Supernatural Family Feud

In Supernatural, we’ve seen our fair share of vengeful ghost stories but never one involving time travel, a mother’s revenge, and Gavin McCloud—Crowley’s son.

Gavin shows up and ultimately meets his original fate. Man, we hardly knew ya...
Gavin shows up and ultimately meets his original fate. Man, we hardly knew ya…

As far as the A story line goes this week, Sam and Dean pick up an investigation where a teacher’s had his tongue pulled out and guts crushed with no outward signs of injury. This means a witch or ghost and considering my earlier spoiler, it’s not hard to guess which one it is. But that doesn’t mean a witch isn’t involved. Rowena, everyone’s favorite redhead witchy woman  is integral to the action as Sam and Dean give her a call when Dean recognizes the ship on the traveling museum exhibit that has been in different parts of the country where these ghostly murders have taken place as the very same ship that Crowley’s son Gavin was supposed to be on if not for a bit of jiggering with the time line.

Refresher: Gavin was pulled out of time by Abaddon (“King of the Damned”, s9, e21) as a bargaining chip to persuade Crowley to kill the Winchesters. Obviously it didn’t turn out too well for Abaddon…as for Crowley, he refused to return Gavin to his correct place in the timeline, allowing him to roam free in the present day.

Long, boring-ish story short, the ghost turns out to be Fiona Duncan, Gavin’s love who, in the original time line, died on the ship with Gavin. When he disappeared, Fiona found her way onto the ship where she was subjected to brutal treatment by the crew, with the other passengers doing nothing to stop it. Worse, the lone teacher on board proclaimed she deserved it. That last part gave her a vengeful mad-on for teachers, hence her ghostly slaughter of them. Instead of tracking down the locket that is obviously the key to all of this, the Winchesters (with Gavin’s blessing) send Crowley’s sprog back into the past where he’s reunited with Fiona and the present-day murders are poofed out of existence.

I could rage at the fallacies of the Winchesters lazy handling of this situation (more on that below) but the worst thing about it is Rowena’s hand in it. She was called in to track down Gavin and though she seems as if she’s all about Gavin’s goodness for doing the right thing, she admits to a very hurt Crowley it was all for the good of vengeance. Wanting your kid to feel your pain—Crowley forced Rowena to kill Oskar, whom she saw as a son (“Brother’s Keeper, s10, e23)—well, there aren’t many things worse than that. It’s a reminder that, despite her motherly tone and mannerisms, Rowena’s pretty dang evil. Not that Crowley’s that much better but, for a King of Hell, I’d say he’s the Diet Coke of Evil when compared to Rowena. Talk about vindictive…her actions will no doubt cause a massive rift between her and Crowley.

But let’s not act as if Crowley is wholly devoid of a bit of vindiction. We get more of Mark Pellegrino’s Lucifer this week. Apparently Crowley has his very own S.T.A.R. labs/Cisco Ramon in the fold for the Cage that housed Lucifer is now chains and a chair. Well, not the actual Cage itself, but the material used for it. Crowley wants to break Lucifer, a prospect we all know will not end well, especially when, at the end of the episode, Lucifer whispers Dagon’s name.

Mary comes clean about her work with Ketch (who may have a thing for her).
Mary comes clean about her work with Ketch (who may have a thing for her).

We got our first mention of Dagon last week. She’s another Prince of Hell and has had her eyes on Lucifer’s sprog gestating in Kelly Kline’s belly. Where Castiel has yet to have any luck, Dagon (and two redshirt angels she kills) have tracked down the mother of the Antichrist. The smooth talk she butters Kelly up with comes straight out of Lucifer’s 101 Ways to Twist Someone with Partial Truths playbook. It’s doubly effective because, like most people, Kelly doesn’t want to die, even though she knows the father of her baby is none other than the Morningstar.

Finally, after weeks of working with the British Men of Letters behind the backs of Sam and Dean, Mary comes clean about her hunting situation with Ketch and the BMoL and, The Rolling Stones’ “Play with Fire” croons in the background paints it black on how all of them—Mary and her boys, Crowley and Rowena, and Kelly Kline are all playing with fire and by the time it’s all over, most, if not all of them, will get burned.

The Good

  • Once again, Supernatural pulls a character out from the past. Sure, Gavin Macleod is a glorified throwaway—meeting the death he was originally fated for—but Supernatural is unlike any show with their resurrection of characters (literally and figuratively) which aids in the continuity and a major reason why’s it’s still going strong after twelve years.
  • Dagon is another major villain, one that this season had been missing. Sure, Lucifer was out for a few episodes but he was never actively causing mayhem. True, Dagon doesn’t seem as if she was either but now that she’s playing fairy godmother to Lucifer’s offspring, I’m hopeful that we’ll see more of that story narrative instead of one off monster-of-the-week hours.

The Bad

  • Okay, the solution to toss Gavin back into the natural timeline wasn’t terrible though their reluctance to search out the locket was pretty lazy if you ask me. I won’t get into the whole time paradox/displacement thing because, in all honesty, there are opposing theories on it. Gavin did not get the end he deserved. Though maybe that’s the point…sometimes things do end sans pomp and circumstance. Not with a bang, but in a whimper…
  • It’s great that Mark Pellegrino is back as Lucifer but there wasn’t near enough material for him this week. Let’s hope that changes in the coming months.

The Supernatural

  • I would love to have a database of all the meta references for a Supernatural season. This week alone had Dagon quoting Ahhhhnold (“Come with me if you want to live.”), the obligatory Rocky and Bullwinkle reference from Crowley, a Casper name drop, as well as a handful of others I can’t quite recall. It’s the little things like this that make even the bad or boring episodes somewhat tolerable.

 

Supernatural: “Family Feud”

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