12.13 Family Feud

Title	Family Feud
Episode #	Season 12, Episode 13
First aired	February 23, 2017
Directed by	P.J. Pesce
Written by	Brad Buckner Eugenie Ross-Leming
On IMDB	Family Feud
Outline	When bodies begin dropping after visiting a museum, Sam and Dean connect a ghost to the sunken merchant ship that Gavin MacLeod was to be aboard and seek Rowena's help in finding him. Crowley prepares to exact his revenge on an imprisoned Lucifer, while Kelly Kline reappears and finds refuge with a powerful demon.
Monster	Ghost
Timeline
Location(s)	Andover, Massachusetts Lebanon, Kansas Fall River, Massachusetts Des Moines, Iowa Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
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Synopsis

Six Months Ago
A teacher named Janice Woods in Andover, Massachusetts, is doing her nightly ritual before going to bed -- brushing her teeth and putting her dress in the closet, etc. As she lays down and prepares to go to sleep, two ghostly arms pop out from under her bed and begin squeezing her midsection until her internal organs are crushed and she is killed, blood splattering across the room onto a locket on her dresser.

Present Day
At the Men of Letters Bunker, Dean is finishing a phone call with Castiel regarding Cas' lack of leads in finding Kelly Kline, while Sam sits at his laptop reading about a recent murder outside of a museum in Des Moines, Iowa. He tells Dean of how a male teacher had his tongue ripped out and internal organs crushed, but showed no point of entry or damage to his torso. Dean, thinking they are dealing with a witch, calls Mary to see if she is interested in joining them on a hunt.

In an underground car park, Mary is fending off a rugaru. When she is able to put some distance between herself and it, she shoots it with a special gun made by the British Men of Letters that melts its brain as Mr. Ketch stands to the side timing her. When Mary's phone rings, she lies to Dean about where she is and declines his offer to join them on a hunt. She feigns needing to rest after the Ramiel incident, but tells Dean to call if they need her. Mr. Ketch compliments Mary on being an excellent liar, and Mary tells him she hasn't said anything given what happened with Lady Antonia Bevell's torture of Sam and Dean. She says she understands that Bevell was a "rogue operative." Mr. Ketch asks Mary out for drinks.

In Crowley's Lair, Crowley taunts Lucifer, telling him he will eventually break and call Crowley "master." He relates that when Lucifer was exorcised out of President Jefferson Rooney, Crowley perverted the spell so Lucifer was sent not to the Cage but to his lair where the body of his original vessel, Nick, waited repaired and improved. He tells Lucifer he had his most trusted demons analyze the Cage and replicate the materials to make the chains that now restrain him, but Lucifer is only amused, confident that he will get out eventually.

On the road to Des Moines, Sam informs Dean of a similar murder six months prior in Andover, Massachusetts, and says he is dismayed that Mary couldn't make it. Dean scoffs. When Sam questions him, Dean admits that he feels Mary is hiding something from them, but Sam assures him that hunting is a grind and she just needs a little time. Outside the museum, a Timber Troop scout leader is overseeing his troop preparing to depart when he excuses himself to the bathroom. After finishing, the troop leader begins to notice stall doors banging, lights going on and off, and indistinct whispering. As the air becomes chillier and the water in the sink freezes, the troop leader notices a figure behind him in the mirror and lets out a scream as it comes charging towards him.

The next day Sam and Dean arrive at the museum and meet with the curator, Dr. Ochoa, who takes them the museum's lab where they are setting up their new exhibits before excusing herself. The Winchesters soon realize that all the deaths have involved teachers or people that supervise children, and when Dean turns on the EMF, he believes they are dealing with a ghost instead of a witch. Sam is a bit skeptical, given museums tend to have ghosts tethered in them, but the two split up and try to find what item in the new exhibits the suspected ghost may be tethered to.

At a diner a visibly pregnant Kelly Kline orders orange juice from a waitress who asks when her child is due, a question that Kelly cannot answer. The waitress tells her that whenever it pops out her life as she knows it will be over but that she is sure to love the "little devil," then reveals her blue angelic eyes after she turns and walks away. Back at the museum Dean looks over an Aztec knife, and thinks an Aztec ghost is a good bet, before moving on to Sam who is reading up on The Star, a brigantine ship that sunk in a storm off the New England coast in 1723. They realize that the exhibit is on loan from the Maritime Museum in Andover, Massachusetts. This prompts Dean's memory and he tells Sam he "knows something about something." When Sam continues reading, revealing that the ship set sail from Leith, Scotland, Dean suddenly remembers Gavin MacLeod -- The Star was the ship he was supposed to die on. Back at Crowley's Lair, Lucifer continues his mockery of the situation, telling Crowley how sad his plan is, before Crowley puts him on his knees and tells him to clean the floor with his tongue. But Lucifer only warns Crowley he won't see it coming when he gets taken down. He informs Crowley of the survival of his child, much to Crowley's shock. Dean places a call to Crowley asking him to contact Gavin for them, but Crowley having just learned that Lucifer's child is still alive refuses to help the Winchesters until they take care of the child and hangs up. A surprised Lucifer comments on them both being fathers, and asks Crowley for parenting advice.

