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Supernatural: Alpha and Omega

"You know family. Even when you hate them, you still love them."

Isn't it nice that Supernatural can still surprise me?

I expected explosions. I expected death. I even expected Chuck and Amara to cancel each other out. I did not expect Dean to facilitate a God family reconciliation, and I certainly didn't expect the resurrection of Mary Winchester. You sure know how to give your honey a goodbye present, Amara. Very cool.

The lead-up to the final confrontation in the garden was so enjoyable, Supernatural at its best, with the emphasis on character and mythology instead of blood and guts this time. And I'm okay with that. Our dear Sam was still in awe of Chuck and the only one still determined to save the world. Dean dealt with the End with beer. Rowena actively sucked up to Chuck (did she actually call him "Charles?" Did she dare to give God a pet name?) Crowley sat apart from the group, even more sarcastic than usual. Billie the reaper showed up with her smiles and threats as well as her assistance with the soul bomb. Interestingly, Billie and Crowley exchanged a loaded glance. Have we seen those two together before? Must be a story there.

The ghostbusting adventure in the sanatorium with the ghosts, the sawed offs and the salt was so wonderfully old school Supernatural; I grinned through the whole thing, and the magic word "Haggis!" made me howl. Dean saying goodbye to Castiel and calling him his brother nearly made me cry, not to mention Dean giving the keys to the Impala to Sam and hugging him, which did make me cry. (You know the drill.)

I wonder what would have happened if they hadn't gotten another season? Would this have been the end for Dean? Would he have blown up Amara, gotten reaped by Billie, and ended up in the Empty after sacrificing himself to save the world?


Instead, now we get to wonder all summer if Toni, the angry woman of Letters from London, shot Sam. And where Chuck and Amara went on their family vacation. (Hawaii? Paris? The rings of Saturn?) And what happened to Lucifer when Amara burned him out of Castiel's body. And what happened to Castiel when Toni hit the sigil.

And would someone please tell me whatever happened to Adam Winchester and archangel Michael?

Bits:

— "The Road So Far" set to "Carry On" still gets to me, even after all these years.

— Dean did a hilarious imitation of Rowena, although it was less Scottish accent and more Lucky Charms.

— The Waverly Hills Sanatorium actually exists, it's in Kentucky, and it's supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the United States. That ugly green paint looked familiar. I'm sure we've seen that location on Supernatural before. Probably more than once.

— "Dr. Nigel Pinfield, Royal Observatory." Great name. They could have just gone all the way and done "Pinhead," though.

— Loved the British Men of Letters "Wall of Winchester Weird." The family tree, the Leviathans. Toni has a small son. I'm sure that will be important, somehow.

— When the old woman in the beautiful CGI conservatory was feeding the pigeons and talking to Amara, all I could think of was that they'd brought in the Birdwoman from Mary Poppins.

— A few seasons ago, I thought they were working up to bringing Mary Winchester back. Maybe it was on the back burner and they finally got around to it.

— If Lady Toni didn't have such a hate-on for the Winchesters, she could be a huge help in fighting evil. Money, private jet, a lot more than an old bunker and an Impala. Okay, the Winchesters also have powerful allies. The powerful-est.

— The angels refused to help save the world. They chose to die with dignity. Dicks.

— Can a reaper really reap God? Aren't reapers a creation of God's?

Quotes:

Rowena: "So that was a gun in your pocket."

Crowley: "Well, that was a complete and utter dog's breakfast, wasn't it?"
Castiel: "I didn't know dogs had breakfast."
Dean: "Cas is back."

Dean: "If you've got something for me to punch, shoot or kill, let me know and I'll do it. I'll do it until I die. But how are we supposed to fix the freaking sun?"

Rowena: "Now, Fergus was bright. Walked before his first birthday. But he hated pants. Hated them! He'd run around the village, his wee banger just flapping in the breeze."
Chuck: "Adam and Eve were the same way."
Chuck and Rowena: "Kids."
Crowley: "I'm so glad the world is ending."

Castiel: "You do live exciting lives."
Dean: "Yeah, that's one word for it."

Dean: "Get your Casper asses out here."
Sam: "You know what? You finish up. I'll go piss them off."

Dean: "I want a big funeral, all right? I'm talking epic. Open bar, choir, Sabbath cover band and Gary Busey reading the eulogy."
Sam: "Done."

