Covid is NO Excuse for that Supernatural Finale, and Here's Why
/Supernatural, the CW’s longest-running, beloved show about two brothers “saving people, hunting things” finally ended last night in a blaze of… well… in a blaze. For a show that put its main characters through love. loss, and literal hell on multiple occasions, there were high hopes for where it would leave Sam and Dean Winchester at the end of their stories. The end result, however, left a lot to be desired for many fans.
Full Spoilers Ahead
At the end of the penultimate episode, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) defeated God/Chuck (Rob Benedict) at his own game, winning true free will for everyone on Earth. Then they drove off into the sunset together, leaving the viewer to wonder what they’ll do with that newfound freedom.
S15 E20: “Carry On” answers that question in possibly the most disappointing way possible. It turns out, they drive back to the bunker and continue to fight monsters for about five minutes. Then they run into a group of masked vampires stalking Canton, Ohio’s tiny Pie Fest, and Dean is unceremoniously stabbed in the back and DIES, forever scarring both Sam and the viewer.
Don’t worry, though—Dean goes to heaven, where he gets to see all of his loved ones. Er, actually, make that just Bobby. And Sam gets out of the life, has a son named Dean, and grows old (with some truly awful hair) before dying and joining Dean in heaven.
All in all, “Carry On” reads like it was written by someone who hadn’t seen a single episode of “Supernatural” since 2005 and had forgotten everything about what made the show great.
First off, why are they back at the bunker? Where’s Eileen (Shoshannah Stern), who’s disappearance along with everyone else on earth back in episode 18 caused Sam to stare stoically into the middle distance and declare, “I can’t let myself go there. If I do, I’ll lose my mind”? You and your sidekick/God Jack just brought everyone back to life and you don’t even send Eileen a “You up?” text?
Secondly, they kept the dog from episode 19. It’s now Dean’s best buddy, completely ignoring YEARS of canon that Sam is the dog lover amongst the Winchester brothers, and that Dean has always disliked canines.
Thirdly, Dean’s death. Man, did they do my boy dirty. He’s apparently too injured to bother getting a first aid kit or calling the paramedics, but not so injured that he can’t spend the better part of ten minutes tearfully saying goodbye to Sam. He always said he would go out fighting, but it feels cheap that the show didn’t even give him a chance to experience the free life he fought so hard for before he died.
Let’s just ignore Sam’s atrocious old-man hair for a moment (I just assume someone in Makeup had a stroke while they were wielding the silver spray paint). Sam gets out of the life forever, presumably, despite spending SEVERAL SEASONS now insisting that his old dream of quiet family life isn’t what he wants anymore. He’s seen the light, he said, and saving people is worth the personal sacrifice. I guess that’s a philosophy that only holds true so long as the writers don’t forget.
Sam has a son with some random woman who may or may not be Eileen, and names that son Dean. That’s fine. What’s interesting to me is that he only ever had one child. Having a sibling was literally the DEFINING aspect of Sam’s life. Without Dean, he’d just be Sam Winchester, cursed boy. With Dean, he saved the world. A lot. I find it hard to believe that Sam Winchester would deny his child the opportunity to have a sibling.
Dean goes to heaven, where Bobby Singer (JIm Beaver) waits for him outside the Harvelle’s Roadhouse, and learns that Jack (Alexander Calvert) and Cas (Misha Collins) have been hard at work revamping heaven into the paradise it was always meant to be. Everyone he’s ever loved is within an easy distance, and he can see them at any time. BUT DOES HE?! No. For some reason, the writers decided that Dean Winchester, king of ‘family is everything,’ would rather tool around in the Impala than see John and Mary or pay a visit to Cas.
There are hints throughout the finale that this was meant to be a much grander affair, quashed by Covid and the subsequent filming constraints. Most of the major actors who were set to come back for the finale could not, including Mischa Collins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Samantha Smith. But those losses don’t account for the odd pacing of the episode, which starts as a sped-up monster-of-the-week before transitioning into 30 minutes of slow saccharinity backed by inexplicably pop-y versions of Carry On Wayward Son. Maybe production couldn’t get Shoshannah Stern back; why not at least have a photo of her and Sam on the wall behind his deathbed, so we know that the entire Sam/Eileen love story they’ve been shoving down our throats for the whole season actually had a pay off? There were jokes at the Pie Fest (“son of a bitch!”) that fell flat because they weren’t clever writing on their own; they were just nudge-nudge, wink-wink references to things the Winchesters used to say in the long-ago heyday of the show.
I, for one, choose to believe that the ending of 15x19 “Inherit the Earth” was the real finale to the Supernatural story. The boys are finally free, and they have their whole lives ahead of them. Who knows what they did with it? Let’s leave on a hopeful note, rather than the drag of “Carry On.”
