sweetondean: Leylin Vixen's Quick Draw Recap - Supernatural 12x03 The Foundry

The Foundry

Opening words

One thing is for sure, when you least expect it Supernatural has a tendency to hit you in the gut just where it hurts. The slow build thus far has been great and I am pretty curious where all this is going. Samantha Smith has portrayed conflicted Mary Winchester with subtle finesse so all the more reason I'm sad how it all came to in the end. At least she's not dead yet and I hope she stay that way! I'm looking at you writers! You have been warned. Never the less I was not ready to see the boys hurt this badly in these three episodes. But this hurt them the most.... So, lets get to it.

Title The Foundry
Episode 12.03
First aired October 27, 2016
Director Robert Singer
Writer Robert Berens
Monster Vengeful Spirit
Timeline Current
Location(s) St. Paul, Minnesota
Lebanon, Kansas
Cleveland, Ohio
Sagamore Hills, Ohio

Story

We followed three plot lines in The Foundry. The Winchesters were going on a normal vengeful spirit hunt, Castiel and Crowley teamed up to find Lucifer and Rowena was trying to survive in Lucifer's grasp. Main focus was of course on our curse struck family.

Mary tries to cope in a Winchester way. She found a hunt and thought she could go hunt alone but of course Sam and Dean offered go with her. Mary is struggling with everything. The Internet is weird for her and smart phones just as weird. The boys being there is not really helping even though they think they are. That is actually the problem. Mary feels overwhelmed and suffocated by their presence. It is pretty easy to see. But she knows they are her boys and that makes what she is feeling more difficult. She does love them and she is feeling guilty about the deal she made but also because how she feels while her sons are doing everything for her.

They go on the hunt which Mary solves in the old fashion way. She is reckless also so it is good that the boys are on her tail. We find out that Mary is a lot like Dean. Sam sees how she is struggling but Dean is in denial. The case itself is pretty vicious where a ghost kills children from the families that moved in the now abandoned house. Also you could say that the viewers have a bad feeling about Mary in nurseries. In the end everything was too big for Mary and she goes away leaving two hurt and broken hearted men in the bunker. I can imagine an invisible brick wall build fast between Mary and Dean as he guards himself from the emotions.

Meanwhile Cas meets the band member and questions him. He is greeted by Crowley and they head off to meet the sister of Vince. She has been healed and they find out Rowena is still with him. Should I call their buddy comedy Team Curley? What ever it is I kinda like it, a lot. At their next destination they find Rowena had cast a spell on Lucifer to deteriorate and she sent him to the bottom of the ocean.

Characters

There were a lot of characters in this episode. Only ones that I didn't care that much about were in the opening. It was a little out of place for me. Still the episode picked up rather quickly after that. The boys broke our hearts again when they were hurt and Mary ran away with John's journal. I think she saw that to be her only choice and maybe the journal is really the only thing that is real to her and can comfort her. The cast did a brilliant job all around. I think Jared and Jensen do an amazing job every week, so that goes without saying.

Lucifer continued to be his arrogant self which bit him on his behind. Vince's sister Wendy was an ordinary person, a civilian. She wanted to protect her brother even though she knew something was wrong. Castiel's and Crowley's buddy comedy worked well and it seems to be that Crowley has an angel on his shoulder to keep him from doing bad. I think Cas has the shortest straw in this deal. Rowena surprised me in a good way for tricking Lucifer and that she used his arrogance against him. That's our girl.

Set design

We got quite a few sets in this episode. The creepy old abandoned house was very reminiscent of the earlier years. Specially horrible was the nursery with the creepy doll. The windows were barred and the house was over run by nature. We also get another glimpse of the lounge and bar of the hotel where Vince was staying, and visit in an ordinary house of his sister and Vince Vincente's cabin where Rowena and Vince were staying. We get a look in a morgue and an old cemetery that we have seen few times before.

