Supernatural Season 12 Episode 9: First Blood Review

This Supernatural review contains spoilers.

Supernatural Season 12 Episode 9

After the Winchesters expelled Lucifer from none other than the President himself, they face a new challenge – becoming prisoners in a hush-hush governmental facility. This is not your average Supernatural episode. 

Bringing Lucifer back into the show was sure to have some major ramifications for the Winchesters, especially when he landed inside the President. 250 episodes in and the boys have become Enemies of the State. Welcome back, fans!

Since Sam and Dean spent the majority of this episode locked in cells and then on the run, it definitely didn’t felt like an unusual episode. There was nothing for the Winchesters to hunt this episode because they themselves had been hunted and captured. 

Now, someone might say the MacGyvery/action hero way the boys took on those soldiers was out of left field. I felt it for a few moments too. But if you recall, the Winchesters have been outsmarting law enforcement since the very beginning. Sam pulled a Steve McQueen to get out of a police interview room once, and our boys played dress up to avoid a shootout with the FBI when their doppelgangers really messed things up. Skirting law enforcement has been something they’ve been well practiced at, and likely something John Winchester had to learn when he got into the hunting biz.

They way the boys escaped this time involved faking their own deaths. This bothered me because it wasn’t explained (at first). Was it some voodoo/hoodoo thing? Did they do some David Blaine heart-slowing technique? Are government officials that inept?

That, fortunately, was answered in the nerve-wracking moment during the rescue with Mary and Castiel. The car loses power and stops on an appropriately photogenic bridge. Billie the Reaper makes her appearance, and the truth comes out. They made a deal, and now one Winchester needs to die. 

Just when you thought the Winchesters had learned their lesson about deals, we have this. Billie has been itching to put a Winchester or two in the ground ever since she first showed up. She doesn’t like the rules being broken. 

Which brother will sacrifice himself? But it is Mary who steps up to the plate. This is a pivotal, telling moment. You see, Mary had not been feeling like she belonged in this modern world ever since her resurrection. She ran away from her beloved boys to go find herself (and hunt the occasional thing). When Mary raises the gun to her head, she is cementing her connection to her family while also showing hesitation. This is no longer the depressed, future-shocked Mary of early Season 12. This is more like how she’s meant to be.

Castiel shish-kebabs Billie, so Mary never needs to pull the trigger. So ends the wonderful performance of Billie the Reaper by Lisa Berry. As far as ancillary recurring characters go, Billie was a fascinating, devilish addition. She didn’t take crap from anyone. She will be missed.

My only real complaint this episode? Mick, the Brit from the Men of Letters, is using a typewriter. You guys have access to thermal imaging satellite surveillance but your field operative uses a typewriter? I call b.s. on that one.