Supernatural: The End

Through With The Twostep
by Sylvia Bond
Supernatural Episode Review – Season 5, Episode 4
“The End”

A season or so ago on the cop show Numb3rs, Don Eppes stopped wearing that thigh holster thingy, and freed me from some fairly dangerous territory where I did nothing but obsess about manly thighs clad in tight blue jeans and tightly wrapped in black thigh holsters. This combination is unholy and drastic, you know, and encasing all that muscle and bringing it into high relief is a little like torture to watch.

I do have a life, but show me Don Eppes wearing those tight blue jeans, the thigh holster, and that white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up like he does, and I am THERE. Phew! Is it hot in here or what? But like I said, he stopped wearing that particular combo, and I was able to go on, functioning as a normal human female and enjoying watching Numb3rs like a normal person, that is, for the plot.

Then along comes THIS ep, with Future Dean wearing, except for the white shirt, pretty much the same hotty hot outfit as Don Eppes. I wanted to get this out of the way first, so there would be no mistaking that while I have a healthy appreciation for the male form, I do honestly watch Show for the plot. In particular I watch for the plot when Show produces an ep like this one. Even though I could barely concentrate on the dialog or clever story line on account of Future Dean, which is a shame, because this was a bloody good ep that left me feeling all happy and tingly inside.

The ep is nicely set up, with the prologue and the dénouement setting up strong bookends for the trip into the future that Dean makes. The bookends provide a symmetry that is sometimes missing in Show, and symmetry can, as you know, be a fearful thing, and a powerful thing and not for the weak or faint of heart. The first bookend is where we are shown how far apart the brothers are. Dean is on his own, doing gigs, exhausted and, I suspect, lonely. He begs the Soap Angel to leave him alone for four hours so he can get some sleep, which gives us a lovely peek at Dean on his own, and he seems rather unfinished without Sam at his side, wouldn’t you agree?

The Soap Angel allows Dean his few hours, though he is in a bit of a panic because “the voice is telling him” that he only has a few minutes left. Yeah, I laughed outright at this, and even more so as the Soap Angel stands by the side of the road while the crickets chirp because he doesn’t have anything better to do than to stand there and wait for Dean to sleep. That kind of behavior felt more in keeping with what an angel is, and also, a little comic relief done in the right style (as in, true to the character) works a whole lot better than slamming viewers over the head with unexpected divergings into whorehouses.

However, as soon as Dean’s sweet head is on the pillow, guess who calls? Yep, it’s brother Sam, also on the road, also exhausted. In a scene worthy of any fanfic, Sam asks (begs) Dean to take him back. Although I liked the angsty, desperate wibble of Sam’s voice, I had to question why, after Sam’s recent declaration of independence, is he choosing now to want to come back? Yes, in the last ep, there was that unfortunate incident with Bobby’s hunter pals, and yes, Sam was on the edge of realizing that where there was life, there was hope. But I felt it rather sudden for him to change his mind like that. Show has the unfortunate habit of using Sam changing his mind to switch the plot around.

Because remember, this is the guy who stubborns things out, like the four years he spent at Stanford, or sticking by Ruby in spite of all pleas to the contrary, so why on earth would he cave so quickly? In order for this to become less of a huge plothole for me, I for one would like to see backstroy to this, or at the very least, some indication from Sam (perhaps in an angsty conversation with Dean) that the Unfortunate Incident wasn’t a one off. That things like that will keep happening, over and over, until he realizes that working it on his own wasn’t going to shield him from some very difficult decisions and consequences. That running away and pretending he was normal wasn’t the answer. Sam’s job is to face up to the darkness inside, and embrace it, to use that strength to overcome the stings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

And I for one would rather see this conversion on-screen than off. Sam is part of the bookend, an essential part, but a bookend just the same, a pale shadow of himself, paper thin and uncertain and damn worried about what the future will bring. He seemed rather hollow, like a stiff breeze would blow him away. Quite the contrast to the last time we saw him with his muscles bulging and blood on his face screaming at the hunters as they left the bar. So what happened to change that?

