Leylin Vixen's Quick Draw Recap - Supernatural 12x04 American Nightmare

American Nightmare

Opening words

Episode three left us emotionally compromised and Mary in the wind so I was eagerly waiting for episode four. Needless to say I was not disappointed. This was the first script from a new writer Davy Perez. He was live tweeting the episode and he seemed genuinely excited for his first outing. Also he has black humour that also made me laugh during the episode. We will have exciting times ahead if everything the fans are speculating will come to pass. So we shall see. 

Details

Title           American Nightmare

Episode          12.04

First aired        November 3, 2016

Directed by John F. Showalter

Written by Davy Perez

Monster         Gail Peterson

Timeline 

Location(s) Mason City, Iowa

                      Pleasant Valley, Missouri

Story

This week we had creepy MotW case on our hands and still the episode remembered the myth arcs of the season. We got an update from Castiel to Dean about his and Crowley’s hunt for Lucifer and Dean and Sam were both showing signs of the emotional fallout of the last episode. 

The case starts when a woman suffering from stigmata comes to a church and dies from her injuries and the Winchesters pick the case up.

Dean is mostly grumpy to everyone and especially the child services person because of what happened with Mary, especially when she mentions splitting up families to them. Sam and Dean head to see a religious family whose daughter has died and Sam feels that something fishy is going on. Dean suspects that the killer is the Wiccan working in the child services, and Sam thinks it is the ghost of the daughter. They split up and Sam finds out that the daughter hasn’t died and she is being held captive and religiously and mentally tortured in the basement. 

Sam is captured and he is able to talk to Magda. He learns that not only the daughter is a psychic but she killed those people by accident when she was trying to get them to notice and help her. The mother tries to kill her whole family at the family dinner but Magda prevents it. Dean slowly comes to terms with Mary’s leaving.

We also see that Mr. Ketch is following the brothers. The ending of the episode casts a grim note to the whole story when he kills Magda because the Winchesters let her live. We still do not see his full face.  

Characters

Episode four had a great cast like many times before. Gail Peterson as the mother was chilling but Magda in my opinion stole the whole show. Abraham and Elijah Peterson were being ruled and were brainwashed by the mother. They were innocents that were killed by a very human monster. Beth Roberts and Olivia Sanchez gave a very human face to child services. Mr. Ketch still intrigues me but I hope he is more than a mere thug. The cross tattoo on his hand is interesting. Does it have a back story? I also think I want to snatch his bike for myself!

Set design

We start with a church set. I think this is the real church they have used a few time but I am not sure. I liked the glass windows the most. It reminded me of the season seven premiere 7.01 Meet the New Boss where Castiel changed his image in the window to himself as their new god. That imagery gives the immediate feeling of a church even though nothing else would be seen. 

The episode also had a normal morgue set and a child services office set. With these sets we only got to see a small amount. Most of the episode we lingered in the Peterson household. They had almost fully cut themselves off from the society and the whole farm was close to old western times. Indeed very “Children of the Corn” like! It had very earthly colours and and zero bright colours. The basement on the other hand was something from the dark ages or The Exorcist. The brutality that was happening down there was mirrored by the set, the “pagan” iron cross just added to the effect. It was a nice parallel that Mr. Ketch had a  tattoo cross on his hand.

Costume design

Normally the costumes are pretty same episode to episode but even the Winchesters got something fairly new and blast from the past this time around. Sam and Dean were trauma counsellors in 11.08 Just My Imagination which was a pretty similar look to Child Protective Services case workers. Priests they have been both in 1.14 Nightmare and in 4.03 In the Beginning, when Samuel and Dean were in disguise. Of course they also appeared as FBI too, so three aliases in one episode. I think that is the first one ever.

Costumes for the family were also different than normal. Like I wrote in set design all the bright colours were missing and some of it was even fit for the dark ages or crazy horror movies! The costumes were close to earthy and pretty plain.  

Music

The songs for this episode were Golden Dunes by The Budos Band, Down in My Heart by Paloma Kwiatkowski and Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho by Paloma Kwiatkowski. I chose a part from the lyrics from Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho as we have two familiar names on it. You’ll never know if the song was chosen just because of that. There were also slightly different lyrics from various singers to this song so not all had the said names. 

