SPN Rewatch Season 14
Rewatch of Supernatural 2022
Season 14
Prior to my rewatch, the main thing I remembered about season 14 was the Ma’lak box. Turns out there wasn’t a lot more to remember…
288. Stranger in a Strange Land (14.01)-W: Dabb/D: Wright
Michael has possessed Dean for 3 weeks
So Michael’s question to everyone is ‘What do you want?’-he wants a ‘better world’
Bunker is full of people
Ketch is in London, Cas in Detroit
Sam not resting, Mary tries to call him on it
Bobby training Jack to fight
Cas gets beat up by demon mob-in the past Cas could tell when demons were in the vicinity-so writer dumbed him down/forgot he had this ability in order to write dramatic whump scene…sigh
Sister Jo is back and she is more afraid of Michael than she was of Lucifer, though she still snarks
Michael says Jo wants love which is very human and very disappointing-he has decided the angels in this world are not worth saving
Sam is trying to carry everyone including Jack…and Nick?!?
WHY DO WE HAVE NICK??? I was so happy to be rid of Lucifer!
So bunker is full of people at start of episode but when it’s time to rescue Cas the only new hunters around are Jack and Maggie??? Who has to be told to ‘stab ‘em with the pointy end’ when the fight starts???
Mary tries to give Sam the ‘positive attitude’ pep talk and he shoots her down
Demon was asked by someone ‘what did he want’ so Michael must have talked to him…and demon realized he wants ‘everything’
Demon wants ‘Crowley deal’-Sam: ‘…you’re no Crowley’
Hunters make comeback from looking like they are losing the fight
Badass Sam: ‘There will be no new King of Hell. Not today. Not ever. And if anybody wants the job, you can come through me. Understood?’
Ketch looking for another egg like one that took out Lucifer
AU Bobby and Mary flirt-eww
Cas returns to bunker with bloody face-why didn’t he fix himself?
Jack having major crisis about losing powers
Sister Jo calls Sam to tell him where Michael is
Michael to vampire: ‘…Your want is pure and simple and clean and that’s why you are worth saving…because you just want to eat’
So the only thing that happens in this episode is we see Michael is very bad and there is a big fight.
289. Gods and Monsters (14.02)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Speight
Interesting that Michael using his own grace to experiment when in the AU world he was dead set against using any of it for the spell to open the rift…
Cas stays with Nick since Michael would sense his presence
Cas does not like Nick
Once again all the new hunters have disappeared-only Bobby and Mary around
Cas reminds Nick that his family was murdered which sets Nick off on a need to find the killer
Cas: ‘What happened to Jimmy Novak is my greatest regret’-really???
Dean surfaces for 20 seconds…
Michael makes deal with werewolf leader because he appreciates the purity of monsters’ purpose
Jack visits Kelly Kline’s parents-his grandparents-who know that Kelly was pregnant but she’s been ‘out of touch’-very poignant scene
Michael’s comment that he set a trap was a clue to viewers about retaking Dean later but we were supposed to think it was just about the monsters waiting in the church
Jack stuns Cas: ‘Dean doesn't matter. You're all so focused on trying to save Dean…but if he can't be saved, if it comes down to him or Michael... Michael has to be stopped…if…that means that Dean has to die, then...Do you think he'd want it any other way?’ Jack’s not wrong about what Dean would say…
Nick goes psycho on neighbor-why is he back in the story???
Dean is suddenly back?? Dean: ‘He just left’-Sam: ‘Why?’-Dean ‘I don’t know’
Another episode where nothing happens except setting the stage for future episodes.
290. The Scar (14.03)-W: Berens/D: Singer
We start with Dean harassing Sam about the beard: ‘…it's like a nightmare. I mean, I can't eat. I can't sleep. It's always just there, watching’-except Dean has only been subjected to it for the length of the car ride back from Duluth MN-he’s still wearing the Michael clothes so they drove straight through-Dean’s complaint doesn’t make sense, should have complained about looking at it on the car ride
Dean says his time with Michael is a blank
Suddenly the bunker is full of AU hunters again!
Dean has new scar, wants Cas to find out why
Hi Jody
Hunter Jules brings witch’s victim to bunker, Cas will stay to help with her
Sam says Dean has been gone for weeks
Sam needs Dean to talk but Dean won’t
Sam casually drops name of last Sioux Falls serial killer which lines up with his serial killer fixation
Start going through woods at night, suddenly it’s day
Upgraded vamps’ bodies didn’t react to silver or dead man’s blood when Jody tested headless corpses
Sam, Dean, and Jody are freaked out by AU Kaia
Witch victim’s story parallels Jack-she ran away, he is planning to
Convenient that victim’s face doesn’t age…
Jody confirms Claire was in love with Kaia
Dean punches AU Kaia in face, knocks her out cold
Dean will do whatever it takes to get the spear
Witch’s victim dies but Jack figures out the witch’s necklace held the spell and breaks it
Dean is off the rails, using threats, violence to make AU Kaia give him the spear-AU Kaia: ‘You’re no different than him (Michael)’-Dean: ‘I am nothing like him’-the flashback to Dean threatening Kaia with gun last season which was very out of character is pays off now-AU Kaia: ‘Yeah you are…I know where it comes from, your anger…you’re scared and you’re weak’
When attacked by vampires Badass Dean shoots AU Kaia’s chair leg so she can get free
She comes back and rescues them
And it’s night again when they get back to their cars
Badass Jody gets broken arm and is going to drive herself to hospital
Jody shows her honest fear over losing another of her girls
Now Jack is coughing up blood…
Once again Dean takes all the blame for something out of his control: ‘I don’t remember most of what Michael did with me because I was under water. Drowning. And that I remember. I felt every second of it - clawing, fighting for air. I thought I could make it out but I couldn’t: I wasn’t strong enough. And now he’s gone: he’s out there putting an army of monsters together. He’s hurting people. That’s all on me, man. I said yes. It’s my fault’
Like last season the first 3 episodes need to be viewed together because nothing much happens in them individually, it’s all setting the stage for the next part of the season: Jack’s struggle with losing his powers and hint that he is sick; Dean feeling guilty over Michael; Michael creating a monster army; psycho Nick on the loose. Thing is, it worked last season because Jack was intriguing and we saw Sam and Dean struggling to deal with him. Now Jack is sad sack character, Michael’s smugness is annoying, why is Nick back? and where’s the interaction between Sam and Dean?
291. Mint Condition (14.04)-W: Perez/D: Kaderli
Then: Ghost possession
Thundercats 15 inch Panthro figure (my kids watched Thundercats!)
Stuart is over-the-top obsessive
Big deal that Sam shaved
Hatchet Man movie clips throughout episode-same ones repeated
Hellhazer movie references as well (franchise still going from season 2!)
Dean has been holed up in his room for a week-bunker still full of AU hunters
Sam knows he can get Dean moving by mentioning the Panthro figure
It’s Halloween
Boys wearing short sleeves white shirts and ties, later Dean adds bizarre plaid sport coat
Samantha is very forgiving of Stuart’s shortcomings
Dean bonds with nerd kid Dirk over horror movies
Dean: ‘I like to watch movies where I know the bad guy’s gonna lose’
Dean tells Dirk monsters are real
Dean takes fire ax from wall when going after ghost
Dirk saves Stuart’s mom by directing ghost toward himself
Security guards watching Hatchet Man movie while actual chase going on in hospital (very funny)
When smart Sam makes explosive to get out of the store-Samantha: ‘Where did you learn how to do this?’-Sam: ‘I had a messed up childhood’
Samantha figures out the ghost is using the key chain to travel
Dirk saves Dean
Samantha tosses Sam bottle of ethyl alcohol to ignite keychain
Boys drive home in clothes worn during the case
Dean thanks Sam for ‘getting him out of his funk’
Sam tries again to convince Dean he’s not at fault: ‘You said yes for me, for Jack, for your family. You did the right thing. What happened after, just because Michael was wearing your face doesn’t mean any of this is on you. I don’t blame you, no one blames you. You’ve got to try and stop blaming yourself’-Dean: ‘I’m never going to get over it, okay?’
Sam explains he hates Halloween because in 6th grade in Bismarck he threw up at a Halloween party on the girl he had a crush on-Somehow I’d think he’d hate Halloween because of what happened to Jess right after but what do I know?
Finally a case episode! While the idea could have been ridiculous the writer made it work by giving Samantha and Dirk real personalities and the plot worked logically.
292. Nightmare Logic (14.05)-W: Glynn/D: Grant
Then: Maggie’s backstory
Why on earth are they letting Maggie hunt? Why didn’t Sam give her a chance to go to school, have a ‘normal’ life since she is just a kid?!?
Crowded bunker again
Mary and Bobby hunting in Texas
All the hunters now have body cameras (which are only referenced in this episode)
Bobby and Mary are already working to find missing Maggie when Sam and Dean show up
Bobby chews out Sam for letting Maggie go on her first hunt
Mary having issues with Bobby: ‘Bobby’s not open like your dad’-Sam: ‘Wait, like my dad?’
Bobby and Dean pair off, Bobby runs off after figure
Dean comes in and starts to tell Sam and Mary about what he found and old man’s daughter Sasha has already been told about monsters by Sam and Mary-conversation between hunters in front of lay people is hysterical
Mary goes off alone looking for Bobby-surprised the boys let her, splitting up is always so wise
Sasha: ‘…my father's dying, and there's a strange man sharpening a machete to presumably kill monsters with in my living room. Thank God for benzos’
Dean advises her to let go of the past-Sasha: ‘Is that what you do?’-Dean: ‘I try every single day’
Figure Bobby is chasing is his son Daniel who died in AU world
Dean figures out Neil is djinn responsible for ‘monsters’
Neil thought Dean was Michael testing him
Upgraded djinn can read minds with one touch and bring nightmares into this world
When djinn tries to see Dean’s nightmares he falters
Apparently if you don’t have a knife dipped in lamb’s blood you can just bludgeon a djinn to death
Maggie gets hero’s welcome from full bunker
When Bobby pulled out knife in his shoulder pinning him to the tree he pulls it at an angle upwards which should have caused a lot more damage than the little bandaging we see which doesn’t even look like it’s where he was stabbed
Bobby and Mary going to take a few weeks off at Donna’s cabin
Dean calls Garth to warn about upgraded monsters, other hunters being called too
Dean: ‘I've been trying to -- not forget, but to move on from what I -- from what we -- from what he did. And…I was -- I was starting to feel like myself again. Almost’
Sam gives Dean the patented Winchester brother pep talk that they will figure it (Michael problem) out
Other than Maggie being involved and the weird Bobby/son bit, this was a decent episode-the case was novel and there was humor built into the situation that worked very well
293. Optimism (14.06)-W: Yockey/D: Speight
BeeGees music for poor guy who gets offed in teaser
Sam and AU Charlie on stakeout-awkward-Sam keeps referencing their Charlie
Dean and Jack are only people in bunker-where did everyone else go?