Dean, ah, Dean. In the scene where he’s talking to Sam on the phone (and what a wonderfully painful conversation it is!), he really should not sit like that. No, not with his thighs splayed and a beer jammed up against his crotch, and that SamIloveyouSam look on his face, even as he’s saying no, no, and just no in a broken, ragged voice that is the ultimate in bromantic dialog. Specifically he says, “Whatever we have between us, love, family, whatever, they are always going to use it against us.”

This had me dropping my jaw with the implications of it. There’s an awareness here, and an honesty that I’m not used to seeing from Dean. He’s saying the absolute truth, which for Dean is as rare as an honest man. Plus, Dean, as you know, never, ever, ever says no to Sam. That’s Dean’s weakness. And Sam can’t help but be selfish and want what he wants. That’s his weakness, and it comes from being the youngest. (Believe, I know all about that.) And he can’t believe that Dean’s saying no, let alone the fact that Dean’s not all up in arms about the fact that Lucifer wants to make Sam his meatsuit.

But here, Dean says no. He says it absolutely, even if it kills him. Never mind that he looks beautiful when distressed (or that the beer bottle keeps grabbing my eye), he pulls out all the stops and says no. Sam and he are better apart, and because they’re going to kill each other if they don’t each choose their own hemisphere to occupy. Frankly it was like something out of some very fine fan fiction, the kind of story where it gets very dark and you’re pretty sure there’s no light, let alone a tunnel. It’s a beautiful scene and I knew right away that it signaled more good angst to come. (Good for me, of course, not for the boys.)

In the central part of the story, Dean wakes up. He wakes up in the same motel room he was trying to get some shut eye in before, but it’s five years in the future. As he strolls out amidst the wreckage of the world, the jagged, jumpy editing adds to the disconcerting changes. Dean comes upon a little girl spitting up blood and quickly discovers that the demon infection from the Croatoan ep has taken over. He’s a smart boy, that one.

There’s this terrific scene where the “croats” (infected humans) espy Dean and send him running. My first thought, was oh, good, Dean loves zombies and these are kind of like zombies, so this ought to be fun for him. But second, that there were too many of them, and so Dean takes off running. Running Dean is a very delicious flavor of Dean, you realize. If you don’t, then you need to see this scene. Dean Running, good lord. Run, Dean, run!

His thighs pump and his hips push, and his chest heaves, and it’s Dean, uncumbered by gravity, that thin shirt pressed against his chest, and all out, running, streaking through the shambled streets, outrunning the croats like they was a-standin’ still. Ah, artistry, thy name is action. (The MTV-esque killing of the croats to the tune of “Do You Love Me?” was fun as well. Not as fun as Running Dean, but then, what could be? Running Sam perhaps? And when’s the last time we saw THAT, I ask you?)

Zach soon shows up to inform Dean of the fate of the world, and that he has three days to contemplate the error of saying no to being the Archangel’s meatsuit. Dean soon discovers the consequences. For one, uh, Bobby is dead, and again, getting riddled with bullets seems rather harsh, even for a character I don’t particularly care for. When Dean goes to Camp Chitaqua he discovers that even the Impala is not immune to the ravages of war. Dean’s best girl occupies a low place and rests in rusty pieces. I think that this unhappy fate for his beloved car bothered Dean more than the end of the world.

Pretty soon, Dean comes across his future self. We’ll call him Future Dean. Future Dean runs a place called Camp Chitaqua, where he trains soldiers to fight against the croats and hoards toilet paper for his little army. He’s just as beautiful as the Present Dean, only he’s got a smoky, mature hardness in his eyes, and a beard-scruffed jaw, and this unholy curve to his still-kissable mouth. I bet it was quite a trick for Show to find someone as good looking as Jensen Ackles to play Future Dean! (Oh, I’m just kidding. I know perfectly well there has to be at least ONE other actor in all the land who is as pretty as Ackles. Besides Padalecki that is, but he doesn’t look anything like Ackles, so that wouldn’t have been a good fit.)

