As a finale to Season Eleven, this episode kind of sucked. As a jumping-off point for Season Twelve, with a solid wiping of the slate and some new elements thrown in, it was quite good. So... I'm torn.
Cons:
It's hard to describe exactly what was so unsatisfactory about the bulk of this episode to me. Individually, I thought a lot of the moments worked really well, but when they coalesced, the final product felt thin. I knew that the stakes were high, what with the sun dying due to Amara and Chuck being "out of balance," but even with God on the verge of death and Dean preparing to sacrifice himself, the whole thing was pretty easy to shrug off. There wasn't much of an emotional journey for Dean and Sam to take here, since we all know that they will be back for Season Twelve. It makes the tension a little hard to maintain. To compensate for that, they focused on God and Amara's emotional arcs. Which is fine... but a bit odd for a season finale.
The resolution of our main plot was pretty anticlimactic. Think about all the buildup we had. Amara wanted to turn the world into nothingness. She had this weird creepy connection with Dean. In this episode, Dean and Sam collect souls from ghosts, and Billie lends an assist by getting souls from the veil. Rowena puts all these souls into Dean, and all he has to do is get close to Amara and set off the Soul Bomb, and Amara will be killed. Only... instead of doing that, Dean gives Amara a talk about the importance of family. Amara brings Chuck to her, and heals him. The two are reunited as siblings, and they decide to go away for a while, but not before Chuck removes the souls from Dean and saves him.
I don't mind this ending exactly, but a lot of plot points sort of fizzled out here. Amara's desire for chaos and nothingness is suddenly gone because she and God have patched things up? Dean's noble sacrifice, which was fooling nobody to begin with, had even less weight than I was expecting, because he didn't even seriously contemplate setting off the bomb once he was with Amara. Wouldn't it have been more compelling if Dean thought killing Amara was the right thing to do, but he couldn't because of their weird connection? And speaking of that weird connection, it amounted to very little, when you think about it. Apparently the whole purpose of it was that Amara was using Dean as a placeholder for the bond she was really craving with her brother. Okay? I mean I never liked the connection between them to begin with - it always seemed very disturbing. But this is some lame payoff.
There were a few other things that bothered me, but I do think there's a chance they will be rectified in the future. First of all, Cas. He has a couple of scenes with Dean, and Dean specifically thanks him for everything he's done and expresses his brotherly affection for him. (I mean, the Destiel shipper in me was cringing at the "no homo" extremes of that scene in the car, but that doesn't make it a bad scene in and of itself). The thing that's bothering me here is more a feeling of... is that it? Cas' arc this season has been really weak. Insofar as I can tell, the idea is that he feels worthless and he said yes to Lucifer in order to be helpful. These feelings of worthlessness are not really addressed, beyond Dean saying vaguely that Cas is a big help. I just get the constant feeling that the writers don't know what to do with Cas. His character has been so inconsistently tied in to the story. I hope that next season he gets more of an arc, but it's hard to imagine they're going to improve on this. I just want more for Cas.
And speaking of wanting more - did anybody notice that Crowley was entirely superfluous in this episode? I mean, the guy did nothing! I was pretty disappointed that there was no goodbye between him and Dean. I mean I didn't want a hug or anything, but a last joking comment or reference to their "bromance" might have been nice. Rowena was the one who put the souls inside of Dean, but honestly her presence here felt sort of forced as well. I'm sure they could have found a way around that. Billie makes an insultingly brief contribution to the finale - couldn't she have shoved the souls into Dean? That would have been believable. If that's all the purpose they can dredge out of Billie's character, I'm disappointed.
Pros:
Like I said, the main plot of this episode had a lot of individual moments and ideas that I quite enjoyed. The problem was more with cohesion and with maintaining stakes.
Amara and Chuck coming together at the end was really nice, actually. A bit of an anticlimax, sure, but it was sweet to see their love for one another prevail over all other concerns. I also liked how this ending emphasized that Dean feels some sort of affinity for Amara, while Sam has a closer relationship with Chuck. As these siblings find their way back to each other, Sam and Dean have been separated.
Cas and Dean's scene in the impala wasn't as strong as it could have been, but it still warms my heart to see Cas get validation. Really, you could read all of Cas and Dean's interactions in this episode as being sort of a one-sided Destiel thing. Dean pretty firmly maintains the distance of friendship, while Cas seems just as in love with Dean as ever. Dean tells Cas that he's the best friend he's ever had, and that he's their brother. Cas says thank you, but was that really what he wanted to hear? The top of the episode also saw Dean rush to Cas' side while Sam went to check on God. I loved that Dean helped Cas stand up, and how relieved he was that Cas was back. Who cares if Lucifer might have been helpful to them? He needs Cas more.
Sam continues to be so brave and amazing. After the goodbye scene, when Dean goes off to sacrifice himself for the world, Sam holds it together, trying to look after an ailing Chuck and refusing to break down. As much as this episode didn't focus on Sam and Dean's emotional arcs, there was something kind of interesting going on here. We get to see them take their rock-salt guns and go to town on a whole group of ghosts, in a scene very reminiscent of earlier seasons of the show. It emphasized them as brothers and hunting partners, and also began the process of unraveling the codependency they've been suffering under all these years. When Rowena breaks that news that Dean will "be the bomb" that will defeat Amara, both he and Sam are upset, but resigned. There's no begging or last minute attempts from Sam to take Dean's place. They are responsible for the Darkness being released, and now they are both having to pay the price for fixing it. Dean has to die. Sam has to live. It's a pretty powerful moment when you realize that Sam, no matter how badly it's killing him, is going to let Dean do this without interference. It really does seem like they've come to a better place in their relationship.
