Supernatural Fodder

Supernatural: Swan Song

We open, not with the Winchesters, but with the Prophet, Chuck. Chuck is telling us all about Metallicar's history.\n\nWhat's so special about a 1967 Chevy Impala? We soon find out.\n\nDean tells Sam that he's on board with Sam's plan. \n\n\"So you're going to let me do it?\" Sam asks.\n\n\"That's just it. I shouldn't be 'letting' you do anything,\" Dean says. He tells Sam that it's been a hard adjustment for him, but that Sam can make his own decisions. He doesn't need protecting, as much as Dean thinks that's his job. Dean says that maybe he's grown up too.\n\nDetroit rock city\n\nBobby doesn't find much in the way of omens, just some minor weather events, one in Detroit. Dean already knows it's Detroit - Lucifer told him so in a future that may or may not come to pass. So off to Detroit they go. On the trip, Cas sleeps. Dean asks Sam if angels sleep. Sam gets the point, Cas has lost nearly all of his powers. \n\nSam brings up a point that Dean seems to be avoiding - if Sam jumps into the pit with Lucifer in his body, Sam can never come back. Dean knows, he has realized it. He asks Sam if this is really what he wants. Sam says that he started this, he ought to be the one to finish it. He asks Dean to promise him that he won't try to bring Sam back. It's too dangerous, there's a chance Lucifer could escape. Dean doesn't promise, but it's clear that he accepts what Sam is asking.\n\nFace to face\n\nThe Winchesters, Bobby and Cas find demons in Detroit. They kill them and drain their blood for Sam to drink. His body will need the strength provided by their blood, so that it can withstand Lucifer's power. Sam, however, can't drink the blood with Dean watching. Dean turns his back, and Sam chugs. His grotesque meal finished, Sam is ready to confront Satan.\n\nSam catches Cas alone, and asks him to take care of Dean and Bobby. Cas tells Sam it's impossible, but Sam interrupts him and says, \"Humor me.\"\n\n\"Oh, I'm supposed to lie,\" Cas says. \"Oh, sure, it'll all be fine...\"\n\n\"Just, stop, talking\" Sam says.\n\nThe Winchesters find the Devil's lair, guarded by demons, of course. The Winchesters show themselves, and ask to be taken to Satan. They're obliged.\n\nCut to Chuck, narrating as he writes the final Winchester chapter. He tells about the Impala, and how it's history ties in with Sam and Dean's life - the plastic soldier that Sam jammed in the ash tray, still there, and how you can hear the rattling of the Legos Dean shoved in the vents. These little things, things preserved by Dean even when he rebuilt the Impala after the horrendous collision with the truck, as what really make the Impala belong to the Winchesters.\n\n\"It's the blemishes that make it beautiful,\" he says.\n\nInside, Lucifer plays with drawing on the frost on the glass near him. He says that most people think he burns hot, but it's just the opposite. He wants to know why the Winchesters were stupid enough to come to him. Sam instantly kills the demons with Lucifer. Lucifer is impressed. Sam says they know they can't win, and he wants to say yes under condition that he, Dean, Bobby, and Cas will all survive. \n\n\"Oh, please,\" Lucifer says. \"I know about the rings, Sam.\" Lucifer isn't fooled. But Sam says it doesn't matter if he knows, it's the only chance they have. He tells Lucifer \"yes.\" Lucifer glows for a moment, then suddenly Sam passes out. Dean rushes to him, and Sam opens his eyes. He tells Dean to hurry, and Dean throws the rings against the wall, and incants a spell. A hole opens in the wall, with wind howling into the hole. Sam staggers toward the hole, then stops.\n\nHe turns to Dean. \"I was just messing with you,\" Lucifer says. \"Sammy's long gone.\" He chants, the hole closes, and he retrieves the rings. \"I told you, this would always happen in Detroit.\"\n\nAnd with that, Lucifer is gone. \n\nRevenge\n\nLucifer looks into a cracked mirror, in the bowels of a derelict room. People stand frozen as Lucifer paces. He talks to Sam, and Sam's reflection shows in the mirror. Lucifer tells Sam that he's not the bad guy. He wonders who Sam is angry at, Lucifer, or himself. He knows how Sam feels, how out of place, how he never felt part of the Winchester family.\n\n\"I'm your real family,\" Lucifer tells Sam. He tells Sam that he let Dean live, and that he will bring Sam's parents back. He wants Sam to be happy. \n\nSam tells him that he wants nothing from Lucifer. Lucifer asks him, what about revenge? He points out the people standing there - people from Sam's past, demons, all of them, reporting to Azazel on what and how Sam was, making sure the conditions were right for Sam to play his part in the Apocalypse. He says that he knows how Sam feels about them, and he feels the same. \n\n\"What say you and I blow off a little steam?