Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes Recap

As the episode opens, a car pulls into the Mountain Slumber Boarding House. A woman (Tasha Banes) gets out and enters the building. She finds an older woman (Miss Beverly) sitting in a chair in an adjacent sitting area, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone at the reception desk. Miss Beverly tells Tasha she has to ring the bell for service, and the two women engage in an uncomfortably cold exchange. Tasha notices Miss Beverly wearing an ornate ring. Possibly to lighten the discussion, Tasha compliments the ring, but Miss Beverly replies by saying that if the ring goes missing, she will know who to blame. Tasha appears offended by the comment and offers to cleanse Miss Beverly's “muddy” aura. At this point, the audience realizes that Tasha is likely a witch. Miss Beverly doesn’t take the bait and merely gives Tasha a dirty look.

Tasha rings the bell at the front desk, and a man rushes down the stairs to greet her. Tasha introduces herself and the man tells her that her room is ready.

Later that night, Tasha is alone in her room, using a crystal on a pendant to scry for something. On the other side of the room, her cell phone is lying on a table. We see that she has just received a message from Alicia (her daughter) asking if everything is okay. But Tasha is unaware that she has just received a message and continues her spell.

Tasha says “reveal” and after a moment, the crystal pendant swings horizontally as if pointing toward something.

Tasha follows the crystal, which leads her outside the building to a storm cellar. As soon as she opens the cellar door, a foul odor causes her to react. She goes down the stairs and begins looking around. She seems to see something that interests her, but before she can do anything, she is stabbed from behind with a long blade and falls to the ground.

EPISODE:

Dean and Sam:
At the bunker’s library, it is the morning after Castiel has killed Dagon and taken off with Kelly. The Winchesters are talking about what happened and trying to figure out their next move. Dean is concerned because the Nephilim baby (who is not even born yet) is already powerful enough to control Cas’ mind and actions.

Dean tells Sam that when he looked at Cas the night before, he didn’t recognize the person looking back at him, and he’s very concerned that Cas is placing his “faith” in Lucifer’s child. Sam seems less concerned about Cas’ state of mind and more interested in figuring out his next move. He also unwraps the Colt, which is now in two pieces, and starts looking at it. Dean asks Sam if he thinks he can fix it, and Sam replies that he hopes so. As the brothers are talking, a cell phone starts ringing. They both realize it isn’t either of their phones, and Sam discovers another phone under some books in the corner of the library. He assumes it must be one of Mary’s phones and answers it.

When Sam answers the phone, he realizes it’s Alicia Banes trying to reach Mary. Sam puts the phone on speaker, and after a brief conversation, Sam and Dean learn that the Banes’ mother (Tasha) has been hunting a witch who has been killing people in Wyoming. Only Tasha hasn’t checked in for several days. Alicia is concerned, but her brother (Max) thinks Alicia is overreacting and that their mother is simply too busy to check in. After further discussion, Sam tells Alicia to text him their location, and says he and Dean will meet them and help them find their mother. After Sam hangs up, Dean suggests they should focus on finding Castiel and Kelly. But Sam says that Jody Mills has issued an all-points bulletin on Castiel and Kelly, and Castiel has ditched his cell phone, so there isn’t much they can do. Sam also reminds Dean that Alicia is calling because her mother is missing on a hunt (reminding Dean of the time when John went missing and Dean came to Stanford to get Sam), Dean relents and agrees to go help the twins.

Sam leaves the library to go prepare to leave, and Dean takes a moment to call Mary. He leaves a message telling her that he and Sam are heading out on a case with Max and Alicia, and he will text her.the details. He says that he’d like her help if she’s available, but he understands if he isn't, but it would be good to hear from her anyway, because some things are happening that have him rattled.

Mr. Ketch and Mary:

At the temporary British Men of Letters (BMOLs) base, we see a woman who looks like Mary Winchester bound to a chair and being tortured by Mr. Ketch. We quickly realize that the woman is a shapeshifter who has taken Mary’s appearance. Mr. Ketch is undeterred and continues torturing the shapeshifter for information on his family, as Mary looks on from across the room. The monster won’t divulge anything, choosing to take on Mr. Ketch’s appearance, instead. This doesn’t have any effect on Mr. Ketch, who continues torturing the monster for the information he wants. As this is happening, Mary’s cell phone rings. It’s Dean calling to tell her about Max and Alicia, but Mary doesn’t take the call.

