Supernatural: Lost and Found (13x01)

Well, then. Just start off with a real tear-jerker, why don't you? I'm pleasantly surprised by how much this episode dealt with the fallout of last year's finale. No fast-forwarding, no forgetting the pain and grief and anger. It's all front and center.

Cons:

I'll repeat myself a little bit from last year's finale in saying that Cas' death, while undeniably tragic for Sam and Dean, lacks a little punch since I know Misha is coming back. Not a huge thing, but if somehow I could have been kept in the dark about this, I'm sure it would hurt more. Call me a masochist.

Pros:

Honestly, though, this episode kept me gripped the entire way through. The plot is pretty basic. Sam and Dean track down Jack, who fled from the house where he was born. They find him eventually in a local police station, some angels show up to take him, but Sam and Dean end up protecting him from the angels and decide to bring him back to the bunker. Meanwhile, the two brothers are arguing about the best way to handle the Jack situation. Sam seems to see the potential for goodness in him, or at the very least he thinks Jack could be useful. Dean just wants to kill him straight off, but that might be harder than it looks. The two are also dealing with a boat load of grief. Cas is dead, Crowley is dead, Kelly is dead, and Mary... well, Dean seems convinced that she's gone too.

I like that we kept things simple and focused on setting up the emotional arcs and the Jack situation for the first chunk of the season. I guess I should start by saying I'm pleasantly surprised and actually a little intrigued by Jack. Unlike Amara, who seemed too mystical and weighted down by portents of evil, Jack kind of does seem like a naive kid. He can speak and understand things, to a point, but he's totally flabbergasted by the world around him, and there's a real sweetness to his confusion. He's on a quest to find his father, and when Sam finally gets to talking to him, he realizes that Jack considers Castiel, and not Lucifer, to be his dad. He could hear and understand everything while in the womb, and he knows Cas is meant to protect him. He actually attends the funeral for Cas and Kelly, and commiserates with Sam and Dean as they say goodbye. Jack is undeniably powerful, and it's scary that he can't control that power. But at the same time, does that make him evil? Evidence would suggest otherwise at this point.

Winchester grief is so delicious to witness. We see Dean and Sam's differing personalities coming out in this episode. Sam still tries to keep compassion in the forefront, and while his grief seems quieter and less intense than Dean's at first, we quickly realize why: he's in denial. He thinks maybe they can save Cas, and he's holding out hope that Mary is somehow alive. Dean, on the flip side, shuts down. He doesn't want to think about it, he doesn't want to hope - he just knows they've lost everything, and he's hell bent on doing the one thing he thinks he can accomplish, which is killing the monster. We've seen this dynamic play out between the brothers before. Dean shuts down and goes into hunter mode, Sam maintains his humanity and hope. I think we'll see this manifest most clearly in how they both deal with Jack, and I'm excited to see that.

Dean's moment of prayer to Chuck/God was obviously an excellent example of the patented Dean Winchester grief monologue. I don't know how Jensen does it, but he's really good at it. He starts angry, telling God that he owes them one, and demanding that he "bring him back," referring to Cas. He quickly broadens the scope to Cas, Mary, and even Crowley. We're seeing how truly Sam and Dean have lost everything. They still have each other, and for a long time that was all they could depend upon. But slowly and surely they built up a family, and it's suddenly gone in one fell swoop. You could really feel Dean's desperation. He punches a wall a few times, and after that his anger just bleeds out of him, and he's just... grieving. So beautiful and tragic to watch.

We get a hint of things to come in the final few moments of the episode. Mary and Lucifer are in the apocalypse land, and Lucifer is about to kill Mary when he decides that he might be able to use her. Obviously Luci doesn't intend on being stuck in his little trap forever, and maybe Mary can help him get out. I'm really excited about this, as it seems to imply that Lucifer is sticking around as the true villain this show deeply deserves. No more British Men of Letters, please. Let's stick to the top dogs.

I'm obviously excited for Cas to reunite with the boys, and I'm also excited to see how Cas and Jack's relationship manifests. They actually did a good job setting up that bond before Jack was even born, so I think they could do something kind of cool with it moving forward. In any case... I'm hooked. More to follow!

9/10