Outside the museum, two female teachers are loading up their school bus to depart when a locket is slipped by an unseen force into the pocket of one of the teachers. That night, inside the museum lab, Sam and Dean sit with Rowena and ask for her help in getting intel on The Star. Rowena initially refuses, claiming the Winchesters still owe her for helping Dean get his memory back, but Sam and Dean are able to convince her to track down Gavin. Kelly Kline is walking down the street when she notices a man behind her. As she speeds up her walking she slips behind a corner to see if the man is still following her; the man appears in front of her, and as she tries to run away the waitress from the diner blocks her path and the two produce angel blades. Before they can attack, Dagon appears and tells them to get away from her. When the male angel refuses and tries to attack Dagon, she is able to completely obliterate the angel. When the female angel attempts to attack Kelly Kline, Dagon teleports behind her and kills her in the same manner. A rattled Kelly Kline sits in shock as Dagon offers her hand to Kelly. The next morning, Dagon takes Kelly to an abandoned warehouse where she explains that she's a demon and the things that attacked her were angels, not people. She tells her how Lucifer was actually God's favorite and an archangel, and that the son she is carrying her belly is not evil and could very well end up saving them. She tells Kelly she is the only one that can protect her.

Gavin soon arrives in Des Moines and is greeted by Sam and Dean, having been brought to them under the pretense that Crowley was ill. Sam and Dean admit they lied and ask for his help. Not trusting the Winchesters, Gavin initially shouts for help, but Sam and Dean assure him that they don't want to hurt him, with Sam showing him a photo of The Star, and they introduce him to Rowena. Initially shocked that his grandmother is alive, he is reminded that he shouldn't be alive either. The four depart to The Star exhibit at the museum where Gavin goes over a binder of all materials collected from the wreckage. He soon comes upon a locket that he recognizes as the same one he gave to the love of his life Fiona Duncan, which Sam notices was added to the exhibit six months ago in Andover. Gavin explains that Fiona wished to join him on his journey to the New World, but he refused, telling her it was too dangerous. Fiona persisted and was to meet with Gavin on the night Abaddon took him to try and convince him to take her along. Gavin soon realizes that with him gone, Fiona must have assumed he had left without her and stowed away on the ship hoping to find him. Sam and Dean deduce that Fiona, angry and heartbroken when she died, is the ghost, and they look for her locket only to find it missing from its display case.

Mr. Ketch drops Mary off at her motel. He asks her about getting a drink, but she declines. Mr. Ketch then brings up Sam and Dean, and suggests Mary "disengage" from them for a bit. He says that working for the Men of Letters is demanding work and must come first above everything else. He calls them his family. Mary refuses the notion, telling him nothing comes before her family. Ketch asks her if she really believes that, noting she is "softer, weaker" around them. He tells her she is one of the best hunters he's seen and that is the real her; he thinks it scares her that it might be true.

Sam and Dean visit Dr. Ochoa in her office and tell her of the missing locket. Sam then asks if any student tours have been through the lab, and she replies that one has for the Pembroke Day School for Girls. That night at the Pembroke Day School, the two teachers, Karen and Elizabeth, are grading papers in a study. The lights abruptly start to flicker, and as Karen and Elizabeth investigate the strange sounds and drafts from a closed window. Fiona's ghost appears before Karen and impales her, then she moves on to Elizabeth who is trapped in the study. As Fiona is about to kill her, Dean bursts through the door and shoots Fiona with rock salt. Gavin is then placed alone in the study to summon Fiona. When she manifests in front of him she accuses him of abandoning her. As he tries to explain that he was taken away, Fiona tells him of what happened when she was found and the abuse, scorn, and rape that followed. When she looked to their childhood teacher Mistress Allaway for help, she was met with only betrayal and told she deserved what was happening to her for "throwing herself" at Gavin. She tells Gavin while she can't punish Mistress Allaway, other teachers will pay her debt, then disappears. When Gavin tells Sam, Dean, and Rowena what happened to Fiona on the ship, they agree that Fiona must be stopped and talk about destroying the locket. But Gavin is too hung up on the people that have died and the monster his Fiona had turned into. Sam and Dean suggest another way: if Gavin goes back to 1723 he can prevent Fiona from ever becoming a ghost either by getting on board the ship or both of them not boarding at all. Rowena protests tampering with the flow of time and sending Gavin to his possible death, but Sam tells her it would keep history intact. Gavin agrees and tells Rowena he was thinking the same thing as he felt he never belonged in the 21st century. Crowley arrives and tries to put a stop to their plan, but Rowena freezes him with a spell, allowing Gavin to say goodbye before leaving with the Winchesters.