Dean and Sam:

Dean and Sam arrive at the rendezvous point and meet Max and Alicia. Alicia tells Sam that their mother was hunting a “borrower witch” (a witch who gets her power from a demon deal) when she disappeared. The brothers learn that Alicia tracked her mother to the town of Rock River, Wyoming and employees at a local vegan restaurant told her where her mother was staying.

Unlike Alicia, Max seems unconcerned about his mother. He’s pleased with himself that he got the bartender’s phone number when they were at the vegan restaurant, and he’s more interested in checking out the Impala than he is in discussing the details of his mother’s case. While Dean shows Max the Impala’s weapons trunk, Alicia and Sam discuss the case.

Dean shows Max some of the weapons, including the grenade launcher and – more importantly – the box of witch-killing bullets.

Nearby, as Sam and Alicia talk, we learn that Max and Tasha are “natural” witches (e.g. they were born with the gift), but Alicia is not and doesn’t feel as connected to witchcraft. We also learn that Max and his mother seem to have bonded over magic, and Sam tells Alicia that Dean and his father similarly bonded over hunting, but Sam never embraced the life like they did. They both seem to agree that Mary is more of a hunter than a “hugger” as a mother.

Later, they arrive at the boarding house and see Tasha’s car parked outside.

They also see a strange looking man coming out of the storm cellar. He sees them and just stares at them. Sam waves a greeting but the man just walks away. Before the hunters enter the building, Dean suggests that Alicia and Max let him and Sam take the lead, but Alicia shows Dean her knife and abruptly heads inside.

Once they enter the lobby, Tasha (who is in the sitting area) sees and greets them. Dean, Sam, and Alicia seem surprised as Alicia and Max are reunited with their mother (of course, the audience knows that Tasha is dead). After introductions, Tasha asks the receptionist to prepare rooms for her children and their friends. Then, she invites them up to her room for some wine while they’re waiting for their rooms to be ready.

In Tasha’s room, everyone seems to begin relaxing and talking. Tasha tells Alicia that she thought there was a witch case in town, but she was wrong. Tasha also says that she didn’t return any of Alicia’s messages because her cell phone battery wasn’t charged. Alicia seems willing to accept these explanations.

As they are talking, Tasha tries to open a bottle of wine and seems to hurt her hand. She hands the bottle to Sam to pour wine for everyone and walks across the room, turning her back to the group. Once her back is turned, we see that her finger is broken. She unceremoniously cracks her finger back into place and rejoins the group as if nothing has happened. She tells the group that she ordered food from the vegan restaurant, but they don’t deliver. Sam volunteers to go pick up the food, while Dean chooses to stay and drink, and Max and Alicia continue their reunion with their mother.

Mr. Ketch and Mary:
Back at the BMOL’s base, the shifter is dead and we see Ketch and Mary leaving the room.Ketch is feeling invigorated by the torture session and suggests that he and Mary blow off some steam together. Mary refuses, saying that having sex with him was a one-time thing. Ketch seems annoyed, but otherwise unaffected.

As they continue talking, Mary says that the torture session was a waste of time, because the shifter didn’t give them any information. Ketch insists that the “information gathering” session was necessary, but sometimes you get information and sometimes you don’t. They have a brief but heated disagreement about torture, and Mary tells Ketch that he enjoyed it too much. Ketch tells Mary that BMOLs don’t need a conscience, and that what they’re trying to do is important enough that the ends justify the means.

Ketch dismisses Mary’s criticisms, telling her that if she objects so strongly, she should call Mick Davies and have Mick write up a reprimand. Mary tells him that Mick hasn’t been sending emails or answering his phone. Ketch tells her that he’s probably busy dealing with the BMOLs hierarchy. Ketch also sarcastically tells Mary that she should return Dean’s call so her son doesn’t think his mother doesn’t love him.

Later, Mary is alone somewhere at the base and is listening to Dean’s most recent voice mail message. As she is hanging up from voice mail, she finds herself outside Mick’s office, which Mr. Ketch has been using in Mick’s absence. Mr. Ketch is on the phone, and Mary eavesdrops. Ketch is talking about shipping some item and tells the person on the phone that he couldn’t just ship the item economy freight. He tells the person that the container is in the armory and gives a serial number, telling the person that they’ll talk again after the person has received the package. Mary overhears all this and memorizes the serial number.

As Mary is hiding in the hallway, her phone buzzes loud enough for Ketch to hear. She quickly silences her phone (it’s Dean calling again, but she doesn’t take his call) and makes her presence known, realizing that Ketch probably heard the phone.