Jack finds case and convinces Dean to take him with
Dean suit
AU Charlie was a programmer at Richard Roman Enterprises until society fell apart with the apocalypse and her partner was killed
Jack and Dean set up plan to check out Harper, the girl whose bad luck seems to kill any guy interested in her-Dean comes in as aggressive FBI agent and Jack makes him leave Harper alone-Jack calls him an ‘old man’ during their fake argument
Jack uses ‘Christo’ on Harper-first time it’s been used since episode 1.04 LOL
AU Charlie figures the monster is a musca: a man/fly that has gone killer because he is unmated; she says this is her last case
Jack and Harper are adorable
Totally unexpected twist with Harper responsible for creating her zombie boyfriend and they kill rivals for fun
Musca monster one of the best visuals-really scary
Sam tries to talk AU Charlie into staying while there is a montage of the musca’s family mourning him-odd juxtaposition
Harper gets away, writes Jack they she will be looking for him (never resolved loose end)
Dean lectures Jack: ‘You're gonna make mistakes. Hell, I make them all the time. But it's how you handle yourself once you've made those mistakes. And you learn from them’-Jack: And how to not beat yourself up over them?’
And Jack passes out…
The Dean and Jack part of this episode was a winner-funny and unexpected. The Sam and Charlie half was meh-a blatant attempt to make fandom feel something for another of the AU characters as an apology for killing off the original. Side note: I don’t consider the deleted scenes pertinent for reviews, however the deleted scene for this episode actually followed up on a comment made previously about AU Charlie and Rowena going on a road trip-Sam asks how that trip went and Charlie says ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ so it obviously happened.
294. Unhuman Nature (14.07)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Showalter
Nick goes psycho, justifies his actions like Lucifer did
Dean’s behavior in ER is very off, like he doesn’t know the drill for going to an ER
Sam called Rowena saying Dean is sick because he didn’t think she’d come for Lucifer’s kid-Rowena has never met Jack
Jack wins Rowena over by understanding why she wouldn’t want to help him
Dean’s vision gets blurry periodically-huh?
Stupid girl in alley being friendly to Nick…
Dean gets Jack’s desire to experience life, takes him out of the bunker to have fun
Dean lets Jack drive Baby!!! Jack: ‘It’s like I’m you’
Jack wants to go fishing with Dean: ‘You once told me you and your father did the exact same thing. It was your happiest memory of him’-Dean: ‘I didn’t say that’-Jack: It was how you said it’
Cas has new little blue car
Sergei has a vial of Gabriel’s grace (backstory as to why makes sense)
Nick’s viciousness is appalling
Nick wants to raise Lucifer from the Empty
This was a waste of an episode. The only parts of any interest were Jack being honest with Rowena and Dean taking Jack out for a ‘fun’ day, though the driving Baby part of that felt like a stretch.
295. Byzantium (14.08)-W: Glynn/D: Sanchez
Then: Lily Sunder
No teaser, starts where last episode ended with Jack’s collapse
Sam tries to be strong for Jack
Dean can’t handle that Jack is dying, walks out and Jack dies while he is gone
It is still just the teaser when Jack dies
Dean leaves voicemail for Mary telling her Jack died…and ‘it would be really nice to hear your voice’-parallel to Dean calling his dad years ago…
Once Jack is dead Sam stops being strong and falls apart, leaves bunker
Dean goes after him: ‘Tell me you didn’t make a deal’-Sam was just trying to cut logs for Jack’s pyre and couldn’t even do that because ax broke
Sam: ‘So what do we do?’-Dean: ‘Say goodbye…tomorrow. Tonight we get loaded’
No other hunters in bunker for mourning
They eat nougat in Jack’s honor
Jack is in heaven with Sam and Dean, then with his mom
Empty is taking over heaven
Sam calls Lily Sunder, thinks she can read Kevin’s notes from angel tablet
Cas can pull Jack’s soul into his body for a few seconds for the spell to work
Anubis works with heaven to decide who goes where-individual’s deeds are tallied on abacus and that determines their fate
Dean not happy about using Jack’s soul for spell
Naomi tells Cas the Empty wants Jack because he is part angel and should go to heaven
Dean initially hostile to Lily but when she is going to leave because they can’t get her into heaven he guilts her to help by asking how she, after suffering the loss of her child, could put them through it when she could help
The Empty (as Dumah) taunts Cas (very effective acting)
The Empty: ‘…when you finally give yourself permission to be happy and let the sun shine on your face, that's when I'll come’ (Well, we saw that prediction come true…)
Cas wants Jack to keep his deal with the Empty a secret
Lily gets a happy ending after all (though the heaven she is going to is pretty messed up)
Naomi gives Cas Michael’s location
Dean celebrates their big win getting Jack back while Cas looks guilty
This entire episode was made to set up the rest of the season. But I was glad Lily got a happy ending.
296. The Spear (14.09)-W: Berens/D: Kaderli
Garth throws in with Michael to be double agent for boys
Cas talking to Jack about dying and coming back to life: ‘Yeah, we've all been through it. It's something of a rite of passage around here’
Cas not worried about being happy anytime soon for the Empty to come
Dean optimistic about taking Michael out
Ketch sent the angel-expelling egg by mail-it gets stuck in Joplin, Missouri
Michael using his own grace to make his army-again, very different than his attitude in AU world (and how can he be so liberal with it when the other archangels get powered down when they lose some?)
Great actress portraying Michael
Garth overhears Michael saying the Spear’s location, that he is sending monsters to retrieve it (it turns out Michael was using Garth to get Dean to fetch the Spear and bring it to Michael)
Dean: ‘We got Jack back. When was the last time we had a big, no-strings-attached win like that?’-he doesn’t know about Cas’ deal
Dean and Cas going after Spear, Jack and Sam getting egg
Dean tells Cas he now understands what Sam and Cas experienced being possessed by Lucifer
Sam is driving a blue Mercury Cougar
Jack learned lockpicking from the internet
Dean asks AU Kaia for spear-Kaia: ‘I won’t give it up’-Dean: ‘Well, then, you should just kill me. There are people that I care about -- my family -- and they're in danger. Michael, the one who tortured me, the one who tortured you -- he's gonna hurt them and kill them. And then, worse. Thousands will die. And the only thing in this world that will stop him is the spear in your hands. So if you're not gonna give it to me, kill me’
AU Kaia will loan Dean the spear in exchange for help getting back to her world-Kaia: ‘If you don't bring this back to me, I will find you and kill you’
Michael’s forces grab Jack-Michael leaves Sam alive because he knows Sam can’t stop him
Sam goes after Jack-Badass Sam taking out Michael’s monsters to rescue Jack
Michael turns Garth who attacks Sam even though he doesn’t want to
Sam knocks Garth out and puts him in trunk of Impala when Dean arrives
Sam called other hunters to Kansas City to fight Michael’s army
Team Free Will ready to tackle Michael-Dean: ‘So zero element of surprise’-Sam: ‘Walking right into a trap’-Cas: ‘Which is set by a full-powered archangel’-Dean: ‘Impossible odds. Feels like home. Let's do it’
They almost pull it off-until Michael retakes Dean and breaks the Spear (Kaia is going to be pissed)
During Michael’s takeover Dean has flashes of himself as a bartender-preview from next episode
Michael: ‘When I gave up Dean, you didn't think to question it, to ask why? Dean was resisting me. He was too attached to you, to all of you. He wouldn't stop squirming -- to get out, to get back. So I left but not without leaving the door open just a crack… To break him, to crush and disappoint him so completely that, this time, he'll be nice and quiet for a change -- buried. And he is. He's gone’
Finger snap and black
I do remember upon originally seeing this episode being completely freaked by how badly this turned out…and it’s still pretty upsetting, watching Michael’s plan go exactly like he planned. I rate this as a good episode purely for the intense emotional upheaval it put me through.
297. Nihilism (14.10)-W: Yockey/D: Tapping
Then: Gadreel
Dean’s bar-Pamela-Sam and Cas ‘still working that ghoul thing in Wichita’-refusal to sell to realtor-vamp attack
Magic handcuffs restrain Michael-very convenient
Sam calls for Jessica the Reaper, gets Violet instead who won’t help them…but they are suddenly in the bunker, so Billie?
Why on earth is Maggie in charge of the hunters trying to save Kansas City???
Michael very confident that he is going to win
Sam recalls how Crowley helped get Sam freed from Gadreel by entering his mind
Use the device Toni Bevell used to get Dean into Mary’s mind back in season 12
Michael tries playing on Jack’s and Cas’ insecurities
Michael wants to destroy all of God’s worlds and then kill him (another ‘daddy issues’ bad guy…)
All God’s worlds are Chuck’s failed drafts (hinting toward season 15)
Sam figures out Michael isn’t torturing Dean: ‘Dean thrives on trauma. I mean, he's had to his whole life, right? It keeps him alert, keeps him ready, but if I wanted to distract Dean, I'd give him something he's never had before’
Dean’s bar scenario on repeat with subtle changes, shifts to include Sam and Cas
When Sam tries to convince Dean it’s not real Michael triggers reset
Bits of reality filter through
Sam says ‘Poughkeepsie’ and Dean remembers-Michael appears and tries to play mind games with Dean
Hunters return to bunker-just open the door, they don’t lock it anymore?
One of the hunters is a shapeshifter, Jack blasts him and the other monsters coming in the door
Dean throws Michael in the cooler room: ‘It’ll hold. My mind, my rules. I got him. I’m the Cage
Michael can’t control his army when locked in Dean’s head
Cas scolds Jack for using his powers and using up his soul
Michael loses it being beaten
Billie tells Dean all his possible deaths in her books have been rewritten with Michael using Dean to burn the world-except one
The whole scenario of Dean’s bar was riveting…I wanted to wipe the smugness off Michael’s face as he was taunting everyone…Making Dean’s mind Michael’s cage has potential…So I consider this a decent episode, especially with the Billie twist at the end. But I seriously wonder if Billie was playing Dean for her own ends or was the way the Michael story eventually played out truly from left field and totally unpredictable in Billie’s books? Also, as I was writing this summary it occurred to me that Michael is sitting in the bunker in Dean’s body, and when Dean locked him up Dean would have resumed control over his own body which was sitting in angel-proof handcuffs in Michael’s clothing with a bunch of hunters watching him, yet when Dean goes to his room he is in normal Dean clothes. Was that just a goof or was there a ‘missing scene’ that happened after Dean got his body back but before the Billie scene?