"Good morning sister Mary

Good morning brother John

Well I want to stop and talk with you

want to tell you how I come along 

I know you've heard about Joshua
He was the son of Nun
He never stopped his work until
Until the work was done”

 – Elvis Presley

Here is the short +/- rundown for American Nightmare: 

+ Welcome back horror/creepy SPN

+ Winchesters in priest outfits

+ Winchesters in cardigans 

+ Different aliases than the FBI for the boys

+ Mary, Castiel and Crowley were “present” 

+ Davy Perez

+ Psychic!Sam/canon

+ Psychics

+ That motorbike

+ Top of the notch guest stars

- Pretty disturbing images

- BMoL (Yeah, image of them have not improved)

-/+ Mr. Ketch

Paloma Kwiatkowski as Magda Peterson

Now I wonder what 12.05 “The One You’ve Been Waiting For” will have in store for us?

References: http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/ and http://www.azlyrics.com

Read sweetondean's review of American Nightmare HERE

Review - Supernatural American Nightmare 12x04

American Nightmare was new writer Davy Perez’s debut episode….good job Davy! Seriously good job! We got character and show history, well written brothers - bickering - teasing - talking - feeling their feels, did I mention talking? It was a good creepy story with lots of creepy stuff...and sad stuff, and of course, in the theme of this season’s opening episodes, it was all about family, mothers, second chances….and human monsters.

After a pretty awesome, and pretty gross teaser - we’re treated to the boys as priests - for the first time in a really long time - and we get our first glimpse of any fallout of Mary’s leaving.

I’ve been itching to see what the aftermath of Mary deciding to leave her boys was going to be for the brothers - how they were both going to handle it, how that hurt was going to manifest.

Straight from the get go, we see Dean is cranky, short tempered - or rather, short on tolerance! He snaps at the priest, at the mortician, at Sam when he tries to reach out to Dean, he’s hurting and he's trying to ignore it, and he's cutting himself off emotionally - except he isn’t...I mean, not really, not like we’ve seen Dean do in the past. Once upon a time Dean would have completely shut down, and reaching him would have taken multiple episodes, and Sam and us would have been all frustrated...but that’s the old Dean....Dean has grown and grown up, and we see that transformation reflected in American Nightmare.

He’s struggling with Mary's choice, it's obvious....he looks wistfully at the mother and the son at the church, and takes an instant dislike to Beth, not just because she’s Wiccan, and Dean thinks witches are skeevy, but also because her job, as a child protection agency officer, sometimes requires her to separate families, and right now any notion that a family should be separated, that children should be taken from their mother or visa versa, whether right or wrong, grates right on Dean’s wounded nerves! He thinks he's lost his mum, for the second time, and all he wants is his family to be together. That’s all he’s ever wanted, or at least something he's always dreamed of - and he thought, for one brief shining moment, they he and Sam had caught a break, something nice had happened and all that the two of them had grieved for over the years, was now theirs....and then....it wasn’t.

Dean wears his heart on his sleeve, it’s something I’ve always adored about him. For all his bluff and bluster, he has a great capacity for love and he's not afraid to show it. He’s not afraid to let everyone and their dog know just how much he loves Sam! He wasn’t afraid to show his love for Charlie, or his love for Cas. But wearing his heart on his sleeve also means we see his pain, even when he thinks we can't,. he's not always able to hide it as successfully as he thinks he can, he can’t always mask it, more often than not it shows on his face, in his attitude, in his tone. He may try and bottle it all up, but exactly how he’s feeling pretty much oozes out of every single one of Dean’s pores.

We’ve seen a lot of change in the brother’s relationship in the past season - a lot of honesty. Those feelings that were once buried deep down, those fears that were ignored or shrugged off or denied, were talked about, and even if they weren’t, they were acknowledged. That was a great big step forward for the brothers and especially for Dean, and it was one of the things I loved the most about Season 11, the openness between the brothers.

