SPN Season Finale III

[oselle]

I was away for the weekend with no internet access so I haven't read most of the comments to my two Season Finale posts, and I haven't caught up on the audience reaction. If I'm repeating what other people have said ad nauseam, forgive me and feel free to move along.

As I said, I cried. I didn't just cry, I bawled. Poor baylorsr...I called her at about 10:15 and I don't know why I did because I can only remember incoherently sobbing in her ear and then hanging up. Why wouldn't I cry? For all intents and purposes, what we saw on Thursday night was not the season finale but the series finale. That was the end of the show.

Wasn't it? The poetic mythologizing of the Impala (which I absolutely adored), the montages of Sam and Dean's childhood and all the past seasons (which again, I adored), Chuck's monologue about "endings" and of course, Sam's sacrifice...these were not the stuff of any ordinary season finale.

And I loved it. I ate it up. I sobbed. I don't think too many committed fans of this show could sit through those montages of Sam and Dean as we once knew them without getting at least a little choked up. I, of course, am not the type to get "a little" choked up. I have to plow on straight ahead to full-blown hysterics.

So on the one hand, I was very satisfied with that episode. On the other hand...part of me thinks that it was a pretty selfish thing for Eric Kripke to do. Yes, he created the show and he supposedly had this five-year Master Plan and I suppose he had the right to end it the way he wanted to. The only problem is...the show's not over. He wrote a heartbreaking, hysterics-inducing series finale for a show that's going to be back on the air in four months, and may very well stay on the air for more than just one more season.

Two things occur to me when I think about this -- one, what the hell are they going to do for the real series finale? Because anything will be an anticlimax after that. And two...because there is a Season Six on the horizon, "Swan Song" was kind of a weird mashup of Kripke's Own Private Series Finale (literally, his swan song) and...all this other stuff.

Stuff like Adam. Of all the characters I feel the worst for Adam, who truly got the shaft -- dragged out of heaven, only to be dragged into hell. But I suppose they had to find a way to get rid of him (and Michael). I suspect that if this really had been the end of the show, Adam wouldn't have been brought back and Dean would have said yes to Michael, if only so that he could throw himself into the pit after Sam -- which of course, he would have done without a second thought. It would have been a horribly bleak ending but it would have been fitting -- both Winchesters, going down fighting, saving the world. As it is, if anyone comes back pissed, it should be Adam and not Sam, who willingly chose to sacrifice himself.

Stuff like Lisa and Ben. I'm almost certain that these characters were never part of Kripke's Master Plan, which would explain why they were so hastily reintroduced just a few weeks ago. Kripke was going to write his series finale no matter what, but now Dean couldn't die, so they needed to give him something. I didn't hate Dean going to Lisa. In fact I was actually very happy for him to have a place to go and I thought the brief scene with him and Lisa on her doorstep was very moving and well played by both of them (especially Jensen, who does always cry so prettily).

But now we've got a real mess on our hands. Sam is still more "other stuff" that had to get tacked on, and as soon as I saw that streetlamp flicker I got nervous because it was such a recall of the pilot, as I'm sure it was meant to be. I've said before that if they bring Dean and Lisa together, they'd better not try the whole "full circle" thing and have the cycle begin all over again with Lisa now getting burned up on the ceiling just like Mary...and I mean it. They'd better not.

Because it's not just Lisa, there's this kid involved. And I'm sorry, this show cannot get away with killing a kid and it especially cannot get away with killing this kid. Whether Ben is Dean's biological son or not, as soon as Dean knocked on Lisa's door? He became that kid's father. Now, I personally think we'll find out that Ben really is Dean's son but that hardly even matters. From this point forward, we have to think of Ben as Dean's son, whether they're "blood" or not.

So what are they going to do? They could maybe get away with killing Lisa but Dean cannot watch his son die because Dean's brain will turn to jello. Frankly I don't even think he could bear losing Lisa at this stage. He's lost too much and he's trying to forget all that and just be happy with her and they can't take that away from him. But...they have to! They can't have Soccer-Dad Dean all next year, not with Sam hanging around outside waiting to pounce. So Dean will either have to leave Lisa and Ben to protect them (which probably wouldn't even work, because now they're both targets of that very unhappy-looking Sam under the Flickering Streetlamp of Doom), or -- and I hate even typing this -- Lisa will die and Dean will basically turn into John, just with one little boy in tow instead of two. Neither of these prospects is terribly appealing to me.

But see, that's what happens when you've got an outgoing showrunner who insisted on writing an ending for a show that hasn't ended. I guess in one way it's good because I really can't guess at how they're going to play this out without doing something awful, or stupid, or just awfully stupid. But I find myself feeling very weird about next season because...the series ended last Thursday night. And so just as Sam appears not to have come back "right," whatever comes back in September may very well be "wrong." Few things are worse for a fan than watching your favorite show turn into some zombie version of itself in the last season or two before it finally shuffles lamely off into cancellation.

