 This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with rebar to the back. In a party city clearance wick. Pulling the ending out of a cards against humanity deck would have been better. Carry On is a serious finale that I think will live on in contained infamy. For those of you who barely watch the show or never watch it at all, it's gonna pass without any further notice. But if you were at all a fan of the show in any way, and you saw this finale, you most definitely had an opinion. Not since The Last of Us Part 2 or The Last Jedi Before It have I seen so much of a divide on a piece of media. The literal war zone of opinions on the episode has led to over 17,000 ratings on the episode on IMDb, putting it currently at the time of this recording at a 6.7. Just to put that into perspective, that's over double the amount of votes for Swanson, which stands at just over 8,000. And these ratings, oh boy is it a treasure trove of emotion. It seems you either love the episode, it's so good. Crying a lot. It's not the perfect ending, in my opinion. But I think it's perfect ending for 17. The show is about these two brothers. Start with two brothers, and it ends with two brothers. I didn't cry for this show for long, but this episode got me so hard. Are you absolutely hated it? Damaging. It hurts. Are fans owed their dream finale by any show? Of course not, but this finale was so disrespectful, disconnected, and damaging. I would argue that coherent characterization and thoughtful messaging are non-negotiable. Those are things which a series finale has the obligation to carefully consider. Neither were meant anything approaching a basic level of adequacy. The backlash of this pathetic finale won't just blow over. I will now always regret supporting this show while it aired. Shame on me for believing it was capable of something better, and shame on those who ensured that it wasn't. People have very strong issues or high praises with the end of the show that some have been watching for 15 years or had binge watched within the last five seasons. That group in particular has been one of the more vocal in terms of praising the episode from what I have gathered. Not to say that all within that group have praised it, there are certainly those who have their criticisms as well. It's just something I've noticed. I myself started watching the show at the end of season one back in 2006, and have been following the show week by week, month by month, year by year, for literally half of my existence. I was full of dread when Dean went to hell. I was there when Sam made the jump into the pit. I was there to roll my eyes at all the dick jokes. I was there when the show refound its footing in season eight. Angels Falling, Demon Dean, The Darkness, British Men of Letters, President Lucifer, Jack, and Evil God. So what do I think of the finale? I think it's alright. Nothing more. Nothing less. Pretty much a meh. Is there some bad stuff in this episode? Most certainly, but there are some good parts too, at least in concept. In this essay I'm going to talk to you about what I feel this finale did right, what it did wrong, and what it could have done better. Carry On was made in mind as a separate episode from the overall narrative. The Chuck storyline, which I have voiced my... opinions on in the past, has been settled. While I feel that they should have mixed the two elements, the ending of Chuck and the ending of the show, into one cohesive narrative, they did not go down this route. They planned the show as a single episode idea, and honestly, it hurts the episode. I understand they wanted to be reminiscent of a monster of the week kind of episode, but considering the totality of the show, they needed to step it up a notch. So with that in mind, I'm just saying now that Dean should have died taking on God. While I understand the symbolisms of the ordinary rebar killing him, Dean should have been killed by mortal Chuck. Now bear with me here. After losing all of his abilities and becoming a normal human being, following Chuck on a spiraling downturn, even if only briefly, would have been more character development than he ever got when he turned into evil God. I'm still miffed about that garbage plot twist in season 14. With Chuck living without power and without the title he gave himself, he would have a complete crisis of character. He would fall into depression and poverty. He would live on the streets and watch the world go by around him, completely unaware that their literal creator was living amongst them in squalor. But while Chuck is weak, he still possesses his knowledge of the spells and monsters. Which if Jack had literally become God, don't you think that he would have rid the world of monsters and the like? I know that he said he was hands off, but this guy still has the mental capacity of a three-year-old, technically speaking, and they have never deferred from that over the final season. So him ridding the world of monsters and all things evil isn't that much of a stretch. I can't believe the amount of people that have given this episode one star. It was a perfect ending to the show. Okay, I didn't expect Dean to die, but he was reunited with Bobby, and he was finally happy and at peace. Sam got a happy life too, and when the boys reunited at the end, it