\" Lucifer asks.\n\nNever say die\n\nLater, Dean, Cas and Bobby watch the news as it describes simultaneous earthquakes around the globe. Cas and Bobby are stunned. Dean is angry, he hasn't given up yet. Cas tells him there's no way to stop it, Michael will meet Lucifer on the chosen field, and the battle of Armageddon will begin.\n\nDean wants to know where this field is. Cas doesn't know. \n\nSam and Lucifer sit and look at a room full of carnage, Azazel's demons destroyed and bleeding on the floor.\n\n\"So, are we having fun yet?\" Lucifer asks Sam.\n\nChuck\n\nChuck continues his story of the Impala, how Sam and Dean used the car to travel between jobs, exulting in their freedom - going to concerts 1,000 miles away, driving two days for a basketball game, sleeping in the car, and just sitting and watching the stars.\n\n\"Sure, maybe they never had a roof and four walls, but they were never, in fact, homeless,\" he says.\n\nThe phone rings. \"Mistress Magda,\" he says. But it's Dean. He tells Chuck that Sam is now Lucifer's vessel. Chuck says he knows, he saw it. Dean asks if he knows where the battle will take place. Chuck tells him it's a huge secret, but that he found out anyway. Stull Cemetary in Kansas.\n\nDean knows it. It's just outside Lawrence, the Winchesters' home town. Dean asks if Chuck knows how to stop it, or even what happens next. Chuck doesn't.\n\nRoad trip\n\nCas and Bobby ask Dean what he's planning. Dean says he's going to talk to Sam. Cas tells him that he can't reach Sam. Dean says he has to try.\n\nCas tells Dean that all he'll see is Michael killing Sam.\n\n\"Well, then I ain't gonna let him die alone,\" Dean says.\n\nStull\n\nMichael, in Adam's body, meets Lucifer. They greet each other. Lucifer says that part of him wishes they didn't have to do this. Michael agrees. Lucifer asks, \"They why are we?\" Michael says Lucifer knows why, that after what he did, Michael has to kill him. Lucifer tells him that God make everything, so he made the Devil. If he made the Devil, he must have wanted the Devil the way he is. Michael is unswayed. But Lucifer says he doesn't see the point. It's one of God's tests, and they don't know the answer.\n\nLucifer tells Michael they should just walk away. Michael says that he can't, he has his orders. Michael says that Lucifer hasn't changed, nothing is ever his fault. Lucifer betrayed the family, and made God leave.\n\n\"No one makes Dad do anything,\" Lucifer says.\n\n\"You're a monster, Lucifer,\" Michael says. \"And I have to kill you.\"\n\nThey prepare to fight. But they hear an engine start. Dean plays Def Leppard's \"Rock of Ages,\" and drives to meet Michael and Lucifer.\n\n\"Sorry, boys, am I interrupting something?\" Dean asks.\n\nBattle\n\nDean tries to talk to Sam. Michael tells Dean that he's no longer the vessel. Dean says, \"Adam, if you're in there somewhere, I'm so sorry.\"\n\n\"Adam isn't home right now,\" Michael replies.\n\n\"Well, then you're next on my list, buttercup. But right now I need five minutes with him.\"\n\n\"You little maggot, you're no longer a part of this story,\" Michael says, and stalks toward Dean.\n\n\"Hey, assbutt!\" Cas says. Michael turns, and Cas throws a Molotov cocktail at him. It explodes into flame, and Michael screams and disappears.\n\n\"Assbutt?\" Dean asks.\n\n\"He'll be back, and upset, but you've got your five minutes,\" Cas tells Dean.\n\n\"Castiel, did you just Molotov my brother with Holy Fire?\" Lucifer asks. \"Nobody dicks with Michael, but me.\" He snaps his fingers, and Cas explodes in a shower of gore. \n\nDean tries to talk to Sam again. \n\n\"You know, I tried to be nice for Sammy's sake, but you are such a pain in my ass,\" Lucifer says, and throws Dean on to the car.\n\nBobby shoots Lucifer multiple times with the shotgun. Lucifer makes a small twisting motion with his hand, and Bobby's neck breaks and he falls dead.\n\n\"Sammy, are you in there?\" Dean asks.\n\n\"Oh, he's in here all right,\" Lucifer says, punching Dean. \"And he's going to feel the snap of your bones, every single one.\" He brutally punches Dean again, and again. He puts Dean against the car door, and punches him, over and over. Dean's face begins to swell and bleed. His nose is broken.\n\n\"It's okay, it's okay,\" Dean says. \"I'm here. I'm not gonna leave you.