*shudders*

So my last word on "Swan Song?" It was a wonderful series finale. Just at the wrong place, and the wrong time. This show is not over, and I do not want to watch it turn into a zombie just because the showrunner decided to bail.

Oh wait...one really last thing. They are never, ever allowed to fuck up Dean's face like that again. EVER.

Comments

[janissa11.livejournal.com]

I have to agree. The real kicker is this --

what the hell are they going to do for the real series finale? Because anything will be an anticlimax after that.

They really stole their own thunder, if this is NOT the series finale, yes. Emotionally, that montage, and the ending -- no, there's no topping that.

Oh wait...one really last thing. They are never, ever allowed to fuck up Dean's face like that again. EVER.

OH. OH YOU ARE SO RIGHT. TESTIFY. THAT WAS A MOTHERFUCKING CRIME.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

They really stole their own thunder

Well, Kripke stole their thunder, which is part of what I mean when I say that he was selfish. He decided to bail on the show so he wrote a finale for himself. Never mind that this show will eventually need a real finale that's going to have to find a way to top the impact of Kripke's premature one.

THAT WAS A MOTHERFUCKING CRIME.

It was also kind of hilarious considering that Dean has sustained many, many similar beatings and has never emerged with anything more than some aesthetic abrasions. Now all of a sudden, after five years of regular poundings, he gets completely disfigured??

Forgot to mention how much I loved Dean asking Castiel if he were God. After last week's scene and now this one, I have to say that I really like Awestruck!Dean. It's a nice change from Wisecracking!Dean.

[oxer12.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for mentioning the part about Dean asking Cas if he was God! I meant to say something about it in my own LJ, but forgot. I actually shed a tear just at that line, because Dean was so earnest in the way he asked it. And I would not have been sad if Castiel had turned out to be God.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Dean was so earnest in the way he asked it.

I KNOW that was such a fantastic little moment. Jensen just comes through in the clutch for this show time and time again. And as for Castiel, I don't know what role, if any, he'll have next year, but I'll sure miss having Cas and Dean together because they were an awesome team.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Personally, when I asked myself how they'd deal with Lisa and Ben I thought they might do better to just say that they couldn't make it work because Dean knows Sam is in hell. I mean, if Dean went down with Sam they'd be together. Now he's trying to do the one thing we've seen for years is almost impossible for him--to leave Sam in trouble. He's not even just dead, he went down into a pit with Lucifer. So what they could do would just have that cause problems, as if Lisa's now got a guy trying to be happy because he made a promise but who's obviously not all there.

I'm not saying that will be done well if they do it, but at least it wouldn't be killing her.

Btw, I also went away this weekend so I wasn't at work Friday or Monday and watched the SPNs that are on in the morning. OMG. They killed me.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

...who's obviously not all there.

I actually did think that Lisa's not getting a very good deal, because Dean's going to have a really hard time adjusting to any sort of normal life. But I worry that if they go that route it's going to feel like a Dr. Phil episode about Dean's commitment issues. Egads.

I wasn't at work Friday or Monday and watched the SPNs that are on in the morning. OMG. They killed me.

OMG, how funny...I watched Friday's morning's episodes and they were two of the best from Season 3...the one where Dean teaches Sam how to fix the Impala and then the Christmas special and coming on the heels of Thursday night, they just tore me apart!

[elvisglasses5.livejournal.com]

It was a wonderful series finale. Just at the wrong place, and the wrong time. This show is not over, and I do not want to watch it turn into a zombie just because the showrunner decided to bail.

Oh wait...one really last thing. They are never, ever allowed to fuck up Dean's face like that again. EVER.

Agreed so much. I think you liked the finale more than I did, but nevertheless the awkward place where it ended -- and WTF Chuck!God?? No thanks, KRIPKE -- really makes me nervous for next season. S5 was my first complete season watching it live all the way through, and its fits and starts nearly drove me mad. Plus, I'll confess, I am seriously bummed we didn't get an epic apocalypse (even on a Walmart budget) nor did we get Michael!Dean nor even a truly human Castiel, all of which I wanted to see.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, this was really not a great season for anyone to come in as a regular viewer. I honestly think there weren't even half a dozen really standout episodes. So kudos to you for sticking with it.

I agree about the lack of Michael!Dean. Kripke used to say that Dean would definitely have a major part to play in the mytharc but when all was said and done...he didn't. Unless you count opening the First Seal, which I don't because they made it clear that that job only fell to Dean because John had been too "strong" to do it.

