This episode is brought to you by a whole lot of Supernatural writers who only know
Britain from the books they’ve read
So we see a flashback of Mick’s life in Kendricks, - the
Men of Letter’s Hogwarts (and yes, it blatantly is) where everyone has a
surprisingly posh accent. Also, Dr. Hess, the headteacher is definitely failing
her next Ofsted report because she requires the kiddies to fight to the death
to progress a year
Given that, in Mick’s own words, front line ruthless
fighters are hardly needed in the Men of Letters, given his whole team’s
general incompetence when it comes to killing anything – I really question why?
I mean what is she training them to be ruthless FOR? And if you’re going to
train them to kill their fellow tweenagers, could you actually train them to be
able to kill actual monsters? I mean, yay, you’ve got a cadre of soldiers who are
capable of killing 13 year olds but collectively shit themselves when facing an
actual monster
So this is Mick’s traumatic past – a past so traumatic it
completely changed Mick’s accent. Also he’s truly loyal to the Men of Letters
because he was a street kid controlled by Fagin picking pockets and he
accidentally pickpocketed a member of the Men of Letter’s (we don’t know their
name, I’m going to call her Nancy) who then decided pickpocketing is actually a
useful skill for Men of Letters. Unlike, y’know, killing monsters.
Because the writers have read waaay too much Dickens.
So that’s Mick’s back story. It’s cringeworthy in it’s ridiculousness
and I’m resisting the urge to call Mick “Oliver”.
Anyway in the modern world Mick drips in on the Winchester
cave, using his key. Because every chapter house of the Men of Letters has the
same key
Ok, can we talk about this as well? We already saw the
Men of Letters create a base made of storage containers with minimal defence – and
now this? Think about this – the American Men of Letter base has been abandoned
for generations, generation on generation – any monster could have got their
hands on the keys to this place, but the other Chapter Houses in Britain – or around
the world –didn’t think to change the locks? You take down one of Chapter
houses and you’ve got the keys to all of them? This makes no damn sense.
He’s there to out-drink them (he’s British, he doesn’t
drink American allegedly-beer)
Anyway he wants to talk to them about the Nephilim which
has just hit the Men of Letter radar. He wants to tell the Winchesters who, of
course, already know.
He wants to apply The Code and demands to know why they
didn’t just murder Kelly and be done with it as the Men of Letters would do.
The Winchesters are not ready to kill an innocent and point out that Mick was
pretty broken over killing an innocent werewolf last week. Also, Mick’s on his
second strike so calm your murdering. Of course Mick is very “son of Lucifer is
an exception”. They also tell him where to stick his Code.
Of course Mick is still reporting to the Men of Litters –
in particular Dr. Hess, the headteacher who had him murder his childhood
friend. She has decided that the whole Nephilim situation means they have to
stop courting the American hunters – they either get with the program and obey
orders or they’re all going to be murdered
By Arthur Ketch. On his own. Entirely. Because he’s the
only British hunter who can actually hunt. Because this I really a good idea.
Meanwhile Kelly is still in the care/custody of Dagon who
grudgingly takes her to the doctor to look over her care since she’s feeling
kind of icky. Dagon happily mind controls the doctor to get on with it – she doesn’t
care about Kelly’s health and she’s pretty certain baby demon is going to be
absolutely fine.
You’ll note no-one here cares about Kelly, the mother’s
health or choices. It’s like a Republican convention on women’s rights. Except
with Demons – so less evil.
Lucifer is also in touch with Dagon here, but more on him
later.
Mike is definitely doubting the whole code thing –
because a life time of indoctrination and traumatic accent changes can just be
overcome in a couple of weeks. So Dr. Hess decides that she’s going to send her
lack, Renny Rawlings (oh my gods, Americans, really? Do you think English
people actually have names like this?) to hurry over and supervise. Despite
taking an overnight plane to America and hurrying to spy on Mike, he still
manages to find a bone china cup and tea from somewhere (really, Americans?
Really?)