Mary tells Ketch that she needs to use Mick’s computer to check her email. Ketch steps aside and Mary logs in to check her messages. As Ketch looks on, Mary finds a new message from Mick, saying that he’ll be detained in England for another few weeks. Ketch walks away, leaving Mary alone.

Dean and Sam:
Back at the boarding house, Dean and Tasha are talking. Dean compliments Tasha on her children, noting how happy they seem. Tasha asks about Dean’s parents, and he tells her that their father raised them to be hunters, but their relationship with their mother is “complicated”.

Sam returns with the food, and asks Dean to step outside so they can talk. Out in the hallway, Sam shows Dean a missing-persons’ poster. They both recognize the man on the poster as the same man they saw at the boarding house earlier in the day.

Sam tells Dean the man has been missing for a month. They decide that Tasha may be mistaken and there really may be a case to work. They also decide to let Tasha and the twins continue eating while they check out the storm cellar.

Elsewhere in the boarding house, Miss Beverly is in her rooms building a life-sized doll out of straw and twigs, and is just finishing her creation as she steps back to admire her work.

Mr. Ketch and Mary:
Later, Mary is again alone in the hallway of the BMOLs base. She takes a moment to return Dean’s call. (Of course, Dean and Sam are currently investigating the storm cellar, so Dean misses her call). Anyway, she leaves a message telling Dean that she’s sorry she couldn’t reply earlier, but she’s been on a hunt with Ketch. She also says that she’s sorry she hasn’t been there for him and Sam, but she wants to be and she will be as soon as she’s finished up what she’s working on. Before she hangs up, she tells Dean that she misses him and Sam and loves them.

Next, Mary heads to the armory to find the container Ketch was talking about. She finds the serial number, opens the container, and sees Mick’s body. She hastily leaves the armory, but before she can get far, she sees Ketch coming down the hallway. Trying to find a place to hide, she sneaks into a room that her palm print on the secirity panel won’t open for her. Once inside the room, she sees a wall covered in computer monitors and notices that each monitor shows a person the BMOLs are currently watching – Garth Fitzgerald, Claire Novak, Eileen Leahy, and Dean, Sam and herself.

She also realizes that the BMOLs have bugged Dean and Sam and have been recording their conversations. Mary is shocked. She calls Dean and leaves another message, telling him “Call me. We’ve got a problem”. She tries to leave, but when she opens the door, Ketch is standing right outside.

Ketch tells Mary that her hand print doesn’t open this room because it isn’t for her. Mary confronts Ketch, demanding to know why Mick’s body is in a box and what the surveillance is about. At first, Ketch lies, telling Mary that Mick was killed by a werewolf, but when she doubts that a werewolf would shoot him in the head, she tries to leave, calling Ketch a psychopath. Ketch stops her, telling her that Mick was weak, and wasn’t one of them (meaning the BMOLs). Ketch and Mary fight. As they’re fighting, Ketch tells Mary that people like Mick and her sons are incapable of doing the job that needs to be done, which is ridding the world of monsters.

Mary defends her sons, but Ketch tells her that he’s been “cleaning up” after Dean and Sam for months. He tells Mary that he killed federal agents and the psychic girl because Dean and Sam didn’t. Ketch tells Mary that the American hunters are done, but he can protect her if she’ll play her part. Mary refuses, and they continue to fight. Mary overpowers Ketch and is about to leave the room, but he shoots her with a Taser and she collapses.

Dean and Sam:

Dean and Sam open the storm cellar door and are greeted by the same bad smell Tasha noticed. They recognize it as decomposition and search the cellar. They quickly find two bodies under a plastic cover. One body belongs to the man on the missing-persons poster, and the other body looks like the reception clerk at the boarding house. They find another body lying on a bench and when they pull back the tarp covering it they recognize Tasha’s face. They realize now that all the “people” they’ve seen and/or met in the boarding house are dead. They also notice that all the victims have had their hearts ripped out.

Meanwhile, Max excuses himself from the party to go on his date with the bartender from the vegan restaurant. As he’s leaving the boarding house, he sees the light coming from the storm cellar and decides to check it out. He finds the Winchesters in the cellar and asks them what’s going on. But before he can get information and before they can stop his from seeing his mother’s body, he sees her. Max ls clearly devastated when he sees his mother, and he cries next to her corpse as the Winchesters look on helplessly.

