Reply To: Let’s all talk about The End – S5 E4)
I have nothing but praise for everything about this episode! You who know me well know that “The End” is tied with “Lazarus Rising” as my favorite episode of the whole series. Every scene is expertly executed, and let’s face it – wall-to-wall Dean Winchester can only make a good episode even better!
I could sing all day along about this one, but I’ll try to keep my comments brief.
Poor Castiel! “The voice says I’m almost out of minutes” and “I’ll just wait here, then.” So devoted and loyal! Just love him <3 <3 <3 <3
The editing, direction and visual effects for this one should have won awards. And the writing was Ben Edlund at the top of his game. That bourbon glass exchange alone always leaves me scratching my head. How did they DO that!?!?! And the scene when Dean finds the abandoned Impala and gets knocked out – the camera pans up and we see that it’s DEAN! That was seamless! I’ve watched this episode so many times I can’t count them, but that transition still impresses me.
I like the continuity in terms of bringing back things like the Colt and Croatoan virus. I miss that continuity in later seasons ☹
That phone call between Dean and Sam at the beginning was just heartbreaking. You could feel how much Dean hated having to say that he and Sam should stay away from each other. I could hear the pain and reluctance in his voice.
I love that in the chase scene (right after Dean wakes up in apocalypse world), the extras had difficulty keeping up with Jensen, because he’s JUST THAT FAAAST! Love that man <3
We all know that Jensen is a masterful actor, but I’m impressed that there was never any question — in ANY scene — that he was playing two different versions of the same character. I think if I was playing MYSELF five years in the past, the two of us would be harder to discern. I remember Jensen saying how exhausted he was by the time they were done filming this episode — so much so that he asked the producer/director to never do that to him again. I guess Jensen is one of those people who performs impeccably under pressure, because if he was exhausted it did NOT show. Not one bit.
It’s also worth noting that Misha did a great job of making “hippie Cas” different from the Cas we already knew. Who knew Misha could play such a convincing stoner? LOL! I’ll bet he had fun with that. How often is Dean the “uptight” one and Cas is the one who is relaxed?
I love that the lesson Dean learned at the end is not the one Zachariah intended to teach. It’s just like Dean to toss that whole thing back in Zachariah’s face.
The one question I’ve always had about this one is (despite what Zachariah said) was Zachariah really showing Dean the future, or did he just constructed the worst possible scenario to try to convince Dean to say yes? In retrospect, we know Chuck created multiple realities, so is there a universe in which the brothers never reunited and Crotoan apocalypse really happened. What do you guys think?
I think I fall more in love with this episode every time I watch it <3
kate