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I totally agree--5.22 was both totally devastating and very weird. It really was Kripke's finale, in the way it short-circuited things back to the concerns of S1-2, with an overlay of stuff from the past two years, but ignoring a lot of the plot arcs that seemed central to S4-5 (more egregiously, poor old Cas...).

But in so far as it went back to the things (and by things, you know I mean emotions, not plot points *g*) that made the first couple of seasons so compelling, it was awesome....

Also weird: even though, like you said, it seemed like it wrapped things up with nowhere for S6 to go, there's been a crazy outpouring of fic. Mostly of the fix-it variety, I guess, but still, it's been much more of a spur to creativity than 4.22, imo.

And yes--I really cannot stand the idea of Ben and Lisa dying. I'd kinda be on board with soccer-dad!Dean myself, but I guess I would say that *g*

[oselle.livejournal.com]

You wanna talk fic? Some part of me was crazily hoping that the slow-burn Croatoan apocalypse we saw in "The End" really would be the foundation for next season. I personally think "The End" was just about one of the best episodes this show has ever cranked out and it could have provided as much fodder for Season Six as it's did for fic. Not to mention it would have been one hell of a ballsy thing for the show to do. Which is probably why it never even crossed their minds. I know for certain it never crossed Kripke's -- he was clearly hell-bent on writing the series finale of his dreams. Unfortunately while indulging himself he also managed to stick it to the show just as he was abandoning it.

I have major issues with Kripke's creative vision and apparently laid-back showrunning style, and at one time I might have thought that his departure could be a good thing for SPN. But now I just feel like he dumped the show because he couldn't think of anything else to do with it. He wrote his finale and then winked out like Chuck, leaving the whole damn thing in Sera Gamble's hands and I just can't imagine her taking the show in any particularly exciting direction. It's really difficult for any show to thrive once the creator leaves, and while I don't think Kripke was exactly spectacular at his job, I'd still rather have him running things if only because that would at least sustain the feel of the show. So yeah, I think S6 is going to be really weird and I'm really kind of annoyed that the show's creator just wasn't creative enough to stick around for another season or two.

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

No, I don't have much faith in SG either...But I am kind of curious about S6--there have been some vague spoilers already--don't know if you go in for that sort of thing...

So, S5 was kind of crappy and exhausting with (to my count) ~4-5 wonderful episodes out of 22...And the amazing fic produced out of 5.04 (and I think there'll be some from 5.22 too). There's a moral in there, probably....

You're going to write something, y/y?

[oselle.livejournal.com]

4-5 wonderful episodes out of 22

I was doing a count for myself of how many really good episodes came out of this season and I think I got about four myself. There was "The End" (4), of course, possibly one of the best episodes of this entire series. Then there was that agonizing five-episode stretch of totally disposable stupidity until we got to "Abandon All Hope" (10). Followed by two months of hiatus. We finally got another good one with "The Song Remains the Same" (13). Then another six weeks of hiatus. There wasn't much to get excited about until "Point of No Return" (18)...and that was pretty much it, IMO. So yeah, four episodes.

Of course, 5:19 DID have the Friskies commercial.

Am I going to write something off of 5:22? I don't see it happening. I loved the montages and Sam and Dean watching the stars but...that kind of stuff pretty much is fanfic to begin with, as far as I'm concerned (in fact, I consider the bit about Sam's army men to be wholly lifted from big_pink's Fire In The Hole.) Nothing in that episode really lit my fire. Not like "The End." That was just the ne plus ultra. Daaamn.

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

Yeah--those were exactly the eps I was thinking of. #5 was 5.22. (though people liked 5.14--more than me--and I liked 5.02--more than other people).

S4 probably had fewer stellar episodes--but it had fewer downright bad ones--and it had a strong emotional thread that pulled a lot of just okay episodes together....

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I honestly think that most seasons have about four or five really great episodes. Believe it or not, the much-lambasted Season Three has some of my alltime favorites.

Love that icon! This show has some great visuals, I'll give it that.

[lsketch42.livejournal.com]

I agree so much with everything you've said here, especially this:

"One...what the hell are they going to do for the real series finale? Because anything will be an anticlimax after that. And two...because there is a Season Six on the horizon, "Swan Song" was kind of a weird mashup of Kripke's Own Private Series Finale (literally, his swan song) and...all this other stuff. ."

Personally, I'm still conflicted about the finale, but I am interested to see where they go with Season 6. Though, like you said, I find it hard to believe the "real" series finale will be able to accomplish the emotional impact of what we saw last week.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely stick it out through Season 6, but I really think they've painted themselves into a corner with Lisa and Ben, and given Gamble's penchant for quick fixes to messy problems, I think the two of them are in for one hell of a handwaving session. As for the eventual real series finale, it's either going to be a total bzuh? anticlimax or a retread of this one. Like I said...it was great, but wrong place, wrong time. I wish Kripke had had the creative generosity to forgo his own desires and write a season finale that would leave us with a really good setup for September.

