Supernatural 12x16 "Ladies Drink Free"

It's been a few weeks, but Supernatural is back, and can you believe we're already more than halfway through the season? As promised, this season hasn't really been about one big bad in particular, but more about smaller stories along the way, with a bunch of Lucifer stuff thrown in.

After focusing on vampires not too long ago, the show forayed back into one of the other prongs of the fantasy trifecta - werewolves. The Winchesters plus Mick, who apparently wants to tag along with them in order to learn how to be a better hunter rather than just a good researcher, or something, track down a girl who was attacked by a werewolf, with her brother being killed. While talking to the girl, Mick sees that she's been bitten, but hides it to himself. The brothers also find out that a young, blonde with an attitude saying she was from the department of fish and game also stopped by earlier. Who could that be?

Yes, it's the return of Claire, who is always more fun when paired with Jody, but we can't always get what we want, I guess. Anyhow, she has secretly been hunting on her own while Jody thinks she's been off looking at colleges. Which, how many teenagers go look at colleges completely on their own, either? But whatever, she's lying, yada yada. Who else is lying? Mick, of course. He pretends to retired early for the night, but actually goes back and kills the young infected girl, because that's the way the BMOL do things.

He manages to keep it under wraps for a bit, at least until Dean figures out he's lying about what he was up to the previous night while interrogating a bar dude. He gets the truth out of him, and of course is none too happy about it. Meanwhile, Sam has paired up with Claire, who finds out that the girl in question had been seeing a guy at the bar secretly, and they deduce that the werewolf didn't kill her, but instead just wanted to change her. Sam then gives her a hard time for hunting on her own, and she goes off in a tiff, gets jumped by said werewolf, and gets herself bitten.

Now, earlier on in the episode, Mick mentioned they had tried to find a cure for lycanthropy some time ago, but claimed it didn't work. Well, apparently it worked 1 in 9 times on mice, so they want to give it a go with Claire, who is convinced she can't handle being a werewolf, that she'll go crazy and attack her loved ones. What does one need for this cure of sorts? Why, the live blood of the werewolf who turned her, duh!

Sam and Dean go off to get that while Mick watches Claire, who starts to feel the effects of the bite. The brothers end up chasing after the wrong bartender, because also duh, and the werewolf dude shows up at the hotel and knocks out Mick and takes Claire off to his apartment. Because we've only had two real supporting characters so far in this episode, the others figure out where to go, just as Claire starts to go all wolfed out.

They manage to wrestle some blood from the dude, and give her the cure. She writhes around a bit, and it seems like she may have died, but since she is one of the only girls left on this show, and it would've been a lame way to kill her, no. She's cured! And she calls up Jody to tell her that she's really been hunting, because love and feels and stuff. The Winchesters are willing to give Mick a second chance despite his lying to them about killing the other girl, because there was this whole thing about second chances earlier and blah blah.

I'll be honest, it was kind of a meh episode for me.

Random Thoughts:

- I mean, I don't dislike Claire, but you know I'd rather see Jody or Donna any day. Or at least more of them together.

- There was also some hints mentions of how the BMOL have been killing off werewolf packs, and they're meant to live in packs. I wonder if that means Garth is going to make another appearance, unless he was killed sometime offscreen.

- It was pretty precious seeing the boys react to getting their own rooms with the little shampoos and such. A three star hotel is a magical thing for them.

Quotes:

Dean: Either you get good fast, or you get dead faster.

Dean: I'm ruined, Sam. Those limey sons of bitches ruined me. I even took a swim this morning.
Sam: You brought a swimsuit?
Dean: No.
Sam: Ugh...

Dean: Young. Blonde. Pissed off. Sound like anyone we know?

Dean: Yeah. Sam's best friend. They're, like, nerd soulmates.

Claire: Sam, no offense, but who do you think the kids are going to want to talk to... me? Or an old skeezer?

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