What happens when “Supernatural” writers put Hogwarts and Hunger Games together? You get Kendricks of course. Evil McGonnagal’s School for Occult Lore. Where young kids study the occult complete with robes and have to kill each other to graduate. Plus, Lucifer turns Cujo on Crowley, Mr. Ketch thinks that there’s something about Mary and the baby is burning Rosemary.
Okay, let’s quit getting weird. But this is Supernatural. Filled with pop culture references Captain America might not get. What we have here is another great episode since Stuck in the Middle. We’re going to do a recap which means SPOILERS. Just skip to the last paragraph if you haven’t seen this episode yet. We advise that you do, then again, please read on as we do this for a living.
The episode opens up to a flashback at Kendricks Academy for the occult and psychopathy. Two friends Tim and Mick are called in by evil McGonnagal, Dr. Hess for an unknown reason. The boys are supposed to graduate to another level but before they do, they must kill each other because they must follow any order without question. She leaves them in a room with one knife. Moments later, Mick comes out of the room bloody holding the knife. Mick then wakes up in the BMOL base. Pretty strange considering back in the 1930s, the Men of Letters American chapter only held some sort of ritual to recognize their initiates. That is until Abaddon wiped them out.
We then see Sam communicating with the deaf hunter Eileen who we last saw in that Banshee episode. Through her, they get a lead on Kelly Kline. Finally, we’ll see some progress with her, her baby, Daigon and of course Lucifer. The boys get home to the bunker where they see Mick who crashed in. Mick tells them about a cosmic shockwave that happened months ago which was actually the conception of a Nephilim as explained to him by the brothers. Mick tells them that they should have killed Kelly then and there as per the Men of Letters Code against the Supernatural as well as the consequences of having a Nephilim running around. Last we saw a Nephilim, she wasn’t much of a threat as she lived peacefully with humans until Cas and Metatron easily ended her. Speaking of Cas, our previous speculation about him getting involved in the previous episode Ladies Drink Free was false. Well, considering it involved his vessel’s daughter. It was strange not having him there, but we’ll get to that.
As for Kelly, the next scene shows us Lucifer, trapped in hell calling on to Daigon, meaning he’s been on a line with Daigon keeping tabs on his child. The next scene shows us another of Mick’s flashbacks. He reported to Hess that Tim fought bravely but he actually just took the knife and killed him. He wakes up to a call from Dr. Hess. Hess tells him that there’s a change of plan and that she also knows about the Nephilim problem. Since Mick didn’t report in his findings the previous night, which resulted in the call, it might be a plot hole or the BMOL is just that good with intelligence. Mick’s given an ultimatum that if Sam and Dean don’t get in line, Mr. Ketch will do the honors. Assimilate or Eliminate. And Mick was getting so close.
For these past two episodes, Adam Fergus has played Mick out to be a real tortured human being instead of some stuck up suit sent by the BMOL to supervise Mr. Ketch. We see Mick as a conflicted individual trained to be all business. He’s always away from the action until the events of The Raid where he gets first-hand experience of an attack by the Supernatural and seeing the Winchesters at work. He finds out that the situations involving monsters aren’t always black and white in the events of Ladies Drink Free and that he’s found real friends in Sam and Dean, sort of. Unfortunately, hanging around the Winchesters isn’t always a good idea.
The episode moves on to Kelly struggling with cramps because of the baby. She convinces Daigon to let her see a doctor to make sure the baby is okay. Wouldn’t want to fail Lucifer. Kelly and Daigon go and see a doctor who gives Kelly a sonogram. The doctor sees something interesting but Daigon mind-controls him to say everything’s fine. A demon later goes to kill the doctor and erases his records of Kelly.
We then get to see Dean, drunk and sleeping after a drinking session with Mick. This is the hilarious scene in their promo where Dean actually gets beat in drinking. Mick gives them a snippet of his lie before the BMOL that he’s actually a sympathetic orphan who lived in the streets until the BMOL took him in. Mick then asks for vodka and Dean has just had it.
We then go Lucifer and Crowley. Crowley turns Lucifer into his dog as was done to him when he took over hell. Lucifer obliges and says he swears his loyalty to Crowley. To make things more official, Crowley gathers his demons and lets Lucifer announce the rightful King of Hell. It’s another hilarious scene as Lucifer faces the demons and tells them that the rightful king of hell is Crowley but silently mouthing ‘me’ and threatens severe agony on those who do not support the rightful king. Crowley is satisfied but oblivious to what Lucifer was doing. Mark Pellegrino is just perfect as Lucifer.
We temporarily go to see Ketch and Mary in a hotel room. Mary asks Ketch his relationship with Mick. Ketch tells her that he and Mick were more survivors than friends which reflects what happened in Mick’s past. Obviously, Ketch is more on the dark side than Mick. They talk a bit and Ketch offers her a drink and things sometimes happen after that.
