Supernatural season 15, episode 15 recap: Jack reveals the truth about his fate

If last week's episode was our re-introduction into the season, this week's episode was our reminder of what's to come: An epic showdown with Chuck. This hour was broken into two stories, so let's start with our favorite angelic duo solving a very human crime.

When Dean gets a lead on where Amara is — there have been some blackouts in Atlantic City — he and Sam hit the road, and they suggest that Castiel keep Jack occupied by ... working a murder investigation in Missouri. The murder in question involves a church group member who was walking home from the community center one night and heard a teddy bear say his name. No, we're not back to magically talking teddy bears. This one, rather, has a speaker in his stomach that you can use to record things. It's called Marvelous Marvin, apparently. And Agents Swift and Lovato are on the case!

In their matching ties, Castiel and Jack start working the case, only to find out that the victim's fingers were severed and then shoved down his throat. Sure this must be the work of a demon, they head to a nearby crossroads. That's when Jack decides to get on social media to find out more about their victim, and Castiel tells him about the one time he got on social media: "There were so many cat photos, it was just... there were too many cats."

When Zach, the crossroads demon arrives, he assures them that demons had nothing to do with the murder. As he puts it, nobody's making deals right now because Rowena has a strict policy about letting people end up where they will. That means Castiel and Jack are looking for the worst kind of monster: A human.

After another member of the church community, Valerie, is taken, we get a look at what this killer is made of, and it's twisted. Valerie is tied up, and every three hours, as she watches a clock tick down, she loses another finger.

Meanwhile, Jack joins the Patchwork Community Center to try to get some intel, and he ends up bonding with Sylvia, whose father, Joe, is the pastor. (And yes, that is the same actor who played Dr. Sexy in "Changing Channels.") This is where Jack says one of my favorite lines when he tells her "I have more dads than most." (And somehow she doesn't ask any follow-up questions?)

Castiel, still posing as Agent Swift, talks to Joe and learns that his late wife was a member of the church back when it used to be a bit more strict. Now, Joe has evolved it into being a place where all faiths and backgrounds are welcome.

Later, at prayer, Joe asks Jack to share his testimony, but when Jack isn't able to speak, Castiel steps in and tells his story. He says he used to follow orders without question and wouldn't look beyond the plan. And when that all came crashing down, he lost his purpose. But then he found a family. And then he became a father. "And in that, I rediscovered my faith and I rediscovered who I am," he says, a sweet speech that only makes me nervous. Whenever someone starts reflecting on their journey, I'm worried it's because it's about to come to an end! But hopefully that's just my own paranoia.

Joe goes up to Jack afterward and apologizes for putting him on the spot when suddenly a TV cuts on in the community center, and everyone is left to watch as Valerie loses another finger. Joe thinks Rudy, a former member, is the one responsible, but Jack and Castiel get to his apartment just in time to discover that he's been dead for a while.

The killer? Sylvia! Turns out, she's not a fan of the changes her father made to the church after her mother died. But the angelic duo is there to stop her as she stabs Jack (and he heals) and Cas uses his powers to knock her out and heal Valerie's hand. Sylvia is then put in the back of a cop car ... that's driven by the crossroads demon? That's something that might come back around.

Driving home, Jack decides to tell Castiel the truth: He's been lying to them all. When he kills Chuck and Amara, he's going to die too. Turns out Billie's spell is turning him into a bomb, and he won't survive. He then asks a distraught Castiel not to tell Sam and Dean because they won't understand. "I know this is the only way they'll ever forgive me," Jack says. Castiel isn't happy with the news, but we'll get back to that.

While all of this was going on, Sam and Dean were on their way to Amara. At least until she smelled them from two states over — apparently Dean has a "very distinctive musk" — and showed up for lunch.

Together, the three of them sit down for some Pennsylvania Pierogies, and Sam and Dean ask for her help taking down Chuck (knowing that, in the end, they're also going to kill her). But Amara's not interested. She refuses to betray her brother like that. As she puts it, they came into existence together, they are the same. The boys, confused, say that Death told them Amara was born first, but she reveals that they're twins: creation and destruction, light and dark. "When we split apart, all this was created," she says, just casually explaining how the Big Bang was created in the Supernatural universe. (I love when the show does stuff like this!)

She knows that it hurt Chuck to trap her all those years ago, and she believes caging him will in turn hurt her. So she won't do it.

But before Sam and Dean drive off, Dean marches back inside and tries one last thing. He asks Amara why she brought Mary back in the first place, and Amara explains that she wanted Dean to see that Mary was just a person and not the myth he'd held onto for so long. She wanted him to realize that a complicated Mary was better than his childhood dream because she was real and maybe, then, he could accept his life. And she hoped having Mary back would release him from his anger, but clearly, that failed.

Dean, having a real Heisenberg moment, tells her, "You're damn right." Dean's still angry. No, he's furious. He tells Amara that she's just like Chuck, "another cosmic dick rigging the game." He's furious that he's been a hamster in Chuck's wheel, that they're all trapped. Chuck's killing people and Amara's doing nothing. She asks if she can trust him and he promises he'll never hurt her. (A lie.) She responds, "Then I'll think about it."

Back at the bunker, Dean finds Castiel on his way out. Cas explains that he has to look for "another way." And in case something goes wrong and he doesn't make it back, there's something he needs to tell Dean and Sam. So ... Cas kept that secret for all of five minutes.

All in all, this felt like a solid, fairly standard episode of Supernatural, with the best moments being Jack's confession and Dean's confrontation with Amara. At this point, we can feel the stakes starting to build, and every week I'm growing a little bit more scared of what's to come.

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Supernatural recap: Jack reveals the truth about his fate

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