Where do I start with this? We continue the willful forgetting of Castiel’s powers (He has checked several people for their souls, show!), and the whiplash pace of defeating potential Big Bads, leading to the rising power of Jack, and his most-likely all burned up soul.

And what about Mary?????

Things do not look good for the son of Lucifer, and I predict a sad, tear-inducing end for the all powerful two year-old.

But let’s begin with the beautiful image of Dean Winchester trying to make his Mouse Trap, mouse trap work, and damn, I wanna have a game night with the Winchesters! Jack and Mary are gathering the treats, and Sammy is off getting the pizzas, and all is mostly serene. Even Jack’s snappy reaction to Mary’s concern for him has a sweet, Mother/Teenage Son shade to it that is charming.

Alas, the Winchesters never get too much happiness or downtime, and when Mary hands Dean his phone, telling him he missed a call, it all comes crashing down as the sound of Donatello’s strained voice comes from the phone, begging for Sam and Dean’s help.

Sam hasn’t made it back from pizza fetching, so Mary and Dean hop in Baby and hightail it to Donatello’s in Oklahoma, which according to Google, is approximately a five hour drive. Jack is instructed to wait for Sam, and help him figure out what, in Dean’s words, the “speaking in tongues” at the end of the message might mean .

Listen, this show has been light on the sledgehammers falling from the sky these days, but as Dean and Mary make their way to Donatello’s, they have a heart to heart that feels like some awful sweet, possible final words with each other. It’s hard to listen to Mary tell her son how happy she is for each day she gets with her sons, when this is exactly the kind of thing characters on this show do right before they get dead.

Anyhoo! Sam translates the gibberish, which is actually ancient Hebrew (!!). It’s a passage from the Bible, Peter, specifically, about the Devil out and about, spewing his evil. A warning of sorts.

When Dean and Mary bust their way into Donatello’s house, they don’t find the prophet, but Nick, who is sounding more and more like Lucifer these days. He tells Dean and Mary that he has poisoned Donatello, and will only tell them where he is if he can chitty chat? IDK, but Mary and Dean haul ass back to Kansas with Nick in tow for some reason (Wouldn’t Donatello be stashed closer to his home, than the bunker, which is five freaking hours away?).

Sam is NOT happy about any of this, let me tell you.

Also, I was mesmerized by Sam’s shirt this whole episode. I have no idea why, but something about that orange and blue check….

Meanwhile!!

Castiel has asked Anael (Formerly known as Sister Jo) out for coffee! How sweet… and he’s giving her some lovely, only slightly cursed earrings! Aww.

Oh wait, this isn’t two friends getting together to catch up, this is Cass trying to bribe Anael! Shenanigans!

Seems that before Anael was just a lowly button-pusher up in heaven, she was Joshua’s right hand, and Cass is convinced that she has some super secret sauce to help him private message God. He’s worried about Sam and Dean and Jack’s lack of a soul issue, and he thinks that maybe God would lend a hand, and I am all, Have You Been Watching This Show At All, Castiel???

Anael, eyeing the offered the earrings, says that there was a rumor that after The Fall, Joshua did reach out to God, and maybe even got an answer! She brings him to a warehouse full of junk, to meet Methuselah, who was roomies with Joshua after The Fall.

Methuselah, who is super jerky, lets the angels wander about the warehouse, looking for the object that Joshua used to send his message. After lots of wandering, and rat stepping, Aneal is pooped, and tells Cass that she is leaving. Cass watches her grab her bag, and spots the object, hanging among many other necklaces. The Samulet!! (or a reasonable facsimile)

Methuselah is all, You Have Chosen Wisely! Cass grips the Samulet tightly, and calls out his message for help. When the room doesn’t fill with Godly light, Cass opens his eyes, sad that his plan didn’t work.

OR DID IT? (Three more episodes in the season. God could slide in for a ninth inning save.)

Back at the bunker, Dean berates Nick, while Mary tries to talk her other son down from his guilt tower. Yet another conversation that gives me the willies, because it feels like Mary saying goodbye with her, I’m So Proud Of You’s. When Nick asks Dean to see his son, Dean practically bugs his eyes out as he slowly backs away.