\" Lucifer continues to punch Dean. \"I'm not gonna leave you.\"\n\nLucifer draws back to punch Dean, but the sunlight catches the chrome trim on the Impala, and shines in Lucifer's eye. He looks into the car, and sees the plastic soldier, still stuck in the ash tray.\n\nA montage of images flashes across Sam's mind. The Legos, carving their initials in the car, driving, sleeping, practical jokes, hunting, driving, hunting. Faster and faster, with the final image of Dean fiercely hugging Sam.\n\nSam staggers back, once again in control. \"It's okay, Dean. It's gonna be okay. I've got him.\"\n\nDean can only watch, he's too badly injured. Sam reaches into his pocket, and pulls out the rings. He tosses them on the ground, recites the incantation, and watches as the ground begins to fall away around the ring.\n\nSam looks at Dean, and prepares to jump into the pit.\n\n\"Sam! It's not going to end this way. Step back,\" Michael says.\n\n\"You're going to have to make me,\" Sam says.\n\n\"I have to fight my brother, Sam, here and now,\" Michael says. \"It's my destiny.\"\n\nSam looks at Dean. Dean looks back at him, and Sam leans back to let himself fall into the pit. Michael grabs his arm, but Sam grabs Michael and pulls him into the pit, too. As Dean looks on, Sam and Michael fall, and then the pit closes, leaving the glowing rings behind on the ground.\n\nDean looks away.\n\nLoss and renewal\n\nDean sits alone, grieving. Behind him, he hears someone.\n\nIt's Castiel.\n\n\"Cas, you're alive?\"\n\n\"I'm better than that,\" Cas says. He touches Dean, and Dean is healed.\n\n\"Cas, are you God?\" Dean asks.\n\n\"That's a nice compliment, but no,\" Cas says. \"Although I do believe he brought me back. New and improved.\" He walks to Bobby, touches him, and Bobby is healed.\n\nDean looks at the rings in his hand.\n\nChuck narrates again. \"Endings are hard,\" Chuck says. There are always holes, and the fans are never satisfied.\n\nCut to Cas and Dean driving. Dean asks where Cas is headed. Cas tells him he's going back to Heaven, with Michael gone, it will be chaos. Cas believes the right thing to do is set it back in order.\n\nDean is incredulous. He says that if Cas does find God, to tell him that Dean is coming for him next.\n\n\"You're angry,\" Cas says.\n\n\"That's an understatement,\" Dean says.\n\n\"He helped. Maybe more than we know.\"\n\n\"That's easy for you to say, he brought you back. What about Sam? What about me? Where's my grand prize? All I got was my brother, in a hole.\"\n\n\"You got what you wanted, Dean. No paradise, no hell, just more of the same. I mean it, Dean. Which would you rather have, peace, or freedom?\"\n\nThen Cas is gone.\n\n\"You really suck at good-byes, you know that?\" Dean mutters.\n\nWrap\n\nDean says his good-byes to Bobby, giving him a hug as Chuck narrates. Dean and Bobby won't see each other for a long time, though Bobby returns to hunting the very next week. Dean doesn't. All Dean wants is to die, or try to bring Sam back. But he won't do either, because he made a promise.\n\nDean goes to Lisa's. She answers the door, and says, \"Thank God,\" when she sees him.\n\nHe asks her if it's too late for that beer, and she tells him it's never too late. He steps inside, and hugs her. \n\n\"It's all right,\" she whispers. \"It's going to be okay.\"\n\nChuck continues, as a montage of the brothers plays.\n\n\"So what's it all add up to? It's hard to say. But me, I'd say this was a test, for Sam and Dean. And I think they did all right, up against good, evil, angels, devils, destiny, and God Himself. They made their own choice. They chose family. And, well, isn't that kind of the whole point?\"\n\nThe final scene of the montage is Sam and Dean sitting on the Impala, looking at the stars.\n\nCut to Chuck in a white shirt, drinking, and finishing up his book. He types, \"The End\" and takes a drink of liquor. \"No doubt, endings are hard,\" his narration continues. Chuck smiles. \"But then again, nothing ever really ends, does it?\"\n\nChuck disappears.\n\nCut to Dean, sitting at a table with Lisa's son, while Lisa cooks. \"You okay?\" she asks. \n\n\"Yeah, I'm good,\" Dean says, and takes a drink. The camera pulls out and up to an exterior shot, and in the corner, a streetlight goes out. Thunder rolls, and the camera pans down. Sam, expressionless, stands staring into the window where Dean sits.\n\nMeaning\n\nSo we're back to where we started - Dean, alone. And what does it all mean? Is Chuck God? How is Sam back? Is it Sam, or Lucifer?\n\nI have no idea, but I'll wrap up the season some time next week with some thoughts.\n\n