by Sarah James WARNING: This review contains spoilers for previous episodes of Supernatural.
“Their mom’s on a hunting trip and hasn’t been home in a week.” – Sam WinchesterWhen we last saw Team Free Will, the Colt had been destroyed, Dagon had just been killed, and Castiel decided to be the father figure for Lucifer’s unborn child. In the immediate aftermath of that chaos, director and former archangel Richard Speight Jr. treated us to “Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes,” a surprisingly heartfelt and emotionally impactful filler episode right before the season wraps up. This episode saw the return of Max and Alisha Banes, the two witch-raised hunters initially seen in “The Life and Times of Asa Fox.” With a focus on the importance of family, and more specifically, mothers, this episode took a turn that was shockingly emotional. Because of this focus on mothers during this episode, Mary Winchester made a comeback. She’s been absent for a few episodes now, and her return also meant the return of the British Men of Letters. Mary’s alliance with the Brits was heavily tested throughout this episode, and we saw some pretty sick action sequences between Mary and Ketch. And the ending of the episode brought back a familiar and all-around hated character from earlier this season, which definitely shakes things up. All of this conflict expertly builds to the upcoming season finale. With only a few episodes left in the season, these issues between Ketch, his associates, and the Winchester family need to be resolved soon, hopefully with a decent amount of bloodshed. Between this episode and the previous one, the end of Season Twelve is shaping up to be pretty intense. Three episodes remain in this season, with aggression rising from the British Men of Letters, and Castiel supporting the birth of Lucifer’s son. It looks like Sam, Dean, and Mary have a lot to overcome and not much time to do so.
