Supernatural 12x04 "American Nightmare"

As is Supernatural's wont, this week dealt with the tense family dynamic by having the boys run into another family with a strange dynamic. Except it wasn't really Dean dealing with them, so his sudden turnaround at the end was a bit unwarranted. But whatever!

The producers said that they would be going more back to the basics this season, and this episode definitely had more of that feel. It started off with your typical strange death, followed up by the boys riding into town to investigate. This time around, the death is a form of stigmata. Holes in the hands, flayed back and all. Dean wants to chalk it up to the Beth, the woman who gained the job after her boss died from said stigmata, but Sam isn't so sure.

So, when another local delivery boy turns up dead in the same fashion, with no known ties to Beth, it seems dear Sammy may be right. But what do the two dead people have in common, one may wonder? Why, this odd, ultra-religious family that lives on the edge of town. The first victim was their child protective services case worker while the other was their grocery delivery boy. Dun dun dun!

But when the boys go to investigate, things seem rather okay at first. Dean thinks they're just fine, but Sam isn't so sure. In fact, he gets really pissed about the fact that the daughter had died because they wouldn't take her to get medicine some time ago. He's convinced something more is going on. And wouldn't you know it? He's right! Turns out, said dead daughter is not so dead, but instead locked up in the basement and forced to whip herself as punishment for having the devil inside her. Sam finds out while doing some night investigating around their barn, and calls up Dean. Of course, just as he's telling him, the family takes him hostage and locks him up downstairs with Magda, the daughter.

Of course, Sam knows she's not possessed by the devil, because duh. Instead she's just some psychic kid like he used to be. Which, wait, those are still around? I thought they were all infected by yellow eyes or something. Oh whatever. I'm sure there's some explanation that I don't really care about.

Basically what we're saying here is the mom is really the crazy one, which only becomes more clear at the supposed family dinner where she, you know, kills the dad with rat poison, then urges the others to eat it with her so they can all go to the afterlife together. Magda stops her brother from doing it with her psychic powers, which makes her mom go crazy and come at her with a knife, only her brother jumps in the way and gets a knife in the gut himself. Magda uses her powers to make the mom turn the knife on herself, but after Sam urging her to take control of her powers, she doesn't go through with it, condemning her mother to prison instead.

They send her off to go live with her aunt while Dean owns up to the fact that he's being a jerk because he's upset about Mary taking off, particularly after she doesn't text him back. Only she does eventually text him back, saying her phone died and she didn't have a charger. Because, you know, she doesn't really know about technology stuff.

Meanwhile, Magda gets off at some rest stop to use the bathroom on the way to California, and we see the mysterious motorcycle that was shown earlier in the episode. Turns out, the British Men of Letters have sent Mr. Catch after Magda, so he just shoots her in the bathroom. Because people with powers count as monsters now, too? Sheesh.

Random Thoughts:

- I think I spotted a few gray hairs in Monsieur Padalecki's glorious mane of hair!

- This episode was pretty boring, I'll be honest. I'm surprised the recap got as long as it did.

- I don't really have many thoughts after this one. It was pretty much a standalone. So there you have it.

Quotes:

Dean: I'm a thirteen-year-old girl.

Dean: That's right. One's an angel, one's a demon. And apparently, they solve crimes.

Dean: Sorry I missed all the psycho.
Sam: Yeah and you thought our family was crazy.

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