298. Damaged Goods (14.11)-W: Perez/D: Sgriccia
OMG Nick again…
Dean going to visit Mom alone-gives Sam a hug as he leaves-that’s not suspicious…
Mary still in Donna’s cabin (did she ever respond to Dean’s voicemail that Jack died? Presumably Dean left an updated message ‘just kidding…’)
Sam knows something’s wrong from the hug: ‘Mom, we don’t hug. I mean, we do, but only if it’s literally the end of the world, you know?’; also missing books from bunker library
Dean has a one-sided good-bye visit with Donna who calls him out on pretending he’s fine
Mary suggests having Sam come over to have a family reunion-Dean: ‘I don’t want Sam here’
Dean asks Mary to make Winchester Surprise-she leaves for the grocery store in daylight, it’s dark when she returns (how far away was the store???) but Dean uses the time to make something in the garage…He appropriately plays ‘No Time’ on Donna’s 8-track
Donna winning fight with Nick until he tases her-shocked he left her alive
Dean to Mary: ‘Everybody keeps asking how I am, and how I am is I don't wanna talk about it. Please’
Sam is already en route to Hibbing when Mary calls him after supper
And Nick shows up to make Mary help him find Abraxas
Mary has anti-possession tattoo on the side of her stomach
Dean pissed at Sam for letting Nick have a chance, but his words have double meaning that Sam doesn’t know: ‘ 'Cause when people are past the point of saving, maybe you need to learn to walk away’
Nick angel blades the demon and badass Donna kneecaps him
Sam to Nick: ‘You can burn’
Mary tells Dean he has to tell Sam what he is planning or she will
Dean tells Sam about his plan with the Ma’lak box and that it came from Billie
Sam: ‘So you came out here to see Donna, to see Mom on some…sick, secret farewell tour? You were gonna leave, and you weren't even gonna tell me. Me. Do you realize how messed up that is, how unfair that is?’-Dean: ‘I didn't have a choice! Sam, you're the last person I could tell, the last person I could be around, 'cause you're the only one that could've talked me out of it. And I won't be talked out of it. I won't. I'm doing this. Now, you can either let me do it alone or you could help me. But I'm doing this’
The Dean parts of the episode were very good…but if I wanted to see a messed-up human justify horrific crimes I would watch a crime procedural. Though the scene in the storage unit was a real edge-of-my-seat one…but I can think of ways to do that scene with a random person looking for the demon.
299. Prophet and Loss (14.12)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Wright
Dean has nightmare about being locked in Ma’lak box underwater
Sam trying to talk Dean out of using the Ma’lak box: ‘We know we could die doing what we do. It’s always a possibility. But what you’re talking about is far worse than death. Michael’s an archangel. He could literally keep you buried in a coffin, alive, forever’
Extremely gross murder
More Nick
Sam told Cas Dean’s plan-Dean not pleased
Dean: I know I wasn’t always the greatest brother to you…I know things got dicey...with Dad... And I…didn't always look out for you the way that I should've…I had my own stuff… In order to keep the peace, probably looked like I took his side quite a bit. Sometimes, when I was...away, you know it wasn't 'cause I just ran out, right? Dad would..send me away when I really pissed him off. I think you knew that’-Sam: I left that behind a long time ago…And if we're gonna get through this…if we could not have conversations that sound like deathbed apologies, I would really appreciate it’
Suits
Victim’s brother talks about pain of losing his big brother-let’s really hit Sam with what’s going to happen…
Murderer conveniently kills himself
Dean to Cas about his plan: ‘…if you were a friend of mine, then you will understand that I have to do this and you won't try to stop me. You think this is easy on me? It has to be done’
Cas on reviving Donatello: ‘Dean, if there's a spark -- a hope -- then I have to try. You taught me that’
Trailer hitch on Baby?!?
This was killer scene: Dean: ‘Well, I would call this a win. Kind of nice. We're going out on a high’-Sam: 'Going out' being the operative phrase…are you sorry that, after all these years, our entire lives, after I've looked up to you, after I've learned from you. I've copied you, I followed you to Hell and back, are you sorry that all of that it means nothing now?’-Dean: ‘Who's saying that?’-Sam: ‘You are, when you tell me I have to kill you. When you're telling me I have to just throw away everything we stand for, throw away faith, throw away family. We're the guys who save the world. We don't just check out of it!’ (pushes Dean)-Dean: ‘Sam, I have tried everything. Everything! I got one card left to play, and I have to play it'-Sam: ‘You have one card today! But we'll find another tomorrow. But if you quit on us today, there won't be no tomorrow! You tell me, uh, you don't know what else to do. I don't either, Dean. Not yet. But what you're doing now, it's wrong! It's quitting! I mean l-look what just happened. Donatello never quit fighting. So we could help him because he never gave up. I believe in us, Dean. (punch) I believe in us. (attempts another punch) Why don't you believe in us, too?’-Dean: ‘Okay, Sam. Let's go home…Maybe Billie's wrong. Maybe. But I do believe in us. I believe in all of us. And I'll keep believing until I can't. Until there's absolutely no other way. But when that day comes - if that day comes... Sam, you have to take it for what it is - the end. And you have to promise me that you'll do then what you can't do now, and that's let me go. And put me in that box…Don’t hit me again, okay?’
The case was crap, though it is nice that Donatello is back. (Note: neither Donatello nor Tony Alvarez, the perp, were among the future prophets Crowley kidnapped back in season 8…) But the final scene between Sam and Dean over the Ma’lak box is so, so good, I wish it could have been used in the previous episode.
300. Lebanon (14.13)-W: Dabb & Glynn/D: Singer
Boys tracking goods stolen from murdered hunter Bart Kemp
Dean after bad guy taken out: ‘They always talk too much’
Town kids gossip about Sam and Dean who go by last name Campbell
Pearl will give Dean what his heart desires
Dean charms the postal clerk for info on the girl who stole his car
Boys are driving an old black truck as they track down the Impala
Eliot, Stacy, and Max see boys disperse ghosts and get ‘the talk’ with instructions to keep it quiet
Couldn’t they have given JDM a wig to make him look a little like he did back when the show started???
John: ‘Dean? Sam? What in the hell? Sammy, aren’t you supposed to be in Palo Alto?’-Dean immediately thinks to ask John what year it is-John says 2003
We don’t see the full recap the boys give John of what’s happened since 2003 but John says: ‘I went out takin’ out Yellow Eyes’-which isn’t actually what happened, he sold his soul to save Dean-so what exactly did the boys tell him???
Mary’s reaction to seeing John
Dean: ‘You said that the pearl gives you what your heart desires, right?…I’ve wanted this since I was 4 years old’
Sam is worried right away about consequences of messing the timeline-Dean: ‘Can we just have one family dinner?’
John: ‘I remember I screwed up with you a lot, didn’t I?’-Sam: ‘I don’t want to talk about that’-John: ‘You didn’t have a problem talking about it before you left’-Sam: ‘Dad… for me? That fight… that was a lifetime ago. I don’t even remember what I said, and…You did some messed-up things. But…when I think about you…I don’t think about our fights…I think about you on the floor of that hospital. And I think about how I never got to say goodbye’-John: ‘I am so sorry’-Sam: ‘I’m sorry too. But you did your best, Dad. You fought for us and you loved us and that’s enough’
Now Sam is a bizarre internet guru and Dean is wanted for multiple crimes and the Lebanon townsfolk don’t know them
Zachariah is still horrible and arrogant
Cas is scary soldier
Sam gets to kill Zachariah this time and uses sigil to banish Cas
John to Dean: ‘It was supposed to end with me, with Yellow Eyes. But now you are a grown man, and I am incredibly proud of you. I guess that I had hoped, eventually, you would get yourself a normal life, a peaceful life, a family’-Dean: ‘I have a family’
Family dinner begins in silence with knowledge John has to be sent back-John: ‘Alright. Near as I can tell, we have two choices…we can think about what’s coming. Or we can be grateful for this time that we have together. Now, me…I choose grateful’ (When did John become a ‘glass half full’ guy?)
Wine with Winchester Surprise
Sam is regretting they have to send John back, Dean philosophical: ‘…for the longest time, I blamed Dad. I mean, hell, I blamed Mom, too, you know? I was angry. But say we could send Dad back knowing everything. Why stop there? Why not send him even further back and let some other poor sons of bitches save the world? But here’s the problem. Who does that make us? Would we be better off? Well, maybe. But I gotta be honest - I don’t know who that Dean Winchester is. And I’m good with who I am. I’m good with who you are. ‘Cause our lives - they’re ours. And maybe I’m just too damn old to want to change that’
John and boys hug
Dean’s flinch as the pearl shatters
John wakes in 2003, calls Dean, he had a good dream
I was skeptical about how John could possibly be brought back for the 300th episode but incredibly surprised that it was an excellent episode! The intense interaction between John and Mary makes John’s obsession with finding the demon that killed her plausible. And to me, this line of Dean’s ‘Cause our lives - they’re ours’ makes the future reveal that Chuck has been manipulating them all along the ultimate betrayal of the reason I loved this show. But more on that when we get to season 15…
301. Ouroboros (14.14)-W: Yockey/D: Kaderli
Rowena is helping track bad guy
Rowena wants to know how Jack got cured
Cas: ‘What you're doing, even just sitting here and having a cup of coffee, is a Herculean feat. I can't imagine the willpower it's taking to keep Michael imprisoned…Are you really fine?’-Dean: ‘There's this pounding in my head. It never stops. Michael's in there, and he is fighting hard to get out. And I can't let my guard down not for a second. I'm barely even sleeping’
Jack is sick again
Dean suit
In order to steal antivenom from vet, Rowena and Sam bring their ‘dog’-Jack transformed-and they have amusing ‘argument’
Rowena asks about Jack’s cure: ‘Fine. Don't tell me. But using dangerous, mysterious magic, regardless of the cost, that's a very on-brand me thing to do’-Sam: ‘Well, thank you’-Rowena: ‘Of course, Samuel, until very recently, I was the villain’-point Rowena LOL
The bunker is full of hunters with Maggie-why???-in charge
Dean is knocked out by gorgon banging Dean’s head into the wall-for all the beatings Dean’s endured, that seems pretty weak to knock him out so seriously
Jack takes off the gorgon’s head
Antivenom doesn’t work on Cas for some reason so Jack uses his soul power
Jack can’t stand idea of losing anyone-Cas: ‘Jack…Sam and Dean, they're human, and they're very extraordinary, brave, special humans, but they're still humans. And humans burn bright, but for a very brief time compared to…things like us. And eventually, they're gone, even the very best ones, and we have to carry on. It's…part of growing up…The point is that they were here at all and you got to know them...When they're gone, it will hurt, but that hurt will remind you of how much you loved them’-He could be speaking to fandom, season 15 as the final season had recently been announced when this aired…
Michael possessing Rowena, kills the hunters including Maggie
Rowena is not afraid of Michael killing her: ‘Fate says Sam Winchester's going to off me, which makes dinners a bit awkward, but does give one a certain sense of security’-so Michael says he’ll kill everyone in the bunker who Rowena cares about
Awesome Jack: ‘I'm not a child! I'm the son of Lucifer. I'm a Hunter. I am a Winchester!’
Jack absorbs Michael’s power and shows his wings
Wow! Did not see that ending coming! The case itself was intriguing and it felt like a full episode-and then we get Michael/Rowena and Jack ending him and mind blown!
302. Peace of Mind (14.15)-W: Fitzmartin & Yockey/D: Sgriccia
Sam finds case, takes Cas while Dean keeps an eye on Jack
Cas driving a different car
Sam suit and overcoat
Dean takes Jack to see Donatello to check on his soul’s state
Donatello: You know, Jack, our galaxy's all bright and shiny and spinny, but in its center lies this very large black hole. It's the same with me. I'm all bright and shiny, obviously -- Not so much spinny. But inside? Empty…I feel...nothing. Losing your soul doesn't make you bad. It doesn't make you anything. It's an absence of...of pity, of empathy...of humanity…I ask myself what would Mister Rogers do?’-Jack: ‘Sam and Dean are the best men I know’-Donatello: ‘…just think WWWD-What would the Winchesters do?’
