“CARRY ON!” A FINALE’ THAT WORKED!

As my family and I looked ahead to the series finale’ of our favorite show for 15 seasons, we all wondered, “How the heck would Sam and Dean get out of this one?” I thought that a good ending might be with Sam and Dean reuniting with all their friends and family in Heaven. Or maybe god/Chuck would have a change of heart and bring all their lost loved ones back to Earth! I couldn’t see them surviving a fight against the Almighty, and maybe when they died God would even prevent their ascension into Heaven! I mean, their ultimate battle was against god/Chuck, who had forgotten the love that sparked his ideas of creation in the first place all those ions ago! Instead of allowing the Winchesters to make their own choices, his narcissism and ego allowed him to fall into the trap of writing everything about their story; having them behave as puppets on a string. Think about it, God planning out our entire lives due to how he feels at the time: some sick game of chance? A person is destined to be rich, or a poor alcoholic because that’s the way God intended it from the moment they were formed?

That’s what the past 15 years showed that God intended for our heroes! He had taken all living things from the earth except them and in the process, become as petty as any dick angel; (and we’ve met many) as petulant, selfish and cunning as Lucifer, his favorite son; and as mean, evil, spiteful and soul-less as any demon we ever met! God became everything that religion has taught us not to be! He in no way was the embodiment of Love! He killed his dutiful son, Michael, whom he’d thought betrayed him. (Had Chuck become so full of himself, he lost his omniscience?) He couldn’t ‘see’ that Michael hadn’t betrayed him? He didn’t know what Jack represented? Guess not! He proceeded to pummel Sam and Dean in similar fashion to what Lucifer was doing to Dean before Sam put him in the cage! God seemed to break almost everything that could be broken on our heroes, but they kept struggling back to their feet! Chuck repeatedly asked them to stay down, as if showing some kind of empathy, when in reality, he had none at all! Never did!

What god/Chuck didn’t notice, (and our boys did) was that Jack was nearby, (after being knocked away by god) absorbing all of this immense power from the Almighty! I thought Jack was gonna become the new Death the way plants and stuff died when he was near! Turns out he was absorbing their life force and energy! Sam and Dean figured this out, and by the time God was through beating them, Jack had absorbed enough of his power to BECOME HIM; Amara absorption and all! The God in Chuck was gone…Jack, who had sacrificed, asked forgiveness, repented, helped, loved and mourned, was now GOD…in all the glory we are taught he is! Chuck was mortal. Left groveling on the ground, to grow old and eventually die! I would have kicked him at least once if I were Sam or Dean.

The life Chuck had taken away from earth was returned. Jack was an empathetic, loving and “hands-off” God who would allow us to make our own choices with our own lives. Sam and Dean returned to their lives at the bunker, still hunting things. In fact, their final hunt as a dynamic duo was to rid the world of a nest of vamps. Something felt uneasy about a scene that has become routine for the audience over the past 4 or 5 seasons; Sam and Dean make pretty quick work of the “Monsters of the Week!” So was this battle—until Dean was driven into a large spike by one of the vamps and impaled by it! The next few minutes seemed like hours, as Dean realized his time was finally coming to an end. God would not intervene. Sam wouldn’t make a deal to bring him back. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room at my house as the youngster we watched become a man, was saying goodbye to his little brother Sammy! “Tell me it’s okay!” He tearfully said to his brother! That was some heart-wrenching stuff there! Dean was actually dying; for good! 

After an iso of his hand going lifeless, we saw Sam give Dean a traditional “hunter’s funeral.” Then we all knew for sure he wasn’t coming back as a ghost! Most of us cried like babies! We saw Sam take a call and turn all the lights out in the bunker. The message was received loud and clear: Sam’s hunting days were over, especially now that he would be a solo act! We saw Dean emerge in heaven, outside of the Roadhouse lounge where so much time was spent with Ellen and Joe Harvell and the genius, Ash! Bobby singer sat outside drinking a beer, and informed Dean that heaven had been redesigned by God with help from Castiel. (Comforting to know Cas wasn’t asleep forever in the Empty!) Bobby told Dean that some of his loved ones resided near bye. Heaven was no longer Memorex of a person’s greatest life hits! It was a real place where you found peace, happiness and bliss!

‘Baby’ was there too! Bobby informed Dean that Sam would be along soon…that time passed differently in Heaven. Dean didn’t go for any visits, he just took baby for a long drive through the kingdom—at least as long as the Kansas song, “Carry On!” It was apparent Dean was gonna drive until he got to lay eyes on his little brother again! Sam went on to live a long, normal, life. He had a wife, son and lived to a ripe old age on Earth…On his death bed, his son told him, “it’s okay!” (That was a bad old man wig on Sam by the way!) By the end of Sam’s Earthly life, Dean’s drive was over, and the comforting words, “Hey Sammy!” Were uttered, with dean stopped on a bridge and the brothers hugged for what would be an eternity! Now they could revisit all their loved ones! They’d earned it!

In the end, I thought it was an emphatic statement that we live our lives and sometimes deal with the consequences based on our own choices—not those of beings outside of us! How awful would that be? God would really be an awful God if he really preferred one of his creation over another? Right? Masculine and Feminine (Amara), make the world and universe work in balanced tandem? Without darkness there can be no light! Whoever we are, we are good in God’s eyes, right? At least, now we are! I can’t say another show of this genre will last this long or be this good. In 15-20 years, they’ll probably reboot Supernatural for a new generation! Personally, I hope not, because in my view, there’ll never be another show quite like it! What a fantastic ride that’s kinda like life! We all know it’s gotta end sometime, but it’s not necessarily good when it does! So many loved this show and its characters, you’ll have liberal arts courses on the show, and it will be evaluated over and over as we try to figure out what made it so successful. In the end, I think it was the LOVE! Between two brothers and their extended friends and family! It’s really what we all yearn for! For 15 years, it’s exactly what we’ve gotten! In nice well written, shot, acted and directed weekly packages for 15 seasons! Well done…Everybody! Well Done! Carry On!

