Supernatural 11x23 "Alpha and Omega"

I suppose I was sort of right last week when I said they were going to do a slightly more subdued season finale in comparison to the episode leading up to it. Though this episode had action, it was much more about the power of words than straight up physical fisticuffs. Did I like it? Hmm. I'm not sure. But let's back up and go over what happened first, shall we?

Last time, the group came together to try to take down Amara, but she was like psha and hit Chuck with some killing blow thing that has resulted in the sun starting to dim. You know, because the light is going out of the universe. Sam is gung ho about finding another way to fix things, but everyone else is ready to throw in the towel. But this is Supernatural, so there's no throwing in the towel.

They can't cage Amara anymore, that won't do. The only thing left is to kill her. The only way to kill her is with a preponderance of light - basically the power of 10,000 suns or thereabouts. Well, ole GAHHG isn't quite feeling up to that task at the moment, but Cas does have a novel idea - what about souls? They're basically made of light, etc. But where to get such a hefty amount of souls?

Sam and Dean round some up at a nearby asylum that they've just ignored until now for reasons unknown. Though a couple dozen in comparison to the thousands needed seems rather paltry, but whatevs. Crowley isn't really able to get any demon souls because of Hell shenanigans, and Cas can't rally the angels because they're just ready to die with dignity. But luckily, our reaper friend Billie happened to be spying on the Winchesters, and she's down to corral some souls for the big Amara-killing bomb. Thing is, they need someone to get it close to her. So, like duh, they're going to send in Dean. With the souls inside of him. Therefore, yet another silly goodbye scene that we all know isn't going to amount to a real death for a Winchester, but whatever.

While the others visit a bar to wait out their time, Dean tries to talk some sense into Amara after she tells him she's not an idiot and can see all the souls inside of him. But, she's had a realization. She never really wanted to destroy all of the beautiful stuff her brother created, she was just jealous. You know how little kids get when they see their sibling doing something cool that they weren't part of. Smash boom! She spirits her brother over and they reconcile, aw shucks. So, rather than everything going kaput by the complete lack of darkness and light, they're going to go off together to dance in the cosmos and relish in their powers, or something. But not before Amara tells Dean she's going to give him what he's always wanted. Now what could that be?

Meanwhile, in England, some lady is given a lot of screentime. She has a secret timeline and map and all kinds of stalkery things about the Winchesters, and appears to be heading off to Kansas to find them. Which, well, she finds Sam and Cas, there at the end. They think Dean has died, the jokers. She angel sigils Cas away, and basically tells Sam that the Men of Letters, London Chapter, are quite upset at what they've been up to, and they want to bring him in. We're supposed to think she's shot him, but they don't actually show it, so... sure.

Which leaves the final scene with Dean, getting what he's always wanted. A quick aside here, my boyfriend piped up in the background when Amara said that, "What, they're going to bring the dad back?" And I thought to myself, no, it wouldn't be the dad. It would be... the mom! Well, duh, they only visited her grave a few minutes ago in the episode too. That's right, Mary Winchester is back. Dun dun dun!

Random Thoughts:

- It was painfully obvious they were setting up that girl to be some kind of antagonist for next season. Man oh man. I'm not sure how the Men of Letters are going to be the "big bad" of next season, but maybe they'll try something new on the show and not go for the whole big bad scenario quite as gung ho.

- It was neither confirmed nor denied whether Lucifer was dead or alive. So he's probably alive somewhere, all incorporeal and whatnot.

- They definitely left the door open for Chuck and/or Amara to make a reappearance at some point. I mean, really, they couldn't have killed them with the whole balance scenario they had set up, because it wouldn't have made sense for the world to keep on ticking if they were both gone either.

- What does it mean for Mary to be back? That's way more interesting than the Men of Letters crappola. What will she think of what's happened? We've never really seen their dynamic other than in dream sequences or with young Mary, so hey, this is one return from the death I'm not as crazy annoyed by.

- That's all she wrote for season 11. My goodness. I can't believe how long this show has been on!

Quotes:

Chuck: You know how when you're driving, and a bug hits your windshield? I'm the bug.

Rowena: So that was a gun in your pocket.

Chuck: I didn't know dogs had breakfast.
Dean: Cas is back.

Dean: No chick flick moments, come on.
Sam: Yeah, you love chick flicks.
Dean: You're right, I do.

Previous Episode

Supernatural 11x22 "We Happy Few"

Well, that was a little... anti-climactic. Funny, I was thinking to myself, they're going to do this big battle against Amara, what does that leave for the final episode? Are they going Buffy on us and doing something off beat? Not quite, not quite. But let's get to that in a sec.

So, after last week, Lucifer is hanging out in the bunker, none too happy with Chuck aka his dad. He just wants an apology for being thrown into Hell. You know, nothing big. But Chuck doesn't want to go there, insisting he did the right thing, what he had to do. Luckily, the Winchesters are there to help mediate the situation. Or, sort of. Dean basically says that apologies don't have to actually mean anything, but of course that's the whole point. Lucifer wants to feel like his dad felt remorse for what happened. In the end, Chuck does admit to that, and that Lucifer was his favorite, when he wasn't supposed to have favorites.

