‘Supernatural’ Season 15 Premiere ‘Back and to the Future’ Review: The End Begins

In all those years, I never thought Supernatural would end so soon. So, excuse me while I get a little emotional over this premiere. Just that bit of recap in the beginning already started tugging at my chest. Thankfully, season 15’s premiere episode, titled “Back to the Future,” isn’t as heavily emotional yet. However, considering that God/Chuck (Rob Benedict) basically unleashed all of hell for one final apocalypse, I expected a lot more to go down in this episode. It’s basically the beginning of the end for Supernatural for Chuck’s sake. Despite that, it did the work with some pretty nice callbacks to the first seasons. Given this starting narrative, I think we’ll pretty much be going full circle to the very first seasons of Supernatural. So, better get those tissues ready.

For this premiere, we’re starting right off from where Supernatural ended last season. Jack’s (Alexander Calvert) dead. While Sam (Jared Padelecki), Dean (Jensen Ackles), and Cas (Misha Collins) are surrounded by the unleashed souls of the dead. Now that Chuck has opened every door in hell, the Winchesters realize that they basically have to fight literal ghosts of their past/ everything they’ve sent to hell. And this might just include one poor neglected half brother.

The Lady in White and the Killer Clown

Remember lady in white from season 1 and killer clown from season 2? Well, they’re back. Sorry, Sam. After Chuck disappears, Sam, Dean, and Cas with Jack’s body on his shoulder barricade themselves in a mausoleum to get away from the hoard of possessed bodies of the dead. While they’re scrambling to find a way out, Jack’s body rises from the dead. A demon named Belphegor possesses it. And he introduces himself as a simple demon clerk who just wants things to go back to the way they were in hell. So now, he’s here wanting to help the Winchesters.

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Contrary to his little introduction though, in demonology, Belphegor is one of the seven princes of hell. It would make sense as after a little spell, he manages to blow the souls from hell possessing the dead away. Even Crowley couldn’t do that. If he is really a prince of hell, I could say he’s definitely the most chill and the most likable so far.

In the car ride, Cas is visibly uncomfortable with Jack’s body now moving out and about. On the bright side, worldwide apocalypse doesn’t seem to have started yet. But as Belphegor tells them, they’re facing about 2 to 3 billion unleased souls from hell. Fortunately, he has just the spell to contain them like a mile-wide salt line to buy the Winchesters some time to close the rift. With this, Cas alerts them that the town of Harlan, Kansas is just a mile away from the cemetery they just came from. Before they can do the spell, they have to evacuate it first. How? Some gold old Winchester lying.

On the way, they find a car wreck on the side of the road. Sam immediately recognizes that it looks too much like the wreckage of their lady in white. And that’s when they connect the dots that everything they sent to hell in the past years might now be back. True enough, John Wayne Gacy, Sam’s favorite killer clown, and the Bloody Mary have already started to haunt Harlan.

Guess Who’s Out of Hell

Once they get to Harlan, Sam takes lead to convincing the sheriff to evacuate the town. Dean’s supposed to go with him but, Cas couldn’t bear to be with Jack’s walking meat suit any longer so he volunteers instead. With only Dean and Belphegor left in the car, the demon remarks on how people are good-looking now. He even calls Dean “gorgeous.” Back in his time as a human when they were still worshipping huge penis-shaped rocks, he says that people were just “ugly.”

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When Belphegor asks about the kid who owned the body he’s now in, Dean takes a moment to answer. In the end, he says “he was our kid…kinda.” Shifting the conversation, Dean asks what they’d need for Belphegor’s spell. And the demon lists down two things: a bag of salt and a human heart.

While on the list run, Belphegor admits that he was a fan of demon Dean the torturer describing Dean’s torture techniques as art. Clearly trying to keep past emotions away, Dean turns to interrogate the demon. As it turns out, when Chuck opened every door in hell, it really meant EVERY door in hell including the door to the cage. And remember who’s there? A long-neglected Winchester who has spent enough time with two archangels. It’s not exactly reassuring either when Belphegor says “He wouldn’t hold a grudge right?”

The Equalizer’s Backfire

Meanwhile, as the sheriff handles evacuating the town proper, Sam and Cas are going house to house. In one of the homes, Sam finds a mother and daughter hiding from Sam’s killer clown. Just when they’re headed out, the clown appears and gleefully tears a gash down Sam’s side. Fortunately, Cas shoots the ghost away with some rock salt just in time.

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Cas goes to heal Sam. But, as he gets up, Sam feels a pain in his shoulder from the wound when he shot God. Cas tries to heal it but, instead of being healed, Sam has a vision. He’s taken back to the time when he and Lucifer were one and we can hear Dean’s voice saying “Sammy, please.” Cas pulls away greatly concerned and notes that he felt some kind of energy he never felt before. Given that Chuck’s equalizer gun uses multidimensional energy instead of real bullets, I think it’s safe to say we might have Sam at the brink of something bad again.

Outside, Sam, Cas, and the mother and daughter face down the clown, bloody mary and a few more ghosts. At one point, Sam misses a ghost and instead shoots Cas to which the angel deadpan replies “You shot me.” Meanwhile, on his last rounds, the sheriff encounters the lady in white. And just like every other poor sheriff in this show, the ghost gets to him. Luckily for Belphegor, he now has the fresh human heart he’s looking for. And just in the nick of time, Belphegor casts the spell and cages the ghosts. At the border, Sam finally got to face the killer clown and tell him to “Shut up” with all his unbridled spite.

‘We Got Work To Do’

After evacuating everybody to the high school gym, Dean checks up on Cas but only for a very tiny second. It seems that he hasn’t forgiven Cas yet for Mary’s death. Afterward, Dean cleans up Sam’s bullet wound while discussing what to do next. And as Dean processes everything, he realizes they’re like rats put by Chuck in a maze. Sure, they had free will to go right or left but it’s still just the same damn maze. He even questions the meaning of everything they’ve done. They saved the world from countless apocalypses, lost people they loved, and they even died a couple of times so, it’s really understandable for him to feel that devastated.

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However, as Sam puts it, “It meant a lot.” They still saved people even if it meant throwing on another apocalypse marathon. At least this time, God’s gone. In his typical deadbeat dad fashion, he’s grown bored of this world and thrown it away to rot. Now, it’s just them. Precious Sam even says that when they win this, they’re free, no more maze and no more God. Now, it’s just them against 3 billion souls from hell. In the perfect finale premiere episode ending, as Sam shuts the trunk close declaring “we have work to do,” the scene cuts to a young Sam Winchester from the pilot doing the same thing as he joins his brother in the journey of a lifetime. After all, what’s one more apocalypse right?

Supernatural continues next Thursday, October 17th, with “Raising Hell” at 8/7c on the CW.