Season 12, Episode 13:
Family Feud
Written by: Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming
Directed by: P. J. Pesce
Air date: February 23, 2017
When Sam and Dean look into a murder at a museum, they learn a ghost from a merchant ship that sunk in 1723 may be at the heart of the mystery. After realizing “The Star” was the same ship that Crowley’s son Gavin Macleod should have been aboard, they enlist help from Rowena to track Gavin down. Kelly Kline, still pregnant with Lucifer’s child, takes refuge with a demon after an angel attempts to kill her.
Body Count
For this episode: 2 angels and 1 rugaru. Fiona kills 3 humans onscreen (and 1 offscreen), but all four deaths are undone at the end of the episode.For the series so far: At least 1320 humans (of which 22 were witches), 1132 angels (2 of which were archangels), 191 demons, 72 vampires, 59 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 22 gods, 19 zombies, 17 werewolves, 10 hellhounds, 8 Bisaan, 7 shapeshifters, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 djinn, 6 reapers, 4 dogs, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 3 Khan Worms, 3 Thule, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 3 rugarus, 2 vetalas, 2 zannas, 1 banshee, 1 cat, 1 crocotta, Death, 1 deer, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 familiar, 1 lamia, The Mother of All, 1 nachzehrer, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 pishtaco, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 qarin, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shojo, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 soul eater, 1 Titan, 1 wendigo, the Whore of Babylon, 1 wicked witch, and 1 wraith
Tropes
- Back for the Dead: Gavin returns, and chooses to go back in time to go down with his ship that sank in order to prevent his dead girlfriend Fiona from becoming a vengeful ghost in the present day.
- Come with Me If You Want to Live: Dagon says this to Kelly after rescuing her from two angels.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Dagon versus two angels. While it was shown that a white-eyed demon such as Alistair could potentially force an angel out of their vessel (through a somewhat slow process), Dagon, a Prince of Hell, is powerful enough that she can disintegrate both an angel and their vessel with just a touch.
- Divide and Conquer: Mr. Ketch tries to get Mary to distance herself from Sam and Dean.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Crowley is deeply hurt and sad when his son Gavin chooses to go back in time to die for the greater good.
- Rowena is also clearly happy to have a grandson, but is more strongly driven to avenge the foster son Crowley forced her to sacrifice to remove the Mark of Cain.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Dagon tries to convince Kelly of this after saving her. Whether or not she's telling the truth is a different matter.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Gavin and Fiona, although Gavin seems to have adapted okay.
- Friendly Enemy: Lucifer makes smalltalk with Crowley just to get under his skin, even asking for parenting advice since they're both technically single dads.
- Good Is Not Nice: Kelly is confronted and nearly killed by two people who want her son dead, then saved by a demon. She doesn't take it well when she finds out her would-be attackers were angels.
- Hand Wave: How Mark Pellegrino is playing Lucifer outside of heaven or hell again is explained away by Crowley saying his demons found Nick's corpse some years ago and strengthened it (without giving details as to how), so that it could be a permanent vessel.
- Idiot Ball: So, how come nobody had the idea to Take a Third Option and let Gavin go back to the time Fiona was meant to meet him, then tell her he changed his mind and wants to stay in Scotland? Rowena, Sam and Dean not thinking about it is logical as they all have their reasons to want Gavin to die on the ship, but that doesn't excuse Gavin himself or Crowley.
- Internal Reveal: Mary finally admits to the boys that she's working with the British Men of Letters. This is news to Sam and Dean but the audience has known for weeks.
- Magitek: Crowley had his demons analyse Lucifer's cage at the "molecular level" and forged chains out of the same material to hold him.
- Mr. Exposition: Crowley serves as this, telling Lucifer how he keeps him trapped in chains outside the cage.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Lucifer genuinely thanks Crowley for giving him a permanent vessel and keeping him out of hell; two extremely bad moves when as he points out, Crowley could have had him back in the cage and out of the way.
- Revenge Before Reason: Crowley could have kept Lucifer in the cage forever, but chose to have him in a permanent vessel in seemingly unbreakable Supernormal Bindings so that he could beat down and humiliate the devil in the same way he was humiliated by him in the previous season. Lucifer even points out how stupid this is, and says it's inevitable that he'll break free.
- Revenge by Proxy: Rowena convinces Gavin to go back in time, breaking Crowley's heart, as payback for forcing her to kill her foster son.
- Sadist Teacher: Gavin and Fiona's teacher Mistress Alloway. She allowed Fiona to be raped by some of the crew, because she doesn't approve of Fiona "throwing herself" at Gavin. Because of this, Fiona became vengeful ghost killing teachers.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: When Gavin Macleod stayed in the present day back in season 9, Sam and Dean knew it would lead to unforeseen consequences, as he was meant to die on a wrecked ship in the past. It turns out, Gavin's love interest was on the ship when it sank and became a vengeful ghost because he seemingly abandoned her. Gavin returns and chooses to die in the past to prevent future deaths and to join his lost love in heaven.
- Shout-Out: After dispatching the angels, Dagon tells Kelly, "Come with me if you want to live."
- Took a Level in Badass: When Crowley was first introduced in season 5, he was a Dirty Coward who basically ran and hid under a rock at the mere thought of Lucifer or the rest of demonkind coming after him. Now in season 12, his balls have grown so big that he treats the archangel as an equal to be crushed and humbled beneath him. He even openly fought the devil in a previous episode despite having no advantage whatsoever and threw him across a room, before having his ass handed to him.
- To the Pain: Crowley tells Lucifer that he intends to torture and humiliate him until he finally breaks and calls Crowley "master".
- Weak, but Skilled: Crowley tells Lucifer this makes him superior to the archangel, despite being a lowly crossroads demon. He has used his genius to chain up Lucifer and nullify his abilities, and so genius beats raw power.
- Voodoo Shark: It's been seven years since Lucifer used Nick as a vessel and they tend to melt away after he vacates them. Crowley says that he acquired Nick's body "some years ago" and spent that time restoring and reinforcing it so it could hold Lucifer and allow Crowley to torture him. This conveniently allows Mark Pellegrino to play Lucifer outside of Hell again, but it creates an entirely new Plot Hole: Since Crowley's motivation for revenge against Lucifer came from his torture and humiliation in Season 11, Crowley had no personal grudge and thus reason to grab Lucifer's original vessel to repair it back at the end of Season 5 especially when he was dead set on keeping the devil permanently in the cage.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Dean and Sam aren't happy to learn that Mary is working with the Men of Letters. Even though she knows her sons don't trust them, she tells them they need them.