[layne67.livejournal.com]

But I love seeing Dean all bloodied and broken like that. Love it :))

I'm very disappointed with that Michael-Lucifer face-off. Even more disppointed that we never get to see Jensen play Michael. I was SO looking forward to that.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

But I love seeing Dean all bloodied and broken like that. Love it

No no no no no. Bloodied and broken is good...TOTALLY DISFIGURED is to the point of being UNRECOGNIZABLE is BAD. VERY VERY BAD.

I'm very disappointed with that Michael-Lucifer face-off.

As others have said, Adam's lines were most likely meant for Dean. If this had really been the SERIES finale, I don't doubt that it would have been Sam/Lucifer against Dean/Michael...and that would have been a whole lot more satisfying. Sam has no history with Adam and neither do we, so a showdown between those two brothers just didn't mean anything. And I still feel sorry for Adam and think it's regrettable that Kripke was so willing to subject this one character to so much undeserved punishment just to tie up his loose ends.

[animotus.livejournal.com]

They are never, ever allowed to fuck up Dean's face like that again. EVER.
AMEN!I couldn't wacth,seriously!*shivers*

I agree with you about eveything,I'm still trying to make a picspoam but everytime I start with the pictures of THAT moment I sniff and then cry and then sob and then....

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I just thought it was more grotesque than pitiful. Thank GOD Castiel fixed his face! That's the best miracle EVER!

[ghyste.livejournal.com]

I’m afraid the writing and pacing in the episode was so uneven and some of the developments so clunky that I didn’t get any emotional resonance at all, which is a shame, because this show can make me cry – it did in “Abandon All Hope” and that was over characters I didn’t have any particular emotional investment in. I do agree, though, that most of it felt like a Series Finale, with some bad editing and a couple of new plotlines shoehorned in at the last moment. Whatever the real Series ending is, it’ll be substantially different from what most of us assume was the original intent (Sam and Dean going into the pit together) because (IMHOP) Gamble gives the impression that she’s more likely to end the show with marriages than mortal injuries.

As far as Lisa and Ben are concerned, I don’t want them and their domestic trials and tribulations playing any sort of major role in next year’s storyline but, other than Lisa coming to her senses and realising that playing at happy families with a functional alcoholic who would rather be dead than living with her is not a good idea even if you ignore his family’s enemies tendency to wipe anyone close to them, I can’t see any way of getting rid of them that won’t destroy the show and/or Dean’s character.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I'm a little ashamed of how easily my emotional strings can be yanked by Winchester montages. It takes about 24 hours for the effects of that sort of thing to wear off and for me to start wondering just what the heck was actually going on in that episode.

Lisa coming to her senses and realising that playing at happy families with a functional alcoholic who would rather be dead than living with her is not a good idea

Yeah, you know...seeing Dean sitting there at the kitchen table sucking back some hard liquor with his mashed potatoes wasn't exactly the warm domestic scenario that the show may have been trying to portray. Are they going to get rid of Lisa just by having her realize that she might not want this guy around her kid...or by having Dean realize that suburban Dad is in no way a role he's capable of fulfilling?

[ghyste.livejournal.com]

Are they going to get rid of Lisa just by having her realize that she might not want this guy around her kid...or by having Dean realize that suburban Dad is in no way a role he's capable of fulfilling?

You see, those are nice solid reasons for them to split that wouldn’t damage either of the characters, but this being SPN I have no doubt tbey’ll go for something melodramatic – either Lisa being killed and propelling Dean back into the Hunting business, or Dean nobly sacrificing his one chance at happiness to protect her and her odious son.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

If they kill Lisa, you've still got Ben hanging around. They have to kill him too, which, odious kid or not, I don't want them to do, if only because they'd act all dramatic about Dean's devastation for about two seconds...followed by four weeks of har-har slapstick. If they don't kill Ben, then he's on the road with Dean and Dean essentially becomes John which, no thanks.

I can see them going the noble-sacrifice route, even though that would require us to handwave the fact that Dean's departure from Casa de Lisa would in no way protect her. But we've all gotten very good at handwaving over the years, so much that I think they now expect us to do it.

[cpsings4him.livejournal.com]

Poor [info]baylorsr...I called her at about 10:15 and I don't know why I did because I can only remember incoherently sobbing in her ear and then hanging up.

LOL - I am just weirdo enough that, for this purpose alone, I would like to pass you my phone number. :p

[oselle.livejournal.com]

You might want to check with baylorsr about what it's like before you do that :)