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW. All rights reserved.

INHERIT THE EARTH TAKES US FROM DESPAIR TO…

Well, I’m not sure what to think after the next to last show of the best thriller series of all time! There is not a sane person on Earth, or any alt-world who could see Sam and Dean coming out on top in this one. Let’s re-run their outlook here:

Cas was gone, happily sacrificing himself to “The Empty” and being taken the moment he found his true calling and happiness! Death, who wanted to become the new God, was taken by “The Empty” as well, after lying to the one who controls the eternal sleep of celestial beings!

Jack was back, but powerless. In fact, it seemed he might be in line for the role of “The New Death” because every living thing he came near seemed to die. Lucifer, (Michael Peligrino was always one of my favorites of the series in this role), was back, claiming to be here to help defeat god and put him in the cage! Michael was back, claiming to be on the side of the Winchesters against his father, good ole Chuck/god! Satan ends up dead again with the arc-angel blade, courtesy of his brother, “The good son!” We weren’t too sad over his departure! But he was always good!  God had assumed Amara and her power, creating the ultimate universal balance, and making him all the more powerful! That was it! Chuck had wiped every living thing from the world out of sheer spite—he even took a stray dog the boys had found, leaving them all alone on this earth for the final showdown.

I won’t go into a bunch of details here because basically, our heroes seemed s**t out of Luck! No way they could beat god with zip in their arsenal. But Michael did know a spell that could summon god, or so he told Sam and Dean! Still, what could they do except go down like Winchesters; Guns blazin’ and still swinging! Yeah! What a helpless feeling! But we’ve felt it before; as Sam’s eyes blackened to take down Lilith and break the final seal to spring Satan! As Dean is suspended from meat hooks in hell calling for his little brother! As we realized Bobby wasn’t gonna survive a gunshot wound to the head! As Dean gets stabbed by Metatron and reborn because of the Mark of Cain!

But what we forgot was Jack’s destiny! He was here to save the world! I thought maybe he’d save the alt-world, but it was ours. While the final four summoned God with a spell in an open field, it proved that God is NOT omniscient after all! Chuck was too narcissistic and arrogant to see that Sam and Dean had set him up big time. Our boys knew ‘favorite son” Michael would spill the beans and let god know about their plans, never having aligned himself with the real good guys, but longing to be “Daddy’s Favorite” which he never could! Lucifer held that title! Anyway, god was very Lucifer-like in his approach. Beating them both with powerful punches and kicks, bloodying them very much like Lucifer did to Dean while wearing Sam’s meat-suit! My family sat in stunned silence! “Not this way!” They all were thinking! “15 years of heroes work, to end like this?” “NO!”

God is showing some empathy, asking them both to stay down after the sheer beating he’s giving them. Wow, god FIGHTING 2 humans! Anyway, Jack appears, but god has no idea what he’s in for. Jack seems super-charged and subdues god because the black hole explosion caused by the Adam spell turned Jack into a super charged energy magnet! He sucked up energy from everything—EVEN GOD! He sucked the energy out of god and became “the new God!” He even has Amara with him! Jack, has the temperament one would expect of the God we have learned about in religion, and he sets the world right, bringing back all the life that Chuck had taken. Neither he or the boys delivered one single blow to Chuck, who is now, a mere mortal who will grow old and die!

Some may have been disappointed in this final showdown. I was not. I went from total pain and hopelessness to a sigh of relief! I though Amara might change Chuck from within. I knew Chuck would have to have a change of heart for Sam and Dean to have a chance! Turns out he had a change of ‘body!’ What’s it all mean? God/Jack has a lot of work to do! Will he bring back all those Chuck took? Will he bring back all Sam and Dean’s lost family and friends. Will he ascend them to heaven to join the departed? Or will the world just go on as normal, with no one pulling strings on their life’s story? Maybe at the heart of it all, Supernatural is saying, God doesn’t really do that anyway! We stand and fall and rise again after making our own choices. Now we have one more episode of our guys, whose motto was, “saving people…hunting things!” Supernatural! You were one of a kind! I’ll be there tonight, likely with a tissue!

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW. All rights reserved.

“DESPAIR” LEAVES US FEELING JUST THAT!

Two episodes remaining, and I don’t have a clue how our heroes can possibly come out on top in this ultimate battle against god/Chuck! We pick up “Despair” with god claiming he no longer cares what Sam and Dean do! (But writers lie!) He doesn’t decide to kill them both, since they won’t kill each other. He instead sets Jack’s internal fuse off so he can create that cosmic black hole and the boys can watch Jack die, then god leaves the scene! Enter death/Billie, who blames the boys for messing up her ultimate plan to take over as the new god after Jack’s explosion killed both god and Amara. Death then thinks quickly on her feet and sends Jack to the empty, where his explosion will set off a noisy chain reaction and really make the Empty/Shadow pissed.

That happens, but neither Jack or the Shadow is destroyed by the big explosion! Both regenerate! Billie meanwhile, knows that Sam has gone to her library and stolen god’s death book. She demands it back. Then, she will summon Jack from the empty…IF he survived! Of course, he does, and just as Shadow is about to tear him a new one, Billie summons him right out of her (wearing Meg’s meat suit) grasp! All the empty can do is scream, adding more noise to her quiet, sleepy home.