What does that mean for the fight to come? Well, it wasn't just Lucifer on Team God back in the old days - it was also all of the other Archangels, but they are currently either dead or stuck down in a Hell cage, and it would take too long for him to bring them back. That leaves a backup plan - to get help from various factions - the demons, the angels, and the witches. Dean heads off to convince Crowley, while Lucifer, with a tagteam from Castiel, recruits the angels, leaving Sam to work on Rowena and her witch friend(s).

Of course, in the end everyone comes together. Their plan - lure Amara into a trap. So they do. Rowena, with the help of some witches, blasts Amara with a spell. The angels blast down from Heaven with their white light power, and then the demons join in with their black smoke to weaken her. Which, they do. That leaves Lucifer to stab her with, I'm assuming, a magical blade of some sort. Now it's GAHHG's turn, right? He's going to kill her, right?

Well, no. You see, ole Chuck doesn't want to kill her. He wants to trap her back in the box. There's a whole speech about yin and yang and how they have to both exist for the balance of the world. Dean is rather unconvinced of that truth, and would rather they just kill her, but that has to do with his weird bond, blah blah who cares. But, in order to trap her again, they have to transfer the Mark of Cain as a sort of seal. Sam agrees to take it, even though that seems stupid because obviously they'd just end up back where they started if they removed it again. But it doesn't really matter, because as soon as Amara can sense that her bro is trying to trap her again, even after he apologizes to her and all, she gets super mad and blasts him with her dark powers. But first she kills Lucifer. Forgot to mention that bit. At least, it seems like she kills him, right? Castiel? We'll find out next week, I'm sure.

Which basically leaves Chuck slowly dying, so she can destroy his world while he's still alive to watch it disappear. So, Darkness still not defeated. Ba dum bum.

Random Thoughts:

- That music at the very end felt weird and long and just overall strange. That was a drawn out beat if ever I saw one.

- It seems like we're heading to an end game of Amara and Chuck dying together and canceling each other out. What that means for the world, who knows?

- The preview for next week kind of confirmed it, but it seems also like Dean is going to be the key somehow to getting Amara to stop, thanks to their weirdo bond. After all, she did look wistful when she saw that photo of little Dean with Mary.

- Only one more week left this season. What are your hopes for next season?

Quotes:

Chuck: Kids, huh?

Dean: Worst episode of Full House ever.

Sam: We all know that you are...God. Can you be a little less... Lordly?
Chuck: But... I am the Lord.

Dean: You smell like a dumpster inside a liquor bar.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 11x21 "All in the Family"

The whole Amara/Darkness of it all this season has been a bit lackluster, BUT I have surprisingly liked this re-introduction of Chuck/GAHHG. Does that mean I like the Darkness stuff now? Not really, but whatever. Maybe I just like Rob Benedict.

Anyway, this episode picks up right where the last one left off, with the brothers Winchester in the street with the big kahuna. He whisks them back to the bunker to chat, wherein Dean basically calls him out for leaving his creation alone for so long, and he says intervening all the time didn't really do anything in the end, it was just enabling (an argument against helicopter parenting?). It's still a bit of an impasse, though, because things on Earth haven't really improved much even after he stopped punishing and saving and all that.

Which does sort of beg the question - why intervene now? Well, we'll get to that, I suppose. To be honest, not a lot in the way of action happens in this episode, it's very philosophical in a lot of ways, but I quite enjoyed that aspect. We got to see Kevin very briefly, for example, as a way for Chuck to give the Winchesters proof of who he really is. And get to hear Sam babble a bit, wondering what's up with ears and the planets, but never getting any real answers other than Chuck likes to take long showers and sing old show tunes.

Regardless, some action DOES take place. For example, Metatron gets wind that Sam and Dean have met up with Chuck, and wants to meet with them. They're reluctant, but agree, and he shows them the book Chuck was working on - basically a suicide note rather than an autobiography. He's going to sacrifice himself to Amara. Dean confronts him about this, and he clarifies that yes, he's going to do that, and she'll leave them alone once he does because her beef is with him and not his creation. Well, not so sure about THAT, but okay.

In another town ravaged by the Amara fog sickness, a new prophet is chosen. The brothers track him down (why not a female prophet, hmm?), and give him the lowdown on what's going on, but he's really there to help them track down where Amara is, so that they can free Casifer. Because the last time Chuck was able to get rid of Amara, it was only with the help of Lucifer. So, they figure if he's around to help again, maybe they can get the ole team back together and etc. While Sam, Metatron and the prophet Donatello work on freeing Casifer, Dean is chatting up Amara to distract her. She wants him to become part of her and leave this mortal coil. Yes, become PART of her. Not just, like, go away with her, but become part of her being or something. Dean's like yeah... probably no.

