Supernatural “The Raid” Recap

Source: Supernatural // CW

Supernatural’s previous episode, Family Feud ended on a pretty harsh note when Mary told the boys that she was working for the British Men of Letters (BMoL). Last week’s episode picks up right where we left off in The Raid.

My feelings about Mary change within moments every time she is onscreen. I can kinda see where she is coming from, but I also know that I would be (and have been) more forgiving of any of TFW’s transgressions than I have been of hers, but I think it comes down to one thing: They’ve earned the benefit of the doubt. We have been with them for 8-12 years, and know so much about who they are and about their motivations. We don’t know that about Mary. What we do know about her is the near saintly picture painted for the boys, as well as for us. The fall of Saint Mary and the disillusionment of her sons may not be fair, but it’s completely understandable. The episode starts right out of the gate with a fight between Dean and Mary, with Sam in the middle trying to play peacekeeper. It’s an interesting flip from back in season one, when Dean was always playing mediator between his dad and little brother. Mary tells them that the BMoL route is a better way of hunting, and confesses that the lakehouse fight from awhile back (which nearly killed Cas) wasn’t poor dead Wally’s idea, but hers.

Flash forward three days: Mary is with Ketch finishing a hunt, and they head back to what looks like a bunch of storage containers stacked on top of each other, but is actually the BMoL temporary HQ. Mary goes to her bunk and stares at her extremely quiet phone, she’s been texting the boys and has gotten no response, and we flash back to the fight. Mary tries to make the boys understand she has 30 years of catching up to do and that familial ties aren’t built instantly. Dean counters that, well, it’s been their whole lives, and shit, it’s pretty fucking hard to build those ties when you need “space” from us all the time, Mary. Also my heart breaks when Mary tells Dean she’s not just a mother, and he’s not a child, to which he replies “I never was,” before kicking her out.

Back to Sam and Mary and the briefing, the BMoL thus far consists of Mick, Ketch, Mary, two technicians, Serena and Alton, and a hunter named Pierce, with whom Rufus worked exactly once. So Pierce is clearly great at his job. Not long after Sam tells Mary it was a good sales pitch, the vampires show up outside the bunker, killing the guards and using their hands to get inside the gate. Ain’t technology grand? They lock down, but don’t really have any weapons and no real fighters save for Mary and Sam, who capture a vampire and learn that the Alpha, who the BMoL thought was in Morocco for the past ten years, brought them there. So the intel is wrong, and the fancy weapons and tech are far away and useless. Who would’ve thought that this would happen? Certainly not Mick, who has no contingency plan. He does, however, have the Colt, which Mary confesses to stealing from Ramiel to a betrayed Sam, and that can kill Daddy since Sam knows how to make bullets for it (Thanks, Bobby!).

Back to Bunker 2.0, Ketch is bored with the “fun toy” killings and annoyed by Mick’s insistence that they get the Winchesters (all of them) onboard so that other American hunters will follow suit. They haven’t exactly been getting the cream of the crop thus far. Crazy, it’s almost like people don’t like it when strangers show up and try to take over. Weird.

At the bunker, Dean is scouring for cases and grumpy with a side of wanting to hit something. Sam tries to talk to him about what happened and convince him to hear Mary out; She is their mom, after all. Playing on Dean’s loyalty to family isn’t the best move in this instance, though, since the reason he’s so pissed off at Mary is her complete lack of loyalty to them. Dean gets pissed and tells Sam to pick a side and quit playing the middle. Sam gets a text from Mary asking him to meet her urgently, and off he goes to Bunker 2.0. Mary again apologizes and says she’s fighting for a world without monsters, and a better future for them all, and for puppies and kittens and cotton candy. She takes Sam on a tour of “low-budget Mission:Impossible” with gadgets and tech galore. He stays for a briefing and learns that all but 11 vampires in the entire Midwest have been wiped out. The American hunters tend to see vampires as rogues in small nests, but BMoL sees them as terrorists with a network, so they observe and gather information about the connections and then kill them all. Sam seems intrigued by the idea of wiping everything out so efficiently, so he stays to hear more.