Of course, Dean has killed Death once, so he and Sam will try to do the trick again. During the battle, Dean lands a blow with death’s scythe and slices a shoulder, which begins a chain reaction of events that is slowly killing Death herself! Death escapes with her book, after reading the new ending and finding it, “very interesting”…Jack is in the bunker…even though Death wanted him for some reason. Jack seems to be powerless after being reduced to atomic matter in the explosion. So we are back at square one. God/Chuck is gone. Billy is back in the Library, and Sam, Dean and Cas don’t have the slightest clue what to do.

Jack is like usual; confused, useless and powerless, so it seems.

Dean is pissed; but all he controls is the ability to enter Death’s library to try to finish the job.

Sam is hopeful, glad they found a way to save Jack, but hunters and people are simply disappearing…

Cas is hopeful, but running out of ideas.  God is off world and supercharged with Amara inside him!Michael (remember him?) is missing.

Now, the writers try to pull at our heartstrings at this point, but I am not in an empathetic mood here! Alt world Bobby AIN’T Bobby! Same for Charlie…I just didn’t have the same love for them as our world’s, and I am sure that’s exactly the way they wanted it. But something starts just taking them away, like Thanos took so many in that Avenger’s film! In fact, alt-Charlie’s partner Stevie disappears while eating eggs in the kitchen. They tried to make us feel sadness and empathy for Charlie, and as cruel as I sound, I just didn’t. I didn’t care in the same way! The boys discover Eileen (brought back from the dead by Sam) also disappears and they start driving her car! Sam is despondent, but not me! I can’t say why! In fact, Sam, with the help of Sherriff Donna, goes and finds all of the folks they rescued from alt-world puts them into a warded silo! The warding did not work. Men, women, children, families one by one, went “swoosh!” All the people they’d saved…all their efforts were useless. They were still hamsters on a wheel! I felt more infuriated by that than by the smoky taking of these alt-characters!

One heart string; Donna Hanscomb! She disappeared and we saw another one of our favorite characters hopelessly taken from us! That one got me! Sam and Dean were sure it’s Billie, who is quite powerful. Now they figure it’s gotta be GOD! I still can’t believe they didn’t think it was Chuck, who NEVER leaves them alone! Dean and Cas go to death’s library to confront her and finish the job…but Billie is tough and knows she’s dying. She also admits that she isn’t the one killing Dean’s friends! That doesn’t mean she doesn’t want Dean to die and awful death, which she is determined to create for him. Cas and Dean escape to the bunker with Billie in hot pursuit!

I didn’t love the next part. I thought Cas would NEVER find happiness and summon The Empty to take him away to complete the deal he made to save Jack a while back! Now, the angel we’ve grown to love through all his struggles and craziness, has figured it out. He confesses to Dean that Dean thinks he’s a miserable wretch, but in reality, is loyal, loving and heroic. Cas is ready to sacrifice his life, knowing Shadow would come and take both him and Death, as Death lied to her and tricked her into cooperation with her plan. Cas did this last noble thing to save his best friend! He put a spell on the door to block Death’s hold on Dean’s heart! His purpose then, was clear! “I Love you Dean!” he says, as Shadow comes and consumes him and Death, taking them to the empty for eternal sleep. Now, I am a bit upset! For 11 seasons, we have seen Cas go from impervious soldier to caring and empathetic human-like friend. Now, he is gone!

God is taking all their friends, and many people from Earth in general! Sam and Dean are virtually all alone…Really alone! Jack is powerless. Sam and Dean are without friends! What can they do now? Give me some guesses. I’ll give you mine! Will Amara subdue god from inside? Will God just have Sam and Dean wander Earth all by themselves, with no other life? Will Michael come back and help? Does Jack have any powers? I used to think God feared him, but not so! Seems like a situation that can be described as DESPAIR! One ray of hope: Billie called God’s new death scene, “very interesting!”

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW. All rights reserved.

UNITY: THERE WAS LITTLE ON DISPLAY!

I have always loved the way the producers of our favorite show play with names and titles. “UNITY” is an ironic name to call this episode, when so little of it actually exists amongst our main arc of characters and that which does exist is on very shaky footing! Let’s run it down as we prepare for the next episode with only 3 more to go!

God/CHUCK

So he makes his return to Earth for the final showdown on his final planet. Amara, relaxing in the hot springs of Iceland with wine, a book, and a hot pool boy, sees the shooting stars and knows he has come back from wiping out the other worlds. She goes to the bunker to inform Sam and Dean that brother will be making an appearance to solidify “The End” sooner than later. Chuck is petulant and fed up with everything Earthly and human! He wants to wipe it all out and start over or just do something else…Maybe even create a new life form not carbon-based! He is just bored! Humans are so flawed and such disappointing failures! Everything else be damned! Sam and Dean’s defiance kept him interested and lively, if just for a while…Now, he is pretty much done with the entire show!

