*Do Not Read if you are Triggered by any of the following Warnings
Warnings:cursing, funerals, using people for profit, unprotected sex/wrap it up kiddos, intentional poisoning, slow death by blood letting, buried alive, rough oral sex, gun/knife play, blood play, necrophilia
A/N:Set Season 6 between Clap Your Hands If You Believe & ..And Then There We’re None
I don’t remember a life before spn, it’s literally become a part of my life and I’m gonna miss it terribly much. I can only imagine what Jared, Jensen, Misha, and the rest of the cast will feel like once its over. But one thing’s for sure, even after the show will be over, this family will live on. The song carries on.
SPOILERS!!!! I know this won’t be read much, but my heart is so heavy and empty at the same time, I need to write to let it out.
After 15 seasons, the road has finally come to an end. It’s safe to say that we all had our own idea of how the show would end and what would happen to Sam and Dean, but I think it’s safe to say that NONE of us expected how it went.
I love reading comments after an episode of any show as I like to see how other people interpret what we saw. Everyone reads everything differently. I know that there at many people who wished episode 19 was the series finale. In my opinion, I thought it was a great season finale, as it was intended it to be. Yes, the flashbacks to all the characters we’ve come to know and love made us feel that it was the series finale. Sam and Dean defeated God. Jack is the new God and Heaven is in good hands. Sam and Dean are free and can finally live out their lives the way they want to. They were happy. But what we should all know is that “Supernatural” isn’t a show about happy endings. Especially for the Winchesters. Seeing them happy at the end of episode 19 made me worried for what was in store for the next episode. The last episode. The writers gave the fans service with episode 19 and I believe they gave themselves and the actors service or episode 20.
Episode 20, “Carry On”, starts off what seems like the next day after God was humanized as I like to call it. But we really do not know how much time lapsed since episode 19. Sam and Dean had their morning routine down to a pat, so it seems it could have been a couple of weeks or more. I found it comforting yet soothing how they couldn’t find any jobs. Everything seemed to be finally right.
Dean finally getting his pie was amazing. Sam pushing the pie in Dean’s face was even more amazing. However, we know there was one more job and we soon found out what it entailed. Btw, those masks were SO creepy.
The final hunt. The final fight scene. SPOILER ALERT. When Sam and Dean were fighting, I did notice that nail. I thought Dean would push the vamp’s face into it. You know, the Supernatural way with the blood spraying everywhere. What I did not expect was Dean to be pushed INTO it. I literally gasped at this. This was not the way I imagined it would happen. I don’t think anyone did.
Dean (and Jensen) always said they wanted to go out arms swinging and guns blazing. Everyone knew. The fact that it did not happen is genius. No one expected something as simple as a large nail would be a fatality to the unstoppable Dean Winchester. Which brings me to my next point. People were saying, including myself, that with everything Sam and Dean has face….they defeated GOD for crying out loud, how could something as a nail be the death of Dean Winchester.
Remember when they were horrible hunters in episode 10? Chuck took their “luck” away. So since Chuck isn’t God anymore and Jack is making things right as they should be, the way Dean should die should be something out of the normal for them. They are human and when your time comes, your time comes. We all know Dean deserved better. He deserved to grow old with Sam and live a normal life. But that is what we think and feel. Dean does not. And that is what people need to understand. We see Dean on the outside perspective. All Dean knew was to hunt. If he wanted a normal life, I feel like he and Sam would have stopped hunting when God was defeated. But they didn’t. They continued what they do best. Hunt.
I always knew Dean would die. He was damaged goods. But a working damaged goods. Dean dying during a hunt is fitting. Hunting and saving people is what he is known for. The same can be said for Sam, but as we saw in the very first episode, Sam just wanted a normal life. For Dean telling same to not save him this time, to not bring him back from the dead, Dean is accepting that after the battle with God, the angels and demons non-existent as they were before, he can finally accept death. On his own terms.
With his death, he knows that Sam will be “free” in a way from the life. It is Sam’s out. Because Dean, and me personally, feels that if he still lives, the two will always be fighting. Sam will never get the life of normalcy, Oh boy, I’m crying again. Also listening to Neoni’s rendition of “Carry on My Wayward Son” on repeat is not helping. Dean’s words to Sam were so touching. Asking permission to let go broke me. He wanted out. Unfortunately, death was the only way.
Dean wanted peace. Same wanted peace. The Fandom wanted peace. Dean got his peace. Unfortunately, it was in Heaven, but as we saw, it was the best thing for Dean. He can finally rest (Deja vu with Tony Stark!) I personally wanted Dean to grow old with Sam and have a family. But was just not in his DNA. His happiness is Sam’s happiness. From the beginning.