For a minute I was worried we were going to get that closed off Dean again, worried he would go backwards - but instead we saw Dean reaching out to his mum with an adorable text - a very brave thing to do, because that’s really putting his feelings out there and opening the door to more rejection.…imagine if Mary hadn't responded. Oh my God the heartbreak! And though he was crabby and sarcastic with Sam - the tiny bladder line made me nearly pee my pants…when push came to shove, he did talk to Sam and told Sam exactly what he feared most - that their mum would not come back. She left…and maybe she wouldn’t come back.

The brothers talked. Dean opened up (even if he was cranky about it) and said out loud exactly what he was scared of. I think I clutched my heart with pride and joy!

And after Sam said to Dean that sometimes time apart is what people needed, Dean obviously thought about it - because by the end, he says to Magda, “Sometimes in order to figure things out, a person needs space”. He then tells Sam he was right - he's pretty good at that - Sam was not just right about the case, he was right about the boys needing to give Mary time and space - he gets it, but it still hurts and he's honest enough to say that, but that he'll try and deal with it better than he was. I loved that moment between the brothers - talking over the roof of the car, where so many of their emotional moments take place. I’m so happy the guys have got to a place where they can be open with like this.

Outwardly, it seems Sam is doing a lot better than Dean with Mary's choice - but his need to make Dean talk, is most likely also his need to talk. I think he reaches out because he needs to talk about how he's feeling, as much as he's trying to open the door for Dean. I also think his very angry reaction to the mother, is not just about the family refusing their daughter care, but that this mother did…a mother, a mother caused her child’s death (or not actually as the case may be!). Magda’s mother was not there for her when she needed her love and understanding and care.…Sam’s going through a complex time with his mother, the mother he never thought he'd know just left him.... her choice. As empathetic as Sam is towards Mary’s needs - he’s hurting and confused too.

I love that we revisited Sam’s psychic powers and I wondered if they were why the British Men of Letters were particularly hostile towards Sam? Do they know about the demon blood thing and all that comes with it? If they’ve been watching the brothers for as long as they have, maybe they do! And what else do they know? Neither brother is untouched by the supernatural....they've both been monsters - demons, vampires - themselves at one point or another!

American Nightmare also gave us beautiful, compassionate Sam. I loved how he reached out to Magda and tried to help her understand that her powers do not make her evil - that she just has to learn to control them. I loved that he shared his story about his own psychic powers and that his powers, in the past or not, make him who he is. It was actually lovely to hear Sam say that about himself, not that he’s “not clean”, but that his powers are a part of what makes him Sam. That warmed my heart.

It’s Sam’s words that stop Magda going the same way as Max Miller - stopped her killing her family, and maybe herself, and it was Sam’s words that comforted her at the end, and that made her feel less alone. When she lay her head on his shoulder - I wibbled a little.

The brothers let Magda go - because these days, they see the greys with monsters, not just the black and white - they understand that not all monsters, or the supernaturally afflicted, are bad. Unlike the British Men of Letters - who see no grey and ultimately, their assassin Mr Ketch, kills Magda…which was horrible, so horrible, and also made me much more worried for Sam and Dean…and for every supernatural creature the brothers have any kind of relationship with. The British Men of Letters have zero tolerance - and essentially, this makes them monsters in human form.

I really loved this episode - I really loved the way the brothers were with each other, the bitching, the teasing, the arguing and ultimately, the opening up. I loved their little fight over who was right! I loved the cardigans, and the fact that they must have changed in the car by the side of the road!

I loved that the monster of the week was human, that always raises the stakes, because killing a human is very different to killing a vampire, or a demon - and in a season where the first monsters we met were the British Men of Letters, I thought it was particularly relevant that the brothers are having to deal with non supernatural bad guys here…and it was made even trickier and more confronting for them because it was a family, and a mother - with all that Sam and Dean are going through with their own family and their own mother.

