Let’s Speculate: Supernatural 12.11 “Regarding Dean”

This week’s episode, “Regarding Dean,” was written by Meredith Glynn. The episode’s teaser focuses on the Winchester’s history with witches and it begins with Dean chasing a guy through the forest, an injured guy who is on the phone with someone. The guy tells the person on the phone to go. When Dean catches up to him, the guy is leaning against a tree. A sigil lights up the tree and the guy knocks Dean back.

Dean wakes up the next morning with a bunny nibbling next to him.

He finds his way back to town and gets a phone. He calls Sam and tells him to meet up at Waldo’s, a waffle house. Dean can’t remember what happened and he starts to show signs of forgetting things, such as the name of the woman carrying Lucifer’s baby and also the case they are in town to investigate. While they are eating, a group of young women come in and one of them is surprised to see Dean. As the boys are leaving, she approaches Dean and says hi, intimating they know each other (probably in a biblical sense, because let’s be real, it’s Dean Winchester). When he doesn’t recognize her, she slaps him.

At the coroner’s office, the brothers figure out that the dead guy was a victim of witchcraft. They go outside and get in the car and Dean can’t remember what key starts the Impala. Sam is worried that Dean is crawling into the bottle to avoid the problems they are facing and as they pull out, Dean puts the car in drive, instead of reverse. Sam calls out to Dean, who is seeing Sam through a fog. Dean finally asks, “Who’s Dean?”

Back at the motel room, Sam is quizzing Dean on what he remembers and it’s clear that Dean is forgetting stuff. The episode moves to Rowena, who is playing poker with some unsuspecting guys. Her phone rings and it’s Sam. Rowena tells him that it’s a complicated spell and to cure it, he has to kill the witch. Sam loses Dean and then finds him at another room, trying to get in. They decide to retrace Dean’s step from the day before. They end up at a bar and the waitress is the girl who slapped Dean. They find out that he was there and they get to see the security camera, which shows Dean confronting the guy who would turn out to be the witch, it would seem. They find the guy dead but Dean doesn’t return to normal. We see that the guy, Gideon, had two siblings, a brother and sister who are witches as well and it was the sister who was the one who killed the banker.

Back at the hotel room, Sam is trying to tend to a Dean who is remembering less and acting more childlike. Rowena shows up and tells Sam about the Gideon family. They are in possession of a powerful Grimoire that uses ancient Druid magic. Sam decides to go to get the book and leaves Rowena to babysit Dean. In an outstandingly acted scene, Jensen Ackles shows Dean losing his basic memories as he stares in the mirror. It was an incredible scene so kudos to Jensen here.

Sam goes to get the book and make the witches translate it. Rowena and Dean talk and Rowena reveals her own history with the family; she sought refuge with them and they turned her away, a hundred years ago. Sam calls and he is talking to Rowena when the sister and brother catch him. They cast a spell that makes him scream out, and for one moment, Dean remembers and calls out for Sam.

Rowena has taken Dean and the car to the witches’ house and has left him post-it notes with instructions, including not to use the grenade launcher but to use the gun with witch killing bullets. The witches have Sam tied up and are planning to use his soul for their dead brother’s. As the brother starts the spell, the sister goes down stairs and finds Rowena. She taunts Rowena with her history. The witches fight while Sam gets loose. Dean shows up and kills the sister. He turns the gun toward the staircase as the brother runs down and is followed by Sam. There is a split second when Dean points the gun at Sam but Sam says no, I’m the brother, the other guy’s the witch. Dean doesn’t hesitate as he shoots the remaining witch.

In the final act, Rowena cures Dean of the spell, although he does have fun at Sam’s expense by pretending not to remember. They see Rowena off, but not before Sam takes the grimoire back from Rowena. He says they owe her one, a small one. Sam tells Dean he was kind of jealous of Dean forgetting all they’ve done, but Dean says the price for that kind of happiness was not something he wanted. They drive off together as the episode ends with a montage of Dean riding the mechanical bull and showing all the moments of his happiness in the episode.

I know I’m pretty neutral but I have to say that this was a fantastic episode. Congratulations to Meredith Glynn, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Ruth Connell on a wonderfully written and acted episode!

Thoughts, Specs, Feelings, Etc.

1. What did you think of the episode?

2. How do you feel about Rowena’s emerging history and the sense of empathy that we are supposed to have for her, given the story she told?

3. How wonderful was Jensen Ackles’ performance tonight? And Jared Padalecki’s?

4. Leave reactions, thoughts, and feelings below!