Initial reaction 11.23: I'm so glad the world is ending.
Before we start: This is for you, my friends. Thanks for being here with me.
ALL THE HUGS.
I haven't read any of your reactions yet. I know some of you will love it and some of you will hate it. I did mine Tumblr for some gifs though, because DAMN, CERTAIN PARTS OF THIS EPISODE NEED TO BE VIEWED IN MOTION.
So let's get started!
THEN: Ah, you know the drill. Let's talk about what didn't show up in the "then." No Eileen, no Dean despondently looking down at his brother's "corpse," no talk of retirement. So none of that is going to be important to this episode. Also absent: any mention that Sam is the only one who can fight Amara, and Dean's incapable of harming her. Instead, we're reminded that she chose Dean. Thanks for the heads-up, Show.
NOW!
We start right where we ended last week, with Cas apparently de-Lucifered and Chuck mortally wounded. Dean instructs Sam to check on Chuck, which I think is sweet because he doesn't want him to have to check on Lucifer. But actually I'm sure they did it this way just so Dean can get the reveal that Cas is Cas again. I do like the way his face changes from distrustful to amazed.
You mean we don't have to put up with your awful Lucifer imitation any more? Thank Chuck!
Chuck can feel "my spark, my light fading," and he knows only Amara can save him, but obviously she won't. Obviously. Why would she do that?
Rowena shows up to take them outside, where they're all bathed in the flattering light of what turns out to be the dying sun. This is how the world's going to end, then. Chuck zaps them back to the bunker, because he can still do that, even when he's mortally wounded. (Why do I mention this? No reason.) And now that the world's ending, Dean reasonably decides there's nothing left to do but get drunk. Unreasonably, he goes for beer instead of whiskey. That's gonna take a lot longer, Dean, and who knows how much time you have left?
You could at least drink it outside where you'd look so pretty. Just sayin'.
We then cut inexplicably to London, where a posh young woman is delivered by a driver to an expensive house. OH, GOOD. I WAS HOPING WE'D GET AN ENTIRELY NEW CHARACTER RIGHT AT THE END. I LOVE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS. She watches the news about the sun's loss of energy, and then gets a phone call ordering her to go somewhere and do something. Oh, and it turns out she's a Woman of Letters and she has a whole wall dedicated to you-know-who. She kisses her son goodbye and finds that her (housekeeper? assistant? nanny?) has packed her bag with a very familiar-looking gun.
Or maybe she's just a fan. Maybe that's her fanfic inspiration board. Maybe the gun that looks like Dean's is a cosplay thing.
In the bunker, Rowena continues sucking up to Chuck, who appreciates her company despite Crowley's warnings. Dean has aggressively given up and takes Cas on a beer run. Sam thinks they need to come up with a plan B and says "anything" is better than sitting around waiting to die. Be careful what you ask for, Sammy. You might get it. Chuck explains that even if they lock Amara up, the balance between light and dark will be destroyed when he dies, and the world will end anyway. So Sam decides if they can't cage her again, they need to kill her. "Bingo," says Crowley. Why? I don't know. Does it mean "Yay, I knew Sam would come up with something" or "Dammit, I knew these Winchesters weren't going to let me die in peace?" Or something else?
It doesn't matter, because I'm too distracted by joy at the return of Impala!Cam. I love this thing. I don't know why everyone looks so good on Impala!Cam, but they do. And I just love watching J2 actually drive. Cas puts on his hairshirt over the whole Lucifer thing and Dean tells him it was the right thing to do, that he really stepped up, rather than telling him it was fucking stupid because that's what Dean does, he forgives people. (HA HA HA SEE THAT'S A JOKE BECAUSE IT'S SO NOT TRUE.) Dean also semi-apologizes for taking him for granted, because that's another thing he does, he recognizes his faults and apologizes for them. (OH MY GOD I'M SO FUNNY.) He thanks Cas for always being there for them and tells him he's their brother. (BE CAREFUL, CAS, THAT'S NOT NECESSARILY A GOOD THING.) Then he gets a phone call from Sam and whips the car into a u-turn, much to my delight.
You're not gonna tell Sam about all this apologizing and crap, right? I don't want him to get his hopes up.
Back at the bunker, Dean is astonished that they're planning to kill Amara, and asks Chuck if he's okay with it. Chuck's not really enthused about killing his sister but recognizes that they have no other choice. He reveals that they might be able to kill her with the light of 10,000 suns. In his weakened state, unfortunately, he cannot "God them up," as Dean suggests. Cas suggests the use of souls, which are sources of energy, with each soul being as powerful as 100 suns. Oh, god, they're going to make me do math. Okay, so they need about 100 souls. Rowena says she can build a bomb with enough souls, so Cas says he'll go to Heaven to gather some. Crowley will see what souls he can scrounge up in Hell. And Dean and Sam are off to Waverly Hills Sanatorium, which is a real place in Kentucky that housed tuberculosis patients and is allegedly one of the most haunted locations on earth. Where better to harvest ghosts?
