Baby’s Rear View Recap: 12.06 “Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox”

This post is about Supernatural season 12 episode 6 “Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox,” written by Steve Yockey and directed by John Badham.

*****Spoilers below*****

“But if you retire, who's gonna save people like me?”

Some 36 years ago, something chases a boy through the Canadian woods. Luckily, Mary Winchester has been chasing it, and she shoots the werewolf through the heart just in time to save the boy. She takes him home and explains that she’s retiring before getting in her car and leaving for good. But the boy, Asa Fox, can’t let it go. He becomes a hunter—and then dies a hunter, strung up to a tree.

“No. No, no, you're -- you're a badass sheriff chick. You're not a-a Rom com chick. Wait, are you a Rom com chick?”
“Are you?”
“He's more of a, uh animated Japanese erotica chick.”

Sam and Dean stop by Jody’s house after a hunt in Brookings to say hi to her and the girls. Unfortunately, Claire and Alex are in Omaha at a Radiohead concert. But Jody is there, watching TV and eating pizza in her PJs. The boys join her for some scintillating conversation—including the fact that Dean killed Hitler, and that Jody likes rom-coms.

“He, uh, he rolled into town a few months back, tried to convince me he was FBI Agent Fox Mulder. He was chasing a pack of ghouls, and I helped. He'd pass through every once in a while after that, and we'd grab co-- coffee or something. Oh, he was a good man.”

Jody gets the kind of phone call no one ever wants to get and she goes into her bedroom, upset. The boys follow, asking what’s wrong. When she tells him her friend died and that she’s going to the wake, they insist on tagging along. Apparently, Ellen used to tell stories about Asa. Plus, they’ve never really been to a hunter gathering. Jody gratefully agrees to let them go, but only if they shower first.

“How you holding up?”
“Well, it's a house full of loud, drunk hunters and my son's dead body is in the parlor. But I haven't slit my wrists yet. Small victories.”

The gang makes their way to Asa’s family home in Manitoba, where the party is already underway. They express their condolences to Asa’s mother, Lorraine, who Jody seems to know fairly well.

“You think the stories about Asa are crazy, you should hear what they say about you.”

While Jody talks with Lorraine, Dean heads straight to the kitchen. He grabs some homemade beer and chats with the guy who made it, one Bucky Sims. When Dean introduces himself, everyone balks. The Dean Winchester? Dean’s a little out of his element as “the famous friend,” and is embarrassed to accidentally trigger the drinking game when he mentions wendigos.

“And what did she teach you?”
“Uh, mostly how to seduce men.”

Meanwhile, Sam is chatting up a pair of hunter twins who were raised by a witch. That is, until Sam is somewhat rudely interrupted by Elvis, who ran in from the kitchen where Dean just mentioned Sam. It turns out Elvis just really wanted to ask Sam if he had been possessed by The Devil. Sam, for his part, suddenly really wants to go get a drink.

“Did you know people tell stories about us?”
“Yeah. Apparently, we're a little bit legendary.”

Dean too, has already had to escape from the crowd. He’s admiring Asa’s angel blade in Asa’s room when Sam finds him, beer in hand. They talk about Asa for a bit, and Dean admits that he expects to die on the job before warning Sam not to say “wendigo” and heading back to the party.

“Asa made us go roller skating, and right after these ghouls almost got us. So there's the three of us, all banged up, with a ton of ironic teenagers skating under these neon lights. You remember this, Jody?” “Mm-hmm.”
“Oh, it was classic. I mean, you know, until you two snuck off for some sweet, sweet time alone.”

The party is starting to wind down, but those closest to Asa are still sitting around the living room, swapping stories. It turns out Jody and Asa had a thing! Dean and Sam are somewhat surprised. But it wasn’t just her; witch twins Max and Alicia’s mom had a thing for him too.

“So you'll text us once a week, maybe, but you'll drive all the way to Canada to see some dead guy? Well, that's awesome. I'm gonna get some air.”

Meanwhile, unknown to all but one, Randy disappears. And, coincidentally right after, someone else appears. It’s Mary Winchester, come to pay her respects to the one person she knew from before that she thought would still be alive. While Jody is ecstatic to see her, Dean is… not so much.

“Look, maybe this isn't my place, and this is epic stuff, but, you know if I could have my son and my husband back? I mean, really back, I would give anything, absolutely anything, to have that. And it would scare the hell out of me.”

When Dean goes to get some air, Jody stops him so they can talk. She assures him that she gets it and that she’s there for him if he needs her.

“Asa told me about you. You're the reason my son didn't become an astronaut.”

Meanwhile, Mary escapes to the kitchen for a beer. But while she’s in there, Lorraine introduces herself and is shocked to find that this is the woman who saved her son all those years ago. Lorraine blames Mary for Asa’s hunting. She accuses Mary for leaving him and then gives her a box of postcards that Asa wrote but couldn’t send.

“Mom, you don't have to explain anything. I get it. You need space. And -- and so does Dean, you know? I-I mean, he -- he's just… We just got you back, and he's just scared we're gonna lose you again, that -- that because we're Hunters, you're gonna walk away. But I know that's not true. Even looking at these -- I mean, you saved Asa in 1980, um, after Dean was born, after everyone thought you quit hunting. Seems like you couldn't stop then, and I'm guessing you can't stop now either. This job, this life -- it's crazy and insane. But it's in our blood.”

Sam finds Mary coming out of the kitchen and she gives him the postcards. She laments that nothing feels right and Sam comforts her. They go to say goodbye to Asa, but find Randy’s body roped to the ceiling above him.

“Jael. He's a crossroads demon. And he hangs people. It's his thing. Snaps their neck, slits their throat. He's a real piece of work.”

