5 Best moments from Supernatural Season 14, Episode 6

Supernatural brought us more character building through stories of the past while we engaged in a dual monster-of-the-week episode at the same time. We even got a taste of a completely new creature.

Since our list is completely packed with spoilers, feel free to head over to the recap first if you need to play catch-up. Once you’re ready, scroll down to dig in and digest our list of the top five best moments from Supernatural Season 14, Episode 6.

Supernatural has had no shortage of storyline in its lifetime, and that tradition continued in “Optimism.” We learned, along with Sam, more about Apocalypse World Charlie and how her story and feelings match up to and differ from the Charlie we already know.

We also met a new girl, Harper Sayles, who went from romantic librarian to nightmare necromancer. That whole “too good to be true” saying absolutely came to life, much like her high school boyfriend. All the romance aside, Jack got to see a real, live (sort of) zombie, finally.

Jack also tried his hand at undercover, testing of his new lady friend for some garden variety things like demon possession. The other monster this week was a new one, a Musca. This thing is seriously foul and creepy, and I offer props to Supernatural for coming up with a fresh yuck for us. Not to mention, it was all delivered really well, as anticipated.

Richard Speight, Jr. was super excited about this episode, and for good reason. He also mentioned “newbie” Maddie Phillips, which felt like a tip that we may see more of her after “Optimism.” The episode lived up to the hype and gave us a great list of five best moments. Check out what we came up with and tell us what you think!

#5. Staying alive (or not)

Full disclosure, I’m an absolute sucker for this song, so the scene outside the library at the beginning had me at “hello.” But let’s go back a second. Inside the library is where we met Harper and Winston, having a chat about how sad it is that people don’t come to the library anymore.

Winston also got a confirmation from Harper that she would finally be joining him for a date he’s apparently really been looking forward to, maybe since birth. Harper is well monitored though, as her associate, Miles, is ready to save her from any evil with his quick draw Swingline stapler skills.

So Winston and Harper wrapped it up and he went outside to probably go get a haircut for their dinner. When he gets a breath of that fresh, small-town air, he did the classic 80s “yessss” move. This is where it got catchy. “Stayin’ Alive” starts playing as he hops over, on, and off the parking block, giving it his John Travolta best.

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He’s smiling, daydreaming, thinking life is finally grand. It’s gonna be great! He’s gonna go on that not-date, woo the girl of his dreams, sweep her off her feet and BOOM, the record stops suddenly. A gross hand grabs his whole face and pulls him into the bush.

All that’s left of loverboy is his blood-curdling scream. Poor Winston.

All the thumbs up on the directing here. Despite all the rest of the beautiful storyline, scenery, edgy “Richard” references throughout, this was my favorite part. There was actual irony in the song playing, which is so rare. And the sudden halt with a hand to the face and Winston’s surprise eyes was the perfect still. Bravo, Supernatural.

#4. Old man Winchester

Oh haha, so this was super funny. Dean and Jack landed on this Harper case because Jack was going stir crazy at the bunker doing nothing. He told Dean all his sorrow and they shared a moment about how the bad stuff wasn’t their respective faults, even though they each still blame themselves.

So they bond and decide they’re going on a hunt. Jack finds an oddity and they call Papa Sammy to let him know they’re taking off. He worries, of course, but it is clear that Dean cuts him off like, “don’t worry and yes, we’re going, so bye.” So it happens.

When they got to town, they learn that the recent death, which involved human bite marks, was a guy associated with this very cursed and unlucky girl, Harper. They wonder if she’s a monster or something because it’s just too unlucky to have several dead men in your past. Poor, cursed Harper. So they decide to check her out, obviously, and end up at the library.

So here’s the part I was giggling about. They set up a plan to go in there and find out what they need to know. Since she’s a young lady, the plot lands on Jack pulling the chivalry card to get rid of Dean, the jerky FBI guy. So he starts in on that, role-playing against Dean and knocking romantic Harper’s socks off in the process.

Dean gives Jack the ol’ “back off, kid,” and Jack comes back at him with, “old man.” Ohhhh, the look on Dean’s face was claaa-siiiic. Sure, they were in character, but that clearly stuck him in the actual gut. Yep, he dwelled on that and it shut him down. Poor Dean.

When he told Jack “this isn’t over,” I have a feeling he meant that personally. He was even gazing at himself in the rearview of the Impala, still in disbelief, when Harper brought Jack out of the library. They were heading to her apartment where he would embark on his first (hilarious), solo, undercover investigation of the suspect.

#3. Not cursed

After Jack’s very quick lesson from a waitress about how courting and dating don’t always have to happen before sex, Jack and Dean learned there was a particular person of interest in this human bitemark situation. So, they interview a million people about this girl, Harper.

Harper is a gem, alright. Her batting lashes, and romantic, fairytale sense of hope and ever-after make her the storybook, small-town girl. Sadly, she’s surrounded by bad luck and death. Poor Harper.

Everyone in town is so bummed for her and yet, no one says it’s suspicious. Just very, very unlucky. Maybe she is actually the unluck, herself. Maybe she’s even cursed? The guys decide all Supernatural signs point to Harper, and the hunt is on.

Jack wonders what kind of monster she could be while Dean has his FBI hat on from the start. After the old man scene, she leads Jack to her apartment where he engages in a series of hilariously awkward tests to rule out demon possession and more. He places a huge silver coin on the floor and puts on some holy water hand sanitizer.

