'Supernatural' 15.17 Review: Unity

This post contains spoilers for Supernatural.
Check out our last review here. 

That’s what we’re talking about, Supernatural! After several episodes of wheel-spinning, the final season has finally started giving us some real story moments. As a matter of fact, it sort of sprinted in “Unity.” It’s time for the final step of Billie’s plan – including a visit to Adam (yes that Adam) and his angel girlfriend Serafina. Staying true to form, the episode ensures Dean doesn’t leave the bunker without some good old drama with Sam while simultaneously continuing to ostracize Jack. Everything’s as it should be on Team Free Will! (Where is my sarcasm font?) 

As you can expect, Sam (Jared Padalecki) didn’t magically get over Dean (Jensen Ackles) keeping the fact that Jack (Alexander Calvert) would have to die in order to off Chuck (Rob Benedict) and Amara (Emily Swallow). Tonight’s episode sees the brothers clash is a way that they never really have in the series not just because of what’s at stake, but because of Dean’s rage. We’ll see everything split off into three teams this week: Dean and Jack head off to see The Man about a rib so Jack can become a bomb, Sam and Cas look for another way, and Chuck and Amara have some serious heart-to-hearts (do they have hearts?).

The biggest plot twist this week hinges on Billie (Lisa Berry). In their attempt to find an out for Jack, Sam and Cas dig for the key to Death’s library so they can confront her in person. Sam goes into this solely for comfort, to hear the plan directly from the source rather than second-hand through Dean and his rage. Instead, what he finds is Not-Meg-But-The-Empty (Rachel Miner) chilling in Death’s chair, watching over Chuck’s death book and torturing folks until Billie appears. What he learns from this encounter is that it was never about killing Chuck, but about Billie herself becoming God so that everything could return to the way it was. Everyone they ripped from Heaven or Hell would return, Bobby would return to Purgatory, angels stick to Heaven, demons stick to Hell, the whole nine.

To make matters worse, Jack already absorbed Adam’s rib after getting the go-time signal from Dean. This means there’s no turning back for Billie’s bomb, but Sam has to try. It’s in this moment that the aforementioned “biggest clash” takes place. It’s not because of the gun, or because Dean punches his brother several times. It’s because he willingly admits that he’d sacrifice everyone they’ve ever saved and losing Cas to heaven forever if it means killing Chuck. He is so consumed by his rage and fear that he’ll never taste freedom that he’s too blind to see that he’s being controlled by both Chuck and Billie.

Billie doesn’t get the opportunity to capitalize on things this week. Chuck, on the other hand, very much does.

The relationship between Chuck and Amara has always been skewed. All she wants is balance, while all he wants is control. Thanks to Dean’s hubris (and lies), ol’ Chuck is easily able to manipulate the hurt Amara to agree to be absorbed by him so they can achieve complete unity. After all, the only human she cared about was willing to kill her to get what he wanted. And so Team Free Will finds themselves facing off with an annoyed God. While Dean is supremely out of hand with everything, Sammy is able to convince him that he has to protect him at the very least and to put the damn gun down. Even still, at the very end, they couldn’t follow his plan. It all still works in his favor though, because they cannot reverse Jack’s future cosmic-entity-black-hole status.

And that’s where we leave things this week. Amara’s absorbed, God’s gone, Jack’s dying, and Billie is going to be real, real mad. Once they find a way to save Jack, Dean’s going to have to come to terms with the fact that his wrath could kill everyone he loves. Then they’re going to have to sort out a war with Death, and after that there’s still the ever-looming threat of Chuck’s potential destruction. Oh, and there are only three episodes left in the series somehow.

Tonight’s episode is exactly the kind of thing we’ve been waiting for from the ladder half of this season. It didn’t just acknowledge its stakes, it raised them further while adding in some necessary friction between Team Free Will before they all come together for whatever the presumably explosive finale has in store for us. All I know is Amara better get her chance to smack her brother (and probably Dean) around before all of this wraps up.