12.22 Who We Are
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| Title | Who We Are |
| Episode # | Season 12, Episode 22 |
| First aired | May 18, 2017 |
| Directed by | John F. Showalter |
| Written by | Robert Berens |
| On IMDB | Who We Are |
| Outline | With the British Men of Letters continuing their attack on American hunters, Sam leads a group in a last stand against the Brits. Meanwhile, Dean attempts to reach Mary and break her brainwashing with the aid of Lady Bevell. |
| Monster | British Men of Letters |
| Timeline | Immediately following and two days after 12.21 There's Something About Mary. |
| Location(s) | Lebanon, Kansas Sioux Falls, South Dakota |
| « Previous Episode | Next Episode » | |
Contents
Synopsis
After killing another hunter, Mary checks in with Mr. Ketch, who texts her a list of names including Jody Mills. In the locked-down Bunker, Sam, Dean, and Lady Bevell discuss possible escape routes. When Dean proposes killing Toni to conserve air, she says she’s the only one who can undo Mary’s brainwashing. Toni tells the brothers the only way out of the Bunker is the manual override, but that it’s located outside the Bunker. Sam decides they should look for a spell to reverse the lockdown. After their attempts at magic fail, Dean decides it’s time to bust their way out. Sam and Dean use sledgehammers against the concrete walls, but the wall is too thick and very little progress was made. Exhausted and low on oxygen, Sam and Dean come to terms with the fact that they aren’t going to escape, and they talk about how they thought things would end. With all hope seemingly lost, Dean finally gets the idea of using the grenade launcher against the concrete wall. He blasts a hole in it and climbs out to escape and pull the override switch, but his leg is badly injured in the process.
After restoring the Bunker's power and escaping, the brothers search for cell phones to notify hunters that Mary is on the loose looking for kills. Dean is able to reach Garth and warn him, but Sam is unable to reach Jody, so they take off for South Dakota. Bursting into her house, they find Mary is tied up in the kitchen. Sam fetches Toni and orders her to reverse Mary’s brainwashing, but she admits that there is no way to reverse it. Toni says that the real Mary is hiding behind impenetrable psychic walls. Toni pleads for her life, saying the British Men of Letters won’t stop until all the hunters are dead. She tells them to run, but Sam says they should fight. They assemble all nearby hunters so that Sam can explain his plan to take down the British Men of Letters.
Sam addresses the hunters, taking full responsibility for his plan, admitting that he tried to work with them because their mission was supposedly the same. Sam asks them to follow him to take the fight to them. Everyone agrees to follow Sam. As the hunters gear up to leave, Dean tells Sam he’s too injured to go, and he believes in Sam’s ability to lead and win this fight. Dean intends to stay behind and search for a way to save Mary. The boys say farewell with a hug, calling each other “bitch” and “jerk” as Alex tells Jody to “kick it in the ass.”
Sam and the other hunters drive to the British Men of Letters compound. Inside the compound, Ketch tracks Mary’s phone to Lebanon where Toni is helping Dean with Mary. Toni tells Dean he’ll be entering a psychic link with Mary which requires them both to be sedated. He handcuffs Toni to a table to prevent her escape while he's under. Dean emerges in Mary’s subconscious in the house in Lawrence in the months before the nursery fire and Mary’s death. Baby Sam lies in the crib while Mary makes lunch for Dean. Everything is picture perfect, but Mary refuses to acknowledge Dean’s sudden appearance in the picture.
While Sam’s convoy of American hunters barrels into the British Men of Letters compound with guns blazing, Dean continues his attempt to make a connection with Mary and realizes she is purposefully ignoring him because her fantasy is preferable to facing the consequences of her deal with Azazel. Dean goes on to tell Mary he hates her, and then he makes her listen as he recounts the things that happened to Sam and Dean because of the deal, the unfathomable suffering Sam endured before, during, and after he was possessed by Lucifer. He tells Mary that he hates her two more times before admitting that he also loves her, and that he understands the love that drives someone to such lengths. Dean tells Mary he forgives her for everything, and he tells her that the three of them can start over if she will fight for it, see him. Finally, Mary turns to face Dean. As she begins to speak, the physic link is broken by Ketch who has discovered them and killed Toni. Ketch begins attacking Dean. As they fight, Ketch pulls a gun on Dean only to be shot in the back and then in the head by Mary.
