THEN!
Death has a plan, and Amara gave the boys Mom back. Sam and Dean realize that both Chuck and Amara need to die.
NOW!
Dr. Sexy, MD is running a soup kitchen! His daughter, Sylvia, is also there, along with a soft boy named Connor, and a fancy rich girl who are all working the line. Connor is walking home after getting a lesson on compassion, and after hearing voices in an alley, trips over a low-rent Teddy Ruxpin.
He is then brutally murdered by an unknown assailant!
DUN!!
Back at the bunker, Dean thinks he’s found a lead on Amara in New Jersey. Sam is dubious, but even a weak lead is welcome at this point.
Cass wants to join the boys, but the boys want him to stay back and keep Jack company. But once Jack finds a possible case, a seemingly run-of-the-mill murder, Dean tells them to go all Highway to Heaven, and hit the road.
Jack gets his suit – “We should wear matching ties!” – and Agent Swift and Agent Lovato are on the case.
Jack and Cass are being very odd, like they are, and even though the local sheriff is flummoxed by their behavior, she gives them the low down.
Cass decides summoning a crossroads demon is a good way to see if this murder is supernatural in any way. Jack, on the advice from Sam that social media can helps with leads, signs up for his first account while Cass digs a hole, and drops in a pic of him in a cowboy hat from ep. 13×06.
Zach the crossroads demon shows, and lets us know that Rowena has a hard rule that souls end up where they belong, so the crossroad demon game is super boring these days.
Nice to hear Rowena is running a tight ship!
Turns out the murder is just your run-of-the-mill, human nutjob killing people. Zach wants to come along, seeing as he’s got nothing to do, but Cass and Jack decline, heading off to try and solve the murder, because helping people is the right thing to do.
Sam and Dean check in from Baby with Jack and Cass. After a quick discussion, and Dean offering a game plan for how to proceed, we get our first Sam and Dean BM scene.
Sam questions the Amara plan, pointing out that they are going to be setting her up for her own death, and that seems pretty mean, even for them. Dean reminds him that Billie said they were the Messengers of God’s Destruction, and that doesn’t sound like a bloodless adventure to him.
Jack goes to “drink the Kool-Aid”, and volunteers at the soup kitchen, while Cass has a sit-down with Pastor Dr. Sexy, MD.
Cut to Victoria, being held in a shady room, gagged, and tied to a chair. She stole money the church coffer on her way out the door, and now she is about to lose a finger for being a thief. The camera pans up as she screams, and we see that she is being recorded. THIS WAS UNEXPCTED. (And very Se7en.)
Jack gets a quick training in the ways of soup kitchening. When he tries to casually bring up Connor, Sylvia storms off, not wanting to even talk about her dead friend. Jack follows her, apologizing by saying he’s bad at being a real boy (basically).
Jack and Sylvia bond over having dead Moms, and she tells Jack to put his trust in God, because people are the worst.
Cass is interviewing the pastor (Dr. Sexy, MD!!) in his office. Seems a former member named Rudy may be a suspect, and Cass is quick to say some not so nice stuff about God. Dr. Pastor gives Castiel the side-eye, and then gives a brief telling of how he has reformed the church once his hardcore religious wife died.
Sam and Dean stop at a Pennsylvania Gas ‘n’ Sip in a blizzard, and Dean refuses road snacks, as he’s gearing up for the Atlantic City buffet. Sam’s GPS tells them of a lane closure on the very road they were headed to, extending their trip a few hours. They agree on pork rinds as Baby fills with gas, and as Dean heads back to the Gas’n’ Sip, Amara appears!
You’d think she could do something about that blizzard they’re all standing around in!
Apparently, Amara can SMELL DEAN. He has a very distinctive musk. (Oh. My.)
They all head over for pierogis and a chat.
Tied up Victoria is further tortured, another finger lopped off, and apparently, Time Is Running Out.
What is even happening????
Pastor Sexy, MD gives a little speech to his six congregants, and then asks Jack (HELLO) to share his journey. Jack is unable to find the words, so Cass steps in.
Cass knows what blind faith is. He’s done some terrible things. He followed orders without a thought, and when it all came crashing down, he was lost. But he found a family (Sam & Dean), and became a father (Jack), and rediscovered who he was.
He IS the sweetest little angel!!!
