Supernatural delivers another strong episode with “Thin Lizzie.” Written by Nancy Won and directed by Rashaad Ernesto Green, the episode, which on the surface is a Monster of the Week installment, entertains core questions of Supernatural’s universe: What makes a monster? Who is a monster? And is being a “monster” a matter of choice? Can someone choose a different path, a different role?
The episode opens in Fall River, MA, where a young couple is spending the night in Lizzie Borden’s old bedroom. They make a reference to the Ghostfacers being unable to capture the inn’s “rage vibe,” which gives me hope that Zeddmore and Spangler have reunited since their heartbreaking split (9×16). This couple, however, gets more than they paid for; the creepy music, flickering lights, and creaking doors are trumped by a robed figure in black, who kills both with an ax. Is Lizzie roaming the halls of her ancestral home once more?
The scene post-title card takes place in the bunker. Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) is researching when his older brother Dean (Jensen Ackles) asks about any leads on the Darkness. Sam’s learned that eating rabid possum meat can lead to aggressive outbursts, but he’s most excited about a double murder at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum. He launches into a detailed explanation of Borden and her crimes, which I realize is exposition for the audience, but it seems odd considering there’s no way Dean doesn’t know this story.
Dean’s skeptical that the murders have anything to do with the supernatural and pins Sam’s interests on his “freaky fetish for serial killers.” Sam argues that they have no info on Amara so should check it out. Dean asks about Castiel (Misha Collins), but the angel is “knee deep in binge-watching The Wire – just started season two.” Dean agrees, “Oh, yeah. He’s not coming out anytime soon.” So far, season eleven has done a great job maintaining continuity with Castiel and offering, when needed, mentions and rationales for his absence(s). While it’s not entirely clear how long the Winchesters and Castiel have been in the bunker, assuming Dean made the repairs, there’s been enough time to get Baby in tip-top shape.
In Fall River, Dean and Sam are at the rather creeptastic B&B interviewing the desk clerk, who runs the place with his mother. After the mother chastises her son, Dean commiserates, “Working with family can be tough.” The clerk agrees, noting it’s been “twenty years.” Despite Dean’s empathy, the clerk won’t answer questions unless they rent a room. The Winchesters do learn that the victims are local kids, and the guy was a descendant of the original Borden family.
Lizzie’s room and its decorating scheme horrify Dean: “I don’t know where to put my eyes. Think I’m going to throw up.” Sam already has the EMF meter out and is excitedly investigating. Between the doilies, the single bed, and the French lavender toilet water, Dean’s done and declares that he’s leaving because “I got grandma all over me.”
Downstairs, Dean wanders from room to room; the clerk and his mother aren’t seen. The lights flicker, and Dean looks around the room suspiciously before pulling up a chair so that he can reach the fixtures. Outside, a camera flash goes off. Dean peeks out and sees a guy in the bushes. He raps the window, scaring the photographer off.
Upstairs, Sam’s EMF meter leads him to the attic and straight to what we learn is a homemade EMF generator. When he turns it off, the signal’s gone, too. Sam shares what he found with Dean, who only has more bad news: The lights are wired to timers, and there’s a sound system in the walls. “The whole place is a hoax,” Dean says. Sam protests that they still don’t know how the couple got axed, but Dean’s had enough of the B&B for now: “Why don’t we Sherlock that over a beer and a lobster roll…I gotta get out of this doily coffin.”
While the Winchesters are gone, the clerk’s mother wanders through the downstairs, getting ready for bed. The ax that had been framed and hanging on the wall is missing, but she doesn’t notice that. The mother enters her bedroom, and someone attacks, splattering blood across the bed.
Presumably post-beer and lobster roll, Dean and Sam return to find a crime scene and insert themselves into the investigation. The desk clerk questions, “You weren’t FBI before,” and Sam claims that they were undercover. While Sam’s talking with the clerk and detective, Dean’s in the bedroom, where the body is. He surreptitiously checks his EMF meter, but there’s no signal.
