Mary, John, Latika, and Carlos continue their search for the missing Samuel Winchester. Following a lead, the crew goes undercover at a commune to investigate a missing member. Check out our recap below to see what went down in this week’s episode, “Teach Your Children Well.”
Following Samuel’s Path
Following in Samuel’s footsteps to Savannah, Georgia (in more ways than one for Mary), the crew finds a warehouse where several dead zombies are found. Of course, not all of them were taken out so they must kill a few themselves when Latika realizes the box is no longer working. Even worse, the files on the Akrida are nowhere to be found. Mary finds an article on a body and is convinced this is a clue left by Samuel for her. She takes charge (much to the annoyance of the others) demanding they investigate the missing college student named Barry while Ada returns to find a way to repair the broken box.
Teach Your Children Well
When John turns up at the garage covered in blood, Millie is upset that he didn’t let her know where he was for over a week. He’s annoyed that she’s worrying so much and feels like she’s trying to keep him from pursuing this new thing that he (so far) loves to do. They have a bit of a fight over Mary’s broken car at the garage. John tells Millie it’s a friend’s car that he’s going to fix, jumps in the van, and the crew race off to Topeka. Of course, that’s not before everyone overhears Millie telling John that when the phone finally did ring it was Betty on the line. A tidbit of information that gets Carlos, Latika, and Mary very curious.
Understanding the worry plaguing Millie, Ada stops by the shop with the address of the motel he and the crew are staying at. “Peace of mind” she calls it before asking Millie if she can have a sprig of the vine growing on the garage. Millie agrees, it’s something Henry planted though she never knew why. Ada informs her that it’s jasmine, a protection plant.
Age of Aquarius
Mary and John posing Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood, college friends of Barry’s, question the father. The father informs them they had a fight and Barry ran off to join a commune where Mia saw him get taken by some kind of monster. Upon returning to the hotel room, Mary catches everyone up and Carlos is delighted at having to go undercover into the commune. He breaks out in a fantastic rendition of “Aquarius” with Latika joining in as they all prepare to head into the commune.
In the commune, Mary again takes charge and instructs Carlos and Latika to find Mia, the girl who was with Barry before he disappeared while she and John question the leader. Mia tells them it was probably just the drugs but she swore Barry said he was seeing his father before he disappeared. However she saw something creepy, but Clyde says he ran off to California. Clyde tells Mary and John the same story as he welcomes them to the community. Mary notes the symbol on his necklace and they discover it’s one of transformation. Mary suspects he is a shapeshifter though they have to discover what kind (there are dozens according to Latika.)
Clyde and another member walk through the woods together when Clyde suddenly spots Sister Bernadette, the person from his orphanage he wants to break free of. Of course, the girl sees something very different and screams as it takes Clyde.
She takes them to the spot where a green substance is all over a nearby tree and a huge ring of flowers and vines is in the spot Clyde was taken. Mary is instantly sure they are facing a mimic though Latika notices that the substance is sap, not blood. Mary isn’t having it and argues with Carlos about not having any copper weapons, the one thing that kills a mimic. John volunteers that the motel had copper pipes they could use, so Mary again takes charge and tells John to drive back and retrieve the pipes.
While John is away, Carlos confronts Mary about her trying to take charge the way Samuel always did. He never listens to Mary and he questions how that makes her feel. He encourages her to become a better leader and quit putting Samuel on a pedestal.
Latika Follows Her Instincts
When Latika and Mary clash over the identification of the monster they are hunting, Lata takes a flower from the sight and calls Ada for help identifying it. It’s a rare flower from Columbia. That and the green sap point her to the right lore. They are hunting La Tunda, once a real woman who was a controlling mother who kept her children trapped in the woods. They tried to escape by hobbling her but she caught them and used their remains to feed her flower garden (hence the purple flowers) which were imbued with dark magic and caused them to crave blood. She was turned into a monster so the flowers would always be fed, so now she punishes disobedient children by feeding on them slowly and painfully over months.
Disobedient Children
Both Barry and Clyde talked about facing down the person who hurt them (Barry’s father and Sister Bernadette for Clyde) which painted them as a target for La Tunda. Upon hearing their disobedience she marked them for death and lured them in by posing as their loved one. Of course, La Tunda was nearby when John mentioned his fight with Millie, and La Tunda marks him as her next target.
John breaks apart the pipes at the motel (I hate to know what that room bill will be) when he hears a knock at the door. He opens it to find Millie. Rather than question her extremely stoic look, he launches into a defensive speech asking her to trust him. It’s when she asks about Mary and Samuel that John realizes this isn’t Millie, but the monster they are hunting. The copper pipe does no good, and La Tunda takes him to her layer.
The stress of finding John gone forces Mary to apologize to Carlos and Latika for being pushy with them, she was just so sure they’d find Samuel. Thankfully, the crew are able to find her layer and arrive to find John breaking free to save Barry and Clyde. Only magic as strong as La Tunda can kill her, so Mary tells John to go for her leg. It breaks off and Mary stabs her through the heart with it.
Tea Time
Ada returns to the Men of Letters bunker where she discovers a hidden apothecary behind a bookshelf. There she makes a potion to help her tap into her subconscious memories of the demon who possessed her. She’s able to do automatic write everything she can recall about it in the hopes of being able to fix the box. When the team returns she shows them the apothecary and explains the demon who possessed her is dead. However, the demon that attacked them is still alive so if they can track it down they might be able to get answers about the box, the Akrida, and Samuel.
Closing Terror
The episode closes with a camera split between the crew eating pizza together, Millie closing up the box of Henry’s things, and a mysterious figure out in the woods. It finds the spot where La Tunda was killed and captures her essence (or perhaps magic) into a bottle. As the camera zooms out above the woods we see the figure walking as dozens and dozens of many-legged monsters follow.
The Winchesters airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on The CW. You can find our other coverage of the show here. Be sure to check out On The Road Again, Nerds & Beyond’s podcast covering all things The Winchesters! Additionally, give our recent interview with Jensen and Danneel Ackles, Robbie Thompson, Drake Rodger, and Meg Donnelly from New York Comic Con a read!
