Supernatural 14.18 – Death of Innocence: Winchester Style

Can anyone believe we’re almost done with the season? It feels like a minute ago we were watching Sam shout, “ENOUGH!” at some demons. What a journey it’s been and I don’t think there is any slowing down for the last two episodes, if this one is anything to go by.

Before we talk about everything, I need to say THANK YOU to the writers and TPTB for keeping Nick dead. I was concerned based on the promo that he was going to somehow miraculously survive. I’m happy the character is gone. I do want to mention however, as I did last week, that this is nothing against Mark Pellegrino. I find him to be a great person, actor, and activist. It actually makes me like him more and find him more talented that I could hate a character as much as I hated Nick/Lucifer, but love Mark so much. Okay, moving on.

Right from the end of Season 11, when we saw Mary’s return for the first time, I was pretty lukewarm on it. Yes, seeing her was a shock and the realization of how this was going to affect Sam and Dean really was interesting, but after a few episodes, I felt like she didn’t really have much of a purpose in this story. Yes, she is the reason the story exists at all, but I didn’t find her presence in the show to be that interesting. She didn’t bring anything to the screen that made me want to like or dislike her so much. Sure, her actions weren’t always perfect, but whose are? It’s sad that she’s gone, but personally, I’m not that broken up over it and I think it makes for an interesting predicament that the Winchesters and Jack find themselves in.

In addition, I thought the use of flashbacks was inspired. For a lot of people, myself included, the flashbacks that we saw put Mary in a different light and made me wish we’d seen more of that side of her throughout her tenure. I do think that the flashbacks were made interesting because we saw one from Castiel first, involving Mary’s reaction to angel’s being around, even though she’d been the one to say to both of her sons that angels were watching over them. Then we see Sam’s flashback, but this also involves Jack, even though Sam wasn’t really there to see the beginning of it. I did also enjoy Mary’s sense of humor in the scene when she shifted the table to cover the marks left by Jack’s knife handling. That scene was a really beautiful moment and it reminded me of Sam’s catharsis with John in the 300^th episode. He needed to hear that from Mary. For me, Dean’s flashback was the hardest. Although it was the shortest and no actual words were said, the amount of emotion that played across Jensen’s face was incredible. He managed to look happy, content, but also totally amazed, all at the same time. He is an incredible actor and that flashback had me right in the feels.

Let’s talk Winchesters. After seeing the promo and the uproar that the line, “You’re dead to me,” caused, I got the feeling we were being minorly played with. So, I went in with low expectations in terms of Sam and Dean’s reactions. But I also think that all of the Winchesters; Sam, Dean, and Cas (although that’s controversial, I think Cas most definitely qualifies), acted in character. All of them taking on blame that’s not theirs? Check. Dean being angry to the point of destruction? Check. Dean saying things that he doesn’t always mean in the heat of the moment? Double check. Sam doing is best to fix it any way that he knows how? Check. Cas feeling as if he didn’t want to lose his family in Jack? Check. Cas doing his best to fix it by going to Heaven? Check. I feel like people don’t really realize that even if there are differences in the way the Winchesters act from episode to episode, in the long run, they are consistent with their actions and reactions. I also did have a feeling, “You’re dead to me,” was more an if thing then a when thing.

Jack is such an interesting conundrum. I’m genuinely confused because we haven’t been given an indication of whether he is truly soulless. We’ve seen multiple people say it, but there has been nothing to show that he is totally without a soul. No test has been done, like on Sam in Season 6, so I’m having trouble deciding what to think because there isn’t any real “proof.” I do think that Jack is always an interesting character because he presents such an interesting character arc. From the moment we met him, Jack has always been a bit of an innocent. Not though any fault of his own, but because of his lack of knowledge, he is perceived as an innocent and treated as such. Thus, when he goes bad, it seems out of character. However, let us remember that he is Lucifer’s son, whether or not he has the grace to back that up, and now he has the grace of a megalomaniacal Archangel floating in the mix, along with very powerful and potent soul magic that he has been using, without the knowledge of the people who care for him. Not quite as innocent as we’d all like to believe, and there is no doubt that all of this has an effect on him. I’m intrigued to see where everything will go with him toward the end of the season, and with the knowledge that 15 is the last.

I guess we’ll see soon what else is going to happen to the Winchesters. It’s never good, but I have a weird feeling this one might end a little better or a little worse than we expect.