The Thule has returned in the fifth episode of season 12 of Supernatural. As a reminder, we’ve seen them before. Think big golem, Nazi necromancers, and a young guy named Aaron (Adam Rose) who had not prepared for his legacy and hopefully you’ll be ready for this episode.
It begins as an older lady enters an antique shop in Ohio and speaks to the shop owner. He has the item she was looking for, a pocket watch with an eagle and swastika. Only the transaction isn’t easy as the shop owner tries to get more money than agreed and the woman is not too happy about it. Refusing the deal, things get worse when the shop owner begins to burn, eventually bursting into flames. Deciding to get her item and leave, she picks the watch up and suffers the same fate. In the shadows, a man has watched the entire event.
We next find Dean (Jensen Ackles) focused on his laptop. Sam (Jared Padalecki) walks in, offering to cook, but we are all left in shock as Dean is not interested in eating…even when offered pie! Sam figures it has to do with the Mom thing, only Dean seems cool with her leaving now. What Dean was actually so engrossed with is the story about the spontaneous combustion and he wants to go check out the situation, and Sam agrees.
By the time they show up at the antique shop, the cops have already come and gone, meaning they have to break in. They find the piles of ashes, yet no sulfur or EMF readings, leaving them to look for hex bags or information on a cursed item. On the computer, Sam finds information about the pocket watch on the store computer while Dean looks around, trying not to touch and break everything. He does find a hidden door though, leading to an office that’s practically a shrine to Nazis and Hitler. Sam joins Dean and explains that the watch belonged to a member of Hitler’s inner circle, reminding them of the Thule they’d already had a run-in with previously.
Next, we’re shown a couple entering an apartment while making out. That is until she begins to babble about her recent breakup among other topics, resulting in an awkward moment and causing her to flee to the bathroom. As she tries to regain her composure, a crash on the other side of the door gets her attention. The young woman cracks the door open just in time to see a couple of men in suits incinerate her date. Unluckily, the men spot her in the bathroom and she barely manages to lock the door before they get to her, climbing out the window and down the fire escape. The younger of the men seems about to shoot her while she runs down the alley, but the older man stops him, explaining that they need her alive. Besides, she cut herself on the windowsill, and the blood is all they need to find her.
Meanwhile, Dean and Sam are looking for information about the pocket watch. They call Aaron, who is in Berlin looking into the Thule. Aaron doesn’t know yet what they are up to, but he says it’s big. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know anything about the watch. Then the boys hear about the guy turned to ash, giving them another path to follow. At the apartment, they find out about the girl who survived, Ellie, and ask where she is. However, the Thule has found her first, taking off with her in the back of a police car as Dean and Sam walk out the door with the intent of asking her some questions too. Ellie (Allison Paige) is taken to a parking garage, where her abductor, the younger man from her apartment, calls the older man, his father. Dean and Sam had followed them though, pulling a gun on the guy, Christoph, and saving the girl.
As they tie Christoph (Keenan Tracey) up to a chair, they attempt to explain the situation with the Nazi necromancers to him. Not surprisingly, he’s a bit incredulous. At first, the Winchesters don’t have much more luck getting Christoph to tell them what the Thule wants with Ellie. Having a gun pressed to the back of your neck is pretty good incentive to spill your guts and he finally does talk. Christoph’s father, Nauhaus, was a high-ranking officer for Hitler and is one of the necromancers. He continues, telling a story about how his father stopped Hitler from committing suicide during the war, explaining that there was another way. The watch belonged to Nauhaus, and now contains Hitler’s soul so they could bring him back to life at some point in the future. That time is now, which is why they needed the watch back, and why they need Ellie. Hitler’s soul can only inhabit the body of someone that shares his blood, and the girl is his descendant.
Ellie feels there is no way that’s true, says her family can be tracked all the way back to the Mayflower. Christoph turns her world around when he reveals that she’s adopted, sharing they’ve watched her throughout her life, reiterating her entire life to prove his point. She runs out of the room, texting her mother, and from the response received, realizes Christoph was telling the truth. Understandably, she hates the knowledge, not wanting to be related to Hitler. While Sam tries to make her feel better, Dean comes in with a plan to have her play along so they can take out the Thule once and for all.
They don’t get the opportunity to come up with more of a plan, because the necromancers show up and a big fight begins while Ellie hides. A fight where it really looks like our boys are going to lose until the bad guys hear a message that makes them leave in a hurry. When Dean and Sam go to check on Ellie, she’s not there, having climbed out the window again. This time, her escape doesn’t go so well and before she gets very far, Nauhaus (Gil Darnell) nabs her.
The brothers try calling her with no luck, leaving her a voicemail that Nauhaus listens to and realizes how much Christoph revealed. He’s disgusted with his son and unhappy that the Winchesters know their plan. They argue, yet Nauhaus gets the final word, saying the world is weak, and there’s never been a better time for Hitler to come back.
When they arrive to their destination, a private hangar with a waiting plane, Ellie is removed from the car and strapped to a table. Walking away, Nauhaus tells his minion to get rid of his son. Christoph can’t believe he’s about to get killed, but gets lucky when the goon is distracted by a call, allowing him to fight back, get the gun and shoot the man.
Next, we see the boys at a restaurant having hit a wall trying to find anything on the traffic cams that would lead them to Ellie. They are both surprised when Christoph slides into their booth, telling them if they want to save Ellie, they have to protect him. He explains he killed one of his father’s men, yet they still suspect it could be a trap until the young man convinces them he’s telling the truth and will help them. So, they go to the hangar and handcuff Christoph to the steering wheel before preparing to go in. Dean so badly wants to take the grenade launcher and is heartbroken when Sam tells him no.
During this time, the Thule does find the body of their fellow necromancer, but completing his task is still more important to Nauhaus, so they begin their ritual to bring Hitler back. However, we find out that they aren’t putting Hitler into Ellie. Rather, they are putting her blood into Nauhaus, as in his eyes, he is more appropriate than a “weak American girl.” When he decides they have transferred enough blood, the pocket watch is placed on his chest. Metal legs emerge from the timepiece, spinning to create a swastika before embedding itself inside the man’s body.
Nauhaus opens his eyes again, only he is clearly no longer the man he was. Hitler has been brought back, only he’s not like we would expect. He is exuberant, hopping off the table and literally jumping for joy. The other necromancers are stunned by the way he is acting, although Hitler quickly shows that he can just as fast change to psychotic. He thanks Ellie, his great-great-grand-niece, before telling the other men to take the rest of her blood and give her to the dogs.
But the boys are on their way to save the day, right? Well, sort of. They are able to sneak into the hangar, then quickly get caught. They are taken to the overly-jubilant and easily angered Hitler, a bit thrown off as he’s not like they expected either. As he goes into a speech about how amazing cell phones are, Ellie manages to get free and shoot one of the men. Going quickly into action, Dean and Sam take care of the rest, except Hitler. First Dean punches him, knocking him to the ground, then gives us a much-needed one-liner of “Heil this,” before shooting him in the head. Sam comes over and tells him, “Dude, you killed Hitler.” To which Dean responds with his famous grin, “Awesome.”
As we see the boys leaving, Dean keeps repeating over and over that he killed Hitler. Of course, he’s proud. They do let Christoph out of the car, warning him to run because the rest of the Thule will be after him, then the boys take Ellie home where Sam makes sure she’s okay before returning to Dean. At least for now, all is right with the world as Dean makes it clear that his appetite is back. Leave it to Supernatural to make an episode revolving around bringing Hitler back from the dead somehow funny, in ways that a recap, unfortunately, can’t fully capture.