AMARA

Once the bringer of destruction of everything her brother created, (and who could blame her) now she is the one who seems to have empathy! After warning Sam and Dean of Chuck’s return, Dean asks for her help to trap her brother…but first, she’s gonna talk him down from this senseless and destructive path! Amara meets her brother in a secluded forest and asks, “What happens after the end?” Amara takes god on a tour, even to heaven to marvel at his creations. She feels she is the one who needs to defend Earth, but not to the point where she’d fight her brother over it. Finally, they wind up in heaven, where god’s angels marvel and grovel at his sight, seeking autographs and words of encouragement and infinite wisdom. Chuck gets bored and sends them away…not to their deaths; just away from them. Amara wanted him to feel what it was like to be loved! She knows? God will not be moved. It’s time for the final pages of ‘his story’ to play out. A couple of key notes here. Chuck asks Amara if she’s trying to save Earth because of the Winchesters, namely Dean, whom she is connected to. She is absolutely ‘in love’ with him??? Seems like it anyway! She asks him if her ‘thing’ for Dean was part of his story. God says, “Ewww! No!” Meaning he could not see her connection to Dean and what transpired between them. (Keeps this in mind.) As god refuses to change his position, she zaps him to the MOL bunker, where he is trapped, mostly by her, and can not move. “You B-word!” He exclaims!

SAM, DEAN, CAS and JACK

Dean is all-in! He is full speed ahead on the killing god with Jack train! Sam feels there has to be a better way once he understands Jack will die too if this plan is carried out. Dean likes Jack, but he’s “not family!” He later offers an empty apology to Jack for being so eager to sacrifice him, but like another biblical character, Jack seems willing to sacrifice himself for the Winchester’s forgiveness! Again, the repeated role reversal is in play here. Sam is gonna complete the trials, Dean intervenes before Sam kills himself. Sam is gonna kill Lilith. Dean tries to stop him. Dean makes a demon deal to save Sam. Sam tries everything to save his brother! Dean wants to kill god, now Sam has to stop him. You get the pattern! This time is because Sam feels something about this is just wrong! When do the boys start trusting Death? If only he can meet with her! Sam and Cas remember old slimeball Sergei’s request for a key when Cas summoned him to help Jack! The key opened a magic door to Death’s Library. The two find the key and “voila!” Open Sesame! Sam enters Death/Billie’s library to find The Empty killing reaper after reaper in search of death!

Empty senses Sam and brings him front and center to torture him as long as it will bring death before her! To save his own hyde, Sam lies and says Death is on Earth, and has sent him to get “The Death Book” with the promise that if Empty releases it, Death will make sure she can return to eternal sleep. Problem is that Death’s plan is to see it all crumble and take over as the ‘new God!’ If she does so, everything goes back to how it was, except all the alt-world friends and folks Sam and Dean have worked so hard to save, will return to worlds that no longer exist. Death is not a creator of worlds!

Jack and Dean have gone to Santa Fe’, met Adam (Yup. That Adam) to finish jack’s Jedi training. He has to identify which rock had been touched by God as his ultimate test. When he says, “All of them…For God is everywhere!” that was the answer Adam and his angel lover Serafina were looking for. Adam has wanted vengeance vs God for kicking him out of the garden 300 thousand years ago! Serafina helps him break out a rib, which creates life itself, and all Jack has to do is absorb it and become a giant black hole, engulfing God, Amara, and himself!

IT COMES TO A HEAD

Jack has absorbed Adam’s rib on the way back from Santa Fe’! His eyes glow with power! Dean is ready. He sees god’s death as his freedom, and he wants it at almost any cost! Sam tries to stop Dean, pleading that there’s a better way. Dean is so hell bent he draws his weapon on Sam, who makes a tearful plea for his big bro to trust him! God is trapped but tells Amara that Dean…her precious Dean, wants to kill her too. Jack’s antics would kill them both! But he also admits this was all part of the story. He gave death some bait, and knew Dean, with all his righteous rage would be all too anxious to kill him! Amara, heartbroken, is actually moved to tears by this revelation. Dean, who could never hurt her, was willing and able to throw her under the bus! God now convinces Amara to absorb herself into him so they can do new and balanced things….AS ONE. Hmmm!

We KNOW all writers, like God, LIE! Will he allow his sis equal say on anything he does next? Did Amara absorb into him to subdue him from inside his very being?

Either way, GOD, offended at the very idea that they want to “Kill ME?” escapes the room he was trapped in and basically tells our boys he no longer cares. His initial plan was to have Sam and Dean kill each other, but now, he’s going to make them watch him kill Jack…AGAIN! Doesn’t look like Jack has enough juice to take on god! However, if Empty is summoned, Death, Amara from the inside, and super charged Jack team up, can this foursome contain Chuck? Here we go! Where’s it all going? I wish I knew, but I imagine the discussion when we find out will carry us long after our series and adventure with our heroes is over.

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW. All rights reserved.

DRAG ME AWAY (FROM YOU) OFFERS AN OFT-REPEATED LESSON!

From this episode starting with the 40’s song, “If I didn’t care,” to the flashbacks of Sam and Dean’s childhood encounters with this week’s “Monster of the week,” this episode drew back on the theme that has dogged our heroes for this entire series: “Secrets and Lies are never good!” We know a lot of secrets and lies are told to our loved ones simply because we do care! But with our heroes, it has NEVER been a good look. We begin this episode by seeing Travis, reluctantly check into a motel and get the same room he obviously had many years ago… He nervously opens the door to #214 and takes a drink while unpacking which also revealed some weapons…Then, a kid appears and scares him, causing his whiskey bottle to break. The kid grabs the jagged piece of the bottle by the stem and we are left assuming that what happened to Travis was not good as we cut to the hallway and hear his blood curdling screams.

Sam and Dean apparently are on their way to his funeral, even though they hadn’t seen Travis in 25 years. Dean is pensive, asked via Cas’ text if he has told Sam that Jack will die if their plans to kill god/Chuck are carried out? Of course, he has not. Throughout the episode, we are reminded that while we often seem to have no trouble sharing our ‘opinions’ with ones we care about, truth seems to be another matter! We flash-back, which was done quite well with the new youngsters playing Sam and Dean as big brother tells Sam that a desire to be ‘normal’ and go to college is useless. “This is our life!” Dean says, as their younger versions check into the same motel that Travis met his fate in.