I will never tire of seeing Dean rushing to Sam, burning rubber in the Impala, and I will never tire of Sam being smart enough not to need Dean’s rushing! I will never tire of girls fancying Dean, because really…LOOK AT HIM! He should be getting ALL the numbers! I loved that we didn’t see Beth sharing her number - as cute as that would have been, but that we did see the brothers joking about how Dean was going to kill her a minute ago and now he might date her! Such brothers! Such boys! Their life is so weird!

But what I loved most of all, and my absolutely favourite part of the episode, was Mary’s text. Like I said, Dean really put himself out there emotionally…checking in, risking rejection, asking if he should still call her mum...that’s pretty damn ballsy stuff....it's scary to be so vulnerable. So to see his face when Mary finally texted back. His face! I will carry that little look on his face in my heart forever. I felt his relief, I felt his heart swell when he realised it was all going to be okay, I felt that jolt of happiness whiz through him. Yep, I cried. I cried for Dean two weeks in a row….but this time, I was smiling. Dean’s such a badass, and sometimes he’s also so totally not.

American Nightmare was an auspicious start from a "rookie" Supernatural writer - and with how the brother’s were written here, I can’t wait to see Davy Perez’s next episode!

Next week’s ep, is the one I saw them shooting in Vancouver!!!! I’m so excited to see the scenes!

Thanks for reading and thanks being patient with my tardiness…work really got in the way of life and sleep, and yes even Supernatural! I'll try to not let it happen again!

See you soon!

-sweetondean

Supernatural Think Tank - Anna's Thinky Thoughts on American Nightmare 12x04

As I watched this episode Dean's words hearkened in my ears:  "Demons I get, people are just crazy". Never have words rung so true as they did in this episode, not since the Benders anyway, and I can't help but believe that there is no greater monster than the human one. I must admit that I found this episode super disturbing and I must confess that I'm totally loving it.  Supernatural is really beginning to feel like a horror movie....so cool.

Hostile Dean

So true to Dean's character, not only was he hurt by his mom's actions but he was also angry. We see this in his attitude with the priest, Carl the Coroner or Coroner's Asst, and most especially Sam. He is, as Sam noted, cranky and kind of just downright mean, but Sam takes it in stride demonstrating his empathy and understanding of Dean's justified anger. What I found to be a bit unnerving was Dean's instant condemnation of Beth without any actual evidence that she'd  done something wrong.  He based his decision on the fact that she was an admitted Wiccan (who I thought practised White Magic) who through no fault of her own inherited her boss' position. I found Dean's behaviour questionable, so I tried to find reasoning for it.  My take on it is, Beth worked for child services. It's her job to protect children, which means sometimes she has to take the child away from the parents. Dean's state right now, I can only imagine that he sees her as the one who splits up the family, not as the one who is trying to protect them. Dean's anger for his mom is now deflected onto Beth.  In his eyes, she is seen as the villain here.

Empathetic Sam

Sam on the other hand is seen to be empathetic.  He understands Dean's hurt and anger and is perfectly willing to accept Dean's need to lash out at him, even though he calls him out on it.  Sam feels for the others that Dean lashes out at as well. It's not their fault yet they end up bearing the brunt of Dean's anger. Sam tries to get Dean to talk to him, explaining that their Mom just needed some time.  Sam understands where she's coming from and tries not to judge Mary harshly.  Unfortunately in typical Dean fashion, he totally drops the subject, not really up for this Dr. Phil moment. The thing is, what Dean doesn't get, it wasn't just about Sam getting Dean to talk about his anger and hurt feelings, I think it was also about Sam wanting/needing to talk to Dean about his. Sam may be doing his damnedest trying to empathise and understand his mom's need to leave and her decision to do so, but that doesn't mean it isn't hurting him just as much as it's hurting Dean.  We can see Sam demonstrate his pain when he confronts Magda's mother and tells her that it wasn't the devil that killed her daughter, she did.  I thought Sam was going to throw down on her for a minute.  Judging from the look on Dean's face, I think he might have been thinking the same thing.

