Peace of Mind
Written by: Meghan Fitzmartin
Directed by: Phil Sgriccia
Air date: March 14, 2019
After the defeat of Michael, Team Free Will is left to pick up the pieces resulting from his final carnage. Castiel worries that Jack might have burned off too much of his soul to defeat the archangel, while Sam is haunted by memories of the people he failed to protect from Michael. Dean takes a road trip with Jack to visit Donatello, while Sam and Castiel investigate a series of deaths in a peculiarly quaint town.
Tropes
- Evil Reactionary: Chip Harington is the small town owner of a Malt Shop who hates the way the world changed and that many of his friends couldn't cope with the stress, turning to suicide, alcoholism, or just moving out of town. When he realized he was a latent psychic, he used his powers to have his entire community participate in a Pleasantville-style delusion (along with any outsiders who visited the place), while anyone who attempts to break free he brutally murdered.
- Ice-Cream Koan: Donatello's initial response to Dean's question of whether Jack still has a soul is to ask "What is a soul?" Dean looks impatient.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: During a fight between Castiel and a brainwashed Sam, the former implores Sam to break free from the mind control so the people who were killed in the bunker will not have died in vain.
- Lack of Empathy: Donatello mentions this when talking to Jack about what it's like to no longer have a soul.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Sunny deals with her murderous psychic father by placing him inside a perfect fantasy world inside his own mind, giving him the happiness he wanted but preventing him from being able to hurt anyone again.
- Mass Hypnosis: Chip is a psychic who can induce masses of people to obey him. The only people he finds it doesn't work on is his daughter Sunny, who inherited his abilities, and Castiel, because he's an angel.
- Secret Test of Character: Played for Laughs when Dean not-so-subtly tries to figure out whether Jack is good or evil by offering him a choice between Angel Food Cake or Devil's Food Cake as a snack. He is visibly relieved when Jack chooses the former.
- Shout-Out: The convenience store clerk, when describing how the first victim's head exploded in front of him, compares it to Scanners. Apparently, Castiel has seen the sequels as well.
- The Soulless: Downplayed. Jack burned off a lot of his soul to defeat Michael before consuming his grace, arguably making him more archangel than human at this point, but it's not entirely gone. Dean takes him to Donatello for advice, as the latter knows perfectly well what it's like not to have a soul at all anymore.
- Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Jack, who kept Noah's snake Felix to take care of it, decides to "help" it by disintegrating the animal so he can send its soul to heaven. Although not quite over the line yet, this is the same Knight Templar mindset that Michael professed to, causing Castiel to worry when he witnesses this.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Everyone who lives in Charming Acres or stays there too long starts behaving as if it's still the 1950s. While a witch is initially suspected to be involved, it turns out that they're all really being controlled by a reactionary psychic.
- Your Head Asplode: What happens to people who try leaving Charming Acres.
