Let’s Speculate: Supernatural 12.22 “Who We Are” and 12.23 “All Along the Watchtower”

This recap will address both 12.22 and 12.23. The first hour of the finale was written by Robert Berens and is called “Who We Are,” while the finale is “All Along the Watchtower” written by Andrew Dabb.

12.22 opens with Mary having killed the hunter, Lester, and asking for more orders from Ketch. She drives away, covered in blood.

At the bunker, the boys and Toni are trying to figure out how to escape. Sam says they should check the books to see if they can reverse the lockdown. The show then displays the message, “Day One.” They find a purification ritual, hoping they can purify their blood for a spell. The spell seems to work but then fails. Toni states that Ketch probably put a magic dampener on the bunker, so it won’t work. On “Day Two,” Sam and Dean try to break down the bunker with strength. The brothers discuss how this is not the way they thought they’d die. They thought they’d go out in a blaze of glory. That gives them an idea, however, and Dean finally gets to use the grenade launcher!

After the explosion, Sam goes looking for Dean and at first, can’t find him and falls down, trying to catch his breath. Suddenly, the bunker lights up and the air starts to circulate. Finally, Dean appears with a gash on his leg. They escape and start calling all the hunters who are on the BMOL murder list. They realize that Jody is in danger. They arrive to find that Jody has already tied Mary up. Alex tends to Dean’s wound while Mary taunts them. Sam brings Toni in so she can fix Mary, but she admits that she lied. Mary’s programming is permanent. Dean is about to take her out, when Sam stops everyone and says that it’s time to fight.

Sam and Dean call the hunters together to warn them about the BMOL hunt and in an inspiration speech, much like Braveheart, Sam calls the hunters together and asks them to fight, so that they can defeat the BMOL. Dean looks on with pride.

Dean and Sam discuss. And Dean chooses to stay at the house to try and save Mary while Sam goes off to take on the British Men of Letters. They have an emotional exchange before Sam heads out. Dean takes Toni and is making her help him save Mary. We see the BMOL gearing up for a fight with the hunters, while Dean and Mary are hooked up together via electrodes. Toni gives him a needle full of some chemical, and he falls asleep, only to wake up in his mind to his old house, when he was a child. He finds Mary with a baby Sam and a very young Dean. He tries to get through to her but she ignores him.

At the BMOL headquarters, the hunters storm the compound and get in a gunfight, while back at the house, Dean is still trying to get through to his mother. In a great acting scene and well written psychoanalytic moment, Dean confesses his hatred for his mother, running through her emotional crimes, that included abandoning them because of her deal. The dialogue is disrupted by Ketch, who pulls Dean out of the dream. He has killed Toni. Dean and Ketch fight and Ketch is about to kill Dean when he gets shot, by Mary. Ketch says he always knew they were killers. Dean agrees with him, then Mary shoots him in the head.

At the BMOL headquarters, Sam leads Walt and Jody to Hess, where she tries to negotiate for her life. Sam isn’t buying it, even after she tells them about Lucifer’s escape. Jody shoots her between the eyes.

Back at the bunker, the family reunites, and in an emotional moment, the three Winchesters hug.

That ends the first episode and the second episode opens with Cass and Kelly, who are trying to prepare for the birth of Lucifer’s child, the Nephilim.

As the episode begins, Crowley is resurrected. He took the body of a rat and exhumed the Crowley meatsuit. He appears at the bunker, where Sam, Mary, and Dean are trying to figure out where Lucifer is, as well as where Castiel and Kelly could be hiding. At first they threaten to kill Crowley but he is there to help. He has grown tired of the job he’s in. He doesn’t want to rule Hell anymore. They find some weird news happening in Washington, and leave Crowley behind, with a demon blade stuck in his hand, so they can get to Kelly and Castiel before Lucifer.

As Kelly begins experiencing labor, she gives off a light which unfurls into a line in the air. Castiel finds it and approaches it. He enters into a dark world where he is attacked by a demon. A man with a shotgun approaches and kills the demon. Castiel looks up at him and asks, “You?”

Castiel returns to tend to Kelly, who is in full blown labor, as the Winchesters show up. They warn him about Lucifer. Mary runs to help Kelly while Dean, Sam, and Castiel try to protect the homestead. They see the glowing portal and ask what it is. Cas explains that it’s a rip in time and space because of the nephilim’s birth. He says it will heal itself when the baby is born. They want to see what’s inside and Cas shows them. They find out the man who saved Castiel is that dimension’s Bobby Singer, who doesn’t know them because in that world, the Winchesters were never born. John died forty years before that.

They get back to the house just in time to find Crowley has returned. He is there to help. They set up for Lucifer’s arrival while Kelly continues in labor, commiserating with Mary about dying for your child.

Lucifer shows up and he’s preying on the house. The three confront him but he knocks Castiel out while Sam and Dean run away from a taunting Lucifer. They lead him into the dark dimension. Dean shoots Lucifer with the shotgun, which has bullets made from angel blades. They do not stop Lucifer, but Crowley tells Sam that the cage spell he is working on still needs one more ingredient, a life. Sam and Dean watch as Crowley confronts Lucifer. The two bicker and Crowley takes his angel blade out, then saying “Bye, Boys” to the Winchesters, impales himself.

The boys go back to the other dimension, while Castiel comes charging in, going after Lucifer. They wait for him and when he reappears, just as Kelly is giving birth, he breaks through the glow but is impaled from behind, by Lucifer. Dean and Sam watch helplessly as Castiel falls to his death. Lucifer goes to attack them, but Mary shows up and she punches him. They fight and she is about to push him through the rip in time, but like in “Swan Song” when Michael grabbed Sam, Lucifer grabs Mary and they land together in the apocalyptic world just as the dimension closes.

Sam and Dean watch in horror as it happens. They stare down at the dead body of Castiel when Sam notices the glowing coming from the house. He rushes in and finds Kelly dead. He sees footprints leading to the baby nursery. He walks in and finds the fully grown Nephilim crouching in the corner, his eyes lit up bright.

Congratulations to Supernatural on the conclusion of its 12^th season! We look forward to another year with you, show!

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