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galatheaThank you Eric Kripke & team for an outstanding year of television. This season finale showed very clearly how consistent writing, careful plotting and coherent character development can pay off in the end. I know I love this show for a reason and they proved this to me over and over again this season. I for one look forward to just re-watching the whole thing in one big marathon. Hindsight is a beautiful thing and I know that I can see this season with fresh eyes, now that I know how things play out! Supernatural just rocks my world! ♥
You know what’s funny about this two-parter? Here we are, we just witnessed a major bloodbath amongst friend and foe, have an army of demons unleashed upon earth, Sam might or might not be completely himself and Dean only has one more year to live before his soul goes straight to hell and yet, the finale was oddly uplifting, hopeful even. Trust in Supernatural to manage a contradiction like that. And you know another thing? If Supernatural had ended on this episode it would have worked as a show finale, it’s a happy ending, sort of, well, you know, in a Winchester kind of way. That makes me hope that when the series finale comes one day (in a very, very far future I hope) it will end on a happy note for the boys.
See Dean's small but completely genuine grin at the end of the episode? Dean is more at peace with himself and his life in this very moment than he was all season long. He took control over his life back, on his own terms and for a high price, but still. He kept his promise to John, Sam and not least to himself, to save his little brother come hell or high water, no matter the cost, he made right on the wrong that he thinks was his father’s unjustified sacrifice for Dean’s life. He killed the YED, Mary’s death is avenged, John was released from his hellish prison, things are looking up. It’s a good day on the completely screwed up Winchester scale of happiness.
Okay, I am going to indulge myself a little bit in looking at Dean in this episode, as this was pretty much his episode, just like last episode was Sam’s. So forbear with me and prepare for major sappiness. ;)
Dean: "I just wanted you to be a kid, just for a little while longer. I was trying to protect you, keep you safe. Dad didn’t even have to tell me, it was just always my responsibility, you know. It’s like I had one job and I screwed it up, I blew it and for that I’m sorry. I guess that’s what I do, let down the people I love."
Dean’s monologue to his dead brother completely broke me down .. again! I think I worship Jensen Ackles a little bit, okay maybe a lot, for his ability to sell these scenes utterly believable and if you read the Asylum reports on how he prepares himself for these kinds of emotional breakdowns, you know why they come off as sincere.
After Something Wicked there was a lot of fanon output on how Dean raised his little brother, tried to preserve a childhood for him that he had lost after the fire that took his mother and his secure life away. How John unconsciously shaped Dean’s life in the moment he put little Sammy in his arms and told him to carry his brother to safety and how Dean held onto that task ever since, putting Sam’s well-being above everything else, including his own needs. The roots of his self-sacrificial nature reach back into his childhood and it was deeply satisfying to hear all this affirmed here, because I always love when the writers and fandom go hand in hand.
And I can’t help but being mad at John again. Sam was five when he started asking questions on why Dad took off for days at a time, implying that they were even younger when John started to leave his kids alone in seedy motels, leaving a 4-5 year old child in the care of a 8-9 year old one and there is no reason in the world that would let me accept that as responsible and caring parenting whatsoever. I have nephews at that exact ages and there is no way that you can put the extensive nurture, that a child so young needs, solely onto the shoulders of an equally young child for days at a time. That Dean nonetheless tried to shoulder that kind of responsibility without complaint just shows that he was an exceptional child.
Anyway, it’s no surprise that Dean holds himself responsible for letting Sam down, for not being able to save him as he promised to John and Sam himself and that this sense of failure logically consistent leads to his self sacrifice. In retrospective all the season kind of inevitably lead to this point in the story. Ever since John laid the burdens of the secret and his sacrifice on Dean in In My Time Of Dying, he was not only fighting a fight for Sam’s life, against an unknown amount of variables and against factors that mainly lay out of his control, but he also secretly harboured a death wish as Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, Crossroad Blues and Croatoan clearly show. Not that he would be actively suicidal, but his bone deep weariness results in embracing that step if necessary.
In Croatoan he nearly loses Sam to a demonic virus, in Hunted Sam nearly falls victim to a psychopathic hunter, in Born Under A Bad Sign he nearly loses him to a demonic possession and in all these instances, he showed how far he was willing to go to for Sam and so, when he finally fails the task that he imposed on himself ever since he was a kid, self sacrifice is the only logical conclusion in his eyes, in a way it is his salvation from the burdens that weighed him down all season. There is a beauty of simplicity in this and though I feared this step ever since I accidentally learned of Sam’s death a couple of weeks ago (curse you spoilers!), I am amazed how well it works out in the end for me. Character consistency always was one of the main traits of Supernatural and here they proved it again, this step was completely believable and in character.
I loved the little scene in which Dean makes the pact with the crossroads demon. He is desperate and he knows he has no real leverage to coax the demon into a deal and he knows, that the demon knows it as well. I have no doubt that he would have laid down his life on the spot if he needed to, so the demon’s offer of giving him one year was indeed generous, you know, in a sick and twisted demon kind of way. It’s just too much fun to see Dean suffer. And I love that the demon wasn’t stupid, but remembered that Dean forced it to back out of a deal before and hence added the clause of Sam’s instant death should Dean try something similar again. It definitely keeps things interesting for next season!
