5.22 Swan Song: I Got Something To Say (Part 2 of 2: Meta Commentary & Production Notes)

[bardicvoice]

Please note:  the "But Nothing Really Ends, Does It?" section below contains possible spoilers, since it mentions the CW's general description of season six during my speculations on what might happen.

5.22 Swan Song: I Got Something To Say

Lucifer takes Sam;
Dean and the car bring him back.
Promises break hearts.

Comments

[sethra2000]

I think you hit the nail on the head spot on, the story of Sam and Dean has come full circle, but it is far from over. I had the biggest grin on my face at Chuck/God's final scene... and at first I said to myself "Wow, Chuck was God, how perfect". But on reading your words I have to agree, God was only Chuck in this episode.

I too thank Eric and the rest of the Cast Crew and Writers for bringing us Sam and Deans story, They have given us the gift of awesome story telling and I too would like the chance to buy him a drink.

I look forward to September and Season 6, I have faith in Sera and the rest to carry on telling excellent stories. I also look forward to your commentary.

Hugs
Caz

PS: Good call on the fact that Dean was the catalyst for Sam to throw off Lucifer's control, just like he was for John and Bobby. This again proved how important Dean was to the outcome. He was the most important person at that moment, he always has been. But true to form, Dean will never realise it.

[bardicvoice]

Thanks, Caz! I really think I need to have a summer off ... Heaven only knows what ride we're in for come fall! Now I finally have a chance to catch up on answering comments ... *grin*

Never thought I'd be grateful to have a series hiatus!

Mary

[bardicvoice]

Thanks - glad you like! On the Gewirtz story credit: I know there's been some speculation about whether the Gewirtz identity is just an alias for Kripke, but at least according to Gewirtz's interview with the folks over at theonering.net (http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2008/05/08/28812-what-is-the-lord-of-the-rings-conquest-pandemic-studios-eric-%E2%80%9Cgiz%E2%80%9D-gewirtz-tells-us-about-it/), he's a year younger than Kripke and has spent the last 10 years in the videogame business.

[blackcat333_99]

Great review. I found both good and bad in the ep for myself, mostly because I hit a conflict between following the story on paper vs. the emotions it was invoking in me as I watched.

One of those big buttons was this:

Sam, I could see many different roads the story could take. The one and only route I would truly hate to see the writers take would be if they had Sam - seeing Dean dutifully following through on his reluctant promise - unilaterally deciding not to tell Dean he was back in the belief Dean would be better off without him because he thought Dean wouldn’t feel free to choose to abandon the hunting life if he knew Sam was alive and hunting again. I would hate this for two reasons: first, because it would be beyond cruel for Sam to leave Dean suffering in the belief his brother was still trapped in a cage in Hell with Lucifer and Michael just to leverage him into a normal life; and second, because it would indicate Sam hadn’t really learned or understood anything either about what his brother truly wants or needs, or

[ann_tara]

Dean had that moment of realizing and ACKNOWLEDGING out loud that maybe he needed to grow up too. Sam has faced his flaws, but hasn't really seen things in terms of growing up, so much as being acknowledged as a grownup.

Yahtzee.

This is the problem I have with Sam to the bitter end - it's little "show" and lots of "tell" on the part of the other characters, like the Fan Service Producer Commentary at the end of Two Minutes ... to Dean's yada, yada in the junkyard of Swan Song. And those are just the two latest versions of the same ol' problem Kripke and Sera et. al. have with allowing Sam to truly grow up, which means making him look bad without turning around and whitewashing every bad act away by having the other characters pat him on the head. Sam deserves better

p.s. The Adam problem

[ann_tara]

I too hope that we get some indication when the season opens that Adam was, if not brought back to life, then at least given salvation by God by being returned to Heaven to be with his mom, which is what he wanted in the first place

Re: p.s. The Adam problem

[blackcat333_99]

I agree about Adam to a point. He's family too, like Dean told him back in Point of No Return. I also feel sorry for the poor boy. He was another victim of John's Winchester's clumsy parent skills. His childhood wasn't exactly pure joy, he died a hideous death, lost his mother equally horribly, was brouht back from Heaven only to be abused by Zachariah and then was grabbed by Michael. Now, my two scents on the matter. When Dean tried to tell Adam that he was sorry, Michael's answer was that Adam was not home. So I think that, unlike Sam, Adam wasn't trapped with Michael within his own body. My guess is that he was sent back to Heaven as soon as Michael took his body. I don't know if this is a logic explanation but that's what I want to believe

Swan Song

[anonymous]

This was well worth the wait. I liked your theory about Chuck. I never would have thought about that. I also liked your analysis of the series as a whole so far and your thoughts about Sam's emergence from the cage. I loved the mirror scene with Lucifer/Sam as well. I thought all of the actors definitely brought their A games to this season's finale. I hope your speculations about season six prove to be correct.

supernatfem76

Re: Swan Song

[bardicvoice]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the ideas, and I guess we'll all be looking forward to the start of season six ... :)

[sistermagpie]

What a great read! I'm no board with everything. Especially Chuck being God. That's one of the only things I can reconcile myself to in the finale, if he was really supposed to be God. It smacks too much of having the character of God play a part for the sole reason of fooling us, the audience. Didn't he even say, upon first meeting Sam and Dean "If I'd known you were real I'd have written you better?" Basically, I think "A writer is like God" makes more sense and says something very different than "God is like a writer."

I love the idea of Chuck simply waking up the next day having not remembered "writing" those last pages.

[bardicvoice]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed, and sorry for the long delay in responding to comments.

It just made so much more sense to me that God was only borrowing Chuck's appearance at the end, and that Chuck himself is perfectly human. I wonder in what other human guises God may have been appearing?