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Supernatural Game Night (1).png

'Supernatural' Recap: Nick's Back, Jack Breaks Bad, And Dean... Plays Mouse Trap!

By Tori Preston | TV | April 5, 2019 |

By Tori Preston | TV | April 5, 2019 |


Supernatural Game Night (1).png

Well, after a brief period of mourning, Supernatural came back last night and proceeded to grab all of its dangling plot threads and tie them up. Though I have to admit, for a hot second I took the episode title (“Game Night”) seriously and thought we might actually be getting a bottle episode about the extended Winchester clan playing board games in the bunker for a whole evening.

And after seeing Dean struggle through “Mouse Trap” on his own, I was NOT upset at that prospect. I mean, look at him up there in that header pic. Who wouldn’t want to spend an hour looking at THAT FACE?

But alas, it was not to be. Instead, the series took a few major steps toward whatever big finale it’s cooking up this season. We got progress on the whole crazy Nick/re-awakened Lucifer situation, which is huge — though the real surprise is that it all seemingly came to a conclusion last night, with a whisper rather than a bang. The episode opened with our soulless prophet Donatello baking some seriously tasty looking cookies in his home, only to be kidnapped by Nick and used as bait. He’s injected with a mysterious syringe, which I’m mostly mentioning because it comes into play later, and Nick manipulates him into leaving a cryptic message for Dean. Which interrupts family game night, dammit!

Meanwhile, Mary’s returned from her love cabin for game night, and she’s getting all up in Jack’s business, worrying about whether he’s OK. Which is the real question of the episode: Is Jack OK or nah? Donatello had previously reassured them that Jack may be missing some of his soul, but he seemed fine. Though Jack’s getting suspiciously snippy at Mary for being overly motherly, and she’s not the only one with concerns. Castiel has also sneaked off to try and find a way to repair Jack’s soul, and the only answer he’s got is… well, to contact God and get him to do it. Which apparently involves spending time philosophizing with Anael/Sister Jo about the nature of loneliness and whether God actually cares about Earth. And that would make sense on any other show, but it’s already canon on Supernatural that God is just some awkward novelist/folksinger who low-key chilled on Earth for a while. He may not be big into interference, but we KNOW he’s paying attention. Or at least, he was. Castiel and Anael manage to track down a token that the angel Joshua used to communicate with God in the past, and it… looks rather like Dean’s old God-glowy amulet!

Supposedly, Joshua tried using it to talk to God, and maybe this one time God responded. Or not, nobody is super sure on that point. But when Castiel tries, he gets nothing. Though I think we all know what that REALLY means: Chuck will be guest-starring soon!

via GIPHY

The point is, apparently Jack’s soullessness is a more dire situation than we’d been led to believe — and, in fact, it’s something that Castiel has been keeping from the Winchesters (naturally — Supernatural’s motto outta be “always be keepin’ ill-advised secrets”).

Back on the hunt for Donatello, Mary and Dean apprehend Nick easily at Don’s house and bring him back to the Bunker, where they plan to pressure him into revealing where he’s stashed their prophet. He says all he wants is to talk to “his son,” meaning Jack — which sets off some alarms for our heroes, since Jack is Lucifer’s son, not Nick’s. But they agree to let Jack try his luck with the interrogation, which almost goes off the rails when Nick headbutts the boy:

Jack reins himself in and gets Nick to agree to lead them to Donatello, whom he claims he injected with poison. And if all of this seems like it’s going too smoothly, that’s because IT DEFINITELY IS. You see, Nick did want to see Jack… because he needed a sample of his blood in order to summon Lucifer. Which he discovered when he injected Donatello with angel grace, not poison, and used the prophet to channel the awakened Lucifer from The Empty in order to get directions on how to summon Lucifer back to Earth. When he headbutted Jack, it was to get some of the boy’s blood on his shirt. And when he takes Sam and Dean to rescue Donatello, he’s actually leading them into a trap filled with demons who have a vested interest in the rebirth of Their Evil Lord Lucifer.

While Dean fights off the demons, Sam nearly has his skull crushed by Nick, who manages to escape. Jack realized something was up when he sniffed the syringe and identified the grace, so he’s able to lead Mary to where Nick is summoning Lucifer and shuts the portal down before any harm is done with his crazy Nephilim powers. It’s a pretty badass hero moment… which Jack follows up by turning his attention on Nick and BURNING HIM ALIVE.

Mary is, uh, concerned by this murdery turn of events, but sends Jack to heal Sam anyway. Who, remember, is literally dying because of Nick, so there’s definitely something to be said for Jack removing a serious threat with zero fuss, but anyway. Jack saves Sam, then zips back to where he left Mary. And for all that the long-simmering Nick/Lucifer storyline seemed to fizzle out, it was more than made up for by the final scene of the episode.

Jack wants Mary to tell him that what he did is OK — after all, Nick deserved it. And Mary refuses to condone his behavior, though she also stops short of condemning him. Mostly she’s just worried about him, and is picking up on what Castiel already knows: that something is seriously wrong with Jack. All of which would be fine, but then Mary brings up talking to Sam and Dean about it, and Jack isn’t having it. He’s learned the Winchester secret-keeping trait well, after all! Then he goes a little crazy and glowy-eyed while telling Mary to leave him alone… and then the show cuts to black, leaving us wondering exactly why Jack ends the episode saying “…Mary?”


Yes, it’s entirely possible that Jack just killed Mary Winchester, moments after saving Sam. I wonder which detail Dean will prioritize? And how much blame is Castiel going to get for this debacle? And will Chuck be bringing his sister back when he comes to fix everything? I HAVE QUESTIONS.



Header Image Source: The CW