Supernatural Season 13 Episode 17 review: The Thing

Last night on Supernatural, The Winchesters were able to get the ingredients they need for the spell. And Ketch finally made himself useful.

Well, this week’s Supernatural sure pushed the plot forward at lightning speed! I honestly didn’t see them entering into the portal so soon. But I guess there aren’t that many episodes of the season left, and if we’re going to have a war with Michael, we need to speed things up! This week we also learned there are more Men of Letters legacies, and we probably learned how Asmodeus upgraded his powers. Let’s take a deeper look into this week’s episode!

“I love books!”

The show cold opens in 1925 with Men of Letters sacrificing a flapper to some kind of tentacled something. They are located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, which is important for later. We then catch back up with the Winchesters. They are still trying to find information about the Seal of Solomon, the only piece they need for the spell. They have combed through all the books, and still haven’t found anything. Sam suggests they go back into the archives, and check out the books there again. Dean is less than enthusiastic.

More from Supernatural

• Jensen Ackles and The Winchesters cast kick off #SaveTheWinchesters campaign
• Will The Winchesters be saved? (Can Supernatural fans save the prequel?)
• Did The Winchesters get renewed? (Is The Winchesters season 2 happening?)
• Is a new episode of The Winchesters on tonight? (March 14, 2023)
• The Winchesters Season1 finale explained: Did it connect to Supernatural?

While combing through the archives, Dean stumbles upon something. He finds a reference to The Men of Letters finding the Seal of Solomon in 1918. They are storing it in Capitulum 7, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. So the boys go on a trip.

“Ask questions, get answers”

The Winchesters show up in Rhode Island and find their way into the Captiulum. They make a comment about how it looks familiar. It does look familiar. Pretty sure they’re filming on the same set as the Bunker, just decorated and lit differently. They find the library, because of course they do. While Sam starts looking on shelves, Dean goes through some pictures on the table. He finds one of the flapper from the cold open, Sandy Porter. Sam conveniently finds a file about Solomon on a shelf. Does it seem like they’re finding these ingredients for the spell too easily?

Before they can read what they find on Solomon, they hear the voice of a woman calling for help. They run, and when they find her, they’re in for a shock. There is Sandy Porter, still chained to the slab, almost one hundred years later. Sam and Dean rescue her and try to acclimate her to the new times.

“Not boring after all.”

“You’re safe now, we promise.” The Winchester’s famous last words uttered to Sandy. They all go to a diner for food, where Sandy explains that she was basically kidnapped by The Men of Letters and sacrificed to a monster. At the diner, Marco, the cook, makes a phone call to someone else. They are both sporting Men of Letters tattoos, so apparently they’re not as extinct as Sam and Dean were led to believe? Marco sprinkles something onto their food, and pulls out a giant knife.

It doesn’t take long for Marco’s Men of Letters reinforcements to show up to the diner, wearing maroon robes. There’s a fight in the diner, during which Sam is taken with a black hood over his head, and Sandy kills a Man of Letters with knife to the back.

“Less monster, more god.”

Sam learns that the people in the robes are Men of Letters legacies. They explain that their great-grandfather wanted to make the world a better place after World War I, so he summoned the god Yokuth. However, the monster didn’t bring paradise on earth, so the Men of Letters disavowed the actions after she ate everyone and trapped Sandy in the building. She’s been guarded ever since.  They explain that when she’s not eating, she’s wanting to breed.

Watch your favorite shows on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels with a 7-day FREE trial!

Sam goes to find Sandy and Dean and discovers them gone. They run back to the Capitulum, where Sandy is summoning her lover from her dimension, Glithor. She likes looking at Dean’s face, so she figures he would make a good host for him. As usual on this show, Sam comes in in the nick of time and they distract Sandy long enough for Dean to pick his way out of his chains. Dean grabs the seal of Solomon from Sandy’s neck, and her tentacled lover carries her back into the portal to her dimension.

“I need you when I need you.”

After weeks of not seeing them, this week we see what Ketch and Asmodeus are up to. And this turns out to be a pretty important piece of the plot. Asmodeus summons Ketch, but demands he wait for him. Ketch decides he’s not waiting and walks in on Asmodeus extracting Gabriel’s grace and injecting into himself. And, this lady and gentlemen, is our answer to how Asmodeus is able to shapeshift.

Asmodeus makes a point in reminding Ketch that he has to do whatever Asmodeus wants him to do. Ketch decides that’s a big nope, and decides to quit. And Asmodeus rejects his resignation by beating Ketch up, and telling him he owns him. All the while poor Gabriel is watching from his cage. After Asmodeus leaves Ketch and Gabriel alone for some reason, Ketch gets the best idea he’s ever had.

Ketch breaks Gabriel out of his prison, and steals some stuff out of Asmodeus’s safe. Gabriel is reluctant to go with Ketch, but Ketch performs an epic rescue mission, getting them both out of Hell.

“Dibs on the top bunk.”

Sam and Dean return to the bunker with the Seal of Solomon and some advice from the other legacies. When they do the spell they’ll need something that’s been there before to guide them to the right dimension, and the portal will only stay open for twenty four hours. When they enter the bunker, they muse that all they need now is the grace of an archangel.

Enter Ketch. He and Gabriel have come to the bunker seeking sanctuary to hide from Asmodeus. Because not only did Ketch steal Gabriel, he stole some already extracted grace and the archangel blade. All he wants in return is to chill at the bunker. Dean takes the deal.

And because we’re only a few episodes from the end of the season, Dean is not slowing down. He makes the decision that he’s going to go into the portal right now. Alone. Sam protests, but Dean actually makes a good point. If something happens, he’ll need Sam to reopen the portal and come save him. Ketch volunteers to go with, and Dean accepts. The episode ends with Dean and Ketch stepping through the portal, leaving Sam and Gabriel behind.

Performer of the Week

This week I’m naming Richard Speight, Jr. aka Gabriel as our performer of the week. The man can act! This week he had his mouth sewn shut for the entire episode, but man could his eyes emote! Stuck in the cage, you could see him watching every move Ketch was making, and calculating how he could make that work for him. However, once he got his wish and Ketch freed him, the fear was almost palpable in his performance. Nothing made his performance shine more than when Sam and Dean talked about extracting the grace directly from Gabriel. We don’t know how long Asmodeus has kept Gabriel in the cage, stealing his grace, but you could tell just from that moment, Gabriel was affected by it.

At the end of the episode, Sam cut the threads off of Gabriel’s mouth. It will be interesting to see what happens next week. I would love to hear what exactly happened to him, since everyone thought he was dead. And I’m sure Gabriel knows a lot about what Asmodeus is up to.

Next: Supernatural Season 13: Whose blood does Asmodeus have on his suit?

What did you guys think of this week’s Supernatural? Did you feel the acquisition of the ingredients seemed too easy and rushed? How do you feel about Ketch being the one helping Dean save his mom, and not say, Castiel? Please let us know in the comments below!

Supernatural airs Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW.