SPN 5.22 - Paging T.S. Eliot
Well, as with other SPN finales, I was glad this wouldn't be the last we'd see of the show. However, it was for a rather different reason than usual. Mostly, it's because I didn't want a series I had become so invested in for the past few years have this sort of ending. And oddly enough, I might have been ok with it had this been written as the series ending that Kripke had originally wanted. It would have been tragic and truly horrifying, and I'm quite sure half the fandom would have felt outrage, but at least there would have been some emotional truth to it, an inevitability that this is really what it had been leading up to all along. As it is, the episode seemed to hold the structure of the original idea, but was so riddled with take-backs and "Whahuh?" moments that by the end I just felt bemusement more than anything else.
I want to talk primarily about three things in this episode which is Eric Kripke’s role in the series, the emotional whiplash in the episode, and where the series stands now.
Kripke as creator
One thing I had wondered about since MotW, was why Eric Kripke had decided to insert himself into the series as Chuck, and why he decided to do it in late S4. While it doesn’t seem unlikely to me that the staff, in general, is ready to go with any whim that seems fun to write without thinking of longer-term consequences, I couldn’t buy that with Chuck. The reason is that Chuck wasn’t just a throwaway or cameo character. He was set up in MotW as a prophet, one who knew all about the Winchesters, past and present. This is a major problem in a series that kept juggling the ideas of destiny and free will, not to mention one that, for years, had been hiding the path to a series finale. I saw a lot written about the audience aspects in that episode, but fairly little discussion of how disruptive the figure of Chuck was to the narrative. It almost seemed like a lot of people felt Chuck’s appearance to be part and parcel of fan appearances in the episode.
This view isn’t hard to understand, because I think what was put forth in that episode -- in fact what the whole episode was meant to grapple with -- was control over the show’s narrative. This was done in both an overt meta way (Chuck vs. the fangirls) but also in a intratextual way (Chuck vs. Sam and Dean). Chuck/Kripke is indeed the conduit between the fans and the characters, but his issues with each are quite different than those of the fans to the characters or the characters to Kripke.
Any writer has had the experience of having a story dictated to them, by the characters, of how a story should go (which can be particularly frustrating when it’s not the story the author wants to tell). So it is in this context that I say that the characters have their own relationship to their creator/author, which in the case of Kripke we have no access to. In fact, I can’t even guess what it might be, because his relationship to the characters must be incredibly mediated by many sources, such as the opinions of his writing staff, network executives, actor behavior, directors, as well as audience response. It is only the last of these that he can most freely ignore, except in how those opinions then become imposed through another party such as networks deciding they want certain characters on the show, or actors resisting particular depictions, etc. I know that I will never be in the position of having to constantly undergo the struggle of trying to tell a particular story without being constantly derailed by factors out of my control. It's not an enviable situation (though it is certainly an enviable job, given its pay and status). So my feeling is that he decided to engage the audience because they were the only influence on his characters that he could engage openly with, and thus release his frustrations in some way.
I think that Kripke has felt all along that he is being stymied in telling the story he wants to tell, and only as the series has gone along has this come from the characters as well as other sources. I suspect that the more he has become invested in the characters, and that the audience has become invested, the more difficult it became to take the story along its intended path, and to put the ending in place that he had originally planned. I remember some comments Kripke made some time ago about his difficulties with the series Tarzan, to wit that he didn't have enough story for the series (and that was a series soon cancelled). My feeling is that Kripke had planned, at best, about two seasons' worth of material. Some of this was easily extended in the first two years due to standalone episodes which, particularly in S1, helped to establish to the audience what Sam and Dean's lives, and their world view, was. But as the series continued, I think Kripke saw what was originally a much more self-contained tale keep spiraling farther out of reach in a way that diluted both the original concept of the show, as well as his original series arc.
