"Don't Go in the Woods" – Supernatural S14E16 Review

We get two parallel stories in "Don't Go in the Woods": Sam and Dean on a monster hunt, and Jack making new friends. Both are okay if a bit short on their own terms. But long gone are the episodes in the first couple of seasons where the only thing that happens was the Winchesters would go on a monster hunt, find a monster, fight a monster, kill a monster. Toss in a few manful tears at the end and a beer-drinking-by-the-Impala scene and hey presto! episode over.

Then again, maybe the fact they did so many is why that kind of episode is long gone. Which is fine: I just wish they'd stop trying to bring them back if they are long gone. Pick a story type and go with it, creative team. At least in any given episode. I don't mind subtext and the theme of the monster hunt tying in with the ongoing season plot. But don't try to dance on the head of a pin by mixing them together. "Scoobynatural" was a perfectly good recent example of them having a whole episode dedicated to a monster hunt of sorts with themes and sub-themes.

"Don't Go" was almost like they were trying to split the episode into two distinct parts. But with everything that's going on, I'm not convinced that's the way to go these days. There's a lot to cram into the episode. So we had the "Sam and Dean dealing with secrets" thing in the monster-hunt part of the episode, but nothing about Jack's issues. And the "Jack bonds with the local teens but it goes horribly wrong" part of the episode was about Jack's issues. The two didn't touch until the beginning and the end. But it seems like they both got short shrift, and the episode was another one of those "waiting for the other shoe to drop" holding-pattern episodes" until the Big Bad(s) finally show up.

What does that all mean? Heck if I know, but that's why I get paid the big bucks. Maybe saying what happened in the episode will help. After the obligatory "Someone gets killed near a small town" opening (there actually is a Polk City and a Big Creek State Park), Sam learns about it and decides to go hunt a monster with Dean. There's some lip service paid to Sam blaming himself for the death of the Alt-World Hunters at Michael's hands, but he seems to be over that particular grief. Instead, the brothers decide not to take Jack along with them because they're still not sure if he has a soul and if he can control his powers. What happened with Castiel seeing Jack turn the snake into the ash at the end of the last episode, I don't know. You'd think he'd mention that to someone, but apparently not, or the Winchesters' suspicions about Jack wouldn't be suspicions.

After telling Jack they're leaving him behind to hold the fort and do some shopping, Sam and Dean head to Polk City. They run into an evasive Sheriff Mason (Adam Beach), who is the father of the boy whose girlfriend was killed in the teaser. There's another murder, and eventually Sam finds out the monster is a Kohonta. The lore is surprisingly complete about how it vomits stomach acid, but says nothing about how to kill it.

Mason confronts the Winchesters, and reveals the Kohonta is from the legends of his local tribe. The Kohonta was originally a man, Henry Parker, one of the area's original settlers. He killed and ate his family during a blizzard and the Indians cursed him with immortality and a hunger that forced him to feed on others or have his own body eat itself. The son, Tom (Phillip Letwitski) goes after it. Mason knows how to kill the Kohonta, with a silver blade through the heart. There's a big fight and Mason gets bit in the shoulder. Dean lures the Kohonta out of the cabin where it's staying, and Mason kills it with a silver blade.

The sheriff also wonders why they don't tell humans about monsters so humans can defend themselves. He suggests they use Youtube videos to spread the word. And this makes me wonder what happened to all the humans Michael had converted to monsters as part of his plans. That wasn't a few humans dying or disappearing: that was presumably hundreds if not thousands of people, werewolves and vampires in the streets, cats and dogs living together, full-on apocalypse. Dean gives a story about how humans would still get killed, which doesn't really answer Mason's question since humans are being killed anyway. And at the end, Mason doesn't tell Tom what really happened. Whether he'll turn into a Kohonta or not because of the bite remains to be seen.

The morale of all this is that after 14 seasons, the Winchesters decide keeping secrets is a bad thing. They go back to the bunker and tell Jack they left him behind because they weren't sure about Jack, his soul, and his powers. Jack smiles and nods and lies to them, saying nothing happened while they were gone.

What did happen while the Winchesters were gone? Jack went into the nearby town of Lebanon and met the three teenagers from the episode "Lebanon": Skylar Radzion, Cory Gruter-Andrew, and Zenia Marshall. Gruter-Andrew's character Eliot is now a big Hunter fan-boy, and Radzion and Marshall's characters Max and Stacy are romantically involved because 2019 TV. They come across Jack, realize he's with the Winchesters, and take him along with them because of a combination of curiosity, Eliot's fanboyishness, and a slight hint of romantic attraction (IMO) between Jack and Max.

Jack eventually demonstrates his powers in the form of telekinesis with his angel dagger. He flies it through the air, hits Stacy in the stomach, and then heals her wound. The teenagers are scared by all of this, and tell Jack to stay away from them. He goes back to the bunker, and that's about when the Winchesters show up.

So at the end of the episode, we have Jack acting more "normal" but clearly not in control of his powers. Which makes him less "evil" than last week, even if it was unwitting evil. And that's about it. The Kohonta's acid-drip is mildly interesting, as is watching it melt down when it's killed. It's a first-time directing role for John Fitzpatrick, a show editor of long standing. Mr. Fitzpatrick does a competent job with shooting in dark old forests and a monster that literally whistles while it works, as it has an unexplained preference for whistling melodies before it's killed. But there's a lots of writers, directors, and show crew hanging around that have done dark ole forest episodes in the past that could no doubt advise him.

Other than reestablishing the three teenagers from "Lebanon", the episode didn't accomplish anything. We already knew Jack was dangerous, and that the Winchesters are good at hunting monsters. It's good to see a relatively old-fashioned "monster hunt" episode, but it seems like it got short shrift because it split it's time with the Jack subplot.

The "keeping secrets" thing didn't seem to go very well. They never effectively answered the question of why they have to keep normal humans in the dark about monsters. I could think of a few good reasons. Imagine what politicians on both sides would make of confirmed "monster among us" stories, and the tendency for humans to go on witch hunts and turn against their friends, family, and neighbors. Instead, we get a weak-sauce argument that humans would die if they knew. Except they don’t know, and they're dying.

In fact, wouldn't the two-minutes-and-dead victims-of-the-week be alive if Sam and Dean and the Hunters didn't keep the existence of monsters a secret? Okay, maybe the girl Barbara would have died anywhere. But Sam says the disappearances have been going on since at least 1943. Wouldn't someone have figured out that a monster was killing people (or "making them disappear") pretty regularly for 80+ years. And poor Fitz, the second victim. If the Winchesters and Sheriff Mason had warned people not to go out into the woods at night, Fitz would still be alive. There are downsides to the general populace knowing about monsters, like mass panic. But it's nothing like what the Winchesters say is the reason they don't tell "normals". I'm sure Fitz and Barbara's parents would be very consoled by the secret-keeping, if they knew about it.

Be back with us April 4 as Supernatural does its final run of new episodes leading up to the season finale. Judging from the previews, they'll put the Jack subplot front and center, and bring back Lucifer.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?