Also disconcerting is Future Dean’s habit of handcuffing Present Dean to ladders and whatnot, making Dean sit on the floor with his thighs, yes, splayed once more. Kinky much? Or is it just me whose mind goes a little wild upon such a vision? I mean, will you just look at those thighs? It’s like looking at sculpted, demin-covered, long-legged temptation. I cannot be held accountable when he sits like that. Or pay attention to much else. (Not to mention the fact that THIS is the scene where Future Dean wears that dang deal thigh holster, but let’s move on, shall we?)

There’s some fun conversation as Future Dean and Present Dean compare lock picks and bolt cutters, both of them pursing their lips in the same utterly adorable fashion. Future Dean’s got the market cornered on growly bear voices, but in context, five years in the future, with the world in shambles around his feet and not much fun to be had, I bought it. And personally, I loved the Rhonda Hurley pink panty secret; men set such a store by panties, you know, trying them on is the least of it.

There is a heartfelt discussion between Future Dean and Dean, where Future Dean reveals that “Sam didn’t make it.” There is destiny and there is fate and then there is this, staring straight into the eyes of the reality of it: that Dean has lost his Sam forever. Boys and girls, this is what Hell in a Handbasket looks like, and the realization of it is painted all over Dean’s sweet, shocked face.

Future Dean goes on an errand, and Present Dean, naturally, soon gets free, and is walking among the camp for some amusing scenes where everyone thinks he’s El Hefe. Which, naturally, Dean takes in stride. There’s an amusing bit where a woman snaps at Dean for sleeping with someone else, making me wonder whether Future Dean would actually be that loose with the morals with the destiny of the world at stake, but no matter. We are treated to a scene with Chuck the Prophet! I adore Show’s continued use of this character, the weedy, little writer guy who really just wants to be left alone to drink his whiskey and contemplate the wallpaper in silence and peace while he dreams up another story to tell.

Chuck the Prophet is exactly the same as he was five years ago, concerned more with the visible reality of what’s in his proximity than he is with the end of the world thing going on just beyond his doorstep. In fact, he’s the only character who doesn’t change, and who stays exactly the same. I thought this was an interesting reflection on the nature of writers, whose minds are always in flux, creating new worlds and new stories, but who, really, just like things around them to be constant. (Of course, that could be me, as a writer, reading too much into it!)

Next up for a meet and greet is the Soap Angel, who dresses like a hippy throwback, no doubt smokes some weed, when he can get it, and spouts nonsensical philosophy in order to entice nubile women to join his orgies. Okay, so more of the Soap Angel in Debauched Situations Joke, but this time it works because, sure, if his powers are taken away and he’s only human, I can see him doing this. (The joke is broad, to be sure, but seems to fit in more this week than it did last week.)

Future Dean returns from a sortie and promptly shoots one of his own men, who, as he explains to Dean, was infected, and his goal was not to watch the man go down in misery. The image of Future Dean doing this cold blooded thing is marvelously juxtaposed against Dean’s open-mouthed, wide-eyed, and boyish shock. The moral here is that this stern, dark-eyed and somewhat cold leader is s what Dean will become, through time, with the weight of the world on his shoulders, not to mention all that responsibility for starting the apocalypse and all. The scene is filmed out of doors, and seriously, I don’t know how Future Dean could be even more beautiful than he was five years ago, but time had seasoned him, and sculpted him and scruffed him up, and I had a very, very hard time focusing on the freaking plot, what with Future Dean’s eyes flashing fire through the dark shadowy shadows of his gaze and his mouth moving and all.