With the assault ongoing, Sam, Jody, and Walt engage Dr. Hess in her office. In a last-ditch effort to save herself, she reveals she has knowledge of Lucifer and his unborn child, telling Sam he will need the help of the British Men of Letters to deal with the situation. Sam is unconvinced. When Dr. Hess lunges for her gun, Jody shoots her in the head. The hunters set explosives and destroy the compound before they leave.
Back at the Bunker, Dean and Mary clean up the mess and the bodies. Dean reassures Mary that the three of them can get past what’s happened. She admits she avoided Sam and Dean, acting distant and cold, in an effort to fix her past mistakes because being around them was too hard. Dean tells her that her choices made the brothers who they are: men who save the world. She says she is afraid Sam will never forgive her. At that moment, Sam walks in and tells her she doesn’t have to be afraid. He pulls her into his arms, and then he pulls Dean in as well.
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- Mary Winchester
- Sheriff Jody Mills
- Alex Jones
- Mr. Ketch
- Lady Antonia Bevell
- Dr. Hess
- Walt and Roy
Definitions
- Alcohol
- Bitch/Jerk
- British Men of Letters
- Grenade Launcher
- Hugs
- Hunters
- Impala
- Kick it in the ass!
- Men of Letters Bunker
- Mind Control
- Sammy
- Single Perfect Tear
- Spells
- Table of Death
- Unconscious
Music
None
Quotes
Sam: Now they're all gone. And Mom, what they did to her... I just fell for their company line. Man, I... I saw what they were doing and I-and I thought, hunters on that scale, working together... how much good we can do. And once I was in, I... I just followed. 'Cause it was easy. Easier.
Dean: Easier than what?
Roy: So what do you want from us?
Sam: What?
Dean: No, my leg busted up the way it is, I'm no good in a fight.
Sam: I-I'll take a jacked up Dean Winchester over any ten other hunters any day.
Dean: Yeah. I saw you. You're ready for this. You show those sons of bitches who's boss.
Sam: What about you? What are you gonna do?
Sam: Promise.
Dean: Bitch.
Dean: You're right.
BMOL Elder: Listen to her, boy.
Dean: Mom, what you did, the deal... everything that's happened since has made us who we are. And who we are? We kick ass. We save the world.
Mary: And Sam? I'm scared. What... What if he can't forgive me.
Trivia & References
Dean: Straight Shawshank this bitch.
- Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is a Stephen King novella (and later movie) in which prisoner Andy Dufresne slowly chips a hole in his prison cell in the Shawshank prison over many years.
Dean: Oh, you know it's not. I always thought we'd go out like... Butch and Sundance style.
Sam: Yeah. Blaze of glory.
Dean: Blaze of glory.
- Referencing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where in the film, Butch and Sundance charged headlong, guns blazing towards the Bolivian army. Jensen and Jared have also spoken about their desire to possibly end the series with Sam and Dean dying in a "blaze of glory" at conventions.
- "Blaze of Glory" is also a song by Bon Jovi that was referenced before in 11.11 Into the Mystic.
- Yippee ki-yay motherfucker is the catch phrase of John McClane (played by Bruce Willis) in the Die Hard movies. Dean also uses this line in 6.18 Frontierland after killing Elias Finch with the Colt.
Jody: I'll be careful. I promise.
Alex: Not what I was gonna ask. Kick it in the ass!
- Kick it in the ass! was the catch phrase of Supernatural producer and director Kim Manners, who died in January 2009. Kim Rhodes said it was suggested to insert the phrase by her driver Ted.
Sam: It's Sam! And you must be Hess, I trust. You're in charge of this whole operation? Or, uh, what's left of it?
- In the episode, Dr. Hess calls Sam "Dean" by mistake, and Sam corrects her. This could have been a nod to Gilmore Girls (2000), where Jared Padalecki plays a character named Dean.
Minutiae
Sam: Is that a thing?
Lady Bevell: Oh, it is. But it's outside the bunker, where we can't reach it.
- Kevin Tran also got trapped in the Bunker during the lockdown resulting from the Fall in 8.23 Sacrifice until everything went back online a couple days later in 9.02 Devil May Care. By the time Dean, Sam, and Crowley arrive, the lockdown had ended. Kevin theorized that the system was reset when Dean opened the outside door, implying that opening the door from outside the Bunker pulls the manual override. However, the lockdown in this episode ended before Dean opened the door at the top of the staircase as seen with the power and air returning before Dean reenters due to there being two doors that lead into the Bunker.
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
- 12.22 Who We Are (transcript)
- Who We Are Script (Production Draft)
