Reply To: Let’s all talk about the SERIES FINALE Carry On (S15 E20)
Okay. I have more thoughts the next morning. I couldn’t fall asleep last night, then couldn’t stay asleep, and when I was asleep I had a horrible dream that my best friends had died and I was now all alone like Sam. I was very glad to wake up from that dream.
Yup, it totally got to me.
So I got up, went for a long walk, then, since I was alone in the house, I turned the sound way up and re-watched Dean’s death, then Sam’s death, then them meeting up in heaven so I could hear everything perfectly.
I think the ending was good. If SAM had died, Dean would been undone or suicidal, I think. He would have become, I think, harder or more self-destructive. I think about Jensen’s original imagined/dreamed ending where he meets a stranger on a motorcycle in the middle of nowhere and hands him the keys to the Impala and he takes the bike; because Sam’s gone and he doesn’t need a car with a passenger seat. I think that would have been more cruel for Dean; to live without Sam. While Dean did not go out in a blaze of glory, he DID go down swinging. He went down fighting. With Sam. And Sam was with him when he died; he got to say what was most important to say. So, that’s a lot for Dean to get – that felt like he had that part of things the way he needed them. Time to tell Sam what he needed to tell him. Sam with him and telling him what he needed to hear too.
Dean died happier knowing Sam was NOT dying. He would always rather he die than Sam.
It was not fair for Sam. But he did get more experiences, and a son, and got to be a better father than his own father. And Sam did not have to die alone either – he was with his son who obviously loved him. The parallel tears when Dean died, then Sam years later was just gut wrenching. Someone on Twitter also pointed out that Sam was wearing Dean’s watch when he died.
And when they met up in heaven, Dean just looked satisfied. Like all was right again. That was good. Was that version of Carry On Briana’s version? It was so incredibly beautiful and so perfect for the very end. We got the rock version with Dean driving; then that one when they were reunited (and during Sam’s death). It was just so freakin’ beautiful.
Last night I was unhappy that Dean did not die saving Sam or in some huge blaze of glory, but he did get the heaven he deserved, one that an entity HE HELPED RAISE set up to be better than anything that came before. The song was beautiful. The setting (heaven) was beautiful. That all felt very right to me. Though I wanted his death to be more “important”, when I think about it, he had NOTHING left to prove as Dean has sacrificed himself so many different ways for so many different people over the years.
So I watched it again (just those few parts) and cried my eyes out and took a shower and cried my eyes out and hope that now that I’m at work I won’t keep crying my eyes out. I’ve always loved Supernatural for being funny and tragic. Like Mystery Spot. It was both here (only a tiny bit of “funny” at the start).
I cannot hate Andrew Dabb for that ending. It was too beautiful.
My own love for Sam and Dean makes me so sad but they are not superhuman. They were going to have to die someday and some way. When I think about what DEAN would want…well, I can see this as one version of something Dean would want or expect for himself.
And Sam got to pass on their knowledge to his son who was obviously some sort of hunter with the tattoo. If they had both died at once, that (except for whatever they’d written down) would have been lost.
I called the Roadhouse in heaven thing long ago. I feel somewhat vindicated there…I had said awhile back that they would die and walk into the Roadhouse and everyone would be there. That WOULD have been an even less painful ending, but it was very powerful (and, probably better in the end) to have just the two of them. It helped soften things to have Bobby there. I’m glad they went to the trouble of getting him and quarantining him for just a few minutes of screen time.
The dog should have shown up in heaven long before Sam – like, Dean should have slowed down and picked it up on the side of the road at some point in his split-second 40-year drive.
What does everyone think about the masked vampires? I honestly thought they did that so that some poor actor with a face did not get all the hate for being the one who killed Dean Winchester. We’ve never seen vampires wearing masks before – some kind of weird vampire sect? They were recorded way back in John’s journal. SPN vampires have never worn masks – ever. I thought they kind of got in the way. PigNaPoke said perhaps that was supposed to be the stand-in suggesting that any faceless monster (any type of monster) could have been the one to kill Dean and this was how his end would go no matter what killed him.
For God’s sake, everyone, if you have a piece of sharp rebar sticking out of a post at chest or waist level, go take that shit down today!
I love this show. I love this family. I loved their thank-you at the end. This ending did not destroy any of that. I’m very very very sad it’s over. It will take me some time to be okay and not think, every time I watch an episode “Dean dies and leaves Sam alone” – but I’m sure I’ll get to a point where I won’t think that.
I wonder if Jensen was just unhappy with Dean dying because he wanted them to be able to come back, or if there were other reasons when he initially read the script? Maybe he’ll talk about it someday. He’s usually pretty honest; like about how he hated the Lucifer showdown season finale when it LOOKED like they were flying around on strings.
I WILL say it greatly affected me.