It’s rare that the Winchesters find a monster they’ve never encountered on Supernatural. In “Don’t Go In the Woods,” Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) are tracking an old legendary monster from Native American lore.  Meanwhile, Jack (Alexander Calvert) makes friends with local teens and works hard to impress them. Jack isn’t quite the same. Even he has said he feels different since getting his powers back.  

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It’s an old familiar scene. Two young lovers are parked in a car when one of them hears something strange. In this case, someone is whistling very loud in the woods.  Fortunately, the sheriff finds the couple before any monsters do.  Unfortunately, the sheriff is also the young man’s dad.  

Sherrif Romero (Adam Beach) wants to have some words with his son Tom (Phillip Lewitski), so the young lady leaves to use the bathroom. While she’s in the disgusting rest stop bathroom, she hears the whistling again.  This time the monster takes her away.  The sheriff and his son hear her screaming, but the monster has already taken her into the woods.  Tom finds her later, dead with bite marks on her arm and neck. 

New Friends
Jack tries to make new friends on Supernatural, Don't Go In the Woods

Alexander Calvert as Jack, Cory Gruter-Andrew as Eliot, Skylar Radzion as Max and Zenia Marshall as Stacy in Supernatural — “Don’t Go in the Woods”– Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Remember that time that girl Max (Skylar Radzion) stole Baby? Turns out she works at the market…well, she hangs out at the market. Her girlfriend Stacy (Zena Marshall) works there. Max and Eliot (Cory Gruter-Andrewjust hang out with Stacy while she works.  Jack meets the trio when he goes to the market. They know he lives with the Winchesters and Eliot is fascinated by them.

Jack tries to play it off like he has no idea what the Winchesters do at first, but the kids admit they know about the ghosts.  They watched Dean kill a ghost a few weeks ago. The kids invite Jack to hang out with them the next day.

Jack meets them out the hangout, an abandoned house where they killed the ghost.  He brings a lot of books for Eliot to read on the different types of stories about supernatural beings.   He tries to relate to them the way Dean would, but they think Dean is old. They determine that Jack was homeschooled because he’s kind of weird.  

Eliot starts asking about demons. Jack tells them what he knows and that he’s killed one.  Eliot is impressed, but Max wants to know more.  Jack shows them his angel blade.  Jack shows them some of the combat moves that he’s learned. He tries to throw the blade into a tree and can’t do it. 

Monsters of Old

Sam finds the case and thinks it would be a fun one to solve.  Dean is on board but doesn’t want to take Jack with them. Castiel (Misha Collins) is on a break so they contemplate leaving Jack alone.  He’s been different, but Dean thinks he will be okay. They give Jack the task of restocking the food and beverages while they are gone.  

The Winchesters head to Iowa, but Sheriff Romero isn’t too happy to have the FBI there.  He tries to deflect their investigation, saying coyotes attacked the girl in the woods.  When the Winchesters examine her body, they can clearly see that it wasn’t an animal that killed her. As for Romero, he gets a little nervous when Tom wants to talk to the girl’s parents. Tom feels responsible for her death and Romero doesn’t want the FBI knowing he was there. 

They find an old Native American story about something called Kohonta, twisted monsters that roam the woods and feed on human flesh.  If the monster doesn’t eat, it will spit up stomach acid.  Gross. Sam says if it is their monster, it’s a very old one. 

Whistle While You Work
Supernatural -- "Don't Go in the Woods"

Jared Padalecki as Sam in Supernatural — “Don’t Go in the Woods”– Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

About the same time, another couple enters the woods and hear the whistling. When they turn to leave, the monster appears before them.  When they shine their flashlight on it, it runs away.  The couple runs the other direction, but the young man stumbles and falls.  The monster stands above him and spits up stomach acid on the young man’s face, then eats him. 

At the police station, Tom is going over all of the possible animals that killed his girlfriend. To keep him calm, Romero agrees that it was probably a coyote, but he remembers seeing something else.  One of the deputies tells him there was another attack at the same woods. 

Sam and Dean are already there.  They ask the young woman what she saw. She describes him as a guy with a bunch of stuff on him and whistling. She says they were a few miles past the old Parker cabin when they were attacked.  

Sheriff Romero arrives and shuts down the investigation.  He says they don’t have time to be chasing a rabid coyote.  And he doesn’t care if the FBI is there, he’s shutting down the woods.

Show Off

Meanwhile, Jack is still trying to throw the angel blade into a tree.  He has to use his powers to do it. Eliot just things he’s super cool and Max jumps on board when she sees Jack’s eyes glow.  He uses his powers to remove the blade from the tree and then starts playing with it.  He makes the blade dance between him and the other three. 

