Supernatural – Keep Calm and Carry On

By: Stacy Miller

The opening scene of the season premiere episode Keep Calm and Carry On picks up from where the season finale ended with Dean (Jensen Ackles) encountering his suddenly alive mother Mary (Samantha Smith). He touches her arm to assure himself he’s not dreaming and that she’s real. Suddenly, Mary grabs Dean by his arm and twists it behind his back. Did you feel THAT Dean? Yep, that convinced him this is not a dream. “Who are you?” Mary demands. “My name is Dean Winchester. I’m your son,” Dean answers. This man must be a demon, Mary is probably thinking because demons lie. Her son Dean is four years old.

What follows is Dean telling Mary (and viewers) everything about her life. We learn that Mary’s birthday is December 5, how she and John met and that they married in Vegas. Mary learns that John died to save Dean and that she’s been dead for 33 years. Also, Mary doesn’t remember any of her previous reunions with Dean (wiped memory). He tells her about God and his sister Amara, who was the one who resurrected her.

Meanwhile, Castiel (Misha Collins) rises from a hole in the ground startling a trucker. He learns that he is a few hours away from Lebanon, Kansas and the Men of Letters bunker. Having no time for the trucker’s questions, Castiel puts his fingers to the man’s forehead putting him to sleep and then steals his truck.

Toni (Elizabeth Blackmore) locates a veterinarian and tells him that she needs his help. Opening the back of her SUV, we see Sam (Jared Padalecki) bound and gagged. Toni tells the vet that she’ll pay him $100,000 to treat the bullet wound to Sam’s leg from where she shot him. The man reminds her that he is an animal doctor. People, animals – they’re all meat according to Toni. What a cold hearted bitch! But the veterinarian takes her money and agrees to treat Sam. However, when we see Sam next, he’s cuffed and chained to a chair. I’m assuming that the vet repaired his leg first which makes it cruel to see his legs and feet chained. Toni tells Sam if he gives her the answers she seeks then he can walk out of there. Um, on his hurt leg? Sam isn’t exactly jumping (remember, hurt leg) at the chance to help her. He tells her that she can do what she wants to him. “I’ve been tortured by the Devil himself so you’re just an accent in a pantsuit. What can you do to me?” says Sam stoically. It turns out it is wet t-shirt time, which is not fun for Sam as he is drenched with cold water from overhead.

Dean and Mary arrive at the Men of Letters bunker where they find blood on the floor. Dean calls out for Sam and goes in search of his brother while Mary continues to look around. She draws her weapon when Castiel appears. Dean returns to the room just in time to stop Mary, who asks if Castiel is a hunter. Castiel hugs his friend, relieved that Dean is alive as he thought that Dean used the soul bomb and was destroyed stopping Amara. Dean tells Mary that Castiel is an angel. Angels, with wings and harps? “I don’t have a harp,” says Castiel. Isn’t he cute when he takes things so literally? Dean introduces Castiel to his mom saying, “This is Mary Winchester, my mother.” Castiel tells Dean about the woman appearing in the bunker and how she zapped him away and must have taken Sam.

Back at torture headquarters, Sam bravely puts up with his cold showers. Toni explains the purpose of the “interrogation” is to get the names of the head hunters in the United States (Toni, what show are you on? Sam and Dean Winchester ARE the head hunters!) Toni taunts Sam that he is bad at his job as a hunter as he has let many people get killed over the years. She wants to begin running things like they do at the London Chapter of Men of Letters. They have wards at the borders that gives them information about the evil in town. That way, they stop the monster BEFORE it hurts or kill the innocent. But Sam refuses to give information on any of the other hunters and will only say “screw you.” So, things go from cold to hot with a blowtorch being taken to his foot! Toni’s henchwoman is impressed on the amount of pain Sam Winchester can take prompting Toni to decide, “If we can’t break his body, we break his mind.” She then takes out a syringe.

At the Men of Letters bunker, Dean uses traffic cam footage to get a lead on the car that took Sam. “Is that a computer?” Mary asks. “Yes. I don’t trust them,” Castiel answers. When they go to the garage and Mary sees The Impala for the first time in three decades, she lovingly rubs her hand on Baby and then smiles as she glimpses the backseat. Hmm, I wonder whether that was where Dean was conceived. They leave the bunker to search for Sam. While they stop for a bite to eat, Mary watches all the changes around her with the smart phones and tablets. Dean returns to the table where his mother and Castiel are talking and notice a vet vehicle drive pass. They track down the vet who treated Sam’s leg and he explains about the woman who paid him $100,000 to do so. The vet is ordered to call Toni. Dean takes the phone and issues a warning. “You have my brother. When I find you, and I will find you, if he is not in one piece I will take you apart.”

When Sam wakes up, he begins having hallucinations about Mary and Jessica’s death as well as seeing Dean’s deaths, too. Toni watches his reaction from the computer monitor upstairs. When it all becomes too much for him to take, Sam takes a mirror shard and slits his own throat! Toni rushes downstairs and unlocks the door. She finds Sam lying on the floor and when she goes to check his condition he grabs her. It was a ploy. He had actually only cut his hand. He tries strangling Toni, but is still unable to overpower her. She runs upstairs and he tries to follow, but can’t (again, hurt leg now paired with burned foot). Sam shouts to be let out.

Dean, Mary and Castiel take off for Missouri to rescue Sam, but they first have to deal with fighting Toni’s henchwoman. She is a tough and sneaky fighter (she uses brass knuckles). She manages to knock both Dean and Castiel on their butts and is about to finish them off when Mary kills her with Castiel’s angel blade. Mary takes all of this hard. She got out of hunting and now to learn that it is her children’s lives is difficult. “Sam and me, saving people and hunting things. This is our life. I think we make the world a better place. I know we do,” Dean tells his mother. I think Toni wouldn’t agree.

While all the Winchester drama is going on, Crowley (Mark Sheppard) is dealing with demons and Lucifer’s attempts to locate a human vessel to possess. Lucifer is burning his way across town through bodies. What will happen when he surfaces?