Mothers, sons, and rock and roll: maybe not the ingredients one would expect from Supernatural but if the last twelve years of this show has taught me anything, it’s to expect unexpected blends of chaos.
Not to be deterred from her near strangulation at Sam’s hands or impressive resistance to pain, Lady Antonia gets a bit more subversive route, getting Sam roofied up on a mystical cocktail with hallucinogenic properties and nearly has him until it wears off. Killing with kindness in a way but again it shows that, for all her intelligence, her arrogance blinds Antonia from seeing that the Winchesters, for all their roughness, are the best allies in ridding the world of the supernatural she could ever have. And if the presence of the mysterious Mick is any indication, it seems the Home Office isn’t too keen or her actions either.
Backing things up from Sam’s torture prison for a bit, we finally catch up with Lucifer, who finds a host in rock star Vince Vincente. But while the Morningstar is getting accustomed to his new threads, Crowley tracks down Rowena for a bit of mother/son team-up. Rowena wants to give up the game, abandon the supernatural for a normal life but her son’s insistent she help him one more time: drop Lucifer back in the cage and Bob’s your uncle. We don’t get as much back and forth between the two as some of their past interactions but when their plan goes sideways and Lucifer’s ready to bring the pain, Crowley once again shows that he’s concerned about one person: himself.
The primary driver of “Mamma Mia” though is the Dean/Mary dynamic. It comes as no surprise that Dean’s still a bit out of sorts on just how to treat his once dead mother. Returning from the dead after thirty years is hard enough, but to integrate her into all the changes of the world since she last drew breath, well it’s weighing on Dean. Not to mention the fact that he wants her as far away from danger as possible. Mary may be a bit out of sorts with information overload but there’s no way she’s sitting on the bench as they head in to rescue Sam. She’s a hunter, a good one at that and it shows for the second week in a row with her saving Dean’s arse. But it’s more than doing what’s right as a hunter because, first and foremost, she’s a mom that never got the chance to see her sons grow up. She admits to Dean her own culpability in everything that’s happened to them since the night of her death. Is that just a mother’s guilt for not being there or are there things we’ve yet to discover?
One thing we do get is Mick, a new character tasked with wrangling the rogue Lady Antonia. Though they share the same purpose, Mick’s is not against working with the brothers,
clear-headed enough to recognize that the Winchesters are effective in getting the job done, however crude the UK’s Men of Letters branch may deem those actions to be. But he’s a cautious one as well, alerting Lady A to the fact that he’s called in Mr. Ketch, a backup plan. With Mick, we get someone who sees more than one angle; prepare for the best and worst. It’ll be difficult for the Winchesters to ever trust Lady Antonia, but the smooth talking Mick may be the one who’s able to broker a partnership with the American hunters.
Once Sam’s back in good hands, we finally get to see his reaction to Mary’s return. Surprise and disbelief are his initial emotions but it’s not until he spends a few minutes with her alone that he drops the mask and lets the nearly overwhelming emotions of having his mother back show. Their conversation is short and sweet but there is such power in it, particularly when Mary asks Sam why he would come back to the hunter life when he had a chance for something more. “This is my family,” he tells her as if it’s the most natural thing in the world, “we hunt. That’s what we do.”
Supernatural: “Mamma Mia” – 3.5/5
Supernatural Vibes
- “Saving people. Hunting things.” It’s been the Winchester mantra since the beginning. Sam reiterates this fundamental truth to Mary and despite wanting more for her sons, the simplicity and conviction in Sam’s words allows her to see the truth. Hunting is the family business and while there are things that go bump in the night, the Winchesters will be leading the charges.
- As antagonists go, Lady Antonia is nothing if not entrenched in her beliefs. We don’t find out her motivations until the end and while they are indeed commendable—ridding the world of supernatural evils—her methods shine a spotlight on her shortsightedness. Sam and Dean have made a lot of mistakes but they’ve also taken down a lot of baddies, more than Lady Antonia has seen in her life, I daresay. And considering they’ve beaten back the Four Horsemen, Lucifer, the Leviathan, rogue angels, and the Darkness, it makes it even more puzzling for her not to take advantage of their skillset. It’s an ignorance that may see her come out on the losing end.
