The title of this week’s episode, “Jack In The Box”, is pretty on the nose, but I imagine it gets hard to name episodes after 14 seasons, so I will allow it!

THEN!

Jack done messed up!

NOW!

They boys throw a wake for their dear, departed mother. The map table in the bunker is scattered with weapons (hee) and pictures, and the room is filled with rando hunters.

Dean gives the eulogy, as Sam and Castiel flank him with grim faces. Everyone drinks, except one dude, who is standing at the end of the table. A hatchet flies through the air and lands in the dude’s skull!

Bobby enters, saying he knew hatchet head to be a wraith, and wants his hatchet back as the body is dragged away.

Once everyone clears out, Ketch gets name-checked for his whiskey (Dammit, show! Where’s Ketch?), and Sam and Cass settle in at the kitchen table. Dean begs off joining them, saying he needs some fresh air.

Bobby wants revenge, even though he fought with Jack and liked him, so he’s off to try and figure out how to stop him, no matter the sentiment everyone is feeling.

WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE: The show gave strong clues that Mary and Bobby were having some kind of romantic thing happening. How did things go after John made his time-traveling appearance? How come no one talks about any of this?? Dammit, Andrew Dabb, get it together!

ANYWAY

Jack sits alone in a vast warehouse, reliving how he killed Mary, and wishing for his momma.

Lucifer shows, poking at the worst of Jack’s thoughts.

Jack’s need for any kind of acceptance is where all of this goes wrong. Everything is terrible!

Baby is parked off road, as Dean sits alone and sobs. Of course Dean would do that.To be fair, this man has been through the ringer this season! A little alone time, especially after the wake, and that feeling of too many people when all you want is to be alone and sob?

Cass visits Heaven, telling Duma all about Jack, and how he needs to find him. The information sparks a thought in Duma’s mind, and she heads off with a plan.

Dean returns to the bunker, and and finds Sam, busy at the laptop. They talk about how they know their mom is in Heaven, which makes Sam feel a tiny little bit better about her being dead. It is cold comfort to Dean, who is super sarcastic about Chuck, and would much rather have his mom alive and well.

Duma finds Jack, and pitches him a way to redeem himself: Help her make more angels!! Jack is so desperate to please, he happily accepts, even though Duma’s plan is a touch Old Testament.

Okay, it’s super Old Testament. Duma and Jack visit a professional atheist, and they ask him to recant everything he’s ever written or said. You can’t fault the professor for not believing the boy in front of him that claims to be the grandson of God, and the son of Lucifer. I bet he was super surprized when Jack turned him into a pillar of salt!

BACK IN THE BUNKER (There’s a lot of Back In The Bunker moments in this eppy)

Cass returns with promises from Heaven, that Dean is very skeptical of!

Sam tells them about the salted professor, and shares the tale of a second victim, a corrupt televangelist, who was swallowed up by the earth. Everyone is pretty sure this is the work of Jack.

Duma brings Jack to Heaven, teaching him how to hear prayers, just like God did. He zeroes in on a devout church group, and Jack comes for a visit!

Jack takes his place at the front of the room, asking if everyone really wants to go to Heaven and become angels. They nod, with big, innocent smiles on their faces. The pastor enters the room, and Jack invites him along!

But the pastor is a realist, and when he questions Jack, Jack inflicts him with worms coming out of his skin (!!!), and takes the congregation to Heaven.

Ew, Jack. Just, ew.

When Sam, Dean and Cass at the hospital to question the pastor, the pastor is understandably upset about worms coming out of his body. But he does ID Jack as the perpetrator, so suspicions: CONFIRMED.

Dean has moved from despair and depression, right into anger. A quiet, seething anger, which leads him to a new plan. Stuff Jack in the M’alek box, with lies about keeping him safe until they can use a spell to restore his soul. Or something.

Sam is not happy with lying to Jack again, but Dean makes a compelling case, and Sam reluctantly agrees.

Cass heads back to Heaven’s gate, only to find that the gates have been closed to him specifically.

Welp, that doesn’t seem weird at all!

Jack and Duma are in the throne room with the church goers, Jack turning them into angels, one by one, when Castiel shows, having muscled his way past the angel guard. Jack is super proud of his work, like a freakin’ puppy who wants pets. Cass is all, Great job, kid! and then pulls Duma out of the room for a one on one.

Cass is mad, trying to talk some sense into Duma, but she is sure she is in the right, positive she can guide Jack to do the right (and helpful) thing. When Cass says he’s gonna take Jack, Duma threatens Mary Winchester’s happy ending. Out of desperation, Cass pulls his angel blade, and kills Duma!

This is the second time Erica Cerra has died on this show!!

I’m not sure that killing Duma is going to be helpful to ANYONE, but okay Cass, you do you.

Sam prays to Jack to get him back to the bunker, stumbling through his request. Jack hears him, and arrives at the bunker, telling the boys that he regrets ‘the accident’, but is happy to have things go back to the way they were. He explains what happened to Mary in a chillingly matter-of-fact way, while Sam and Dean struggle with their emotions, doing their best to seem friendly and forgiving.

Jack is convinced of the plan, wanting Sam and Dean to like him so badly, and thank Chuck that Jack is so in need of acceptance, because Sam and Dean have terrible poker faces!

Get it together, guys!!

Our beautiful boys show Jack the box, and even though he is clearly wary, he agrees to get in, everyone desperate for things to go their way. It is gut wrenching in it’s horribleness.

Dean shuts the box and locks Jack in, while Sam rends garments.

Listen, Sammy, I understand all of this is horrible, but something has to be done about Jack, and you haven’t come up with any bright ideas, so suck it up, man!

From inside the box, Jack uses the light of his cellphone as he calls for Sam and Dean, his panic beginning to build. After exchanging pained looks, Sam ad Dean head back to the kitchen and share a drink, their guts clearly torn up. Sam is still hopeful they can find something to save Jack, but Dean is resigned to making what he sees as their only choice.

Lucifer joins Jack in the box, and convinces Jack that he has been duped.

Lucy is not wrong, but that doesn’t make any of this better!!!

 

Cass arrives with the news of Duma’s plan, and that Jack was led to make all those terrible killing choices. He is not happy when he learns that Jack is in the box.

While Dean and Cass angrily discuss the right and wrongs of  locking up Jack, Jack super-juices his power (with gentle prodding from Lucifer), and blows the box that contains him, setting off the bunker alarms!

(I’ve been thinking that the show would  be taking down the bunker one way or another before this whole thing ends, and I thought for a second that this was it. I was relieved to be, yet again, wrong.)

They boys run towards the explosion, and discover a glowy-eyed Jack amidst the detritus of the M’alek box.

Well, this won’t end well!! Probably!

NEXT!

Season Finale where maybe things won’t end as badly as we think?