“He said that?” says Mary, clearly freaked out by this turn, and tries her best to shut down any more of this crazy business. But Sam feels like maybe they should let Nick talk to Jack, because saving Donatello would be one less dead guy on Sam’s guilt trip.

Jack says he’s not afraid of stupid ol’ Nick, and he wants to help Donatello, so he goes down for the requested chat. Nick baits him, tells him that Lucifer loved him, and riles Jack up just enough for him to get in Nick’s face, giving Nick the chance to headbutt Jack, spraying his blood all over both of them. Gross.

Nick has finally agreed to tell them where the prophet is housed, and Sam and Dean pack a handcuffed Nick into the back of Baby, and drive off!

Mary tosses some of the goodies they nicked from Donatello’s house, looking for clues, into a box. The syringe that Nick used to allegedly poison Donatello is among the items, and Jack can feel the power coming from it. He takes the syringe, and informs Mary that it had been full of angel grace, not poison, and Mary suddenly realizes that the game has changed! She calls Sam, and tells him what’s what, but Dean is already off to retrieve Donatello, and Sam needs to leave the car to escape Nick’s incessant singing.

Nick digs a lock pick out from under his skin (ewwww) as Sam stands outside talking to Mom. But before Nick can completely undo the handcuffs, Sam flings open the car door, gun pulled, and yells at Nick to Exit The Vehicle!

Nick is impressed that they figured out his little trick, and he gleefully informs Sam that he used the angel grace to tune Donatello like a CB radio, and got the info from Lucifer himself on how to get him out of The Emoty, and back into Nicky.

Sam gives us the Lucifer Is Alive????? face, and Nick is all “Come on, Sam. Nobody stays dead anymore. You know that.”

Nick has been nothing but irritating to me this season, but Mark Pellegrino sure does know how to deliver a line, ladies and gentlemen.

Sam is all, Not On My Watch! and the punching commences. While Nick and Sam tussle, Dean has found Donatello. As he goes to release the prophet, two demons pop out of the shadows, and Dean gets his workout in, pretty handily dispatching them.

Nick turns out to be a pretty adept fighter himself, and after cracking Sam on the noggin with a rock, Sam scrambles back in Baby, and manages to pound the horn, alerting Dean, who takes off running.

But Nick gets the upper hand again, and pretty much caves in Sam’s skull with his rock, and runs off as Sam crumples to the ground, just as Dean comes running into the picture.

This whole scene is, once again, a super fantastic lesson in acting as Jensen peels away any pretense and just shows us all raw, helpless emotion as Dean tries to console his dying brother, and call his Mother for any kind of help. *tears*

Jack is happy to lend a helping hand, but before he can get to Sam, he bends over in pain. We cut to Nick, who has found a cabin, and is casting his spell to open a door between The Empty for Lucifer to walk through, using Jack’s blood from the earlier altercation!

Lucifer appears through a pulsing, black goo-ish portal, and just as he is about to reunite with his vessel, Jack and Mary pop in, and Jack blows Lucifer back to The Empty! Nick is not happy, but before he can do anything, Jack uses his power to roast Nick dead, much to Mary’s horror.

Jack, happy that he “helped”, pops over to save Sam at Mary’s urging, and heals him right up, much to Dean’s great relief. But when Jack pops back to Mary, asking for her to tell him he did good, Mary can’t do it. She tells him she worried about him, and that if he’d just go back to the bunker with her, they can try and fix it, together.

Jack does not take this well, and when he can’t convince Mary to keep what he did a secret fro the brothers, he freaks out. Mary follows, trying to get him to calm down, but he goes all glowy eyes on her, and as the scene goes to black, we hear Jack’s voice sadly call out, “Mary?”

I’m pretty sure our beautiful boys won’t be too torn up over Nick being dead, but if Jack killed Mary? I’m not sure how Sam or Dean will take that kind of devastating news. Sam might throw himself off the guilt tower, and Dean will just hide inside of a bottle?

Regardless, it’s all turning bad (which is a good thing for the show), and there are only three episodes left in the season to either save Jack, or figure out how to end him. I predict there will be tears!

Next!! Castiel is sorry, but Dean doesn’t care!

Screencaps courtesy of Home of the Nutty; SPN gifs courtesy of It’s Okay Sammy!