Supernatural “Galaxy Brain” was written by the team of Meredith Glynn and Robert Berens and was directed by Richard Speight Jr. The episode drags us back to Not-Kaia (Yadira Guevara-Prip) and retcons Kaia back to life. Guevara-Prip is again excellent. She would have easily been one of the bright spots had the Wayward Sisters spinoff ever gotten off the ground. The episode also marks the potential last appearance of Sheriff Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes). I couldn’t help shaking that Rhodes performance is infused with anger at the CW passing on the spinoff… but maybe that’s just me. Regardless, it will be a shame if we don’t get a final episode that features the team of Jody and Donna (Brianna Buckmaster), but unlikely with only 8 (hopefully) episodes left it’s very unlikely. To me, they were always the much more interesting part of Wayward Sisters than the trouble special teens.
The episode begins on Earth 2 – and why does the CW have to mandate that every single show on the network looks like the “Arrowverse?” Regardless, we find Chuck (Rob Benedict) visiting a Radio Shed and playing on the demo stereo is
“Pop Tart Heart” by Louden Swain – Benedict’s band! (yes. I was at the concert in the link but am not the videographer) The clerk (Nicco Del Rio) tries to help his customer, but Chuck tells him that he’s just looking for an audience because it’s monologue time. Yeah. It’s kinda funny, but really it’s just bad meta.
Chuck tells the clerk about making the world and then the other world and his characters. He then tells him that Dean (Jensen Ackles) has said that he’s not going to get the ending that he wants. And this did actually feel like better meta, as Ackles said that when he was told about the ending for the series, he was “initially” not happy. It’s since been reworked and he came around to it – neither are good signs. Chuck goes on to say that it shouldn’t matter because he’s gotten what he’s wanted from hundreds of Sams and Deans – do we read this as satisfying episodes? Satisfying fan fiction? You know people are going to be rewriting the ending of this series for at least another 15 years, right?
But Chuck IS upset because those other “toys” (other shows? Fan fiction?) don’t spark joy the way that the real Sam and Dean do. Chuck goes on to say that they disappoint him, challenge him, surprise him. Chuck decides it’s time to clear the board of all the other world, realities, subplots, and failed spinoffs. And that’s rather a nasty dig at “Wayward Sisters,” but it’s also a clear indication that we won’t be seeing these characters again. Especially, when Chuck declares that it’s time to start cancelling shows.
We pick up the action on our world in Sioux Falls. Jody is investigating a dead cow – that looks to be just a dead cow, and she’s taken prisoner by Not-Kaia.
Back at the Bunker, Sam (Jared Padalecki), Cas (Misha Collins), and Dean discuss Jack (Alexander Calvert). I loved Collins performance as Dean sums up what’s “wrong” – Jack’s deal with Death – aka Billie (Lisa Berry) and eating hearts – and Cas, with a little shudder, says “the hearts were disturbing.” Sam wants to know what’s next. Dean points out that cosmic players never reveal their plans. Sam points out that Jack still has no soul and after being in the Empty for months, they have no idea where his head is.
The action cuts to Jack as he moves around the Bunker. He pauses to look at the initials carved in the table and then looks around his room. This is home. This is his family. Once alone in his room, Merle (Sandra Ferens) answers the silent prayer he sent to Billie because Billie is busy. Jack is worried. He prayed when the Grigori had him and Billie didn’t save him, Cas did. Merle points out that Billie likely knew that. She cautions him to play by the rules. No using his powers.
Cas maintains that Jack trusts Billie and he trusts Jack. Sam is worried about cosmic balance. If Jack kills Chuck, what will Amara do? Dean points out that he’s seen Billie’s library and spent time with her, so he has faith in her. She sticks to the rules – and she was right about Rowena. It’s the only plan they have right now.
Sam checks in on Chuck, interrupting his conversation with Merle, who disappears like any good Reaper. Chuck tells Sam that he wasn’t talking to anyone. Jack says he’s settling in fine. Sam tells him that they are all really glad to have him back. Sam tells him that he could have come to them first – they would have helped him. Jack says he knows. But it’s an uncomfortable and awkward scene.
We get a really nice scene between Dean and Cas as the two share a drink. Cas is clearly pleased that things have worked out. He tells Dean that he knew from knowing Kelly that Jack would turn out ok. The two toast to it. Dean wants revenge – but Cas is more interested in Jack simply fulfilling his destiny. Dean muses that Chuck wanted to go all Cain and Abel and now they are going all biblical on him – killed by his own grandson. The two are interrupted by the call for help from Jody.
Dean and Sam head to Sioux Falls and find Jody tied to a chair as bait. Non-Kaia easily takes them out. She wants her spear back and she wants them to live up to their promise to get her home. Jody manages to save them. Sam can’t believe that she wants to go back to the Bad Place – and really? How bad are these writers at naming things???
She tells them that her world is dying and she knows because of her dreams. Her dreams that are visions she shares with Kaia who is miraculously still alive – and she’s just telling them now. Omg. This is some of the worst retcon yet. Not-Kaia tells them that she left Kaia the tools she needed to survive, but now she sees that her world is dying. She needs their help to get back there.
I loved that we see the board games come out again and Cas and Jack are playing Connect Four. Cas, of course, sucks at it! The others return, and it’s kind of ridiculous that this is the first time that Cas and Jody have met in person.
Not-Kaia stands apart as the others discuss what they can do. Jack is off limits, but the brothers will hit the lore and Cas will reach out to Sergei to see if he has any more arch-angel grace. Not-Kaia is understandably upset as she doesn’t understand why he can’t just open a portal. They discuss what to do with Kaia and chain her up with a woman’s magazine! LOL!
