No reason why, but I feel I should remind everyone that Supernatural ended on May 13th, 2010 with the episode Swan Song. It only ran for 5 seasons like Kripke had planned. It’s been off the air for 10 years now.
Supernatural writers really said “in this essay I will” and then explained why letting a show end after it’s planned storyline is over is SO MUCH BETTER than beating a dead horse for 10 more years
Supernatural writers really said “in this essay I will” and then explained why letting a show end after it’s planned storyline is over is SO MUCH BETTER than beating a dead horse for 10 more years
Alright I don’t usually do long analysis
posts, but I’ve been yelling about this for over two hours so here it goes.
Spoilers for 15x20 (duh)
First things first: I’ll say it now, it was
the right ending for the characters don’t @ me. It was the right ending but the
worst possible way to get there.
Sam having a family and a relatively normal
life, Dean in heaven with all his loved ones, Cas helping Jack be better than
Chuck and making the world a better place. If you look back into their journeys
that is exactly what they wanted and what they fought for.
The finale starts like a MOTW episode for
no reason, cuts to Dean dying in a really dumb way and having an emotional
goodbye that no one cared about because we were expecting a resolution to
15x18. Then cuts to an emotional Sam montage, then cuts to a rushed epilogue
and that’s it. Nothing else.
I’ve seen many posts during the last two
weeks on how this should end, but the basics are: getting Castiel back, Destiel
resolution, Sam reuniting with Eileen, Sam and Dean going their separate ways
with their respective partners but implying this is not the end. This closes
the show nicely, closes every storyline we’ve had this season, and gives the
characters actual happy endings.
But we didn’t get a single one of those.
What we got was a mess that dismissed everything
they did this season and many things they did the past 15 years.
So, what went wrong and how could it have
gone right? Note, I do believe they had to rewrite things because of the pandemic
and all the lockdowns but there were better ways to do it.
The most disappointing thing about the
finale is Castiel. The one thing everyone wanted was to get him back nothing
more. There is this one great post (that I couldn’t find to save my life)
about the basic thing this episode had to do and it was to save Cas, for him to
get an actual conversation with Dean and closure. Destiel or not we needed closure.
We got an offhanded comment and a license plate. That was the farewell to one
of the most beloved characters this show ever had.
They could have ended 15x19 with Jack
bringing Cas back before leaving to do god stuff, then Dean avoiding the
subject until he gets impaled into a nail and Cas enters the barn perfectly
mirroring his very first entrance to save Dean. And then they have the
conversation™. Satisfying ending, ties all loose ends, can still end the show
with Sam and Dean together in heaven.
They could have done Cas arrive to the barn
just in time to save Dean saying Jack saved him and not explain a thing and it
would have been better.
They could have made the same thing and
then Sam answers the phone, and it is Castiel telling him Dean is happy in
heaven and wants him to live his life. Ambiguous about Destiel but still good
enough and again they can have the same ending.
They could have had Cas receiving Dean in heaven
and (a kiss) resolution right there.
Dean dies on the dumbest death in 15
seasons of supernatural and that’s saying something.
That could have been avoided with either
not having the nail conveniently there or with Castiel saving him. There solved
you can do a million other things for the epilogue.
Or you know if they really wanted to end Cas
on 15x18 they could have made his moment of true happiness, learning to be
human and knowing he is fighting for the right reasons. It would have avoided
burying the gays and coming off as the most homophobic finale ever.
Cas is literally dismissed but looking past
that they gave him the perfect ending only failed to actually show the thing.
He started as a soldier from heaven who rebelled because it was the right thing
to do. Throughout eleven seasons he grows to understand humans and to get disappointed
with heaven. In the end he fights for humanity and wants to make things right.
Him continuing to mentor Jack in being a better god than Chuck is the perfect
ending for Castiel’s arc.
Eileen never appears again. You are telling
me they brought her back, created yet another loophole to bring her back to life,
made a season long storyline about her and Sam getting together, killed her
again, implied she is back to life (again) thanks to Jack. Just to completely
ignore her in the finale.
I know the pandemic might have made it
impossible for the show to bring Shoshannah Stern back for one day of filming,
and if you squint it is implied the wife is Eileen, but that’s not good enough.
