What I loved about this episode:

CHARACTER DYNAMICS!!!!

This episode was chock full of, not just character relationship dynamics, but a place where they’re getting towards healthy ones. Not gonna say there ain’t a long road to go – because there is – but wow what a start.

MARY & JACK:

Jacks’s been through the wringer this episode. A bunch of people died, and he saved the one. He’s really coming to terms with “what’s the point of the fight and the powers if I can’t save everyone?” And Mary Winchester takes on mom and mentor. She calls him one of her boys, and Jack uses his body and his wings to save her, if there can only be one. He’s not comforted by what happened, but without Mary? He’d probably have been in a much darker “fuck it all” place than he is without her guiding him and advising him.

SAM & GABRIEL:

There were so many small, good moments here. The most jam-packed was the ending with Sam asking how Gabriel is doing now that he’s got his revenge. Gabriel says he’s great: a new man. And Sam smiles and shakes his head and says, “that’s what I thought.” Gabriel is saying that nothing’s really better, and Sam is saying he knows. And I think Gabriel honoring the deal is largely because of that. Because Sam understood what Gabriel was going through and even actively kept Dean from digging into Gabriel to force him to fight. He’s done a lot of bad to the Winchesters, but the appreciation he has for Sam’s ability to forgive, and even more so, console, went a long freaking way with his trauma.

DEAN & SAM:

I have talked a lot about how family ties are toxic in the SPN universe, but what we witnessed in this episode was the beginning (hopefully) of a change between Sam and Dean. Instead of deflecting or being passive-aggressive and manipulative to Sam’s feelings, Dean actually came out and told Sam what he was feeling and his motivations straight up, no chaser. That while Sam felt like he was being put at the kid’s table again, Dean was really rushing into the fire because he’s never cared what’s happened to him as long as Sam was safe.

AND THEN. Sam called bullshit. Hard. Says that they’ll face it all together because that’s the only way it’ll work. And he’s probably right. AND THEN. Dean didn’t brush him off or snark the comment away. He smiled. He nodded. He heard – and accepted – that this is an equal partnership in that family. And it made him happy. Probably proud to be a Winchester for the first time in a long time. I’m really rooting for that healthy note to keep growing for him because lord knows this show has had enough of dismissive Dean and Sam feeling inadequate. 

We don’t get a whole lot of purely character relationship driven episodes, but this one shined in an already bright season.