Supernatural Season 14 Episode 17 Review: Game Night

This Supernatural review contains spoilers.

Supernatural Season 14 Episode 17

With an episode titled “Game Night” I thought we might actually see the game night unfold, wacky hijinks interrupting time to time but a moment of wholesomeness — maybe akin to an old M*A*S*Hepisode. But this is Supernatural. We take our wholesome family moments with a heaping pile of gore and misery. So lets dive in.

The intro to this one is so jaunty. The scene opens on Donatello singing “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on my Head” — which can either seem goofy or sinister depending on what era you’re listening to that song in. When Nick breaks in and captures him, the actual recording of the song plays over the scene, as if mocking him for daring to have a quiet moment. 

There’s a little side plot with Castiel and Sister Jo, who work together to find a way to contact God and restore Jack’s soul. They meet with Methuselah, find Dean’s necklace there, but don’t get through to the big guy. The importance of the Castiel/Sister Jo scenes are in Sister Jo calling out Cas in his desperation to fix Jack without having to tell the Winchesters. It also served as a little character building for the fallen angel. Sister Jo does her miracles not just for money, but for a sense of completion, of purpose, that she didn’t get through her work as an angel. It seems they’re not so different after all. 

Nick, now captured himself, requests to see “his” son Jack and of course that’s a bad idea but the search for Donatello is stagnant and the Winchesters don’t know what else to do. Nick and Jack converse in a confrontational way. Nick is emitting more and more Lucifer-like vibes. He’s very carefree now, not overburdened by guilt over the horrors he witnessed, but relishing in it, and doing unspeakable things himself while cracking jokes. He is conniving and suave. He’s every bit like Lucifer, minus the angel powers.

Ironically it’s Jack who looks the scariest in the scene. By the end of this scene he pointedly looks down on Nick, the camera angle working with it to show his superiority over the human Nick, while his nephilim eyes are ablaze.

During the fistfight between Sam and Nick, there’s this nice dichotomy between dark and light going on, told entirely by the visuals and background color palettes. You’ve got the black Impala set against a snowy landscape and dark ground. The only splashes of color are seen on Nick’s bloody face and shirt while Sam has him pinned to the ground. The roles are switched when Nick gets the upper hand and it’s Sam on the ground with all the blood on his face. 

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You wouldn’t think there’s all this visual stuff happening in a fight scene, but it was there. And the worst part about Sam getting his butt handed to him? Nick dented the Impala! An unforgivable offence that will likely be retconned by the next episode.

The rippling goo effect of Lucifer emerging from the void is insane, especially when he opens his wings. It’s a little T-1000-y with the liquid metal look, but I dig it because it’s a new effect on Supernatural, avoiding the typical light effects that signify Heaven and the smoke effects that signify Hell.

I think it’s really sweet how far Mary has come, from being a standard hunter to actually caring for the son of Lucifer. After Jack does something horrific, he looks to Mary for comfort. “Tell me it’s okay,” he says. “It’s not. You’re not,” Mary says, pained. But embodying the perfect Mom empathy, she reminds him it’s not his fault since his soul is missing.

There were games played in this episode, but it wasn’t on a board game. Nick played everyone in this episode, Castiel hid his cards close to his chest, and Jack made up his own rules as he went. It was a nail-biter for sure.

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