Supernatural 7x23 "Survival of the Fittest"

Finale time! And my, what a finale. Can you imagine the rage there would've been if they had, for some reason, not been picked up? It would've been epic, so very epic. But we all know that the show is coming back for season eight, and possibly more, and also moving to Wednesday nights. Tonight's episode was the last one written by Sera Gamble, who has been with the show from season one, and running it these past two.

Sam, you know you want a sandwich.

But let's get to the business of the finale itself. In the last episode, Crowley found himself devil's trapped by Dick Roman. We pick up there, with Dick working a deal with Crowley in order to screw over the Winchesters by giving them another demon's blood instead of his own. So, you know, their blood/bone concoction wouldn't work to actually kill Dick after all. He offered the entirety of Canada for the demon's taking, and for now it appeared that Crowley had agreed to the terms, even bringing out an eight foot long written contract to seal the deal. Of course, Crowley always has something up his sleeve, so we know this can't be all there is to it.

Meanwhile, Sam and Dean are on the search for the bone of a righteous person. Dean apparently had the idea to go looking for a dead nun's bone, and you must admit, that's a pretty good idea. So they get the bone of one Sister Mary Constant. Now it's just time for the blood of the demon king. They summon Crowley... only he doesn't show up, still being lassoed by Dick and all. But who does show up? Meg, followed shortly by Cas. Now, color me a little bit confused about why Cas decided to show up at this point. Just for funsies? I guess we're supposed to believe that he's just sort of been doing that randomly of late, but if he really did not want to be involved in any of this stuff like he said, then he could've just stayed away. Subconsciously he wanted to help? Maybe.

You know, just mixing blood, like one does.

In any event, while Meg and Cas are still both around, Crowley pops in. He'd like nothing more than to go medieval on Cas, but once he realizes that Cas is a bit loony tunes, decides it wouldn't be any fun. Instead, he hands over his blood to the boys, after telling them that the reason he was late in the first place was thanks to their friend Dick. They're less inclined to believe him when he says that this is his actual blood and not the fake stuff Dick wanted to give him, but are there many other options at the moment? Not really. He promises to catch up with both Cas and Meg later, because he's still got that grudge with Meg and all.

So the brothers prepare the bone and blood with the final ingredient, and it's not doing any sort of lightning magic to indicate it's for real, but what other choice do they have? Dean tries to get Cas to agree to help them out, since Crowley basically insinuated they'd need his help to take on Dick, but Cas would rather play board games. Meg points out that, duh, he can help because he once had all of the Leviathan inside him. Which means he can tell who is who. Because, oh yeah, it turns out that Dick? Has made a bunch of copies of himself, thanks to a bit of the real Dick's arm he kept. So, on their own, they can't tell which Dick is which. But can they convince Cas to help them? Or should I say, can Dean convince Cas to help them? Because obviously it would have to be Dean.

I'm in love with this leather jacket.

Anyway, while all of that was going on, Ghost Bobby was off possessing a poor woman's body to try to take down Dick on his own. I'm not sure what he thought his plan was, but when you're going full on vengeful spirit, I suppose you don't have one. The boys spot him inside the woman and Sam confronts him. He goes so far as to start choking out Sam, then comes to his senses and asks the boys to finally burn the damn flask, admitting he should never have stayed behind in the first place.

Now that that point is settled, back to the task at hand. Dean manages to convince Cas to help them, since he was sort of the one who started the whole mess to begin with and all. Meg comes along for the ride, but ends up getting yanked by a couple of demons, who are planning to take her to Crowley. Inside, Sam tracks down Kevin, who has still been trapped inside this whole time, and has been privy to some disturbing information. Namely, the Leviathan are creating a creamer that will basically kill off anyone thin, short, hemophiliac, and/or smart. They've got to blow up the labs!

It doesn't really matter, though, because Cas and Dean have tracked down the real Dick. They do a little fake out stabbing before doing a real stabbing with the blood bone straight through ole Dick's neck. And it's working! He starts kind of pulsating this translucent aura until SPLOOSH. Gone. But... but wait. He's not the only one gone! Dean and Cas are both gone too!

And that's when Crowley shows up, to basically gloat to Sam about how that was his plan all along, to get Dick out of the way and take control and such. Because that's just what Crowley does. He snatches up Kevin, which leaves Sam well and truly alone, with no idea where his brother's gone or what to do about it. Gulp.

Just where have Dean and Cas gone? It turns out - to purgatory. Because that's where Dick would go when he was killed, where all of the monsters go when they're killed. Cas states the obvious in that they need to get out of there quick, but doesn't offer any ideas in how to do so, instead leaving Dean alone standing in the middle of a forest with some red-eyed monsters surrounding him. Um, Cas? What!

Cliffhanged!

Random Thoughts:

- Bobby's second death was kind of anti-climactic. What was the point of bringing him back in the first place to just end it like that? I actually saw an interview with Jared where he said something about not wanting to annoy the audiences by making death trivial, which is something I believe I complained about not so long ago! It was also an interesting choice to not show him burn up at all, to just focus on the flask. Was that a creative decision, a monetary one? To make us wonder if he's really actually for realsies gone gone gone?

- Is one actually still alive when in Purgatory? Does Dean have a limited amount of time to get out, or...? I guess I'm not clear on the rules of Purgatory, which is obviously the point. I actually think this is kind of a cool development, though I suspect it will be solved too easily come next season, 'cause that's kinda how they do things sometimes.

- Do dead ghosts go to purgatory, or is it only monsters? I think maybe they said it was only monsters at some point, so maybe I just answered my own question. Will we be seeing any old baddies come next season, though? Will it pick up right where it left off, or will some time have passed? All things to ponder over the break.

- The Impala is back! I know, I know, I didn't really mention it in my recap, but Dean brought back his baby to make a grand entrance at Sucrocorp, since Dick already knew they were coming. And he let Meg drive it. A demon driving the Impala, John must surely be rolling over in his figurative grave.

Quotes:

Dean: Dude, on my car, he showed up naked, covered in bees.
Sam: Yeah. I'm not really sorry I missed that.

Dean: Well. Let's bone this nun. ... Sorry.

Cas: Monkeys are so clever and they're sensible in that they leave the skins on the bananas that they eat. Is it really necessary to test cosmetics on them? I mean, how important is lipstick to you, Dean?

Crowley: You bore me, you know that? You have no sense of poetry.

Sam: Uh. Maybe it worked?

Cas: Do we need a cat? Doesn't this place feel one species short?

Dick: Little abrupt, but okay.

Crowley: Think if you'd just had one king since before the first sunrise, you'd be in a kerfuffle too.

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