Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW
Here’s a fact that only true SUPERNATURAL fans will know: Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Samantha Smith and Jeffrey Dean Morgan had never actually shared a scene together. Back in the pilot episode — the one and only time that Smith and Morgan appeared together on screen — Ackles and Padalecki’s characters were played by a toddler and tiny baby, respectively. Morgan shared several scenes with the boys throughout the first season and a couple of scenes in the second season, and Smith returned throughout the years before her character was officially resurrected a few years ago. But the true and complete Winchester family had never shared a single scene together with all four actors who play the roles.
Until the 300th episode, that is. In the milestone episode, Jeffrey Dean Morgan reprised a role he had left behind 12 years go (seamlessly, we might add) to bring about a reunion 14 years in the making (or is it “union”, if the group had never actually been together before?). And what a reunion it was. We began this episode with Sam and Dean in a pawn shop, one that happened to cater to the mystical objects shopper if you knew what to ask for. Unfortunately for the shop owner, the brothers knew that this procurer of magical artifacts wasn’t on the up-and0up and had recently killed a fellow hunter to increase his stash. When he attacked Sam and seem poised to kill him with a wicked sword, Dean shot and killed him. This left the boys with said cache of magical artifacts. Upon returning to Lebanon, we started to get a sense of the original conceit of the episode that was first teased at last year’s Comic-Con: that the 300th episode would show us more of the town that the brothers live in and the opinions of the people who live there. These amusing thoughts on the brothers (that something very strange is up with them) are sprinkled throughout the episode, but the real drama begins when the brothers realize that they have a magical pearl in their possession — one that can grant whatever your heart most desires.
Dean believes this artifact could be the key to removing the trapped archangel in his head, but they can’t use the pearl until they find their recently stolen car, which was taken on a joyride by the town’s newest teenager. This leads to an amusing scene of Dean flirting with an older lady in the post office in order to secure information on the teen’s whereabouts and eventually leads to an old house on the outskirts of town where the kids hang out on “Skip Day”. Unfortunately, the teens don’t realize that the Impala contains mystical artifacts — and they’re soon attacked by a killer clown ghost, which is quickly dispatched by the brothers Winchester. Except now the local teens know the truth about the supernatural and the brothers and have to keep it a secret.
Back at the bunker, Sam and Dean set up to activate the wish-granting pearl, but a blackout leads to a fight thanks to the sudden appearance of a third man. That man….is John Winchester. In a recreation from the original Sam and Dean reunion in the Pilot episode, both brothers are laid out on the floor before realizing their father has somehow made an appearance in their time. He believes it’s still 2003 and prior to the events in the show, which means he has been brought forward to 2019. We soon see that Sam and Dean have apparently caught up their father on their multiple trips to Heaven and Hell and the Men of Letters bunker, as well as all the world saving(s) they had done. Oh yeah, and Lucifer has a son who lives with them. John takes all of this in remarkable stride, but he wishes he had been there to see all of it. Enter Mary, who just so happened to be stopping by and she’s flabbergasted to see John again. The two immediately kiss and the brothers leave to give their parents some privacy.
Dean is thrilled about seeing their father again, but Sam is cautious about messing with time. Still, Dean insists his brother allow them to have one family dinner together. As Mary and Dean discuss dinner, Sam has an emotional conversation with his father. While John remembers their fight before Sam left for Stanford vividly and apologizes for the way he treated his son, Sam lets go of any resentment he has for his father. He no longer remembers the messed up things John did, he just remembers the day that John died, and he loves his father deeply. After that emotional reunion, Sam and Dean head out to buy groceries for dinner.
But something is amiss in Lebanon now. The people who had previously known Sam and Dean seem to have no memory of them and Sam quickly realizes that messing with time changed things. It created a temporal paradox and if they don’t stop this then they will become other versions of themselves — Sam will be a kale-loving motivational speaker who runs a law firm, and Dean will become a hunter who is also a fugitive.
As for what else was changed? Enter Zachariah (killed all the way back in the 100th episode) and a version of Castiel who never met the Winchesters. They’re here to investigate what’s going on with time and happen upon those teenagers from the beginning of the episode. When Sam and Dean enter the restaurant to see Cas flashing his wings, Zachariah recognizes them and orders Cas to kill them. Sam manages to kill Zachariah and since this version of Cas doesn’t know Sam and Dean, he also attacks them and nearly kills them before Sam banishes him away.
Back at the bunker, Dean is telling John about the temporal paradox and he explains that if John doesn’t return to his own time Sam will never get back into the hunting life and Mary won’t return from the dead. For John, there’s no hesitation — he’s willing to die so that Mary can live. Sam is delivering the bad news to Mary and says John should disappear when they destroy the pearl. As we cut back to John and Dean, we see an emotional moment between these two now, with John telling his eldest son that he never wanted him to continue on with his fight. But Dean is OK with how things turned out. Dinner is a quiet affair with the reality that John will soon be gone hanging over their heads, but he encourages them to enjoy the time they have left. Cue a montage of them laughing throughout their one and only meal together.
While washing the dishes in the kitchen, Sam laments that sending John back will mean things turn out exactly as they had before. But would they change things? Dean explains that he actually wouldn’t change their lives as they are now, because he’s alright with the men they have become. Back in the library, Sam, Dean and Mary are preparing to say goodbye to John. He tells Sam and Dean to take care of each other and hugs them both, telling them that he is proud of them and loves them. The waterworks begin and Mary is holding John’s hand as he disappears. Present day Castiel soon enters and asks what happened — to which Dean replies “well, there’s a story…”
And back in 2003, John Winchester awakes in the Impala thanks to the ringing of an old cell phone. It’s a young Dean on the line and John tells his son that he had the strangest dream — but a good one.
SUPERNATURAL will be on a short hiatus and will return with new episodes on March 7 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.