Supernatural: Last Holiday (15x14)

 We're back, baby!!

Cons:

The same problem I always have with Supernatural was definitely on display here, that of clunky exposition in C-plot episodes. I wish they could find a more organic way of catching us up with the main story points, instead of just having Sam awkwardly tick them off on his fingers: "oh, remember how Jack has his soul back, and we have to kill God?" It's like... yeah, Sam. Yeah, I do remember that, thank you.

I feel robbed that we didn't get to see Sam and Eileen's date, but honestly I'm delighted that she was mentioned.

Pros:

This was a standard, familiar, comfy C-plot Supernatural episode with a nice little focus on Jack and his relationships with the Winchesters. Nothing fancy, nothing groundbreaking, but just the kind of comfort food that you love to see as we get ready to say goodbye for good.

I loved Ms. Butters, I loved the inherent bittersweet joy of the guys having someone to mother them. They lamp-shaded the problematic aspect of basically having this enslaved magical creature cooking and cleaning for them, as they did offer to let her leave and she was the one who insisted on staying... and of course she was very much not at their mercy - it was the other way around!

The Jack stuff was my favorite, obviously. They have that wonderful scene where Jack and Dean are captured and Jack asks Dean, "do you still think I'm a monster?" and Dean admits that he is still mad at Jack, and he might be for a while... but that does not mean that he'd actually leave him or let him get hurt. They're family. The birthday cake at the end, homemade and not exactly a winner as far as presentation goes, was the perfect button to that little subplot.

I also love the sort of... meta awareness that the Winchesters have about their level of danger. Ms. Butters traps Dean and Jack in the bunker, and when Sam calls Dean, Dean says that the reason he didn't call Sam right away was because he thought Sam might be "practicing his sign language" with Eileen and that it had "been a while" for him. Dean knows this isn't the end for him; he knows that Ms. Butters isn't going to be his demise, in the same way that we, the viewers, know that. There's not a great detail of tension, we're not actually worried that this is life and death. We're more worried about the fate of Ms. Butters, in fact, and we're definitely more worried about the emotional stakes, the complex thread of relationships between Jack and the brothers. And that's just how it should be!

The comedy of this episode was on point, I really loved the montage, the boys going out on hunts and having everything managed for them back home... the bunker is their home, in a very real way, but despite a few sporadic efforts over the years, the boys have not managed to make much of a comfortable place for themselves there. The contrast, with having decorations and regular home cooking, really stood out for me. It seems like we're setting up some expectations for what a "happy" endgame might look like for the Winchesters. Now the only question is: are we setting that up so we understand what we've won when we get it? Or so we understand what exactly the boys have to give up to win?

That's about all for this one! Can't wait to see how this whole thing shakes out... although I am incredibly nervous that the ending will disappoint me, as so many endings seem to...

8/10