Let’s Speculate: Supernatural 12.03 “The Foundry”
This week episode was written by Robert Berens and directed by Robert Singer and is titled “The Foundry.” The cold open begins with a hipster couple leaving a swanky restaurant. They are talking when they stop in front of an abandoned house and hear a baby crying. The woman goes into the house while her partner calls 911. She ventures further into the house to find the baby and an old crib with a flickering light above it. She pulls back the cover and a creepy doll is there. Her partner shows up and something runs in front of them. They run to the door but it slams shut. She screams.
In the bunker, Castiel comes upon Mary reading John’s journal. Mary asks Castiel when he felt like he belonged after he left heaven. He’s still not sure he does, Castiel says, and tells Mary that she does belong here. In the bathroom, Mary looks in the mirror and sees her hair. She begins to cut it. In the morning, Sam and Dean are at the kitchen table discussing the Men of Letters. Castiel appears and tells them he has to go. Sam and Dean follow him to see why. He says he’s going to Cleveland because there are reports of glowy red eyes. They say they’ll go with him. Castiel says no, that they are needed there. They realize he’s referring to Mary. Sam and Dean discuss her adaptation to the modern world when she appears with shorter hair and grabs cold bacon. Sam asks if she cut her hair and she says yes, better not giving bad guys long hair to pull. Dean notes he’s been saying that to Sam for years.
Mary says she’s found a case so Dean says they can have a family hunting trip. Mary seems hesitant but says okay. They get in the car and Mary rides shotgun. Dean introduces her to the pleasures of chili lime jerky.
In Cleveland, Castiel investigates Vince Vincente’s assault on his bandmate, who swears it was not Vince. Castiel is walking away when Crowley appears. Crowley argues that they should work together.
Mary, Sam, and Dean are posing as FBI agents named Bonaducci, Partridge, and another name from that show. The coroner says the couple from our cold open (ha, see what I did there) died of hypothermia, in a 65 degree room. Later, the trio are investigating the house when Mary finds the room with the crib and the doll. The same thing begins to happen to her as the couple. Sam and Dean break the door down just as the young ghost grabs Mary’s arm, leaving her with a frost burn on her forearm.
In a rather funky hotel room, Mary and the boys are discussing the case when it becomes clear that Mary is still adjusting to modern life.
Castiel and Crowley, aka Agents Beyonce and Z, show up at Vince’s sister’s house. They find out that he came by and healed her and had Rowena in tow. In what is going to be my favorite thing of the season, we get Murtaugh and Briggs Supernatural style with Crowley and Castiel.
The episode cuts to Rowena, whom Vince has shackled to a ceiling. He wants the Book of the Damned but she doesn’t know where it is. He threatens to cut her head clean off this time if she doesn’t cooperate.
Back with Sam and Dean and Mary, they discuss the case and Mary thinks the ghost wasn’t trying to hurt her. They say they’ll salt and burn all the bodies they suspect could be the ghost when Mary has a dizzy spell. She rubs her arm as memories of Sam in the crib assault her. The brothers suggest she stay there. While they are gone, she does her own investigation and finds the mother of the boy she encountered in the house. While the boys salt and burn a body, they discuss Mary. Sam is concerned while Dean is trying to defer the issue.
Sam and Dean return to the motel to find Mary gone. She has taken a bag of weapons and gone back to the house. She finds the child ghost and he points her toward a boarded up door that leads to another room. She is talking to the child when Sam and Dean call. The call goes to static. The child tells her that “he” is keeping them there. She runs out and up the stairs and finds a ghost who is the father of one of the murdered children. He reaches out and starts to freeze her heart. Sam and Dean interrupt and Mary elbows Dean in the face. When she turns around, a black tear runs down her face and Sam shouts that she’s possessed.
While that is going on, Rowena and Lucifer are talking. Lucifer is forcing her to do a spell to lengthen his vessel’s shelf life. She does the spell but instead of healing the vessel, she does a spell that quickens the decay and then shouts a spell which sends Lucifer to the bottom of the ocean.
Back at the haunted house, Dean and Mary struggle while, in a moment of clarity, Mary sends Sam to the basement. He encounters the ghost child who points to the wall. Dean captures demonpossessedMary with chains to keep her as Sam tears the wall apart to salt and burn the father’s body. As he burns, the children he is keeping hostage appear. In a beautiful scene, the trio watch as the children turn to light and rise to the sky. Lucas, the child who helped them, is the last. Mary nods at him and he bends his head as he turns to light.
In the final act, Crowley and Castiel come upon a triumphant Rowena, who has banished Lucifer.
Back at the bunker, Dean apologizes that they sidelined Mary. Dean says she was right. He wonders what the ghost was thinking and Mary explains that she knows. She saw his greed for the children after his child died. He bound the children to him and that’s how he got the power. Dean tries to console Mary, who tells them that she’s not okay, that she’s in mourning for the family she had in heaven, the memories of her husband and her baby Sam and her little boy, Dean. She tells them that she loves them but that she needs time and she leaves.
Specs, Thoughts, Etc.
1. What do you think of Team Crowley and Castiel?
2. Where did Lucifer really go and will that be the end of Rick Springfield? (I hope not because he’s so damn good.)
3. Did you agree with Mary’s decision?
4. Did you see the preview for next week? Do you need oxygen?
Leave thoughts below!
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