At the Bunker, Sam prepares the blood spell. After Gavin adds his blood. Sam paints the sigil on a pillar in the library. The Winchesters thank Gavin as Sam recites the invocation. Clutching Fiona's locket in his hands, Gavin is joined by her ghost as the two are engulfed in a white light and disappear. It is not known if they die or become ghosts, only that they have gone back in time. Sam and Dean see that their plan worked, just as Mary arrives with beer and burgers. When they ask her what she has been up to, she readily admits that she has been working with the British Men of Letters, much to Sam and Dean's shock and dismay. She pleads with them to hear her out.

At a bus station Crowley sits on a bench with Rowena and asks her what spiteful, rancid reason she had for allowing her grandson to be sent to his death. She tells him Gavin was a good boy, not unlike Oskar, the child she loved more than him and who Crowley made her kill to remove the Mark of Cain. She tells him that sending Gavin back was the right thing for him to do, as well as allowing Rowena to get revenge on Crowley for Oskar, forcing him to suffer the loss of a child. Rowena leaves him to sit alone as she boards her bus.

At the Bunker Mary continues pleading her case to a visibly frustrated Sam and Dean. Crowley ruminates at the bus stop on what Rowena did. Kelly Kline and Dagon leave the abandoned warehouse. All the while Lucifer sits in silence in his dungeon, before simply uttering "Dagon."

Characters

• Sam Winchester
• Dean Winchester
• Mary Winchester
• Castiel
• Crowley
• Lucifer
• Nick
• Rowena
• Mr. Ketch
• Gavin MacLeod
• Kelly Kline
• Dagon
• Fiona Duncan

Definitions

• Alcohol
• Angel Blade
• Blood Sigil
• Costumes & Disguises
• EMF
• Get this
• Ghost
• Impala
• Magic Fingers
• Men of Letters
• Men of Letters Bunker
• Monsters
• Mr. Ketch's Car
• Needham Asylum
• Nephilim
• Princes of Hell
• Rugaru
• Salt
• Spells
• Table of Death
• Time Travel
• Vessel
• Witches

Music

• "Play with Fire" by The Rolling Stones

(playing over the closing montage; also played in 6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much)

Quotes

Crowley: Oh, you'll resist, at first. But the humiliation will eat at you. Until, finally, you're worn down by your utter helplessness. And you call me... Master. You brag of your superior power. Well, genius trumps brute force. I've had a dozen of my most loyal studying the cage where you were held at the molecular level. They managed to replicate the material. They made those chains. Getting you here... well, that was a different matter.

Dean: I don't know, I just -- I feel like something's going on with her, and she ain't talkin' about it.
Sam: Mom's hunting again. That's a grind. You know that. She's just needs a little time, Dean. That's all.

Dean: Whoa. There's a lot of action in here. Okay, well, I'm switching my vote from witch to ghost.

Sam: I don't know. EMF isn't that surprising in a museum. They're always filled with ADHD spirits and their tethers, you know.

Dean: Okay, but if our killer is a chain rattler, how we gonna figure out which one it is?

Dean: Need a favor.
Crowley: You... need... You? Turns out that behind that whole moron facade, you and your brother are, in fact, morons! You let Lucifer's love child live.

Lucifer: Oh, my Dad. I love that. You and I, both single fathers. I could use a little Dad advice right about now. When do you let 'em date?

Gavin: How sick is he?

Sam: About that... we might've exaggerated a little bit.

Dean: Lied. We lied.

Mr. Ketch: This work. It's demanding and must come first. The Men of Letters is my family.

Mary: I'm sorry. Nothing comes before my family, not with me.

Mr. Ketch: Really? Or is that just what you want to believe? You're different when you talk to them. Softer. Weaker. Not an insult, just an observation. But when you hunt, Mary... you're one of the best I've ever seen.Now you might play at being the good mummy, but when you're in the thick of it, nothing but a blade in your hand and blood in the air, that's the real you, the best you. And I think you know it. And I think that scares the hell out of you.

Mary: There's no easy way to say it, so I'm just gonna to say it. I have sort of... been working with the British Men of Letters.

Sam: M- You -- you, uh... you what?
Dean: Ah.
Sam: Mom... we, um... we have a-a history with them.