A tribute set for Prince and Purple Rain was the Royal Funk motel room the Winchesters stayed in. The room had purple colour scheme and interior with green finishing touches. The room divider and paintings had symbols that are a reference to the symbol Prince adopted as his name in 1993. Also the tapestry had black and white circles that remind me of yin and yang and follows the same symbols. The symbol itself was a combination of the male and female gender symbols meaning "The Love Symbol." The Purple Funk sign was written reminiscent of the Purple Rain album cover. Also some connected the motorbike to same tribute, but I will write more about that on next draw!

Props

Of course there were a lot of props in this episode so I decided to write about the most speculated and intriguing from the episode. The motorbike on which the camera focused when Dean walked past it on the way to the Impala saying, "Nice bike." It even was highlighted by the music "Born to be Wild". The bike, a British Norton Commando, may belong to Mr. Ketch. The logos of the bike are covered but it is very similar to NC even with the modifications.

You remember I found information about a historical figure named Jack Ketch. So here's a recap of recap... You know what I mean!

John Ketch (died November 1686), generally known as Jack Ketch, was an infamous English executioner employed by King Charles II. He became famous through the way he performed his duties during the tumults of the 1680s, when he was often mentioned in broadsheet accounts that circulated throughout the Kingdom of England. He is thought to have been appointed in 1663. He executed the death sentences against William Russell, Lord Russell, in Lincoln's Inn Fields on 21 July 1683, and James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, on 15 July 1685, after the Monmouth Rebellion. Ketch's notoriety stems from "his barbarity at the execution of Lord Russell, the Duke of Monmouth, and other political offenders." Because of his botched executions, the name "Jack Ketch" is used as a proverbial name for death, Satan, and executioner.

Because Mr. Ketch intrigues me I also hit another person that fits in horror genre.

"An extract from Chapter 11 of The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson states:

One of the more notorious settlers who came to the newly-named Amityville in those days was a John Catchum or Ketcham who had been forced out of Salem, Massachusetts for practising witchcraft. John set up residence within 500 feet of where George [Lutz] now lived, continuing his alleged devil worship. The account also claimed he was buried somewhere on the northeast corner of the property."

The bike belonging to Mr. Ketch is only one speculation. The second is that it doesn't mean anything story wise but it belongs to the Prince tribute. But the bike in Purple Rain is customised with a bunch of accessories and looks very different as you can see. Still, this speculation could be true. Maybe it is just meant to be a motorcycle and that is the only meaning for it on the Purple Rain poster.

Other speculations for it include all of the Winchesters. Is the motorbike foreshadowing that something happens and Dean heads out on his own with a motorbike? Or does Mary do that? Or will Sam head out with it for some reason? "Born to Be Wild" adds fuel to these speculations. We might be in for a bumpy ride. Last speculation is even more end game meaning for the motorbike and this is something I don't even dare to think about. At a convention Jensen told us about a dream/nightmare he had... It was about on how the show will end.

“It was this long, long stretched highway with nothing but fields and Dean gets out of the Impala and hands the keys over to a stranger. And the guy hands him keys and we don’t know to what, the guy gets in the Impala and takes off and then the camera kind of turns around to reveal Dean’s got a motorcycle. And then he gets on and its super sad ‘cause I don’t have my brother what do I need a passenger for? So he gets on the single seat of the motorcycle and drives off down the highway."

Music

Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf may or may not have significance on the whole story of this season or even more. It is one of my favourite songs and it fits pretty well with Supernatural, the Winchesters and Baby. Who could forget the time when Baby was back in season seven and ready to fight again alongside Sam and Dean? All the more fitting that it seems to be one of Mary's favourites too.

"Get your motor runnin'

Head out on the highway

Lookin' for adventure

And whatever comes our way

Yeah Darlin' go make it happen

Take the world in a love embrace

Fire all of your guns at once

And explode into space"

Here is the short +/- rundown for The Foundry:

+ The Winchesters

+ Rick Springfield as Lucifer

+ Rowena