After last week’s Mark of
Cain-centric episode, not to mention its very much cliffhangery ending, I
expected this episode to be a continuation of that storyline. So imagine my
surprise when it started out with the kind of typical Supernatural opening sequence
which usually is a sign of a standalone, Monster of the Week episode. Now, I’m
one of those weirdos who actually love those kind of episodes, not just on
Supernatural but on most similar shows as well (and yes, The Flash is an
exception, but that’s only because for some reason they are unable to make any
of their villains interesting in any way). I keep telling the complainers that
there simply has to be a break from
the main storyline every once in a while, otherwise we would never be able to
let any steam out, especially if the current storyline is as dark and
depressing as Supernatural’s usually is. Or, say, the last two seasons of
Person of Interest. As much as I would love to get along with the story and
find out whatever Samaritan is up to, sometimes you just gotta have an episode
where Reese has to catch the perp on a plane while Finch is trying to land it
from his office using a joystick, you know? Okay, that was a long time ago, but
so many people complained about that episode being „too light” and „out of
place”, while I thought it was one of the most fun episodes of the show ever
and it came at a time when we desperately needed some fun, so yeah. That has
nothing to do with Supernatural but you see what I’m trying to say here, right?
Standalone episodes are important too. All that said, I was a bit baffled by
the writers’ choice to have such an episode right here, right now, just as
we’ve finally managed to find a way to maybe remove that bloody mark once and
for all. So thank God it was a false alarm, and the episode turned out to be
very important in terms of the greater plot, and it was also very Rowena-heavy,
which is always a good thing in my book.
The episode kicked off in St
Louis, Missouri, 1973, as a teenage girl was reluctantly doing chores, which,
translated into the language of Supernatural, actually means that the scene is
all set for a nice demon possession, or something equally horrible. And true
enough, the girl managed to free some sort of demon from behind a wall, or so I
thought... it had yellow smoke so I immediately thought of Azazel, but there’s
no way they would bring him back in such a random manner, right? Anyway, the
girl passed out and by the time she woke up, her father and brother were dead
and there was very clearly something wrong with her mother too – she ended up
slitting her own throat soon after while hugging her daughter. That’s just
cold.
In the present day, we jumped
right into the action where we left it off last week: Rowena telling Sam that
she would help with decoding the Book of the Damned, but of course it’s going
to have a price. That price being, as it now turns out, is Sam killing Crowley.
Naturally Sam agreed without hesitation, but of course nothing is this easy
when it comes to dealing with Rowena - she actually can’t decode the book by herself. Apparently this Grand Coven witch
called Nadia was the only one who could have done it but she was murdered by
the Men of Letters, „for her life’s work” as Rowena put it. Fortunately, she
had a codex that could help. Less fortunately, it was stolen by the Men of
Letters (who, from now on, would be known on this blog as MoLe, for the sake of
simplicity), and who knows where they hid it. Poor Sam had to listen to a whole
bunch of old records before he found something that could be a lead: the trial
of a guy called Cuthbert Sinclair, who had an enchanted vault called the
Werther Box, which had a very strong warding spell on it to protect the codex
inside. Since he was refusing to tell the others who to turn it off, the box
was ordered to be buried. Oh, so this is the yellow smoke box. And by the way,
apparently this Cuthbert guy is supposed to be someone the boys had previously
ran into. The name didn’t ring any bell for me so I looked him up and I still
can’t recall much about him, although I can vaguely remember a guy that Dean
beheaded as his very first MoC-induced kill... I think this is him.
Anyway, Sam
called Rowena to tell her what he’s found, and then headed to St Louis to check
the scene out. There was an angry lady guarding the house who almost shot Sam
in the balls when he tried to enter, which made for a very entertaining scene
later when Dean tried to talk to the woman while covering his crotch the whole
time. Oh yeah, Dean shoed up! He had taken an etching of Sam’s notepad and
followed him to help him out with whatever he was working on. Obviously, Sam
couldn’t tell him the whole truth: Dean had previously asked him to stop
looking for a cure, and even if he was cool with that, he also asked him to
burn the Book of the Damned in the previous episode... so naturally, Sam only
told him that there’s something in
that house... which used to be a MoLe chapterhouse and that’s why the Werther
was buried there, and it was also supposed to be guarded but then Abaddon
massacred the entire membership in ’58... See, this is why I have to go back
and rewatch the entire series sooner or later, and this time take notes of
everything: I completely forgot about that.
In any case, Sam knew about the
family that was murdered here in ’73, and it is soon revealed that the angry
lady is actually the girl from the opening sequence, who was the only one to
survive that day. Her aunt moved in with her later but then she also went to
the basement, and, well... it couldn’t have been pretty. By the way the lady’s
name is Susie, and she had the boys figured out pretty quickly, despite Dean’s
story about him being from the Neighbourhood Watch in search of a burglar, aka
Sam. Unfortunately by this time Sam had already let the smoke out and Dean and
Susie both got possessed, the former hallucinating of Purgatory, and the latter
about her family’s ghosts. In the end it was too much for Susie and she killed
herself, but her ghost immediately returned and started blaming Sam. Rowena
showed up to vanish her but she couldn’t help Dean, who was, unknown to them,
conversing with Benny, who told him that he was seeing Purgatory because that’s
his „happy place”. Yeah, I’m not sure I buy that. Meanwhile, Sam and Rowena
tied Dean up so he couldn’t hurt them or himself, and started working on the
box. Since it could only be opened by MoLe blood, Sam volunteered and started
pouring his on the lock-mechanism, while Benny was trying to talk Dean into
killing himself. Dean broke free and grabbed a knife while still hallucinating,
and Rowena told Sam that the box probably needed ALL of his blood to open, or
at least more of it, and he was already on the verge of passing out. Luckily
Dean came to his senses just in time, telling Benny that he can’t die because "for
better or worse, the Mark wants me alive", killing him, and interrupting
Sam’s ritual by helping out with his own blood, because that would work too.
The box eventually opened and Dean found the codex, not really knowing what to
make of it, while Rowena disappeared, because apparently she was also just a
hallucination? I don’t know, that was a bit weird, but I can’t explain it any
other way because she was right next to Sam and yet Dean didn’t give any sign
of having seen her, and neither did he ask Sam about it later. Also, she seemed
actually surprised when Sam showed up and gave her the codex, so... who knows.
Anyway, Sam did give her the book but he also chained her so she can’t use it
for anything else, and now she can’t even go anywhere until she fulfills her
end of the bargain. That was a pretty clever move, Sam.
Episode MVP: Ruth Connell as Rowena
Quote of the episode:
"Tall, white fella, pretty
hair." – Susie describing Sam
"We had an agreement,
Giant!" - Rowena
Random tidbits:
- Dean slaughtering vampires to
some kickass hard rock tunes was great to see, even if it made Sam incredibly
worried about his state of mind.
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