Here is where it feels there were rewrites.
The best resolution was doing an actual reunion with the two of them going off
together if that wasn’t possible with the lockdown the next best thing was to
confirm in some way that Sam and Eileen ended up together.
Easiest way, when Sam was dying and they
were zooming into all the photos doing a long dramatic pause on a photo of Eileen,
or with she and Sam together. They could have taken a behind the scenes photo
of Shoshannah and Jared and photoshoped it. Just to confirm they ended
together.
I do believe both Sam and Dean dying and
ending in heaven together was the right call, but Dean’s death was still dumb.
He should have either died in a hunt on a
really epic way or (my personal favorite) died as an old man with Sam by his
side and given his speech there. That would have been impactful, and the speech
is actually really good. It was overshadowed by the Castiel shaped hole the
finale had.
Either way Dean dying first and getting the
new heaven explanation feels right, but it should have been Castiel or Jack
receiving him there not Bobby. And that is another thing I feel had to be
rewritten. The dialogue on that scene makes me think that in a non covid year
everyone would have been there to receive Dean to heaven. And I mean everyone
Mary, John, Bobby, Jo, Ellen, original Charlie, Bobby, Kevin, Pamela, Adam,
Benny (even if this one is impossible), I’m sure I forgot someone.
And then he goes on a drive and meets Sam at
the end. That ending works perfectly and would have been super powerful with
the right execution but was overshadowed by everyone’s collective anger.
A perfect finale would have started with
Castiel returning
(even if it required mime vampires in skull
masks), followed by the conversation everyone was hoping for, Eileen
returning. And then the epilogue montage.
If I could ask for things during that it
would have been: Destiel with a roadhouse, Cas coming and going to help Jack become
a better god. Sam and Eileen going off together and eventually retiring together.
Their wedding with Dean as best man and Castiel marrying them (also destiel
wedding but I know that is way too much to ask). A montage of everyone getting
together for Christmas and stuff. Scenes showing how hunters still visit Sam
for info, magic, and advice. Eileen being pregnant and them being happy parents
together. Dean being a good uncle. A good death for Dean with Sam, Cas, and
Jack by his side and then the speech would have destroyed me. A good look for
old man Sam and old man Dean. And eventually Sam dying and reuniting with Dean.
That would have felt satisfying and like
they earned that ending.
One last thing. The “we want to thank you”
speech felt like throwing salt in the wound of a really bad finale, but it
would have been a billion times better if they got Misha there, and every actor
and crewmember who was ever relevant to this show saying thank you (from home
if they couldn’t be there for some reason covid).
guys here’s the thing………. i’ve spent the last 12 years defending deancas. i’m not spending another second on defending it now that it’s canon. it’s right there. it’s clear cut. if you don’t wanna see it, that’s not my problem. i’m tired and i get to rest now. give me a viking funeral. bury me in my warrior’s armor.
everyone’s bullying jensens performance and it’s getting ON MY NERVES because it was obvious deans in literal shock and cas said in his speech talks about how dean views himself then about how dean treats people he fucking knows dean loves him
Dean was silent and shocked not only because he was being hit by a giant truck of trauma and feelings since always, but he touched rock bottom when he found out about Chuck. He pushed Cas away and then desperatedly cried on his knees for him. He pulled a gun on his brother and then apologized hours later, he said Jack wasn’t family and went completely desperate to save him minutes later. He was spiraling into his theater of self loathing again and Cas couldn’t hear that anymore. He was in shock, and not only because he heard Cas saying I love you to him and only to him, but also because he thought he was gonna die and get Cas killed in the process, and then he heard about the deal, and then his best friend decided to tell him how worthy he is, how loved, how wrong his perception of himself has been his whole life. How he loved him from the beginning. Since the night they met, since he pulled him out of hell.
Then, it was “This is your problem Dean, you have no faith” - “You don’t think you deserve to be saved”
And now it was “This is your problem Dean, you see yourself the same way your enemies do” - “You don’t think you deserve to be loved”
But Cas saved him then. Loved him then. Saved him now. Loved him now.