More specifically, those goodbye scenes were quite the tearjerkers. Even knowing that the stakes weren't all that high, it was still moving to hear Dean try to put everybody at ease, making jokes about the giant funeral he wanted. Cas pulls him in to a hug, looking about ready to fall apart, and Dean asks Cas to look after Sam when he's gone. The best part was Cas offering to come with Dean. I mean, is there a stronger declaration of love and devotion? Cas wanted to go die by Dean's side, to show his support. Ouch? So much ouch. Dean hands the impala's keys over to Sam, who is on the verge of tears, and tries to avoid the "chick flick" moment. Sam, again being so brave, sucks it up and says: "yeah... you love chick flicks." Dean says "you're right, I do. C'mere," and pulls his brother into a big hug. Despite the fact that Sam is taller than Dean, Sam buries his face in his brother's shoulder. So sad.
Then there's the bar scene - after Dean has gone to defeat Amara, the others all go to a bar to wait it out. Sam, Cas, Rowena, Crowley, and God. A strange crowd, to say the least. It works really well, though, because everybody is going through their own unique grief. I mean, maybe with the exception of Rowena, who is just along for the ride. Chuck is grieving for Dean and Amara, his sister who he loves, despite everything that has happened. Cas and Sam are obviously heartbroken over Dean, and I'm willing to bet Crowley is having some deeply conflicted feelings as well. (Crowley's lack of screen time in this finale really sucks, I must say.) When Amara and Chuck decide to forgive each other, the sun regains its strength, and the world appears to be saved. As the crowd exit the bar, they are simultaneously happy that their plan worked, and devastated at the loss of Dean and God.
Before I get in to the double cliffhanger, I want to give a shout-out to the funniest part of this whole episode: Rowena hitting on Chuck. The two of them commiserate over the end of the world together. At one point Rowena talks about how Fergus never liked to wear pants when he was a kid, and Chuck says "Adam and Eve were the same way." They both look at each other and say "Kids." Crowley then remarks: "I'm so glad the world is ending." That was pretty funny. Rowena hanging around Chuck and keeping him company was kind of perfect. It showcased God's infinite patience, and also Rowena's cunning ability to ingratiate herself to the most powerful being in any room.
And now. The cliffhangers. First of all, as Amara is disappearing with Chuck so the two can work out their family issues, she tells Dean that he has given her what he needed most, and she would like to do the same for him. What did that mean, exactly? Apparently it means Mary Winchester. Did I mention that the goodbye scene took place in the graveyard in Kansas, where Mary was buried? And now she's back! This could mean so many different things. Amara just casually sending Mary back from the dead is inevitably going to have a ripple effect, and I'm excited to see that explored. What will she think of the way her boys grew up? Of what they've become?
The other cliffhanger has a slow build. We see a British woman named Toni, who has a secret room in her home full of pictures of the Winchesters. She shows up at the bunker at the very end of the episode, using an angel sigil to banish Cas. She asks Sam where Dean is, and Sam, unaware of what really went down with Amara and Chuck, declares that Dean is dead. Toni then introduces herself as a member of the London chapter of the Men of Letters. She has been tasked with bringing him in to face judgment for all the chaos he has been responsible for over the years. Sam tries to walk towards her, and she threatens to shoot. He takes another step, and her gun goes off.
Introducing more Men of Letters lore can only mean good things - I love what the show has done with it so far, and this could open up new vistas. I mean, we have to ignore the weirdness of the London chapter only just now getting involved, but whatever. This is an idea that can effectively wipe the slate and reset us onto a smaller scale for next season. We don't need another big bad all-powerful being for the boys to defeat. We need to scale things back to a human level, and I think Toni is going to accomplish that for us.
My guess is that she either shot a warning shot by Sam's head, or shot him, but just to incapacitate him, not to kill him. Sam will be taken against his will back to England, and when Dean gets over the shock of seeing his mother and takes her back to the bunker, there will be no sign of him. This is awesome - I really do hope that Sam and Dean don't find each other right away next season. Imagine it: Sam is thrown in to this whole new world of people that he didn't know existed. He's brought in as a prisoner, thinking that Dean is dead. Meanwhile, Cas vows to find Sam, his last remaining friend, at any cost, but is unable to because the Men of Letters have warding systems to keep angels out. Dean, thunderstruck at the discovery of a living Mary Winchester, comes home to find nobody waiting for him. He tries to get ahold of Sam, to no avail. Eventually, he and Cas find each other, and join up to find Sam, getting involved in the new world of the very much still alive Men of Letters.
I want that season! I want to see Sam and Dean stretch their legs a little bit, get away from each other, so that when they finally end up back in the same place, it will feel like a worthy reunion. I understand that shows like this need to have a formulaic bent to them. But please. At least for three or four episodes, keep the boys apart.
I guess that's my review! The stuff wrapping up this season was rather weak, and I'm pretty disappointed. But a lot of the individual moments were still great, and the cliffhangers promise a much stronger conflict for Season Twelve than we got for Season Eleven!
7/10
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