Supernatural: Swan Song...
So there we have it. The End. Only it isn't the end, is it? Another season coming.
I wonder if this is the ending we would have got if they hadn't planned a sixth season. I'm not sure I want to know.
There were many things I liked about it and a few things I didn't. The things I didn't like were maybe more significant than the things I liked; I feel satisfied, but not with the excitement I was feeling in season 5.
- The biggest problem for me was that the big apocalyptical confrontation between Michael and Lucifer - or between Adam and Sam - lacked punch. It wasn't sturm und drang, it wasn't thunder and lightening, it wasn't grandiose - it was just two brothers who'd been at odds. Too easy to forget that Lucifer caused suffering, and loosed the Horsemen on the world. Too easy to remember that Adam was the boring little brother of Dean and Sam. The whole confrontation needed more charisma.
The confrontation between Dean and Sam-Lucifer was much more scary and interesting in "The End".
- Though Dean, to my eyes, reclaimed his place as the hero of the show, a lot of the weight of the drama fell on Sam's shoulders. That wasn't my favourite thing, either.
- Castiel, though, was superb. I loved it when he exploded. And when he reappeared. And when he returned to Heaven to pick up the pieces.
- Loved the theme of the Impala, and the wonderful flashbacks to the boy's life in it. And Castiel as the "sleeping angel".
- Loved it that they returned to the rapport between Sam and Dean. When the writers lost sight of that, they both seemed out of character. This made sense to me, emotionally.
- I wasn't happy to see Chuck again, but at least he seemed more interesting, intelligent and somewhat more attractive than before. Which, given what occurred, was... appropriate, if a little confusing. And eerily unserious, as if the writers weren't entirely into their own story.
- Even less did I like the self-referentiality of his commentary about "some fans will like this, some will gripe about the plot holes". That was intrusive and trivializing. On the other hand, I loved his monologue about the Impala. That's the kind of thing that's important here.
- Bobby survived. Well, revived. Who'd've thunk it? And he can walk, too. I'm not a huge fan of Bobby, either, but it's nice to know someone who wasn't killed off.
- The fate of Sam - cliffhanger fun. My friends and I argued over whether that's Sam, or a demon, or Sam in demon form, or what.
- Oh, Dean, Dean, Dean. He didn't make me cry, but he made me love him again. Such angst, such acting from Jensen Ackles, such brotherly suffering.
- I'm mostly hoping we get back to driving cross country in the Impala hunting demons next season.
- I love Dean again. Hero.