Seeing Sam trying live without Dean in the bunker was devastating. I was very shocked that we saw Sam give Dean the hunter’s burial. It was just so hard to see because it was a character we loved. They were a part of our family. We all lost someone there. But it was wonderful seeing Sam finally live the life he wanted from Season one. Having a son, another Dean. Keeping the impala. Sam’s son saying the same words to Sam as he said to Dean before he died. Dean driving until the bridge and knowing that he was reunited with Sam. Like just episode one. The symbolism is amazing. So emotional.
I am hoping for the fans who were not happy with the last episode will take time to watch it again, take time to revel in what happened, and process it. No one wants their favorite show to end. A show that’s been on for 15 years, that is a hard job to wrap up in one hour. I thought the writers did a fantastic job. My heart is so heavy and empty, but I am satisfied. I do not have any lingering questions.
I hope one day we will find out what the original plan for the finale will be. I know a lot of people wished to see John and Mary, even Crowley. But with COVID, the writers had to change a few things. And to be honest, I like how it was just Sam and Dean. Just like how it started. We knew John was out there hunting but rarely saw him. Bobby telling Dean his parents were a few miles away was comforting. Would it have been nice to see them, yes. But I think not seeing them and knowing they were there has more of an affect.
I just want to thank you to Jared, Jensen, Jim, Misha, Mark, Alex, and all of the amazing cast who ever appeared, the crew and writers throughout the years. You created something so special that will go down in television history. I miss you already.
#i saw an interesting idea that while the show was supposed to be about sam #dean was a more interesting character and jensen was a better actor #so obvs sam took a back seat #but the finale was basically trying to shoehorn sam back into the lead position #like he was originally supposed to be #and it just…. didn’t work #supernatural #spn
First of all kudos for the url…
The idea was that the story was ~about the two brothers~, which I suppose would share screentime in a fairly balanced manner, but Sam was intended to the the point-of-view character, the “filter” we would experience the story through.
It makes sense on paper: Sam is a character in a situation we can relate to (college student living a regular life), whom something happens to we can sympathize with (he loses his girlfriend tragically) and who - while he knows about that world having grown up in it - has distanced himself from the world of the supernatural, so we, the audience, who enter into that world for the first time as we watch the show, “enter” that world together with Sam as he re-enters it.
Dean, on the other hand, is a character who’s always been in that world, so he can’t be our “guide” into entering it. He also has a lifestyle we can’t really relate to, because the audience in front of the tv is obviously closer to the college guy than the rebellious nomadic monster-killer. He doesn’t have attachments other than to this mysterious missing dad, and is a generally mysterious person himself, so Dean is sort of an object to discover and decode rather than a subject to identify with.
Enter Jensen Ackles and Dean is suddenly a magnetic character who exudes a vulnerability that people can, indeed, relate to.
Enter Sera Gamble, Raelle Tucker, and John Shiban (I’d say the authors who most explored Dean in s1) and they do write Dean in a way that’s interesting and touching.
(Sera Gamble is a weird case, because she can do utter disasters but also write really good things, one could argue she’s the one person who most drove Supernatural from Kripke’s original idea to what we actually got, she’s the one who most drove the story away from ‘urban legends’ to religious themes & co, and while I haven’t seen the Magicians I know that she’s both the person who built a very interesting story and destroyed it.)
Dean and Jensen have carried the show all along both because Dean ended up a more compelling character and also because Dean has the strongest (narratively and emotionally) relationships. All the most interesting side characters have relationships with Dean, with a few exceptions (and again if a side character has a relationship with Sam, their exchanges with Dean are still more interesting, just think of Ruby!).
Crowley was supposed to be “associated” to Sam in the Carver era, to balance Dean’s association to Cas (s7 ends with Crowley making a cruel speech to Sam, the scene in the church where Sam almost turns Crowley human, Rowena using Sam to kill Crowley…) but Crowley ends up having a massive arc with Dean and a love triangle with Dean and Cas, which is why the Carver era is so unbalanced towards Dean XD (Then the writers did their best to make Rowena a “Sam character”, but at that point she was quite her own character with her story with Crowley and all, so it wasn’t really a narrative-supporting arc.)
Mary was both Dean’s and Sam’s mother, but her relationship is with Dean. Jack was presumably supposed to be associated to Sam more, too, with Sam taking him under his wing while Cas is dead and Dean blames Jack for it, but the relationship between Dean and Jack is the one that immediately stands out and gets developed.
One of the most unrealistic thing about the show is having all the side characters talk about “SamandDean” “the Winchesters” all the time when what they actually mean is “Dean and his brother”, if not just “Dean” at all.