was the way an ending should be. Well done to them all whilst filming during COVID and for 15 years of a great show. Perfect ending! One of the biggest issues I had personally with the episode was the pacing of it. Supernatural built itself on the idea of a monster of the week kind of show, and that's its bread and butter, obviously. But it also, at least during the majority of its earlier years, was able to interweave either the main season narrative or something between the brothers into the story. This was the biggest issue with this episode. The main narrative was finished, and any development between the brothers didn't happen until the last 10-15 minutes of the episode. This should have been a red flag. I understand Dabb wanting to show more routines of the bunker for Sam to look back on once Dean is dead, so I don't mind that aspect. However, he doesn't do anything beyond showing how sad it is that Dean isn't there. Going to a pie eating festival was also low-hanging fruit in my opinion. Sure, it's a funny gag for maybe five seconds, but it doesn't link into the narrative at all, aside from the random circumstance of vampires abducting children nearby, which is such a lazy writing tool. And then when they go to the crime scene and talk to the cop, it doesn't even feel like a written conversation. Yes, I get the Kripke and Singer reference, haha, but the dialogue feels so disjointed and short. It feels like it was written on a scrap piece of paper, not an actual script. And that's an insult to scrap pieces of paper, because the Beatles wrote, I want to hold your hand on one. I would have kiboshed this scene entirely, to be honest. It's your last episode, guys. Not to sound dramatic, but everything needs to be top-notch and important and key to the story. This scene is here to do nothing other than tick a supernatural playbook checklist. And then comes the scene that I really go back and forth on, the vampire interrogation. This scene is… it's weird to me. First off, the vampire actor just… well, he's just kind of dreadful. I'm sorry to the guy, but either he doesn't have much skill or another possibility, he was barely given any direction other than do your bit and get out of here. Dean and Sam go into a… very detailed conversation about killing the dude. Dean is pretty close to character, if a bit full of himself during the interrogation, but it's Sam who is completely off the mark here. Sam is the one who has the small and more painful weapon of death, which is the exact opposite of Sam's character. I know it's a vampire, and I know that they are trying to get the kids back, but this is everything against Sam's core character traits. You are going to tell me that the guy who has tried on several occasions to find an option other than death is going to slowly cut the head off of a monster with a knife that might take him about 10 minutes. That's just not like him at all. Unless Dean dies and yeah, he goes really dark. I understand that they're trying to create some tension, but it doesn't really hit because you have no idea who these kids are. You get more of an idea of who Cobb's two kids are from Inception and you almost never see their faces. I might be reaching here, but I feel that this was supposed to be some sort of symbolic reference with the brothers saving two younger brothers, but they never spent a damn minute on them. While Dean is having his overdramatic death, the kids are long gone. They probably were abducted by some other monster at this point, and that kind of relates to the episode's other large issue. There are tons and tons of little nods to the show here and there, but they barely mean anything. Pie contest is because Dean likes pie and that's been done about a million times by now, so let's do it again for old times sake. The investigation is a cursory check mark. The kids mean pretty much nothing, and the ending montage has nowhere near as much finality as it should. On a base level, most of the episode is passable, except for three scenes. The fight scene has some decent choreography, which is nice to see. I think we are all getting really tired of the throw them against the wall bit. The second half of Dean's death scene is actually pretty well done, but we're going to talk about that later. And finally, most of the final montage. This finale is a good summary of all the things a writer should never do. Do not ignore the character development of multiple seasons. Do not make the same ending that one of your own characters called an awful and hopeless ending in the same season. Do not let your narrative ignore the existence of almost every other character. Do not make an ending that could have happened just like that 14 years ago. Do not make your audience cry because you destroyed everything they cared about. Do not make it impossible to rewatch your show. Do not make your audience regret they spent 15 years watching this show. All of this seems extremely obvious, but it perfectly wasn't. But now, since everyone else has had their own different idea for the ending of the show, I thought I would give it a go. And as I said earlier, it still involves Chuck. Start the episode with the brothers in the car driving to a local diner. They can reminisce about having defeated God in the silly way they did in episode 19. They