User blog comment:KillRoy231/The final hiatus is coming/@comment-74.132.82.188-20191127121117/@comment-74.132.82.188-20191203020228

Yep, a spring hiatus. According to Entertainment Weekly, the 12/12/19 episode is the last before the new year. Then it returns Jan. 16. By Feb. 6 the show is on hiatus again as some new show will take its Thursday night slot. The show returns March 16, which is a Monday.

I think they've taken weeks off before in the spring--during the Olympics, maybe?--but I don't remember the break occurring as a such a long block of time.

Depending on how many episodes they show in January, there could still be a week or two off between March 16 and the finale on May 18.

Jo died before the hellhounds got into the store, but they were definitely outside it. Ellen waited until she felt the breath of a hellhound in her hair before she set off the bomb. So can a hellhound withstand a bomb of iron nails, etc. to drag Ellen to hell?