When I first got into the fandom, I was very, very surprised by the amount of Kripke is God commenting going around (this was in late S2). I had certainly seen this surrounding Joss Whedon, and even though I continue to admire Whedon’s writing abilities more than Kripke’s, I’ve never been on board with the concept because no writer is infallible, all the more so someone writing for TV with its incredible time pressure and multiple hands at work. But this personal view aside, I simply couldn’t see what people were talking about. The show’s writing seemed to me quite mediocre. The longer I watched, the more I appreciated some of the details in it, and the show has certainly had some solid and even strong episodes. But by and large, my opinion has not changed. From the start, I felt that the show’s strength was in the emotional relationship between the brothers, something that sprang at least 60% from the actors and rather less from the writing. And the writers have basically acknowledged as much when it comes to the show's success.
I say this to provide context for my next statement, which is that I developed more sympathy for Kripke’s position as the creator of this show from this episode than from anything else I’ve seen or heard. While I could be wrong, this episode played closely enough to what I saw coming that I'm pretty sure I know what his original intentions for it were. And I really liked the idea. It would have made for a powerful series of maybe 3 seasons. Or, put another way, it would have made for a good series of 5 seasons if it had been properly paced and the ideas within the series plan fleshed out with better characterization and fewer distractions. One of the biggest problems with the "wrap-up" parts of this episode are that so many of the beats have been hit before that they just seem tired instead of revelatory.
But finishing off the story really seemed secondary to me compared to the real purpose set out in its framing. This episode was not simply structurally, but emotionally, as much about Kripke saying goodbye as finishing off his characters’ arc. This was not, in any way, a wise decision when it comes to providing good drama. It is, instead, an extremely self-indulgent decision, one which, for me at least, wrecked the show some time back and made me realize that if I am to continue getting any “good drama” from the show it is likelier to be a pleasant surprise than anything I can reasonably expect.
However, having begun to see MotW, Real Ghostbusters, etc. as this sort of authorial dialogue with the audience, I found it to have the most emotional impact here. (Perhaps this is because I don’t have to see his version of audience avatars on the screen at the same time, which is always disconcerting and gives me an odd impression of puppet theater.) While I feel that MotW was Kripke’s way of reasserting control over characters that were increasingly being claimed by others, here he asserts his control over the storyline itself, and his role as its creator and guide. The Swan Song in question is his, not Sam and Dean’s, and I find it no coincidence that we see him disappear before the end, precisely as the next chapter of the story opens and we see Sam standing outside Lisa’s house. That part of the story isn’t his, it’s not going to be, and "God" has literally left the building.
But let's go back to the opening of the episode. Choosing to focus on the Impala's role in the series, something which the fanbase felt at least as strongly about as Kripke did from day one, seems to me the first effort to open a dialogue with the audience. Chuck's voice over is literally intended to be speaking to the audience, of course, but I think there was something quite intentional about the choice of the Impala as our anchor in the episode. The car is perhaps the one non-controversial element of the show that everyone agrees on. If there's some faction of fandom that is anti-Impala, I've missed every sign of them. Of course, that may also be because she isn't just symbolic of the show's concept, but being an inanimate object, everyone can project just what they expect to see onto her without ever having those perceptions jarringly upended.
What I also liked, particularly about the beginning of the Impala's tale, was the tie-in to Detroit, as we saw a sister car being assembled in a place that was a symbol of American power and produced them, too. (The plant wasn't in Detroit itself, but the allusion to the Motor City was there). Being built just before the Summer of Love, the Impala was born at the time when American influence peaked. The American musical and cultural scene were in full flower then, but other forces would soon sour the country in any number of ways. A decade later, during yet another oil crisis (the first oil embargo being lifted the month before Kripke's birth), cars like her were out of fashion, one of Detroit's big 3 was on the cusp of bankruptcy (prompting its first government bailout), and the city's musical influence was at an end. And that was the time when Dean was born.
When Detroit was first mentioned in 5.04 as the scene of Sam's fall, I thought it was truly fitting. Not only did Detroit even more than Chicago symbolize the power of the American Midwest (and you'll notice Chicago was linked with Death in the last episode), but its economic decay and manufacturing decline could not be improved on as metaphors for a country on the brink of collapse. I won't go into the history of auto manufacturing and its importance in American 20th century might, but I'm quite sure Kripke is well aware of the long moral rot at the center of this story. That shortsightedness, indifference, pride, greed, etc. led to a near collapse of the industry in the last two years but started some time ago. But the Impala's story speaks not only of survival, but also of the values imbued in many products of her time. At the turn of this century it was quite clear that the center of American productivity has shifted to the West Coast (as did Sam), and now a decade later, the new technology industry is beginning a merger with the longer established media industry. Together they will create a new century where we will own very little and lease everything.
I thus find it insightful that Chuck should specify that Sam and Dean might have been rootless but were never homeless, because they always had the Impala. She's a relic of an era where things were built to last, and thus built to be owned. Growing up in that environment, you don't just let go of things that are yours – but in this episode that's exactly what Sam and Dean learned to do. It’s also what Kripke is doing, letting go of his characters and series, having said, in this final episode of his, much of what he came to say.
That we are supposed to see the Impala’s birth as the beginning of the story conflicts with the storyline now made canon; but it follows the origins of the story in Kripke’s head. He specifies her birth as April 24, his own birth date. If we look at what S5 has told us, Sam and Dean’s story actually began long ago with angels and bloodlines, and, at the very least, their parents. But that’s not what Kripke stresses here. Instead, he presents a car being assembled in one of the power centers of the midwest, once again making the show about what he wanted it to be – an ode to a time which, even at his birth had already passed by, and whose remnants began to be marginalized and increasingly irrelevant as he grew up. (John, as we know, was a mechanic, and he said in Song that he came from a long line of them. So the connection is there even if he didn't work in an auto plant). As Kripke notes, while the power of Detroit was celebrated with the 100 millionth car being acknowledged in film, and by the lieutenant governor of Michigan, his birth a few days later was of no concern to anyone. This is a feeling I’m sure became increasingly true for those left on the sidelines in the 1970s as the midwest lost its manufacturing strength in competition with cheaper imports, non-union labor, and the highest inflation of the century.
While all American TV series are American in some way, Supernatural was designed to be a show about the United States – but a very specific slice of it which has grown in the past 40 years, while rarely getting any recognition on our screens. A horror series is about fear, and urban myths are about fears that can’t be openly spoken but which are pervasive in particular populations. Sam and Dean are supposed to be characters marginalized in their country of birth, always looking for a way to get by, and with little hope (increasingly little as the series goes on) that anything will ever get better. The most they can hope for is that it won’t get worse and that they’ll be able to treasure the few things they do have. This is a story about the real America, not the "American dream" that is so often touted in political speeches and by the wealthy. Yes, you can have your freedom, but nothing comes for free, and making a better life for yourself or your kids is often just a hope too far from the reality you know. By coincidence, this feeling is no doubt more resonant for more of the U.S. population now than it has been at any time since Kripke was born. That he would design a show to have an apocalypse specifically when the country as a whole is undergoing various sorts of upheavals is a bit of incredible luck in its ability to serve as commentary.
I don’t think Kripke was ever interested in creating a show of social significance; however, I do think he wanted something that had a strong emotional core to it. Like many genres, Horror's explicit purpose is to draw on and generate emotion. Certainly the parts of this episode that Chuck narrates on the screen are, to me, some of the most resonant things we’ve seen in the series. There is a purpose to them, of course, which is to have Sam draw on it later in the final scenes with Dean and the Impala. But I think they also speak to an internal life the characters have held that we, as the audience, have rarely gotten to see, but which, for the first time, I got the sense that Kripke has had with them. I particularly liked the touch of “Sam and Dean don’t know any of this, but if they did, I bet they’d smile.”
