Since its beginnings in 2005, Supernatural has built up one of TV’s most passionate and dedicated fan bases. A few weeks ago, the Supernatural Family was rocked from the announcement by stars Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins that the upcoming shows fifteenth season would be its last.
We are now a week removed from ‘Moriah’, the finale episode of Season 14 where, I think it’s fair to say, shit well and truly hit the fan. Despite inevitable dips in quality over the course of its run, Supernatural is a TV show that knows how to craft jaw-dropping, nerve-wracking cliffhangers that have left viewers in shock and awe, and the fourteenth season was no different.
Spoilers for Season 14 below.
After Jack sacrificed what remained of his soul to dispatch Apocalypse World’s Michael, he consumed the archangel’s grace, restoring his monumental Nephilim powers to its former glory. His lack of soul, and subsequent distinction of right and wrong disappeared with it, led to Jack inadvertently killing Sam and Dean Winchester’s mother, Mary.
Jack would then go on the run, fearing the brothers’ wrath, before being manipulated by angel Duma to create more angels for Heaven. The Winchesters were eventually able to trick Jack into the Ma’Lak box, purpose built to contain an archangel but Jack, tormented by his subconscious in the figure of his late father, Lucifer, flees the box, his power greater than it has ever been.
As a result, God (or Chuck, as he prefers to be known) visits Sam, Dean and Castiel and warns them that Jack is too great a threat and must be dealt with. He creates a weapon capable of killing the Nephilim, but the weapon comes with a huge caveat: it will also reflect the same damage to the user, killing them.
After a tense confrontation in a graveyard, Dean is unable to pull the trigger on Jack. Angered by this, Chuck reveals that he has been manipulating things all along, before killing Jack. Sam uses the gun on Chuck, but it fails. Livid at the Winchesters refusing his demands to complete his story, he disappears, but not before unleashing all of Hell’s demons on the world, triggering the apocalypse, as Sam, Dean and Castiel are swarmed by the undead.
Frankly speaking, the stakes for the Winchesters have never been so high and the stage is set for an explosive final season of America’s longest-running fantasy TV series – it is going to be a long six month until the show returns in October. With that said, here are five things we need answers to in Supernatural’s grand curtain call.
1. How the heck are the gang going to get out of this one?
It wouldn’t be a Supernatural finale without at least one of the boys in some kind of game-changing life-or-death situation. The Winchesters overcoming the odds is what the show is all about (they’ve already averted two apocalypses at this point).
As mentioned earlier, the closing moments of Season 14, accompanied by the fitting track ‘God Was Never on Your Side’ by Motorhead, left the monster-hunting trio in one of their tricker pickles, as they were surrounded and mobbed by masses of undead buggers. All three had taken a bit of a beating by that point, not to mention Sam who was sporting a bullet wound is his shoulder. Armed with only poles from an iron fence, they’ll need to swing for the fences or be torn apart.
Heck, maybe just bring back John Winchester again with a barbed-wire baseball bat and go to town.
Now with (likely) 20 episodes remaining until all is said and done, I don’t think any of us are expecting Sam, Dean or Cas to bite it here. Even if they do, there’s every chance they’ll be brought back anyway, which brings us on to question 2…
2. What is going to happen with Jack?
As evidenced in ‘Moriah’, Chuck is afraid of his grandchild, Jack. To what extent, we don’t yet know, but it was enough that Chuck wanted him out of the picture. Jack’s untapped power was enough to stop every single human being on Earth from telling lies, leading to mass hysteria and chaos across the globe. While Chuck cancelled Jack’s effects, it still had him shook.
Because Dean wouldn’t end Jack, Chuck commits the deed himself and kills the young Nephilim. However, Jack wakes up in The Empty, confronted by The Shadow and Billie, The Grim Reaper, who ‘wants to talk’.