As the only person in the fandom who liked Amelia—
A couple different times they also set up two new characters and “gave” one to Sam and one to Dean, and every time they did that, Dean’s was the more dynamic and interesting relationship. Cas was a more engaging character than Ruby. The Benny/Cas/Dean Adventure Squad was more entertaining than Sam trying to get along with Amelia’s asshole dad.
And then there’s the way the characters engage with the universe. Sam has to complete three quests in order to save the kingdom- noble, but also… done. It’s a standard interaction with fantasy tropes.
Dean, on the other hand, tells an extremely confused nurse “I’ve got the king of hell in my trunk” and then goes down to the parking lot where he has very nonchalantly left his car containing a demon, and has a conversation with the king of hell through his trunk lid. That’s something we can only get from Supernatural.
Sam is a character who knows and follows lore. He is the tropes we’re used to. Dean is a character who lives in a world full of magic and accepts that, and carries on accordingly. Witches aren’t “evil,” they’re sticky. Sword stuck in a stone? Modern solutions to modern problems. Gotta steal a fulgurite to bind Death? Bring him some pickle chips maybe he won’t kill us. Build an EMF reader out of a walkman. He’s the first dumbass mcnobody to call a monster a bitch to their face and that is engaging.
As a recent fandom parallel- Sam is the Witcher and Dean is Jaskier. Sam is the hero and ostensibly the main character but the audience is more interested in the sidekick straddling the 4th wall.
I’ve been saying this for years. Sam was the character we started this adventure with, but Dean was the more charismatic character with ties to everyone interesting. Which is why Destiel became so viable. The bond between Castiel and Dean was relevant on so many levels, it became a very rich field to mine.
so are they EVER going to stop pretending Cas is spelt Cass or
Three weeks after Castiel moves into the bunker, Sam finally starts to look less frazzled. He’s sipping his morning coffee with his feet kicked up at the great table and casually scrolling through the news of the weird on his iPad when Dean wanders out of his room for breakfast. He only gives it a moment’s pause, while tying his robe closed, before he heads to the kitchen. He’s always happy to see when Sam actually looks relaxed in their home.
Cas is already sitting on the bench seat in the kitchen, he’s picking at a bowl of cereal with his spoon and looking slightly… pissed maybe? A little angry and a little sad.
True, it’s not his usual fare. It’s not banana bread, or eggs on toasted sourdough with tomatoes, or big fat muffins with coffee. Dean doesn’t think he’s ever seen Cas take breakfast so lightly.
“Can’t have it all, I guess,” Dean mutters.
Cas looks up. “What?”
“Well, I’ve either got a happy you or a happy Sam, lately. I can’t seem to get both at the same time.”
“Oh, yes,” Cas gripes uncharitably, “I’m sure Sam’s very happy with himself right now.”
Huh. That’s not like Cas.
Dean rubs the sleep from his eyes and moves into family counselling mode. As soon as he’s poured himself some caffeine and maybe started throwing together something to eat he can–
He opens the fridge to a flurry of color.
It’s packed, as always. They’re three big guys, they go through a lot of food.
But now there’s little post-its fluttering on almost every bag and container and bottle in the refrigerator.
They are neon orange and some of them bright blue, like Sam ran out of the first color half-way through labelling everything. It was definitely Sam who did it, that’s his scrawl across each of the post-its. Different items with SAM and DEAN and CASS stuck to the front.
There are more for Dean than anyone else. He does the shopping, after all, and is sort of self-appointed King of the Kitchen.
There are plenty for Sam and a lot of the post-its with his name are stuck to the frou-frou-tofu crap and light beers that only he would want in the first place.
The fewest are labelled for Castiel.
Dean starts yanking the ones with his name off. “Cas, you can eat any of my stuff you want. Don’t listen to him.”
Cas doesn’t comment. Dean glances over his shoulder to see that Cas is still poking at the frosted biscuits in his bowl.
The mood lightens over breakfast as Dean shares some of his waffles with Cas, but Cas gives Sam a bit of the cold-shoulder for the rest of the day.
Dean pulls his brother aside at one point and tells him that if he’s gotta pull this stupid shit, he should just put post-its on the things of his that he doesn’t want Cas or Dean to touch. Sam shrugs, agrees.
And then, a few days later, another flurry of color as Dean walks into the bathroom.
The bunker has this huge room with showers and sinks, in the style of a gym or something, so they share the space between them.
It seems Sam has been through already this morning. Unfortunately, the humidity from the showers has left most the post-its floating around, face-down on the floor, so the different shave gels and shampoos and hair products and– fuck’s sake, there’s even post-its on the different stacks of towels!