Cut to a ridiculously fake garden, complete with astroturf. An old woman is walking, with old gnarled hands, but when the camera pans up, we see it's Amara. Have her hands always looked this old? She notices some dead flowers, and then looks at her hands in fear or confusion. Are her hands aging as the sun dies? What the hell is going on here?
Seriously, what?
Later, she's going to talk to an older woman who bitches about her family but says no matter how much they piss you off, you have to love them, because they're family. Amara looks thoughtful and OH WAIT WHUT. IS THAT WHERE WE'RE GOING WITH THIS. TELL ME THAT'S NOT WHERE WE'RE GOING WITH THIS.
Let's forget about that and join the Winchesters. Rowena provided a trap and a magic word to capture the souls, and this is a typical ghost hunt, right down to Sam being choked. But the sanatorium scenes are lovely, they get a bunch of souls, and Dean's imitation of Rowena's accent is pretty cute. And more importantly, Billie the awesome reaper is there to watch the guys leave.
To be honest, I only threw that last one in there because the other two didn't show the bowlegs. We needed to see the bowlegs.
Team Godchester regroups at the bunker, where Cas informs them Heaven has declined to participate. They've decided to die with dignity. And Crowley's souls have been stolen by his former minions. What ever will they do, with their slightly less than 100 souls? Oh, never fear. Billie the awesome reaper shows up in the bunker, flirting with Crowley (rawr) and pointing out that reapers have access to a lot of souls. There's a very pretty sequence where she sucks thousands of souls out of the veil, which I guess means souls are still hanging out in the veil. Have they been there all this time, or is this just the people who died since Heaven heard God was dying and locked the door?
It needs more of a breeze blowing Sam's hair around, but it's still quite nice.
Billie gives the souls to Rowena, reminds the Winchesters she's still going to reap them, bids a flirty farewell to Crowley (WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON THERE, I LIKE IT A LOT) and sees herself out. And Sam's all, cool, we've got the bomb, now we just have to find Amara and save the world and everything's going to be rainbows and unicorns (oh, Sam). But Cas says they need someone with a "personal connection" to get close to Amara, and all eyes turn to Dean. Sam swallows nervously, Dean asks how he smuggles the bomb, and Rowena says "You won't carry the bomb. You'll be the bomb." Oh, crap.
And these are Dean and Sam's reactions when they realize he's going to have to die to do this.
You know what? There's another being in this room with a personal connection to Amara. Someone who's already dying. Just saying. But fine. Rowena tells Dean how to trigger the bomb and painfully zaps it inside his chest and Chuck just watches, sadly. Come on, Chuck. She tells Dean he's got about an hour before he becomes a time bomb.
Meanwhile, Posh British Lady is stepping out of a private jet and requesting that she be driven to Lebanon, Kansas. I assume she didn't land in Kansas. Because if you land at an airport in Kansas, you don't say "take me to Kansas." She must have landed in Nebraska. That must be the closest airport. Or maybe she's nowhere near Kansas. Maybe it's going to be a long drive. (I KNOW. IT DOESN'T MATTER TO ANYONE. CARRY ON.)
THE CEMETERY SCENE. Oh god. If I get nothing else out of this episode, I get this scene. At this point, I remember that I actually have been lightly spoiled, because I saw a BTS (apparently) pic of the guys hugging in a cemetery. And here we are.
The boys are standing next to each other, and Sam tells Dean he doesn't have to do this, and Dean says "of course I do." Then we get a wider shot and we see they are standing at their mother's grave. (Which means they're in Greenville, Illinois, for what it's worth.) There are some kind of petals gently raining down on them and the whole thing is just beautiful. Sam kisses his fingertips and touches the tombstone, and I collapse on the floor, weeping.
You're killing me.
Dean heads over to the rest of Team Godchester and asks again if Chuck is cool with his sister being killed, and Chuck again says no, but there's no other choice. Dean and Cas hug, and Cas volunteers to go with him. Dean refuses, but asks him to watch out for Sam and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. He then announces his funeral wishes, and says he wants his ashes spread here, but Dean, if you blow up with the power of 10,000 suns, you're ashes are going to be spread all over that fake garden.
You're killing me!
Then he goes to give his keys to Sam and Sam is looking away and biting his lip and shaking his head and all those things you do when you're fighting off tears and trying to pretend something awful isn't happening and Dean obliquely tells Sam he loves him and then they hug and oh, god, Sam buries his head in Dean's shoulder and desperately clutches at him and I just. I can't.
Come on, you know the drill. No chick flick moments, come on.
Yeah, you love chick flicks.
Yeah, you're right, I do. Come here.
YOU'RE KILLING ME.
You know what? We need to see that in motion.
I'M DEAD.
(Honestly, this scene didn't carry the same emotional weight as similar scenes in Swan Song and The Executioner's Song until that hug.)
Then Chuck snaps his fingers - because he can still zap you anywhere he wants to - and Dean is in the Garden of Plastic Eden. The rest of Team Godchester breaks into a closed pub called the Lazy Shag and waits to see what happens.
