Okay, so it’s been over a year since the series finale of Supernatural aired. I’ve finally recovered enough to talk about it now…I hope.
Basically, the one thing I begged the writers not to do – kill off the main characters – they did. I’m sad that they chose to end it this way, because to me, a series finale should be a reward for the most loyal viewers – a “thank you” for sticking with the show through thick and thin. I don’t know about you guys, but my mom and I started watching in season one, so that is a whopping fifteen seasons of thick and thin. We had been watching so long that when details got changed in later seasons – like that suddenly anyone could see a reaper, or that some werewolves had the ability to “control themselves” (tell that to Madison from season 2!) – it was a little annoying. But even as the show declined somewhat in later years, and I no longer eagerly looked forward to every new installment, there was still joy to be found in each episode, and comfort in having these familiar, beloved characters in our lives.
When you’ve been a die-hard fan for that many years, saying goodbye is never going to be easy. I’ll admit that. And there was no way the writers could have possibly satisfied every single fan on the planet. I’ll admit that, too. But I do think they could have delivered something that would have appealed to a majority of the audience while keeping true to the spirit of the show. And this death-fest finale wasn’t it.
What I Liked
Unlike some fans, I did appreciate that the major storyline re: God and Jack was resolved in the second-to-last episode. The mytharc for Supernatural had gotten so crazy out-of-control after fifteen seasons (they fought every villain imaginable, up to and including Almighty God), that for me it was refreshing to return to the basics of the show we fell in love with in season one: two brothers, hunting monsters and saving people. I thought J&J really poured their hearts into the acting, and I felt like the writing was at least decent, with some deliberately repeated dialogue for parallel death scenes.
What I Didn’t Like
This episode aired during a global pandemic. We were literally surrounded by death, grief, and loss on all sides, in real life. And the writers thought the best way to end this series was by offering up another heaping plateful of sorrow, killing off some of the most beloved characters in modern television history. It’s like, really? Is this the nice dose of hope the world needed right now? Could you maybe read the room here, people? I don’t think I even cried. I just stared at the screen, and then stared at my mom, thinking, “WTF?” She looked back at me and said, “I hated it.”
I didn’t hate it, but it was such a far cry from what I wanted and hoped for that it hurt, nonetheless. I mean maybe the writers were trying to say something about the loss so many of us have gone through with Covid. Maybe they were reading the room, and offering a grief-stricken world a poignant blueprint for moving on after unimaginable loss. Maybe in ten years, I’ll look back and see it as the perfect ending.
Maybe.
What I Wanted
I wanted at least the option of imagining a positive future for the characters, rather than witnessing the end of both of their lives in painful detail. I wanted a sense of adventure for things yet to come. I expected some level of darkness or sadness, because it’s Supernatural, and that’s always been part of the show, but before now it never overshadowed the hope of two tough, scrappy brothers winning against impossible odds. I also wanted something different. Something we haven’t seen before. I’ve lost count of how many times the boys have died over the years. We’ve even seen both Sam and Dean “carry on” without the other before. Dean went off to live a normal life with Lisa and Ben after Sam fell into hell in “Swan Song,” and Sam got a girlfriend and a dog after Dean got sucked into purgatory. So, this was not new territory by any stretch.
Over the years, we’ve actually had several potential series finales. I don’t think there was really any guarantee that the show would be picked up again after seasons one, two, or three. Any of those finales could’ve been the final episodes of the show. The season two finale, “All Hell Breaks Loose, Part II,” is still my favorite episode of the entire series, and embodies all of the qualities I would’ve been thrilled to see in the series finale:
–Wrap-up of major plotlines: Ding dong, the Yellow-Eyed Demon is dead! And Dean got to kill him! Yay! Also, their dad escaped hell, so they no longer have to torture themselves about where he is and what’s happening to his soul.
–Not everything is roses: Dean only has a year to live before he dies and goes to hell, courtesy of a demon deal. Sam has come back to life, but may not be fully “himself” (the YED implies that Sam is either missing a part of his soul, or came back with some extra evil added in).
