Supernatural Season 12, Episode 18 Review: The Memory Remains

This Supernatural review contains spoilers.

Supernatural: Season 12, Episode 18

There’s a lot of familiarity with the main story of the Winchesters’ hunt. They’ve actually hunted gods like this before. This episode right from the start reminded me of the episode “Scarecrow” — which had a very similar setup. The seasonal, regular murders and the epically bad idea of putting a god in servitude for personal gain have been explored before.

The B story involved Mr. Ketch and his team sneaking into the bunker now that they’ve sent Sam and Dean on a hunt. This is going to pose a major problem for our boys when they find out, but for now these scenes are played off for laughs. Some of it is amusing, such as Mr. Ketch finding Dean’s favorite periodical Busty Asian Beauties (which he totally reads for the articles, you guys).

I do have a problem with the bunker infiltration being more humorous than sinister. The music is jaunty and every time the episode cut between the A story with the monster and the B story with the bunker, it was a jarring experience. The tone of these stories did not match at all, and did not belong mashed together like this. It would have been more impactful to play through the episode without showing the Brits invading. Imagine going through that god storyline with Sam and Dean and then, when they’re unwinding and sitting at the table, a microphone is shown, known only to the audience.

There were some fun moments, especially between Sam and Dean. Dean is definitely overly sure of himself now that he’s packing the Colt. Instead of listening to Sam’s notes on what they might be hunting, Dean is more interested in a waitress. He’s very gung-ho that he’ll be able to kill anything now that the Colt is back. It seems like a set-up for Dean’s cockiness to get the better of him. And it does. Sam’s the one who gets to gank the god.

Everyone seemed to get a good line in there somewhere. Sam got the “Don’t do the coffee thing” joke and Dean got a great one-liner about rich murderers: “Croquet’s all right but you know what would be great? Murder.” The British Men of Letters made a few quips about Sam’s hair and Dean’s flannel. Even our bad guy got to have a play on the famous Supernatural phrase, saying, “Hunting people, killing them — the family business!”

There is a really great shot that pulls back from the freezer where victim #2 pleads for help. It’s a creative and teasing shot. It keeps backing up until Sam and Dean walk into frame and away from where the kid is being held. This was also a great tease for where the ending of the episode would play out.

It wasn’t the greatest episode, but it was by no means terrible. I just wish the main story with the murdery god hadn’t been so rehashed. I probably would have forgiven more in that case.