Unsurprisingly Dean’s first impulse after having Sam back is retreat. He is done sacrificing and he is done hunting at this point. The theme of Dean wanting a time out, of needing rest from his responsibilities beautifully weaves throughout this season ever since Croatoan. Equally unsurprisingly Sam will have none of it, never did, whenever Dean asked him to, be it in Hunted, Hollywood Babylon or now here, and as usual Dean gives in.
Dean: "Dad brought me back, Bobby, I’m not even supposed to be here. At least this way something good can come out of it, it’s like my life can mean something."
Bobby: "What? And it didn’t before? Have you that low an opinion of yourself? Are you that screwed in the head?"
As I predicted in my last review, Dean regards his self-sacrifice not only as a necessary step to make up for his failure, but also as restoring the natural order of things, finally being able to 'correct' John’s misguided (in his opinion) decision in In My Time Of Dying, thus ridding himself of a burden he was never really able to accept. I love how they tie back here to the beginning of the season, coming full circle. The planning and interweaving of recurring themes in Supernatural will never cease to amaze me, difficult psychological repercussions of actions in this show never just go away, they have after-effects and long term consequences for the character motivations. I love that about the show like nothing else. ♥
I know, I sound like a broken record ever since Born Under A Bad Sign, but there are no words to describe my love for Bobby. Finally someone who cares about him openly addresses Dean’s completely screwed up sense of self-worth (so far only demons liked to do that) and tries to hammer it into him that he has no reason to think low of himself, that he is far from being a failure. Something John should have done long, long ago but wasn’t able to, because he was too obsessed with revenge and too willing to take advantage of Dean’s sense of responsibility and his wish to live up to his father’s expectations.
Bobby doesn’t have these kinds of burdens and complicated emotional past with the boys (and btw I want the Bobby & The Winchesters back-story like yesterday, please!) and simply can voice his concerns openly. Bobby isn’t only angry at Dean, he is hurting for the completely messed up boy in front of him and yes, Dean needs to hear exactly that, over and over until he believes it. He needs to hear it from a semi-parental authority figure like Bobby, he needs to hear it from John and Sam and amazingly enough he will in the very same episode, with not as many words from John and with different words from Sam .. and Dean listens and I think he may get it in the end, which makes me all kinds of happy.
Sam: "Well, next time finish the job."
Now, let’s have a look at Sam. Sam is back, but what’s the price for that, besides the damnation of Dean’s soul? 'What’s dead should stay dead' and 'What you brought back isn’t even your daughter anymore. These things are vicious and violent, they are so nasty they rot the ground around them!' from Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things strongly reverberate in this episode. While Sam mostly shows his lovable old self and his feelings for Dean and his family are clearly untouched after he comes back, two scenes give reason to believe that he might have changed after all.
Firstly, he keeps quiet about the real extent of what the demon revealed to him about the events in his nursery. Not only about the blood ritual but also about Mary’s obvious acquaintance with the demon. While one can speculate that Sam is afraid of Dean’s reaction to the possibility that Sam is at least part-demon, this can also have reasons beyond that. After all Dean never gave him any indication of resentment in regard to his psychic status, although Sam hesitated to tell Dean about that as well.
Secondly, there is the stone cold execution of Jake. While Sam’s anger is understandable, he never allowed himself to act on anger before, especially not when it comes to something severe like killing another human being, always too afraid to play into the demon’s hands and become a killer. The way the scene was shot and the camera angles suggest that indeed Sam might have come back 'wrong' or at least partly changed. The bewildered look Bobby shoots Sam and the wild and cold look in Sam’s eyes during the execution and after, seem to indicate at something dark in Sam.
There is also the question of what happens to Sam’s powers now. Were they tied solely to the YED or are they still in effect and may Sam’s potential new darkness motivate him to open himself up to the possibilities within him? After all, with Jake’s death he IS the last of the psychic children standing, the supposed leader of the demon army just unleashed on earth. The possibilities of repercussions for the next season seem endless and intriguing.
Of course these are all wild speculations, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the third season. It’s completely thrilling how clearly the character arcs for next season are already laid out in this finale. Dean will be running out of time fast and Sam’s emotional and psychological status after his resurrection may at least be questionable, not completely but maybe where violent behaviour is concerned. The way the writers develop the character arcs consequently out of all the events that precede a given point in the character’s history ever since S1 is fantastic and the same applies to the storylines in general.
They wrapped up the demon and the special children storyline completely believable AND consistent (which, honestly, I didn’t really expect) only to open up new storylines strongly connected to the ones that precede them. The storylines develop naturally from each other, unlike the typical seasonal arc structure, where one storyline is brought to its resolution only to make way for something completely new and unconnected. It’s a very satisfying experience for the viewer, the strong sense of continuity.