can remark on the fact that maybe now that Chuck is gone, perhaps all of the elements that they were so entwined with, like plot armor and the such, no longer exist. They ponder but joke that they don't want to find out for sure. This would make Dean's death scene a little bit more believable and more concurrent with what was being established throughout this season, even though they haven't properly explained that things have reverted back. The camera shows the Impala pass by where it then slowly pans to a homeless Chuck eating out of a garbage can. As he watches the Impala pass by, flames of hate and anger fill his eyes. Cut back to the boys walking into a diner and ordering some food. It's here that Dean finds out that there is a pie eating contest. Not like eat a bunch of pies but eat one big one, like the ones the Food Network features all the time with those eat those massive burger challenges and eat it within a certain amount of time kind of idea. Night begins to fall as Dean digs into another piece. While this is going on, Chuck watches them from across the street, anger fuming from his nostrils. He wants his revenge. He craves it. But how? It's at this point where he devises an idea. He performs a summoning spell and he doesn't summon vampires, especially in a universe where I keep getting conflicting reports on whether they should still exist in this universe or not. Literally, the lore of this show has been completely thrown out the window over the last four seasons. In fact, he summons the very damn thing the brothers trained to fight were bred to fight. He summons demons. As Dean finishes the last piece, he sits back and is sworn by the locals congratulating him. He looks over at Sam who gives him a nod of congrats. They walk outside the diner to have Dean say, hold on a minute, in which he goes behind the Impala and pukes up the pie. It's at this point that Sam makes the comment that maybe in fact they have lost some of their grandeur. At least Dean's ironclad stomach, that is. It's at this point that the demons appear in front of them. Some remark upon the fact that they can finally kill the Winchesters. But these demons don't really matter. Let's not bring someone back from some one-off episode just to make an incredibly obscure cameo. Even though he just finished puking his guts up, Dean is quick to react by quietly opening up the trunk of the Impala and takes out the necessary weapons while Sam keeps their gaze on him. Dean then calls to Sam as he throws Ruby's knife while he pulls out the Saunov shotgun. The two parties converge on each other. All the while, Chuck watches from the shadows. The fighting becomes intense as the brothers deal out as many punches as they are given. They take the hits hard, but they keep on fighting. Killing most of the demons, but they can see they are starting to become outmatched. Sam is almost overwhelmed by a final demon dropping Ruby's knife, and he slowly starts to fight for his life. But thanks to Dean's quick reflexes, he throws the knife into the final demon's back, harkening back to the I'm a Batman moment from Season 3. But of course without actually saying it, we're not going that low here. The brothers look nearer on the same as they did when they fought Chuck in the previous episode, but they are victorious until Dean gets stabbed in the back by Chuck. Dean falls to the ground while Sam runs to his brother's aid. He looks up to see Chuck relishing in his victory. Dean's life force is fading quickly. Chuck, true to his nature, or the very poorly conceived one that was flashed upon us in the final minutes of Season 14, but hey, they gave us this crap basket of a character arc, I'm going to make the most of it, starts to rattle off on his greatness, and how even in his pathetic human state, he still wins. He begins the back away from them, continuing to tarnish the very meaning of humanity and mortality, slowly backing out onto the road, rattling off on this is the beginning of a new end, how he will return to power until he is hit by a car. He slams into the concrete, his body broken, and slowly blood pools from his body. As he dies, he slowly realizes the very place he will be going. He begs for more time for something in the narrative to change, until he has nothing left in him, and he passes. Now it is at this point, despite how we got here, that the narrative of the original finale state is relatively similar, except for one major difference, we do not take 10 minutes for Dean to die. Another massive issue myself and others had with this scene was that it went on way too damn long. In that time, Sam could have got a first aid kit, called an ambulance, patched Dean up, and finished a crossword puzzle in all that bloody time. This is the case because the first half of dialogue between the two, aside from the is hammy hammy trash. It's so damn cheesy and brings oneself out of a very critical moment happening right in front of him. Oh and on a side note, there would be actual blood from the wound and coming out of Dean's mouth, because he would be actually dying. And one more pause before I finish up my little silly fanfiction. The reason why I keep using picks from season 9 when Dean died, is because this is actually a much better version of what we got in season 15. Every single issue