Supernatural: Don't Go in the Woods (14x16)

The monster-of-the-week plot in this episode felt more like filler than most, but the subplot had a lot of really important stuff going on. Let's take a look.

Cons:

I had no problem with the concept of the case of the week, with Sam and Dean hunting a Cajunta. But it felt like the story was padded a lot, and had even less of a connection to the main story than usual. The half-hearted attempts to connect it to bigger story points felt pretty insufficient. Sam and Dean ostensibly learn a lesson about being honest with Jack, but I feel like that's something they could have worked out with just a conversation, instead of having an example of it play out during the case. Sam is still struggling because of the deaths of the hunters, but that doesn't seem to have lingering effects here.

Pros:

For what we got with the case though, I'll admit there's something comforting, in a strange way, about a simple case - Sam and Dean on the road, hunting monsters. It's always fun when they reveal the truth about monsters to people, because we get to see the myriad reactions that this reveal inspires. I also thought the specific details of the case were intriguing, and the story between the sheriff and his son was well developed even though it didn't get a ton of screen-time. I can't speak to the origins of Cajunta in legend, but I felt like the episode did a good job of tying in the history of white invasion and was respectful of the legend.

On a small note, I must once again state my appreciation for this episode taking the time to explain Cas' absence. It looks like in the next episode Cas is up to some shenanigans behind the Winchesters' backs, but this week all we get to know is that he took off because he needed to get out of the bunker for a while. Fair enough! That's all I need to know, and I appreciate the episode for giving that to me.

The plot with Jack is where all the meat of this episode rests. There was tons of great stuff going on here.

Alexander Calvert's performance as Jack is so, so good. At first you might think he's basically just got the one trick - hilariously naive and puppy-like, but then also incredibly powerful. But there's so much depth here. He's not sure how much of his soul may be gone, so there's this potent mix of innocence because of his short life, and potential ruthlessness and lack of compassion that comes from having no soul. If Eliot, Stacy, and Max had stayed still and not freaked out, Jack's trick with the flying knife probably would have resulted in no injury. Jack did seem to be in control of his magic. But it didn't occur to him to care that his new friends were scared. He wasn't considerate of how they were feeling, and it led to a near tragic disaster.

We can see the complexities of Jack's worldview, as he tries to sort out how to behave. What would the Winchesters do? Well, they probably wouldn't tell a group of kids everything about monsters and magic, that's for sure, but Jack's desire for friends outside of just the Winchesters is totally understandable. What would the Winchesters do? Lie to each other about their problems? Absolutely. That's vintage Winchester. But Jack's lie to Sam and Dean at the end of the episode comes right after they make a point of being honest with him. They're trying to do better, but Jack isn't quite there yet.

I really like the trio of friends. Max and Stacy's romance is cute, Eliot's enthusiasm for the Ghost Facers is hilarious and somewhat charming, and their kindness towards Jack, a guy that they admittedly find a bit strange, is quite endearing. I know that things went bad this week, but I do hope we can see them again at some point.

There was a lot of humor in this subplot, mostly due to Jack's line delivery. "I'm two..enty. I'm twenty. Two. I'm twenty two." That just cracked me up. And then when he tells Sam and Dean that he couldn't get beer because he doesn't have an ID... there's something so great about this all-powerful being who is stymied at the simple task of procuring groceries.

Okay, I think that's all I've got for now. We've got next week off, so it'll be two weeks before we can pick up the story and see what sort of trouble Cas gets himself into...

7.5/10