Over some whiskey and a nicely blended scene with TWO Deans (who’s the lucky girl, then?), Show develops a little plot point that I thought was interesting, and very clever of Show to lay it out like this. Future Dean shows Dean what his sortie has done, and that is bring back The Colt. The Colt, as you know, can kill just about anything, and the plan is to kill Lucifer with it. When Dean asks how Future Dean found it, Future Dean explains that he’s been searching for it for years, and that the demons moved it around a lot from place to place. But it’s a nice way of setting up future plot possibilities, as there’s nothing more interesting than a story about the search for the Magical McGuffin. Or in this case, the Gun that can Save the World. Dena now knows, through this clever dialog, that his future self figured out that this was the way to go and that, no, The Colt hasn’t been melted down into pig iron. That Dean can find it eventually, if he’s diligent enough, is quite certain.

Future Dean announces to Present Dean that Sam didn’t die, that he’s actually Lucifer’s meatsuit, which of course for Dean is worse than if Sam were dead. What The Dad had said might come to pass has, which is the worst of all possible worlds. Because what can you do with the devil but destroy him when the opportunity arises? I liked Future Dean watching Present Dean as if to see his own reactions there – his own personal, walking, talking (gorgeous) mirror, and how many people get an opportunity like that? But the real point of the scene is to remind Dean that he’s being shown all of this so that he can go back and make a different decision, i.e., letting the Archangel Michael jump inside his skin. I got very suspicious at this stage in the game as to whether Zach was telling the truth, and whether or not the whole experience was a setup for Dean, which is a nice twist that Show introduces to keep the viewer guessing.

The mission soon follows, where Future Dean takes his soldiers and Dean to a location where he is certain Lucifer is hanging out. Things go south very fast, she dies, he dies, everybody dies. Including Future Dean, who, when Dean finds him, is sprawled dying on the grass in a peaceful green garden dappled by blood-red roses. The contrast in the colors was no accident, I’m thinking. Nor was the ghost-white outfit that Lucifer’s dressed his mansuit in. Yes, it’s Evil Sam grinding his white-lofered heel into Future Dean’s neck to hold him there and snap his neck. This is the End of Times, my friends, and while it looks pretty, don’t be fooled.

I wasn’t. I mean, I wasn’t, really and truly, but with Padalecki as Evil Sam/Lucifer? I was fooled, bamboozled, beguiled, transfixed, open-mouthed, and staring. Yes, I stared. I do not know when I have last been so frakking freaked by a story development. Show is unpredictably predictable, sometimes I can call it, and sometimes I can’t. I knew that there was a chance that we’d see Sammy as Lucifer, but I thought I’d have to wait. Not get it handed to me like you’d find in that rock-your-socks-off future fic that’s out there, where Sam is Lucifer and Dean’s at his mercy. (You know the sweet one I’m talking about, ladies.)

To see it embodied? I came undone, and swear words spilled out of my mouth like I was a sailor at sea. I didn’t even know I knew those words. It was so bloody bloody marvelous and Padalecki played it with the echos of how Mark Pellegrino plays Lucifer, and the subtlety with which Padalecki picked up the nuances of the other actor’s portrayal was amazing. He had it DOWN, everything from the eyebrow and head tilt and the even-keeled tone of voice that provided an undercurrent of just out of reach creepiness that you can’t quite put your finger on. (Lord, would I love to put my finger on that.)

The whole scene was excellent but the part I loved best (besides Dean’s mantear of pain, always a nice touch) was when Evil Sam explained The Fall. He’s so sweet and unassuming in his garden, and his voiced is so cool and sedate and he’s so very, very convinced that he was wronged and robbed and that he and he alone understands the glory of God, and the beauty of his creation. I couldn’t get enough of him standing there, so pure looking and holy and that glimmer in his eye and the smirky twitch of his mouth and his smug self righteousness. And I love how he says, “I win, so…I win.”

That’s the devil’s manifesto, the I, I, I of Lucifer, he sees what he wants to see, and he hears what he wants to hear, dig? He’s very convincing, as he would be, being Lucifer, but never for a second was I worried that Dean would allow himself to be convinced. After all, this Vision of Evil is embodied by his beloved Sammy, and not for a minute does Dean forget that inside the meatsuit, somewhere, Sammy is screaming. It doesn’t matter that he said yes, and the details as to what brought Sam to such a Low Place are immaterial. The fact of the matter is that Sammy is suffering and for that fact alone Lucifer won’t be getting any green lights today.