The scene shifts to Mick in his base where he’s met by a guy named Renny Rawlings, top of his class and Hess’ assistant. He tells Mick that he’s there to keep an eye on him. We shift to the bunker where Dean is trying to contact Castiel due to the lead on Daigon. All he gets is Cas’ voicemail. ‘Make your voice, a mail’ he says. Castiel’s character seems a bit inconsistent as he remains detached or unknowing of many of the things we currently take for granted. Can’t enumerate the previous times he missed out on some references despite Metatron dosing him with all the idiomatic expressions, references and modern information. Maybe he just missed telling Cas what voicemail is. But strangely, something may be up with Castiel which could explain his non-involvement in the previous episode.
Sam is talking to Eileen about how she managed to track Daigon. She managed to singlehandedly kill a demon with an angel blade which is quite a feat for lone hunters. That was the demon that killed the doctor who checked on Kelly. Eileen managed to get Kelly’s phone number. Kelly tells Daigon to go shopping for the doctor’s prescription. She then gets a call from Sam pretending to be the doctor’s assistant and gets Kelly to go out alone. Sam and Eileen meet with Mick and Rawlings where Mick gives Sam the Colt in order to kill Daigon.
Dean intercepts Kelly on her way to the doctor and takes her to the group where they, of course, discuss the morality of murdering Kelly and her child. Both Mick and Rawlings want Kelly killed, but Daigon suddenly arrives and tosses them around. Eileen manages to get the Colt and shoots Daigon. Daigon’s image turns out to be an illusion, and Eileen kills Rawlings instead. Because of their code, Mick points his gun to Eileen intending to kill her, but the boys stop him. Mick recalls Tim begging for his life as he points his gun at Eileen. Mick decides not to kill her to atone for his old sin.
We go back to Ketch and Mary who apparently hit the sack. Mary tries to get some meaning or sentiment from Ketch about what happened, but Ketch tried to remain stoic. He tries to make Mary choose again between her sons and hunting, but Mary insists on both as opposed to what the BMOL are used to. It’s always one or the other and Ketch seems to envy her.
At closing, we go back to Lucifer discussing his vessel with one of Crowley’s demons. He tries to get the demon to disarm the vessel’s ‘security system, ’ but Crowley killed the demon who created it as a precaution. He tells the demon to do whatever he can and soon before his child arrives. Back at the bunker, Eileen remains shaken about what happened, ut Sam tells her it was an honest mistake. Kelly gets handcuffed to the bed by Daigon and tells her the truth about her ultimate fate when the child arrives. Like an unworthy vessel, Kelly’s body starts showing some deterioration. At BMOL HQ, Mick is met by Ketch and by Dr. Hess who berates him for allowing Daigon and Kelly escape, about Rawling’s death and letting Eileen live. She tells Mick to have Eileen hunted and killed as per their code. She tells him that the Winchesters will be investigated and executed if found guilty. Mick gets cynical with Hess and tells her his sentiments about the Winchesters and about Tim and that from then on he will be doing the right thing. Doing the right thing is never easy especially when you’re shot in the head by Ketch. Hess tells Ketch to start eliminating all American hunters so they can start from scratch in eliminating all monsters in America. Guess Elieen would be the first to go, which would be just a shame. Then what about Claire, Jodi, Donna, those two guys from Chitters? In the second to last scene, the boys talk about Cas going missing. But out of their latest incident, the boys finally get the Colt back after going missing for so long.
Too bad we have to say goodbye to Harry Potter too soon. Poor Mick, we barely knew ye. He’s actually a pleasant fellow as we first saw in the second episode. Wonder how Ketch will feel if he has to do it to Mary? Ketch seems to have common sentiments with Mick as he obviously did the same thing in the past. When the list comes down to her, will he let Mary go? As for Cas, what could he be up to? Has something happened? Could the BMOL have gotten to him as well or is he getting himself into trouble again making ‘arrangements’ to get things done? It’s a pretty good episode as it gets the season’s overall arc going and gives us a few funny highlights. Some fans might not like getting Mary hooked up with Ketch but something interesting needs to get done for her and that may be key to beating the formidable Mr. Ketch in the future. Things should hit the fan soon enough but strangely, we’ll get an MOTW episode after this about an earthly deity and the colt will be put through its paces once again.
“Supernatural’s” Jared Padalecki, Adam Fergus and Jensen Ackles created a slightly different version of a scene from British Invasion for a lighter look. In this one, (which you can see above) Sam talks Mick out of shooting Eileen in a rather urgent scene before the Brothers Winchester drive her back to safety. In this new version, Jared and Fergus (Mick) draw the action way out forcing Ackles to slowly maneuver Baby out of the scene.
Check out next week’s “Supernatural” trailer for 1218 The Memory Remains.