We learn that Travis saw himself as a kid and wanted to believe the apparition wasn’t real, until it slit his throat! We meet the kid and adult versions of older sister Kaitlyn, who first ran into our hunters randomly at this motel many years ago, when an apparent witch, called a babba yaga, tried to grab Travis at the motel vending machine. It was a traumatic experience that Travis never really recovered from and was attempting to exercise this demon, as it killed him!

Kaitlyn asked Sam and Dean to come to the funeral, but it was a trick because she thought they wouldn’t believe her theory that the same monster that tried to take him years ago, was back now. Travis’ funeral was held a week earlier. And she was right. Dean, who believed Travis as a kid, now thinks he cut his own throat because they went up against and slew the baddie back then with a knife stab! Even then, as the kids investigated an abandoned factory where the evil nested, Dean came upon a collection of bodies and trophies of the baddie; a secret that he kept from Kaitlyn, Sam and Travis! (It’s those secrets again!) Not until the babba yaga appeared and almost made him want to complete a suicide, did Dean realize that the monster wasn’t dead. Dean goes to get food while Sam and Kaitlyn look for lore (there’s that word again) on the creature, as it’s discovered that the babba yaga’s source of power is a ring, which Travis actually carried as a good luck charm until it killed him. As Kaitlyn goes to the car to retrieve the ring, Travis appears and takes her.

Dean is paid a visit by death/Billie, who is straight to the point. God has destroyed the last remaining world and will be returning to this one for his ‘end game’ within a day or two at the most. It’s time to mobilize! She has instructed Jack on what he has to do, it seems like Amara may be on board…but now Dean has to tie up loose ends. Dean, always great at self-blame and pity, whines and asks how she convinced Jack to sacrifice himself for the greater good of killing god? “By telling the truth!” Billie shot back, adding  that Jack is willing to make the sacrifice to earn Dean’s forgiveness for killing Mary! The theme is hammered home that Dean wasn’t leaning on full disclosure, and thusly, his s**t was not in order! “Do we have a problem?” Billie commands! She strongly advises that he makes certain he cleans up his mess!

Dean gets back with food and Sam tells him the yaga has taken Kaitlyn. Once again, hallucinations haunt Dean as he scours the motel searching. He finally sees 214’s door open and slam shut as soon as he enters. The Yaga appears as young Dean, and Travis as it makes its murderous move, but like  the usual routine, Sam and Dean make fairly quick work of her as Dean removes her ring during their tussle and destroys it with the butt of his gun, sending the yaga up in green, witchy flames!

On the way home, Dean finally comes clean, telling Sam that he had learned of Jack’s fate if they go through with their attack plan vs god/Chuck, and that Billie paid him a visit at the restaurant! Sam is furious! He thought the keeping secrets stuff was behind them, but Dean repeats the line they’ve both used as justification for 15 seasons, “I knew you couldn’t handle it!” (The Truth) Dean has a “win at all costs” approach, while Sam and Cas seem to differ! At what price does the freedom Dean sees with God’s death come? Jack’s life? Amara’s? Billie’s? Earth’s? I was a little taken aback by Sam being so angry at first. I mean, do they have another play? Dean is wrong to have kept the secret and made assumptions, but I don’t know if it’s a deal-breaker! But as I thought about it, I could empathize a little more with Sam’s emotions. So Cas searches for a new way that spares Jack. Sam might start down the same path, which leaves us short of a clean house as god/Chuck is making his way back from off world! Oh dear, dear! What do we do now? It doesn’t seem like our team of heroes is on the same page! How do they fix it? We have 4 more episodes to get it done! Let me know what you think!

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW. All rights reserved.

GIMMIE SHELTER REACHES FOR EMOTIONAL TIES

This episode featured some irony. Sam and Dean left the bunker to try to find Amara in Atlantic City (because she has developed a taste for gambling.) Dean also noticed a sudden power outage there just before a big Keno tournament is taking place. Though Cas offers to tag along as back up, both Sam and Dean encourage him to stay and look after Jack, and even advise that they chase down a case involving a church group that runs a soup kitchen, which had a member, Connor, come up missing after he showed empathy in serving an unsavory patron. Ironic that the celestial beings were sent to investigate the very ‘human’ case, and the humans were off to look for an all-powerful celestial being!

When Cas and Jack, still very green fake FBI agents, go to investigate the soup kitchen/church group, they first contact a crossroads demon to try to learn if Connor’s kidnapping and death was demonic. Zack, a crossroads demon, shows up and is armed with a British accent, as almost an homage to Crowley (Mark Sheppard). He quickly reverts to American English and assures the duo that Rowena isn’t sanctioning any deals because every soul will end up where it needs to be! Zack even offers to help because he’s bored! Meanwhile, another member, Valerie, is seen stealing from the cash donation box of the church, is kidnapped. We see later see that she is held hostage, with a machine with blades programed to cut off a finger every three hours! Kind of horrific…a thing than a non-forgiving human would do!

We later learn that Sylvia is our non-forgiving human, who happens to be the Pastor’s daughter, angered that her father relented on the church’s hard-lined rules after her mother died. Sylvia felt betrayed and lashed out in the most violent way possible before subdued, and her surviving victims healed by the power of angelic Cas. We saw another wayward Pastor’s daughter, a theme repeated often with our show over the years…all created this time, by pain and harsh judgement felt by our very human culprit! Interesting that she got into a police car with Zack, the crossroads demon. I guess we stay tuned on that little nuance!

