Another Thursday and another great episode of Supernatural. We ended the last episode with Cass and Kelly Kline joining forces to protect Lucifer’s son despite Sam and Dean’s warnings. Dagon is no more, thanks to the power that Lucifer’s son passed on to Cass, and Mary is still working British Men of Letter cases.
Related: Check out GGA’s Supernatural Season 12 Recaps
In this episode, “Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes,” Mr. Ketch’s little secret gets out and Sam and Dean join the witch twins, Max and Alicia, on a case.
We start in Rock River, Wyoming at a quaint boarding house. Tasha Banes (Alvina August) arrives at the house and is greeted by a salty older woman (Linda Darlow). Despite the rude welcome, the owner of the B&B, Andy, is friendlier.
That night Tasha casts a reveal spell to help her find something located around the B&B. With the help of a glowing purple crystal, Tasha makes her way to an outside cellar. Opening the doors, we can see that the cellar hasn’t been used in some time. Something catches her eye while she’s down there, but we never get to see what it is because Tasha is stabbed from behind by a rather large knife.
At the bunker, the boys are still reeling from what happened the night before with Cass and Kelly Kline. Dean believes that Lucifer’s son has put the whammy on Cass. Unfortunately, they have no idea where Cass went and they can’t get a hold of him because he’s gone off the grid. To make matters worse, they must find some way to put the Colt back together.
While they’re coming up with a plan, they hear a cell phone ring. Knowing that it’s not one of theirs, they assume it must be one of Mary’s phones. Sam answers it and on the other line is Alicia Banes (Kara Royster), with her twin brother Max (Kendrick Sampson). Alicia is reluctant to bring Sam in on her problem, but after a little coercing she relents. Her mother, Tasha, went on a case to find a “borrower” witch and failed to call in. Needless to say, Alicia’s worried that something might have happened.
With no leads on Cass or Kelly, Sam volunteers to help her find her mother. Before they head out, Dean gives Mary a call, but she’s indisposed. Her and Mr. Ketch have caught a shapeshifter and are interrogating it for information on the rest of the shapeshifters. Standard BMoL work.
Sam and Dean meet up with Alicia and Max and get the update on their mother. Max doesn’t think much of Tasha’s disappearance, but Alicia feels she has cause to worry.
They arrive at the B&B and find a strange man (Paul Rogic) exiting the cellar. Thinking nothing of it, they enter the B&B where they meet friendly Andy. From behind them they hear a voice and Tasha appears looking good as new.
Up in Tasha’s room, Alicia asks Tasha why she never called in, but she makes the excuse that her phone was charging. As Tasha opens a bottle of wine, there’s a loud crack, like a twig snapping in half. Turning her back to the group, she calmly sets her broken finger back in place.
Leaving the interrogation room, Mr. Ketch is enthusiastic about what they’ve done, so much so that he wants to get a room with Mary and have a good time. She shoots him down quickly, but points out that what they’re doing to the shifter is a waste of time. Mr. Ketch argues that the ends justify the means, but Mary is unconvinced. Mr. Ketch challenges her to get a hold of Mick, but oddly enough she hasn’t been able to get a hold of him.
At the B&B, Dean ad Tasha have a nice chat about parents and parenting. In the end, parents do what they can for their children, but they are just people susceptible to mistakes and flaws and everything else.
Mary listens in on the voice message that Dean left her and there is a touch of regret over missing his call and hearing the need in his voice. As she makes her way to Mick’s office, she overhears Mr. Ketch on the phone. He mentions a package that’s in the armory and he gives a lot number. Mary mouths the numbers so she can remember them later.
Once Mr. Ketch is off the phone, Mary’s phone rings. She quickly turns the ringer off, but Mr. Ketch heard it. Giving it a second, Mary enters the office and asks to use the computer for her email. Mr. Ketch awkwardly stands behind her as she reads a conveniently sent email from Mick, informing her that he is staying in London. It’s a strange coincidence that Mary doesn’t buy it for a second.
Sam arrives with food and calls Dean aside. Outside the room, Sam shows Dean a missing person’s flyer with a picture of Rick Walsh, the strange man from earlier that day. It confirms that something is going on that needs to be investigated.
In another room, the rude older lady is putting together a creepy twig and twine human mannequin that looks a lot like Tasha.
Back at the British Men of Letter’s base, Mary gives Dean a call but it goes straight to voice message. Mary apologizes for not being there for them but is convinced that she has to finish what she started with the BMoL.
Of course, Dean doesn’t get the message because him and Sam are checking out the cellar. While they’re down there, they find the corpses of two men, Andy and Rick, and Tasha. They discover that their hearts have been ripped out, and magic was somehow used to create doppelgangers.
Max, on his way to a hot date, comes down the cellar to see what the boys are up to. Unfortunately, they are unable to stop him from seeing the body of his mother.
At the base, Mary decides to do a little investigating of her own. Finding the large “package” Mr. Ketch spoke of, she approaches it and slowly opens the lid. Inside she finds Mick’s body.
