who We Are (12.22)-W: Berens/D: Showalter
Then: Roy and Walt
Mary is now full killing machine for BMoL
Toni diverts Dean from killing her by saying only she can unprogram Mary-she switches sides awfully easily
Sam suggests using a spell to get out of bunker and it almost works but Ketch anticipated that possibility
Boys bonding in what looks like their last moments-Sam says it was easier to follow BMoL than to lead, Dean regrets they didn’t get Blaze of Glory death
Dean gets to use the grenade launcher finally!
He did it! But that is one nasty-looking leg wound
Boys warn Garth, then head to Jody-did they call and warn her first? Presume they did, when Sam walks into Jody’s he says ‘Where is she?’
Sam decides they should fight back, not hide from BMoL-gives inspiring speech to other hunters called to help: ‘I want you to follow me. Take the fight to them. To hit them before they hit us. We go in fast and hard and we fight and we beat them down until they give up or until they're dead. Look, they're well-trained and well-armed. Some of us might not make it back. But we will win. We will take down the bad guys because that's what we do. They're scared of us. Yeah. Good. They should be’
Also forgive Roy and Walt really easily LOL
Dean not going because of leg-Sam: ‘I’ll take a jacked up Dean Winchester over any ten other hunters any day’-but Dean is going to save Mom
Boys hug, ‘bitch’-‘jerk’
Dean has to drive Toni and Mary back to bunker-with his bum leg-for unprogramming equipment
Toni mentions seeing her son again for sympathy
Dean’s speech to Mary almost makes the dumb brainwashing arc worth it-he is nakedly vulnerable like never before
Intercutting between Dean/Mary and BMoL fight keeps tension high
Hess says Sam needs BMoL because Lucifer is back which Sam didn’t know-but he says pass anyway
Jody shoots Hess when she goes for gun (again, there are a lot of humans killed by the hunters and Sheriff Jody just killed someone which would normally lead to an investigation-but they just blow the whole place up…)
Mary says she pulled away from her boys because of guilt from making the deal with Azazel
Mary’s brainwashing only lasted for 2 episodes yet it is one of the most prominent aspects of this season in my memory because of how much I despised the illogic of it. I hate it…and I have to forgive it for giving us Dean’s speech to her…
264. All Along the Watchtower (12.23)-W: Dabb/D: Singer
Crowley gets to do a ‘Lazarus Rising’ number with the hand coming out of the dirt
Rowena is burned to a crisp-gross and unfortunate
Dean still limping
And we get AU world…with teaser about who it is that Cas meets there
Crowley having existential crisis about being King of Hell and hating it but he knows where to go: ‘Well, whenever there's a world-ending crisis at hand, I know where to place my bets. It's on you, you big, beautiful, lumbering piles of flannel’ and he says he will seal the gates of hell after Lucifer taken care of
A power outage is the clue to nephilim’s location? And they get an actual address on-line? Wouldn’t the power company have gone there then?
Cas says he got vision that Kelly’s baby will make a paradise on earth-we still don’t know whether he’s being misled about that…
Cas heals Dean’s leg
When Cas says the rift leads to an alternate world Sam says: ‘…like the place we got zapped to where we were…actors on a TV show’
Surprise, it’s AU Bobby Singer in the AU where Sam and Dean were never born because Mary didn’t make the deal
Crowley planned ultimate sacrifice of himself to thwart Lucifer (Note: After the episode aired Mark Sheppard released a fund-raising t-shirt that said ‘Even when I lose, I win,’ his final line which was cut from the episode. And that was too bad because it would have been a nice counterpunch to all of Lucifer’s taunting. I heard it in my head when watching.)
Looks like the plan to trap Lucifer is working, Sam and Dean just have to jump back through the rift-and Cas charges Lucifer?!? Dear God, what a dumb, dumb, dumb move!
And Lucifer stabs Cas coming back to our side of the rift
Mary goes after Lucifer-when he pulls her by the arm back through the rift it resembled Sam/Lucifer pulling Adam/Michael into the Cage
Kelly’s corpse is very unmessy for someone who just died giving birth…
So Cas is dead, Mary is gone, and the Nephilim has been born…Sam and Dean are having a really bad day…
Out of 23 episodes, one was really stellar: ‘Regarding Dean,’ where he loses his memory; Dean killing Hitler and the Asa Fox episodes were good; ‘Stuck in the Middle’ (raid on Ramiel’s house) is worthwhile in large part because of its unique presentation; and the prison break episode and the alpha vamp’s return are exciting enough that I can overlook their flaws. The second-to-last episode gets placed on my worth-rewatching list solely for Dean’s speech to Mary. 30% ratio…let’s see how season 13 fares.