15.14 Last Holiday
| |
| Title | Last Holiday |
| Episode # | Season 15, Episode 14 |
| First aired | October 8, 2020 |
| Directed by | Eduardo Sanchez |
| Written by | Jeremy Adams |
| On IMDB | Last Holiday |
| Outline | Sam and Dean free a wood nymph that had been trapped in the Men of Letters Bunker since 1958, and she makes life in the Bunker much easier for them. But the boys must soon contend with Mrs. Butters's overprotective nature when she becomes determined to protect them at any cost. |
| Monster | Vampires Mrs. Butters |
| Timeline | |
| Location(s) | Lebanon, Kansas |
| « Previous Episode | Next Episode » | |
Contents
Synopsis
Sam hears clanking as he researches in the library when Dean comes in. He was making burgers when the pilot light went out. The Bunker has been having issues.
Dean asks about Jack, who Sam says is still in his room processing everything now that he has his soul back. Cas is looking for Amara because Jack has to kill her too.
When the air goes out, Dean decides they’ll fix it. They go down to the control room while Sam reads a manual. Dean hits the reset button. It works. Dean goes to finish cooking.
He then goes to his room to find a strange lady folding his underthings and calls for Sam.
In the library, she laments over the state of the Bunker. When Sam arrives, they discover she’s a wood nymph that worked for the Men of Letters in the 1950’s. They called her Mrs. Butters. She thinks it’s 1958. And they tell her it’s 2020 and that all the men she knew are dead.
She mourns, then explains that she puts herself and the Bunker on standby. Dean realizes this means the Bunker has been at half power. Mrs. Butters tells them the MOL used her powers to give the Bunker a boost. She snaps fingers powering it up including the map table that’s actually a monster radar.
There’s a nest of vamps. After Sam worries they can’t trust her, Dean says this will be her test. They decide to let Jack know what’s going on and leave. They talk in Baby about Mrs. Butters and Jack’s trauma, wondering if he can kill Chuck.
They arrive at the nest and quickly kill the vampires inside. When they get back to the Bunker, Mrs. Butters has decorated for Christmas. Dean is giddy. Sam is uncertain.
The next morning Mrs. Butters tells Sam to enjoy the world they’re saving when Jack walks in. Mrs. Butters is instantly on guard, aware he’s powerful and dangerous.
But Dean walks in showing off his nightrobe flashing Sam in the process. Mrs. Butters makes Jack a smoothie but gives Dean tomato juice instead.
The alarm then blares signifying a case, Sam and Dean run off to get ready. She has sack lunches waiting. And off they go.
Jack helps her with the dishes, admitting he killed Mary. Mrs. Butters responds with life gives us second chances.
Then a montage of Sam and Dean getting ready, grabbing the lunch bags, and intercut with celebrating holidays Thanksgiving, Halloween, and the 4th of July.
They’re celebrating Sam’s birthday. When Dean asks about his, she teases him about being too old. But has made what he wants anyway.
Some time later, Jack walks into the library to find Mrs. Butters quickly hiding something. He asks for another smoothie. And when she leaves, he looks and finds a reel. He watches to findout she was Thule, and her protective instincts are dangerous. In the video, Cuthbert Sinclair has her rip the head off a Thule without remorse.
Jack goes to find Sam, but Sam is leaving. Eileen is in town. Mrs. Butters helps Sam get ready. Jack makes to talk to Dean. But Mrs. Butters interrupts saying she fixed a broken TV. Dean runs to the Dean Cave.
So Jack decides to confront her, and follows her to the dungeon. Only to discover it was all a trap. She has weakened him with the smoothies and easily overcomes him, chaining him and telling him Sam and Dean are afraid of him. She declares won’t let him hurt them and locks him in.
Dean comes hungry to the kitchen. She hands him a sandwich, informing him they have to kill Jack. Dean realizes that these good times are through. He tries to negotiate saying they’ll go free Jack and forget. But she locks him up too, saying he’s infected.
Sam returns and she tells him that they have to kill Dean and Jack. Sam plays along, saying he’ll go get his gun. There, he calls Dean berating him for not calling him. They decide what to do.
On his way to hit the button, she catches Sam, ties him up, and tortures him to see reason. That Jack is a monster. Sam, even tortured, says he’s not. He’s a kid with a tragic life.