Leaving the armory, Mary tries to escape the base, but she sees Mr. Ketch coming down the hall. In an effort to get away from him, she sneaks into a room where she finds computer monitors showing information on her and her sons, Eileen, Claire and Garth and recordings from the bunker. She quickly calls up Dean to warn him, but all she can do is leave a message.
Opening the door to leave, she runs into Mr. Ketch who’s outside waiting for her. Piecing it all together she knows that Mr. Ketch killed Mick. They get into a massive fight, and even though Mr. Ketch seems to have the upper hand, Mary dislocates his shoulders and punches him multiple times in the face.
During their fight, Mr. Ketch confesses to the murders of the federal agents and the psychic girl from “American Nightmare.” “It’s the end for the American Hunters. Their time has passed,” he says but he promises to take care of Mary as long as she “plays nice.” But one thing we know about Mary is she doesn’t need to play nice. Kicking him in the groin and punching him one more time with brass knuckles, Mary drops Mr. Ketch to the floor and makes her way out. Before she can leave the room, Mr. Ketch tasers her from behind.
Max enters the B&B room and quickly grabs Tasha. Demanding to know who she really is, he casts a reveal spell on her, forcing her to tell him where the old lady can be found. The old lady, sensing his magic, “activates” Andy and Rick. Alicia rushes to her mother’s side, refusing to believe that the Tasha imposter is not her real mother.
Dean and Max go into the old lady’s room, but she’s ready for them. Restricting Dean to a chair, the old lady is pleased to see Max. “Maybe you’ll take the deal,” she says to him.
Rick and Andy enter the room, but Rick is quickly thrown out the window. Andy approaches Sam and they start fighting, but it looks like nothing can actually harm them.
Max wants to know what happened to his mother, and the old lady shares her memories with them. Since she is a borrower witch, it means she made a deal with a demon to get her powers. The price of the deal means that she goes to Hell when she dies. As she gets older, she realizes that she needs to rid herself of the burden by passing her power on to another witch. If another witch takes her power and her burden, it means her soul is free.
After Tasha refused the deal, the old witch cut out her heart and put it into her twig and twine doll, which then morphed into Tasha. The dolls, as the old lady explains it, has all the memories of the people she killed. She tries to entice Max with the idea that his mother can live forever. All he has to do is take the deal.
In the other room, Sam is getting wrecked by imposter Andy. Alicia, still at her fake mother’s side, finally gets into the fight. Tackling Andy, Alicia saves Sam from certain death. Alicia turns around and is happy to see her mother standing up, but her happiness turns to shock as the Tasha doll stabs her in the stomach.
Max, filled with the idea of his mother living on, reaches for the witch’s ring to seal the deal, but Dean is able to reach for his gun. Firing one witch-killing bullet at the old lady, he takes her out and her twig dolls dissolve into dust.
With the old witch dead and the dolls gone, Sam calls out for Dean and Max. Entering the room, Max sees his sister dying on the floor but there’s nothing he can do to save her.
Hours later, Sam and Dean try to console Max. While he blames himself for the deaths of his sister and his mother, he knows he has no other choice but to burn their bodies and move on. At Max’s request, Sam and Dean leave him alone.
On the road, Sam and Dean talk about Max and the distraught state that they left him in. Sam believes that Max is strong and will get through the loss, but Dean doesn’t think so. As they drive away, we see Max about to making a terrible mistake. Unable to bear the loss, Max takes up the witch’s ring and spell book, and creates an Alicia doll. Before he leaves the B&B with his “sister” he burns Alicia’s real body.
With Sam asleep, Dean listens to the messages that Mary left him. After hearing the second message, he knows that Mary is in deep trouble.
Mary slowly wakes up after being tased and sees Mr. Ketch in the room with her. Finding herself strapped to a chair and she can only assume that they’re going to kill her. The assumption proves to be false, as Toni Bevell (Elizabeth Blackmore) makes her return looking as sinister as ever. The impending interrogation is about to begin.
Supernatural airs on Thursdays at 8pm PST/EST on The CW.
The Thoughts So Far:
- How did Mary’s phone hold such a charge? I would imagine that Mary hasn’t been at the bunker for months.
- “Brass knuckles are brass knuckles” Yaaaaas, Mary.
- Also, that one BMoL Agent who left the door open. Didn’t he realize that it was Mary standing outside the room? Sloppy.
- I don’t like how Alicia went out. Really? She’s going to ignore everyone’s warning and just stay by her mother’s side while Sam fights off Andy? She entered the B&B with a knife drawn and she’s not going to immediately jump into a fight? And then she dies in a completely senseless way? Another female hunter gone. Ugh.
- On this week’s episode of “Hey Weren’t You on Supernatural Before?” actress Linda Darlow, the borrower witch in this episode, was Ezra Moore in the Season 7 episode “Time After Time.”
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