Vee's Winchester Brothers Report: "We do terrible things, all the time to save each other."
So, I do one of these every week but I've been complaining about the show quite a bit and since for once I'm not fighting mad after a new episode (“Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes” (12.20)), I thought it was only fair I also spread some of my joy lol. 😉
Overall grade : 7.5/10
“Twigs” was a thematic episode, rich with imagery and parallels, and a joy to review, especially after last week, that left me scribbling my review at lightening speed right after the episode ended in order to forget it ever happened. First, as it so happens in the episodes I tend to love, I liked the hunt. I love a hunt that’s different from the previous ones and Supernatural has given us plenty witches over the years. This one had tricks I’d never seen before, and she scared me. She radiated pure malevolence from the moment we met her and that ring of hers had me mentally reaching for the holy water, because I could sense its evil.
I liked the concept of the Twig people, the sound of wood snapping as they twitched around, the vacant stare when they were under command and the visual of their broken body on the floor, twigs poking out of their clothes. The vibe was right. Sinister. In and around the cellar, and evil swirled inside the boarding house like a breeze, making me fear for Tasha the moment she stepped in.
Tasha Banes
I loved the opening scene with Tasha Banes. Her little seance on the carpet of her room and the glow in her eyes that matched the glow of her pendent. Purple, like the doll in the stairs and like the owner’s ring. The suspense was unbearable as she walked into the night, following the light that led to her death. She is one of those characters I fall in love with at first sight and I was not ready to lose her. When she touched the door to the underground cellar, I was already in mourning. The viewers were in on the secret that the Tasha who welcomed the Winchester-Banes quartet at the house was not the genuine article, and the moment Tasha 2.0 said that she found “a fantastic acupuncturist”, a reference to the way Tasha died, felt like a wink to the audience.
Max and Alicia Banes
We met Max and Alicia at their father’s funeral. I didn’t really take to them during the “Celebrating Asa…” episode, especially Max, but all that changed in “Twigs…”. I grew attached to Alicia and mourned her passing. Max dazzled me and then made his way into my heart. He certainly had the gift, like his sister said. “An impressive witch.” The way he threw the Twig man out the window, forced Twig Tasha to reveal herself… I can only imagine what he will able to do with the old witch’s magic but I’m struck by the tragedy that has become of his life. Fun-loving young man now marked for Hell, embarking on this macabre new existence with a sister who’s now made out of twigs. This brings me to the parallels and themes I mentioned in the intro. They go as follow: dolls, siblings, mother and child, parents, and finally, mothers.
The dolls and sock-puppets
I identified that one theme being explored this season was brainwashing. I called Mary a Kool-Aid drinking cult member all the way back to “The Raid”, and then “Ladies Drink Free” showed us just how much brainwashing was involved in the BMOL operatives’ training.
The theme of loss of free will resurfaces when Dean describes what the nephilim did to Castiel: “It sock-puppeted him.” As one who hopes Lucifer Jr. is evil, I would love to see the brainwashing/sock-puppet theme play out as it is revealed in the end that Luci Jr. was only tricking his guardians to make sure he could come to life with all his evil, universe destroying powers intact.
“It’s her, mostly.”[/i]
The sock-puppet theme continues with the Twig dolls which by their nature are meant to obey their master. My heart breaks for Alicia and for what she leaves behind even if she didn’t consent to it: her heart placed in doll animated by her brother Max. I feel for her, the real girl, especially because she was opinionated, had a mind of her own and didn’t back down from a fight with her twin.
[i]“I don’t know what kind of thing you are, but you are not, my mom.”
I’m writing this fic in my head of Max driven mad by how docile Twig Alicia is, this sock-puppet version of his sister with none of Alicia’s fire, who goes vacant in the eyes and awaits his instructions when he inadvertently snaps his fingers and whom he can barely get to argue with him anymore.
Ketch also showed his inner puppeteer this episode when he asked Mary to be a good doll and just “play, nice.”