Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are in this episode review. Read with Caution.

Season 14… I have been with this show for the past 14 seasons, watched every episode, good and bad, witnessed every plot twist - repetitive or refreshing, and some how the latter has come up more than once in this episode. The refreshing is something hard to do, especially in Supernatural, but the show manages to do so with three characters: Michael, Nick, and Jack.

Those three are our main focus of the episode, a large detraction from the “Sam and Dean” formula, but they were able to keep my interest and gave me hope in my investment. Let’s start with Michael and how Jensen Ackles has played the character.

You can tell Ackles is having a fun time playing someone other than Dean Winchester. His mannerisms have improved and make me believe he is not slipping up. This is proven when Dean briefly speaks to Michael to give him back control. But Michael is not finished doing what he wants to do… which is experiment on monsters.

This is kind of recycling the “monster plot” of season six, but it is done spectacularly better with how Michael is doing it. He’s not trying to figure out how they work like Crowley did but rather he’s attempting to improve them with his angelic grace. Starting with vampires.

The end result? Werewolves are now immune to silver bullets. The hunters (Sam, Bobby, and Mary) have a difficult time grasping this new immunity, but then they chop off the wolves’ heads and call it a day. Then Michael (?) stumbles in, claiming to be Dean again… Yeah, I don’t know how I feel about this… Like is it Dean? Or is Michael playing everyone?

I hope it’s the latter and he grows immune or resist to angelic weaknesses to avoid exposure. You know, like werewolves being immune to silver. Otherwise, this is like Demon Dean all over again… Like Dean be evil for more than 3 episodes for the love of Chuck!

Onto the other two storylines:

Nick is struggling with his Lucifer memories and the renewed grief he has over his family. Castiel is also having a hard time getting through to Nick and speaking to him… because he looks like Lucifer. The “snap” moment he does to Castiel reveals that his psyche might not have recovered or has been permanently broken after all his time as Lucifer’s vessel.

It’s crazy how I was feeling sorry for Nick in last week’s season premiere, but now I’m worried about the kind of damage he’ll do to the world in search of his family’s killer. He already killed his old friend with a hammer. The lengths he’ll go shows no bounds.

This is an exciting AND UNEXPECTED development.

Now we move onto Jack. He is feeling sad without his grace and after learning it might take from a month to a century to recover his powers, he goes in search of himself. This leads him to meeting his grandparents (Kelly’s parents). They are the nicest people in the world, and the pain on Jack’s face tells it all. He is pained that he cannot tell them who he is, but they’re able to recognize him as family on some level.

Castiel and Jack shared two good scenes in this episode. One before Jack goes and another after he returns from his trip. Castiel is becoming a good father and shares his sentiments on what it means to be human, which leads to a conflict of interest when it comes to handling Michael/Dean.

Jack wants Michael dead even if that means Dean dies too. Castiel is against this, having found ways over the years to ensure neither Winchester dies under any circumstance. The tension is real, and the two of them even sit on different sides of the archway to show their separation on the issue.

This episode was better than expected in my opinion. My expectations for this show have been low since season 13. I thought it was losing momentum, but this current season shook up the status quo in a different way than before, and has put investment in other characters beside Sam and Dean.

Keep this up, Supernatural and we might get to see Season 15. We’ll probably see another season regardless. I don’t think there is an end in mind for this show yet.

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