The Road So Far

Well, Supernatural has begun its final ride. At the end of last season, we saw Chuck AKA God AKA possibly the universe’s biggest douchenozzle open the gates of hell and empty, well, all of it.

Tonight, the Winchesters are armed with shotguns and a bone to pick with the Almighty and oh boy, here we go.

Synopsis

The premiere picks up immediately where last season left us–the Winchesters are in a graveyard fighting off a horde of zombies. Jack is dead, and the Winchesters carry his body into a crypt where they bolt the door and, well, basically wait to die.

Enter a demon into Jack’s body (I don’t remember his name, but Dean named him “Crowley Jr.” so that is what I shall to refer to him as henceforth). Crowley Jr. says he can get them out of there with a bit of grave dirt and angel blood, easy peasy (me, side-eyeing the whole sitch like WASP-y woman who has someone cut in front of her in line). Flash to the nearest town being inhabited by ghosts.

So. Many. Ghosts.

In a way, I’m relieved that Supernatural returned to its roots with a good ole fashioned creepy ghost story. Okay, well, it’s a little more literal than that. SPN returns to its roots quite literally in bringing back the Woman in White, the creepy clown (eww), Lizzie Borden, and Bloody Mary.

While Sam and Castiel team up to evacuate the town, Dean and Crowley Jr. make a plan to salt circle the entire town through some kind of black magic (tbh, they kinda lost me here but meh, I’ll go with it). Things come to a head when Sam is injured by the creepy clown ghost, and we see for the first time that Sam has a wound that cannot be cured by Castiel’s grace (more on that in a minute).

They throw up the salt circle around the town (thanks to a human heart ripped out by Crowley Jr. a la Regina Mills) and save the day! The end….is just the beginning. DUN DUN DUN.

THe BIg Picture

Last night…errr…two nights ago? (It’s the middle of the night and I’m not sure what day it is anymore), Misha tweeted this video leading up to the premiere:

This, paired with Chuck’s ominous proclamation This is the beginning of the end, really hearkens back to season 5 AND, most significantly, the episode “The End.” The title card for this final season looks like the Empty had a baby with the Croatoan virus, and in this clip tweeted by Misha, we see Sam wearing a white suit.

Samifer rising, anyone?

While this storyline has been done before, I think revisiting the original arc for the series is a smart decision because it takes the audience to a place we know and care about. However, I think this will come about because of Sam’s impulsive decision to shoot God with a gun that once used, kills the shooter too. This choice will lead him to accepting Lucifer because it is also the only way to save his life. That part of the storyline I’m definitely okay with never repeating (hello, season 9) unless they bring back Tahmoh Penikett.

What I would like to see the show return to is the concept of free will v. predestination. They strongly implied it in the season 14 finale, and they’ve set it up to make a home run on the concept if they have the right writer up to bat (Bobo, you’re my only hope here). Dean and Sam weren’t too happy about Chuck orchestrating every bad thing that has ever happened to them, and now that they’ve exercised their free will by shooting God, well, this could go pretty much anywhere. Or, is this the time to go super-meta and imply that Chuck knew that they were going to shoot him and so HE set up this final ride for them in an attempt to write a magnum opus, the ultimate best-seller, the Harry Potter book-7 equivalent for Supernatural?

Or, is this the rambling of a blogger who is typing this on 4 hours of sleep, a little bit of wine, and a lot of feels? …I’ll get back to you on that.

The premiere of the final season brought a lot of nostalgia, a lot of unanswered questions, and well, a lot of nostalgia. On their final ride, the boys are going to face every bad guy they’ve ever faced again because it looks like Chuck emptied hell and all 3 billion souls inside of it.

What does this mean? Well, it means we will see a lot of familiar faces, and not all of them may be evil. Perhaps Chuck’s temper tantrum closed Heaven as well as Hell…and this could mean that Ellen and Jo could return, and possibly a slew of other Winchester allies *cough*the original Charlie Bradbury*cough*. I’m beginning to think that season 15 will be a Minnesota goodbye, which–I have on good authority–can actually take 8-9 months to complete. Every week, we will probably bid farewell to some supporting character, building up in importance until we reach Team Free Will and then, at last, the brothers. I can see the heartstrings being tugged even now, and while I am glad that the boys are ending the show on their own decision, it’s more than a little painful to know that if a character dies, they’re probably going to stay dead. Forever.

I jokingly said a while back that we should place bets on who would survive Supernatural, but now I feel like the joke may be on me. The Winchesters may survive, Bobby may survive, hell, even the Ghostfacers may survive. The fans, however, may not.

“You and me versus every soul in hell, I like those odds.”

Until, next week, SPN Family. #wegotworktodo