WiC Watches: Supernatural season 15

Episode 1509: “The Trap”

Supernatural giveth and it taketh away. The show returned from its festive season hiatus with an episode that immediately got down to the business of destroying any hope we had of locking Chuck up and throwing away the proverbial key. Holding Sam and Eileen hostage, Chuck reveals he had subtly manipulated their romance, nudging them together so he’d have a set of eyes in the bunker — no one wants to miss their “favorite show,” after all. It’s diabolical but hardly surprising, given Chuck’s new appetite for douchery.

Chuck finds it annoying that he and Sam are connected. As long as they are, he can’t leave that world. He surmises the gunshot wounds aren’t healing properly because something is “festering” inside Sam, “something that won’t let go,” and intends to find out what that is. Too “pathetic” — according to Eileen, and I concur — to physically get his hands dirty, Chuck forces Eileen to cut into Sam’s wound, but the attempt is unsuccessful.

But my boy Sammy stays strong, causing Chuck’s cool to slip a notch or 10. He can’t understand why Sam is still so defiant. “It’s not my first time on the rack,” Sam reminds him, referring, of course, to the time he was tortured and mutilated in Hell. That’s when Chuck has a light switch moment. “Hope. That’s what’s stopping me. You still think that Dean and Cas are gonna fly through those doors in the nick of time. You still think you’re the hero of this story. You still think you can win.”

His smugness returns and he makes quick work of bulldozing that hope by pulling out his time-traveling pocket watch and showing Sam what the future will look like if they defeat him. Fast-forwarding to various dates, Sam witnesses a future where monsters have taken over, they’ve lost friends, including Claire, Donna and Eileen, and the seal drives Castiel crazy, forcing Dean to lock and bury him in a Ma’lak box. Dean loses all hope and wants to quit, but accompanies Sam on a vampire hunt regardless. Skipping to December 9, 2022, Sam and Dean barricade themselves in a room, waiting for the enemy to arrive. They know they’re outnumbered but at least they’re together. “Butch and Sundance” to the very end.

Seeing Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver) and Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) forming part of the hunting party was shocking, but what was spectacularly jarring was seeing the set of vampire fangs Sam and Dean were flashing. Essentially, they become the very monsters they spent all their lives hunting. Jody shoots Sam, Dean kills Jody, Bobby cuts Sam’s head off. Cut to the present day and Sam is as shaken up as I am.

Chuck insists he wants a better ending for them because they matter to him, but really, I just saw it as patronization, another great facet of his “winning” personality. Following these bleak visions, which Sam believed were true, Sam is unable to go through with the plan to cage Chuck when Dean and Castiel return with the weapon. Additionally, because Sam’s given up hope, Chuck’s wound heals, freeing him from his connection to Sam.

These futuristic sequences are reminiscent of season 5’s “The End”, when the angel Zachariah tried to manipulate Dean by thrusting him into the future to show him the outcome (and his death) should he refuse to be Michael’s vessel. More importantly, we got to see Sam as Lucifer’s vessel looking suave and malevolent in a white suit. If this episode taught us anything, it’s that the future is never set in stone…and most of the heavenly hosts can’t be trusted. I couldn’t help but wonder if Chuck was using false visions or perhaps even memories from other worlds to break Sam down.

As dreary as this future looked, it felt slightly out of character for Sam to accept defeat. That said, it was necessary for the plot. I admit, solving their Chuck problem so early in the season would have been catastrophic in the grand scheme of things. It meant they would have needed to set up another villain. With the options to kill Chuck or throw him in the cage off the table, Dean declares they’ll find another way. If they can’t, the Winchester vs. Winchester scenario is looking more likely.

The episode’s most emotional moment took place in Purgatory — there’s a sentence I never thought I’d utter. While Sam was receiving Chuck’s special brand of God treatment, Dean and Castiel were in the Hell-adjacent location trying to track down the Leviathan Blossom, which is as aesthetically displeasing as it sounds.

The tension was rife between the two of them from the onset. Uncharacteristically, Castiel even challenged Dean’s decisions on two occasions. Eileen had managed to tip Dean off that they were being held by Chuck. While Dean wanted to rush off to save them, guns blazing, Castiel told him they needed the weapon first before they could face Chuck and told Dean to stop being stupid. He actually said those words. To Dean. Dean was surprised. I was surprised. Castiel was unperturbed. I loved it! Again in Purgatory, when Dean wanted to split up, Castiel opposed him, saying it would only improve their odds of getting lost or killed. So off they went. Together.

Castiel’s forthrightness was impressive, although I think it stemmed from pure frustration at the state of their deteriorated relationship. Even while traipsing through Purgatory, their conversation felt slightly hostile. After they became separated, however, Dean finally broke down and prayed to Cas. Through tears he apologized to Castiel, confessing to his anger issues and how he couldn’t control them, even when he wanted to. He went on: “I forgive you. Of course I forgive you. I’m sorry it took so long. I’m sorry it took me ‘til now to say it. Cas, I’m so sorry. I hope you can hear me.”

I wept like an infant. It’s in fragile moments such as these that you realize the Winchesters own your soul. And fortunately, Castiel heard every word.

The episode ended with Jack staring off into the nothingness of the Empty and Billie (Lisa Berry) saying to him, “It’s time.” Unpopular opinion: I was always a bit indifferent to Jack and frankly, he wasn’t gone long enough for me to even miss him. But I think it’s safe to assume he has a big role to play and if he returns with his soul intact and with his full power, which even Chuck feared, it could turn the tide for the Winchesters.

Super highlights

• Sam and Eileen shared their first kiss… right before she left the bunker because she was afraid she couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t anymore. The Winchesters’ bad relationship luck strikes again.
• Benny is dead. In Purgatory, the Leviathan revealed that Benny had been ripped apart by other vampires. Bad times!
• Will Eve return? The Leviathan who captured Castiel mentioned the Mother of All wasn’t pleased with him. Cas escaped en route to her, so we didn’t lay eyes on her physically. Is it possible she has a role to play this season?