Dean offers himself to Amara, saying he doesn't want to just sit around and watch everyone die, so he's ready to end it all. But she can tell he's carrying a bomb. She points out that he's never been able to hurt her, so what makes him think he can do it now? Which isn't true. He did try very hard to stab her once, and the fact that the blade shattered had nothing to do with him being unwilling. But anyway. She says she's not the one causing the sun to die; it's going because God's power is fading. And how is that not her fault? She complains again that he betrayed her and locked her up for years, and sent Dean to execute her. Dean tells her that Chuck actually doesn't want her dead at all, because she's family. All of the destruction and nothingness is what she wanted, not him. She says no, she doesn't really want it, she just wanted to hurt him. And Dean's all, yeah, revenge feels good at first, but haven't you been watching this season? Didn't Eileen, and Reece/Sully, teach you that revenge doesn't fix anything? Her tells her that he and Sam have had fights, but they always "make it right," because they're family. When everything goes to crap, that's all you've got - family. And you know, you're supposed to forgive family for locking you away for millenia, or tricking you into hosting an angel, or whatever. You just do. And he thinks it's pretty obvious she really just needs her brother.
Back at the Lazy Shag, as someone on the jukebox sings "Don't let the sun catch you crying" (hee), Chuck looks like everything's going to crap. Sam's trying to get him to hang in there without coming out and saying "we need you to stay alive just long enough for Dean to kill himself and take your sister out in the process."
Come on, Chuck. You can stay alive for that face.
I wonder what would happen if he outlived her? Would an unbearable light take over all of creation? Would they all die anyway? Sam goes to get him a glass of water, but when he comes back, Chuck is gone. He's been zapped to the Garden of Plastic Eden. Amara tells him she was jealous and hurt but now she sees that everything he created is beautiful and she doesn't want him to die so she heals him and then the sun is fixed. At the Lazy Shag, the remains of Team Godchester go outside and look at the fresh happy sun and two of them are shocked and delighted, while two of them are kind of relieved but also mourning.
Awesome, your brother's dead!
Chuck removes the bomb from Dean and tells him earth will be fine, because it's got him and Sam. Hell, that's enough for me. Amara tells Dean "You gave me what I needed most. I want to do the same for you." Then she and Chuck smoke out together and well. Okay.
As the completely normal sun sets, we find ourselves in the bunker, looking at a MoL key box and a hand with blood dripping off the fingers. Huh. Sam and Cas come down the stairs, and look! It's Posh British Woman! She activates an angel banishing sigil and sends Cas away, then pulls a gun on Sam and introduces herself as Toni Bevel, MoL London Chapter. She's been sent to take Sam in, on account of the damage he's caused - archangels (what?), leviathan (you're blaming Sam?), the Darkness (well, yeah, that one). She asks where Dean is and poor Sam has to tell her he's dead, and then he goes from nervous to oh yeah my brother's dead and I don't give a shit any more.
YOU'RE KILLING ME!!!!
He does the finger-pointy thing and comes toward her. "Put the gun down. You and I both know you're not gonna pull the trigger." But she does. We hear the clink of a bullet casing hitting the floor, but not the thump of a Winchester hitting the floor. So, we know he's not dead, because he's Sam Fucking Winchester. But was he even shot, or was that a warning shot across the bow? I guess we'll find out in October.
But he pointed at you! That always works!
Cut to Dean, struggling through some bushes in the darkness, because Chuck couldn't bother to zap him back to the bunker. (At some point I'm sure Dean prayed to Cas and said "I'm alive, can you guys come pick me up" and Cas said "oh crap, I'm hallucinating Dean because I miss him so much." And he also lost his phone. Yep. I'm sure that happened.) He hears a woman's voice calling for help, and when he finally gets to her, it's... Mary?
WELL, THAT WAS UNEXPECTED. Kudos to the show for not spoiling it in the credits.
SO. Like I said earlier, I know some of you loved this and some of you hated it. It was a mixed bag for me. Earlier in the season I had ridiculously high expectations, but the last few episodes forced me to bring them down a little bit. I thought the worst-case scenario was going to be that Chuck and Lucifer would defeat Amara while Sam and Dean just watched. It didn't occur to me that Amara might just decide not to be a bad guy after all. I'm not particularly thrilled with that. I mean, yeah, it goes with the theme of family being everything, and if they hadn't tried to make her the Horror to end all Horrors it would have worked. But I feel like this season ended with a whimper when it deserved a bang. However, we got some very nice brotherly moments, so it wasn't a total loss. And I think there's some potential in the set-up for next season - I like the guys having more human enemies instead of, you know, god-level stuff.
(I don't know what to think about the return of Mary Winchester. If it's really Mary, as a person, then I don't like it at all.)
And obviously I've got to stop yammering on about the foreshadowing, since I got all of that wrong. It turns out all we were supposed to remember was that family trumps everything, revenge isn't worth it, and there's a UK branch of the MoL.
Anyway, What did you think? And, um, no spoilers for s12 in the comments, please. ;-)
Now let's see that hug one more time...