But as has happened before, it’s a dialogue with a very specific audience too, so we get the snark of him “respecting” Becky too much to stay in a relationship with her (in other words, he's dumping us), and Dean shooting back fan criticism about the highly polarized view of women the show has had, particularly when they are relationship fodder. (You couldn’t have gotten more blatant about it than Anna and Ruby in the backseat in Heaven and Hell).
Kripke’s soliloquy about endings was certainly the most self-serving of the meta but I suspect the hardest to write. And it was not because he didn't know how to end Sam and Dean's story, but his own. I get the feeling there's a lot Kripke would like to say about the show, the audience, the storyline, etc., but can't as yet and perhaps never will. I was left with various questions, though perhaps not some he had intended.
I liked the touch of having the showdown at Stull, the place that led to Lawrence being chosen as Sam and Dean’s birthplace. But I found myself wondering how long it had been since the idea of Adam becoming Michael’s vessel had come into the story. Had it been the intention since he was introduced in JtS (by which time the writers knew there would be a S5 to drag out)? Or had it been since the writers knew that a S6 was being commissioned? My own belief is that Dean as a vessel had never been part of the series plan to begin with, particularly since angels hadn’t been part of the game plan either, but had the show ended at S5, it would likely have gone down better with the audience that he and Sam both end up in the void rather than Adam as Michael.
That there are “loose ends” is an understatement. The lack of payoff to Meg’s return, to Jesse’s appearance, the question as to where Crowley disappeared to when things were in the clutch, whether Death will return to claim the rings, what actually did happen to Dean’s amulet, are just some of the major things we’re left with. But I found the whole “it’s supposed to add up to something” of the most interest. Because I’ve gotten the sense in these last episodes that the original ending would have added up to something here, only it all has to be undone because the story is being required to continue. So characters don’t stay dead, and some things are required to stay open to leave room for future storylines.
That we go straight into Dean and Castiel’s farewell is pretty apropos. I got less the sense of two characters talking in that scene, than both of them commenting on their relationship to their creator. And I think Chuck’s discussion of what Dean feels in that last scene was his own comment to the audience about where Dean was supposed to be at the series end.
But certainly this episode wasn't an ending for anyone but Kripke and his original storyline. By the last 5 minutes we have Castiel back in heaven, Bobby off hunting rugarus (fully restored), Dean ensconced with Lisa, and some version of Sam returning to Dean. Which leads to my next point…
Emotional Whiplash
One thing that made this episode rough going was the seesawing back and forth between the show everyone has always wanted to see, and the one we actually got this season. I have to believe that even the writers would acknowledge that S5 has been "uneven" in terms of what was planned or intended, and what actually aired.
All the meta overtones in this episode probably worked for many in this corner of the viewing audience because we are so aware of so much that's going on with the series, not least of which are Kripke and Singer moving on, and the fact that no matter what happened in this episode, some form of the show is returning next year. Since Kripke knows that we know, he apparently chose to address that head on.
I believe the commentary that's started to issue forth in this series, especially how blatant it's been since last season, is extremely interesting in the annals of television production. But it’s been detrimental to the series, because this stylistic choice is not what the series was set up to do. Many people have become unhappy with the claustrophobic arc of S5, and have even kissed the show goodbye over the last 22 episodes, discontent with a show focusing on the increasingly bizarre and inexplicable Lucifer-Michael heaven-and-hell showdown, and on a mysterious struggle where Sam and Dean are just pawns.
Yet the show was better designed for this apocalypse arc than it was for the creator's self-insert and the fans' funhouse mirror appearances to suddenly be popping in and out of the narrative, as well as side excursions such as the media commentary of Changing Channels. Bold and bizarre things have been done in TV series that ended up working because of the way they were handled. I think this episode showed how this idea can both succeed and fail.
For example, the idea of Chuck narrating an entire flashback episode in the series would have actually worked quite well. I certainly felt that concept was the best part of this episode and wish we could have seen something like it earlier this season (maybe in 5.20, which would have been a good parallel to WIaWSNB). I think everyone probably enjoyed learning more about the Impala and Sam and Dean’s early connections to it.
