In Thursday’s episode of Supernatural, the team entered the alternate universe with one mission: find and bring back Jack (Alexander Calvert) and Mary (Samantha Smith).
The episode opened with Gabriel (Richard Speight, Jr.) giving a small amount of his grace to open the rift. When the rift opened and Dean (Jensen Ackles), Sam (Jared Padalecki), Cas (Misha Collins) and Gabriel prepared to march in, the rift died on arrival. The grace wasn’t powerful enough. The team regrouped and thought of a plan B.
The next scene cut to Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) drinking himself silly. Suddenly, Lucifer swayed, and it was revealed Gabriel morphed himself into a bartender who put an angelic roofie in the alcohol. Lucifer was brought back to the bunker, tied up and his grace was tapped like a holy faucet to buy the team more time to find Jack and Mary.
With more time, the team finally went to the apocalypse world while Rowena (Ruth Connell) stayed at the bunker to watch Lucifer. In the apocalypse world, Cas, Gabriel, Dean and Sam make headway to Dayton, where Jack and Mary are stationed. The team heard a scream and the brothers ran to help. They found a nest of vampires, but they were different. Because Michael wiped out humans during the war, he wiped out a chief food source for the monsters, which forced them to become rabid. The boys helped two friends who lost their entire group to the vampiress. Together, they traveled through a tunnel headed for Dayton.
A nest of vampiress emerged and attacked them. Dean was pinned by one vampire and he was forced to watch Sam be taken down. In the dramatic scene, one of the vampires ripped out a chunk of Sam’s throat and dragged him down the tunnel. Dean broke free and killed the vampires out of revenge. Dean was ready to chase after Sam, but Cas stopped him and said, “He’s gone. Dean, we don’t have time. Dean, we can’t save him.”
Forced to keep moving, the team finally arrived at Dayton and in a glimmer of hope, Mary emerged. Mary asked where Sam was and a single tear slid down Dean’s cheek.
Back at the bunker, Lucifer annoyed Rowena with singing and eventually, the magical handcuffs lost their power. Lucifer broke free and put Rowena in a chokehold. In an attempt to escape, Rowena accidently sent Lucifer into the apocalypse world.
In the apocalypse world, Sam woke up from the dead because surprise surprise Lucifer healed him, but wants his son, Jack. As Dean hugged Mary, Cas told Jack about Sam. Dean was about to head back to get Sam’s body when there was a crash. Suddenly, Sam walked out from the woods with Lucifer following him.
The episode continues to make death scenes dramatic and depressing, even though the audience knows the death won’t stick. Case in-point: Sam dying yet again.
Sam’s death broke Dean into a shell of the man he used to be. Through his facial expressions, the audience has no problem sympathizing with Dean. Ackles really outdid himself on this episode. When Dean saw Mary, the sorrow and hurt just oozes out. After all, Dean was just forced to watch his baby brother bleed out and lose consciousness. The entire season amounted to Sam and Dean rescuing Jack and Mary from the apocalypse world. Finally, when they were able to, Sam dies.
In the beginning of the episode, Sam dreamt that everyone was back home at the bunker. Everyone was eating pizza and smiling — essentially being a family. When Sam and Dean were walking through the forest in the apocalypse world, Sam had a pep in his step—he felt freer because they’re were so close — and then, Sam dies.
Overall, the episode was good— the headway on rescuing Jack and Mary was a relief, but it wasn’t without its characters arcs. On the flip side, the episode started to wrap up some questions, but it was hard to ignore Dean’s depression and willingness to sacrifice himself for his brother.
Supernatural airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
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