Meanwhile, Amara finds Sam and Dean at a gas station outside Atlantic City…but initially refuses to betray god/Chuck, whom she clarifies is her twin brother! Both came together and are a perfect universal balance. Dean though, refuses to accept “No” and goes back to ask Amara why she brought Mary back? Her reasoning was to remove Dean’s mythology regarding his mom…to do the greater good by showing him Mary was a real and complex person! Dean could then start to accept his life! The second reason is she had hoped he would finally let go of his anger. But Dean says he’s not angry, but FURIOUS! Dean has been a hamster in a wheel, all at the behest of Chuck, who doesn’t give a damn about Amara. Dean finally tells the ultimate lie, saying, “I would never hurt you!” to Amara! She responds, “I’ll think about it!” Do we really believe she could no longer see into Dean’s soul? I wonder?

So we lie to get whatever result we want, at what price? We live in truth and show empathy, at what price? Finally, Jack admits to Cas on the way back to the bunker that he’s lied to everyone and knows he will die when he extinguishes Chuck and Amara. Billie is turning Jack into a celestial bomb, which will kill him as well when it goes off. He also believes it’s the only way Sam and Dean will forgive him over killing Mary! Cas refuses to let that happen and is now determined to find another solution that doesn’t include losing his adoptive son! What are we willing to do to protect a son, a brother, a father; ”family?” as Dean often says. I guess we will find out soon enough! But at best, we’ve got some very interesting emotional dynamics at work, to be revealed down to the very end. In the past, we always knew Sam and Dean would choose each other…Now??? At what cost do we get our “Happy Ending?”

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW. All rights reserved

A RETURN WITH A BREAK IN INTENSITY

    After a long COVID-related break, our heroes were back on to begin the final 7 episodes of one of TV’s greatest-ever series of this genre. Sam and Dean are in the bunker trying to figure out their next moves before the final showdown with God, and they both notice the MOL bunker is breaking down before their very eyes. In an effort to repair stove pilot lights and the air conditioning, Dean and Sam go downstairs to the main control room and Dean hits the ‘reset’ button on the main control panel, which works perhaps a little too well.

    That move reanimated a charming and polite older woman whom Dean happened upon while she was folding his underwear! She was called, Mrs. Butters, by one of the original Men of Letters. We also learned that she wasn’t human, but a magical “Wood Nymph,” kept around to cook and clean and generally keep the boys spirits up with good food and cheer. Our boys informed her that she had been dormant for a very long time. Her last activity was 1958. It was now 62 years later and all her boys were dead, killed by the demon, Abaddon.

   This episode was a nice, gentle and sometimes humorous nudge back into the supernatural world, with a bit less tension offered than the previous petulance presented by Chuck, wiping out all other universes but ours, and seeming to toy with our heroes; His favorite show! God doesn’t know Jack is back, with his soul none the less, and prepping for the ultimate takedown of God himself, orchestrated by reaper Billie!  While Sam and Dean enjoy Mrs. B’s cooking and her magic, Jack with his restored soul, is a mess; locked in his room ‘feeling’ everything he has or hasn’t done to his only family! The Boys go on some all-too-easy hunts, thanks to the Wood Nymph’s magic, which fully restores the bunker’s power and activates its Monster Radar among other things!

    Meanwhile, Jack emerges from his room and meets Mrs. Butters, who immediately knows he’s not human. She is very nice on the surface and makes Jack nice smoothies while learning that he is the son of Lucifer. Jack later discovers Mrs. B looking at an old file of hers which included a movie, which he secretly watched to learn that while docile in most instances, Wood Nymphs’ were quite deadly when they or their families were threatened. Cuthbert Sinclair, our old MOL friend who wanted Sam and Dean as museum collections, had convinced Mrs. B, through torture, to defend the MOL, as she exhibited by pulling  the head off of a Nazi enemy whom they no longer needed to question!

    The viewing was all set up by Mrs. B, who was determined not to fail the MOL and kill the danger this time! She weakened Jack with the smoothies, which sapped his power. (Maybe this is a good thing, because he couldn’t use them and alert god to his presence!) She threw Jack downstairs to eventually kill him but ended up throwing Dean in lockdown with him when he refused to go along. In many ways, she was like the angels when we met Cas in season 4. They were absolute in following their directive, even though it was from a dishonest source! In her case, it was Cuthbert Sinclair! In subduing all three of our boys with ease because of her great power, Sam was finally able to talk Mrs B into believing that Jack was not a monster, but here to save the world! Mrs B returned to her naturally docile state and relented, letting our boys live and apologizing.

    A couple of take-aways from all this: I am wondering if they may call on this very powerful force for the final battle vs god/Chuck? She also reintroduced the arc-angel blade, (from thin air???) which Dean used to propel a handcuffed jack through doors so they could escape after Mrs B locked them up. Before going back to her woods, she informed the boys that the Telescope that lit up green when fully powered, was an “Inter-dimensional Geo-scope.” Dean said he saw nothing when he looked through it, to which she responded, “that’s not good.” Will this device play some type of role in the final act? Jack, obviously, is doubtful that he can do anything to beat God and is openly questioning if he has the juice! If so, what is it? God took him out pretty easily before. Why not again?

    I’m excited but dreading the answers…for they mean our boys, our show, our staple for 15 years, is no longer. But we ride! Let’s hope they finish strong! What do you want to see happen to our long-time heroes? What’s the perfect ending?