Sam falls under spell of perfect 1950s life
Sam’s wife Sunny is hysterical in her obliviousness to anything that contradicts her perfect life
Mayor: ‘In this town I’m God’-Sam: ‘No, you’re not. Believe me, we’ve met God’-Cas: ‘God has a beard’ LOL
Sam is feeling guilty over the deaths of the hunters (If Jack is so powerful, why didn’t he resurrect them right away?)
Jack kills the gorgon’s snake out of misguided kindness
Weird filler episode, felt like the writers’ room wanted to make a sitcom situation and then turn it bad.
302. Don’t Go Into the Woods (14.16)-W: Perez & Vaught/D: Fitzpatrick
Grossest bathroom ever
Lebanon kid Eliot watching Ghostfacers on phone
Suits with overcoats
Night when cop informed of missing person-day when he shows up at site
Jack: ‘Dean says any music made after 1979 sucks ass'
Jack hangs with the Lebanon kids into nighttime, showing off his hunting prowess with an angel blade
When Jack accidentally stabs Stacy and then heals her the kids turn against him from fear of what he is
Sheriff explains tribe cursed the Parker son because he hurt the tribe-did we need to see the flashback while he was explaining?
Sheriff thinks boys should tell everyone about monsters-while hiding truth from his son
Some of the forest scenes are raining heavily and some are not-must have been challenging weather during that shoot
Sam drops knife-come on, he’s a better hunter than that
It looked like the Kohonta took a bite out of the Sheriff but he is minimally wounded when paramedics show up
Jack doesn’t tell Sam and Dean about hanging with the town kids or the accident and promises not to use his powers without permission
Another filler episode. For some reason I was bothered by how unlike his dad the Sheriff’s son looked.
303. Game Night (14.17)-W: Glynn/D: Showalter
Then: refresh on Sister Jo
Don’t hurt Donatello!
Jack making Jiffypop Popcorn! Is that even still sold?
Mary’s back
Cas brings ruby earrings to get Sister Jo’s help in contacting God-‘lightly cursed, but it’s nothing that would affect an angel’ LOL
Only God can restore a soul
Dean and Mary head to Donatello’s house and find Nick…really?
Dean won’t let Sam interrogate Nick: ‘…if Nick looks at you wrong you’re gonna waste him’
If only Cas were around he could pull Donatello’s location from Nick’s brain…
Sister Jo has lost faith in God: ‘God doesn’t meddle…he saves one angel and watches millions of people die screaming every day. What does that say about him?’
Sister Jo calls Cas out on why he wants to contact God: ‘Because in your mind, it'd be easier to call God than to tell Sam and Dean Winchester the truth’-that Jack is soulless
Dean beats crap out of Nick who claims that he and Dean are alike then demands to see Jack
Giving up on trying to figure out logistically where Nick took Donatello relative to where he is summoning Lucifer relative to the bunker…
Sam just shoot Nick now!
Nick takes out Sam
Jack takes out Nick, Mary horrified…frankly I was cheering…Jack heals Sam-so was Sam dead and Jack brought him back or was Sam just mortally wounded but still alive?
And Mary misses the cue to leave Jack alone…
That didn’t go well…It really was an accident, but when the most powerful being in the universe has an accident it’s bad…
304. Absence (14.18)-W: Berens/D: Lopez-Corrado
We’re STILL not done with Lucifer??? Really??? He’s Jack’s subconscious???
There is supposed to be impressive circle of downed trees-but it’s too dark to actually see anything…
Cas flashback to bonding with Mary…
Back in bunker boys can’t reach Mary or Jack-Dean sure everything’s fine-firmly believing in Jack still, especially since he just fixed Sam
Cas admits he thought something was wrong with Jack and Dean loses it: ‘if he did something to her, if she is -- (points to Castiel) Then you're dead to me’-I don’t quite see why Dean blames Cas so vehemently (though that is Dean’s mode of attacking when emotionally scared)
Rowena says Mary Winchester is no longer on earth and Dean goes ballistic, then says they will get Rowena to bring Mary back
Rowena trying to do the right thing when Jack shows up
Jack’s flashback of Mary segues into Sam’s flashback which is weird
Sam blames himself because he brought Jack back with Lily Sunder’s spell
Lucifer/Nick/Jack’s subconscious taunts Jack about trying to make things right
Dumah tells Cas Mary is in special heaven with John
Dean has his flashback memory with Mary
Rowena warns of awful result if Jack does the resurrection spell while so out of control…but nothing happens, just Mary’s body shows up-this feels like a letdown after scary build up
Cas confirms he saw Mary in heaven
Dean is ice cold as Mary’s pyre burns
Mary’s initials are on the table now with Sam and Dean’s
The annoyance at Lucifer’s reappearance, the random flashbacks, and the letdown of nothing happening when Jack does the scary spell fights against the genuine tension of the boys initially finding out what happened, Rowena’s scenes, and the boys’ heartbreaking grief to make this a muddle of an episode…
305. Jack in the Box (14.19)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Singer
Funeral with AU hunters for Mary
AU Bobby walks in and shockingly kills hunter-who turns out to have been a shapeshifter crashing the funeral
Bobby going to take Jack out
More Lucifer/Nick/Jack subconscious nonsense
Dean goes out to grieve alone-heartbreaking
Cas asks Dumah to help find Jack
Dumah plays on Jack’s need for redemption to use him to restore heaven’s glory days when humans feared heaven’s wrath
Dumah has Jack make angels out of humans (he added maybe 20 to the handful of angels left?)
Preacher being eaten by worms is gross
Suits
Ma’lak box back in play only now for Jack-Sam against it but Dean prevails
Dumah threatens Mary and John’s heaven if Cas interferes with her plans for Jack and Cas kills her instead of talking-Yay!!!
Sam prays to Jack to get him back to the bunker
Though soulless, Jack isn’t evil and accepts responsibility for ‘the accident’-Dean: ‘So she made you do it?’-Jack: No, it was me…I guess I snapped. Before I knew it, it was all over’
They tell Jack going in the Ma’lak box is for his own protection to avoid any more accidents until they can fix his soul
Lucifer/Nick/Jack’s subconscious convinces Jack that the boys lied to him
And Jack is out
I was so happy when Cas just killed Dumah instead of trying to reason with her…And it was heartbreaking to watch Sam lie to Jack to lure him into the box…Could they have tried to reason with him???
306. Moriah (14.20)-W: Dabb/D: Sgriccia
Jack accuses the boys of lying to him-but he doesn’t kill them, just sends them flying
Dean wants Jack dead and is angry when Cas doesn’t agree
Dean trying to convince Sam they have to kill Jack: ‘I know how much he meant to you…but this is not Jack anymore…we’re gonna have to do the ugly thing’
Jack upset by people lying, commands ‘Stop lying!’ and chaos ensues
Suits
Sam: ‘You're always calling me a geek, but you know every word to every Led Zeppelin song -- backwards and forwards -- you can discuss in detail every major rock drummer between '67 and '84, and... you watch "Jeopardy!" every night’
Sam admits his favorite singer is Celine Dion, not Elvis like he’s always claimed
TV newscaster says the president disclosed his tax history, ties to Russia, and demon deal he made with Crowley
Cas wants to go to Hell to study the Cage, presumably to make something to hold Jack
And Chuck shows up
Jack goes to see his grandparents again only this time his grandmother tells him to leave because when they checked his story out it was a lie
Dean is trolling the internet during the crisis?
Chuck says he’s here because Jack’s a problem
Chuck says people need to lie to keep the peace-Cas: ‘Seems like an odd stance for you’-Chuck: Is it? I’m a writer. Lying’s kind of what we do’
Chuck snaps them back to bunker; he has been hanging with Amara
Chuck: ‘Listen, you guys know me. I’m hand-off, I built the sandbox, you play in it. You want to fight Leviathans? Cool, you got that. You want to go up against…The British Men of Letters? Okay, little weak, but okay. But when things get really bad, like the apocalypse or the other apocalypse, that’s when I have to step in…’this is bad-like Me level bad’-Sam: ‘Can you stop him?’-Chuck: ‘Not exactly but you can’
Chuck gives them gun that will kill Jack and also the person that fires it
Chuck on Billie as Death: ‘…she’s always sticking her scythe where it doesn’t belong’
Dean ready to die to kill Jack: ‘We don’t have a choice, Sam’-Sam: ‘Of course we do, don’t we always?...Isn’t that the point of everything we’ve ever done that we always have a choice?’
Sam asks Chuck who many other realities are there-Chuck: ‘I don’t know, kinda lost count’-Sam: Michael said that you create these worlds and you just toss them away like failed versions of some book…Is that what you’re doing to us?’-Chuck: ‘You and your brother, of all the Sams and Deans in all the multiverse, you’re my favorite…you’re my favorite show’
Cas meets up with Jack who did not kill his grandmother when she upset him
Sam: ‘Why, when the chips are down, when the world is failing, why does it always have to be on us?!’-Chuck: ‘Because you’re my guys’
Sam figures out that Chuck is scared of Jack
Chuck has already sent Dean to kill Jack
Jack to Cas: ‘All I ever wanted was to be good. But now I’m just empty…I know you’re here because you love me and I want to love you back. It’s just I can’t’
Dean confronts Jack-Cas tells him to run but Jack doesn’t: ‘I know what I’ve done and you were right all along. I am a monster’-he kneels for Dean to kill him and Dean can’t do it
Chuck freaks out: ‘This isn’t how the story is supposed to end…the father killing his own son…This is epic!’
Sam: ‘He’s saying he’s been playing us this whole time…our entire lives…Mom, Dad, everything…This is all because you wrote it all, right?...Because we’re your favorite show?’
Chuck will bring back Mary if Dean kills Jack
Dean: ‘No…My mom was my hero and I miss her…but she would not want this…Cause Sam’s right…you knew everything that was going on so why the games, Chuck?...we’re done talking cause this isn’t just a story, it’s our lives! So God or no God, you go to hell’
Chuck kills Jack, throws Dean into a tombstone when he tries to stop Chuck-and Sam shoots Chuck in the shoulder with the magic gun
Chuck: ‘Story’s over. Welcome to the end’ and souls explode from hell as ‘God was Never on Your Side’ by Motorhead plays
Billie wakes Jack in the Empty…
And we get a lame montage of Woman in White, Jack Gacy clown, and Bloody Mary about to hurt innocent people
The writer’s attempt to mimic Kripke by putting humor in serious episode (the not-lying part) didn’t work for me…Dean not killing Jack is true to who he has always been and was the best moment of the episode…And this is when Supernatural’s writers betrayed me, negating everything that Sam and Dean did for the past 14 seasons by saying God was manipulating the outcomes to get the drama he wanted and their choices weren’t free will at all…
Five episodes I could unreservedly say were good out of 20…there were parts of others that were very good stuck in so-so episodes…And I hate how the premise of Sam and Dean’s lives has been marginalized to simply being Chuck’s whims without even seeing how badly season 15 screws it up…
Season 14
Prior to my rewatch, the main thing I remembered about season 14 was the Ma’lak box. Turns out there wasn’t a lot more to remember…
288. Stranger in a Strange Land (14.01)-W: Dabb/D: Wright
Michael has possessed Dean for 3 weeks
So Michael’s question to everyone is ‘What do you want?’-he wants a ‘better world’
Bunker is full of people
Ketch is in London, Cas in Detroit
Sam not resting, Mary tries to call him on it
Bobby training Jack to fight
Cas gets beat up by demon mob-in the past Cas could tell when demons were in the vicinity-so writer dumbed him down/forgot he had this ability in order to write dramatic whump scene…sigh
Sister Jo is back and she is more afraid of Michael than she was of Lucifer, though she still snarks
Michael says Jo wants love which is very human and very disappointing-he has decided the angels in this world are not worth saving
Sam is trying to carry everyone including Jack…and Nick?!?
