Looks like Supernatural has an all new fab four! This week, Sam, Dean, Cas and Jack hit the road for a case in cowboy country, and Dean couldn’t be happier.

Not Sayin’ He a Gravedigger

We open in Dodge City, Kansas, and Dean and a literal white hat are roaming a graveyard, looking for…we don’t know what. Dean tells white hat to wait, and that he will flush “him” out. Unfortunately, white hat, whom Dean refers to as “Sarge” gets dragged underground by an emerging hand, leaving Dean staring into a big hole, saying, “Oh, hell!” And it’s probably not the first time he’s done that.

Back in Time

48 hours earlier, we pick up where the last episode left off, with the boys staring down a resurrected Castiel. At first they struggle to believe it. “I don’t even know what to say,” Sam says with a small, confused smile. “I do,” says Dean, relieved and overjoyed. “Welcome home, pal.” They take turns embracing Cas and it’s honestly, for lack of a better word, nice. Cas explains about his time in the Empty, and Sam figures out that the voice that woke Cas up must have been Jack’s. Maybe this will be the thing that completely wins Dean over.

TFW 2.0

The boys go back to the Bunker, and bring Cas to Jack. Jack knows he begged for Cas to come back, but can’t confirm he brought him home. Cas thanks him anyway, and Jack embraces him and again, it’s just so nice.

But that’s not all. Jack proudly shows them that not only can he lift the pencil with his mind, he’s found them a zombie case, in Dodge City, which is really going to get Dean on his good side. “Alright, well, two salty hunters, one half-angel kid, and a dude who just came back from the dead—again,” says Dean. “Team Free Will 2.0. Here we go.” And things turn from nice to delightful.

Home on the Range

Props, literally, to the set designers for the wild west motel room they conjured up this week. “The Wild Bill” suite would be overkill for absolutely anyone else, but Dean surveys the scene with joy, naming all the cowboy photos on the wall as he holds his dry cleaned Fed suit (nice touch). Sam is happy for Dean’s good mood, and Dean’s big win. Me too. Anything that brings out that Jensen Ackles mega-watt smile is fine by me.

Wake Up Call

Dean and Sam are in bed, alas, merely sleeping. Since Jack sleeps very little and Cas sleeps not at all, they talk, mostly about Kelly, and it’s bittersweet. Jack feels safe when Cas is around, and Cas believes that Jack can still change the world for the better. All the touchy-feely gets interrupted when Jack gets a clue, literally, on the case. He rushes in to wake Dean despite Cas’ protestations and nearly gets shot for his trouble, which surprises Sam and Cas not at all. “I told you—he’s an angry sleeper,” Cas says. “Like a bear.” (The fan fic sometimes writes itself, doesn’t it?) Sam decides they will split up—he and Jack will hit the graveyard and, after Dean finishes his coffee (word, Dean) he and Cas will scout the crime scene.

Urban Cowboys

Dean and Cas try to blend in in their cowboy hats, sauntering in to a slightly heavy handed but still smirk worthy musical cue, and meet the “Sarge” from the intro—Sargent Joe Philips, whose Deputy nephew was killed by the monster. After an awkward intro to “Major Russell and Kilmer…Val Kilmer…Texas Rangers” they discuss the case, and Sarge vows to kill whomever did his nephew in if he finds him first.

Meanwhile, Sam and Jack visit 50’s pin-up looking mortician, Athena Lopez, who doesn’t know anything because when the local grave was robbed she was at an Amanda Palmer concert (nice shout out.) Sam introduces Jack, who is trying almost too hard to help, as a trainee. Athena sends them out to look at the gravesite. Sam looks at the “rat” chewed coffin (with the monster sized hole) and figures it out—they’re fighting a ghoul. “Can I just say that I am getting real sick and tired of fighting things that look like other things?” Dean asks. And you thought your job was stress inducing? Jeez.

Whiz Kid

Jack has a real Wesley Crusher moment when he uses the laptop to track the ghoul using traffic cams. (Recapper’s note: I always liked Wesley, but I know he was a very polarizing character, as I think Jack could be were he not handled with finesse. Be careful, writers, and thank Chuck for the casting department who put Jack in the hands of the wonderful Alexander Calvert.) Dean, looking like a kid at Christmas, figures out that the ghoul is impersonating outlaw Dave Mather, who died in 1886. And whom we find out, thanks to Jack, happens to be Athena’s boyfriend. “So what do we tell Athena?” Sam asks.” “Well, we keep it simple,” says Dean. “Tell her the guy she’s banging eats dead people and we’re here to kill him. Or we could lie.” Sam, ever the sensitive one, chooses option B.

One for the Money

Athena tells the boys that Dave is at the bank, and he is. Robbing it. TFW 2.0 surrounds him, but he’s armed and dangerous and a massive shootout ensues. Jack, still trying to be helpful, rushes Dave and uses his powers to throw him backward. Which would have been great, were it not for the security guard caught in the force who ends up smashing into a pole and bleeding out. Jack, inadvertent as ever, has hurt someone again, and he is devastated. Especially when Cas’ healing angel mojo fails to save the innocent.

Dig Dug

Dean tells Sam and Cas to bring Jack home while he goes back for the escaped ghoul. Dean goes back to Athena’s and sees Sarge, who has also figured out Dave killed his nephew and has come for revenge. “I should tell you I’m not taking him alive,’ Dean says. “Neither am I,” says Sarge. “All right then,” Dean says. “Aim for the head.” And we’re back where we started. Jensen Ackles makes me LOL again as he looks down the hole, says, “Mmm mmm—no—I don’t wanna—okay…” and plunges in, falling, adorable and hilarious. Disgruntled and spitting, he crawls to Athena’s, finds her and Sarge and gets held up by Dave. Fortunately, he manipulates the situation enough that Sarge can blow him away. Dean doesn’t get the girl, but he does help to save the day.

Unforgiven

On the car ride back to the Bunker, Sam and Cas try to convince Jack that they, too, have done things they regret to people they care about, but Jack is having none of it. When Dean gets home, he joins in, telling Jack that he’s not a monster—that if he’s a monster because he made a mistake then they all are.

Jack realizes that on some level they fear him, and he hasn’t got the control he needs. Jack knows he not only cannot make the world a better place, as Kelly dreamed he could, he cannot chance hurting the three of them because they are all he has. Apologizing profusely, he tosses them all to the ground and disappears, leaving the rest of TFW 2.0 dismayed in his wake.

Where oh where has little Jack gone? Maybe we’ll find out in next week’s ominous sounding episode, “War of the Worlds”. See you next time, and happy Thanksgiving!

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