Metatron stays behind to bide them some time to get away with Casifer, but that time proves quite short as Amara just dark swirls him into nothingness. She's about to do something similar to the others before Chuck bops them back to the bunker. He heals up Lucifer, and they stare at each other all disdainfully (and longingly, I might add), because no one is without their daddy issues on this show.

What does it all mean for defeating Amara? We've got two more episodes to find out.

Random Thoughts:

- It does seem a little like things are going to end with Chuck and Amara kind of canceling each other out and going kaboom, but who knows. What that would mean going forward for Heaven and Hell and all that, I could see them exploring in the future. Although it does seem like we've been down that road in other ways already, so maybe not.

- I didn't get all of the fun quotes below; this episode was quite chock full of them, really. Even when dealing with big issues, I like when they keep things a bit lighter.

- How the heck does Jensen keep looking better with age? My goodness. Ahem. Sorry. Not that Jared doesn't too, it just struck me in that forest scene with Jensen.

- For anyone who wants the song from last week sang by Rob Benedict, you can download it: HERE.

Quotes:

Kevin: I always trusted you.
Dean: Yeah, that ended well.

Dean: Holy crap.

Chuck: I know you had a complicated upbringing, Dean. But don't confuse me with your dad.

Chuck: So, no. Thus spake the Lord.

Donatello: Call me Donatello. I'm named after him.
Dean: The... mutant ninja turtle?
Donatello: The Renaissance sculptor.

Donatello: Wow, I so miss being an Atheist.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 11x20 "Don't Call Me Shurley"

Oh, GAHHG. Obviously the show has been hinting at this reveal of sorts for quite some time. Seasons, really. But, finally, they have confirmed it - Chuck is actually GAHHG. I know some people like that whole idea, but I was never a big fan of it, mostly because it felt like it cheapened his character, who I really liked back in the day. At the same time, it wouldn't really work to make it someone else after all of the rampant speculation over the years, so whatever. Moving on.

I'm just going to call him Chuck for the purposes of this here review thingamajig, though. So, yes. I'm not really giving things away by talking about the whole GAHHG reveal, because it happens pretty much at the top of the episode with a destitute Metatron searching dumpsters for specks of food being whisked away to meet with ole Chuck.

Now, a lot of the episode is spent with these two just sort of talking. And while normally that could be boring, in this case, it really wasn't. Metatron was the voice of humanity (as well as the fans) in questioning what Chuck has been up to, why he hasn't intervened, etc. He basically calls him out on leaving his creation to succumb to Amara (which apparently wouldn't be the first time), which finally seems to get his attention.

Meanwhile, back in the Earthly realm, the Winchesters follow up on a case that might prove to have Amara connections, and indeed it does. Even though I would say such a case of a murder-suicide out of nowhere seems to happen in regular life as well. But anywayz, they head to the apropos Hope Springs, where Amara is sending her death fog to overtake the town, so they go on a murderous spree. But not Dean. Even though Sam gets to be infected by the fog, Amara is all smitten with her dear Dean, and keeps him safe from said death fog.

Really, though, it all turns out okay, because Metatron, as I said, finally seemed to get through to Chuck. That it is, in fact, his responsibility to save his creations from his sister rather than let it all disappear, so he does some magic and revives the town, including the erstwhile Sammy.

And, in another bit of meta fan service, they bring back the amulet from seasons past. You know, the one Sam gave Dean when they were kids, that turned out to be some kind of GAHHG beacon, but Dean threw it away, etc. etc.? Who am I kidding, if you watch the show, you know what the damn amulet is. Anyhow, Chuck sticks that little baby in Sam's pocket, and the boys follow its light to where he stands in the street.

And.... episode. There are a few more episodes left this season, and by the nature of that song Chuck sang there at the end, it seems as though GAHHG may go out in a blaze of glory with his sister at his side. What does that mean for the future? Who knows. They only seem to beget worse things every year, but it might be more interesting to not end things on a cliffhanger for once. Not that they've ever done that, but what the heck. It might've made for a nice series closer.

Alas. It goes on. And probably on and on.

Random Thoughts:

- Sooo many inside jokes. I do appreciate that sort of meta, when only longtime fans of the show will get it.

- I really liked the song at the end. Is that an existing song, or was it written for the show? Either way, Rob Benedict did a great job with it.

- One of the only episodes where Metatron wasn't overly annoying. Perhaps because he was kind of the voice of the people in many ways.

- It does beg the question, if GAHHG and Amara are brother and sister, do they have parents? And just what the heck does that entail?

Quotes:

Metatron: Yeah, Toto. I got a feeling we're not on Earth anymore, either.

Sam: Dude, quit ironing my shirts with beer!

Chuck: Started a new series of books. Revolution! But I don't think it's going anywhere.
Metatron: Maybe titles aren't your thing.

Metatron: You are neither grounded nor a person.
Chuck: So you're saying I'm likable.

Chuck: Nature, divine. Human nature, toxic.

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