Dean tells the detective about the photographer in the bushes, but the officer brushes it off. Len (Jared Gertner) is a “total teddybear…obsessed with ghosts but harmless.” The Winchesters suit up and head out to interview Len, but the detective calls while they’re en route – there’s been another ax murder in the next county. Sam says he’ll take the crime scene while Dean talks with Len. (I assume Dean drops him off and then travels back to Len’s?)
At the new murder scene, a man has been axed in his driveway. The babysitter, Sydney (Tess Atkins), is inside with the victim’s son, Jordie. Sydney talks with Sam until the victim’s wife, Dawn, arrives and puts an end to the investigating and throws Sam out. Her reaction makes Sam suspicious.
Dean discovers that Len is a “super fan and curator” of Lizzie Borden memorabilia. Len claims that he was trying to get a picture of Lizzie’s ghost, and he shows Dean the camera, the same kind that Victorians used for spirit photography. He’s seen a wispy gray shadow before and wonders if maybe he should go “high def.” Dean learns that Len once lived in the inn’s basement for several weeks without permission. His adoration got him a restraining order and a gag order to not talk about the restraining order.
While Len’s shutting down an online discussion group he was supposed to lead, Dean wanders around the man’s living room. He spots a sketch of the Mark of Cain and demands to know where Len saw the symbol. Len lies, saying he saw it on a paranormal website, but Dean calls him out. Len admits he was outside the B&B taking photographs when he saw a young girl (Yasmeene Ball), who wanted “to see where Lizzie axed her folks.” Via flashback, we see Len launch into the historical details before stopping to ask, “How old are you?” The girl’s sympathetic to Lizzie because “her parents sucked.” When Len defends Lizzie, arguing about other suspects, the girl assures him that “Lizzie definitely hacked them.” Back to the present, Len says, “I ditched her quick after that.”
Len explains that the Mark was on the girl’s shoulder – “Amara, that’s what she said her name was.” Dean’s alarmed, and Len realizes that he knows her. Dean asks about her age, and Len asks who she is. Dean claims she’s a runaway, and Len says he’s desperate to find her. Again, we see a flashback that shows why Len is desperate: As he was leaving, Amara grabbed him and sucked something out of him. “I don’t know what the girl did to me, but I haven’t been right since. I can’t eat or sleep. I don’t dream. And all the things I used to love… they leave me cold.”
Dean asks about Len’s exclamations of “living the bliss” and being a “superfan,” but Len says he’s “just playing the part of what I used to be. You know, fake it till you make it – or feel it.” Len admits he was at the B&B looking for Amara. “I want her to put me back… I’ve always been odd, quirky. But I had a life – friends… but I feel like I’m acting. Going through the motions. I’m like a robot puppet man.” Outside Len’s home, Dean calls Sam to fill him in. Dean (and the viewing audience) knows what Len doesn’t yet realize: Amara sucked out his soul.
Sam arrives at Len’s, and he asks, “So Amara’s growing like a radioactive weed?” Dean clarifies that it’s “by stuffing her face with souls.” Sam questions if her power’s growing too and what that might mean, but Dean says they need to focus on “what they can deal with.” Len’s not the ax murderer, so Dean says, “We can’t kill him because he hasn’t done anything yet.” Sam side-eyes his brother. “We don’t want to kill him. We want to save people, remember.” Dean snaps his fingers and says rather flippantly, “Right. Your new rules.” Sam doesn’t look thrilled with Dean’s attitude, but his brother then asks a really important question that shifts the conversation: Why hasn’t Len killed anybody?
Sam suggests that maybe not everyone turns into a killer just because they’ve lost their soul. Dean offers that maybe Len just hasn’t had the chance yet. Dean says that they’ll have to keep an eye on Len and that Sam gets to give him the news about his soul. “Why do I have to do it?,” Sam asks. “…You speak the language. He doesn’t even know he’s been hovered yet,” Dean answers. Sam protests that there’s no way to sensitively tell someone they’ve lost their soul, and Dean finally acknowledges that Len “probably couldn’t handle the truth; he’s a little fragile right now.” They’ll just have to babysit “a thirty year old man.” Sam shares that Len may not be Amara’s only victim: He suspects that Dawn’s cold reaction is because her soul is missing, too.