Meanwhile, in the dungeon, Jack wants to use his powers, but Dean thinks that will bring Chuck. Jack asks if Dean thinks he’s a monster. Dean tells him he’s trying, but he’s still angry at Jack. But he won’t let Mrs. Butters hurt him. They wonder where Sam is. And Dean decides to try to break the cuffs with the archangel blade Mrs. Butters gave him. It doesn’t break the cuffs, but throws Jack with force. Dean helps Jack up and decides to use the power of the blast to knock down the door.
Free, he and Jack go and press the reset button, then to the library, finding Sam alone and untying him. Mrs. Butters comes charging back and magically throws them. Telling them she won’t let her boys die again. She’ll protect them.
Sam argues they care about Jack. When she retorts that he’s a monster, like the ones that meant she couldn’t go home. Sam responds she was manipulated. Then,Dean breaks through by declaring Jack can save the world. And she relents.
She heals Sam’s hand and decides to return to her forest. This means the Bunker goes back down to standby, no monster radar or trans dimensional geoscope (the telescope). Which Dean not seeing anything through is bad. They give her a picture of the MOL and she departs.
Later, with coaxing, Jack expresses his doubt to Sam that he can kill Chuck. Sam says he’s the only one who can.
Dean comes in with a messy birthday cake for Jack, saying they should take time to celebrate. Dean lights a candle, Sam tells Jack to make a wish. Jack blows out the candle.
Characters
Definitions
- Alcohol
- Angel Cuffs
- Archangel Blade
- Dean Cave
- Fairies
- Food
- Grenade Launcher
- Healing
- Impala
- Lamia
- Men of Letters
- Men of Letters Bunker
- Mjölnir
- Monsters
- Nephilim
- Pie
- Sammy
- Sam's Hair
- Sexual Encounters
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
- Son of a Bitch
- Table of Death
- Teleportation
- Thule Society
- Vampires
- Warding Sigils
- Wood Nymph
Music
- "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" by The Toreador Brass
- (playing as Sam and Dean return to the Bunker to find it decorated for Christmas)
- "Cleanin' Up the Town" by The BusBoys
- (plays over the montage of Sam and Dean going on hunts and celebrating various holidays)
Quotes
Sam: Yeah, we don't totally know everything about this place yet.
Sam: Yeah, we're not really holiday people.
Sam: Ignoring your trauma doesn't make you healthy.
Dean: Well. I mean, I, you know, figured you were... "practicing your sign language."
Sam: And that's more important than coming to save you? Dean?
Trivia & References
- The Mario Brothers - Mario and Luigi - are two Italian-American bothers who are plumbers and the stars of the video game franchise named after them.
Dean: Magic Roomba?
- A Roomba is an automated, self-propelling vacuum cleaner.
Dean: He's a millennial. Don't let that throw you.
- A millennial is someone born between 1981 and 1996. Given he was born in 2017, strictly speaking Jack belongs to Generation Alpha.
- Abercrombie & Fitch is a clothing designer often associated with the "preppy" look.
- Nurse Ratched is the main antagonist in Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest which was later made into a play and then a 1975 Academy-Award-winning movie. She is a nurse in a psychiatric institution who enjoys tormenting and humiliating the patients. In 2020, Sarah Paulson starred as Nurse Ratched in a series by Ryan Murphy called "Ratched".
- Mary Poppins is the protagonist of P.L. Travers' book series of the same name about a magical British nanny.
- "Pain is just weakness leaving the body" is a mantra used by the United States Marine Corps.
Minutiae
- Dean is referencing when he shot the newly-resurrected Adolf Hitler in the head in 12.05 The One You've Been Waiting For.
- Dean previously referred to himself as a "meat man" in 15.04 Atomic Monsters. It is still uncertain if he knows what the term actually means.
- Dean had previously noted his enjoyment of wearing a sleeping robe (and nightcap) in 13.16 Scoobynatural, where he also told Sam it felt like he was "wrapped in hugs."
- In 6.04 Weekend at Bobby's, the Winchesters also faced a lamia which they at first tried to kill with a knife which they tried to have blessed by a priest. However, they had to improvise after the priest was killed before they could get the blessing.
- Henshaw is a reference to Clifford Henshaw, who was the mentor of Delphine Seydoux.
In 12.18 The Memory Remains, Ketch looked through the geoscope and remarked that he couldn't see a "damn thing." Though, as we learned in this episode, the Bunker was only running on half-power, which would explain why he did not see anything when he looked through it. The geoscope is only shown to be powered up when the Bunker is at full power.