Stacy gets scared and wants him to stop, but Jack is getting carried away.  He likes that they think he’s cool. Stacy leaves to go inside and accidentally gets stabbed.  Eliot starts to call 911, but Jack knows he can fix it. He uses his powers to heal Stacy’s wound.  The damage is done though.  All three of the teenagers are scared of Jack and ask him to leave.  Jack is confused.  He fixed Stacy and they still asked him to leave. 

Don’t Go Into the Woods
Supernatural -- "Don't Go in the Woods"

Jared Padalecki as Sam, Jensen Ackles as Dean and Adam Beach as Sheriff Romero Supernatural — “Don’t Go in the Woods”– Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Of course, Sam and Dean don’t listen and go into the woods later that night.  They know the Sheriff is hiding something.  Sam found out that Kohonta means whistler, but he didn’t find anything on how to kill it.  They hear something like a whistle and stop moving.  There are other noises in the woods, but the most familiar is the sound of a gun. The sheriff catches them at gunpoint. He tries to force them out of the woods, but they are able to turn the tables on him and grab his gun.  it’s time they get answers. 

Sam and Dean tell Sheriff Romero who they really are and ask about Kohonta.  He says the Kohonta was a tribal legend, one he didn’t think was real until he saw it.  He tells them about the Parker cabin.  One of the Parker boys killed and ate his family, like he was mad with hunger. He went after the tribe so they caught him and cursed him.  They made him a Kohonta, doomed to roam the woods forever.  If it didn’t feed, it’s body would eat itself.

Sheriff Romero doesn’t quite understand what the Winchesters mean when they say they kill monsters. They explain that werewolves, demons, and other monsters are real and they kill them. Romero asks why they don’t tell anyone about the monsters if they are real.  It would give people a chance to fight back.  Dean says no one would believe them. Knowing about monsters and fighting them are two different things. Sam says people would still die even when they know how to fight.

Full On Raiders

Romero gets a call from Tom. He says he is going after the coyote that killed his girlfriend.  Romeo tries to stop him, but Tom hangs up and enters the woods. Romero asks the Winchesters to help his son.  Sam asks how to kill the Kohonta. Romero says a silver blade will kill it.  Hey! How fortunate that they both have silver blades!

Tom finds the Parker cabin and the Kohonta finds him. The Kohonta attacks Tom and knocks him out.  Romero shows up just in time to pull the monster off the kid but gets bit in the process.  Sam shoots the Kohonta to stop it from eating Romero and the Kohonta turns on Sam.  Dean gets Tom out of the cabin and comes back in with a flashlight, distracting the monster away from Sam. Dean leads the monster out of the cabin where Romero is waiting for them. Romero stabs the monster with a silver blade and it disintegrates into goo.  Gross. 

When to Lie
Supernatural -- "Don't Go in the Woods"

Alexander Calvert as Jack in Supernatural — “Don’t Go in the Woods” — Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Tom is okay and wakes up as the EMTs are putting him in an ambulance.  Romero tells him that they got the coyote.  He says he doesn’t know what to tell Tom. They suggest that he tells Tom the truth.  

Sam is brooding really hard on the way home.  Dean questions if telling Tom the truth is the right thing.  The truth won’t make his life better. So when in doubt…lie.  That triggers Sam. He thinks they lied to Jack about how they feel about his powers.  Dean thinks they took care of the situation and Jack is fine.  Sam reminds him that they lied about being fine all the time to their dad when they were kids.  

When they return to the bunker, jack is reading.  He says he got all of the supplies but the beer because he didn’t have a real id.  Sam and Dean come clean, saying they didn’t take Jack on the hunt because they didn’t want him to use his powers.  They want him to learn to control his powers before going hunting.  Jack agrees to not use his powers without permission.  

Dean leaves to get beer and Sam ask if anything interesting happened while they were gone.  Jack lies and says nothing happened. 

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Thoughts

I loved this episode. Again, it’s rare that the boys fight a monster they have never encountered before. And this one was a Native American legend that could have been real!  I’m totally fangirling because Adam Beach played Sheriff Romero!  It’s rare that we get to see a modern, human Indigenous character with so many lines! 

And then Jack. He’s learning how to lie.  I wonder what it is about that grace that made him feel different and act differently.  Will Jack become as violent as Michael was?  Or is this what he was supposed to be all along?  No, Jack!  Don’t be evil. 

 

 

 

 

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