Jack throws himself into helping with the research and finds a spell he thinks could work. Only the last ingredient is a monster that is extinct. The best part for me in this scene was that the brothers know this because John wrote about killing the last one in his journal. It’s nice to see that that is still and integral part of their research!
Cas has no luck getting Sergei on the phone. Jody has been going through the unidentified magical objects with no luck on identifying them. This scene is a nice one as the two discuss Claire. It makes it even more absurd that there’s never been a scene between the two – Claire’s father and adopted mother. Cas asks if Jody has told Claire, and Jody tells him she’s out of cell range following up a lead on a woman in a dark cloak. Jody has clearly arranged this. She tells Cas that Claire loved Kaia and has spent years trying to get revenge. If she failed now, it would kill her. Of course, the other issue is that Kathryn Newton’s (Claire) career has inexplicably blown up – so clearly not a guest star option.
Jack goes to talk to Not-Kaia who is not happy to see him. She tells him that she saw him. Kaia was scared and he pushed her to cross over. Jack tells her that he was just trying to help Kaia because she was in so much pain. For someone without a soul, Jack is filled with a lot of remorse for the fact that Kaia is in mortal peril now because of him. He asks why Not-Kaia came there. She tells him that she envied Kaia because her world looked peaceful, but she finds the world cold and she doesn’t understand it. She grabs his hands and tells him that he can fix it. He can help them. She begs him – and looks like Kaia for a moment. Jack briefly uses his powers to see Kaia through Not-Kaia.
Jack tells Dean and Sam that he’s saving Kaia because it’s the right thing to do. Merle appears and tells Jack he’s being Winchester-dumb risking everything to save one life. She tells him to try and she’ll tell death. Jack tells her to go and he’ll open the rift before she can tell Billie. Merle says she’ll just stop him, and Jack tells her she can try. He knows she can’t stop him – and then he tells her to wait and see what Billie does to her when everything goes sideways on her watch. OR she can help them find the safest way to do it.
Merle finally admits that there might be a way. She tells them that their cosmic warding is useless since Amara peeled it off. Dean insists that they restored it, but Merle tells them that they didn’t restore the cosmic-grade warding. She can only really restore it temporarily and with Cas’s help. It was kind of fun to watch the runes being restored by Sam’s spell.
Dean and Sam get ready to go through the rift and Sam says it feels like they are taking a big and probably stupid risk – but it feels good – doing the dumb, right thing. It feels like they’re back. Jody thanks Cas for staying back with the Reaper. Cas asks Jody to stay back. She accuses him of some silly male chivalry, but Cas wants to make sure that Claire is going to be ok. If something goes wrong, and Kaia doesn’t come back, Claire has already lived through that trauma, but if something happens to Jody, it will kill Claire. It’s a stupid way to sideline Kim Rhodes.
Not-Kaia is first through the rift, followed by Sam and Dean. The three are quickly surrounded by huge Jawas… Not-Kaia assures them that they aren’t hungry, they’re just scared of the storm. She takes them to her home. Kaia comes out when she hears Dean calling her and rushes into his arms. Sam assures her that Not-Kaia helped them find her. Not Kaia refuses to return with them. And it definitely looks like she dies with her world.
Dean and Sam return with Kaia and Jody takes her in her arms. Jack lends her some clothes, which mostly fit – but Kaia is just happy they’re clean. Jack asks how she survived, and Kaia tells him “Mary Mack” – the nursery rhyme which her mother used to tell her. Jody invites her to come home with her, and Kaia asks if Claire will be there. Jody says she will soon. She thanks them, and the two leave. It’s a pretty blah parting if that’s the last time we see Jody.
Merle declares it a victory, just before Billie drives her scythe through her, turning her to dust. Billie is clearly not happy with Jack. The scythe would be more impressive if it wasn’t so clearly plastic… Billie tells them that they are playing a big game and the weakest link had to go. Billie also tells them that she sees the big picture – one life means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Billie tells them that all the worlds are dying but theirs. He’s extinguishing galaxies for the end game. Which explains why she was so busy!
Sam wants to know what Billie’s end game is. How is Jack supposed to kill Chuck? She tells them that as a Reaper, she believed in the rules – and then Cas killed her. And she inherited Death’s knowledge and Death’s library. Everyone has a book, even God. And we get that awesome flashback to Death (Julian Richings – who was the best Death ever hands down – and I still miss him!) telling Dean that he will reap God. Cas wants to know why God would write the blueprint to his own death, and Billie tells him that God didn’t write it – the books write themselves. In order to keep things “ticking” even in his absence, God had to build himself into the framework. And it’s his only weakness. Only she can read someone’s book – other than the person themselves. She tells them that Jack and both of them are in God’s book. She tells Dean that she told him that the brothers had work to do, that this is their destiny. She tells them
“You are the messengers of God’s destruction.”
The episode circles back to Radio Shed. The clerk is a mess. Chuck is largely done, but some worlds require more attention to be “unwound.” The clerk says that he guesses Chuck will spare them. Chuck tells him he’ll be fine and walks out of the store. As he walks away, we see the store hit by flaming meteorites – and in case we still don’t want to believe Chuck is a bad guy, he also litters the plastic cup he’s drinking out of…
So a tiny bit of information to give us a little hope that the brothers can win. It was nice seeing Yadira Guevara-Prip again, who is a pretty busy actor in her own right! Other studios have certainly been busy snapping up these actors. It was nice to see Jody and Cas finally get some face time. Calvert delivers a really good performance here. It’s hard to believe that Jack is completely soulless with all the emotion he shows! If this was Jody’s swan song, it’s pretty disappointing. I suppose we can console ourselves that at least they didn’t kill her… yet. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
