Supernatural: There's Something About Mary

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

Mary Campbell: natural born killer.

After arriving at Mary's hotel, the Winchesters find it empty and their mother nowhere to be found. Moments later, Sam gets a call from Sheriff Jody telling him that Eileen Leahy was found dead in South Carolina after an apparent animal attack in an area that has never been known for it to occur. Eileen told the boys that she planned to be in Ireland after accidentally killing Renny Rollins so nothing is adding up for the boys. After examining her body, Sam and Dean quickly conclude that it must have been a hell hound but Eileen would have never made a deal for a demon to have a reason to collect. Meanwhile, Crowley is still searching for Kelly Kline and intent on raising Lucifer's child as his own but the prince of darkness refuses to cooperate and provide him with his son's location. At the Men of Letters bunker, Mary is having difficulty distinguishing between her dreams and reality after imagining that she went to visit her friend and brutally killed him when he didn't suspect the attack. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't a dream. Lady Tony Bevell has been busy making Mary more compliant with the Men of Letters and turning her into an unfeeling killer that will more easily see things their way in the future. With the death of seven seasoned hunters in the last three weeks, Sam and Dean know that it all must be connected somehow; which is when they get a letter from Eileen. Eileen was afraid that the Men of Letters would come for her after Renny died and she was right. She suspected that her phone had been tapped and was hoping to stay with the boys for a while but it was too late. After finding the hidden microphone under the table in the bunker, Sam and Dean know that the time has come to take the fight to the Men of Letters.

I'm just going to rip the band aid off this one right now - There's Something About Mary was one of the worst episodes of Supernatural this season. The first issue was easily the disjointed pacing between multiple stories that more so conflicted rather than complimented one another. Sam and Dean's story was mystery, Mary's was a psychological suspense that was quickly spoiled, a new conflict between Tony and Ketch was revealed, Lucifer and Crowley continued their back and forth and all of it felt messy. A major problem with the way that the story has been laid out this season was that the Men of Letters betrayal happened too late and that has forced everything else to be rushed. This leads us to the almost cringe worthy (and I rarely use that term) explanation that Lucifer is now in control of Crowley's body. Not only did the reverse polarity/powering up/powering down scene make no sense, it practically came out of nowhere and was far too convenient for the plot of the season to even be reasonable. It was as if the writers suddenly realized how little time they had left in the season to tell a story and scrapped the scenes that made sense. Basically, Lucifer is free again...because reasons. Cool.

Ideally, There's Something About Mary should have been about one person: Mary Winchester. The idea that Mary was being turned into a weapon of the Men of Letters is a very cool concept and the episode was just dipping its toes into that pool when it was practically buried underneath everything else during the hour. The plot should have shown the sessions with Mary as Tony toyed with her mind and drugged her into submission. The other reason something like this needed to happen is because Mary has not been a great character. Her development throughout the season has been very poor and she needed time to come through as a character we can attach to besides being the mother of Sam and Dean. This would have also helped us as an audience believe it when she attempted to shoot Ketch and then take her own life. What should have been a heartbreaking moment seem forced and arbitrary. Samantha Smith has been fine in the role but offered nothing that makes it stand out beyond any other guest star that has had a longer stint on the show.

While Crowley is usually one of the more compelling characters on Supernatural, his motivations are starting to feel very stale. Asking Lucifer for the whereabouts of his child are one thing but then suggesting that he intends to raise the child himself with his own nefarious purposes feels very familiar, almost as if that was the exact thing that he intended to do last season with Amara. Crowley is a great character so I'm really hoping it's a ruse rather than recycling something that blew up in his face one year ago.

There's Something About Mary is the lead into the two hour season finale of season twelve and that is not a good thing. Rather than tell a good story, There's Something About Mary seemed more focused on checking off boxes to get ready for the season finale. Is Lucifer free, again? Yes. Do the Winchesters know that the Men of Letters are just as evil as they originally thought? Yes. It all feels very rushed to get things done rather than take the time to make it great. I still hope next week's two hour (that never happens!) season finale, Who We Are, pulls it all together and I can that it was all worth it. My guess is that there will be a lot of death.

Tags: Supernatural, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki

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