Truths/Realisations

While talking to Magda's mother, it didn't take Sam long to realise that something was very wrong with this family.  Sam believed that Magda's vengeful spirit was the one  causing these deaths.  He wanted to check the farm for EMF.  Dean on the other hand believed this was a good family and believed that it was Beth who killed Olivia and the delivery boy, even though Sam insisted that Beth didn't even know the delivery boy. On the surface it seemed like a contest of wills on who was right and who was wrong.  On the surface. Earlier when Sam tried to explain to Dean their mom's actions and noted that she just needed some time and space, Dean had questioned Sam on whether he really believed she would be coming back.  Sam's retort was "you don't?"  I think this is very significant.  Dean was determined to prove to Sam that it was Beth causing all these deaths.  The reality of it though, as Dean found out, Beth didn't have any reason to want to kill Olivia.  Despite what Dean believed, she hated her new job and didn't want anything to do with it really.  She wasn't happy, she was stressed.  She wondered how Olivia managed to do it every day. Dean had to face the truth, she was in fact innocent and Sam had been right....well mostly. It's more than that though.  When faced with the realization that he was wrong about Beth, that he let his hurt cloud his decision making, I believe Dean came face to face with another truth. His hurt and anger was preventing him from being able to empathise with Mary's need to have some space and time to process all that was happening to her.  We can see that Dean had come to this realisation when he tells Magda that she just needs some time and space. We also see it when Sam asks Dean if he really meant what he said and Dean admits to understanding that Mom needed time.  He got it. The affirmation from his Mom when she sent the text seemed to reassure Dean that Sam was right, and that Mom just needs some time and she will come back.

Sam discovered that Magda wasn't in fact dead, but a prisoner in her own home, where she was beaten and psychologically abused.  He learnt that she wasn't evil or the devil as she was led to believe by her family, but that in truth she had psychic abilities.  Sam shared a truth with Magda, letting her know that he too was psychic, that he had visions and could move things with his mind. He didn't think he still had those powers (who knows if he still does?), but he did know that these powers didn't mean he was evil or had the devil in him and neither did she. Sam helped Magda to see the truth, that she didn't intentionally hurt anyone and that she didn't have to let the power control her. She could in fact control them. Sam offered her a shoulder and an ear and told her if she ever needed anything he would be there for her.  Sam helped Magda see that she is good and there is good out there. The boys gave her a second chance and a chance to be part of a new family.    For Sam, judging by his comment to Dean, "you think our family is crazy", I'd say that despite the Winchester's ups and downs, Sam wouldn't trade his family for the world.

The Human Monster

I was totally intrigued when the Then had showed us psychics from the past.  They varied from the special children chosen by YED to the more mundane, like the one from The Mentalist. I really loved the fact that they brought the whole psychic thing back as we haven't seen anything regarding psychics for five years. I was especially intrigued at the fact that Sam wasn't sure if he still had those powers. Ooooh.  Then I started to question whether bringing up Sam's psychic abilities was just a one off for this eppy or does it mean more?  Then my mind started to wander and I got myself wondering.....

 Did the mention of Sam's psychic abilities have more to do with the possibility that he could be in danger?  Did Ketch kill the girl because her psychic abilities were used to kill people, though unintentional?  Or did he kill her because she was a psychic and she was considered a danger? Do these BMOL think along the lines of Gordon Walker? Do they consider all psychics dangerous? Sam was a psychic and for all anyone truly knows he still could be. Does that mean the BMOL consider him a threat? Would they want Sam dead if they found out? Do they even know? How about dean, he was a demon. He bore the MOC. How much do they know about Dean? Would they consider him a danger? They know of his time in Purgatory and his friendship with a monster.  I'm beginning to wonder if bringing up the whole psychic thing with Sam could foreshadow trouble for the Winchesters in the future.

 I fear for those who Sam and Dean had given second chances.  Those like Kate, Alex, and Garth. 