The next day, the Winchesters visit Dawn’s, but no one’s home. Sam calls Sydney and uses his “Fed voice” to persuade her to share that Dawn might be at Nate’s, a “special friend.” When Dean pulls up outside of Nate’s, Len’s in the backseat, rambling on about 
how, since his encounter with Amara, he doesn’t like kitten videos any more or chicken and waffles, among other things. Dean’s expressions in this scene are priceless, and he mouths at Sam, “Tell him.” Len confesses, “I feel weird…like something’s hatching inside of me – something dark, with wings.” Dean gives Sam a pointed look, and Len realizes that the Winchesters know what’s wrong. Dean handcuffs Len to the car handle and breaks the news: “You don’t have a soul. Amara sucked it out.” Sam calls Dean on his bluntness, but Dean’s beyond caring. Len wants to know how to get his soul back. Sam’s news is less than encouraging: “Generally, you don’t.” Still, Len acknowledges, “It feels good to finally know.”
No one answers when the Winchesters knock at Nate’s door, but through the window, Dean can see signs of a struggle. Dawn’s car is there, so Dean breaks in. The brothers split up to search the house. Dean heads into the basement, where he discovers two bodies – Dawn and Nate. He turns to leave, but someone knocks him unconscious. Upstairs, Sam finds Jordie bound and gagged in a closet. Someone comes up from behind; Sam turns, and it’s Sidney. She has a gun trained on him.
Dean comes to in the basement; Sam’s bound in a chair, and both are at Sidney’s mercy. She’s ecstatic to have “bagged both of you guys” and says, “You two are an offering to my new friend.” It turns out that Sidney met Amara outside a bar; the babysitter had been dumped and gotten “sloshed.” When Sidney realizes Amara’s alone, she asks about the girl’s parents. Amara says, “I found this place on my own. I like dark places.” Sidney puts her coat around Amara’s shoulders, and the girl says she’ll help Sidney. She takes Sidney’s hands, rubs them, and Sidney laughs. “How did you do that? I feel like ecstasy orgasm chocolate cake. You’re an angel,” Sidney says. Amara’s offended: “Do I look like a whiny winged suck up?” Sidney looks confused; “What are you?” Amara sucks out Sidney’s soul.
Unlike Len, Sidney doesn’t mind. Being with Amara was “bliss… no hurting, no sadness, no memories.” Her childhood was traumatic, but “Amara took away the pain. She lightened something in me.” Dean points out, “Except now you’re an ax murderer.” Sidney disagrees, “I’m free.” Dean keeps Sidney talking while Sam works free of his wrist restraints. Sidney believes, “When you can do whatever you want, you don’t have to get caught, and then you can really fly.” She killed the couple because the guy had dumped her; the B&B’s owner had cheated her of pay; and Jordie’s parents weren’t ideal. Sidney believes that she “saved Jordy, and [she’s] going to take better care of him than they ever did.”
Dean asks what she means by “an offering.” Sidney says that Amara can hear her prayers, that she’s close by. Dean challenges her, “Bring her on out. We’ve been hunting that bitch for weeks.” This line makes me cringe, honestly; Amara may be supernatural, but she’s in the form of a child. Sam breaks free and grabs a tool as a weapon. Sidney fires, but barely misses. Suddenly, she falls.
Len exclaims, “Holy crap. I just did that.” He’s holding the ax that he used to kill Sidney. Sam carefully retrieves the ax from the shocked Len. Bleeding out on the floor, Sidney murmurs, “The Darkness is coming. It’s so peaceful – It’s coming for all of us.” Then, she dies.
Outside Nate’s house, Jordie sits alone on the porch stairs. Sam comes out and sits beside him. “You have any family you could stay with?,” Sam asks. Jordie doesn’t answer. Sam shares that he lost his mom and that his dad wasn’t around much. “I realize that’s nowhere close to what you’ve lost, but you’re going to survive this. People are going to help you.” Though this is a sad moment, I appreciate its inclusion. All too often, we don’t see what happens after the monster is destroyed, and the case declared closed.
