Supernatural: Galaxy Brain (15x12)

Oh dang, we're back! Can you believe there will never be another Supernatural hiatus ever again? I'm already emotional!

Cons:

I guess they couldn't get the actress who plays Claire to appear? I really, really would have liked to see the Claire and Kaya reunion. This felt like a send-off to Jody's character, unless there's a big all-out guest star extravaganza at the end of the season. I liked the episode a lot, but inevitably I start to think about the things we didn't see. Alex, Patience, and Claire not appearing is kind of sad!

Pros:

This is an odd thing to compliment, but I really liked how they handled the exposition. Sam, Dean, and Cas sitting around worried about Jack, worried about what this means. It was a lot smoother than their usually disjointed efforts to catch the audience up with what's going on.

I really like the meta stuff. I love that Chuck monologues to a random dude in another universe about his wants and needs. We get this sense that all the other universes that Chuck has built are not "sparking joy" for him. The original Sam and Dean, our Sam and Dean, are the ones who challenge him. In order to combat his ennui, he says it's time to put all of the subplots and "failed spin-offs" to rest, and focus on the core story. As the episode goes on, we see how this relates to Sam and Dean's story, as they have to work with the alternate-universe Kaya to get her back to her dying world, and to save their Kaya, who it turns out is still alive. At the end of the episode, we see Chuck destroy the world he's on now, the one where we have a President Hillary Clinton, along with all of the others.

This is great! I love the meta commentary on cutting away all of the subplots and zeroing in on the main story. We've got eight episodes left, folks. It's time to focus. At the same time, it was so lovely to see Jody again, and reinforce her bond with the boys. Apparently she and Cas have never met in person before, which seems wild to me, but there you have it! At least they got to have that moment now.

I wish that Supernatural hadn't killed off Kaya to begin with, but at least if they were going to kill off queer characters, they've set about to resurrect some of them! First Charlie, or at least another version of her, and now Kaya! She and Claire get to have their romance after all. This is just such a nice gift, something that they can totally get away with doing, and I'm so glad they did. It was sweet to see Sam and Dean take a big risk to bring Kaya home. Kaya running in to Dean's arms was so lovely!

I also liked that Cas and Jody got some time to talk. Cas obviously feels a connection to Claire, given the vessel he still uses. And Jody is Claire's mother now, in every way that counts. For them to come together and bond, and for Cas to ask Jody to stay behind to avoid making Claire an orphan again... that was just really lovely, and a good moment of connection for the two of them. It's the kind of stuff you almost think this show would forget about, but they didn't. Even without Claire in the episode, they managed to touch base on one of the show's long-running subplots and some of the greatest fan-favorite characters.

We also shuffle some more pieces on the chess board of the A-plot. The situation is this: Jack is taking orders from Billie, but he doesn't have all of the information. She has the whole thing set up for Jack to kill God. But meanwhile, he can't use his powers. Which - he does, of course, to help save Kaya. Billie shows up like a bad-ass, kills the reaper Merle who had been helping them out with the bunker's wards, and lays down the law. I love Billie. I love that we have Jack back, but he's still without a soul and things are still off. I love that Sam and Dean are having to contend with the fact that when the final battle occurs, they might not be at the center of it.

One of my favorite moments of the episode was Sam and Dean preparing to go into the alternate universe, and Sam remarking that doing a big, stupid, risky thing for the sake of doing the right thing, made him feel good. That's classic Winchester behavior right there, and it's what we all love to see!

So that's where I'll stop. I feel like I have to end every review I have left of this show, marveling over how close we are to the finale! It's going to be so trippy to say goodbye!

8/10