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW LLC. All Rights Reserved

Does Jack need a soul to beat God???

Up and down and round and round we go! We are on the Supernatural roller coaster about to speed to the climax and conclusion of our beloved series, (after a break because of the Corona virus pandemic) and this episode proved it with so many story lines, looks back and sideways looks as well! Once again, the writers found a way to include past characters as integral parts of our final chapters of the story. It’s always interesting to see how they do it!

Sam and Dean are on the hunt for an item that could give them (Jack) a leg up in the final showdown with Chuck/god, but so much happens in their quest to find it! They discover that ‘other world’ versions of themselves; preppy, rich, almost dainty versions, appear in a back room of the bunker as they exit a rift they created from their world, which is being wiped out by god! Just as quickly, man bun Sam, and clean preppy Dean are zapped between worlds after they get over the shock of seeing alternate versions of themselves. The alt-world heroes actually drove a Fiat!  

Death-Billie clarifies, saying they were on the run before their world was destroyed (as god is doing to all his other worlds but this one). So we know chuck  is eventually coming back. Billie has gotten Jack ready physically with step one (eating angel hearts.) Step 2 is to find an item called the Occultum; a spiritual item which no one knows the whereabouts of.  They’ve also got to look under cover, so god doesn’t discover them and tear the whole thing down!

The guys learn through Cas’ contact with good ole Sergei, that the Occultum was given to a ‘faith-healer’ that turns out to be the angel Jo! But Jo says she bartered it to their old friend, with whom Sam was ‘sexually intimate,’ Ruby, who took it to hell with her and hid it before they killed her way back in season 4. This all turns out to be a lie from the untrustworthy angel, as she only seems concerned with collecting money and her own well-being. Sam cooks up a spell. (Sam has become so good at this that Dean calls him ‘Sam-witch!’) But when they get to hell, they never see Rowena and are double-crossed by Jo, who hires some demons to take them out! Sam and Dean take them down pretty easily! But there is no Occultum!

Cas meanwhile, decides to search the Empty to get the real deal from Ruby, who tells him that it was Jo who called her and wanted to use the Occultum to go to a safe place while God and Lucifer duked it out! Before spilling the beans to Cas, he has to promise to help her escape. When Cas gets back to the bunker, the fun starts. They have to search a church for the Occultum, but they can’t all go! What if God checks in on them? They get Alt-Sam and Dean out of ‘netherland’ and convince the prepsters to ‘pose’ as our Sam and Dean…just in case. So these spoiled, rich, preppy dudes have to put on the flannel and jeans that our guys wear…Prep Sam refused to lose the man bun, however! In their world, their father formed “Hunters Inc.” a multi-million dollar company that turned monster hunting into a profitable business! I laughed out loud more than a few times to see how these guys played total opposite representations of their characters! Jared and Jensen have quite the comedic flare!

They get to the church…and it’s guarded by hell-hounds! (Yup, we even get a return appearance from the dogs!) They pick the lock to just get inside before becoming puppy chow! They find the Occultum, which Jack swallows and disappears. He goes to another world, which happens to be “The Garden of Eden.” Yes! A snake is here too, but not Lucifer, it asks Jack who he really is, and Jack remembers all he has ever felt guilty about and responsible for! He returns to the church just in time to blast the hell hounds.

Jack is very upset by the memory of what he did to Mary and wonders if Dean can ever forgive him?  He is crying and upset in the bunker kitchen, which lets us know, he has regained his soul! He begs Sam and Dean for forgiveness. Alt-Sam and Dean are sent to Brazil….and there we have it! But what does it all mean? Why did Jack need to find the Occultum? Why did he need his soul restored? Will his returned compassion allow him to bring god back to The Garden for some spiritual reflection? Will he need compassion in his showdown with god and possibly Amara? Unfortunately, we’re going to have to ride out this COVID-19 pandemic before we can find out! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW. All rights reserved.

So, the joke may be on God/Chuck???

After a lengthy hiatus, our heroes are back just in time for another ‘greatest hits’ episode in this final season. Alt-world Kaia returns looking for the spear she loaned Dean, who borrowed it to try to subdue Alt-Michael a few seasons ago. That one failed miserably! (Michael took Dean’s meat suit back and broke the spear to boot!) Chuck/god is still off world, as we see him enter an electronics store on “Earth 2,” only to show a poor clerk that he was about to destroy all the worlds he has created; all the other Sams and Deans, just to do a final end game with the originals, who of course, are occupying our Earth! He is quite enamored with our Sam and Dean, often cheering their defiant actions and is as equally disappointed by them. “They challenge me!” He exclaims.

As God decides to begin destruction of all his other creations and worlds, we understand why Alt-Kaia is wanting her spear and demanding that Jack open the rift back to her world, as Dean had promised her when they made the trade. Our world Kaia, who we thought died at Alt-Kaia’s hand, is actually alive and trapped in the other world that Chuck is wiping out. Alt-Kaia, also a dream walker, has given her ‘twin’ all the tools she needs to survive for over 2 years alone. Jodi Mills makes another appearance because Alt-Kaia has to get her attention (by bludgeoning a cow) to kidnap Jodi to draw in Sam, Dean and Jack. Once again, Jodi gets beat up, but at least her knee didn’t get kicked in!

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Alt-Kaia demands that Jack send her back to her world, but Jack is under strict orders from Death-Billie not to use his powers, lest he alert god, who will come back to our earth to kill him! Nothing our guys find in the lore is sufficient to open the rift without Jack, so despite the vehement protests of Merle, a reaper assigned to keep Jack in line for Billie’s end game (Jack is going to kill god!) the crew figures out a way to have Jack use his powers under the protection of some old and original warding that Amara stripped away when she was on her rampage a few seasons back! Merle restores it with a spell, and Jack (who may have more than a little of a soul) feels responsible for Kaia being trapped, so he is determined to make a way for her to get back. (Billie is too busy to know what’s going on behind her back in the MOL bunker.)