However, the Impala isn't just being used as a form of connection between creator and audience as discussed in my first section above, she is, within the story, being used as the vehicle (pun likely intended) of connection between Sam and Dean. As Mike put it, the episode didn't start with her creation because she was going to be killed off, but because she was literally going to save the day. I did, however, find it ironic that we get about as much backstory on the Impala in this final episode (which I quite enjoyed) as we've gotten on other characters during the course of the series.
The problem is we could have been seeing some of these other details all along with Sam and Dean, in place of rerunning certain conversations and epiphanies we've seen either this season or in earlier seasons. Although Dean’s opening speech to Sam is fitting given the episode and events to come, we’ve heard so many iterations of this before, it’s really lost much of its emotional power. About the only parts that stood out to me was Dean’s acknowledgment that he had defined himself in relation to Sam, and that pulling away from that was part of “growing up.” Given that I stated some seasons back that I was convinced all of SPN has been a coming of age story for both, it was nice to see this stated both for the series arc as well as for Dean the character. As Sam had always told him, Dean needed to pursue his own identity as separate from the family, much as Sam had tried to do.
Similarly, we see Sam’s arc come to a close as he does as Dean and John always thought he should, and accepts “responsibility” for his own actions and tries to correct his mistakes. Technically this isn’t something he’s doing for the family, but the family and the family business have become so inseparable that it amounts to the same thing.
Then we get the jarring scene of our set of heroes carrying jugs of blood to the car trunk that they have just drained out of two people. To say that this echoed Sam’s killing of the nurse in 4.22 is to put it mildly, yet this time Dean just stands by watching. I still don’t get the point of this plot twist as it doesn’t seem, development-wise, that we should see Sam’s choice of blood drinking validated at this late stage. Why does have better control over it now? If it was wrong before, and it weakened him by being an artificial substance he was dependent on, how is it right now in giving him strength to overcome Lucifer? The blood use just seems to validate what Ruby told him all along that what Sam needed was practice in learning control. Had Castiel not introduced this element in the last episode (and it's still unexplained if Adam requires the same "fortification"), the earlier part of canon would certainly have ended up less contradictory.
I can only assume that the purpose here is to further emphasize Dean coming to terms with letting Sam “be Sam” rather than what he wants Sam to be. It’s clear that he’s no happier with the idea than he ever was, but he's going along with it now. (Side note: just how did they keep gallons of blood from coagulating for all those hours? Also, how could any human possibly ingest four gallons of anything in a short time?)
Another scene that was a complete reversal was Sam and Dean’s conversation in the car. This was S3 all over again, with Dean imagining picket fences for Sam after he was gone, and Sam wondering how Dean could possibly imagine that would happen. Of course, I’m also surprised Dean had to be told this. Surely he realized when Sam first mentioned it, that there would be no way to pull Sam back out. But then, perhaps that was the point, to highlight how he was in denial just as Sam had been to the prospect of his going. We notice he doesn’t actually make any promises onscreen, though later he says he has. This culmination to the story certainly makes it appear as if the point all along has been for Dean to learn from his past mistakes and let Sam (and his own self-image) go.
I preferred the understated departure of Sam from Bobby, Castiel and Dean to something more emotional. I don’t know if anyone was surprised that Lucifer already knew about the rings. I know I wasn’t, so that really didn't provide any emotional punch for me. I did like their mirror confrontation though. I thought JP played that quite well, and wished that we’d had this happen at least an episode sooner so we could have gotten more of the internal struggle between the two. For all the talk of vesseldom we've had this season, I wouldn't have minded having a single episode where this concept was actually explored, and perhaps mirrored (pun again possibly intended) with the experience of being shaped by and conforming to a family. It seems to me there would have been all sorts of possibilities here for characterization and drama, but…
The revelation of many figures in Sam’s life who were possessed and spying on him is, again, not much of a surprise after Brady or knowing the general storyline put forth in the comics. As before this triggers Sam big time, but I wish we’d had enough time with this plot bit to really understand why. Is it the feeling of always having been controlled, or of discovering that what he thought were real emotional connections had never been anything of the kind? Maybe it was realizing his family had been in more danger than he'd known growing up? Maybe it was all of the above, but I’d like to have known its effects better than simply being shown it makes Sam very angry. I think the scene was more successful in showing how Lucifer intended to control Sam, by aligning their interests and emotions.
