On SUPERNATURAL, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Season 12, Episode 16 “Ladies Drink Free”
Written by Meredith Glynn
Directed by Amyn Kaderali

Werewolf stories always tear your heart out because someone is an innocent victim one minute and a monster the next. On Supernatural, they follow the idea that the curse is a tragedy, much like the original Wolfman movies. This episode has the same conflict concerning the morality of killing the innocent who has been bitten and is now dangerous.

Mick (Adam Fergus) might be worth something someday. In the episode “The Raid”, where it became obvious that no one in the Men of Letters, London chapter, actually qualified as a hunter except for Ketch, Mick was the only one who did anything effective. Essentially, he’s a salesman. His orders are to get new recruits for the job of clearing America of monsters. But in this episode, he asks Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam (Jared Padalecki) if he can go on the hunt with them. It’s a hunt he found for them, an obvious werewolf case.

Dean is not happy about taking Mick with them. At this point he is willing to go on hunts that they find but this is a step further. However, he agrees and instead of their usual dives they stay in a three star hotel, which is amusing.

Their surviving victim is a teenage girl, Hayden Foster (Abby Ross). The fact that there is a survivor is unusual, thankfully. Most werewolf attacks end in death. Her brother was killed by the werewolf. Sam and Dean do the FBI thing but are stonewalled by the mom, who won’t let them in to see her daughter. Mick grabs a lab coat and pretends to be a doctor, which is clever. It enables him to examine the girl and Sam and Dean talk to Mrs. Foster (Miranda Frigon) outside. Mick finds a bite mark but lies to Sam and Dean about it.

The boys find out from the mom that a young woman was there first. Blonde, with an attitude. It’s Claire (Kathryn Newton), and Jody doesn’t know she’s hunting.

Mick tells Sam and Dean he has to get a report in, but he goes back to the hospital, dressed as a doctor, to put silver nitrate in the girl’s IV. He hesitates. It’s obviously hard for him. Hayden wolfs out and attacks him and he ends up stabbing her with the needle in the chest. The good part about this is that he doesn’t kill her until she attacks first. The bad part is now it’s obvious that she was murdered.

Sam takes Claire and they go talk to the dead girl’s girlfriend. Sam has to stay in the car because he’s old. However, he gets a chance to talk to her about coming clean with Jodie. She stomps off and gets attacked by a werewolf in a mask. A strange thing, a werewolf trying to hide his identity. Sam gets there seconds too late to save Claire from being bitten.

Dean goes with Mick to talk to the guy in the bar with the ink. He takes the opportunity to tell Mick that he has put two and two together and knows he killed the girl in the hospital. They argue about it. Mick has his orders, and killing monsters is what they do. Dean says things are not that black and white, and tells him about the girl with the psychic powers that they let go. The one that Ketch killed and the boys still don’t know is dead.

But now they have Claire, and Sam wants to try a cure he read about in Mick’s books. Mick says it doesn’t work, and nine out of ten test subjects died. Then he admits that the test subjects were mice. They are actually discussing whether to do it or not. They know from what happened with Garth that some people can withstand the hunger and survive on animal hearts. Claire points out that she doesn’t have that much self-control as a human. It’s her life and she gets all the votes, and she wants to do it.

Both Winchesters are extremely angry with Mick for killing Hayden. This is a little hypocritical, since they have done the same. Sam had to kill poor Madison, whom he really liked. Of course, she’d already started eating people. They leave Mick with Claire anyway, while they hunt for the werewolf that bit her. They need his blood for the cure. This is actually a smart move, because Mick gets to see her suffer through the change and has to stop her from killing herself. It’s good for him.

Unfortunately, the masked werewolf shows up and kidnaps Claire, although Mick tries to stop him. Mick put a tracker on her (because he is smart) and they find the lair. The wolf is a young person, Justin (Matt Visser), who wanted to turn Hayden. The brother was just in the way. Now he wants Claire. The Men of Letters disrupted their den, killing some and dispersing the rest. He’s lonely.

There’s a terrific fight. Dean fights Claire, apologizing all the way. Sam gets thrown around and Mick shoots the werewolf. They get his blood and inject the cure into Claire, who writhes around for a while and then is cured! Yay! Everyone is happy, even Mick, who says she’s a walking miracle.

Claire calls Jody and tells her she’s been hunting and is ready to do it on her own now. (Right, she almost became a werewolf.)

Mick should know now that you can’t hunt without the angst. If it’s not making you miserable, you’re not doing it right. Seriously, there is a vast difference in philosophy between the way the Winchesters hunt and the way that the Men of Letters, London Chapter, have others do their hunting for them. The Winchesters hunt to save people. The Men of Letters are exterminators.

The bad thing about the way that Mick killed Hayden is that he did it secretly, so as not to upset the Winchesters, and he did it under orders and not because he thought it was the right thing to do. He also didn’t give her a chance to die under transformation or fight the urge to kill and learn to live as a werewolf.

At the end of the episode, he is not so buttoned down. I think he will be wearing flannel and jean jackets next. One thing that’s been bothering me for a while is that the stubble look does not look good on him. His skin is too light and the beard is too dark and it’s too perfectly maintained. He looks like Fred Flintstone.

Claire likes Batgirl. At least, I think that’s the comic book that was in her car.

I am bemused by the idea of lycanthropic mice. I can imagine them in cages in the dungeon of some old castle. You’d have to handle them carefully because a tiny nip would still get you infected. The head werewolf mouse would have to be kept alive to use his blood for the cure. What would they feed them? Other mice, no doubt. They’d have long claws and big teeth and pointy ears when they turned, but still be the size of a mouse. A large, strong mouse.

Oh, and there’s a Hogwarts for the Men of Letters! Sam and Dean really missed out.

In the next episode, it looks like they will be more tangled up and in even more conflict with the BMoL.

Supernatural airs on the CW on Thursday nights at 8pm/7c.