Talking of which, how delighted was I to see that what I suspected to be a Macguffin, a mere plot device that has little to no real meaning for the story, turned out to be a major key: The Colt! I always wondered why the demon would bother that much with something that didn’t seem to pose that much of a thread after all, now I have my answer. It was never about the lethal thread it posed to the demon at all, it was about its function as a key. Amply proven by the fact that the demon was too self-confident to even make sure the last bullet was fired before he brought it there. As I said before, it’s his arrogance that in the end is his downfall.
The plot twist with the devil’s gate and Samuel Colt’s massive devil’s trap to keep it secured was a clever turn and neatly picked up the loose plot-point from S1. Did I already mention how awed I am by the plotting in this show? I’m just sayin'! ♥ I am sure there are flaws and some inconsistencies that I just don’t see at the moment, but overall I am utterly impressed in how they pulled the arc together in this finale!
Dean: "That was for our mom!" ♥
Okay, I kind of digressed a bit, sorry for that. This show just makes me ramble on endlessly. I have to admit that they killed the YED came a bit as a surprise to me (and hey, am I bad for not wanting this demon dead? He was just too much fun!) but the way it came to pass was completely satisfying. I love that Dean killed the demon and nobody else. How often did demons tell him that he is worthless, not able to protect his brother, not posing a thread to them whatsoever, talking him down on every occasion and well, they were wrong.
Papa Winchester showing up to protect his boys one last time, in very much the same fashion as Mary did in Home was a really moving touch. His final appearance is very much focused on his firstborn, a look of pride and love in his eyes and Dean visibly understands it as a 'You did well, son!', being released of the burden to have failed the trust his father placed upon him. As I said before, in the end Dean finally gets to hear and see what he needs to, to maybe heal from the massive damage this past year inflicted on him.
The scene between John and his boys was executed a tad cheesy, but the final message was conveyed loud and clear and I am happy that they made the scene a silent one, John was never much a man of big words when he was alive, no reason for it to be otherwise in death. We all knew if someone clawed his way out of hell than it was John Winchester and I was glad to see that John got a kind of happy ending here, released from hell and able to move on.
Sam and Dean overwhelmed and happy and speechless, a life long quest unexpectedly brought to an end, was very touching. Sam sounding so young, very much looking at Dean to give him answers and to take the lead, just like that 5 year old back in the days when they were kids. And in the end it comes down to Mary again, whose loss was the one thing that got the Winchesters started in the first place. Damn, this episode manages to draw so many circles, to re-echo so many themes of two seasons SN, it’s a thing of beauty. ♥
Dean: "Don’t be mad at me. Don’t you do that. I had to look after you, that’s my job!"
Sam: "What do you think my job is? You saved my life, over and over. I mean, you sacrificed everything for me, don’t you think I’d do the same for you?"
God, how much do I love this end scene where Sam coaxes the truth out of his big brother, there’s no words for it. ♥ Right there, there’s the difference between Sam and Dean. While Dean wasn’t able to grasp that John cared so much about him to sacrifice himself for Dean and deemed himself not even worthy of a sacrifice of that scale, Sam doesn’t have this kind of self-esteem issues. He was the one who told Dean at the end of Crossroad Blues that Dad sacrificed himself for Dean out of love and that they have to honour that gift and he responds accordingly to Dean’s decision.
Sam doesn’t even bother with being really angry in this moment, because he gets it. He can put himself easily in Dean’s place. Faith showed us, that he'd go the same length to save his brother, there is no question about it and Dean finally, finally listens. Sam’s reaction to Dean’s sacrifice, after his first moment of shock and fear, is acceptance and his answer is love. It’s their job to watch out for each other and he will go the same length for it as Dean does and you can see Dean believing him. Finally catching up on what his subconscious self didn’t believe in What Is And What Should Never Be, that Sam long ago accepted and loved him as who he is and reciprocates Dean’s care for him.
And while Dean didn’t have John to direct his anger and frustration at, to question him, to get answers, Sam still has Dean and they can work through whatever comes, together. When Sam promises to fight for him, to get him out of that situation Dean believes it and even more accepts it. Something he wouldn’t have been able to only a year ago, but he isn’t the same person anymore. He learned to confide in his brother and accept his help, he doesn’t need to carry it all alone anymore. And if they don’t find a way around it, Dean will still be fine with it and completely convinced that it was worth it, but for now they have each other and keep going. Oh boys! ♥ I don’t think I could love them more even if I wanted to.
I love this shot with Bobby, Ellen and Sam and Dean in the end scene. A little makeshift family and somehow I take that as an optimistic sign for the next season too. The may have suffered a lot of setbacks this season, but they made it out there alive and determined.
Dean: “We’ve got work to do!” There is nothing more to say
Did you know? According to the S2 Companion Sam was resurrected on May, 2nd, his 24th birthday! That information was probably in the original script but didn't make it into the episode. This places the events between the Pilot and the S2 finale within a timeframe of 18 months!