When she picks up the coin and touches his weirdly wet hands, he’s ever so confused. Meanwhile, Dean has found Mr. Stapler guy “fresh dead” outside the library and gets attacked while on the phone with Jack, who’s sitting in Harper’s bathroom. Dean ends up bursting into Harper’s apartment while being chased by Archie, as he comically refers to him.

They break the news to startled Harper that her high school boyfriend is back. Dead and all. Jack’s zombie has arrived and Harper finally has an answer to her bad luck. Except, no. After Dean fights Vance the jock in her apartment, we skip to Harper and Jack back in the library. Vance just walks away from Dean and shows up there where Harper lets him right in and gives him a shockingly accepting undead smooch.

So yeah, she’s not cursed at all. Actually, she comes from “a long line of necromancers.” She killed that dude when he tried to leave this storybook town after high school. Then she went ahead and reanimated him and kept him as her little boyfriend zombie pet. Also, he has to eat people to keep his flesh fresh. And the mystery is solved. Poor Vance.

These two yuckies have a role play romance gig that involves wide-eyed Harper playing her little sweetie maneuver on guys who end up in the role of Vance’s afternoon snack. She says it’s a little game they play, like a naughty nurse sort of thing.

So happy day, she isn’t cursed. We don’t feel sorry for her anymore. But after she books out when they catch Vance, she actually leaves town for the first time.

Hooray! She’s moving on, how nice. Where will she go, you ask? Well, she writes a letter in the little diner she found. The letter is to Jack explaining how their love is so pure that it has saved her. She plans to kill him, of course, for destroying her boyfriend game. But that’s no problem because she can bring him back and they’ll live, so to speak, happily ever after. Poor Jack.

Luckily, Jack told her where he was actually from, another Supernatural reminder that he’s but a tot at heart. So yes, she’s seriously going to Lebanon now. Great.

I suspect her search for him once she gets to town will fall right in line with the plans for the big 300th Supernatural episode, which we know will be a sort of tribute to the fans, and the town they’re in. Her romantic nature is the perfect setup for that, imo.

#2. No fly zone

We got to meet the musca, and this was a gross time in our lives. Mostly because this guy comes with goo, a Supernatural fave. But also because his den or whatever you’d call this nest facility, was pretty horrific, as was his face.

I’m reminiscing about Jeff Goldblum just thinking about it but this was its own spin. I’m sure the Supernatural folk wanted to let that happen a little, but also ensure we had our own special memories of their visual creation. And yes, we did.

When we first saw the creature, he was dressed in his going out clothes so we didn’t know what to expect right away. SPN Hunters’ Stephanie Caffrey refers to it as a “gothic beekeeper” in her “Optimism” review, and that is totally on point. But when he zipped out at Charlie and Sam, he was all fly, all the time. Fly head guy drizzled his goo on Sam’s face (I’m still cringing right now). And when Sam blew its head open, it splattered that goo all over Charlie’s pretty red hair.

But this thing’s nest den warehouse was a thing of its own. Often these details go overlooked because the scene has such focus on the story. I like to look around and take in what a number of people clearly spent ages creating. My artist-oriented mind had a laugh at the scores of pine tree air fresheners dangling over the pile of bodies. I giggled at the dozens of fly tapes hanging near the entrance.

This fly guy went to some extremes to mask the smell and keep the inevitable infestation down. That was a little creepy though. I mean, aren’t those guys technically his cousins or something? Is that ok or was he just savage? I guess being rejected and driven to laying your eggs in dead guys could make a anyone bitter.

#1. Charlie’s not Charlie

Charlie’s story is not just a character build for our Supernatural storyline, but a history lesson of what went down with the apocalypse in their dimension or whatever. This was unexpected and awesome since we’ve all wondered here and there how it happened.

The whole thing comes in pieces through the episode while she and Sam sit in the pickup truck on a stakeout, go after the monster they came for, and drive home after. She has lots to say but in her passive, yet matter-of-fact Charlie way. Not only do we learn the timeline of events as the world crumbled, but also her love story, and how she’s still not the other Charlie.

Sam made several references to previous events and things our Charlie said and did. He frequently said “you” to her, as if it were actually her own past he was reminding her about. It’s so strange for everyone who knew the other Charlie because in a way, it must be like this is her with amnesia.

It seems that should also come up with Bobby, but his behavior towards them seems to prevent the same oopsies from being made as often as they are with Charlie. We caught a glimpse of that when he was “a little rusty” at his FBI role play. He insinuated that he’s been too busy out fighting the apocalypse, not having leisure time pretending like they do.

Charlie from Apocalypse World had a good life and we find out quickly that it’s eerily similar to the Charlie here. This was also true about Bobby when we got to hear his story before he went off with Mary to pull his act back together.

While the main ideas are there, even some of the details, the apocalypse always turned the direction to make them who they are to us now, not the people we knew from the story we learned on our Supernatural adventure so far.

This has so far proven to be a really unusual and effective way to bring back old characters and introduce new ones at the same time. I wonder who’s coming back next? I’m always going to pull out my protest sign for some more time with Crowley, but I’m thinking The Empty is going to be full of surprises, hopefully anytime now!

What was your favorite moment from “Optimism?” Tell us what you think of our list in the comments below, or share your own in a tweet!

Supernatural airs on Thursdays on The CW at 8/7c.