Before I get to “Unhuman Nature”, a few words about episode 6, “Optimism.”

As always, I hate it when Sam and Dean are separated, and they are separated for pretty much the whole thing. Sam is on a stakeout with Charlie, and Dean goes looking for a monster with Jack.

Dean and Jack are adorable together, and we get one of my favorite exchanges of the season, where Jack calls Dean an old man to try and impress a girl. Dean’s reaction is gold, Jerry. GOLD.

The hunt has a nice little twist, with the woman they think they are protecting, turning out to be the monster, human style. I liked it.

Sam and Charlie on a stakeout wasn’t quite as good, although Sam with the fidget spinner is a nice piece of hilarity.

I understand this Charlie isn’t our Charlie, and we get some background on her, and her reasoning why she doesn’t want to hunt anymore. Her reasons are perfectly valid, and Sam gets a little pushy trying to convince her she’s wrong, which didn’t sit to well with me.

I mean, it’s not out of character for Sam to try and rah-rah someone into hunting – he’s done it with Dean, Cass, and some others I can’t think of right now – but it feels wrong once we know Charlie’s heartbreaking story.

At least they got the creepy fly monster, and I’m guessing being covered in monster guts won’t change Charlie’s mind anytime soon.

At the end of this episode, Jack has a coughing fit in the bunker kitchen, and then collapses in a heap, much to Dean’s surprize.

As episode 7 opens, we have Nick “confessing” to the priest he has crucified.

Ohhhhhh, Nick.

This guy is not taking to being back in the world very well. Does he still have some of Lucifer in him? Were all those years riding shotgun to the Devil enough to damage him permanently?

He’s got an urge to kill randomly, but is still human enough to know it’s wrong. But if you are involved with the slaughter of his family, well, all bets are off. All his searching leads him to the police officer who was patrolling the night of the murders, and after some torture, he gets the name of the thing that possessed the officer, and killed his wife and kid. Abraxas.

Nick ruthlessly kills this poor officer anyway, drinks a lot of drinks, and then prays. Or something. He finally admits that he likes being a killer, and as he speaks, something in The Empty begins to rise, and then we see red glowing eyes! Lucifer? Is that you??

Up until the reveal, it felt like the whole Nick story was another show, especially since Sam, Dean and Castiel didn’t seem to have any urgency in finding him. I know they’ve got their hands sort of full with Jack, but Sam and Dean are usually obsessed nerds about this kind of stuff.

Back in the bunker, Castiel is trying to heal Jack, but he doesn’t know what’s wrong with him. Jack begins convulsing and coughing up blood again, so they bring Jack to the ER.

Sam, Dean and Castiel do their best with the admitting nurse, but when Jack collapses again, he gets wheeled into a room, and while the doctors work on him, we see the boys as they wait. And wait.

Its very sweet, especially seeing Dean so concerned, considering how anti-Jack he was back at the beginning.

When the doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong, our heroes take Jack back to the bunker, and wait for Rowena to come and do some purple-eyed magic.

When Rowena finds out she’s there to work on the son of Lucifer, she is all NOPE. But then Jack shows up, and is super sweet and charming, and she reluctantly agrees to help.

Turns out that now that Jack is without grace, his body is out of balance, and the only thing that may keep his cells from eating themselves all up, is getting their hands on some archangel grace.

While the grown-ups are trying to figure out what to do, Dean has a wiggly-unfocus-y moment, and the music cue has the slightest hum of angelic buzzing. Ohhhh, whaaaaat? 😉

Jack packs up his things yet again, and says he wants to go live the little life he has left. Dean feels him, and they go off for driving lessons, burgers, and some fishing.

OMG, DEAN AND JACK ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER. *sigh*

Castiel goes off to find a Shaman that Ketch tells them about (I miss Ketch!), and scores some of Gabriel’s grace captured in the early days of his Loki adventures. Now the Winchester’s owe this dude a favor, and Holy Hell, that is gonna bite them in the bum later this season, right?

Everyone gathers back at the bunker, they feed the grace to Jack, Rowena does the spell, aaaand… flashy eyes, some Yay’s, and Jack collapses.

Cass gets on the phone to yell at the Shaman, who doesn’t give a fig. Booooo, Shaman guy!

Everyone gets a case of the Sad’s as they watch Jack sleep, and Rowena tells them that all they can do is keep him comfy as they wait for him to die.

Here’s my thoughts about all of this: Remember back when Gadreel was riding around in Sam, and then when they finally got Gadreel out, Sam still had some residual grace in him? Well, maybe that’s what’s happening with Dean. And it makes me a little cranky that neither Cass or Sam remember this when Rowena says they need some archangel juice.

And if it is true, maybe that is what is going on with Nick, and the reason that he can summon Maybe Lucifer up in The Empty.

Or maybe Andrew Dabb doesn’t remember any of this, and there’s something entirely different going on. Who knows.

Quotes!!

Nurse: “Uh-huh. Family medical history? Let’s start with the father.” Dean: “He’s dead”. Nurse: “Cause of death?” Castiel: “He was stabbed through the heart, and he exploded.” Dean: “Okay, you know what? We don’t have time for this. All right, he’s sick. His name is Jack Kline. His father exploded. There you’ve got all the basics. Now what does he need to do to see a doctor?”

Next!! Bad things! In heaven!! And other places!!!

As usual, gifs courtesy of http://itsokaysammy.tumblr.com/