Meanwhile, back at the bunker, Dean comes home to find a note from Sam saying he’ll be back soon. He also finds that the bunker is currently dry. A knock on the door has Dean coming face to face with Ketch, who happens to have some super duper fancy, expensive scotch. Ketch knows Dean’s candy, that’s for sure. This (and probably Sam’s words) is enough for Dean to call a truce and have a drink. Ketch tells Dean he doesn’t give a flying fuck if the boys live or die, much less join BMoL, but he knows that he and Dean are the same. They’re both killers who get itchy if they don’t have something to hunt and kill. The BMoL gives Ketch focus and a mission. It’s again clear that for all their research, the BMoL haven’t actually learned anything about the Winchesters, because if there is anything that Dean has always had his entire life, it’s a fucking mission. Ketch then gets up to go kill the vamps, which perks Dean up, and he decides to join the hunt. Itchy fingers and all. When they get to the warehouse, however, no one is there save for one vampire who tells them (after some roughing up by Ketch and a promise to “make it quick” by Dean) that the nest is out hunting the hunters, along with Daddy. Yes, the Alpha is back!

For some reason Sam, Mary, and Pierce decide to leave the techies undefended to work the spell on the bullets, and go to the armory for the fancy schmancy vamp killing machine, and get split up while Sam holds off some vamps. Not surprisingly, Pierce goes back to where Mick and the others are, and brings along Daddy. Pierce was a shitty hunter so he’s gotta make friends somewhere, right? Daddy Vamp quickly kills our poor computer nerds before yelling at Mick about killing all his children. He was fine with them wiping out monsters in England, but America is his home, and it’s about damn time the Brits get off his damn lawn. He tells Mick to call HQ in London and tell them to pull back, and then Daddy will literally eat Mick on Skype. FUN.

Dean and Ketch show up as the action is ending, and Ketch gives absolutely zero fucks that Mick is sad about people dying. People die all the time in his world. These two will be braiding each other’s hair any day now, I can feel it. Over by the Impala, Dean is talking to Mary, saying that when it all comes down to it they’re family and, even if they disagree with each other’s choices, they’re all adults.

Before that can happen, however, Sam and Mary (who had been knocked out by Pierce) show up with the Colt. Sam tells the Alpha that he can have Mick, but to let Sam and Mary go. There has always been an understanding between the monsters and the hunters. They’re on an even playing field and fight fair. Daddy is pondering this when Mick lunges for Sam, and Mary goes for Daddy. After a scuffle, Sam has the gun pointed at Daddy’s head again, only this time it’s loaded, as we see in a (super weird) slow motion flashback in which Mick fakes an attack on Sam for the sake of slipping him the bullet. Sam kills Daddy, and I find myself sad to see him go. I don’t know what it is about this show, but characters who are only on for a few episodes always seem to leave a mark and feel like they’ve been there so much longer. RIP Daddy.

What do you think? Is Sam really joining in earnest? Or is this a way to get some info on BMoL for a later showdown?

While Ketch is taking Pierce for some “special fun” Sam meanders over to Mick and tells him that he’s in. He wants to change the world, and he asks Mick to give him some time to work on Dean. Honestly, this surprises me a little. Not that Sam would do something behind Dean’s back (hello, every other season) but that he would join such a cluster fuck. BUT, maybe that’s why he’s joining them. It’s clear here that the only way for this system to work is with a balance of hunters and researchers: too many of one and it’s just kinda of a mindless bloodbath, too many of the other, and you can’t see the forest for the trees. I mean, even before the MoL storyline, Sam and Dean have operated this way. Sam was in charge of research, and Dean was the tactician and strategist.

Or, Sam’s a spy. Either one.