WHY DO WE HAVE NICK??? I was so happy to be rid of Lucifer!
So bunker is full of people at start of episode but when it’s time to rescue Cas the only new hunters around are Jack and Maggie??? Who has to be told to ‘stab ‘em with the pointy end’ when the fight starts???
Mary tries to give Sam the ‘positive attitude’ pep talk and he shoots her down
Demon was asked by someone ‘what did he want’ so Michael must have talked to him…and demon realized he wants ‘everything’
Demon wants ‘Crowley deal’-Sam: ‘…you’re no Crowley’
Hunters make comeback from looking like they are losing the fight
Badass Sam: ‘There will be no new King of Hell. Not today. Not ever. And if anybody wants the job, you can come through me. Understood?’
Ketch looking for another egg like one that took out Lucifer
AU Bobby and Mary flirt-eww
Cas returns to bunker with bloody face-why didn’t he fix himself?
Jack having major crisis about losing powers
Sister Jo calls Sam to tell him where Michael is
Michael to vampire: ‘…Your want is pure and simple and clean and that’s why you are worth saving…because you just want to eat’
So the only thing that happens in this episode is we see Michael is very bad and there is a big fight.
289. Gods and Monsters (14.02)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Speight
Interesting that Michael using his own grace to experiment when in the AU world he was dead set against using any of it for the spell to open the rift…
Cas stays with Nick since Michael would sense his presence
Cas does not like Nick
Once again all the new hunters have disappeared-only Bobby and Mary around
Cas reminds Nick that his family was murdered which sets Nick off on a need to find the killer
Cas: ‘What happened to Jimmy Novak is my greatest regret’-really???
Dean surfaces for 20 seconds…
Michael makes deal with werewolf leader because he appreciates the purity of monsters’ purpose
Jack visits Kelly Kline’s parents-his grandparents-who know that Kelly was pregnant but she’s been ‘out of touch’-very poignant scene
Michael’s comment that he set a trap was a clue to viewers about retaking Dean later but we were supposed to think it was just about the monsters waiting in the church
Jack stuns Cas: ‘Dean doesn't matter. You're all so focused on trying to save Dean…but if he can't be saved, if it comes down to him or Michael... Michael has to be stopped…if…that means that Dean has to die, then...Do you think he'd want it any other way?’ Jack’s not wrong about what Dean would say…
Nick goes psycho on neighbor-why is he back in the story???
Dean is suddenly back?? Dean: ‘He just left’-Sam: ‘Why?’-Dean ‘I don’t know’
Another episode where nothing happens except setting the stage for future episodes.
290. The Scar (14.03)-W: Berens/D: Singer
We start with Dean harassing Sam about the beard: ‘…it's like a nightmare. I mean, I can't eat. I can't sleep. It's always just there, watching’-except Dean has only been subjected to it for the length of the car ride back from Duluth MN-he’s still wearing the Michael clothes so they drove straight through-Dean’s complaint doesn’t make sense, should have complained about looking at it on the car ride
Dean says his time with Michael is a blank
Suddenly the bunker is full of AU hunters again!
Dean has new scar, wants Cas to find out why
Hi Jody
Hunter Jules brings witch’s victim to bunker, Cas will stay to help with her
Sam says Dean has been gone for weeks
Sam needs Dean to talk but Dean won’t
Sam casually drops name of last Sioux Falls serial killer which lines up with his serial killer fixation
Start going through woods at night, suddenly it’s day
Upgraded vamps’ bodies didn’t react to silver or dead man’s blood when Jody tested headless corpses
Sam, Dean, and Jody are freaked out by AU Kaia
Witch victim’s story parallels Jack-she ran away, he is planning to
Convenient that victim’s face doesn’t age…
Jody confirms Claire was in love with Kaia
Dean punches AU Kaia in face, knocks her out cold
Dean will do whatever it takes to get the spear
Witch’s victim dies but Jack figures out the witch’s necklace held the spell and breaks it
Dean is off the rails, using threats, violence to make AU Kaia give him the spear-AU Kaia: ‘You’re no different than him (Michael)’-Dean: ‘I am nothing like him’-the flashback to Dean threatening Kaia with gun last season which was very out of character is pays off now-AU Kaia: ‘Yeah you are…I know where it comes from, your anger…you’re scared and you’re weak’
When attacked by vampires Badass Dean shoots AU Kaia’s chair leg so she can get free
She comes back and rescues them
And it’s night again when they get back to their cars
Badass Jody gets broken arm and is going to drive herself to hospital
Jody shows her honest fear over losing another of her girls
Now Jack is coughing up blood…
Once again Dean takes all the blame for something out of his control: ‘I don’t remember most of what Michael did with me because I was under water. Drowning. And that I remember. I felt every second of it - clawing, fighting for air. I thought I could make it out but I couldn’t: I wasn’t strong enough. And now he’s gone: he’s out there putting an army of monsters together. He’s hurting people. That’s all on me, man. I said yes. It’s my fault’
Like last season the first 3 episodes need to be viewed together because nothing much happens in them individually, it’s all setting the stage for the next part of the season: Jack’s struggle with losing his powers and hint that he is sick; Dean feeling guilty over Michael; Michael creating a monster army; psycho Nick on the loose. Thing is, it worked last season because Jack was intriguing and we saw Sam and Dean struggling to deal with him. Now Jack is sad sack character, Michael’s smugness is annoying, why is Nick back? and where’s the interaction between Sam and Dean?
291. Mint Condition (14.04)-W: Perez/D: Kaderli
Then: Ghost possession
Thundercats 15 inch Panthro figure (my kids watched Thundercats!)
Stuart is over-the-top obsessive
Big deal that Sam shaved
Hatchet Man movie clips throughout episode-same ones repeated
Hellhazer movie references as well (franchise still going from season 2!)
Dean has been holed up in his room for a week-bunker still full of AU hunters
Sam knows he can get Dean moving by mentioning the Panthro figure
It’s Halloween
Boys wearing short sleeves white shirts and ties, later Dean adds bizarre plaid sport coat
Samantha is very forgiving of Stuart’s shortcomings
Dean bonds with nerd kid Dirk over horror movies
Dean: ‘I like to watch movies where I know the bad guy’s gonna lose’
Dean tells Dirk monsters are real
Dean takes fire ax from wall when going after ghost
Dirk saves Stuart’s mom by directing ghost toward himself
Security guards watching Hatchet Man movie while actual chase going on in hospital (very funny)
When smart Sam makes explosive to get out of the store-Samantha: ‘Where did you learn how to do this?’-Sam: ‘I had a messed up childhood’
Samantha figures out the ghost is using the key chain to travel
Dirk saves Dean
Samantha tosses Sam bottle of ethyl alcohol to ignite keychain
Boys drive home in clothes worn during the case
Dean thanks Sam for ‘getting him out of his funk’
Sam tries again to convince Dean he’s not at fault: ‘You said yes for me, for Jack, for your family. You did the right thing. What happened after, just because Michael was wearing your face doesn’t mean any of this is on you. I don’t blame you, no one blames you. You’ve got to try and stop blaming yourself’-Dean: ‘I’m never going to get over it, okay?’
Sam explains he hates Halloween because in 6th grade in Bismarck he threw up at a Halloween party on the girl he had a crush on-Somehow I’d think he’d hate Halloween because of what happened to Jess right after but what do I know?
Finally a case episode! While the idea could have been ridiculous the writer made it work by giving Samantha and Dirk real personalities and the plot worked logically.
292. Nightmare Logic (14.05)-W: Glynn/D: Grant
Then: Maggie’s backstory
Why on earth are they letting Maggie hunt? Why didn’t Sam give her a chance to go to school, have a ‘normal’ life since she is just a kid?!?
Crowded bunker again
Mary and Bobby hunting in Texas
All the hunters now have body cameras (which are only referenced in this episode)
Bobby and Mary are already working to find missing Maggie when Sam and Dean show up
Bobby chews out Sam for letting Maggie go on her first hunt
Mary having issues with Bobby: ‘Bobby’s not open like your dad’-Sam: ‘Wait, like my dad?’
Bobby and Dean pair off, Bobby runs off after figure
Dean comes in and starts to tell Sam and Mary about what he found and old man’s daughter Sasha has already been told about monsters by Sam and Mary-conversation between hunters in front of lay people is hysterical
Mary goes off alone looking for Bobby-surprised the boys let her, splitting up is always so wise
Sasha: ‘…my father's dying, and there's a strange man sharpening a machete to presumably kill monsters with in my living room. Thank God for benzos’
Dean advises her to let go of the past-Sasha: ‘Is that what you do?’-Dean: ‘I try every single day’
Figure Bobby is chasing is his son Daniel who died in AU world
Dean figures out Neil is djinn responsible for ‘monsters’
Neil thought Dean was Michael testing him
Upgraded djinn can read minds with one touch and bring nightmares into this world
When djinn tries to see Dean’s nightmares he falters
Apparently if you don’t have a knife dipped in lamb’s blood you can just bludgeon a djinn to death
Maggie gets hero’s welcome from full bunker
When Bobby pulled out knife in his shoulder pinning him to the tree he pulls it at an angle upwards which should have caused a lot more damage than the little bandaging we see which doesn’t even look like it’s where he was stabbed
Bobby and Mary going to take a few weeks off at Donna’s cabin
Dean calls Garth to warn about upgraded monsters, other hunters being called too
Dean: ‘I've been trying to -- not forget, but to move on from what I -- from what we -- from what he did. And…I was -- I was starting to feel like myself again. Almost’
Sam gives Dean the patented Winchester brother pep talk that they will figure it (Michael problem) out
Other than Maggie being involved and the weird Bobby/son bit, this was a decent episode-the case was novel and there was humor built into the situation that worked very well
293. Optimism (14.06)-W: Yockey/D: Speight
BeeGees music for poor guy who gets offed in teaser
Sam and AU Charlie on stakeout-awkward-Sam keeps referencing their Charlie
Dean and Jack are only people in bunker-where did everyone else go?