Dean: "Come on, you know the drill. No chick flick moments. Come on."
Sam: "Yeah, you love chick flicks."
Dean: "Yeah, you're right. I do."

Dean: "What about Earth?"
Chuck: "Earth will be fine. It's got you. And Sam."

Loved it. Season eleven was a strong one. Four out of four chick flick moments,

Billie
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Billie Doux has been reviewing Supernatural for so long that Dean and Sam Winchester feel like old friends. Courageous, adventurous, gorgeous old friends.

22 comments:

  1. This felt like the perfect finish to what's been an excellent season. I also loved the more low-key nature of it. At one point I thought we were going to lose both God and Amara, yet they both survived, Castiel is back, and so is Mary Winchester. Who could have predicted that ending?

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  2. Really liked Amara's character this season and thought this was a fitting end..Even the weird connection between her and Dean had a better pay off than i thought it would.

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  3. I really enjoyed this episode. It had me on the edge of my seat. I truly thought Dean was going to cease to exist so it made me extremely happy when it was the complete opposite. I'm glad he got through to Amara and hope this means she and Chuck will return in the future. Having God and The Darkness on speed dial so to speak might not be such a bad thing.

    Not sure I like this British Women of Letters, just waltzing into the Bunker. Yeah I know everyone else does, but they are either friends or frenemy's of Sam and Dean, so that doesn't bug me. But this one, just waltzing on in to their home, blaming them for stuff that they were pretty much guided into, whether it be because they were trying to do the right thing that backfired or someone was using them for their own goals (i.e. Ruby) and shooting at Sam. Like lady that's Sam Winchester, have some respect. He and his whole family have seen more and been through more than she probably could ever dream of while sitting in her posh London house with a housekeeper/nanny.

    Cas hearing that he's the best friend they've ever had and that he's a brother to them was long overdue. I loved the whole talk in the Impala with him and Dean and the mutual hug in the cemetery. I hope season 12 continues with this path of all three guys and their relationship/family bond.

    Great review Billie!

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  4. Sam and Dean will teach those bloody Brits a thing or two, I'll bet. Opening up the Men of letters Mythology more should be a good thing. Liked this finale, Amara is gone, Mary is back or maybe just visiting, and we got a bro hug. Hope next season is about hunting and not about Heavenly Beings, besides Castiel, that is.

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  5. I seem to recall that Billie helped out the Winchesters early in the season, and it was Crowley who sent them to her. He'd given her some item that she passed on to them. That's the only relationship link between Crowley and Billie that I can think of.

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  6. After 11 seasons, they can still pull it off!

    I still think they should end it already, but this season was really strong.

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  7. I liked this season a lot more than I liked Seasons 8, 9 and 10. But still, this finale left me very much underwhelmed and disappointed.

    At the beginning of the last episode, God was dying, the Sun was dying, the plan to take down Amara had failed and she was going to destroy all creation...the viewers were wondering how were the Winchesters going to get out of this one...But suddenly all these cliffhangers got resolved simply because she just had a change of heart at the end?? What was the point of it all?

    What was the point of having to sit through Amara's resurrection from a little baby to a small girl to a teenager to the adult woman that she became (which she was in the first episode anyway)? Why couldn't she have just been an adult woman all along? What was the point of her transformation if it did not lead to anything?

    What was the point of bringing in God? I mean, the episode with God and Metatron was very enjoyable and all, but God didn't really play much of a role in this season. He had one job...to lock Amara away and he manages to screw that up...Except for a couple of Deus Ex Machina moments where he saves the Winchesters, he does not do much here...

    What was the point of bringing in Lucifer? Again, I loved the episode just before the mid season hiatus where they raise Lucifer...but he really does not do much as far as fighting Amara is concerned. He uses the Hand of God on her and fails. Later, in the penultimate episode, he stabs a weakened Amara with a spear...was Lucifer really required for this? Any run of the mill angel / demon could have done the same...

    I also didn't like how Lucifer was portrayed as a sullen teenager (just for laughs) in the penultimate episode. I mean, Lucifer is someone that Sam is terrified of. When they raise Lucifer in the cage, Sam is trembling...he is unwilling to look Lucifer in the eye...he has tears falling from his eyes when he gets trapped in the cage with Lucifer. Lucifer is really, really bad news. But, in the penultimate episode, Sam was interacting with Lucifer as if it was an episode of Charles in Charge.

