Reviews That I Missed: Supernatural 13.12, Various & Sundry Villains

“Various & Sundry Villains” was certainly a mixed bag.  On one side, there’s a MOTW story, witches, that really falls flat.  This could be just me, but Supernatural has rarely done well with witch plots, especially when they are villains.  Then there’s the disastrous B plot, which was necessary but NOT fun to watch.  But then we get some really stunning Sam character moments, with Rowena in her grand return thrown in for fun.  So, we’ll just say it wasn’t half bad.  It was…half good!   

Various & Bad Plots

First, let’s get the crap out of the way.  At some point they had to get back to the whole Castiel/Lucifer/Asmodeus thing.  It has been since…episode 13.07?  Yikes.  “Wayward Sisters” really was a distraction, wasn’t it?  I accept that Steve Yockey inherited this crap, but I still didn’t enjoy this plot one bit.  The only saving grace was Colonel Sanders didn’t appear.   Lucifer and Castiel are still locked in a cell, Sam and Dean are still buying the Asmodeus fake calls, and Lucifer is still acting like an ass clown.  Yay.  They managed to finally escape.  Yay.  They fight and Castiel does something that can’t kill Lucifer, but I’m sure he enjoyed it.  Yay.  

I also hated the teaser of the annoying witch sisters Jennie and Jamie.  Their ploy of charming young men to do their bidding just to kill them for fun was cut rate filler.  It didn’t do much for the plot at all.  I know, this is a horror show, but I didn’t find them chilling or scary.  They’re just…dumb psychos.  What in the world was Rowena thinking by hiring these two?  I didn’t like watching them in the final showdown with Sam, Dean and Rowena either, giving the whole scene a big “meh”.  

Another thing that rubbed me a little raw, at least in the beginning, was Dean’s sudden gung-ho optimism countering Sam’s recent pessimism.  Sam’s new mindset was well played out in “Breakdown” and carried out very well here, but Dean’s sudden optimism is just another extreme mood swing that makes no freaking sense. Given how raw Dean was over the news about Mary in “The Bad Place,” we are back to whiplash on the Dean Winchester mood spectrum. 

Various & Amazing Stuff

On the plus side, I saw the attempt at a parallel, two witch sisters missing their mother and will do whatever they can, no matter how wrong, to bring her back.  Sam and Dean too are trying to get their mother back, but the difference between the two siblings is two are morally corrupt and two…aren’t? Yeah, we’ve seen Sam and Dean cross some lines, but they would draw lines at killing innocents for personal gain.  We think.  Actually, their moral compass is very likely why Rowena saved the brothers and killed the sisters.  Or, it’s because Sam and Dean are both hot. 

I did love watching the funny wrestling match between Sam and Dean when Dean was under the spell.  Way to bring the comic relief Mr. Yockey!  We haven’t had that since season two and it was a hoot.  I especially loved the flying Sam hair and all the fluff (you all know me).  I guess I wasn’t thrown back by Rowena suddenly appearing from the dead and intervening.  It’s season thirteen, surprise revivals are par for the course.  Still, it was nice to see her.  

The biggest strength of this episode though was the beginning of the Sam and Rowena bond and all it revealed.  I found this development to be huge and a long time coming.  Their scene together in the Impala was a work of art from director Amanda Tapping.  Sam in the front seat, Rowena in the back, both able to talk about their terror with deeply haunted expressions without ever having to face one another.  They both can be vulnerable and raw without awkwardly looking at each other in the eye. Given how these two have tough exteriors, this was a rare opportunity for them to let their guards down.   

These two in a sense are kindred spirits.  Both have been horrifically tortured by Lucifer, both are haunted by having seen his true face, and both are still very scared by it all.  Sam, in a rare honest confession, said that face still keeps him up at night.  What blew me away though was this line from Sam:

Rowena: How do you deal with it?
Sam:  I guess I don’t deal with it. Not really. I mean, I pushed it down and, um, the world kept almost ending, so I keep pushing it down, and I don’t know. I really don’t talk about it, not even with Dean. I mean, I could. You know, he’d listen, but… That’s not something I really know how to share.