This Mr. Ketch is trouble.  Ketch reminded me of Crowley, when he had begun to kill the people the boys had saved.  I'm not making excuses, but Crowley had done it to get what he wanted.  Ketch, I feel is much worse, much more dangerous.  Feels to me that this Ketch is someone who believes he is among those who have the right to decide who dies and has declared himself righteous executioner.   Who's to say who Ketch decides he considers a monster.  Cas?  Mary?  Sam?  Dean ?  Crowley? Rowena?  (Though the last two are understandable.)  Lady Toni refers to Ketch as a psychopath whom she wants nothing to do with. There is another in history who had the same beliefs, you all might recall his name....Adolf Hitler.  (Isn't it ironic, don't cha think that next week's ep happens to be about Hitler?....just saying....bwahaha..... I fear that this Mr. Ketch and the BMOL faction that he is working for might possibly end up being worse than any monster the boys have faced. 

Not for nothing folks, but these BMOLs gots to go.

Great episode.  The guest cast was impressive and Jared and Jensen were fantastic.  A great first for Davy Perez.  This episode really felt like old school Supernatural.  I'm loving s12 so far and look forward to all that's to come.

Til next week.

-Anna

The Light on Spoilers, Heavy on Squee Preview of Supernatural 12x04 American Nightmare

-by sweetondean

I've been waiting all week for this episode because I really, really, really need to see how Sam and Dean are going! Really, really, really!


THEN

NOW

Cardigans!

*whispers* snug fitting cardigans

And look - they're different cardies to the last ones we saw! I wonder how many they have!!! 

Don't you just want to see them shopping for their undercover threads!

Okay! Enough! On to the synopsis!

Okay...one more!

Fruit basket for the wardrobe department!

Right, now the synopsis!


American Nightmare

OFF THE GRID – Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) investigate a case that leads them to a devout religious family that lives off the grid. The brothers realise that the parents are hiding a huge secret that could destroy them all. Meanwhile, Dean struggles to accept Mary’s (guest star Samantha Smith) latest decision. Davy Perez wrote the episode directed by John Showalter (#1204). 

So this is Davy's first ep for the show. Previous to Supernatural, he was a writer on American Crime. He's got the ep listed as an upcoming event on his Facebook  and has the Impala as his cover pic! Bless.

John Showalter is a regular director of Supernatural, having directed 15 episodes since season 5.

So the boys are off on a hunt and it sounds like we see the fall out from last week's heartbreak! Unless there's another heartbreaking decision coming! I mean, no way Dean's going to do anything but struggle with what Mary is doing.... BUT CAN WE STAND MORE HEARTBREAK!?

Anyway....I'm looking forward to seeing the boys out hunting together.


Alrighty then....here's the promo!

We haven't seen the boys as priests for a while!

What kind of priest's are you?

Also -  do you know God, gentlemen? Man, I love that line! I laughed out loud.

So after last week, I'm wondering where we're going land emotionally speaking, and will we see Mary at all? Will the brother's talk, or has Dean gone into emotional shut down? The case looks nice and creepy and look.....!

Sam's tied up! Must be Wednesday Thursday Friday (well at least for me!)

Oh and of course, there's no sneak peek yet....

Okay...so see you when the sneak peek drops!

I'm back!

Sneak peek time!

Okay not a lot... So the boys now know about the odd couple out hunting Lucifer! I'll look forward to hearing that conversation! And Sam knows way more than he should about 80's hair rock! I think he might pay for that!

They really do make the cutest priests. Really. Do. And Sam's hair is looking pretty....and the all black makes him look really TALL!

Oh and hang around after the vid for a cute Jared vid thanking us for watching!

Okie dokie....enjoy the ep everyone! I need this like I need air!

-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

+ Mr Ketch (or rather the mystery and danger of him)

+ Mary Winchester

+ Crowstiel, Casley, Curley? (Their team-up. What did you think I meant?) 

+ Robert Berens

+ Prince reference/Purple rain

+ Scary MotW

+ Creepy doll

+ The ghost children

+ Mary's "good old times" hunting

+ Mary's bad-ass floor slide!

+ That motorbike

- Cannon fodder civilians

- Mary leaving ;’( (At least she isn't dead right?... Too soon?)

- Weird and silly opening

- Some possibilities were missed

-/+ Vince's sister "forgotten"

Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf

Leave the ghosts of the past and head forward head held high to episode four!

References: http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/, http://www.azlyrics.com, http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/John_Ketcham and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ketch

Check out sweetondean's review of The Foundry