Supernatural – The Raid

By: Stacy Miller

The episode picks up where the last one left off with Mary (Samantha Smith) explaining to Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) why she is working with the British Men of Letters. “Just hear me out.  Please.  What the British Men of Letters are doing here; what we’re doing, it’s a better way. Look, I’m not blind to who they are, what they’ve done.” Sam questions Mary about how long she’s been working for the British Men of Letters. Mary admits that she was the one who bought the Ramiel case to them, not Wally.  This information fans the fire of the Winchester boys’ anger, especially Dean’s as not only did Castiel (Misha Collins) get wounded but a hunter died.  The scenes switch between Mary talking with her sons about the British Men of Letters to showing her on a mission with Mr. Ketch (David Haydn-Jones).  We meet some of the other members of the British Men of Letters team like Serena (Sunita Prasad), who Mr. Ketch asks to clean his weapons despite the fact the she holds four doctorates.  Mary goes to her quarters and looks at her cellphone text messages of apology to Dean.  Upon Mary’s glance, we return to the confrontation with her sons. Sam is sitting quietly in his hurt while Dean is venting about how Mary has been gone their whole lives. “You said you needed space, but you needed space from us,” Dean says angrily. “How about for once you just try to be a mom?!” Ouch, Dean is really hitting Mary where it hurts! “I am your mother, but I am more than just a mom,” Mary tells him. “And you are not a child.”  Dean snips, “I never was.”  He tells Mary that she chose between them and the British Men of Letters noting, “And you chose them.  So there’s the door, Mary.”  It’s heartbreaking to hear Dean calls his mother “Mary” and not mom.

Mick (Adam Fergus) and Mr. Ketch talk about Mary and how she is doing now that her sons know her secret. “We don’t need them, we already have the best Winchester,” Mr. Ketch says, not impressed with Sam and Dean as hunters.  But it’s not either of their calls according to Mick, “The old man wants them onboard.” Hmm…who is this mysterious old man? “As far as I’m concerned, where Sam and Dean go the rest of the American hunters will follow,” Mick tells Mr. Ketch. So, I guess recruitment of the Winchester boys is still a go.

Back at the Men of Letters Bunker, Dean brings Sam information of a case with a dead man in Akron, Ohio whose throat was ripped out.  Sam reads the article off Dean’s computer and points out that the victim was a known drug dealer whose throat was slit, not ripped out. “You find us a case because I need to hit something now,” Dean tells Sam, still reeling over Mary’s confession.  He is annoyed that Sam is giving Mary the benefit of the doubt and playing peacemaker, like he does.  “You’re always playing the middle, why don’t you pick a side,” Dean tells Sam then leaves to get a drink…or two.  Sam opens his six unread text messages from Mary and reads her last one that says, “Sam we need to talk. It’s urgent.”  Sam drives to the British Men of Letters headquarters and meets Mary.  She again apologizes for messing up, but tells Sam that she wants her sons to have a life in a world without monsters. She’s working with the British Men of Letters for them (he and Dean). “Things are changing. Let me show you.”  Mary brings Sam inside so he can see the British Men of Letters temporary headquarters. They are getting ready for a strategy meeting when Mick asks Serena where Mr. Ketch is. She tells him that Ketch is not answering his mobile.

Meanwhile, Dean returns and finds a note from Sam that he went out. Someone pounds on the door and Dean thinks it’s Sam and he forgot his key. Dean is surprised to see it is Mr. Ketch and wonders how he found them. Mr. Ketch tells Dean that it wasn’t difficult finding a Men of Letters bunker.  The smart Brit brought with him an expensive barrel of Scotch; appealing to Dean’s love of drink. At the British Men of Letters meeting, Mick makes introductions of the new members: hunter Pierce Moncrieff (Aaron Douglas), Alton Morehead (Kett Turton) and Serena Coleman.  The meeting on Project V (a/k/a killing the vampires) starts in which Serena explains that whereas the American hunters treat vampires as criminals, chopping their heads off and leaving town, they treat them as terrorists obtaining information on their connection to other vampire groups. And the remaining vampires they are hunting, Cell J-9767 vampires, are at the Morest Hotel in Kansas. “Then we move on to the rest of the country.  By the time we’re done, there won’t be a single bloodsucker left in the rest of the country,” Mary tells Sam.

At the Men of Letters bunker, Dean and Mr. Ketch drink the expensive scotch.  Dean knows that Ketch is there to recruit him and Sam. Mr. Ketch makes it known that he doesn’t care if Sam and Dean join their team, but the others at the British Men of Letters do. Mr. Ketch also tells Dean about dating Toni. He says that he and Dean are the same – they are both killers that need to track, hunt and kill to satisfy their hunter bloodlust.  They go to a vampire nest and Mr. Ketch finds and tortures a vampire named Kris (Alex Duncan). Dean stops Ketch and questions Kris about where the other vampires are. “They went hunting,” Kris says. “Hunting the hunters.”

The vampires use a guard that they killed named McGillicuddy’s (Stew McLean) handprint to gain access in the British Men of Letters temporary headquarters.  The hunters have become the hunted! A lockdown of the building is called and Mary orders everyone to fall back. She and Sam kill some vampires and capture one who tells them that their father/The Alpha told them who the hunters were and how to find them.  And obviously, the British Men of Letters’ intel that the Alpha has been in Morocco for the last decade is wrong as Sam met the vampire daddy five years ago in North Dakota. Mary kills the vampire and the hunters discuss how to survive the siege.  Unfortunately, only Mary, Sam and Pierce have experience in killing anything. And their weapon supply is limited. “Where is it?” Mary asks Mick.  Sam is shocked when Mick produces The Colt.  Mary confesses that she stole the weapon from Ramiel. Although feeling betrayed again by his mother, Sam knows he has to put that aside. They’ll need to make bullets for The Colt from the recipe Bobby Singer gave him consisting of holy oil, sage and myrrh.  Sam tells Mick to work on the spell while he, Mary and Pierce go to the armory for another weapon. Sam fights off some vampires and Mary goes off with Pierce.  Mick performs the spell when Pierce knocks frantically on the door and Alton lets him in. “It’s bad out there,” Pierce tells Mick before the Alpha Vamp (Rick Worthy) kills Alton. “Pretty bad in here too,” Pierce smirks.  The Alpha Vamp then kills Serena. We learn that Pierce is the Alpha Vamp’s hunter and is on his payroll. The Alpha Vamp tells Mick that he knows of their work in London, but didn’t get involved. However, America is his home and it’s time they get off his lawn.

Sam finds Mary passed out. She regains consciousness and we see how Pierce knocked her out then radioed Big Daddy/The Alpha.  Meanwhile, The Alpha Vamp tells Mick that they will get the British Men of Letters’ communication system back online and Mick will call his superiors in London and call off the vampire hunting excursion before the Alpha kills him.  Sam and Mary arrive.  Sam grabs The Colt. He says they can go back to the way things were if the Alpha lets him and his mother go. The vampire can have The Brit (Mick). Sam and Mick fight and the smart Winchester pulls a slight of hand, gets a bullet and kills the Alpha.

Dean and Mr. Ketch finally arrive after all the action is over. Mick is angry that Mr. Ketch doesn’t seem to care about the people that died.  Dean tells Mary that when he learned that she was in danger, nothing else mattered. She’s going to make her own decisions, even if he doesn’t agree with them. Mr. Ketch takes Pierce away to deal with the rogue hunter. “You’re changing the world and I want to be a part of it,” Sam tells Mick. “And your brother?” Mick asks. “Give me some time,” Sam answers.