Inside the house, Len tells Dean that he escaped the cuffs by ripping his thumb off. “You saved us, Len,” Dean acknowledges. But Len wasn’t trying to save the Winchesters: “I wanted to see if I could do it, and it hurt….but it didn’t wig me out at all. I picked up my thumb like it was a mini-hotdog.” Dean eyes Len: “I’m not gonna lie. That’s worrisome.” Len says his brain said he should help the brothers, but he “didn’t really feel anything – for you or her.”
Len asks, “What kind of person can murder and feel nothing?” Dean’s reactions here are interesting, especially considering his own rather flippant remarks about killing Len the night before. Now, he says, “Whatever darkness you have inside you, if there is a shred of conscience, then there might be hope.” Len cites Sam’s comments about soul loss being permanent; “I know for sure now. If I’m not stopped, there will be another kill. I can feel it, like a bubble rising up.” Dean looks alarmed and asks what he wants to do, and Len says that Dean can kill him. Dean answers, “No. I don’t want to do that.” Len decides, “There’s only one thing. I’m going to turn myself in….I’ll confess to all the murders. That way I can’t get out.” Dean appears impressed with the plan: “There’s not too many soulless killers that would give themselves up.” Len says, “I remember what it’s like to do the right thing. So I’m going through the motions for as long as I can.” Dean looks thoughtful.
Len’s such a wonderfully developed character, and he gives this episode so much heart – which is kind of ironic considering what Amara did to him. He makes the choice to not play the role of a monster for as long as he can, and I love how many questions this raises about what it means to be “monster.” I’m also very curious to see how the idea of “going through the motions” comes up again in relation to the season’s larger storylines. The idea has already been repeated too many times to be inconsequential, and Len directly says the phrase multiple times. Are Sam, Dean, Castiel, or even Crowley already “faking it till they make it”? By season’s end, what will “going through the motions” apply to? What role(s) will everyone be playing?
The episode’s final scene takes place by a dock, where the Winchesters are leaning against Baby’s hood while eating and talking. Dean’s still surprised that Len turned himself in, but Sam says that it “kind of makes sense…people having different reactions to losing their souls. I did. Everyone’s got their own history, right?” Dean notes, “Len loses his heart; Sidney loses her head; what are we looking for next? The cowardly lion?” Wizard of Oz references always seem significant, and since Charlie’s Oz adventure, they seem especially so. The brothers share a long quiet moment here, and their expressions seem rather sad to me.
Sam says, “You know, I get this, like, pit in my stomach, every time I think of her.” Dean looks over at him, and on first watch, I truly expected Sam to mention Charlie here. But Sam’s talking about Amara. “…We only know the tip of what she is, what she does to people. You know, Len was freaked out by her, but Sydney… couldn’t get enough…What was it like for you? Did you feel like that with Amara?” Dean says no. “It was quiet…till she started hatching killers and rallying monsters to raise armies.” This answer’s interesting – is Dean speaking specifically about his connection with Amara? That it’s gone from quiet to not-quiet? I’m really surprised that Sam doesn’t follow up with more questions.
Instead, Sam suggests that they’ll have to “follow the bodies” to find Amara. Dean offers, “We could follow the crazy you’ve been seeing. Look, at the rate Amara’s growing, sucking souls and getting stronger – it might not be that hard to find.” He tells Sam to “Come on.” Since lunch is over, the guys get into the Impala and leave.
As Dean pulls away, he looks back toward the trees before fixing his attention the road. The camera lingers, so it’s not a total surprise when Amara steps out. She watches the Impala and smiles: “Bye, Dean. I’ll see you soon.” Did Dean know she was hiding? Can he sense her presence? Or is his look towards the trees simply routine? What exactly is the connection between Amara and Dean?
“Thin Lizzie” is a fun episode that blends myth arc and MOTW well; it’s nicely executed and suspenseful, and I hope that every MOTW this season shows as much care for continuity and narrative cohesion. Next week’s “Our Little World” features Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Crowley, so we’ll see how it fares. Supernatural airs Wednesdays at 9 pm on CW Network.