They rush to the living room to tell everyone to leave, but it turns out they’re trapped. And the water’s turned off. And it smells of sulfur. And Dean is stuck outside.

“Still, between us, it's always nice to see a Winchester who can't get what he wants.”
“You think this is funny? Huh? Hunters are dying in there.”
“Everyone dies.”

Luckily, Billie was just inside reaping Randy’s soul and is willing to get Dean through the barrier—for a price.

“No, I mean, really, go to Hell.”

But when he does get in, he runs straight into Elvis. Or rather, the demon possessing Elvis. Dean, good man that he is, tries to exorcise the demon instead of using Ruby’s knife. But the demon snaps Elvis neck anyway and smokes out. The rest of the party rushes in when they hear Lorraine’s scream, and they decide to make a devil’s trap.

“Sam. This is awkward, I'm owning that. But the demon… I think it's in your mom.”

As Sam is laying out the devil’s trap, Mary leaves the room. Jody points that out to Sam, who is reluctant to believe that his mother is possessed. But when Jody starts to implore them to kill Mary, they realize that Jody isn’t acting like herself. Jody is the demon, and Mary left the room to get the angel blade—which she now tries to use to kill the demon—by killing Jody.

“I was there that night. Tell these nice, stupid people what you did. Tell them what you took from me. Asa was mine.”

Sam stops Mary just in time, and the demon just gets angrier. It monologues about how Asa was Max and Alicia’s father, how Lorraine used to sabotage Asa’s jeep so he couldn’t hunt, and how Jody had fantasized about building a life with Asa. But the most important reveal is left to Bucky. The demon forces Bucky to admit that he killed Asa, just before the gang sends Jael back to hell with a group exorcism.

“What are you gonna do to me?”
“Tell everyone, every hunter we meet. They're gonna know your name, Bucky, know what you did.”
“You like stories? This is the story everyone's gonna tell about you. Forever.”

After the demon’s gone, Bucky explains that Asa’a death was an accident. They were arguing over Jael when they started shoving and Asa fell. And then Bucky strung up Asa’s body so that people would think Jael killed him.

“I don't know what's going on between you and your boys, but I gotta tell you, mom to mom, they are good men. Best I've ever met.”
“I know. They're not the problem.”

The hunters salt and burn the three bodies while Lorraine properly meets her grandchildren for the first time. Everyone is somber, and Mary apologizes to Jody for trying to kill her and the resulting injury she sustained. They talk as they watch the flames.

“And now you owe me one. This one.”

Billie shows up, offering mercy to Mary. She says she knows Mary hates being alive, and tells her she can take her to heaven if she wants. Mary elects to stay, but she’s not ready to come home.

“Can we buy you breakfast, at least?”
“Bacon?”
“All the bacon.”

The episode ends as Mary and her boys decide to go for breakfast before they part ways again.

Questions:

What movie are they watching? I need to know. For… reasons.

So this boy is definitely flirting with Sam, right? Can I call the ship name Sax? Pretty please?

Also, I love these twins always speaking at the same time haha. Do twins really do that?

There is no paint in this house? They really have to make it with ashes? The demon could literally just blow it away. And, the magic would break as soon as someone steps on it and messes it up. Asa really didn’t have any devil’s traps already painted in his house? When this demon has been after him for ALMOST 20 YEARS?

Also, not to harp on about it, but why don’t they have anti-possession tattoos? Dean, make Sam get a new one. Sam, make Jody get one ASAP. And your MOM for crying out loud. Where did her charm go? And are we gonna talk about all the beer just sitting in ice water in the kitchen that they could bless? No? Christo? At least they all have the exorcism memorized. Sheesh.

SO. Jael is gonna come back, then, right? It took Jael five years to crawl back after that first encounter with Asa, so how long will it take to come back now? Especially with hell being a mess. And when the demon does come back, who will it fixate on? My vote is Bucky. I mean, I’m not here for revenge, it’s just… better him than my precious witch twins.

Conclusions:

I love. This. Episode. I love it.

I was really excited to see Steve Yockey’s episode, because he’s a playwright, and seems really interesting. And he did not disappoint. I wish every episode could be like this. I mean, maybe not every episode, but I would watch the crap out of a show like this. Not that I don’t already watch the crap out of this show, but seriously.

And how about the directing? That montage at the beginning was so good. We immediately fell for Asa, and even though we knew he would die before the episode really began, it was still shocking and horrible when he did. And then Badham does it again when Jody gets the phone call, it’s just such an abrupt switch, it’s so heartbreaking. Like Jody is just like, no time to take this in, I gotta just do what I gotta do, get packed, so on autopilot that she can’t even walk around the couch, she has to take the direct route between the boys and the TV and it’s just so uncomfortably raw. Really strong choices in this, and that’s what makes it powerful. Also the incredible acting.

I am so in love with Kim Rhodes. She is so phenomenal, and I could watch her for the rest of my life. Also, Jody is just great on a character level, like I love how she facilitates the Winchesters growth so well. And she’s just so real and awkward and still perfectly wonderful. She is thoroughly fantastic and I love her. Please let her lead a spin-off. If there’s no spin-off by the time Jael makes it back topside, maybe I’ll make a deal myself. No I won’t, but seriously it could be so amazing if someone like Yockey writes it, someone who knows how to write a female character who is both a “badass sheriff chick” and a “rom-com chick” because she is a real person and doesn’t subscribe to your gendered assumptions and also calls you out on it. Sorry I just have a lot of feelings about this.

And anyway, I should probably just go ahead and stop myself now, because I’m pretty sure I could keep talking about this episode long after everyone has gotten tired of reading this. So in conclusion, everyone was great, this episode was great, I’m gonna go watch it again, long live Steve Yockey. Goodnight.