‘Supernatural’s Penultimate Episode Rewrites the Ending (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 15, Episode 19 of Supernatural, “Inherit the Earth.”]
As Supernatural‘s penultimate episode begins, it truly does look like Sam (Jared Padalecki), Dean (Jensen Ackles), and Jack (Alexander Calvert) are all that’s left in the world, and it’s eerie.
But that’s just the beginning of “Inherit the Earth,” and it’s filled with twists that even God himself (Rob Benedict) didn’t see coming. (Plus, there’s a cute dog. Dogs always make everything better, albeit briefly in this case.)
Yes, Michael (Jake Abel) is back, but he’s not the only one of God’s children making a bid to help out in this fight. But which side are they on? Read on to find out.
So Very Lonely
When Dean joins Sam and Jack, he has to tell them about Castiel’s (Misha Collins) sacrifice. “He saved me,” he says. “Billie was coming after us, and Cas summoned the Empty. It took her, and it took him. Cas is gone.” And so is everyone else, as Sam confirms when he tries calling people only to get their voicemails.
As they grapple with what to do next, Sam blames himself for trying to rewrite God. (It’s not like God was a great author as Chuck.) While Jack doesn’t think they should give up, the Winchesters meet with God and tell him he wins. They’ll give him what he wants (one will kill the other, they’ll kill each other) … only that’s not what he wants anymore.
“I’m kind of enjoying this story now,” he explains; the two of them and Jack, stuck on the planet with no one else, knowing it’s their fault, “eternal shame, suffering, and loneliness. It’s deep. That’s sophisticated. That’s a page-turner.”
But are they truly alone? Jack, despite supposedly being powerless, senses a presence, and they follow that to a gas station, where Dean finds…a dog! “You’re the best thing that’s happened in the last few days,” he says, happily putting the dog into the Impala, only for it to vanish before his eyes. God salutes from nearby. That’s just cruel!
(Bettina Strauss/The CW)
The Devil’s in the Details
The next time Jack senses something it leads them to a church, where Michael is hiding out. The archangel took refuge there (St. Michael) when the rapture began, he says, and he’s avoiding using his powers because he knows God knows he sided with them against him. Their half-brother Adam (whose vessel he’s using) is “gone,” he reveals. “Exterminated by my father, like everyone else.” “Poor bastard never caught a break,” Dean says. (He’s right.)
Michael is 100% on their side after what he’s seen God’s been up to, and he even tries to read Chuck’s Death book (to find out how he dies), but he can’t open it. Just as Sam and Dean are feeling hopeless, the latter receives a call from…Castiel?! “I’m here, I’m hurt. Can you let me in?” the angel asks. But when Dean opens the door to the bunker, Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) is on the other side! He tricked them because he knew they’d never let him in.
The Empty brought him back to get God’s Death book, he says. He even has a token of good faith: a reaper, Betty (Kimberley Sustad), whom he kills. As the first reaper to die since Billie, she becomes the next Death. Michael, understandably, can not believe that they seem to be trusting Lucifer, and the two squabble about their father and love until Betty walks in, having read the book: “In the end, there is the ending of He who created the beginning and thus it will be — ” Then Lucifer kills her and takes the book for himself. He’s there on God’s orders, as his new favorite, but Michael eventually kills him. The archangel can’t believe his father didn’t reach out to him (but denies he wishes he had).
Sam gets to work trying to decipher God’s book and eventually comes up with a spell that will summon a force to take him out. But when they perform the spell, it doesn’t work, and instead, God shows up. Michael gave him the heads up, always needing to be his favorite, and for his loyalty, God kills him because of his “lapse in judgement,” siding with the Winchesters in the first place.
At this point, God’s had enough and decides, “I’m canceling your show.” Sam punches him (one for the road, he says), and then God decides to get his hand dirty. He keeps hitting them and breaking their limbs (the sounds! It’s brutal!) when they refuse to stay down (“that’s enough,” he repeats). But then Sam helps his brother up and they smile. “You lose,” he says.
Because behind God is Jack, who, with his eyes glowing, grabs God (who can’t snap his fingers to get rid of him) and does something to him before tossing him aside. Then Jack, glowing, snaps his fingers and heals Sam and Dean. “We won,” Dean tells Chuck. God’s book is blank. This was all part of plan B: They figured out that Michael would betray them (he is a Daddy’s boy) and pretended to have found the spell.
(Cristian Cretu/The CW)
The prep work to turn Jack into a cosmic bomb turned him into a power vacuum, and he’s been sucking up power everywhere (hence the plants dying around him). He took in the power from Lucifer and Michael’s fight, God killing Michael, God beating up Sam and Dean, and finally, from God when he grabbed him. And taking all that in made Jack unstoppable.
What Happens Next?
“This is why you’re my favorites,” God says. “For the first time, I have no idea what happens next. Is this where you kill me? I mean, I could never think of an ending where I lose, but this, after everything that I’ve done to you, to die at the hands of Sam Winchester, of Dean Winchester, the ultimate killer, it’s kind of glorious.” And he cowers as Dean steps up to him and walks right by, the others following. That’s not who they are.
Instead, God’s ending is to be just like any other human because his power isn’t coming back. “It’s the ending where you grow old, you get sick, and you just die,” Dean says, with Sam adding, “and no one cares. No one remembers you. You’re just forgotten.” All God can do is beg them to wait as they leave him alone.
Jack then brings everyone back (including the dog!). But it’s also time for him to say goodbye, though he assures them that, as the new God (though no one calls him that), he’s everywhere.
“With Chuck not writing our story anymore, we get to write our own. Just you and me, going wherever the story takes us. Just us,” Sam realizes when he and Dean return to the bunker. They’re “finally free,” his brother says. That’s something to smile about, as they walk out of the bunker (and their and Mary’s initials, as well as Castiel and Jack’s names are etched into the table).
As they hit the road in Baby, we see perhaps one of the greatest montages ever with a look at the series (so far) filled with the familiar faces they just toasted to in the bunker (“Everyone that we lost along the way”). The episode ends with Sam closing the trunk from the pilot.
If that’s the penultimate episode, what’s to come in the finale?!
Supernatural: The Long Road Home, Retrospective, Thursday, November 19, 8/7c, The CW
Supernatural, Series Finale, Thursday, November 19, 9/8c, The CW
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