    What was the point of Dean's supposed closeness with Amara that they kept harping on every episode? It was all simply so that Amara would let Dean get close enough to her to explode the soul bomb? There was no need for this forced intimacy between Dean and Amara...I'm sure the Winchesters would have found some other way to get close to Amara...And he doesn't get to explode the soul bomb anyway...Talk about a lot of build up for very little payoff...

    What happened to the people and prophet that Amara deliberately killed for no reason? Is God just turning a blind eye to that?

    Also Mary Winchester, really? I mean, this cliffhanger would have had some emotional resonance in Season 1 or 2. But now, after all that had happened, the Winchesters (and the audience) were long over Mary Winchester's death. No one was asking for Mary Winchester to be back. It looked as if the writers were just throwing in this cliffhanger for the sake of showing something for shock value...Also, since Death was no longer 'alive', shouldn't it have been impossible for Mary Winchester to come back to life?

    Another cliffhanger where Sam is shot...I'm sorry, didn't we have one of those this season already? Why are they repeating story lines...

    Sorry for the longish rant, but as enjoyable as this season was, I don't think the finale was well thought out...To me, it felt as if the writers had painted themselves into a corner and resolved the tangled situation by just going for the most convenient, simplest solution possible...But I seem to be in a minority...everyone else seems to have loved this episode...

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  8. Satish, I think the long introduction to Amara, her human experiences as she grew up and her fascination with Dean were all build-up to her final decision that she would finally accept Chuck's need for creation and forgive him for imprisoning her.

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  9. Billie, maybe you are right, maybe it all does make narrative sense and I am just unable to see it...but to me, the ending just felt like a cop-out...probably I need to watch the entire season with fresh eyes again.

    Regarding the final cliffhangers, I came across an interesting theory that maybe Mary Winchester is not actually back, but Dean is meeting Mary Winchester out in The Empty. An alternative theory is that maybe Sam really does get shot and is stranded in The Empty while Dean tries to bring him back.

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  10. Satish, I think you're right that the Empty is going to figure into season twelve somehow. They've mentioned it too many times. And of course, there is my namesake Billie the reaper, who is determined to send Dean there.

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  11. They must be doing something really wonderful if you finished the last review of the season with a "Loved it. Season eleven was a strong one". How many times can a reviewer say that? Thanks for keep reviewing this show Billie.

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  12. "Season 11 was a strong one." How often does a show get that high a praise? :)

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  13. Yes, Supernatural is definitely not Smallville.

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  14. I agree with many of Satish's points. While I enjoyed it all anyway, and I agree Season 11 was a strong one (indeed, how often does one get to type that?), there was a sense in the finale that they had "run out of road", so to speak, and needed to wrap things up. If the build up of Amara being born, growing up, having the bond with Dean, etc., was meant to have her experience the world and humanity and finally come to a realization about it and her brother, it fell flat. There should have been more hints of this as the season went on. She was bad, and then she saw an old woman feeding birds and she was good? Too abrupt. And I also agree that Lucifer becoming a petulant teenager didn't work and undercut his menace. I believe they should have found a way to bring him out of Cas way earlier, and into his Mark Pellegrino vessel. I did like the idea of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" strategy they attempted to use to take Amara out. I mean, who are we kidding? There is a little clique going on between Crowley, Cas, the Winchesters, and Rowena. And if God and Amara were going to thank Dean (and by extension, Sam), they should have removed Billie's power to throw them into the Empty when their time comes. A better gift in my opinion.

    And I think we will discover that Miss Prissy from the London Men of Letters fired her gun at a light... or something else in the Bunker.

    All that being said, I will continue to love Supernatural, no matter what. It was a great season. And any time Jody Mills is safe, I'm good.

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  15. Overall, I agree with Satish. I'm hoping though, that this is just the writers trying to work up as clean a slate as possible so that they can pull off what should be an amazing twelvth season. Let's all pray. Pick a God... any God.

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  16. Juliette, that was kinda what I thought when the British lady showed up in the bunker. And I kinda hope Sam & Dean smack them down as much as the Scooby Gang did. I have a feeling our boys won't have much patience for people sitting on that kind of knowledge and power and aren't willing to step up and help when the world's in danger. Toni talked about some of the problems Sam & Dean have been involved in, I wonder if those problems would've been solved any faster if the Jolly Old Chaps of Letters had bothered to pitch in?