Of course, while we've come to realize over the seasons that Sam and Dean have downtime in between cases (in fact whole sections of their lives lived solely offscreen), it was still nice to get some of that in canon. Who didn’t love the scene of them looking at the stars? It was nice to see them living some version of everyday life in between all the horror
I was glad we got Adam back for an episode. I thought he made a fine Michael and was surprisingly capable of facing off against JP in a convincing way. I’m really tired of seeing Dean beat to hell though. Enough already. I do get why it was needed in this scene, because Sam needed to reach that level of emotional anguish, after Castiel and Bobby’s deaths, before he was able to wrest control from Lucifer. But I hope we stop seeing it in S6.
That said, the moment of unconditional love that Sam always needed to hear – the very opposite of what Michael said to Lucifer – that Dean would stay until the end despite what Sam had become, is something that I think retained emotional power. It was the separation between him and Lucifer, wrecking the commonality Lucifer attempted to build. Also fitting for a finale was the visual recap of all the moments from the series that the characters should be carrying with them. This section of the episode was the most unexpected, not so much that Sam overcame Lucifer, but that Dean’s line led to the Impala’s role (because it had been Dean's decision to leave those small symbols as they were). Then with Michael reappearing, Sam seemed to open himself to attack only to pull Michael in with him.
What I really liked about the choice of Sam pulling Michael into the cage is that neither destiny nor free will wins in this outcome. It is Sam’s will that chose the outcome, but Michael will also fulfill his destiny to battle Lucifer (albeit not in the way he expected).
Fallout
Of course the other big surprise of those few minutes was Castiel returning, fully powered. Although Castiel and Bobby’s deaths and resurrection seem rather gratuitous, I think their deaths were necessary for two reasons. For one, they both helped give Sam the upper hand. For another, as Mike pointed out, it’s about time that Lucifer simply snap his fingers and kill someone. The fact that people keep living when beings that powerful are provoked is just blatantly unrealistic. So at least there was a momentary nod to the concept, even if it was meaningless within the larger storyline.
I’m assuming, given that Castiel just restored Bobby to life, that he also restored his mobility, regardless of what Bobby had gotten from Crowley. So while the question of his soul is still up in the air, presumably the wheelchair is gone for good. And with Bobby alive as a sort of reprieve from God, presumably he will return next season not all that emotionally worse for wear.
Castiel’s future is pretty ambiguous. With that ending he might return or not. Certainly there doesn’t seem any immediate reason to suppose that Dean will have to deal with angels and angelic plans in the future. But I'm guessing we're not going to see him because, let's face it, a fully powered Castiel is one who can too easily solve many problems. If not, I certainly hope the writers find a way to utilize him properly. I like the idea of Castiel being the sheriff of heaven -- his time on earth has, I think, prepared him well to deal with heaven's issues. However, as with the God search, I suspect that will all happen offscreen. It also doesn't indicate how he'll deal with Rafael the, presumably, only remaining archangel. Or for that matter, what Rafael's role is given Chuck's disappearance.
When Lisa appeared last time, I decided that the only way to explain her behavior was that she and Dean had stayed in touch (at least occasionally) since they last saw one another. I felt that Sam's comment at the motel in Cicero supported that idea – that he knew Dean had been in contact with her. Of course, given his comment about her phone number I'm also going to have to also assume her move to a new place was recent (hey, it's tough to get a house sold in this economy!) and all he had was her landline number. I continue to cling to this explanation here with Lisa (at least temporarily) sheltering him. I like Lisa as a character and I said last time I'd be glad to see her back on occasion next season. But if they're going to keep bringing her back, I want to see them do something with her that makes her more than a convenient rest stop for Dean.