Jack finds case and convinces Dean to take him with
Dean suit
AU Charlie was a programmer at Richard Roman Enterprises until society fell apart with the apocalypse and her partner was killed
Jack and Dean set up plan to check out Harper, the girl whose bad luck seems to kill any guy interested in her-Dean comes in as aggressive FBI agent and Jack makes him leave Harper alone-Jack calls him an ‘old man’ during their fake argument
Jack uses ‘Christo’ on Harper-first time it’s been used since episode 1.04 LOL
AU Charlie figures the monster is a musca: a man/fly that has gone killer because he is unmated; she says this is her last case
Jack and Harper are adorable
Totally unexpected twist with Harper responsible for creating her zombie boyfriend and they kill rivals for fun
Musca monster one of the best visuals-really scary
Sam tries to talk AU Charlie into staying while there is a montage of the musca’s family mourning him-odd juxtaposition
Harper gets away, writes Jack they she will be looking for him (never resolved loose end)
Dean lectures Jack: ‘You're gonna make mistakes. Hell, I make them all the time. But it's how you handle yourself once you've made those mistakes. And you learn from them’-Jack: And how to not beat yourself up over them?’
And Jack passes out…
The Dean and Jack part of this episode was a winner-funny and unexpected. The Sam and Charlie half was meh-a blatant attempt to make fandom feel something for another of the AU characters as an apology for killing off the original. Side note: I don’t consider the deleted scenes pertinent for reviews, however the deleted scene for this episode actually followed up on a comment made previously about AU Charlie and Rowena going on a road trip-Sam asks how that trip went and Charlie says ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ so it obviously happened.
294. Unhuman Nature (14.07)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Showalter
Nick goes psycho, justifies his actions like Lucifer did
Dean’s behavior in ER is very off, like he doesn’t know the drill for going to an ER
Sam called Rowena saying Dean is sick because he didn’t think she’d come for Lucifer’s kid-Rowena has never met Jack
Jack wins Rowena over by understanding why she wouldn’t want to help him
Dean’s vision gets blurry periodically-huh?
Stupid girl in alley being friendly to Nick…
Dean gets Jack’s desire to experience life, takes him out of the bunker to have fun
Dean lets Jack drive Baby!!! Jack: ‘It’s like I’m you’
Jack wants to go fishing with Dean: ‘You once told me you and your father did the exact same thing. It was your happiest memory of him’-Dean: ‘I didn’t say that’-Jack: It was how you said it’
Cas has new little blue car
Sergei has a vial of Gabriel’s grace (backstory as to why makes sense)
Nick’s viciousness is appalling
Nick wants to raise Lucifer from the Empty
This was a waste of an episode. The only parts of any interest were Jack being honest with Rowena and Dean taking Jack out for a ‘fun’ day, though the driving Baby part of that felt like a stretch.
295. Byzantium (14.08)-W: Glynn/D: Sanchez
Then: Lily Sunder
No teaser, starts where last episode ended with Jack’s collapse
Sam tries to be strong for Jack
Dean can’t handle that Jack is dying, walks out and Jack dies while he is gone
It is still just the teaser when Jack dies
Dean leaves voicemail for Mary telling her Jack died…and ‘it would be really nice to hear your voice’-parallel to Dean calling his dad years ago…
Once Jack is dead Sam stops being strong and falls apart, leaves bunker
Dean goes after him: ‘Tell me you didn’t make a deal’-Sam was just trying to cut logs for Jack’s pyre and couldn’t even do that because ax broke
Sam: ‘So what do we do?’-Dean: ‘Say goodbye…tomorrow. Tonight we get loaded’
No other hunters in bunker for mourning
They eat nougat in Jack’s honor
Jack is in heaven with Sam and Dean, then with his mom
Empty is taking over heaven
Sam calls Lily Sunder, thinks she can read Kevin’s notes from angel tablet
Cas can pull Jack’s soul into his body for a few seconds for the spell to work
Anubis works with heaven to decide who goes where-individual’s deeds are tallied on abacus and that determines their fate
Dean not happy about using Jack’s soul for spell
Naomi tells Cas the Empty wants Jack because he is part angel and should go to heaven
Dean initially hostile to Lily but when she is going to leave because they can’t get her into heaven he guilts her to help by asking how she, after suffering the loss of her child, could put them through it when she could help
The Empty (as Dumah) taunts Cas (very effective acting)
The Empty: ‘…when you finally give yourself permission to be happy and let the sun shine on your face, that's when I'll come’ (Well, we saw that prediction come true…)
Cas wants Jack to keep his deal with the Empty a secret
Lily gets a happy ending after all (though the heaven she is going to is pretty messed up)
Naomi gives Cas Michael’s location
Dean celebrates their big win getting Jack back while Cas looks guilty
This entire episode was made to set up the rest of the season. But I was glad Lily got a happy ending.
296. The Spear (14.09)-W: Berens/D: Kaderli
Garth throws in with Michael to be double agent for boys
Cas talking to Jack about dying and coming back to life: ‘Yeah, we've all been through it. It's something of a rite of passage around here’
Cas not worried about being happy anytime soon for the Empty to come
Dean optimistic about taking Michael out
Ketch sent the angel-expelling egg by mail-it gets stuck in Joplin, Missouri
Michael using his own grace to make his army-again, very different than his attitude in AU world (and how can he be so liberal with it when the other archangels get powered down when they lose some?)
Great actress portraying Michael
Garth overhears Michael saying the Spear’s location, that he is sending monsters to retrieve it (it turns out Michael was using Garth to get Dean to fetch the Spear and bring it to Michael)
Dean: ‘We got Jack back. When was the last time we had a big, no-strings-attached win like that?’-he doesn’t know about Cas’ deal
Dean and Cas going after Spear, Jack and Sam getting egg
Dean tells Cas he now understands what Sam and Cas experienced being possessed by Lucifer
Sam is driving a blue Mercury Cougar
Jack learned lockpicking from the internet
Dean asks AU Kaia for spear-Kaia: ‘I won’t give it up’-Dean: ‘Well, then, you should just kill me. There are people that I care about -- my family -- and they're in danger. Michael, the one who tortured me, the one who tortured you -- he's gonna hurt them and kill them. And then, worse. Thousands will die. And the only thing in this world that will stop him is the spear in your hands. So if you're not gonna give it to me, kill me’
AU Kaia will loan Dean the spear in exchange for help getting back to her world-Kaia: ‘If you don't bring this back to me, I will find you and kill you’
Michael’s forces grab Jack-Michael leaves Sam alive because he knows Sam can’t stop him
Sam goes after Jack-Badass Sam taking out Michael’s monsters to rescue Jack
Michael turns Garth who attacks Sam even though he doesn’t want to
Sam knocks Garth out and puts him in trunk of Impala when Dean arrives
Sam called other hunters to Kansas City to fight Michael’s army
Team Free Will ready to tackle Michael-Dean: ‘So zero element of surprise’-Sam: ‘Walking right into a trap’-Cas: ‘Which is set by a full-powered archangel’-Dean: ‘Impossible odds. Feels like home. Let's do it’
They almost pull it off-until Michael retakes Dean and breaks the Spear (Kaia is going to be pissed)
During Michael’s takeover Dean has flashes of himself as a bartender-preview from next episode
Michael: ‘When I gave up Dean, you didn't think to question it, to ask why? Dean was resisting me. He was too attached to you, to all of you. He wouldn't stop squirming -- to get out, to get back. So I left but not without leaving the door open just a crack… To break him, to crush and disappoint him so completely that, this time, he'll be nice and quiet for a change -- buried. And he is. He's gone’
Finger snap and black
I do remember upon originally seeing this episode being completely freaked by how badly this turned out…and it’s still pretty upsetting, watching Michael’s plan go exactly like he planned. I rate this as a good episode purely for the intense emotional upheaval it put me through.
297. Nihilism (14.10)-W: Yockey/D: Tapping
Then: Gadreel
Dean’s bar-Pamela-Sam and Cas ‘still working that ghoul thing in Wichita’-refusal to sell to realtor-vamp attack
Magic handcuffs restrain Michael-very convenient
Sam calls for Jessica the Reaper, gets Violet instead who won’t help them…but they are suddenly in the bunker, so Billie?
Why on earth is Maggie in charge of the hunters trying to save Kansas City???
Michael very confident that he is going to win
Sam recalls how Crowley helped get Sam freed from Gadreel by entering his mind
Use the device Toni Bevell used to get Dean into Mary’s mind back in season 12
Michael tries playing on Jack’s and Cas’ insecurities
Michael wants to destroy all of God’s worlds and then kill him (another ‘daddy issues’ bad guy…)
All God’s worlds are Chuck’s failed drafts (hinting toward season 15)
Sam figures out Michael isn’t torturing Dean: ‘Dean thrives on trauma. I mean, he's had to his whole life, right? It keeps him alert, keeps him ready, but if I wanted to distract Dean, I'd give him something he's never had before’
Dean’s bar scenario on repeat with subtle changes, shifts to include Sam and Cas
When Sam tries to convince Dean it’s not real Michael triggers reset
Bits of reality filter through
Sam says ‘Poughkeepsie’ and Dean remembers-Michael appears and tries to play mind games with Dean
Hunters return to bunker-just open the door, they don’t lock it anymore?
One of the hunters is a shapeshifter, Jack blasts him and the other monsters coming in the door
Dean throws Michael in the cooler room: ‘It’ll hold. My mind, my rules. I got him. I’m the Cage
Michael can’t control his army when locked in Dean’s head
Cas scolds Jack for using his powers and using up his soul
Michael loses it being beaten
Billie tells Dean all his possible deaths in her books have been rewritten with Michael using Dean to burn the world-except one
The whole scenario of Dean’s bar was riveting…I wanted to wipe the smugness off Michael’s face as he was taunting everyone…Making Dean’s mind Michael’s cage has potential…So I consider this a decent episode, especially with the Billie twist at the end. But I seriously wonder if Billie was playing Dean for her own ends or was the way the Michael story eventually played out truly from left field and totally unpredictable in Billie’s books? Also, as I was writing this summary it occurred to me that Michael is sitting in the bunker in Dean’s body, and when Dean locked him up Dean would have resumed control over his own body which was sitting in angel-proof handcuffs in Michael’s clothing with a bunch of hunters watching him, yet when Dean goes to his room he is in normal Dean clothes. Was that just a goof or was there a ‘missing scene’ that happened after Dean got his body back but before the Billie scene?
