sweetondean: Leylin Vixen's Quick Draw Recap - Supernatural Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox

Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox

There have been a lot of things happening in the real world, some good and some bad. I don't know about you but watching Supernatural makes me feel better. I would not call it escaping, even though I know many people would want to do it, even me. But the thing is. Hunters do not hide. They do not escape. They fight. They fight against monsters and those that are bad and do people harm. I am sure they are afraid too because that is healthy. That makes hunters survive and live to see another day. In this episode they were prisoners and they fought together and won. They would have lost otherwise. All in all the entire episode felt also like a trip back home and to old memories.

Details

Title Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox

Episode Season 12, Episode 6

First aired November 17, 2016

Directed by John Badham

Written by Steve Yockey

Monster Jael, werewolf

Location(s) Emerson, Manitoba, Canada

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Story

This week the story starts from Mary's old case where she saves a boy from a werewolf. Mary is driving a sweet Camaro! Then we get a montage about Asa Fox's life with a pretty cool tune. The montage was impressive and it made me fall in love with Asa. Of course my happiness was short lived as he was killed. I think I sighed deeply when I said "seriously". From that the story moves to present day to Sam and Dean dropping into Jody's place. I truly adore Jody Mills. They enjoy some together time until Jody gets a call that her friend Asa is dead. The boys offer to go as support with her and also so they could finally attend a hunter's wake. It is a great opportunity for them; maybe once in a lifetime opportunity.

Another great song follows when they head out and believe it or not. This time they really visit Canada. The front yard is full of cars and two motorcycles. Asa's house is full of hunters and it seems the boys are sort of legendary among them! They are playing an awesome "Wendigo" drinking game while meeting Elvis, not that Elvis, Bucky and hunter twins. Jody had a "thing" with Asa and a murder occurs after Mary enters the scene. We also hear a motorcycle leave when the hunters vacate the building.

Dean and Sam introduce Mary to Jody, and Jody's reaction was so awesome. The family time doesn't end that well when Dean heads out to get some fresh air and Sam tries to mend fences between him and Mary. Jody offers her help to listen if Dean needs it.

Asa's mom is not happy her son was a hunter and she blames Mary for Asa going down the hunter road. Sam and Mary go check Asa's body and find a body on the ceiling very reminiscent to the pilot. This was creepy, very CREEPY. They head to warn the others but they get locked in the house by magic. The water has been shut off. It seems the crossroad demon that killed Asa is inside with them. Dean is confronted with Billie the Reaper when he tries to get in the house. The demon was inside Alicia but it bailed and Dean made a deal with Billie to get inside and back to Sam.

The demon is now inside Elvis and Dean fights with him while frantic about his brother's whereabouts. Elvis gets his neck snapped and Jael, the crossroads demon, escapes. The rest of the gather together when the lights go off, and they all pull out flashlights and lighters to light up the room. This made me chuckle so much, hunters! They prepare a demon trap from ash and Mary fetches the angel blade. The hunter twins are awesome by the way. Jody sees Mary acting suspiciously and she claims Mary is Jael and tries to get Sam and Dean to kill her. That is suspicious so they guess Jody is actually possessed. This made me panic. Do not kill her, Show! Mary tries to attack her but Sam saves Jody. A fight ensues and Jael pins everyone on the floor.

Jael tells everyone's secrets, Asa was the twin's father, the mother tried to keep Asa from hunting, and Jody wanted a life with Asa. Bucky reveals that he killed Asa by accident while all the hunters exorcise Jael. They finally make the funeral pyre and Jody has the final conversation with Mary. Mary is struggling, and Billie offers to deliver Mary back to heaven. Mary says she needs to wait and Billie exits stage right, as the cool lass as she is. The Winchester trio head out to breakfast.

Characters

The chatter out there about the characters in this episode has been very positive and I agree. Every character was spot on. Bucky was great so it is a shame he was the human monster in this hour. The one I liked the most was Asa Fox. It is a shame he died because I would have loved to see more of him on Supernatural. A hunter that chose hunting without any dramatic boost to it was refreshing. This leads us to his children the twins. They were great too and I hope we see them again. It was interesting to see good witches and I hope they don’t get on the BMoL’s radar. Asa’s mother was grief stricken and harsh but her attitude changed in the long run. It is always a joy to see Jody and her interactions with Mary and the boys was priceless.... and helpful.

Set design

We got to see Jody’s living room again and also we got an intimate glance into her bedroom. Claire and Alex were not home this time around. Her house is cozy and warm and it really felt like Sam and Dean were visiting their “other mother”. Sam and Dean feel at home in her house, as they slouch on her couch.

The main attraction though is Asa’s house. We saw the front yard a few times during the episode. The house from outside is pretty sweet looking old house. We also get a grand tour inside the house covering a lot of rooms as scenes take place in them. A few scenes happen at the entrance but we also have a look at a corridor, study, living room, pool room and kitchen. We even have a look at Asa's room.

I can’t remember an episode where we had so many rooms in a house covered. Not this thoroughly anyway. One episode I can remember that comes close to that is 1.09 Home. In old times they did use a lot the rooms of houses. Another example of this is 1.03 Dead in the Water.

Props

We had some cool and meaningful props in this episode. Was anyone surprised like I was that Asa actually had an angel blade? There was also all those postcards to Mary. The thing is that I felt that Asa’s hunts, the angel blade and the clips on the wall have something to do with the unfinished business Mary was doing. Are we going to have a secret on the way? When I saw that angel blade I actually thought if it was the one she used in the garage when Anna attacked and Asa hunted it down? And Mary came to find it to well, maybe ultimately to hunt Lucifer and kill him because of what he did to her family?

Other much bigger props were the sweet cars and motorcycles in this episode. Mary had that sweet Camaro and Asa had his Jeep. If I would win the lottery I would buy. 1. 1967 Chevrolet Impala and 2. A Jeep like that. But there were others on the yard too. There were seven cars in total. The interesting part was the motorcycles. Behind the jeep was one and that was driven by a woman. The one in front of the impala had a male driver and also you can hear a motorcycle sound later when the hunters leave. You can’t really make it out who the driver is or the details on the bike but I wonder if Mr. Ketch joined the wake in disguise. How creepy would it be if he had been there among them and they didn't know? Then he would also know about the twins.

Music

Roll on Down the Highway by Bachman-Turner Overdrive plays under the montage of Asa in the beginning and I loved it! When the Winchesters and Jody roll on to the yard Man in the Box by Alice in Chains plays inside the house. Both songs are my favourites and very fitting to a hunter full episode.

This part especially of the lyrics of Roll on Down the Highway fits hunter life pretty well don’t you think?

"We rented a truck and a semi to go

Travel down the long and the winding road

Look on the map, I think we've been there before

Close up the doors, let's roll once more"

Here is the short +/- rundown for Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox:

+ Music

+ Billie

+ Jody

+ Alicia Banes and Max Banes

+ Hunters

+ Sam and Dean are legends among hunters