Mary: I know, Sam. And it was a hard decision. But they're doing good work. I have helped them save people, a lot of people. We can learn from them. Do not give me the face.

Sam: Mom, we have our own toolkit, and it works just fine. A-and for obvious reasons, like broken ribs and burnt feet... We don't trust the Brits.

Dean: So where does that leave us?

Mary: Same as always. Family. Just hear me out. Please.

Crowley: So that was all drivel you were spewing about Gavin doing the right thing?

Rowena: It was the right thing. Maybe for Gavin, certainly for me. It allowed me to watch you suffer the loss of a child.
Crowley: Payback.

Rowena: I'm your mother, dear. Who better to crush your shriveled heart?

Trivia & References

"Family Feud" is reference to the game show of the same name.

The teacher's death in the pre-title sequence is reminiscent of Johnny Depp's death in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Watch the scene here.

Dean: Aztecs were pretty serious about their killings. Aztec ghost. Yeah, I like that.

The Aztec culture was steeped in the religious practice of human sacrifice.

Dean: What you got?

Sam: It's from a ship, um, a brigantine, called The Star. Sunk in a storm off the New England coast. Currently on loan from the Maritime Museum in -- wait for it -- Andover, Massachusetts.

A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel.

Crowley: You and Bullwinkle fix this mess before it hatches. Then, maybe then, we'll talk about my son.

Referencing Bullwinkle from The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show.

Dagon: Come with me if you wanna live.

Referencing the famous quote used throughout the Terminator franchise.

Dagon: Titles, labels. I'm a demon, you're Rosemary, complete with baby.

Rosemary's Baby is a film about a woman who carries the Devil's child.

Dagon: I know you're scared. Don't believe what you see in the movies. No one is born good or bad. It's all in the upbringing. This child, your child... he could save us all.

Dagon is referencing the idea of nature versus nurture.

Elizabeth: Yeah. I read one more Internet-bought paper on Bleak House, I'll scream.

Bleak House is a novel by Charles Dickens which satirizes the British legal system.

Sam: Actually, there might be a-a way to fix pretty much everything.

Gavin: What?
Dean: Keep Fiona from going Casper in the first place.

Reference to Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Crowley: Never gonna happen. Just 'cause Dim and Dimmer here can't keep their own family all in the same dimension, doesn't mean they can mess with mine!

Gavin: Father, I want to do this.
Crowley: What you want is a gym membership, happy hour at Hooters and Cubs tickets -- none of which are available anywhere else but here.

Dumb and Dumber is a 1994 comedy film about a pair of idiot friends.
Hooters is a restaurant chain famous for chicken wings and waitresses in skimpy outfits.
The Chicago Cubs are a baseball team; Jim Michaels is a Cubs fan.

Dean: That soup yet?

Play on the phrase "Is it soup yet?" asking if something is done, which originated from the 1970's Lipton instant soup commercials.

Dean: Beam him up, Scotty.

Reference to Captain Kirk's catch phrase, "Beam me up, Scotty."

Minutiae

Colby Wilson, who played Scout Leader, previously played Guy in Bar in 4.04 Metamorphosis.

Director P.J. Pesce gives behind the scenes insights on the episode, via The Winchester Family Business.

P.J. Pesce previously directed 9.21 King of the Damned, the episode which brought Gavin MacLeod from 1723 to the future (also written by Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming).

Like Raphael's first vessel, Donnie Finnerman, Nick would have been rendered in a Persistent Vegetative State from archangel possession, making it impossible for him to verbally consent. While not stated in the episodes, one can assume Raphael and Lucifer gained reentry into their vessels through subconscious means.

The Star sank in 1723 where it laid at the bottom of the ocean until 1981 when it was excavated and its pieces were put on display as part of the "Treasures from the Deep" exhibit at the Maritime Museum at Andover, where Rufus was able to steal Gavin's signet ring in 6.04 Weekend at Bobby's. Fiona's locket was placed into storage and only added to the exhibit six months prior to the episode, which explains why her spirit only recently started attacking teachers.

The Star laid anchor in Leith, Scotland, in 1723 and sank off the coast of New England during a storm in 1723. The ship's length was 91 feet, with its beam at 24 feet, and it weighed 215 tons. However, Rufus said the Star went down in Massachusetts in 6.04 Weekend at Bobby's.

P.J. Pesce's storyboard for the Washroom scene "Family Feud."

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

• 12.13 Family Feud (transcript)
• Family Feud Script (Production Draft)

Promotion

• Synopsis and Promo Pics
• Promo
• Sneak Peek
• Sneak Peek #2
• Inside Supernatural: Family Feud
• Interview with Director P.J. Pesce at The Winchester Family Business