The Miller Twins Talk #Supernatural Ep12x23 #AllAlongTheWatchtower via @stacyamiller85 @tdmiller820917

A new column at The Nerdy Girl Express is The Miller Twins Talk Supernatural Season 12. Here twins and The Nerdy Girl Express writers, Stacy Miller and Tracy Miller, will share their thoughts about the heroic Winchester boys, Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) as well as the many other wonderful characters on The CW’s longest running show. Will these twins agree on the characters and plot themes for each episode? Read below to find out.

This article contains spoilers so if you haven’t seen the episode “All Along the Watchtower” please do not continue reading.

Tracy:

Despite the fact that Sam successfully led the charge with the American hunters that enabled them to defeat The British Men of Letters (BMOL) and Dean’s psychological link to Mary allowed him to disintegrate the hardened veneer of his brainwashed mother and reach the real Mary buried deep within, there was still no rest for the Winchester boys (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) as the Season 12 finale “All Along The Watchtower” began. Dr. Hess’ revelation that Lucifer was alive and on the move to locate Kelly Kline (Courtney Ford) and his unborn Devil spawn meant that our favorite wayward sons won’t be cruising in Baby down easy street anytime soon.

With Mary now completely onboard with Team Free Will, mother and sons were in the bunker and strategizing how to battle the Devil. The boys remembered how handy Rowena was in their earlier missions against Lucifer. Consequently, Sam called Rowena and was shocked when Lucifer answered the phone. Sam’s shock was nothing compared to what viewers experienced: ROWENA IS DEAD! Lucifer, in his own words, “stomped on her face and then set her ablaze.” We saw Lucifer holding a tell tale strand of red hair and a charred corpse unceremoniously lying on the floor. SERIOUSLY WRITERS! YOU KILLED ROWENA?! Even worst, you killed her OFF SCREEN? Not that I desired to see Rowena’s gruesome demise, but she was such an important character and it seemed such a disservice to her that she met with this fate. Yet, viewers have known for years that death on Supernatural is far from permanent. I’m hoping that Rowena will be back in Season 13. The marvelous Ruth Connell added so much to the show. I feel that there is still so much story left for her.

The Queen Mother of Hell may be dead, but Crowley returned to the land of the living. That tell tale rat we saw scurrying around Hell’s throne room and was devoted in following Crowley’s lifeless body, released the red demon essence into the ground. A short while later, Crowley dug his way from the soil.

I don’t think any Supernatural viewer was shocked that Crowley’s demonic essence was safeguarded within that rat. But it was odd that Lucifer’s minions buried Crowley’s body. Why bury him? Why not just burn the body? I know that the writers needed to have Crowley’s body in order to resurrect him, but the writing was too convenient and made Lucifer seem too sloppy in having his enemy disposed of in this fashion. The upside: YAY, Crowley! And YAY Mark Sheppard! Alas, my elation that Crowley was alive was short-lived as I discovered before the hour was over.

Biblical signs occur before a Nephilim is born. Because, yes…how else would Sam and Dean locate Castiel and Kelly without Biblical signs? Speaking of the angel and Kelly’s protector, Castiel rented a cabin in Washington state for Kelly and himself. Armed with an endless supply of diapers and his knowledge of childbirth courtesy of his online doula classes, Castiel determined that he would alleviate Kelly’s fears. While Kelly continued to mentally prepare herself for death (she recorded a heartfelt message for her soon-to-be-born son who she named Jack), Castiel insisted that the future that he saw once Jack was born was paradise.

Meanwhile back at the bunker, Crowley appeared. After getting through the pleasantries with the boys (and by pleasantries, I mean convincing the brothers not to kill him because he is useful for them in their mission), Crowley explained that he diverted Rowena’s spell and placed Lucifer’s grace back into the Nick meat suit because he “wanted to win.” Too many people over the years have made a play for his throne so he wanted to have Lucifer on a leash figuring that no one would undermine his authority again. Yet, Crowley claimed to be disenchanted with Hell and then made a proposal to the boys: If they don’t kill him, once they all work together to return Lucifer to the Cage, Crowley promised to permanently close the Gates of Hell to lock in demons (except for himself) once and for all. Crowley stated that he placed his bets with Sam and Dean who he called “big beautiful, lumbering piles of flannel.”

Upon further investigation, Sam uncovered that there was a house in Washington state being rented by one James Novak. Seriously Castiel? You couldn’t think of a better alias? Even James Bond would have worked better than James Novak!

Apparently, Jack’s celestial essence succeeded in creating a golden rift in the fabric of Earth. Castiel touched the golden rift, entered this strange new world and was saved from a monster by an unseen man. At this juncture, we had no idea who mystery man was and Castiel left the alternate world to return to be by Kelly’s side. Once the Winchesters (Sam and Dean, with Mary in tow) arrived at the cabin, Mary went to check on Kelly who was in labor while the brothers went outside to check the angel warding. Subsequently, they saw the golden rift. Soon they traveled with Castiel through the portal. Castiel gave them a lesson in Golden Rift 101. The said golden rift was actually an alternate Earth, a hole in reality where angels and demons are in eternal war and where humanity has been caught in the cross fire. The best surprise in this alternate Earth is BOBBY! Yes, the Bobby Singer of this alternate Earth is an adept freedom fighter with an effective automatic weapon that he named Rufus that contained 100 rounds of bullets crafted from angel blades. Also in this alternate reality, this Bobby used to hunt with Mary Campbell until she was killed 10 years ago by Azalel. In addition, according to Alternate Earth Bobby Singer, John died 40 years ago so Sam and Dean were never born.

