Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Supernatural season 12 episode, “Family Feud.” If you haven’t watched it yet, jump into the Impala and drive away.

Family. Exploring the ties, emotions, and responsibilities that come with family is a cornerstone of Supernatural. The series would be nothing without the strong connection between Sam and Dean Winchester. So, opening the show’s arms wide to spend an episode with multiple families should work, right? Alas, “Family Feud” didn’t quite deliver.

Let’s first look at the Winchesters. Since Mary returned at the beginning of season 12, her role hasn’t been what I expected. It’s nice to be surprised, but as she’s been gone from her sons’ lives for so long, I want her up in their business. I want to see her at their side in a possibly obnoxious but also sweet-because-she-care-so-much helicopter mom sort of way. Yet, she’s been mostly apart from Sam and Dean. She drops by for occasional moments of “I must protect my boys” badassery, but then she’s off to process her return to mortality or to work with the British Men of Letters. She contradicts herself with her actions.

I can’t imagine being resurrected from the dead is easy, but for the love of all things holy (and in this show, unholy) you need to be better, Mary Winchester.

The British Men of Letters are offering her fancy toys and a new approach to dealing with monsters. I think Mary views her alliance with the questionable group in a couple of ways. First of all, they are making a dent. Think about it. For all the work we’ve seen the Winchester brothers and the other hunters do, they’re still constantly fighting and putting themselves at risk. They don’t significantly cut down the population of baddies. They are one hundred percent doing good work, but compared to the British Men of Letters locking their shit down, they’re only reacting to monster problems rather than being proactive and preventing them.

Secondly, maybe Mary sees this as a way out for her boys. Sam and Dean have long accepted they are hunters now and always. No other apple pie, “normal” life is in the cards for them. But if Mary teams up with the British Men of Letters and convinces other hunters to do the same, they could eradicate the work that consumes the lives of the Winchesters. It could mean Sam and Dean can lay their weary heads to rest. From that perspective, I can see a glimmer of where Mary’s coming from. A tiny glimmer, perhaps, but I can put myself in her shoes.

However, as Sam reminded us, the British Men of Letters haven’t made a positive impression. Sure, it was a rogue agent who tortured Sam, but she was part of their group all the same. How do you align yourselves with an organization responsible for so much injury towards your sons? It’s hard for me to reconcile, and it’s hard for Sam and Dean as well–as it should be. At least Mary finally came clean with them. I hope she can begin to see the request from Mr. Ketch to cut off her boys is only going to be the first of many catches. Get it? Mr. Ketch comes with catches.

Then, we have Lucifer. He’s about to be a dad, and now his baby mama is being protected by the Princess of Hell Dagon. I’m curious about what Dagon will bring to the table, but nothing in this particular storyline is exciting just yet. In fact, the most interesting part about their appearances in the latest episode was Crowley explaining how he pulled off the feat of getting Lucifer back to his former vessel.

Speaking of Crowley, let’s discuss the final family in “Family Feud.” Remember Gavin? I barely did, but Crowley’s son played a key part in the plot as the monster in this installment of Supernatural, a ghost named Fiona, was connected to Gavin. This thread came down to two points. Number one: we have spent so little time with Gavin; it’s not near enough to feel any sort of connection to him. He could have been random dude off the street rather than Crowley’s son and it would have pulled the same amount of emotion from me.

Number two: Fiona got raped on board the ship to the States? Really. Supernatural goes to this well far too often for it to cause anything but frustration and a lot of eye-rolling. Let it go. Find another way.

There could have been something further explored between Rowena and Crowley since she helped the Winchesters get Gavin back to the past partially because of spite for Crowley, but they didn’t fully commit to a conversation between the mother and son. They shared a brief argument at the end that was over as fast as it started and didn’t go much beyond a superficial bickering match.

What did you think about the episode? Share your opinion with me in the comments.

Images: The CW