It’s a short trip back to the present day, where Zach puts the screws to Dean to make him accept being the Archangel Michael’s meatsuit. Zach is done playing games he says, but I got the feeling that Dean’s doubts about Lucifer were nothing in comparison to his doubts about Zach. After all, Lucifer has been very clear about his motives and his goals, whereas Zach has used tricks and taunts and frankly doesn’t seem to understand the nature of God’s Love very well.

I wondered again if Zach wasn’t just tricking Dean the whole time. I mean, he can bend space and alter reality, so why not make a fake future where Dean sees the error of his ways so he’ll do what Zach wants? I’m pretty sure Dean was thinking this too. But did you think Dean was just on the verge of saying yes to Zach? I did. I was thinking, well, maybe Zach isn’t evil, maybe it’s right for Dean to say yes, and what would he be like as an angel??? He’d be glowy and white and perfect, and he’d have wings. So many fangirls would have been so happy….but Dean, in a brilliant turn of phrase says, “Nah,” to Zach’s request.

In the last bookend, Dean waits for Sam by the trestle bridge. In a sky filled with stormy clouds and with a heart, no doubt, filled with poundings and anxiety, Dean waits. Sam pulls up in a horrid yellow tank, but any car pales in comparison with the Impala, eh.

The scene is underdone and Sam is a ghostly papery version of himself, especially in contrast to the glowy and charismatic Lucifer of Future Days. He doesn’t know anything about that, of course, only that Dean’s decided to give him another chance. The scene plays like a reconciliation in a love story, except instead of a ring or a kiss, Dean gives Sam the Demon Killing Knife. There’s this moment, as Dean hefts the knife and flips it to hand the handle to Sam, that Sam jumps back. He’s almost out of his skin at that point, fearful that Dean will take it in his head to, at last, obey The Dad’s last order to him.

Sam is hurting, it’s easy to see. He’s all scrunched up and silent, barely looking at Dean for two seconds together. He can’t even find the voice to beg or plead or apologize. Instead, it’s surprisingly Dean who does the apologizing. Dean apologizes that he was wrong, and explains that they are each others weakness, they are also each other’s strengths, which is usually the way it goes. In the best stories, anyway.

Here’s what I think. Dean realizes that the Future Dean’s mistake was not in not taking on the job of the Archangel Michael’s meatsuit, but in letting Sam go in the first place. Zach is so wrong it’s not even funny. It’s not obedience to God that will win the day, God gave man free will, after all, and since He doesn’t make mistakes, He’s not going to take it back on a whim.

Free will means that the power of Love will win the day, along with faith and hope. We’ve seen all of these in various guises. Is Show reading the bible that closely? I wouldn’t be surprised. Last ep, Sam was revived by the promise of hope, and it was the destruction of faith in each other that tore the brothers apart. Some stories just never get old, do they. That’s the whole issue right there, their relationship and how it makes them strong. Two halves of a whole, they keep each other human.

As for this ep, it was so good, it’s on my top ten list (right up there with Mystery Spot, In the Beginning, A Supernatural Christmas, etc.), and there it will stay until the day I die. And it wasn’t just Future Dean’s wearing that thigh holster, honest!!

Sylvia Bond is a ten-year technical writing veteran with too many degrees under her belt to count. She lives in Colorado, but does not ski, preferring instead to spend her money and time at the annual Great American Beer Festival, taking road trips across the United States, and reading historical fiction from the comfort of her fluffy green arm chair. She has been involved in fandom since 1993 and been writing fanfic since approximately 1993. What she finds most amazing about fandom (besides the open heartedness of fans and the sheer amount of creativity) is how visible fandom has become. “In my day,” she says, “we had to hide behind P.O. boxes to get fanfic. But nowadays, people wear t-shirts that shout their affiliation and share their shiny toys on the internet.” It’s a wonderful world.

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