Last week Sam and Dean went up against the Thule Society and thwarted their plans to resurrect Hitler while saving the life of a young woman. Dean can now claim the ultimate bragging rights by killing Hitler.
This week we celebrate the life of a hunter and see the return of…someone….
Spoilers below!
We start in Emerson, Manitoba and young boy named Asa Fox (Jack Moore) is being chased down by a nasty looking werewolf. Thinking that this is the end for him, he is saved by a shotgun wielding Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith). She drives him home and let’s slip that she is going to retire from the Hunter life. Asa expresses his disappointment “If you retire then who’s going to save people like me?” Right?
Meeting Mary Winchester awakes something in young Asa and we see a rocking montage of him learning about the supernatural by cutting out newspaper clippings of unexplained events, and making his own salt shotgun shells. Asa Fox (Shaine Jones) becomes a hunter, and he does a lot of good in his neck of the woods. It all comes to an end, however, when he unexpectedly dies while out on a hunt.
Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) is settling down for a nice night of Netflix without the chill when she gets a knock on the door. Sam and Dean have paid her a visit after completing an hunt. Sadly, we don’t get to see Claire or Alex in this episode, but Jody is awesome so it’s all good.
While watching a rom-com and eating pizza with the boys, Jody receives a sad call. Once she hears about Asa’s death she starts packing up her things so she can make it to his wake. Knowing that he is a hunter, Sam and Dean ask to go with her. It’s been a long time since they had any contact with other hunters so this would be a great opportunity for them. Jody agrees and off they go.
At the Hunter gathering, Sam and Dean are introduced to a few hunters including Bucky Sims (Mac Brandt), Elvis Katz (Billy Wickman), Randy Bull (Darren E. Scott), Max (Kendrick Sampson) and his twin sister Alicia (Kara Royster). They also meet Asa’s grieving mother, Lorraine Fox (Laurie Paton). It’s an interesting experience for them, being as isolated as they usually are. Sam and Dean find out that their reputation has preceded them. These hunters know a bit about their lives including Dean and his penchant for dying and coming back and Sam’s turn with being possessed by Lucifer.
As the gathering winds down, the remaining hunters share stories about Asa and his hunts. We also find out that Jody and Asa had a casual thing with each other. This death must affect her greatly. Of course this party can’t be all about reminiscing the good times with Asa. When Randy goes to get a beer, he is attacked but a stealthy arm wielding a knife. No one knows what’s happened to him, but a surprise visitor shows up. Mary, the one who saved Asa and the catalyst for his decision to become a hunter, shows up to the gathering. Sam and Dean are surprised to see her after all this time since she really hasn’t been in much contact with the boys.
Jody is shocked and excited to meet Mary after hearing all the stories about her. This is an awkward reunion between the Winchesters. Dean wants to know where she’s been and she’s been everywhere. Using John’s journal she’s been retracing some of his steps. While trying to find some normalcy she decided to look up the one name that she thought would still be around: Asa. Dean takes it a little personal that she would only contact them once a week but she decided to drive to Canada to see Asa. Dean goes outside to get his thoughts in order.
In the kitchen Mary has a bit of a hostile meeting with Lorraine. Lorraine is angry at Mary and she shows her all the postcards Asa wrote to Mary after his hunts. Since he couldn’t send them to Mary because he didn’t know where she lived, he kept them all. Loraine blames Mary for everything because instead of having a wife and kids and becoming an astronaut, he chose hunting. Mary now feels partially responsible for his death.
Going into the parlor room, Sam and Mary pay their respects to Asa, but when they look at Asa’s body, a drop of blood falls on his face. Looking up they see what’s happened to Randy Bull as his body is tied to the ceiling.
Rushing into the living room, Sam and Mary try to get all the remaining hunters out of the house. That plan is foiled when Max discovers that the housed has been warded, meaning they are trapped and cannot escape. There is also the unmistakable stench of sulfur. Demons…it’s always demons.
Bucky knows exactly who they’re dealing with: Jael, a crossroads demon who killed Asa. It looks like he wants to have a little fun with the hunters.