    I'm kinda feeling the same way about the angels up in Heaven, too. I hope next year's writers figure out what to do about those folks, they've gotten pretty pathetic. My first thought of course is that Castiel could get them back on track, but the show has gone down that road before. Plus, it seems like none of the angels up there like him very much.

    Man, I sure hope the writers have a concrete plan for what to do with Mama Winchester. Bringing her back is right up there with Spider-Man getting his Uncle Ben back in terms of improbability, and it appears to be a straight-up resurrection. No catch, no bargain, etc. But on the flipside, this show doesn't have a great track record of keeping female characters alive. Though to be fair, a lot of secondary male characters have bitten the dust, too. Which is a damn shame. Can you imagine how fun it would have been for Mary & Bobby to meet?

    Lots of potential fun for the upcoming season, but lots of corners for them to paint into, as well.

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  17. Overall, I felt this was the strongest season since season 5, even though I didn't like the way God was reintroduced because it wasn't driven by anything Sam, Dean or even Amara had actually done. I think part of the reason I liked it so much is that Sam and Dean have let go of a lot of the baggage that rendered their relationship so toxic in seasons 8 & 9. The idea of God's family requiring reconciliation fits nicely into the themes of the show as a whole. Also, the idea of darkness and light being reconciled called to mind a quote from one of my favorite books, Not Wanted on the Voyage, by Timothy Findley...and spoken by Lucy (aka Lucifer), no less:

    In the dark that followed -- Lucy said; 'where I was born, the trees were always in the sun. And I left that place because it was intolerant of rain. Now, we are here in a place where there are no trees and there is only rain. And I intend to leave this place -- because it is intolerant of light. Somewhere -- there must be somewhere where darkness and light are reconciled. So I am starting a rumour, here and now, of yet another world. I don't know when it will present itself -- I don't know where it will be. But -- as with all those other worlds now past when it is ready, I intend to go there.'

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  18. Winchester therapy for disfunctional supernatural families. Maybe they can be payed for that, would be a nice plate outside the bunker.

    Jokes aside, what a awesome season. And when Dean talked to Amara I was pretty much screaming "that's what I was talking about three episodes back!". I felt this was the only way to get out from an impossible situation with impossible odds.
    I think Amara started to fell in love with creation from the very beginning of the season. Dean, of course, but mostly nature. We had some beautiful outdoors shots this season,with flowers and lakes and forests. And nature's death is what triggers her into her change of mind, that's what make her understand how her revenge is doing nothing for her, in a "you don't really know wht you had until you lost it" kind of way.

    I loved that there were no punches, figthing, explosion and what not. It fell so peaceful, trhoughout the episode, and ot was original and refreshing. And none of the brothers have make some terrible mistake, this time, so yey for some grown up, mature, sane brotherly bond! Ok, maybe Sam is dead, but we'll deal with this later.

    On the down notes: Mary? Really? I get the motivation (the picture in Dean's room), I don't get the need. I'm not thrilled about Mary, I don't care about Mary anymore. We'll se, but meh.
    And I'm ready to hate those Brits with all I've got: where have they been in the last eleven years? Or, worse, since 1958? Drinking tea, comparing umbrellas, pinning cute boy's pictures on the wall? Cowards. But it's also great that we wilm have human villains next season, never happened before!

    All in all, I think season eleven could be my favourite so far, but I'm going to rewatch 4 and 5 to make sure.
    4 out of 4 family counseling.

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    1. I should really reread my comments before I post them. Between typos and plain errors I hope it's still readable.

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  19. And I forgot one thing: when the ep finished, my husband and I looked at each other and said "did they really had a win?". Ok, still, maybe Sam is dead but season 12, he's either not dead or won't stay dead (hope the first one), so yes, the Winchesters had a win! (Other wins-ish were season 2, season 5, season 7 and season 9, but they all turned ugly. This one looked good.)

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  20. I loved this episode. I have enjoyed the Amara arc for the whole season. I was fine with her changing and seeing her learn about the world and what people see in god when she has a different view. As amara said she has always loved god and I think that bird feeder lady words helped amara realize something. Now the mary reveal I am interested to see where it goes. Imo what the boys did in season 1 and 2 hasn't been negated as they still saved people and killed azezeal. also there main goal was to find john. killing the demon who killed mary was an extra. also mary coming back was Amaras thank you. After all the boys have done it is nice to see them get a thank you

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