Reviews That I Missed: Supernatural 12.06 – “Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox”

I remember why I didn’t do a review initially for “Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox.”  I was pretty damned disappointed.  Everyone else on the staff loved it for reasons I still can’t figure out, so I let them have their joy.  By this time season 12 was such a damned disappointment to me and any negative comments was perceived as killing fan joy, so I chose to sit this one out.  So what did I think on the rewatch?  Meh.  

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate it.  The character dynamics were interesting, as well as some old themes being brought up like the perils of the hunting life.  This was Steve Yockey’s first script for Supernatural and you could tell he was paying attention to what happened prior.  However, I think he made some of the same mistakes other writers were making at the time.  

The Wrong

Let me get the nitpicks out of the way first.  I watched this whole ‘who will be possessed by the demon’ saga wondering, “How does that even work with house full of hunters?”  Surely they all have anti-possession tattoos or amulets.  They’re…wait for it…HUNTERS.  How could Jody be that careless?  She’s seen enough shit to know.  She knows what Sam and Dean do for protection.  NO ONE had holy water on hand?  Sacrilege!  The guy who brewed the beer should have put holy water in it, a la Bobby Singer.  

Also, this was a wake for a hunter supposedly killed by a powerful demon, right?  No one warded the house or had plenty of devil’s traps everywhere?  They didn’t entertain the possibility that the demon would want a piece of them?  Especially a very powerful red eyed demon? 

Also, wouldn’t a coroner have said that Asa didn’t die by hanging?  So they don’t have coroners in Manitoba?  Or forget the coroner, a blunt force trauma to the head is usually obvious.  That seemed weird to me when the real story came out about how he died.   I guess I had trouble getting over these nagging questions, but by season 12, such gross errors became the norm each week that I just gave up by that point.  

I was also upset that once again the focus was on Dean’s man pain.  Give me a break.  Isn’t Sam allowed to have reactions too?  I mean, his mother, the one that he never knew, came back from the dead.  Shouldn’t he have some of those mixed feelings as well? I was not impressed that he defended Dean to Mary.  He should have told her what he was feeling too, how her return has been hard on both of them.  You know, stuff like “I never got to know you, I’d like to now…” sort of thing.  The fact that neither of them told Jody that Mary was back from the dead was appalling.  That’s not broken characters.  That’s shitty writing.  I get why Dean didn’t talk about it.  He was too lost in his man pain.  But Sam?  A heads up would have been nice.  But yeah, Winchesters and their secrets.  Whatever.  

I suppose the more I do these rewatches, it becomes more obvious that in the later seasons  they kept whitewashing Sam’s character and never really giving him a POV.  He was just, there.  I kept hearing, “Oh, he just internalizes.”  Watch season two.  He internalized then too, but there were plenty of hints that something was crumbling inside.  In the later seasons, nada.  They just gave up on poor Sam.  

The Right

I’m thrilled that Mary was called out on hunting even after Dean was born.  A fact that Sam caught on pretty quick by reading the letters, speed reading the letters I would say, that Asa left behind for Mary.  Sam understood though, it’s hard to escape the life once you’re in it.  

I mean, come on Sam, it’s not like we’re in the ‘live till you’re ninety and die in your sleep’ business. This? This only ends one way.

This episode did reinforce one fact that held true to the end, few hunters die of old age while living the life.  I know in the finale people wanted Dean to live and have a happy life, but this was just another clue that the writing was on the wall.  He was going to go out swinging and unfortunately, early.  The fact that Sam did live to an old age was the remarkable thing, but it’s probably because he gave up hunting after Dean died.   

I enjoyed the motherly slant in this episode.  They’re the ones that ultimately suffer from this life too.  It helped soften us to Mary’s predicament.  There was Asa’s Mom, who didn’t approve of his life as a hunter.  She tried lots of tricks to get him to stop.  She even blamed Mary for it.  At the end though, thanks to Jael’s revelation that Asa was Alicia and Max’s father, she decided to embrace her grandchildren.  Then there was Mary, who told Jody that Sam and Dean weren’t the problem.  Her feelings of being lost and unfamiliar, luckily those were well fleshed out by her conversation with Billie.  It gave us a fresh perspective on what she is really going through.  But she chose to stay for her boys despite her own pain.  That is a true mother’s love.  The strongest perspective came though from Jody.  

