Recap: ‘Supernatural’ Returns With a Blast From the Bunker’s Past in October Premiere
NOW. Supernatural fans are all in this together and the first of the last seven episodes aired on Oct. 8. Surreal, isn’t it? Nothing’s changed for the Winchesters and their sights are still set on defeating Chuck and saving the world. They need Jack’s help and he needs theirs, but how will this play out now that he has a soul and regrets are welling up inside of him?
They don’t get much time to dwell on that question but learn a few lessons anyway in this October premiere. Here’s a recap of “Last Holiday.”
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Supernatural Season 15, episode 14, “Last Holiday”]
Sam and Dean meet the bunker’s spirit
Sam’s doing research when Dean walks in the main bunker room wearing an apron. He’s trying to cook burgers but complains about stuff not working. They briefly talk about Jack coping with having a soul before heading down to the basement to check out the pipes.
After looking at a large grid, Dean spots a yellow reset button and hits it before Sam issues his warning. Lights go out then come back on. Upstairs, Dean sees a matronly woman standing in the bunker. The Winchesters learn she’s a wood nymph named Ms. Butters who used to help out the previous Men of Letters. She’s thinks it’s 1958.
She handled the domestic things around the bunker like meals, laundry, and cleaning, and didn’t know the others died. Dean and Sam break the news about Abaddon and the current year. She placed herself in standby mode in the grid after the men never returned from a mission. The nymph snaps her fingers and the bunker powers up, and she’s ready to be of service.
There’s a monster-tracking the boys never knew about and she teaches the brothers how to use it. In Mary Poppins-like fashion, she urges them to handle a vampire nest quickly and return for dinner.
While they’re out, Ms. Butters knocks on Jack’s door and offers him a sandwich, but he sits quietly in his room. She sweetly leaves it at the door.
Does Ms. Butters disapprove of Jack?
Sam and Dean go dispatch two vampires (who were drinking from blood bags), return, and find that Ms. Butters decorated the place like Christmas. She’s cooked and baked too since the boys haven’t had a home-cooked meal or celebrated anything in years.
Jack finally emerges from his room and Ms. Butters asks, “What are you?” She looks at him suspiciously. The Winchesters vouch for him and she softens by offering him a smoothie.
Dean is happy to wear old-fashioned pajamas and the Winchesters enjoy Christmas food. When they leave for a quick mission, she and Jack have a moment in the kitchen. He explains his family tree and relationship to the Winchesters.
When he brings up killing Mary by accident, it catches her off guard but Ms. Butters reassures him everyone’s done things they not proud of.
Meanwhile, the Winchester brothers go on a cascade of missions and each time, Ms. Butters hands them bagged lunches on their way out the door. They all celebrate various holidays and enjoy instant Thanksgiving and birthdays.
Jack finds Ms. B. snooping through an old filing cabinet and watches her from a corner. He calls out and startles her. To distact her, he asks for a smoothie. When she leaves the room, he rummages through the cabinet and discovers an old film.
Ms. Butters has a history in Nazi Germany and the Men of Letters found her while on a mission. She destroyed 200 men because they nymphs violently when home or family or threatened. It’s revealed she joined the Men of Letters for their security. She helped torture and kill people on their behalf, and in the film, she’s shown beheading a man they interrogated. Jack is shocked.
Jack is trapped by the nymph
He takes off to tell Sam and bumps into Ms. Butters. She tells a nervous Jack that Sam is prepping for a date. Sam is dressed up for a date with Eileen and Dean runs to help see him off with everyone else. Jack doesn’t want to spoil the mood and clams up.
He follows Ms. Butters down to the basement and it’s a trap. She intentionally left him to find that film and it was test to see if he enjoyed the torture. She believes he’s a monster and spiked his smoothies to weaken him. Ms. Butters thinks she’s protecting her family. Jack’s powers don’t work so she cuffs him and leaves him.
Up in the kitchen, Ms. Butters hands hungry Dean a sandwich. She encourages him to eat up because “We have to go kill Jack.” Dean, alarmed, explains he knew this would happen and proposes to let Jack go. Ms. Butters tosses Dean into the room with Jack. She thinks Jack “infected” him.
Sam arrives home and asks about Jack and Dean. Ms. Butters gives him the rundown and perkily says they have to kill them. Sam plays along so he can rescue them and leaves to room to “get his gun.” He calls Dean, loads his piece, and gets caught after aiming it at Ms. Butters.
She magically puts Sam in a chair to lecture him about how evil Jack is since he’s Lucifer’s son. Sam disagrees and she pulls his fingernails off one by one. Ouch!!
Downstairs, Dean uses a blade to strike Jack’s handcuffs, and the force knocks Jack into a wall. Dean moves him toward the door, repeats the painful strike, and they blast their way out.
Sam talks Ms. Butters down
After hitting the standby button on the grid, Ms. Butters is sucked back into the grid’s sigils and they free Sam. But Ms. Butters frees herself from the system and rages toward them.
Sam talks her out of killing Jack by explaining he’s part of their family and he’s going to save the world. He also notes Mr. Cuthbert from the Men of Letters used her. Conflicted, she breaks down in tears and calms down.
Toward the end, they ask if she wants to go home and she accepts the offer. She misses home. Ms. Butters explains the bunker will go back into standby mode since she’s leaving.
Dean jokes that they don’t need the extra radar and weird telescope thing, and she points out that it’s an interdimensional geoscope. Dean remarks he didn’t see anything when he looked in it and Ms. Butters makes a passing remark: “That’s not good.”
Before walking out, she reminds Dean to eat his vegetables, tells Sam to cut his hair, and Jack to save the world.
In the last scene, Jack raises concerns to Sam about not being able to help the world. Sam gives him a pep talk. Dean enters the main hall wearing his apron and carrying a covered platter. He made a birthday cake for Jack and smiling, urges him to make a wish. Jack obliges and blows out the candle.