Dean, Sam and Max rush back to Tasha’s room and Max confronts Tasha, demanding to know who and what she is. As Dean and Sam restrain Alicia trying to convince her that her mother is not her mother, Max utters a “reveal” incantation, and Tasha – in a trance -- directs him to the room at the end of the corridor. Then, she falls to the floor and begins convulsing. In the other room, Miss Beverly senses the use of magic powers and knows she is about to have company. She snaps her fingers and the reception clerk’s eyes glow as he hypnotically responds to her summoning.

Meanwhile, Dean and Max rush to Miss Beverly's room while Alicia rushes to her “mother” who is convulsing on the floor. The man from the missing person poster confronts Dean and Max in the hallway, but Max uses his powers to fling the man through a window.

Dean rushes to look out the window, and we see the man’s body apparently broken and one arm severed, but there is no blood and the man is clearly still alive, twitching and snapping his broken bones back into place.

Dean and Max reach Miss Beverly's room and break in. Before Dean can shoot the witch, she uses telekinesis to fling the gun from his hand and pin him to a chair. Miss Beverly is impressed by Max’s powers and offers him a deal – the same deal his mother refused. When Dean asks what the witch did to Tasha and the others, she uses a “reveal” spell to show them. Dean and Max react in shock as Miss Beverly's vision plays in their heads. Apparently, she is a very old witch who got her powers through a demon deal. When her time is up, she is destined to go to hell unless she can get another powerful witch to take her place and take her magic. Miss Beverly offered Tasha her power, but Tasha refused, so the witch killed her, cut out her heart, and used it to animate one of her straw dolls. The dolls are under her control and serve her. They also possess all the memories of the people whose hearts were used to animate them.

Enraged, Max tries to use his powers against the witch, but she is too strong. She taunts Max, telling him that if he kills her, all the dolls fall apart – including his mother. She tells Max that if he accepts her deal and takes her burden, his mother will stay with him and his sister forever. Dean tries to talk Max out of taking the deal, telling him that his mother is dead and the demon deal will damn him. Max hesitantly prepares to take the ring and accept the deal, but before he can do it, Dean overcomes Miss Beverly's hold on him, gets to his gun, and shoots her.

Meanwhile, in Tasha’s room, the receptionist clerk has arrived and attacks Sam. They fight and the man eventually overpowers Sam and begins strangling him. At first, Tasha is focused on her mother, who is still convulsing on the floor. But when she looks over and sees Sam being strangled, she rushes to him and shoves the other man aside. Alicia returns her attention to her mother, who is now standing up. At first Alicia is happy to see her mother standing again, but before she can react, Tasha stabs Alicia with her own knife, and Alicia falls to the floor. Tasha and the reception clerk converge on Sam, but before they can harm him, they both collapse into dust (Dean has shot the witch in the other room).

Sam rushes to Alicia, and calls Dean for help. But before Dean and Max return, Alicia dies. When Max arrives, he is understandably shocked and devastated to see his sister dead.

Later that night, Dean and Sam are outside the boarding house with Max, trying to talk to him and console him, but it doesn’t go well. Max blames himself for not believing Alicia and not getting to his mother sooner. Inconsolable and in shock, Max asks the Winchesters to leave. They offer to stay and help him burn the bodies, but he says he can do it and begs them to leave. Reluctantly, they leave.

Once Max is alone, he takes Miss Beverly's ring and her dagger and uses those items to work her spell and resurrect his sister. He has accepted the witch’s offer and damned his soul to hell. Alicia wakes up confused, but Max tells her that everything is okay, but they have to leave. Alicia leaves with Max, and he uses his powers to incinerate her body. As they are leaving, the house is on fire.

As the Winchesters drive home, they obviously feel guilty about Max. Sam tells Dean that he had no choice other than to stop Max from making the deal. But Dean says that family does those things for each other, so who is he to stop Max from doing it. Sam tries to convince Dean that Max will be okay, but Dean doesn’t think so. Later, Sam falls asleep while Dean is driving home. Dean takes a moment to listen to his phone messages and he hears Mary’s two messages -- including her urgent message telling him they have a problem. He tries to wake Sam up, but Sam is sleeping soundly.

EPILOGUE:

Mr. Ketch and Mary:
At the BMOLs base, Mary is unconscious and restrained in the same chair that was used to torture the shapeshifter. Ketch throws water in her face to wake her up. After a brief, hostile discussion, Mary seems prepared for him to torture and kill her. Instead, Toni Bevel walks in, sits down and says the BMOLs have other plans for her, and suggests that they begin. As Toni walks in, we see Mary’s phone ring – it’s Dean returning Mary’s call.

THE END