Jody: Look, maybe this isn’t my place, and this is epic stuff, but, you know, if I could have my son and my husband back? I mean really back? I would give anything, absolutely anything to have that. And it would scare the hell out of me.
Dean: Yeah?
Jody: Yeah. Because what if I’ve changed. What if they changed? What if it just didn’t work out the way I wanted?
If you wanna talk about anything, absolutely anything, I’m here.
Dean: Thanks, Jody.

I LOVE this conversation between Dean and Jody.  It’s obvious Dean is still stinging about Mary leaving, but in true Jody form, she paints a clear perspective.  Everything’s changed.  Dean isn’t that four year old she left behind, and Sam isn’t that infant.  How else is she supposed to react?  Was that enough to shake Dean out of his funk?  No, but at least he got the talking to he deserved.

I also loved Jody’s reaction to seeing Mary for the first time.  Talk about an enthusiastic response!

Poor Jody, she still continues to be consumed by loneliness.  She should really stay away from hunters!  It was established in the early flashback that Asa was very attractive to women, so of course he and Jody hit it off.  He had that kind of charm.  But to fantasize about a life with him, she had to know that hooking up with hunters is bad news.  They tend to die early.  Still, she has embraced the life of a hunter good or bad, and as everyone knows, the bad tends to win out.  It’s another loss for her and it’s sad. At least her motherly perspective helped Dean, Sam and Mary through this situation. 

I had to remind myself that Billie was a relatively new character by this time, and I loved her appearance here.  The fact that this new reaper was having big trouble with the way the Winchesters kept disrupting the natural order and wanted to do something about was pretty awesome.  She was keeping a watchful eye and she was a true threat, until it all fizzled out eventually from lazy writing.  But it was still interesting here! 

Dean using Billie to break the warding on the house, flying through the barrier on the door, was a really cool visual effect.  Great job VFX team!  

Steve Yockey also tried to inject some humorous moments, which is an awesome homage to what SPN scripts used to be.  I love how the Winchesters have become folk legends in the hunting world.  I enjoyed how “Wendigo” ended up being the drink word of the wake and the awkwardness of Elvis the hunter to the others.  He had no problem coming out and asking Sam what it was like to be Lucifer’s vessel?  What a putz.  The twins were funny in their reaction to him. 

The opening montage about Asa’s life after he met Mary as a boy was really cool too.  We got to know everything that made this guy tick in just a few short minutes, a good perspective given the wake that was coming.  Of course “Roll on Down the Highway” from Bachman-Turner Overdrive played in the background, fitting since they are a Canadian band from Manitoba.  Keeping it real!  I love this episode was set in Emerson, Manitoba, the Winchester’s first “true” visit to Canada.  It makes sense given the proximity to Sioux Falls, SD and the US border. 

The ‘I’m Not Sure’

I find it interesting, but still plausible, that it wasn’t common knowledge among hunters and demons that Sam was Lucifer’s vessel. Especially the demon!  They usually know everything with certainty.  Or at least they make it sound certain.  They all seemed to know that Dean died multiple times and came back though.  They didn’t care about Sam’s multiple deaths either?  I guess the Lucifer thing was more fascinating.  

Also, the big demon showdown inside did end on a big thud.  Multiple people doing the exorcism?  Yeah, okay.  The outcome seemed anti-climactic given the build up.  The Bucky story about how Asa truly died?  Flimsy.  

At the end there were three salt and burns?  Shouldn’t there have been that coroner thing for the two hunters that died?  Families notified, all that stuff?  I guess they assumed they were loners with nothing.  Still a bit of a leap though given that it happened shortly after the altercation.  I know it’s done for safety so they aren’t possessed by demons, but still, too soon maybe?  Yeah, not sure about that one.  I’m probably over thinking it.     

All in all, I’d give this one a B-.  Nice character stuff, same issue with plot holes and Sam and Dean cliches.  Coming up next, “Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell.”  I don’t remember that one at all!  Time to get familiar.