"Nightmare Logic" – Supernatural S14E5 Review

Another blast from the past.

Like last week's episode, "Nightmare Logic" seems like a return to Supernatural basics. Yes, it had all the current Michael/archangel business going on. And the aftermath of the whole apocalypse world thing, with Bobby and Marry linking up. And we got name checks of Garth and Donna.

Maybe it was the mention of old cases, going all the way back to season 2's "What is Now and What Should Never Be". Along with season 8's "Hunteri Heroici". That along with the pretty basic case made it seem all old-school.

What case would that be? Let's do some investigating ourselves. Maggie goes into a crypt looking for a ghoul, turns on her body-cam, and the ghoul attacks her. Later at the bunker, Sam is running the refugee Hunters, and himself, ragged in the process. When Maggie doesn't check in, Sam and Dean check the video from her body-cam uploaded to their server, and head off to the mausoleum. They don't find anything there except drag marks, and go to the house of the family who owns the private cemetery. The family are the Rawlings, and the Winchesters pose as historical society members there to have the house declared a historical site. The father, Patrick Rawling, is in a coma and a helpful nurse, Neil (Chris Patrick-Sampson), has Patrick hooked up to all kinds of transfusion equipment. Patrick's daughter Sasha (Leah Cairns) arrives and wants them to get out. Dean and Sam realize Patrick looks like the ghoul they saw attack Maggie in the video.

Bobby and Mary are already there, and once they're alone Bobby gripes about how Sam is a lousy leader. The four of them split up into teams of two: Bobby & Dean, Sam & Mary. Mary asks Sam for what amounts to dating advice for her and Bobby, which is a little creepy. And they find a fire with burned-out Hunter IDs.

Dean and Bobby find an old shed. Bobby sees somebody in the woods and goes without telling Dean (idjit), and Dean finds a dead Hunter. The ghoul attacks Dean, he stabs it and it explodes into gray dust or sand or something.

At the house, Sasha hears something moving in the attic and goes to the attic door. A vampire attacks her but then disappears when she trips and is looking away.

The brothers try to figure out what's going on, and they wonder if Patrick can psychically create manifestations like Fred Jones did in "Hunteri Heroici". Bobby goes out to the truck and sees the same figure as before. It turns out it's Bobby's eyes-burned-out-by-angels son Daniel (Thomas Nicholson). Daniel isn't too thrilled about seeing Daddy, kicks him repeatedly, and stabs him with angel-killing blade. Mary shows up and while Daniel attacks her, Bobby kills "Daniel" and he explodes into gray dust.

Sam goes up to the attic, finds Maggie hooked up to blood bag transfusion tubes, and is attacked by the vampire. He kills the vampire and it explodes into gray dust.

Dean works out where he's seen the equipment Patrick is hooked up to: when Dean was hooked up to similar equipment way back in "What is and What Should Never Be". Which featured a djinn, which means Neil is a djinn. I guess Neil is the fear-generating djinn we've seen a few times, rather than the greatest-desire-generating djinn Dean had a run-in with. Neil helpfully explains Michael super-charged him so he can touch people and manifest their greatest fears. The djinn thought Dean was Michael, and explains Michael left him there as a "trap" for Hunters. Which is why Neil killed the other Hunter and captured Maggie.

Neil tries to do his new touch on Dean, but Dean's fears prove too much for him. It takes a blade covered in lamb's blood to kill a djinn, but as we've seen before bashing in their brains will do it as well. So Dean beats in Neil's head with a bookend and then shoots him in the head a whole lot.

Earlier, Dean had a chat with Sasha. Who had a bad relationship with her father and it's very sad. Dean advises her to let go of the past and in the end when they revive her father, she takes his hand and greets him.

Bobby tells Mary tat Daniel was under his command during the angel war on Apocalypse Earth and died. And it's very sad.

The team goes back to the bunker, and Bobby and Mary decide to go off to Donna's cabin together and have some me time. Bobby apologies for calling Sam a lousy leader earlier. The Winchesters call the other Hunters, including Garth, to tell them about the monster "traps" Michael has set. Sam figures they'll find Michael and figure out a way to kill him, but Dean isn't so sure. The end.

Like I said, it's a pretty basic case but I suppose a lot of them are. We've seen the djinn occasionally since season two, and I thought they had a poisonous touch. But other than that, Neil seemed to stick to the ground rules set down for previous djinn. It's nice to see Michael super-charged more than just vampires and werewolves, and I'm looking forward to seeing other super-charged monsters except shapeshifters, which have been overdone in the course of the show. Which means we'll probably get them.

There really isn't much else to say about the episode. Sam is dealing with leadership challenges: he deals with them successfully. Mary and Bobby are dealing with relationship challenges: they deal with them successfully. Sasha is dealing with family issues: she deals with them successfully. Not that we care: she's a one and done character and her plight reminds me of the guest characters in this week's Doctor Who. For which I had the same question: why are we wasting screen time on a one-shot character whose problems aren't that interesting. Her connection to Dean's problems (letting go of the past) are pretty tenuous. Dean was possessed by an archangel: Sasha's father was uncaring toward her and her mother.

It's also odd seeing the Winchesters being so- free-and-easy telling civilians about monsters. They did that last week, but at least the two people they told were comic book store employees. This week the Winchesters just drop the news on Sasha and Neil. Sure, it turns out Neil is a djinn. But you'd think Sasha might go public with the news there are monsters preying on humanity. Most people wouldn’t believe her, sure, but she doesn't seem to be nuts or a nerd or anything. One gets the impression they're taking monsters and Hunters in the direction of a well-known secret.

So good things: a djinn is back with super-charged powers. The manifestations are mildly creepy, and it was nice hearing the Winchesters referencing some old cases while trying to figure out the current case. No bad things: it just kind of an eh case. Since we don’t know what's going on and it's rather hard to figure it out since djinn haven't been portrayed consistently on the show, there's not much personal involvement when we find out what's going on as Dean explains it to us. Dean must have a better memory for 12-13 year-old cases than I do.

I wonder if they took Michael off the board too early. It looks like super-charged monster traps are going to be a thing for the next 5-7 episodes until the mid-season finale. And seeing some monsters with a facelift, so to speak, should be interesting. But it's hard to take Michael seriously as a threat when he just left the traps, abandoned Dean's body, and took off for parts unknown for a few episodes.

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