"Jack in the Box" – Supernatural S14E19 Review

"Jack in the Box" didn't seem to accomplish much. I suspect next week's season finale is going to feel rushed. Because not much happened this week overall. Don't get me wrong. Things happened. They just didn't seem to add up to much.

What things did happen this week? First, we get more scenes of Mary being mourned. Which I still don't get. Mainly because Mary has been such an ephemeral appearance on Supernatural. She shows up when it's important to the plot, and when she doesn't show up it's because the creative team doesn't need her, and they stuff her down the memory hole. The opening scene is also a bit confusing because it's not clear which of the mourners are Hunters, and which are alt-world Hunters.

It's a pity, since the Mary that Dean describes sounds a lot more interesting than the one we got on the show.

Then Alt-World Bobby shows up and tosses a hatchet into a "Hunter"'s head, because he's really a wraith who snuck in to infiltrate the place. Doesn't this esteemed group of Hunters and alt-Hunters have a way or two to determine when a monster is trying to infiltrate their gatherings?

Then we have Bobby (Jim Beaver) exposit a bit about what happens. He seems really laid back about the whole Mary-death thing. Which is odd, since they were lovers at one point. Bobby says he's going to put together a crew to hunt down Jack. Which also seems kind of odd: how are they going to find him? One imagines Bobby and his crew just driving across the U.S. "Hey, there's rumors of a kid in Sioux City. Nope, he's not there--must have teleported. Now he's in NYC. Nope, he teleported. You know, maybe we should just camp out in some town and hope he teleports."

That leaves it up to Team Winchester, which is Sam, Dean and Castiel. Castiel goes to Heaven and tells Dumah (Erica Cerra) what's going on with Jack. Dumah is Angel #15 on the "Angelic Being That's Really a Dick" list, and is leading Heaven since Naomi got put away for letting the Empty invade Heaven. Soon Dumah tracks down Jack, and tells him the Winchesters would be glad to hear he's now helping Heaven. This convinces Jack to join her side, and soon Dumah has him smiting the "enemies" of Heaven: an atheist author who says God doesn't exist, and a phony evangelist/fake healer. Each smiting takes the form of a Biblical retribution.

That isn't enough, so Dumah convinces Jack to make more angels. Which involves finding a group of believers who are disposed to going to Heaven. When the pastor objects, Jack causes cuts to appear on his body and worms to crawl out of them. Which is also Biblical. Team Winchester finds out about it, and talk to the pastor, who is surprisingly still alive. Although a worm crawls out of his mouth after he leaves, I'm not sure what that's about.

Castiel fights his way into Heaven and confronts Dumah. When she gives him the cold shoulder and says Jack is hers, he shivs her. Meanwhile, Dean figures they can lock Jack up in the Ma'lak box because it's designed to hold an archangel. he needs Sam to act convincing and pray for Jack to join them. Sam does the praying, and Jack shows up. Although Dean said he'd lose it if he had to spend much time talking to Jack on civil turns--what with the "Jack killed our mother" and all--Dean does most of the talking and is stone-cold convincing. Which is good, since Sam stutters and swipes his hair and all but holds a "I'm lying" sign over his head.

The Winchesters convince Jack to get in the box to protect himself and others while they cast a spell to restore his soul. There is no such spell, and it's just a big fat lie to get Jack in the box. Jack gets in, but his subconscious manifestation, taking the form of Lucifer, shows up and points out he's gullible and naïve. Jack makes with the super-grace and breaks out of the box. Castiel shows up and isn't happy to learn the Winchesters manipulated Jack into the box, and still thinks Jack can be redeemed. They hear the box shatter, go to investigate, and super-Jack is waiting for them, eyes aglow.

It's hard to tell where they're going with all this. The whole "Dumah is trying to restore Heaven" thing comes out of nowhere, and then gets shot down when Castiel kills Dumah. Jack is more powerful than an archangel now, and seems relatively civil. Unfortunately, Alexander Calvert and the creative team have had Jack revert to his naïve, young jackass role, and it's really annoying. Granted, that's part of the character's charm. But he seemed to be outgrowing that. And yet tonight, he pretty much reverts to a much earlier version. This version of Jack needs his Lucifer subconscious to tell him he's trapped in the box and the Winchesters set him up? Really? Some people are just too stupid to live.

Judging from the previews, it looks like Jack is prepared to let Dean kill him. Maybe with the Winchester revolver or a bullet from same. It should have enough mojo to kill Jack, and I've forgotten what happened to it. My Internet is down so I can't look up what happened to it in the last couple of seasons.

Castiel still seems to be on Jack's side. Which I suppose is enough to keep Jack from smiting Team Winchester, since obviously he's not going to turn them into pillars of salt and end the series. As characters have said several times on the show, it's gone too far for Jack to survive the season. So I suppose he'll die next week. And if they feel the need to revert him to his earlier totally clueless self, I won't be sorry to see him go.

Ackles, Padalecki, and Collins are all okay. There's nothing wrong with their performances, but there's nothing really... right with them, either. They're there, and they act like Dean, Sam, and Castiel. It just seems like the plot is padded out even more than they can tolerate. Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be a subtle tinge of "Let's get this over with" to their performances.

Mark Pellegrino still keeps shoveling on the snark as Jack's subconscious/Lucifer. I preferred him as Nick. He appears twice in "Jack in the Box". The second time he's there mostly to point out to Jack he's a naïve idiot, and to provoke him into breaking free of the Ma'lak box. I'd rather have Nick or "real" Lucifer back. Instead of having the real Lucifer back, we get a pale substitute.

Overall, the whole thing feels kind of... convenient. Like they feel the need to build up Jack as a super Big Bad. So they build up Michael and then have Jack take him out. And they build up Lucifer and then have Jack take him out. I suppose having a Big Bad that unintentionally kills people and is a naïve super-powered child rather than some glowering Big Bad is a change of pace. But it seems ill-suited to Supernatural: the minor Big Bads like Michael and Lucifer who are really evil are built up and then casually swept aside. Jack doesn't defeat them because he's smarter or more cunning: he just beats them because the creative team arbitrarily gave him undefeatable power. Until the Winchesters pull off a finale-save and find a way to defeat him. But maybe the creative team will pull a surprise and keep Jack on the board, or reform him, or have the Winchesters lose for once.

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