I have with his death in season 15 is completely gone in this death. It is short, it's to the point, and it hits home. This is exactly what Karrion is trying terribly to regurgitate. Sam panically tries to patch Dean up, while asking a pedestrian to call for an ambulance. But after seeing all the blood loss, he knows that Dean's fate is sealed. And Dean knows it too. They have a short dialogue about accepting Dean's fate and how this was always how it would happen, but then we jump to this part right here. This was the part of the episode that turned me around. By cutting out the unnecessary fat and giving the moment far less time, you were giving it far more weight and realism. Don't have him stand against a pole all the while looking mildly inconvenienced at the fact of death. Have Dean know that he only has a few moments left. Show that they were the utmost of brotherhood. Dean would pass on and Sam would be left alone, holding his dead brother in his arms. Okay, there is one slight tarnish on this part though. This is overly emotional nexopia emo writing here. The ending of this series felt like the proper closure for these characters. Sam and Dean did indeed find peace when they were done. When Karrion my wayward son was playing, now your life no longer empty. Surely heaven waits for you. And Sam shows up behind Dean's back. I suddenly stated, reflecting on my journey with these boys, all the sacrifices they have made, all the pain they had to endure. This happiness is what they deserved after all these years. Castiel didn't belong in the empty. He's a leader and still has a purpose to serve. Making him God Jack's assistant honesty is so effing fitting. The other thing I was so happy about is the fact that there's still some Winchester's Sam's children on earth to keep fighting the good fight. Sam and Dean didn't just leave everything behind and went to get their happy ending. Their legacy will live on forever honesty. Now another reason why cutting out this unnecessary section of dialogue is so important is because it frees up more time to show how Sam moves on with his life as well as closure for Dean. In a perfect world, Dean would have also met up with Jack up in heaven and he and Bobby could have explained how heaven had changed. He also could have explained how cast is sacrificed, completely canceled the character out. He would no longer exist on any plane. He's actually perma-dead. I know some of you would have wanted him to come back, but no god damn it. That sacrifice had to mean something. You already had your bait. Now actually make it mean something. You can't make it all happy in rainbows. You already get that with Sam and Dean at the very end of the episode. There needs to be some actual weight and consequence to cast a sacrifice and Jack can remark on that and how selfless it was for cast to do so. And then Dean can comment on what cast said to him before he was taken by the empty. Now another slight pause here. I'm not a SDL shipper. It's just not my thing. I viewed these guys as bros. Brothers from a different mother if you would. If Andrew Dad was actually going to confirm this was an actual relationship, he should have grown some balls and actually done it rather than hold the carrot of it as low as he possibly could without actually reaching for it. I'm not saying I would have agreed with it purely from a story writing perspective, but at least it wouldn't have been baiting. It would have been an actual confirmation. But back to Sam. We would see him grieve the loss of his brother. We saw him kind of question what was the point of his life anymore. We saw him at the very edge of despair. But then we cut back to Dean driving and then we cut back to Sam who has moved on with life entirely Admittedly, this was another aspect definitely affected by COVID. As I said in my series finale review, there was probably no probable means to bring the actress who played Eileen out for one day of shooting. She would have had to self quarantine for two weeks after coming up from California, shoot her single day of scenes because probably that's all they would have done, then go back to California only to self isolate for another two weeks. Production would have had to pay for all of that. And as we clearly saw in the final episode, production was definitely cutting corners or should I say wigs. But say production wasn't a cheap shit and actually brought the actress up for this episode. We could see her comfort Sam. She would tell Sam that Dean's in a better place and that he would want Sam to move on with his life. We would see her bring Sam out of the depths of his despair in a montage slightly similar to the one that we saw. We would see Sam build a family, teach his son Dean about the means of hunting, but also about the ways of life itself, like teaching ASL. You could even have Sam finish his degree, which would have been a really nice nod to the very beginning of the show. They also could have spent more than five bucks on Sam's aging makeup and hair. All the while this is happening, Dean is still taking his drive around in heaven. I actually don't have many problems with this part of the episode because narratively, different heaven doesn't really offer up much else rather than what we were given. Admittedly it might have been