Not too long ago, Sam and Dean Winchester seemed to have it all. Mother Mary had returned from the dead, Castiel was living at the bunker, and they were teaming up with frenemies Crowley and Rowena with surprising regularity. And then it was all gone. In the Season 13 premiere of Supernatural, “Lost and Found,” the brothers find themselves alone once more. But there’s little time to grieve because Lucifer’s son Jack is walking the earth as a full-grown man.

Finding Jack

We finally get to meet the nephilim that everyone has been dreading. Though Jack gives a few menacing looks and accidentally hurts people, as Sam says, “He’s just a kid.” Initially, Jack defends himself against Dean’s attempt to shoot him with the pulsing, glowing power of slow motion. That’s not the only power he has. He can also make the lights glitch and commune with vending machines. And though an angel blade to the heart barely breaks his stride, if you want to knock Jack unconscious just taser him.

After Jack runs away from Sam and Dean he’s found by the local sheriff’s son, Clark. Jack stands in a fast-food drive-through asking a pirate statue, “Father?” Sheriff Christine Barker steps in to help. Neither of them appears bothered by Jack’s behavior. As Sheriff Christine likes to say, “There’s no such thing as weird. Everyone’s normal in their own way.”

Sheriff Christine and son Clark are pretty fun characters. We’re wracking our brains trying to think of how they can become series regulars. We can always use another lady sheriff, and her pot-smoking, sign-altering son is kind of a hoot. Besides, Dean already told Christine their true identities as heroes regular guys who kill monsters.

Dean: “My name is Dean Winchester. That big fella out there is my brother Sam. We kill monsters.”
Christine: “Monsters?”
Dean: “Mmm.”
Christine: “Like?”
Dean: “Have you Ever seen a horror movie?”
Christine: “Mmmhmm.”
Dean: “Like that.”
Christine: “So, what are you, some kind of superhero?”
Dean: “… I’m just a guy doing a job.”

Sam tracks down Jack after going to Pirate Pete’s. Meanwhile, Dean and Baby are accosted by an angel posing as a drunk human. She tells Dean about her horrible roommate Becky: “She’d take things, break things, and piss people off, and just do whatever she wanted no matter who it hurt. It’s like the whole world was just Becky to her, you know?” Later we learn that Dean is the Becky! Suddenly it becomes clear that one of the Supernatural writers has had a very bad experience with a girl named Becky at some point in their life. Dean may be The Becky, but the angel snidely refers to Sam as “other one,” which may be our favorite Sam nickname yet. The angels serve to show us that Jack isn’t easily killed.

The angels in “Lost and Found” were fairly entertaining. Earlier in the episode two angels check out the cabin where Castiel died. They represent the two ends of the angel spectrum in regards to Castiel. Angeldom is always so split around the issue of Castiel.

Angel Conrad: “Always knew he’d meet a bad end.”
Angel Clark: “He deserved better.”
Angel Conrad: “No, he really didn’t.”

These angels can be real jerks. But at least we get to know them a little before they’re all killed.

Losing everyone

“Lost and Found” doesn’t give us a lot of time for our own grief, at least initially. It almost feels like a bad dream, but it’s not. Castiel’s body remains, but it becomes increasingly clear there may be no way to bring him back. Jack won’t be able to bring him back, at least according to the sneering angel. Dean even makes his pleas to God, which is strangely included in the episode as a flashback in order to build up grief when the writers are finally ready to let us experience it.

“Okay, Chuck, or God, whatever. I need your help. You see you—you left us. You left us. You went off you said—you said the earth would be fine because it had me and it had Sam, but it’s not. And we’re not. We’ve lost everything and now you’re going to bring him back. Okay? You ‘re going to bring back Cas. You’re going to bring back Mom. You’re going to bring ‘em all back. All of them. Even Crowley. Because after all of this you owe us, you son of a bitch. So get your ass down here and make this right. Right here, right now.”

Dean is mourning Cas, believes his mother is dead, and is even angry at losing Crowley. Sam is feeling the loss too, but wants to believe they can bring Cas back somehow. He also has hope that Mary is still alive and can be rescued if Jack can reopen the rift. At the end of the episode Sam and Dean, along with Jack, finally return to the cabin where Kelly and Castiel died. The most emotional moment of “Lost and Found” was Dean getting Castiel’s corpse ready for the funeral pyre. Though most of the music in the episode was overly dramatic, the quiet piano matched the tone of this scene. And no one can play intense, angry grief like Jensen Ackles. They burn the bodies in a hunter’s funeral and Jack asks Sam what one is supposed to say.

“Thank you. You say thank you. And you say you’re sorry. You hope there’s somewhere without sadness, pain. You hope there’s somewhere better. You say goodbye.”

Dean says goodbye to Castiel, Kelly, Crowley and his mom. When Sam tries to protest their mother could still be alive, Dean tells him, “She’s gone. They’re all gone.”

It was sad to lose all these characters, yet somehow the episode didn’t have the emotional punch we expected. Yes, there will be those who will return later in Season 13, but it’s not that, because we’re heartbroken every time Sam or Dean dies, even though we know they’ll be back. The end of the episode created some closure after the Season 12 finale, even though we know Supernatural is not yet done with all these characters. The final scene in “Lost and Found” affirms that Lucifer has decided to spare Mary—at least for now.

Skilled acting played an important role in the most affecting moments of “Lost and Found,” but to a large extent, the feeling of these scenes was created by well-considered cinematography and direction. Whereas the cabin felt warm and homey as Kelly prepared for Jack’s birth, it feels empty and bleak in “Lost and Found.” There are several beautifully filmed scenes, including Jack and Sam standing in the room where Kelly gave her life for her son, the wide shot of Dean staring at Castiel lying under a sheet, and the individual close-ups of Sam, Dean, and Jack as they stand outside at dusk. Most striking was the image of the three in front of the burning funeral pyre with the lake in the background. The quiet music of this scene served to accentuate their grief.

Lost and Found Review

“Lost and Found” was one of the stronger Supernatural season premieres. Supernatural gave us a fun location with Pirate Pete’s. The episode had some very engaging guest characters in the Sheriff and her son. We even got to know the angel squad for a bit before they were killed. Sam and Dean are trying to cope with losing their mom, best friend, and greatest frenemy. And so far, Jack’s fitting right in. Watch Season 13 of Supernatural on Thursdays at 8pm ET on The CW.