Outside the house, Dean meets Billie who just finished reaping Randy’s soul. Alarmed Dean tries to get into the house, but he can’t get in. Bucky tells the hunters about Jael and his personal vendetta against Asa. Knowing now that Jael killed Randy, they come to the conclusion that Jael must be possessing one of the hunters. All signs point to Alicia but she denies it. For a little while at least until Jael can’t handle himself and gives up the ruse, releasing Alicia’s body and flying into the air ducts. The hunters pair off and search the house.
Dean asks Billie to get him in the house. She agrees to it, but on the condition that he owes her one. Agreeing to the deal, he gets thrown into the house startling Lorraine and Elvis. Lorraine thinks Dean is the demon, but he’s not. No, that honor goes to Elvis.
Now that he has to deal with Demon Elvis, Dean fights him off with really little trouble. Dean attempts an exorcism (hey remember those?) but Jael isn’t having it. Breaking Elvis’s neck, the demon makes his escape.
The rest of the hunters come back into the living room. Jael must be in one of them, but for now they plan a devil’s trap. Mary goes off on her own to get the angel blade that’s in Asa’s room. When she returns, Jody shares her concerns with Sam. Jody believes that Mary is the demon and tries her hardest to convince Dean to stick the devil’s blade into her. Sam sees right through Jody, knowing that she isn’t sounding like herself and that’s because Jael has now taken over.
Jael is now done with playing games. Subduing all the hunters as once, Jody/Jael goes around and taunts them all. She talks about Sam about his run as Lucifer, reveals that the twins are actually Asa’s children, and that Lorraine would occasionally sabotage his hunts. Jael also reveals that Jody not only cared for Asa, but she fantasized a life with him. But the biggest reveal is with Bucky. While Bucky has told everyone that Jael killed Asa, it was really him all along. Attempting to put an end to all of this, the hunters say the exorcism invocation and before long, Jael is cast out of Jody’s body.
Bucky now has some explaining to do. One night while on a hunt, Asa and Bucky were tracking Jael. Bucky wanted to turn back and get the angel blade, but Asa called him a coward and shoved him. In retaliation Bucky pushed him back and Asa tripped, banging his head on a rock. To hide what he did, Bucky hung him from a tree and placed the blame on Jael. As punishment, the hunters agree to tell all the other hunters exactly what he did. It’s quite a terrible punishment for a hunter.
In the end, Asa, Randy and Elvis are salted and burned. Lorraine comes to an understanding that her son did have a family and she is happy that she is a grandmother. Jody and Mary have a candid conversation. Jody tells Mary that she has two good sons, but Mary admits that they are not the problem, she is.
This is a critical point in Mary’s life. While she’s been back, she’s had to deal with living in a new century, with her grown up sons, and leaving everything in heaven behind. Billie shows up with the intention of cashing in on that favor that Dean owes her. Billie wants Mary’s soul because she knows that Mary feels alone and left out in this new world. For a second Mary considers it, but for now she has no intention of leaving Sam and Dean behind. She is now starting to come to grips with being back on Earth, but she needs more time before she goes back to the bunker. Whew!
On December 1st, we get back on the Vincifer train with Cass and Crowley! I thought the Vincent meat suit was destroyed and tossed into the ocean. It looks like he got better.
Supernatural is on Thursdays at 9pm PST on The CW.
The Thoughts So Far:
- So, uh, Bucky is not going to jail or anything for killing Asa? I feel like he should.
- For a second I thought for sure that Mary was going to take Billie’s offer. Gut tells me that she still might. Sigh.
- That Billie is really pushing to reap some Winchester souls. That has to mean something in the later episodes.
- Now we have three potential adversaries for the Winchesters: The British Men of Letters, Lucifer and Billie. I cannot even begin to fathom how all of this is going to go down. I’m calling a Mr. Ketch/Lucifer showdown. They are making Mr. Ketch super mysterious and it can only be because he’s a stealthy assassin AND he’s someone important. Who are you Mr. Ketch?!
The Supernatural Soundtrack
We had two good tunes this week:
- Bachman-Turner Overdrive “Roll on Down the Highway”
- Alice in Chains “Man in the Box”
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