Among Netflix’s new releases falls the fourteenth season of Supernatural. The show airs on The CW but is ending its successful run with season fifteen later this year. It’s the longest running show for the network and has an incredible fan base (including myself) that’s been behind the show from very early on. Quite a bit happened in the second to last season though, so let’s jump right in.

If you remember from season thirteen, Jack loses his grace to Lucifer which causes Dean to become Michael’s vessel to rid the world of the fallen archangel once and for all. Of course, Dean makes the deal thinking he would be in control to kill Lucifer, and once the deed was done Michael would leave his body. Spoiler alert, Michael sucks. He doesn’t hold up his end of the bargain and Dean is now controlled by yet another supernatural being. This is where season fourteen begins, and right off the bat we get Dean/Michael asking strange questions and being beyond mysterious. We also start learning more about Jack’s struggles to adapt to human life without his Nephilim powers and Nick (Lucifer’s vessel), who somehow survived an archangel blade to the chest. These three stories are basically what the first three fourths of the season revolve around, with Michael being the main threat to the Winchesters.

In what was a very quick turnaround, Michael bolts from Dean’s body in episode two when a hooded figure with a spear comes into the fold. After a few episodes, the boys learn that Michael’s plan is to create hybrid monster angels to take over the earth. They head off to Missouri, where they find Michael who easily hops back into dean. Michael claims that he allowed Dean to escape earlier but that he left the door open for easy access later. Dean does eventually take control of himself again and traps Michael within his mind. This does lead to some bad ideas, like Dean wanting to lock himself within a ma’lik box and tossing himself into the deepest part of the ocean to live out his days (Thanks for that brilliant idea, Billie). Michael of course escapes the fortress within Dean’s brain before this happens but is killed shortly after by our good pal Jack.

Before killing Michael, Jack was struggling to adapt without his powers. And as it turns out, a Nephilim without grace cannot survive on earth. This sends Jack’s body, and our emotions, spiraling out of control. We get a surprise twist when he dies at the beginning of episode eight, but as we know, nothing in Supernatural ever stays dead (except for Crowley… boy do I miss his witty back and forth with Moose). The Winchesters find out that Jack can be brought back with an unusual type of magic that uses his soul to keep his body alive. But they also learn that he can burn pieces of his soul if he uses his powers, which turns out to be very important later this season. Before Jack returns to his body though, we get another glimpse of the creature from The Empty (who we first met when Cas was brought back last season) who is terrorizing heaven in search of Jack’s soul. The creature fails, and we get a few filler episodes before… yup you guessed it, Jack ends up burning off his soul to kill Michael. He does get some archangel grace into his system though, which rejuvenates his Nephilim powers. Once Jack’s soul was gone I immediately started getting vibes that Lucifer was coming back, which leads us to the path of Nick.

Lucifer’s old meat suit is first seen in episode one, where he gives Sam some insight on Michael’s plans. We quickly start to see how much damage Lucifer did to Nick’s mental state when Nick becomes extremely aggressive and begins acting like Lucifer again. The boys still let him go though, and Nick decides he wants to solve the case of his dead family. This is where everything became very dark, and those murderous tendencies of Lucifer rise back to the surface of Nick’s psyche. He eventually learns that a demon named Abraxas was responsible for the death of his family, but that he was captured by Mary Winchester some time ago. Nick somehow captures one of the greatest hunters of all time, and leaves Mary no choice but to lead him to Abraxas. Nick proceeds to free and kill the demon but gets caught by Sam and Dean which leads to him being arrested. A few episodes pass before we witness Nick escape custody and run off to his old house, where he encounters the ghost of his dead wife. She leads him to realize that he cannot let go of Lucifer, even if doing so would free her soul from that vile house she died in. He decides he must bring Lucifer back, so he goes and kidnaps Donatello (who has just recently awoken from his coma). After torturing Donatello, Nick learns the ritual that allows one to speak with the “dead” archangel. He completes the ritual but as Lucifer is about to manifest himself from The Empty, Jack and Mary barge in to slam the door to The Empty. This is where Nick’s story comes to an end though as Jack decides to rid the world of him via a complete scorching. Jack loses control here and obliterates Mary after she confronts him about the manner in which he kills Nick. At this point I was 100% convinced that they had just turned one of our favorite new characters into the big bad for the final season, but I was so far off it wasn’t even funny.

I loved how this season ended. It brought back Chuck, or God for those of you who haven’t been around for all fourteen seasons, yet again. However, this time we learn that his true nature is, and always has been, amusing himself with the misfortunes of others (after all, he is a writer). He convinces Dean that Jack must die, and our eldest Winchester brother almost goes through with the plan. Chuck is not amused when Dean defies him though and proceeds to kill Jack himself before seemingly releasing every evil creature in existence on our heroes. As the scene ends, the camera pans out and we see the Winchesters being swarmed by what looks to be an undead army straight from the depths of hell.

As the final season slowly approaches I grow more and more anxious by the day. Will I ever see Jack again? Will God himself be the ultimate villain of one of my favorite shows? Why do we keep seeing so much of The Empty, and will we have another thing escape from the clutches of the creepy, black-tar world? I wish I had these answers and could ease all your pain, but alas I cannot. We will all have to wait until later this year to see how the story ends for the Winchesters, but I am confident in saying that it will be worth the wait no matter how long it takes to come out.