Supernatural: Gimme Shelter (15x15)

I saw a lot of people on the interweb complaining that this was a time-wasting episode, and since there's so little of the show left, it felt pretty pointless. I don't know if I'd totally agree, but I do admit to having some trepidation about how much plot we still have left to cover!

Cons:

We all thought, based on the promo, that Cas was going to finally tell Sam and Dean about his deal with the Empty. But no, it's actually about how Jack will die in the process of killing Chuck and Amara. Here's the thing: if this is actually the direction the show goes, it will be absolutely banana bonkers, and a terrible decision in every way. The show has set up a couple of interlocking themes in its latter seasons: 1) not all supernatural creatures are actually monsters, and 2) self-sacrifice for the sake of "destiny" is a terrible plan. Free will rules the day. So... if in the end it's like "screw you, Chuck, we have Free Will, but we are going to listen to his other cosmic entity (Billie) and sacrifice Jack for the greater good because she told us it was the only way", then they've just completely destroyed their whole freakin' message. I'm putting this in the "cons" section because I want to lodge an immediate complaint about that potential ending. If that's where they take this thing, they're freakin' idiots.

On a lesser note, I do want to say that splitting up Team Free Will 2.0 was a bit of a bummer. Yes, Jack and Cas' adventure was fun, I liked that Sam and Dean were essentially a subplot for once... but I want more interaction between the four of them. As this episode ends, Cas is immediately leaving again. I don't like that at all!

Pros:

The Jack and Cas dynamic is super adorable, and their monster-of-the-week story was actually enormously funny, cute, and touching all at once. We've got Jack being the biggest puppy dog about getting to work a case, coming across dangerously naive and green, but also able to garner sympathy with the members of the "faith based community". And then of course he's a total bad-ass when push comes to shove. I thought there were a lot of interesting things happening there at the climax, where this woman who was murdering people for their "lack of faith" was suddenly aware of an inhuman power, a godly power, even, who disagreed with her philosophy. What would she have said if she'd learned that Jack was Lucifer's son? Really interesting. For good reason, this show doesn't delve too often into actual religious beliefs, because it's really messy and out there. But some hints now and then? I'm not mad about it!

Also, obviously, Cas and Jack's father/son dynamic warms my heart so, so much. Cas' speech where he talked about following orders blindly, but now having faith in something bigger because he found a family and became a father??? Jack saying he has "more dads than most"??? I am EMOTIONAL. (Cas' speech about blindly following orders is another reason why Jack sacrificing himself in the end would be a bad move, thematically, by the way.) I thought Misha really pulled out the stops acting-wise during that scene in the car, when Jack tells the truth about Billie's plan, and he gets choked up, angry and devastated all at once.

Meanwhile, the Winchesters had less of the runtime, running down a lead on Amara. The plan is to trick her, to get her to come "help them kill Chuck", meanwhile the real plan involves killing her too, for the sake of balance. This is pretty twisted. There was this wonderful disconnect when Dean was like "dude, just kill Chuck, I mean, I know he's your brother, but it's for the greater good!" where I was like... uh... Dean, honey... pot, kettle, much? But I also liked the fact that even though the Winchesters think this is the only way, it was still enormously difficult for them to lie to Amara, to lure her to her own death.

And god... Dean turning back to ask Amara about Mary? That was one of the best moments of the season for me. We saw Dean get closure with his mom, but he and Amara had a pretty weird thing going on several seasons back, and I thought it was so interesting to explore that, to see Dean's anger, righteous but also somewhat misplaced, and to have that be the thing that convinces Amara to give it a try. Also, Amara asking "can I trust you" and Dean saying "I would never hurt you" gave me chills! That's stone-cold, Dean Winchester!

At the end of the day, I will admit to feeling very nervous about how this show is going to end. They've got a lot of stops to pull out, a lot of shit to resolve, and if they try and end the show the way it would have ended back in season five, or whatever, I will be mightily disappointed. Sacrifice doesn't always mean dying. They've got to find another way to make this ending feel epic and important and meaningful and touching.

8/10