When we last saw Rowena on SUPERNATURAL, she had cured Castiel from the attack dog spell she had put on him at the end of season 10. She was also still in possession of the Book of the Damned and had escaped the Winchesters. She’ll be making a return appearance in the mid-season finale this week and during a visit to the SUPERNATURAL set in Vancouver, Ruth Connell spoke to journalists about Rowena’s experience with the coven, the Winchesters and her thoughts on the Darkness.

The Mega Coven. “I keep getting people offering to be recruits for the mega coven on Twitter, so I’m going to keep running with that,” Ruth told us with a laugh when asked about Rowena’s failed attempt to create a Mega Coven to rival the Grand Coven (which had revoked her membership many years ago). But will Rowena continue to pursue that path? “I think the next time you see [Rowena], it’s more Winchester-oriented. Let’s just say that.”

Why does Rowena Allow the Winchesters to Live? “I think she secretly thinks they’re handsome,” Ruth joked. “Or maybe that’s just me. The thing is, at the end of last season Rowena has everything. She has the Book of the Damned, she has the codex, she has the codebreaker. And it’s like ‘what do you do with that power’? I think that’s kind of touching is you still see her going down the old route she was always doing. It’s all about the coven. And in the episode we just filmed [episodes 11.09 and 11.10], you get a bit more of the backstory. You hear more about the human element to this and [she’s got all this power, but she’s not killing the Winchesters and she can’t let go of the coven idea].”

Related: Jared Padalecki & Jensen Ackles tease the mid-season finale

What’s Rowena’s Opinion of The Darkness? When we saw Rowena in “The Bad Seed”, she questioned what evil force Dean had unleashed on the world and got a sense of what the Darkness was by reading him. “I’m like everyone else, trying to work out [what this force is] as I go. Personally, my take on it is that evil maybe finds other evil intriguing [and maybe Rowena is thinking] ‘how can I use this for my own benefit?’ So I’m slightly intrigued.” So is Rowena not as fearful as others about the Darkness? “She’s maybe not as fearful as she should be. You’ll see if it comes to bite her in the ass later.”

Will Mother and Son Reunite Soon? “I have just been shooting with Mark Sheppard. You’ll see why we’re in each other’s way again.”

Rowena’s Thoughts on Castiel. Rowena didn’t have that much interaction with Cas in “The Bad Seed”, but Ruth explained that at the end of last season Rowena was “kind of fascinated by him, like in the way that you want to pull a dragonfly’s wings off. If you’re that kind of kid. I leave him f****d up at the end. I think she’s fascinated in that way by him, but not enough to let him get in her own way.” She did hint that “Misha and I just had the funnest scene I think it’s possible to have. I wish I could say [more]. I’m going to put 50 pence on the fact that it’s in the teaser.”

A Group Meeting. “We’ve just done the first scene where all five of us were together,” Ruth said, hinting that a big group scene is coming in the January premiere.

Watch the interview with Ruth below and don’t miss the mid-season finale of SUPERNATURAL on December 9 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.