298. Damaged Goods (14.11)-W: Perez/D: Sgriccia
OMG Nick again…
Dean going to visit Mom alone-gives Sam a hug as he leaves-that’s not suspicious…
Mary still in Donna’s cabin (did she ever respond to Dean’s voicemail that Jack died? Presumably Dean left an updated message ‘just kidding…’)
Sam knows something’s wrong from the hug: ‘Mom, we don’t hug. I mean, we do, but only if it’s literally the end of the world, you know?’; also missing books from bunker library
Dean has a one-sided good-bye visit with Donna who calls him out on pretending he’s fine
Mary suggests having Sam come over to have a family reunion-Dean: ‘I don’t want Sam here’
Dean asks Mary to make Winchester Surprise-she leaves for the grocery store in daylight, it’s dark when she returns (how far away was the store???) but Dean uses the time to make something in the garage…He appropriately plays ‘No Time’ on Donna’s 8-track
Donna winning fight with Nick until he tases her-shocked he left her alive
Dean to Mary: ‘Everybody keeps asking how I am, and how I am is I don't wanna talk about it. Please’
Sam is already en route to Hibbing when Mary calls him after supper
And Nick shows up to make Mary help him find Abraxas
Mary has anti-possession tattoo on the side of her stomach
Dean pissed at Sam for letting Nick have a chance, but his words have double meaning that Sam doesn’t know: ‘ 'Cause when people are past the point of saving, maybe you need to learn to walk away’
Nick angel blades the demon and badass Donna kneecaps him
Sam to Nick: ‘You can burn’
Mary tells Dean he has to tell Sam what he is planning or she will
Dean tells Sam about his plan with the Ma’lak box and that it came from Billie
Sam: ‘So you came out here to see Donna, to see Mom on some…sick, secret farewell tour? You were gonna leave, and you weren't even gonna tell me. Me. Do you realize how messed up that is, how unfair that is?’-Dean: ‘I didn't have a choice! Sam, you're the last person I could tell, the last person I could be around, 'cause you're the only one that could've talked me out of it. And I won't be talked out of it. I won't. I'm doing this. Now, you can either let me do it alone or you could help me. But I'm doing this’
The Dean parts of the episode were very good…but if I wanted to see a messed-up human justify horrific crimes I would watch a crime procedural. Though the scene in the storage unit was a real edge-of-my-seat one…but I can think of ways to do that scene with a random person looking for the demon.
299. Prophet and Loss (14.12)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Wright
Dean has nightmare about being locked in Ma’lak box underwater
Sam trying to talk Dean out of using the Ma’lak box: ‘We know we could die doing what we do. It’s always a possibility. But what you’re talking about is far worse than death. Michael’s an archangel. He could literally keep you buried in a coffin, alive, forever’
Extremely gross murder
More Nick
Sam told Cas Dean’s plan-Dean not pleased
Dean: I know I wasn’t always the greatest brother to you…I know things got dicey...with Dad... And I…didn't always look out for you the way that I should've…I had my own stuff… In order to keep the peace, probably looked like I took his side quite a bit. Sometimes, when I was...away, you know it wasn't 'cause I just ran out, right? Dad would..send me away when I really pissed him off. I think you knew that’-Sam: I left that behind a long time ago…And if we're gonna get through this…if we could not have conversations that sound like deathbed apologies, I would really appreciate it’
Suits
Victim’s brother talks about pain of losing his big brother-let’s really hit Sam with what’s going to happen…
Murderer conveniently kills himself
Dean to Cas about his plan: ‘…if you were a friend of mine, then you will understand that I have to do this and you won't try to stop me. You think this is easy on me? It has to be done’
Cas on reviving Donatello: ‘Dean, if there's a spark -- a hope -- then I have to try. You taught me that’
Trailer hitch on Baby?!?
This was killer scene: Dean: ‘Well, I would call this a win. Kind of nice. We're going out on a high’-Sam: 'Going out' being the operative phrase…are you sorry that, after all these years, our entire lives, after I've looked up to you, after I've learned from you. I've copied you, I followed you to Hell and back, are you sorry that all of that it means nothing now?’-Dean: ‘Who's saying that?’-Sam: ‘You are, when you tell me I have to kill you. When you're telling me I have to just throw away everything we stand for, throw away faith, throw away family. We're the guys who save the world. We don't just check out of it!’ (pushes Dean)-Dean: ‘Sam, I have tried everything. Everything! I got one card left to play, and I have to play it'-Sam: ‘You have one card today! But we'll find another tomorrow. But if you quit on us today, there won't be no tomorrow! You tell me, uh, you don't know what else to do. I don't either, Dean. Not yet. But what you're doing now, it's wrong! It's quitting! I mean l-look what just happened. Donatello never quit fighting. So we could help him because he never gave up. I believe in us, Dean. (punch) I believe in us. (attempts another punch) Why don't you believe in us, too?’-Dean: ‘Okay, Sam. Let's go home…Maybe Billie's wrong. Maybe. But I do believe in us. I believe in all of us. And I'll keep believing until I can't. Until there's absolutely no other way. But when that day comes - if that day comes... Sam, you have to take it for what it is - the end. And you have to promise me that you'll do then what you can't do now, and that's let me go. And put me in that box…Don’t hit me again, okay?’
The case was crap, though it is nice that Donatello is back. (Note: neither Donatello nor Tony Alvarez, the perp, were among the future prophets Crowley kidnapped back in season 8…) But the final scene between Sam and Dean over the Ma’lak box is so, so good, I wish it could have been used in the previous episode.
300. Lebanon (14.13)-W: Dabb & Glynn/D: Singer
Boys tracking goods stolen from murdered hunter Bart Kemp
Dean after bad guy taken out: ‘They always talk too much’
Town kids gossip about Sam and Dean who go by last name Campbell
Pearl will give Dean what his heart desires
Dean charms the postal clerk for info on the girl who stole his car
Boys are driving an old black truck as they track down the Impala
Eliot, Stacy, and Max see boys disperse ghosts and get ‘the talk’ with instructions to keep it quiet
Couldn’t they have given JDM a wig to make him look a little like he did back when the show started???
John: ‘Dean? Sam? What in the hell? Sammy, aren’t you supposed to be in Palo Alto?’-Dean immediately thinks to ask John what year it is-John says 2003
We don’t see the full recap the boys give John of what’s happened since 2003 but John says: ‘I went out takin’ out Yellow Eyes’-which isn’t actually what happened, he sold his soul to save Dean-so what exactly did the boys tell him???
Mary’s reaction to seeing John
Dean: ‘You said that the pearl gives you what your heart desires, right?…I’ve wanted this since I was 4 years old’
Sam is worried right away about consequences of messing the timeline-Dean: ‘Can we just have one family dinner?’
John: ‘I remember I screwed up with you a lot, didn’t I?’-Sam: ‘I don’t want to talk about that’-John: ‘You didn’t have a problem talking about it before you left’-Sam: ‘Dad… for me? That fight… that was a lifetime ago. I don’t even remember what I said, and…You did some messed-up things. But…when I think about you…I don’t think about our fights…I think about you on the floor of that hospital. And I think about how I never got to say goodbye’-John: ‘I am so sorry’-Sam: ‘I’m sorry too. But you did your best, Dad. You fought for us and you loved us and that’s enough’
Now Sam is a bizarre internet guru and Dean is wanted for multiple crimes and the Lebanon townsfolk don’t know them
Zachariah is still horrible and arrogant
Cas is scary soldier
Sam gets to kill Zachariah this time and uses sigil to banish Cas
John to Dean: ‘It was supposed to end with me, with Yellow Eyes. But now you are a grown man, and I am incredibly proud of you. I guess that I had hoped, eventually, you would get yourself a normal life, a peaceful life, a family’-Dean: ‘I have a family’
Family dinner begins in silence with knowledge John has to be sent back-John: ‘Alright. Near as I can tell, we have two choices…we can think about what’s coming. Or we can be grateful for this time that we have together. Now, me…I choose grateful’ (When did John become a ‘glass half full’ guy?)
Wine with Winchester Surprise
Sam is regretting they have to send John back, Dean philosophical: ‘…for the longest time, I blamed Dad. I mean, hell, I blamed Mom, too, you know? I was angry. But say we could send Dad back knowing everything. Why stop there? Why not send him even further back and let some other poor sons of bitches save the world? But here’s the problem. Who does that make us? Would we be better off? Well, maybe. But I gotta be honest - I don’t know who that Dean Winchester is. And I’m good with who I am. I’m good with who you are. ‘Cause our lives - they’re ours. And maybe I’m just too damn old to want to change that’
John and boys hug
Dean’s flinch as the pearl shatters
John wakes in 2003, calls Dean, he had a good dream
I was skeptical about how John could possibly be brought back for the 300th episode but incredibly surprised that it was an excellent episode! The intense interaction between John and Mary makes John’s obsession with finding the demon that killed her plausible. And to me, this line of Dean’s ‘Cause our lives - they’re ours’ makes the future reveal that Chuck has been manipulating them all along the ultimate betrayal of the reason I loved this show. But more on that when we get to season 15…
301. Ouroboros (14.14)-W: Yockey/D: Kaderli
Rowena is helping track bad guy
Rowena wants to know how Jack got cured
Cas: ‘What you're doing, even just sitting here and having a cup of coffee, is a Herculean feat. I can't imagine the willpower it's taking to keep Michael imprisoned…Are you really fine?’-Dean: ‘There's this pounding in my head. It never stops. Michael's in there, and he is fighting hard to get out. And I can't let my guard down not for a second. I'm barely even sleeping’
Jack is sick again
Dean suit
In order to steal antivenom from vet, Rowena and Sam bring their ‘dog’-Jack transformed-and they have amusing ‘argument’
Rowena asks about Jack’s cure: ‘Fine. Don't tell me. But using dangerous, mysterious magic, regardless of the cost, that's a very on-brand me thing to do’-Sam: ‘Well, thank you’-Rowena: ‘Of course, Samuel, until very recently, I was the villain’-point Rowena LOL
The bunker is full of hunters with Maggie-why???-in charge
Dean is knocked out by gorgon banging Dean’s head into the wall-for all the beatings Dean’s endured, that seems pretty weak to knock him out so seriously
Jack takes off the gorgon’s head
Antivenom doesn’t work on Cas for some reason so Jack uses his soul power
Jack can’t stand idea of losing anyone-Cas: ‘Jack…Sam and Dean, they're human, and they're very extraordinary, brave, special humans, but they're still humans. And humans burn bright, but for a very brief time compared to…things like us. And eventually, they're gone, even the very best ones, and we have to carry on. It's…part of growing up…The point is that they were here at all and you got to know them...When they're gone, it will hurt, but that hurt will remind you of how much you loved them’-He could be speaking to fandom, season 15 as the final season had recently been announced when this aired…
Michael possessing Rowena, kills the hunters including Maggie
Rowena is not afraid of Michael killing her: ‘Fate says Sam Winchester's going to off me, which makes dinners a bit awkward, but does give one a certain sense of security’-so Michael says he’ll kill everyone in the bunker who Rowena cares about
Awesome Jack: ‘I'm not a child! I'm the son of Lucifer. I'm a Hunter. I am a Winchester!’
Jack absorbs Michael’s power and shows his wings
Wow! Did not see that ending coming! The case itself was intriguing and it felt like a full episode-and then we get Michael/Rowena and Jack ending him and mind blown!
302. Peace of Mind (14.15)-W: Fitzmartin & Yockey/D: Sgriccia
Sam finds case, takes Cas while Dean keeps an eye on Jack
Cas driving a different car
Sam suit and overcoat
Dean takes Jack to see Donatello to check on his soul’s state
Donatello: You know, Jack, our galaxy's all bright and shiny and spinny, but in its center lies this very large black hole. It's the same with me. I'm all bright and shiny, obviously -- Not so much spinny. But inside? Empty…I feel...nothing. Losing your soul doesn't make you bad. It doesn't make you anything. It's an absence of...of pity, of empathy...of humanity…I ask myself what would Mister Rogers do?’-Jack: ‘Sam and Dean are the best men I know’-Donatello: ‘…just think WWWD-What would the Winchesters do?’
