Supernatural Season 15 Episode 1 Review: Back and To The Future

This Supernatural review contains spoilers.

Supernatural Season 15 Episode 1

This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the beginning of the end. The premiere episode of Supernatural ’s final season started off with a bang, reintroduced some familiar faces and ended with enough quotable lines to fill a calendar. Let’s dive in.

After a hair raising continuation of the Winchesters fight in the graveyard, our boys quickly put to rest that “zombie” thing a lot of us were bandying about at the season finale last season, echoing the producers when Den of Geek interviewed them — they’re not zombies, but spirits hitching a ride at the nearest available body. 

One such spirit is a surprisingly helpful demon that takes over Jack’s eyeless body. Alexander Calvert got the chance to play a smooth, pencil-pushing demon just looking to bring things back to the status quo. It allowed for fun drama when the Winchesters decide to keep him around, especially since Castiel couldn’t bear to look at him. 

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The demon’s appearance also has implications for Dean. He brings up Dean’s time in Hell torturing souls — something many of us care not to think too much on for the sake of loving Dean’s character. Will Dean’s time in Hell be important in the season? Was it just a one-off reference from our new demon friend? Time will tell.

Major props for bringing back the Woman in White and Bloody Mary. By the way, that’s the original Bloody Mary, Jovanna Burke. Getting an actor to reprise a fifteen year old role is a pretty amazing feat in itself — filming schedules and conflicts often make this impossible, so returning characters after many years are sometimes recast. 

The climax featured the Winchesters and Cass facing off against John Wayne Gacy, the Woman in White, Lizzy Borden and an unnamed spirit. This fight — the timing of the blows, the solidness of our ghosts as they attacked our guys — felt a little low energy. This scene couldn’t compete with the mad dash and frenetic atmosphere of the beginning scene in the graveyard. It was very off-putting to see the ghosts just running after Sam and Cass when the rules of the universe say they can appear and reappear at will. It’s hard to have a suspension of disbelief for a world with vengeful spirits when it’s made very clear these are actors in costume attacking the main characters. Good horror during bright daylight scenes is a treat, so this fight was a touch disappointing.

Sam and Dean find signs of the woman in white Constance Welch (from the pilot!) at it again, and this is the moment when they realize the gravity of their situation. Dean says, “If she’s back then they’re all back. Every last one of them we killed.” It dawns on the boys that their entire lives of saving people/hunting things has been undone by a selfish deity. In fact, the entire history of hunting itself has been undone because God said “The End.” That’s a hefty burden to carry.

Later, Dean wraps it up with: “It makes you think of all of it, everything we’ve done, what did it even mean?” Sam puts those worries to rest indicating they did a lot of good, and now that God has pulled the ripcord and left, just like he did on Apocalypse World, they’ve got no one else rewrite their stories. It’s just them vs. 3 billion spirits — and Dean likes those odds.

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That ending scene was so important. One of the major struggles the show has dealt with was the implications of free will once God was introduced into the mythos. Characters could be resurrected willy-nilly, apocalypses can come and go, God can show up just to throw a wrench in the works — it all makes it difficult to see how Sam and Dean can make a definitive difference (they do, don’t get me wrong). But now that God had his tantrum and left — the rules go back to where they were closer to the beginning of the series. Sure, we have angels and demons — that part of the mythology doesn’t go away — but we can surmise that at least there won’t be any more interference from the big guy. At least that’s what the Winchesters assume, and you know what they say about assuming. 

The ending scene had so many quotable moments this review could have become a quote-fillled listicle. One of the best moments was Dean treating Sam’s worrisome Equalizer wound. He brings up how they used to do this as kids, and Dean would distract Sam from the pain by telling a stupid joke. And you know, that’s the Supernatural way — breaking up the horror and the trauma with lighthearted moments and humor.

But the best moment that got this reviewer to shout at the TV and nearly fall off the couch? When Sam and Dean are shown from the trunk of the Impala and Sam says “We’ve got work to do” followed quickly by a masterful match cut of the same trunk shot from the pilot. 

I was already excited for this season and the big fight facing the Winchesters. It’s not fair to throw amazing fan service and heart-warming quotes at me. My feelings just don’t stand a chance this season.

Bridget LaMonica is a contributor at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @BridgetLaMonica.