Most of the items are still anonymous since the labels didn’t stick.
Dean’s standing there rolling his eyes for a moment and adding “ban Sam from going to Office Depot” to his mental to-do list when Cas comes up behind him, curious.
He scoots by Dean and picks up a few of the papers – the last of the blue and some new bright green ones – from the floor.
His shoulders slump when he turns them over to reveal three that say DEAN and one that says SAM and one that says CASS.
“This is ridiculous,” Cas says, with real spite.
“Yeah. He’s going a little overboard with it,” he scoots close and admits in a low voice, “I think he noticed I was stealing his shampoo but it just smells really good.”
Cas sighs.
The final straw seems to come at the end of the week. Dean and Cas come home from the grocery store to find the library littered with green and pink and yellow and purple post-its.
Cas and Sam get into it immediately. It’s kind of disturbing. Cas and Sam are basically the best geek friends that the world’s ever known. They agree on a lot, if not most things, and it’s disquieting to see them chewing each other out over something they love so much.
Cas points at an area of purple post-its. “First of all, Bobby found most of these, and I found all the ones over here! You can’t possibly divide the books between us, Sam! We all need to do research!”
“There are ones I need to reference all the time and you’re always bogarting them in your friggin’ bedroom! I search high and low for ‘em and I can never find them when I need them! And then him!” Sam points at Dean, “getting potato chip grease stains inside the Bergell Charm Directory and stuffing his stupid Hunger Games books into the spell tomes like we don’t know he’s reading them!”
“Hey!” Dean shouts, defensive.
“If you need a book you can ask me where it is, Sam!” Cas yells back.
“I shouldn’t have to ask! It’s–”
They’re very silent for a sudden moment.
Cas glares daggers. “Were you gonna say it’s your library? Is that what you’re getting at Sam Winchester?” he hisses.
Woah. Okay. This is getting scary. Dean steps between them. “No, that’s not what he said. This is DEFINITELY everyone’s library and we ALL have to use it. Both of you just calm down.”
“I’llcalm down when we can find where somebody left the Eymerich Grimorie,” Sam glares through Dean like he wants to open Cas up and see if the book rattles out of him.
“I’llcalm down when Sam learns to respect the people he lives with and stops accusing me of taking his useless crap,” Cas snaps.
Sam’s spine clicks him up to his full height all of a sudden. “If it’s all so useless why do you keep taking it?!”
“Dean was the one who used up your sprouts in a sandwich! He just doesn’t want to admit to knowing what sprouts are!” Cas shouts.
“How did you know that?” Dean’s drowned out by the yelling.
“And I’m not the one who labels a pile of wet towels under some random name because they can’t be bothered to do the laundry until it smells moldy!”
“Random name?” Sam and Dean both echo.
“MY NAME IS CAS!” Cas yells in their faces. He turns and flips a book closed to reveal the last of the stack of purple post-its. “Here, I’ll spell it for you:” and he writes on the post-it in black marker, C-A-S.
He rips it off the stack, turns, and slaps it on Dean’s forehead.
“Sea-aye-ess,” Cas spells out, pointing to each letter as if Sam needs specific instruction. “One S. ONLY ONE S. I have no earthly idea where you’re getting that extra S from since there’s only a single S in C a s t i e l ,” he says, slow but loud, like he’s talking to someone who refuses to fucking learn.
“I don’t know any ‘Cass,’ he certainly doesn’t live here or I’m sure I’d have FUCKING MET HIM,” Cas snaps, throws the marker at the table so hard it skids off the other side, and marches away.
Dean crosses his eyes to look up at the post-it stuck above his nose.
Sam continues to look petulant but he knows he got his shit called out on the moldy towel situation. “Fine,” he shrugs stiffly. “One S,” he rolls his eyes like, wow, what’s the big deal.
Dean plucks the post-it off his face. “Hey, there really is only one S in Castiel, I mean, it makes sense.” He stares off in the direction Cas stomped off. “I’m actually pretty proud of him for, like, asserting his identity.”
Sam ticks a frown that would be agreement and admiration if he weren’t still being pissy.
He turns to leave the room, maybe go apologize. But first he turns back.
“Cas labelled you for himself,” he says to Dean. And smirks. And leaves.
Dean turns around the post-it on his thumb. “Huh.”
the original posting if anyone was interested in that (also ao3)
That final moment of the story is everything!
Kripke spelled the nickname “Cass” because he was making sure they would pronounce it the way he wanted. If he spelled it “Cas”, they might sound it out like “Cazzzz”.
But we are all mature enough now to spell it Cas. Please stop this insanity SPN.
