Rowena returns in ep 7.

Along with some other familiar faces. Supernatural boss Andrew Dabb has confirmed to TV Guide that in addition to the Wayward Sisters, Rowena (Ruth Connell) will be back, as will Apocalypse World Bobby (Jim Beaver) and Charlie (Felicia Day). While Rowena will continue to be the troublemaking witch we know and love, Bobby and Charlie will be very different from the versions we knew in the real world, since they've been shaped by their experiences in Apocalypse World.

Supernatural returns for Season 14 on Thursday, Oct. 11 at 8/7c on The CW.

Guest stars: Ruth Connell (Rowena), Craig March (Frank Kellogg), Raylene Harewood (Madelyn)

Jack is having trouble with his vessel so he collapses.
Scenes were filmed on a hospital set with Sam, Cas and Dean.
Scenes were filmed by a river with Dean.

CARPE DIEM – Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Castiel (Misha Collins) track down a Shaman (guest star Dimitri Vantis), who may be able to help a friend. Nick (Mark Pellegrino) continues to spiral down a dark path as he looks for answers surrounding the deaths of his wife and son. Jack (Alexander Calvert) turns to Dean (Jensen Ackles) for help enjoying the human experience. John Showalter directed the episode written by Eugenie Ross-Leming & Brad Buckner (#1407). Original airdate 11/29/2018.

It’s a tearjerking hour, with scenes that will inspire a thousand tumblr gif sets, and I’d rank it as one of the top episodes of the season so far. In case you don’t remember, episode six ended with Jack (Alexander Calvert) collapsing with a distraught Dean (Jensen Ackles) by his side. In “Unhuman Nature,” Dean joins with Jack’s other dads, Castiel (Misha Collins) and Sam (Jared Padalecki), to try to save the fading Nephilim, and it leads to some heavy stuff.

“You had to go to a place about what’s it like to lose a son,” said producer and co-writer of the episode Brad Buckner, explaining how all the guys end up as “grieving parents,” worried about Jack as they wait in a hospital. “Dean was so hostile to jack at the outset, so how’s he going to react to this? There was a ton of emotional stuff to work with.”

Eugenie Ross-Leming, the other writer of the episode, enjoyed the emotional scenes: “I always like things where Dean gets to show a little bit of tenderness coming through.” That tenderness leads to some of the best scenes of the episode, where Dean lets Jack drive the Impala and bonds with this pseudo-son.

Driving the legendary “Baby” was “nerve-wracking,” according to Calvert: “I was pretty stoked though. I was visibly excited, so I think the acting part of ack being, like, fired up was like extremely simple for me to act.”

Much of that driving lesson was just Ackles and Calvert left to their own devices. “The beginning of that scene was written, but it was really great because we had either the camera mounted or the car chasing us,” Calvert shared. “We just had a lot of road to do what we wanted, so a lot of it was improvised.”

Another improvised bit that you won’t see in the final episode (but you may see on the post-production crew’s “Shaving People, Punting Things” channel) was how Calvert’s costars decided to dog-pile on him every time he fell to the ground. “I just had to keep falling over and over again,” Calvert sighed. “I probably fell like forty times within the episode, and uh, you know, I thought they’d get bored of jumping on top of me, but their enthusiasm for dog-piling never let up.”

He added, “I’m sending them my chiropractor bill.”

When medicine doesn’t help Jack, the boys enlist the aid of our favorite red-headed witch, Rowena (Ruth Connell). Having been tortured by Lucifer twice, Rowena isn’t initially excited about helping Satan’s son.

“It’s your worst nightmare scenario, but it changes quite quickly,” Connell shared. “She just genuinely took a shine to Jack.” We don’t see much of Rowena with the boys this episode, but Connell is hopeful we’ll see more in the future, especially Rowena’s relationship with Sam: “Sam is the only who’s gone through what I’ve gone through,” Connell said, “and he’s just got a squashy bun heart.”

Not such a squashy bun: Nick (Mark Pellegino), the vessel of Lucifer who miraculously survived the archangel’s demise. We’ll see more of his story in the next episode, which was exciting for Ross-Leming: “I love writing Mark Pellegrino, and we’re so used to writing him as Lucifer, where he’s cheeky and villainous.”

However, playing a new character has been “challenging,” according to Pellegrino. Playing Nick “has a history and backstory that I feel I have to flesh out for myself, so that I’m actually saying what I say from a real place.” Pellegrino was surprised at the dark backstory we’ve learned for Nick this season. “I considered Nick from the fifth season to be a pious guy,” Pellegrino said, but it turns out “he’s more complicated than that.”

Pellegrino wasn’t the only archangel on the carpet. We talked to Richard Speight Jr. (Gabriel), who has also directed seven episodes of the series. “I thought I was gonna do one guest spot and go home,” Speight said of his first episode in season two. “It never would have in my wildest dream that I would still be here on this carpet … having conversations about the 300th episode, having died multiple times, having made friendships that I’ll have for the rest of my days, and having broken into directing. It’s crazy.”

Speight also got a second series out of the SPN fandom and family, Kings of Con, a crowdfunded look behind the scenes of fan conventions. And Speight has great news on that front: “I will say this: You will see more Kings of Con. We’re just solidifying the home for that.”

As you can see in the preview below for this week’s episode of SUPERNATURAL, Jack (Alex Calvert) is very ill and he declares “before my life is over, I want to live it.” That leads to a little road trip with Dean, but back in the bunker, Sam and Castiel have called in some help in the form of Rowena (Ruth Connell) to assist Jack with whatever is happening to him. During a recent celebration for SUPERNATURAL’s 300th episode, we spoke with both Calvert and Connell about this week’s episode.

When asked how the poor guy is dealing with being ill after all of the trouble that has plagued him throughout his short life, Calvert said “It’s been a rough ride for him, right? [But] he’s just trying to enjoy the best version of his little moments that he can take.” And while Jack may just want to spend some time enjoying things, there are others in his life who want to try and find a way to help him: “I think [with] the Winchesters, there’s no kind of stone they won’t turn over, including Rowena — [which means they are] bringing back someone that they’re not necessarily great friends with.” As for Jack’s enduring childlike innocence despite his troubles, Calvert said “I think that’s actually my favorite part about him. That no matter how terrible sh*t keeps happening to him, he just kind of has this undying kind of willingness to see goodness in places. That’s really what I like about his character: he’ll keep trying and he’ll keep seeing the good in things.”

Meanwhile, Connell hinted that “We see, perhaps, a more kind of aunty Rowena. And I mean aunty like ‘uncle and aunty’ type side of her. Which is nice and was fun to play. I love what they’re doing with her. She’s got a lot more human elements. I’m excited to see [with] the next episode that I’m going to be filming, where it goes after [episode 7].”

Finally, Nick’s continued existence in this world has plagued characters like Sam, Jack and Castiel, each of whom have terrible histories with Lucifer. Rowena bonded with Sam last year when she commiserated about how traumatized she is by Lucifer after he killed her. How might she react to meeting up with Nick? Connell didn’t tell us when or if that might happen, but she did say “I would love [to see that meeting]. I love [Mark] Pellegrino, we get along great. We do panels with each other at conventions now. He’s the squashiest bun of a man you’ve ever met. He does a Mickey Mouse impersonation and dances to Dancing Queen. So I love with Mark, he’s such a brilliant actor. I just love it as Ruth to work with Mark.” All of which is likely the opposite from how a meeting between Rowena and Nick might turn out.