Maybe we’ll get an update on their progress next episode. Well, except that Cass and Crowley were off solving mysteries. That would have been the best truth bomb ever. Why Sam didn’t call Castiel for help is beyond me. Sam was as helpless as the viewer, watching as this family was killed “for their own good.” The climax is the most intense dinner scene in which I was definitely shouting at the TV. When the reveal occurs with Magda bleeding in the basement and Mommie Dearest emerging from the shadows, I got real chills. She wasn’t a demon or a witch or something with savage power – she was just an abusive kook. The Mother in this story provided such a great villain. Magda’s plight is an echo of the season 2 arc involving Yellow eyes and his psychic kid army, as evidenced in the THEN intro.

It also ties into the not-so-wholesome pseudo-cult family, who is visibly abusing their daughter Magda (once thought dead) because she has psychic abilities. It’s a raw reminder that maybe it really was best for Mary to leave – that she didn’t belong with them and they didn’t deserve a second chance with her. The idea of splitting families up for their own good visibly bothers Dean. The plot of this episode and the situation with Mary leaving tie together again when the boys visit CPS, where the first victim worked.

Supernatural who we are