Alexander Calvert, who portrays everyone’s favorite nephilim on Supernatural, is celebrating his birthday today! As a celebration, staff from Nerds and Beyond decided to move up our previously scheduled “Hellatus” spotlight article from next week to today. Happy birthday Alex, we appreciate all you’ve brought to one of our favorite shows!
Michelle
Jack’s only been around a couple years, a toddler really, and Alex Calvert plays him such pure innocence, that it’s sometimes hard to see the power inside him. This season, Jack’s fierceness came out in full force, but he still had moments of childlike wonder and purity. My favorite Jack moment this season, though, showed his growth. In the finale “Moriah,” Dean had a gun to Jack’s head, ready to rid the earth of the terror Jack had become, and instead of pleading for his life or taking Dean out with a flick of his finger, Jack accepted his fate. He dropped to his knees and gave himself up for death. There were two things going on here: One, he truly recognized the monster he’d become; and two, he was taking responsibility for his actions. This one action took him from child to man. This one act caused Dean to change his mind, and God to, well, lose his. I loved how much pivoted on this one action. Our little baby’s growing up, y’all.
Melanie
Jack was an instant favorite character of mine. He is sweet, innocent, and absolutely proved his place as part of the Winchesters. Of course, as we have seen with Sam and Dean, Winchesters go bad, lose their soul, and even die – multiple times. Jack covered all those bases throughout season 14 and we have watched as he has lost his way. Despite all that, Jack still shows that he cares about his family, “Game Night” was proof of that. His inability to stop attacking Nick even though Mary was screaming for him to stop had shown that his moral compass was broken, but the second Mary said Sam was hurt Jack flew to save him. It was a huge relief to watch Jack uses his powers and save Sam. Despite killing Mary to stop her from telling them what happened, he cared what Sam, Dean and Cas thought. He tried his best to find a way to get Mary back in the following episode and that has always been Jack’s baseline: he cares. Nothing will ever get in the way of him protecting, saving, and taking care of his family.
Sarah
Despite being a Nephilim, for me Jack represents innocence, he is just a kid. He views the world with such a child’s wonder that you cannot help but want to protect him. My favorite Jack moment would be from the episode “Ouroboros” when Jack used the last of his soul to kill Michael. He gave up his soul willingly to protect his family. During his speech to Michael, Jack even calls himself a Winchester. Even without his soul, he tries to do the right thing, fighting for his family until the end. That sounds like a Winchester to me.
Kailey
Jack has shown numerous times that Castiel and the Winchesters are his family. My favorite moment from Season 14 involving Jack is when he tries to bring Mary back. He loved Mary and to have killed her, knowing what the brother’s reaction would be, crushed him. He tried so hard to make it right and was heartbroken when he could only bring back her body. I think that he ended up doing the brother’s a service because they were able to say their goodbyes and they gave her a hunter’s funeral. Jack never meant to do any harm and has saved Castiel, Sam, and Dean multiple times. I’m sad to see how the finale ended for Jack but hoping for a fierce return in Season 15!
Suzette
Jack’s child-like innocence contrasted by his seemingly endless cosmic power is what makes him such a great character to watch. In season 14 we got to see both of these aspects of his personality play out. While Jack’s power is undeniable my favorite Jack moment is in season 14’s “Optimism”. Jack’s innocence is on full display as he tries to flirt with the girl for the case but realizes he doesn’t know how to do that. His call to Dean is comedy gold with the expertly delivered line “Just in case, tell me everything you know about sex… Go”
Nat
I have a few favorite Jack moments from season 14. My first one is the way he reacted to accidentally killing Mary. Although Jack is without a soul, we definitely saw a hint of humanity still left in him. He cared. He realized what he had done and desperately tried to make it right.
My second favorite moment came from the season finale. I enjoyed watching Jack and Cas interact again. Their conversation showed that Jack still has it in him to make right decisions as he talked about getting upset with his grandmother but choosing to run away instead of losing control. I also loved the moment between Jack and Dean in the finale where Dean has it in his mind that he has to kill Jack, but while we’ve watched Jack run from the boys specifically to avoid being hurt or killed, this is the moment that he finally decides to stop running. With Dean pointing a gun at him, Jack says that he understands why this needs to be done and that he realizes he is a monster. I think that moment was a real turning point for Jack and obviously made Dean think again about what he was doing.
Regardless of how the finale ended, Jack grew immensely through the season and I can’t wait to see where the story takes him next!
Ali
As a mother of four, including two teenagers, I’ve been continually impressed by how Alex has taken Jack’s character from the naivete of youth to navigating the complex emotions of young adulthood. Watching him deal with the loss of his power, making the choice to burn off his soul to save Castiel, and then destroy Michael was such a powerful indicator of his maturity. The kicker for me was most definitely his reaction to the death of Mary. I don’t know many teenagers who haven’t reacted in that same intensely panicked manner when they’ve done something terribly wrong and fear the consequences. The juxtaposition of panic and the inability to comprehend the full meaning of what he’d done was both striking and painful to watch. I continue to be impressed with Alex’s acting chops and cannot wait to see how he changes next season!
Rachel F
What was fantastic about season 14, in relation to Jack, is he’s the sort of character that despite being able to take care of himself all one wants to do is wrap him up in a blanket and protect him from his shady dad. Despite that innocence, we realized this season we might not be able to trust him. We often forget the level of power he possesses because Alex has crafted Jack’s mannerisms to be reminiscent of a child.
His complexity starts in “Peace of Mind” where he adopts his “What Would The Winchesters Do” (WWTWD) motto when his pet snake becomes incredibly sick, potentially because it misses his owner, and decides to kill it so it can be with its friend. While it showcases the level of thinking a two-year-old has, there’s a moment when he’s gazing at the snake that makes one wonder if Jack’s potentially evil. The scene also broadened Alex’s acting strokes, impressing us with his ability to illustrate Jack’s soul slowly diminishing.
I recently met Alex at OzCon in Melbourne, and really loved how personable he was with his fans. He has this gift about him where he treats everyone as a peer, not making the conversation just about himself, but directing it towards them by asking questions.
Anna
My favorite moment isn’t actually about Jack, but about Alex. My favorite experience with Alex is from autos in Chicago 2018. He was so sweet and seemed excited about my inflatable Unicorn cup holder that I had signed. He wanted to test it out and see if it would float, but then told me not to use it in the pool cause the chemicals might hurt the autographs. Happy Birthday AlCal and thanks for embracing the fandom!