We have no clue yet as to what exactly Billie wishes to discuss, but if she is teaming up with The Shadow, you know the situation is dire. Our guess is, between Billie and The Shadow, they’ll concoct a way to bring Jack back to life. If all of Hell’s evil is out in full force, it will certainly throw the balance of all things majorly out of whack, something that will serve neither of them particularly well. It stands to reason that if Chuck is willing to throw the world into a living nightmare, Jack will be the best bet of levelling the playing field.
Besides, if Jack is currently in The Empty, where all dead angels and demons go to rest for eternity, you’ve got to wonder if he’ll use that to give himself an ever-so-slight power boost.
3. How exactly will they defeat God?
This is a grand ol’ question and right now, your guess is as good as ours.
The Winchesters have always managed to overcome the odds in the past: Lucifer, Michael, Leviathans, The Mark of Cain, The British Men of Letters, and so on – pulling off longshots is what they do. That said, it will be interesting to know just what lore exists, if any, when it comes to putting down the literal creator of all things.
We know that Chuck is afraid of Jack, so most likely the Nephilim will play a pivotal part in taking the G-Man down. We should also anticipate seeing more of The Shadow in Season 15. The Empty, which it rules over, predates God, not to mention that Chuck has no power there. Perhaps the three of them can find a way to trap God there? Or get him in there long enough to have a fair fight with the world’s worst writer?
Sam’s effort to end Chuck using ‘The Equalizer’ was in vain. As Chuck can create anything, it makes sense his most-powerful weapon wouldn’t be flawed enough to also kill him, but maybe if they can tinker with it enough (added Jack boost, perhaps?), Chuck’s arrogance could lead to his eventual downfall.
I also wouldn’t rule out seeing some familiar faces return to the fold. I would almost bank on seeing the original archangels — Lucifer, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael — coming back to assist Sam and Dean. After all, who knows God better than the first angels he created? Keep your enemies close, right?
Plus, I think it goes without saying we will be seeing Amara return in Season 15, but whose side she will be on remains to be seen.
4. Will we see any of Chuck’s other universes?
Supernatural hasn’t been shy about the existence of other universes, most notably Apocalypse World, which featured heavily in Season 13, and ‘The Bad Place’ before that. But in ‘Moriah’, Sam questioned Chuck about other alternate worlds; specifically something Alt-Michael mentioned in that God abandons them when he gets bored. All the other worlds are Chuck’s failed drafts, including one without the colour yellow, and another populated by only squirrels.
Chuck eventually admits that he does pay attention to this universe, as ‘our’ version of Sam and Dean are his favourites, or, as he puts it, ‘his show’. Sam demanded to know why it is him and Dean who have to save the world all the time, but Chuck merely explains that the Winchesters are his boys. He builds the sandbox and lets them play in it.
So exactly how many other universes are there and how many has Chuck left to fend for themselves? Does this mean there are other Wichesters? Did these alt-Winchesters do as Chuck asked, or did their stories differ? Is it too ambitious to wonder if we’ll see other versions of them in Season 15?
It will depend on the direction and focus of Season 15, but there’s just so much potential here that surely the writers will be inclined to dabble, even a little.
5. Will Sam and Dean finally get a happy ending?
If this isn’t just the most important question, then I don’t know what is.
We’ve seen our boys, Sam and Dean, go through damn-near every high and low imaginable, and our hearts have broken along with theirs for close to 15 years. They have had glimpses of ‘normal’ lives, but the hunting life always finds a way of dragging them back in.
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s about time the Winchesters get to retire.
When all is said and done and the dust has settled on their biggest battle yet, perhaps the boys will get to hunker down and live ‘normal lives’. It’s wishful thinking, but maybe Sam will at last be able to put his Law degree to use and Dean can open that bar he’s dreamed of.
It’s tough to predict how exactly things will go down, but we’ve seen that, in some cases, people can be granted their own special part of Heaven, where they can live happily for the rest of time. This was the case with Mary Winchester, who, in her own personal Heaven, could spend her afterlife with John Winchester.
I think this would be a fitting and kind end to Sam and Dean’s long journey. In the words of Kansas: “…there’ll be peace when you are done.”
What are your predictions/thoughts going into Season 15? Let us know in the comments below.
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