Sam falls under spell of perfect 1950s life
Sam’s wife Sunny is hysterical in her obliviousness to anything that contradicts her perfect life
Mayor: ‘In this town I’m God’-Sam: ‘No, you’re not. Believe me, we’ve met God’-Cas: ‘God has a beard’ LOL
Sam is feeling guilty over the deaths of the hunters (If Jack is so powerful, why didn’t he resurrect them right away?)
Jack kills the gorgon’s snake out of misguided kindness
Weird filler episode, felt like the writers’ room wanted to make a sitcom situation and then turn it bad.
302. Don’t Go Into the Woods (14.16)-W: Perez & Vaught/D: Fitzpatrick
Grossest bathroom ever
Lebanon kid Eliot watching Ghostfacers on phone
Suits with overcoats
Night when cop informed of missing person-day when he shows up at site
Jack: ‘Dean says any music made after 1979 sucks ass'
Jack hangs with the Lebanon kids into nighttime, showing off his hunting prowess with an angel blade
When Jack accidentally stabs Stacy and then heals her the kids turn against him from fear of what he is
Sheriff explains tribe cursed the Parker son because he hurt the tribe-did we need to see the flashback while he was explaining?
Sheriff thinks boys should tell everyone about monsters-while hiding truth from his son
Some of the forest scenes are raining heavily and some are not-must have been challenging weather during that shoot
Sam drops knife-come on, he’s a better hunter than that
It looked like the Kohonta took a bite out of the Sheriff but he is minimally wounded when paramedics show up
Jack doesn’t tell Sam and Dean about hanging with the town kids or the accident and promises not to use his powers without permission
Another filler episode. For some reason I was bothered by how unlike his dad the Sheriff’s son looked.
303. Game Night (14.17)-W: Glynn/D: Showalter
Then: refresh on Sister Jo
Don’t hurt Donatello!
Jack making Jiffypop Popcorn! Is that even still sold?
Mary’s back
Cas brings ruby earrings to get Sister Jo’s help in contacting God-‘lightly cursed, but it’s nothing that would affect an angel’ LOL
Only God can restore a soul
Dean and Mary head to Donatello’s house and find Nick…really?
Dean won’t let Sam interrogate Nick: ‘…if Nick looks at you wrong you’re gonna waste him’
If only Cas were around he could pull Donatello’s location from Nick’s brain…
Sister Jo has lost faith in God: ‘God doesn’t meddle…he saves one angel and watches millions of people die screaming every day. What does that say about him?’
Sister Jo calls Cas out on why he wants to contact God: ‘Because in your mind, it'd be easier to call God than to tell Sam and Dean Winchester the truth’-that Jack is soulless
Dean beats crap out of Nick who claims that he and Dean are alike then demands to see Jack
Giving up on trying to figure out logistically where Nick took Donatello relative to where he is summoning Lucifer relative to the bunker…
Sam just shoot Nick now!
Nick takes out Sam
Jack takes out Nick, Mary horrified…frankly I was cheering…Jack heals Sam-so was Sam dead and Jack brought him back or was Sam just mortally wounded but still alive?
And Mary misses the cue to leave Jack alone…
That didn’t go well…It really was an accident, but when the most powerful being in the universe has an accident it’s bad…
304. Absence (14.18)-W: Berens/D: Lopez-Corrado
We’re STILL not done with Lucifer??? Really??? He’s Jack’s subconscious???
There is supposed to be impressive circle of downed trees-but it’s too dark to actually see anything…
Cas flashback to bonding with Mary…
Back in bunker boys can’t reach Mary or Jack-Dean sure everything’s fine-firmly believing in Jack still, especially since he just fixed Sam
Cas admits he thought something was wrong with Jack and Dean loses it: ‘if he did something to her, if she is -- (points to Castiel) Then you're dead to me’-I don’t quite see why Dean blames Cas so vehemently (though that is Dean’s mode of attacking when emotionally scared)
Rowena says Mary Winchester is no longer on earth and Dean goes ballistic, then says they will get Rowena to bring Mary back
Rowena trying to do the right thing when Jack shows up
Jack’s flashback of Mary segues into Sam’s flashback which is weird
Sam blames himself because he brought Jack back with Lily Sunder’s spell
Lucifer/Nick/Jack’s subconscious taunts Jack about trying to make things right
Dumah tells Cas Mary is in special heaven with John
Dean has his flashback memory with Mary
Rowena warns of awful result if Jack does the resurrection spell while so out of control…but nothing happens, just Mary’s body shows up-this feels like a letdown after scary build up
Cas confirms he saw Mary in heaven
Dean is ice cold as Mary’s pyre burns
Mary’s initials are on the table now with Sam and Dean’s
The annoyance at Lucifer’s reappearance, the random flashbacks, and the letdown of nothing happening when Jack does the scary spell fights against the genuine tension of the boys initially finding out what happened, Rowena’s scenes, and the boys’ heartbreaking grief to make this a muddle of an episode…
305. Jack in the Box (14.19)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Singer
Funeral with AU hunters for Mary
AU Bobby walks in and shockingly kills hunter-who turns out to have been a shapeshifter crashing the funeral
Bobby going to take Jack out
More Lucifer/Nick/Jack subconscious nonsense
Dean goes out to grieve alone-heartbreaking
Cas asks Dumah to help find Jack
Dumah plays on Jack’s need for redemption to use him to restore heaven’s glory days when humans feared heaven’s wrath
Dumah has Jack make angels out of humans (he added maybe 20 to the handful of angels left?)
Preacher being eaten by worms is gross
Suits
Ma’lak box back in play only now for Jack-Sam against it but Dean prevails
Dumah threatens Mary and John’s heaven if Cas interferes with her plans for Jack and Cas kills her instead of talking-Yay!!!
Sam prays to Jack to get him back to the bunker
Though soulless, Jack isn’t evil and accepts responsibility for ‘the accident’-Dean: ‘So she made you do it?’-Jack: No, it was me…I guess I snapped. Before I knew it, it was all over’
They tell Jack going in the Ma’lak box is for his own protection to avoid any more accidents until they can fix his soul
Lucifer/Nick/Jack’s subconscious convinces Jack that the boys lied to him
And Jack is out
I was so happy when Cas just killed Dumah instead of trying to reason with her…And it was heartbreaking to watch Sam lie to Jack to lure him into the box…Could they have tried to reason with him???
306. Moriah (14.20)-W: Dabb/D: Sgriccia
Jack accuses the boys of lying to him-but he doesn’t kill them, just sends them flying
Dean wants Jack dead and is angry when Cas doesn’t agree
Dean trying to convince Sam they have to kill Jack: ‘I know how much he meant to you…but this is not Jack anymore…we’re gonna have to do the ugly thing’
Jack upset by people lying, commands ‘Stop lying!’ and chaos ensues
Suits
Sam: ‘You're always calling me a geek, but you know every word to every Led Zeppelin song -- backwards and forwards -- you can discuss in detail every major rock drummer between '67 and '84, and... you watch "Jeopardy!" every night’
Sam admits his favorite singer is Celine Dion, not Elvis like he’s always claimed
TV newscaster says the president disclosed his tax history, ties to Russia, and demon deal he made with Crowley
Cas wants to go to Hell to study the Cage, presumably to make something to hold Jack
And Chuck shows up
Jack goes to see his grandparents again only this time his grandmother tells him to leave because when they checked his story out it was a lie
Dean is trolling the internet during the crisis?
Chuck says he’s here because Jack’s a problem
Chuck says people need to lie to keep the peace-Cas: ‘Seems like an odd stance for you’-Chuck: Is it? I’m a writer. Lying’s kind of what we do’
Chuck snaps them back to bunker; he has been hanging with Amara
Chuck: ‘Listen, you guys know me. I’m hand-off, I built the sandbox, you play in it. You want to fight Leviathans? Cool, you got that. You want to go up against…The British Men of Letters? Okay, little weak, but okay. But when things get really bad, like the apocalypse or the other apocalypse, that’s when I have to step in…’this is bad-like Me level bad’-Sam: ‘Can you stop him?’-Chuck: ‘Not exactly but you can’
Chuck gives them gun that will kill Jack and also the person that fires it
Chuck on Billie as Death: ‘…she’s always sticking her scythe where it doesn’t belong’
Dean ready to die to kill Jack: ‘We don’t have a choice, Sam’-Sam: ‘Of course we do, don’t we always?...Isn’t that the point of everything we’ve ever done that we always have a choice?’
Sam asks Chuck who many other realities are there-Chuck: ‘I don’t know, kinda lost count’-Sam: Michael said that you create these worlds and you just toss them away like failed versions of some book…Is that what you’re doing to us?’-Chuck: ‘You and your brother, of all the Sams and Deans in all the multiverse, you’re my favorite…you’re my favorite show’
Cas meets up with Jack who did not kill his grandmother when she upset him
Sam: ‘Why, when the chips are down, when the world is failing, why does it always have to be on us?!’-Chuck: ‘Because you’re my guys’
Sam figures out that Chuck is scared of Jack
Chuck has already sent Dean to kill Jack
Jack to Cas: ‘All I ever wanted was to be good. But now I’m just empty…I know you’re here because you love me and I want to love you back. It’s just I can’t’
Dean confronts Jack-Cas tells him to run but Jack doesn’t: ‘I know what I’ve done and you were right all along. I am a monster’-he kneels for Dean to kill him and Dean can’t do it
Chuck freaks out: ‘This isn’t how the story is supposed to end…the father killing his own son…This is epic!’
Sam: ‘He’s saying he’s been playing us this whole time…our entire lives…Mom, Dad, everything…This is all because you wrote it all, right?...Because we’re your favorite show?’
Chuck will bring back Mary if Dean kills Jack
Dean: ‘No…My mom was my hero and I miss her…but she would not want this…Cause Sam’s right…you knew everything that was going on so why the games, Chuck?...we’re done talking cause this isn’t just a story, it’s our lives! So God or no God, you go to hell’
Chuck kills Jack, throws Dean into a tombstone when he tries to stop Chuck-and Sam shoots Chuck in the shoulder with the magic gun
Chuck: ‘Story’s over. Welcome to the end’ and souls explode from hell as ‘God was Never on Your Side’ by Motorhead plays
Billie wakes Jack in the Empty…
And we get a lame montage of Woman in White, Jack Gacy clown, and Bloody Mary about to hurt innocent people
The writer’s attempt to mimic Kripke by putting humor in serious episode (the not-lying part) didn’t work for me…Dean not killing Jack is true to who he has always been and was the best moment of the episode…And this is when Supernatural’s writers betrayed me, negating everything that Sam and Dean did for the past 14 seasons by saying God was manipulating the outcomes to get the drama he wanted and their choices weren’t free will at all…
Five episodes I could unreservedly say were good out of 20…there were parts of others that were very good stuck in so-so episodes…And I hate how the premise of Sam and Dean’s lives has been marginalized to simply being Chuck’s whims without even seeing how badly season 15 screws it up…