I’m not usually a fan of the whole alternate world, sci fi genre, but if this plot enables Jim Beaver to return as Bobby in Season 13, I’m more than willing to give it a chance.

Once Castiel and the brothers returned to Earth proper (that’s what I resolved to call the real Earth to distinguish it from the alternate manifestation), they saw Crowley. Dean had used the demon blade to pin Crowley’s hand to a table in the bunker because he didn’t trust the King of Hell to come with them to Washington state. But this is Crowley after all and he managed to break free.

There’s no time for chatter because Lucifer is also now in Washington state. After trading some barbs with the boys and tossing Castiel around like a hapless rag doll, the boys lured Lucifer to the golden rift. Now Sam, Dean, Crowley and Lucifer were in this alternate Earth. Lucifer gazed lovingly at the Apocalyptic inspired landscape. While Dean fired multiple angel blade bullets from “Rufus” into Lucifer, Sam and Crowley were busy with a spell to close the golden rift and trap Lucifer in alternate Earth. All the necessary ingredients are available for the spell, except one: a life. In the end, Crowley sacrificed himself, becoming the life needed to activate the spell. I’m sad thinking that Crowley is now “really most sincerely dead” (to borrow from The Wizard of Oz). I will miss the exceptionally talented Mark Sheppard on Supernatural!

Castiel came through the golden rift, angel blade in hand and fought Lucifer. The boys make it back to Earth proper and are happy when they saw Castiel also made it back. Unfortunately their joy is short-lived: Lucifer made it back too and stabbed Castiel with the angel blade; Castiel’s angelic grace was drained from him. CASTIEL is DEAD!

“All Along The Watchtower” had more main character deaths in the history of Supernatural.

The end scenes had Mary fighting Lucifer with Enochian engraved brace knuckles, Lucifer pulling Mary along with himself into the alternate Earth as the golden rift closed, and the birth of Jack who isn’t a baby after all, but a creepy looking full grown entity.

And so goes Supernatural Season 12. We will most likely have to wait until October (unless The CW goes against the recent years’ trends and has Supernatural Season 13 premiere in September) to see how the writers address the prevailing plots.

Stacy:

With “All Along the Watchtower,” we got the Season 12 game changing finale. Would Sam, Dean and Mary (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles and Samantha Smith) find and stop Lucifer? (Mark Pellegrino). Would Kelly Kline’s (Courtney Ford) baby be the end of the world as we know or its savior (Hey if Once Upon a Time can have one, why not Supernatural?) Of course, the Winchesters needed to figure out a way to lock Lucifer back up in his box. Who you gonna call? Devilbuster! Otherwise known as Rowena (Ruth Connell). But holy double crap, Lucifer picked up her phone and delivered the news that the witch was unavailable permanently because he had killed her! Killing Rowena, the writers were serious in letting the Winchesters (and viewers) know that this wasn’t going to be easy. But I haven’t given up hope that Rowena is alive and in hiding. After all, was the burned body on the floor really hers? The grand witch of the Mega Coven was too smart. I think she discovered Lucifer was alive and did a tracking spell and was alerted that he was coming her way. So, she conjured up a “fake Rowena” to throw him off her scent. This is my theory, and I’m sticking to it!

Meanwhile, remember that rat that gave Crowley the rodent eye as the King of Hell met his demise at the hands of Lucifer! Well, it was no surprise to viewers that Crowley had placed his demonic essence in the creature and was able to rise from his grave. Crowley came to the Men of Letters bunker where Sam and Dean angrily questioned him about why he kept Lucifer around knowing how dangerous the devil was. Crowley provided an explanation; something along the lines of wanting to stop anyone from challenging his throne. But he didn’t sound entirely convinced himself. I think Crowley knew he made a bad call but was too arrogant to admit it. No matter, he was ready to work together with our flannel wearing heroes to fix the mess.

Kelly is almost about to give birth, it’s a good thing Castiel (Misha Collins) is there to play midwife. But when he goes outside the place where they are staying, he noticed a time tear in the universe and once he entered the other side, saw a familiar face and said “You?” and because Supernatural loves messing with viewers, they dragged the mystery person’s identity out until Sam and Dean was able to take the time tear journey along with Castiel. We learned it was Bobby. I’m glad the writers were able to write Bobby in for the finale, it would have been sad if the chracter (and Jim Beaver) missed a season of Supernatural. And with this alternate Earth, there will be more chances to bring Bobby (and possibly other Supernatural characters) back in Season 13.

When Lucifer arrived, Mark Pellegrino camped it up in his dialogue with Sam, Dean and Castiel. I didn’t see it coming when both Castiel and Crowley died in the finale! Misha Collins and Mark Sheppard have been an important part of Supernatural, it’s hard to think this is goodbye for these characters. I hope we’ll get to see them in some form in Season 13. And what about Mary? (Samantha Smith). She fought for her boys and ended up being pulled into the alternate Earth with Lucifer. Will Sam and Dean (and viewers) see her again?

Kelly gave birth to the Nephilim (who she named Jack) and died as predicted. As the episode closed, Sam saw the devil’s spawn: Not a baby but a grown teen/young man with yellow eyes. Why yellow eyes? He’s not a demon like Azazel. I hope this is explained in Season 13.