interesting to see Amanda Tapping's character come and talk about how heaven isn't going to shut down, you know, that major tease that they gave us that didn't really lead to anything. But admittedly that would have been inconsequential to the episode. There could have been maybe a little bit more dialogue with Jack talking about that aspect, but really it would have been nothing other than shooting the shit at that point. That's why it's okay to give a majority of this episode to Sam, as he is the one who's actually getting development in this part of the episode. Sam would die in a similar way with his son and Eileen watching over him as he passes on and he meets his brother at the bridge. It's also at this point I would remove the pop version of Carry On My Wayward Son. I'm sorry, but not sorry, I wasn't a fan of the cover. Sam and Dean hug and they look out over the water. Sam would make a comment about not remembering this moment and Dean wouldn't then explain that heaven is a little different now, and then to take a small page from The Good Place, which honestly, if you guys haven't watched that show, you really should, Sam remarks on what's after this for them. To which Dean would respond, I don't know, but I know that I won't be alone. I'll see Andrew Dab in my nightmares. It's hard to imagine such a wonderful show ending so horribly. It's as if Dab either decided to throw out 15 years of character development on purpose to spite all of us, or he got a case of amnesia and forgot it all. How this show ended was, to be frank, disrespectful to so many people on so many different levels. This finale conveys a horrible message to those who watched it, that you can only find peace in death. They took Cass and Dean, two characters who are heroically suicidal, and then killed them without a second thought. They took Sam and made him live out an apple pie life miserably with a faceless woman, only to give him peace when he finally died of old age. Not to mention that they erased any shred of family that the Winchester's had left to make the Fibros and the Wincess Shippers got what they wanted. I could go on for hours, but I won't. Thanks to Jensen, Jared, Misha, and the rest of the amazing cast and crew that worked so hard on this show, but screw Andrew Dab and screw this finale. Save yourself and don't watch it. My god, that's what I sound like a little bit when I was going on my Andrew Dab tirades. And there you have it. That's how I would have written the ending. In a sense, I understand that my idea has holes and problems of its own, as do nearly all finales, but my main takeaway from this video is that there were some good elements in the actual finale, they were just hidden under a bunch of cheesy garbage. The death scene should have been tighter and more focused. The reason for the death scene should have been something less random than vampires and a really weird cameo, and Sam should have gotten more development in his life after Dean rather than a two-minute montage. The ending of Supernatural was never going to satisfy everyone. That's a given. It's only in extremely rare cases where you get a finale that pleases almost everyone. But considering that this was supposed to be the final season and they also had a little bit extra time to write that finale with the whole COVID shutdown, I feel that Dab should have spent more time on the overall narrative and the finality of this season rather than a bunch of unnecessary filler episodes and copy and pasting Marvel plot points into the script. This was the end of a relationship that spanned over 15 years. This was a show that had its extreme highs and was currently in the depths of its extreme lows. The ending of this show was completely necessary as all the steam was gone, but at the very least, the closure for the brothers and their lives should have and in some ways was the focus of the ending as it should have been. It just needed a few more runs through the trimmer. But those are my thoughts. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below. How do you guys think this show should have ended? Do you think that it was good? Do you think it was bad? Do you think it was terrible? Do you think it was great? Please give me your guys' thoughts in the comments below. Also, if you like these readings, let me know as they were actually really fun to do and some were even more to read. There's a lot of emotion going on in these comments. And while Supernatural may be over, the fandom is not. For those of you who are interested, I have been reviewing the retro episodes for the last few years now. I'm now currently on season four heading into season five, so if you would like to follow me on that journey, I will link the playlist at the end of the video. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, leave a like and if you're interested in more subscribe. Otherwise, I'll catch you guys in the next one. Undergrads. It's been a while, but I'm happy to say the click is finally getting back together in an all-new movie thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. But we are still asking for your support. To see any and all updates about the upcoming Undergrads movie, be sure to check out and like the Bring Back Undergrads Facebook page. And with any luck, we'll see you guys soon.