–A new adventure awaits: A gate to hell has been opened, releasing tons of demons into the world. Ruh-roh!
–Hope: Despite everything they are facing – a demon war, a one-year deadline for Dean’s life and soul – the brothers are alive and together and determined to fight the good fight.
This episode left me with tears in my eyes AND a grin on my face. What more could you ask for from any finale?
What’s Next
There’s been talk of a Supernatural spin-off for years, since way before the series actually ended. In fact, I think a few of the episodes were written as set-ups for potential spin-offs which never came to be. Most of the ideas pitched held little-to-no interest for me as a fan. I think one was going to be about Samuel Colt hunting monsters in the Old West (meh), and another was about a brand new character searching for his missing hunter father (deja vu, anyone?). The only one that sounded intriguing was “Wayward Sisters,” which would have followed the adventures of Sheriff Jody and her adopted daughters. Since we know and care about those characters, I think it would’ve worked. Also, a bunch of bad-ass female hunters kicking monster butt? Yeah, it could’ve been pretty awesome. As far as I know, though, it’s not going to happen. 😦
What is going to happen is a show called The Winchesters. When I first heard a brief description of this show, many months ago, I was excited. Like genuinely excited, in a way I hadn’t felt about Supernatural in quite some time. The gist of it was that Jensen and his wife Danneel were working on a Supernatural prequel that would focus on the early days of the Winchester family’s hunting adventures. I thought this was the best idea for a spin-off ever. Period. I have always loved the episodes that showed Sam and Dean’s younger years and the experiences they had growing up with a monster-hunter father and sleeping with guns under their pillows and having no one to rely on but each other.
I automatically assumed the new show, The Winchesters, would be focusing on Sam and Dean as teens, old enough to go off on their own and get in all kinds of trouble with ghosts, werewolves, and demons, plus have all the drama of high school, moving from place to place, living in crappy motels, and the ever-strained relationship with their dad.
To me, this would have been brilliant. We already adore the characters, and so much of their experience as teenagers is as-yet untapped. When I heard about The Winchesters, I actually felt like I got Sam and Dean back. My heart soared, and I (sort of) forgave Jensen for his misleading quote about the series finale (he said something like he wouldn’t be surprised if we saw these guys back on our screens in their beloved Impala sometime in the future) because I realized he might’ve meant a young Sam and Dean.
And then I saw the trailer for The Winchesters.
I think a part of me died that day. And not from joy.
The Winchesters is about Mary and John, in the early days of their relationship, hunting monsters together. Full stop. If you’re saying, “WTF?” right now, you’re not the only one. I would imagine everyone in the fandom had a similar reaction, because Mary and John never hunted monsters together. It didn’t happen. It goes completely against canon. Jensen and Danneel know this, of course, and were quick to assure fans that they have a plan to make it all make sense.
The only plans I can think of to achieve this would be some kind of memory wipe, an alternate universe, or time travel. In order to match up with Supernatural canon, the events in The Winchesters will almost necessarily have to be erased or forgotten at some point. Which begs the question: Why? Why do this show at all? Especially when they had a ready-made option that was infinitely more appealing AND required no rewriting of the canon whatsoever. That’s like ignoring a sack full of gold that’s sitting right in front of you and instead going dumpster-diving for empty beer cans. It will continue to mystify me for the rest of my days.
We never even got Sam and Dean back, and yet somehow I feel like we’ve lost them again.
I will give The Winchesters a chance, because it looks like a decent(ish) show. I don’t like Dean’s voiceover in the trailer, saying how Mary and John have always been this big mystery – I mean, after fifteen seasons of Supernatural, I think we found out everything about them that we really needed (or wanted) to know. I’m also not happy that the actors who played young John and Mary in the Supernatural time travel eps – Amy Gumenick and Matt Cohen (both of whom I really liked) – don’t seem to be in this spin-off.
But, in spite of everything…I want to like this show. I want it to surprise me. I want it to give me something the series finale didn’t: hope, and a stirring sense that the adventure is just starting anew.
Fingers crossed.
The Trailer
So…what do you think?
as the HERO flies... 