It’s funny how Dr. Pastor Sexy, MD keeps talking about God to the two people who actually know him.
The TV in the soup kitchen pops on, the image of tortured Victoria flickers on, horrifying the congregants. Cass says he knows who did it, and he runs off!
Seated across from each other at the pierogi deli, Sam and Dean drop the plan on Amara, conveniently leaving out the part where she dies too.
The boys think they know somethin’ about somethin’, but Amara tells them they don’t know nothin’. Chuck and Amara were born together, and when they split, (the Big Bang?) the universe was created. Amara refuses to help them, saying she can’t put Chuck through the agony he put her through by locking him up.
Family, amirite?
Jack smashes through the door of Cass’ suspect, Rudy, only to find him dead, his corpse tied to the bed and flies and stink filling the room, Lust written in blood on the wall.
Back in Baby Sam assesses their situation, but all Dean is doing is brooding. He’s got a question for Amara, and he leaves Sam in the car, and heads back into the pierogi joint.
Dean wants to know why Amara brought back Mary. Dean is so mad, but he manages to keep it simmering under the surface.
Amara says she did it for two reasons.
To show Dean that the reality of his mom is better than the myth. That now is better than then. That knowing his mom as a real, complicated person was better than a childhood dream.
With tears in his eyes, Dean asks about the second reason.
She says she wanted to release Dean from his anger, that having his mother back would put out that fire, but she sees that that didn’t work.
Dean’s eyes clear, and his face goes hard. He’s not angry, he furious! Turns out his whole life has been a big game, that everyone he knows has been living in a hamster wheel, rigged from the jump. He points out that Chuck is playing with Amara too, and she’s just sitting by doing nothing while worlds are destroyed.
Amara looks shook.
She asks Dean if she can trust him.
Dean lies with the straightest of faces, “I would never hurt you.” It is hard core, and Amara softens a little. She says she’ll think about helping, genuine look of being torn crawls across her face.
I was not a big fan of Emily Swallow’s Amara, but this scene is a humdinger, and a Keno playing, pink pantsuit wearing Amara I like.
Sylvia runs outside after the torture video, and the rich girl follows her out to check on her. Sylvia realizes her friend has posted about the torture video on her Insta account. Sylvia yells at her for not being a real believer, stabs the girl in the belly, and runs off!
Everyone gathers outside, gawping at the stabbed girl, when Dr. Sexy Pastor runs off! Cass sends Jack after him, while he uses his angel light thingy to heal the girl’s stab wound.
Sylvia puts a knife to Pastor Daddy’s throat and threatens him for changing the church. When Jack arrives and tries to intervene, she stabs him in the chest!
Sylvia is stunned that Jack just heals himself, which gives Castiel the chance to enter and give Sylvia the ol’ two-finger forehead sleepytime move, and Sylvia crumples to the ground.
Oh badass Castiel, I love it when you show up!
Dr. Pastor MD is nonplussed at the news that Castiel is an angel, which seems odd, but whatever, show! He watches as his daughter is perp walked into a cop car by Zach??? Hmm, stange time to introduce a new bad guy, but whatever, show!
Jack and Cass get a BM scene! Jack admits he’s a lying liar who lies. Death told him that when he kills Chuck and Amara, he will die too. Billie’s spell is turning him into a bomb he won’t survive. Jack asks Cass to not tell Sam and Dean.
Castiel is beside himself. He refuses to watch Jack die again, but Jack says its not his choice.
Back in the bunker,
Dean, wearing his dead guy robe, drinks straight from the bottle, like you do. Cass enters, and they catch each other up on their respective road trips. Cass is all, Okay, I gotta run! Dean is all, wait, what’s happening??? Cass is all, I gotta go find another way.
Dean:
Castiel leans in dramatically, “Dean, in case something goes wrong and I don’t make it back, there’s something you and Sam need to know.”
DUNNNNNNNNNN
The promo monkeys used that quote in the preview, and its the last line of the episode???? Boooo, promo monkeys!
Welp, five more episodes to go, my friends. I am loving Alex Calvert’s charming take on Jack, making a late series character entry endearing instead of desperate. Everything’s pretty much set up for the final finale, and it looks like next week is a Monster of the Week episode?
That’s fine with me!
NEXT! One of Dean’s childhood traumas come back to haunt him.