SUPERNATURAL Review 12.18 “The Memory Remains”

Read the previous review here.
Watch ithere.

After last week’s bloody ending, the Winchester brothers find themselves in a sticky situation. In other words—it must be Thursday. “The Memory Remains” picks up after Mick, British Man of Letters and newest member of Team Free Will, gets himself dead. The Winchester’s Three haven’t caught on to Ketch’s schemes yet, and find themselves a touch busy with a monster of the week.

Things kick off in Wisconsin, while the monster fodder spends some time camping and awkwardly watches their friends make out like a bunch of creepers. You know what’s worse than that? Horrifying people in goat masks. The victim of the week gets ganked while Dean continues to try to get ahold of Cas, but it doesn’t take long for Ketch to get the boys on the trail of the big bad.

The Winchesters find out that they’re on the hunt for Black Bill. Local urban legend calls him a man with the head of the goat, but anyone who’s seen more than one episode of Scooby Doo knows that sumbitch is a dude. Dean has to hit on the hot waitress before they can do anything about it, though. Boy’s lucky he’s pretty with pick-up lines like “This coffee is hot, just like you.” Jokes aside, it’s nice to see Dean freewheeling with waitresses and stealing his brother’s food again.

That excitement lasts until the British Men of Letters raid the Bunker to find out everything there is to know about Sam and Dean. Their currently unknown enemy finding out about their allies and whatever else they keep in the bunker is problem enough, but there’s something deeply unsettling about them raiding their home. The Bunker has been home base since Bobby’s house burned down, and even that was more of a waystation. They’ve spent their whole lives on the move and finally have a place that is theirs. A place that’s safe.

While the British Men of Letters are going through the Winchester’s haven, the boys go after the Sheriff. Their decision is thought out and backed by plenty of facts, which means Sheriff Bishop definitely isn’t Black Bill. But there’s got to be something going on between the two, right? Right! So long as the Bishop family feeds the monster, Moloch, the god of sacrifice, keeps the family rich. The good ol’ Sheriff doesn’t want to be a part of it anymore. He’s the reason the killings stopped in ’97. Locked up the monster and everything! Turns out that only keeps a god at bay for so long before they get out and start munchin’ on people again.

Sheriff Barry Bishop may have been the reason that the killings stopped in ’97, but his half-brother Pete is the one that started them up again. After another run in with Creepy Goat Mask, Dean’s kidnapped and Sam and Bishop are on the hunt. Moloch’s mojo is on the fritz after not feeding for decades, so Pete’s been feeding him double-time, and means to use Dean as another snack. Standard monster-smashing ensues, and Sammy saves his big brother just in time. They leave creepy but sweet Sheriff Bishop to clean up the mess and head back to their desecrated home.

Look, I try to keep these reviews as snarky and Winchester-like as possible. No chick flick moments, right? But I’ve loved these boys (despite their many, many flaws) for a lot of years, and them sitting in the bunker talking about their legacy gets me right in my heart strings. “The people we saved. They’re our legacy,” is peak Sammy in the best way possible, and he’s right. History won’t remember Sam and Dean Winchester, but thousands of people across the world will tell stories of the idiots in flannel who rolled into town and saved their lives.

As if that weren’t enough, the boys carved their initials into the table. All it’s missing is an army man crammed in an ashtray and it’s at Baby levels of importance. Those filthy British Men of Letters violated something at Baby’s level! We’ve seen a lot of monsters in Supernatural, and we’ve seen a lot of good people killed, but there’s something about this that’s just dirty. Ketch banged their mom and desecrated their home! His death better be King Joffrey levels of satisfying!

Despite the invasion of the Bunker, little happened in this episode to progress the season’s story. It seems a bit late to be throwing in a monster of the week, whether it serves a greater purpose or not. We’ve talked about it ad nauseam, but there are a lot of loose ends to tie up before the finale hits in four episodes. Cas has made the mistake of trusting the angels again, the British Men of Letters are out to kill the Winchesters and friends, Lucifer’s got a bun in the over, Dagon is running amok, Crowley thinks he’s bested the Devil, and the Devil’s going to have his head, and we still haven’t seen hide nor hair of Billy’s cosmic consequences.

Best guess? British Men of Letters story wraps in season twelve while the rest gets pushed to season thirteen. Luci Junior is born either in the finale or penultimate episode, the cosmic consequences have something to do with it, and the angels come back into the foreground again. It’s been a minute since we’ve had an arc carry over like that, but four episodes for all that plot seems ambitious. We’ll see Dagon and Kelly’s story progress with Lucifer Junior next week, so only time will tell! Sound off with your theories if you’ve got ‘em!