I assume that by stopping all the horsemen and re-imprisoning Lucifer, that what Castiel said about having neither heaven nor hell but more of the same applied to natural catastrophes and larger demon plans. However, I don't really see why all the mobilized and organized demons aren't going to continue being a threat. Certainly we saw very little this season that implied hunters were organized in a similar fashion to oppose them. So maybe that will continue to be an issue next season. It doesn't seem logical that it would all grind to a halt.
Supposedly in S3 we saw very little of the demons because they were too busy jockeying for power among themselves. I could see that happening again, but I would expect that it would be much more complicated now. For many demons, this was a holy war, and their god is now gone, defeated. Their ambitious plans would also seem to be unachievable – certainly there will be no heaven for them. I could see a whole lot of anger over that. Given that at least some in the know realize Sam and Dean were behind this defeat, wouldn't they come after Dean to reopen Lucifer's cage? (What will happen to the rings? Are they going into John's lockup?)
Of course, all that will likely depend on what we're to make of Sam's reappearance. Given the light blowout, I think we can assume that it's not Sam as we know him. Supposedly he's only been gone a week or less (I'm not entirely clear why Dean went back to Bobby's first, they could have said goodbye in Lawrence). Even with time's speedy passage in hell, presumably it hasn't been more than a few years for him. So is he demon!Sam somehow escaped or freed? Surely he's not Lucifer – that would just start up a rerun of this season. Is he time traveling Sam? Is he an AU Sam?
I find the last of these the most interesting idea. When Lucifer tells Dean in this episode that he had told him it would always end in Detroit, this seemed to cement the idea that the world Zachariah showed him did, in fact, exist in another timeline – another universe if you will. While Castiel and Anna showed a fairly linear time travel ability, the way that Gabriel was able to easily create a pocket universe, merge it back into time, and then move things back by six months, is surely possible for any archangel. While I can't wrap my head around angels existing simultaneously among various universes and times, that's not to say they aren't doing it.
I think an AU Sam would also be the most fitting answer because it is simultaneously a meta answer. With Kripke gone and his five-year plan finished, the story from here on out is, in fact, an alternate story of sorts. So the idea that we could have an AU Sam to power the new storyline seems apropos.
Other Bits
1) So is "Eric “Giz” Giwertz" Kripke’s version of the writer alias people use to disavow affiliation with a project (I can't seem to remember what that name is)? 2) Loved Castiel’s “I’m supposed to lie” and then his “howdy podner” persona as he makes the effort. I notice he then looks at Dean rather than Sam, which is a nice touch as Dean has been the one to try and teach him some humanity. 3) I guess Nick and the demon hosts were dead anyway? I’m going to imagine Dean checked before walking out of the building. 4) Is there some reason that when Dean gets Sam to his feet, he doesn’t just push Sam into the void? What else is he standing there for? 5) I like the continuity we got with Rachel as Sam’s prom date. 6) The cliché of watching (or being able to hear) news reports through a TV shop window has to stop. When was the last time you saw this – when have you ever seen it? When TVs are so ubiquitous that we have them at gas station pumps, in supermarkets, in restaurants, in every waiting room everywhere and news scrolling across billboards, can we really not think of someplace else passersby might come across news items? 7) Isn’t “junkless sissy” a little harsh? (Not to mention inaccurate.) 8) I thought the confrontation in the cemetery was filmed well, creating tension and obscuring JP and Abel’s height difference. 9) I imagine the line “I’ve got something to say -- it’s better to burn out than fade away” is the reason why “Rock of Ages” was chosen for that scene, but I wonder if something else had always been meant for that moment.