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Sam and Dean are led to the Alt-world, where they are reunited with Kaia amidst a terrible Noah’s Arc type world-ending storm and flood, ordered by god. Alt-Kaia decides not to return to our world, but perish with her own, as Sam, Dean and Kaia escape. Just to reiterate, god is a total DICK! He promises the clerk he’ll be just fine along with Earth 2, and as he exits the store, it is destroyed by a Meteor! “Writers Lie!”

All is well back here, but Billie is not happy, smiting Merle and chewing out our heroes a bit for reckless use of Jack’s power and running the risk of alerting god/Chuck! We learn the key element of the episode here: Billie has the life and death book of every living being, including God! We even got a flashback of the first Death saying to Dean that he would reap God too one day. Billie adds that “everything dies!” We also learn that it’s Sam and Dean’s destiny to deliver God’s destruction by the hand of his grandson! Wow! Apparently, god/Chuck is unaware of this scenario because you can only read your book if Death allows it! God has not read his.

So, is Jack, the Nephilim, going to be the new God? Or can Amara run the world she didn’t create? I have theorized here that Jack seems to be almost as powerful as god, just not as experienced harnessing that energy! We have seen Jack reach into the empty, where god has no jurisdiction, and awake Cas. He wished Mary into dust. He wished the world would tell the truth and it did, just to name a few of his feats.

How will this play out? How many more greatest-hits are left? Lucifer’s role? John and Mary? Michael?  So many questions and so little time. Another thought. Does god have the ability to change? We know he has the power to reverse everything and turn back the clock to ‘normalcy’ if he chooses. Right? I really doubt it, especially with his dick move with the store clerk. Can they kill him and not kill his original world because of the cosmic imbalance? 8 more episodes to go in one of the greatest shows of this genre all-time! We wait! Let me know some of your theories. I’d love to see them!

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Pictures: The CW and Supernatural. All rights reserved.

IS IT A ‘GAMBLE’ TO BELIEVE GOD IS BEHIND EVERYTHING???

 So as we wait for the stretch run of this final season, the writers of Supernatural are playing with our heads again; and doing so, big time! Thanks to the advice of Garth, Sam and Dean are heading to Alaska, pretty much without luck (or god/Chuck’s blessings, so to speak). They are looking for a lucky pool hall somewhere along the way, which could be a myth, or reality, but in the wake of everything we’ve seen, what is real or fake anymore? How much is god/Chuck writing?

As the boys do indeed stumble across that lucky pool hall that isn’t even in the lore, (Yes. Sam referred to the lore again in this episode! I love it!) we learn that one doesn’t need money to play. The more one wins, the more luck you generate for your side. When you start to lose, luck runs out, like the poor fella who was road-kill for an 18-wheeler. What comes to mind for me is how much does god/Chuck really know? He has gone off world…for now. I harken back to something he said long ago, when Amara was loosed. He said, creation went its own way in certain instances; meaning even he didn’t know the outcome of what it would bring as a result. In this show, our “god” doesn’t know everything or control every aspect of our lives. He has also admitted that ‘we’ have the power of choice!

Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck, informed our boys that the ‘gods’ are in large part ‘our creation.’ A kind of way of letting the Creator off the hook when stuff doesn’t go our way. After a series of trials and pool-sharking which proved them heroes, Fortuna let them off even after they lost, freeing the people trapped in her world after calling them all ‘losers!’ She even sent Sam and Dean a message regarding their final showdown with God! “Make him play your game! Don’t play his!” Hmmmm! They left empowered with the luck of all the mythical heroes of lore! God’s doing, just setting up his ending? I don’t think so!

Cas meanwhile is called on a case where Jack is murdering rogue angels by eating their hearts. We learn that he was released from ‘The Empty’ back into our world by Death/ Billie, only when god had left and the coast was clear. Jack returns home, with intelligence, but little emotion, as I still don’t believe he has a soul. Anyway, eating hearts was just step one in his being strong enough to take on god/Chuck. If Chuck knew of his presence, he would show up and kill him once again. It appears some things are at work that seem to be creation taking its own path. At full strength, there is not much god can do that Jack can not! Even jack knows that god/Chuck is afraid of him! Why would the Creator be afraid of anything? Jack, being a mix of his greatest hits, may be more powerful than anyone knows, but killing god would create a universal imbalance that would destroy us all! (Amara’s nearly fatal wounding of god proved that.)

We still need to see what role Amara, Billie and even Lucifer might play in all this, but I get the feeling that all the ingredients aren’t in the pot, and god “may not” know that there’s one on the stove! My theory, one of many, is that this show is shouting that if God controls everything in our lives, why then do we have the power of choice. It appears few others in the animal kingdom do! And if we have choice, god may know the paths we can take, but he doesn’t know which ones we will! Remember the sales job he did on Sam to make him ditch the orb that would have locked him away! God didn’t know exactly what Sam would do. Or did he?

If this is all Chuck’s end game scheme, what a lousy way to bring one of the greatest shows of all time to an end! Our guys can’t win! I still don’t think they can, but perhaps ‘something’ can give the creator a change of heart!Like you, I’ve got to wait and see. Do you have any theories as to where we’re going? I’d love to see them!

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW and Supernatural. All rights reserved.