WHY DID WE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL SEASON 13 TO HEAR THIS????  I mean, he was possessed at the end of season five!  His words are so earnest, so true, and so freaking heartbreaking.  Sam still hurts.  He is still very haunted by his possession by Lucifer and time in the cage.  He’s not a machine!  He’s been carrying this inside all these years, jumping from one hunt to the next just to preserve his sanity.  Then Sam, to add to my already aching heart, tells Rowena this:

Sam: Even if you do get the book, and even if you get your power back, it won’t matter. You won’t ever be able to change what happened. You won’t be able to change how helpless you felt, or how helpless you feel. You’re still gonna get scared. And that feeling… that feeling never goes away.
Rowena: Never?
Sam: Never. 

Wow, his recent dark mood finally makes sense.  It isn’t just the recent events that are catching up with Sam.  All those years of pain and despair and finally bubbling to the surface.  It’s been too many losses.  Nothing that he’s done has truly eased that pain inside.  I am…utterly crushed.  

Sam had no choice but to let Rowena have the spell she wanted, despite Dean’s objections.  He needs that hope that someone can have power over Lucifer.  That way, maybe there’s hope for him.  Just as I’m so proud of him for making that choice, my heart is crushed again when he finally tried to explain to Dean what he’s feeling.  As he feared, Dean listened, but didn’t understand. 

Sam: You know what? Honestly?
Dean: Yeah, how ‘bout honestly.
Sam: I know what Rowena is dealing with. And she’s not the only one who…feels helpless.
Dean: What do you mean?
Sam: I mean, I had a plan, you know. I, uh… Help Jack, bring Mom back. It wasn’t much, but it was something. It – it kept me from spinning off the rails. And now… Jack is gone, Mom is still in hell, basically, and I-I-I- just…
Dean: We’ll figure it out.
Sam: Dean, we don’t have a plan. We don’t know what to do. So – so how?
Dean: I don’t know. But we will, you and me.
Sam: Yeah. Night.

Sam leaves the room defeated and angry.  Aww man, what a bummer.  

Another BRILLIANT POV

I couldn’t stop thinking about how Sam got to this place and how he could get out of it.  From time to time, I like to go back to the older reviews on the site to see if I’m missing anything in my analysis.  I did so again because I felt like there was something else I wasn’t grasping with Sam’s mentality.  I found this BRILLIANT, eye opening analysis from The Green Cooler that we published back in 2018, titled “Alas, His Plans Were Foiled Again.”  

This review nailed everything that’s been happening with Sam.  Dean’s empty assurances aren’t enough.  Sam needs a plan, one he can focus on.  He DESPERATELY needs that plan to stay sane.  He also needs a firm one, not a reckless, self sacrificing plan that Dean has done more than once in the past.  One part of the analysis explained it this way:

So, Sam Winchester has a damn good reason for demanding a plan out of Dean now. Sam wants to save his own mother, and he “needs a win” just like Dean did earlier this season, but if they don’t have a plan, then not only is Sam struggling without a specific strategy to throw himself into so he can avoid that inner reckoning, but he’s also left with the question of what potential desperate action Dean might take. And while Sam might not know this bit, as audience members, we also know that in Red Meat, Dean’s first inclination for handling Sam’s death is to overdose and beg that Billie allow Dean to take his place. In that unsettling context, can we blame Sam for needing more than, “We’ll get this done”? The how becomes incredibly important, because that “We” can become a lonely “I” frighteningly fast. Moving forward, let’s hope they’re both able to reach out and build a plan together. Stronger together, remember boys?

I highly recommend everyone read this review.  I cannot do an analysis better than this.  I bow to the master.  Now I’m looking at Sam’s arc in season 13 with different eyes, and I’m really interested by what I see. 

Overall grade for “Various & Sundry Villains”, a B-.  Sam’s arc, an A+.  Lucifer and Castiel, D.  The rest, meh.  Coming up next, “Good Intentions.”  Yeah, I don’t remember that one either.   We’ll see how that one goes!