Okay actually I’m going to pull my exploration of the discrepancy between Jack frequently seeming perfectly cheery in s15 vs the fact that logically he’s suffering horribly the whole time into its own post. Obviously, the reason this all comes about is at its core bad careless writing, but this is spn – trying to make in-world sense of bad careless writing is just the territory.

So like, the thing with Jack’s cheeriness when it crops up in s15 is that it’s very incongruous with every other indication we get of his emotional state that season. In particular, the fact that his whole arc is about feeling so guilty for accidentally killing Mary that he tries to kill himself to save the world, and get the forgiveness of Sam and Dean, even though they’re two people who mistreated him horribly at the end of the last season. Jack’s cheeriness is arguably his most consistent purposeful character trait, but here it jars massively with the reality of his situation.

Which leaves you with the question of “okay, this doesn’t really track as an emotional response, so where does it come from?” To some extent you can argue that he hasn’t quite processed the reality of his situation, and like, this is partially true, because it is true that he doesn’t realise that he’s been mistreated. But that’s sort of, more about the spin he puts on his situation than how distressing it actually is to him. It just means he doesn’t think he has any reason to feel resentful towards Sam and Dean for, y’know, having tried to lock him away forever and then trying to kill him and then not apologising for or acknowledging any of this. That doesn’t mean he’s not distressed by it, it just means he’s not holding it against them. It doesn’t in itself explain how he can be so cheerful without it being put on.

What all this does do though, is sort of grease the gears for him putting on fake sunshineyness. Like, as far as Jack is concerned, all of his suffering and distress is somewhere between entirely deserved (eg guilt over Mary) and entirely unjustified, someting he is wrong for feeling (eg any distress at living with Sam and Dean after everything). So y’know, him projecting a cheery persona for Sam and Dean doesn’t really clash in his brain with the reality of their treatment of him, even if him doing that isn’t reflective of his emotional state. He might also even feel like he owes them his best behaviour, given as far as he’s concerned it’s him who needs to make things up to them, and not the other way round. In terms of other people he interacts with, he was friendly and polite towards strangers during the widower arc too, which wasn’t a happy time for him either. He might be able to take refuge in those interactions to some extent, but that doesn’t mean how he comes across in them is actually representative of how he’s feeling. In general, there’s precedent for him faking, and he also doesn’t think any suffering he experiences is something he deserves sympathy for, so it makes sense that he’d do forced cheerfulness like that.

The main stumbling block here is the alcal doesn’t seem to play Jack’s cheeriness as put on. Which does feel like kind of an egregious (though, pretty par for the course) writing/directing/acting oversight given *gestures at s15 Jack*, but regardless I don’t think it has to dent this interpretation. It just makes it look like Jack is really good at faking things. Like, in Gimme Shelter, he seems perfectly cheerful on the case, but also clearly isn’t because 1) he can’t make himself give a speech to the prayer group and 2) until he tells Cas in the car, he is actively withholding the information that he’s going to sacrifice himself, something that indicates he must be doing quite badly emotionally, given he claims to be fine with it. This means, if you’re going to assume he’s a character with an emotional throughline, he has to have been distressed the entire time y’know?

(Also, though the scope of this argument covers all of 15x13 to 15x15 (I think it should go without saying he’s definitely not fine 15x17 onwards lol, and in 15x11-15x12 he already doesn’t seem fine), I’m pretty tempted to suggest we should discard his casual, bubblegum-popping cheerfulness in 15x13 entirely anyway, because it actively doesn’t fit with the much more subdued and anxious soulless Jack we had in 15x11 and 15x12 (who doesn’t have any particular reason to have got more relaxed in the meantime), aside from that fact that separately, Buckleming can’t be trusted with soulless Jack.)

Anway, in all of 15x13-15x15, you’ve got moments where Jack is clearly distressed, and moments where he seems perfectly fine, so if we assume he’s genuinely distressed when he seems so, then we’re left with the conclusion that he’s distressed the entire time, we just don’t always see it. His cheeriness isn’t something that can be taken at face value at all, instead it’s something he’s putting on, with various factors pushing him towards doing that. Which is super upsetting and doesn’t make for a fun viewing experience, but is also does make for a much more interesting character, so, swings and roundabouts I guess?