He tells everyone he graduated top of his class – because the Men of Letters are all about exams and not about field work. Of course, that sounds a lot harder when you realise their exams involve murdering each other: shame it doesn’t actually involve killing actual monsters. Everyone, hilariously, is utterly uncaring about his exam results.
Meanwhile Arthur and Mary are getting all close – with Mary
again insisting she can be mother Mary AND hunter Mary. They also have sex. The
Winchester sons probably don’t want to hear that. She makes it clear this is
just casual fun and Arthur agrees with a definite puppy-dog-crush-eyes going on
here
Back to the other Winchesters Eileen, a hunter we’ve met
before who is definitely fun (and the bonus of being a Deaf character played by
a Deaf actor) is one of the hunters (because the Winchesters have called in all
the Hunters) tracking down Kelly. She also doesn’t care about Renny’s exam
results. By killing a demon hunting her, she has managed to find where Kelly is
allowing the Winchesters to set a trap.
Which they do and try to appeal to Kelly – but Mike and
Renny just want to kill her. While they’re arguing Dagon arrives. Dagon is a
prince of hell. Dagon isn’t playing. Dagon knocks them all about quite easily
and normal bullets have no effect on her. Eileen manages to get her hands on
the Colt – but when she fires Dagon uses super speed/hallucinations/both to get
out the way – the bullet hits Renny. Alas he is dead, along with his magical
ability to conjure fine china cups of tea.
Dagon leaves with Kelly and now resorts to chaining Kelly
up and making it clear she’s not escaping again, she will give birth to Lucifer’s
kid. And she will die in the process – mothers never survive giving birth to
Nephilim.
At the war zone Mick has to follow the code – which means
shooting Eileen. The Code has absolutely no concept of collateral damage in a
war zone? (of course not, there’s only one fighter in the entire British men of
letters. Unless Arthur kills himself in a mission. In which case he would then
have to be executed by the Code. Hey it makes as much sense as the rest of the
Code). Sam and Dean object to him wanting to shoot Eileen (she’s not a fan
either) and demand he do what’s right rather than what the Code says
It helps that the Code is really really stupid.
Mick breaks his lifetime of accent-changing-conditioning
which is surprisingly easy and agrees to spare Eileen
But when he goes home it seems he has another special
visitor – Dr. Hess has now arrived and is demanding some explanation for the
complete failure (she isn’t drinking tea, but she is drinking whiskey which is
English beverage code for Hardass). Except not really because she doesn’t
listen to other people – instead she’s laying out demands:
1. Eileen is shot.
2. Dean and Sam are investigated, judged and then shot
(as Mike points out, Hunters never survive these trials)
3. All American Hunters are judged and then shot
Mick objects – wanting to do what is right rather than the
code. She argues back for order and the law which would make sense of the Code
weren’t the stupidest thing ever written down (barring the odd executive order).
I mean, everyone doing what they personally think is best when it comes to
killing other people is generally not a good idea. But when the code is “kill
everyone. Kill everyone nearby. Kill them too. And more killing. Hey let’s make
kids kill each other yet. Did he look at us funny? That’s a killin’” then
personal judgement is a definite improvement.
For objecting Mick is shot. This shocks no-one. Arthur
does it because he’s the only Men of Letters who can actually fight. Dr. Hess
updates her instructions – kill everyone. See what I mean about the Code?
This is going to put Arthur in a bind because everyone
will include Mary Winchesters
Also he’s one man and that’s a whole lot of hunter
killing
Back to Lucifer as I mentioned earlier. He is apparently
completely submitting to Crowley, not fighting or resisting at all. He’s so
cowed that Crowley is even willing to show him off to all the demons to command
their loyalty and be impressed at how Crowley’s in full command
It doesn’t work out – sure Lucifer says the right words,
but his winking and tone makes it clear he’s going to be on top again soon and
any demon who doesn’t pick the right side now is going to be in so much
trouble. Crowley, Crowley, you’re smarter than this.
Of course even with a minion helping, the demon who
actually made Lucifer’s vessel into a cage is now dead. Crowley is, indeed,
smarter than this.
