Supernatural, the Final Season (Spoilers and Predictions Ahead)
By Jess Montgomery
October 9, 2019
Here is my not-so-secret secret guilty pleasure: I love the television show Supernatural.
In 2013, our older daughter was home on holiday break from college, and one night she wondered if I’d like to stay up and watch a show I’d never heard of—Supernatural—though by then the show had been on television for eight years.
I agreed, of course—when your kid-home-on-break wants to hang out with you, you say, ‘yes.’
She queued up Season 1, Episode 1, and I found it intriguing enough, but I didn’t expect I’d get hooked, until the last few seconds of that episode.
And I’ve been a Supernatural fan—#SPNfamily—ever since, watching every single episode at least twice. (All right, if I’m being honest—at least thrice.) I’ve even gone to a fan convention with that same daughter. (More on that—and on why I think the show matters so much to me and so many fans—in my season wrap up piece.)
Now, I’m excited to share my predictions for how Season 15, the series’ final season, will wrap up this fan-driven, television-history-making show.
To Borrow A Phrase… “The Road So Far” (SPOILER ALERT!)
I’m assuming if you’re reading this, you’ve also watched through Season 14, Episode 20.
As a mystery series writer, though, part of my process is to reflect on where I’ve left my characters—emotionally, physically, spiritually—in order to know where I need to take them next in their personal relationships and professional challenges. Or, as Supernatural would put it—“The Road So Far.”
When last we saw Dean, Sam, and Castiel, they had defied Chuck—a.k.a. God—by not killing Jack, a very powerful Nephilim (his mom is human and his father is the fallen archangel Lucifer). Earlier, Chuck has revealed that he has not only has crafted many ‘drafts’ of the universe (one, he cheekily remarks, has all squirrels), but Sam and Dean are his ‘favorite show.’ So, they’ve figured out that Chuck—God—has been manipulating Sam and Dean’s lives—for his own entertainment, because this is ‘his story.’ Neither Sam nor Dean appreciates being manipulated.
And Chuck doesn’t appreciate being defied, so he irritably snaps his fingers and kills Jack. A few moments later, Chuck says, “Story’s over. Welcome to the End.”
It suddenly goes dark. Chuck disappears. Then we briefly see Jack in “The Empty” with Death—a.k.a. Billie. When Jack asks, “What is happening?” Billie answers, “Yeah, about that. We should talk.”
Meanwhile, back on earth, graves open, and souls start to rise from hell where—by the way—there is no King of Hell at this point. Several of the creatures Dean and Sam have dispatched—including a ghost ‘woman in white’ from Season One—come back to life, or at least to earth, and Dean, Castiel, and Sam are beset by the risen dead.
How Will Our Wayward Sons Carry On?
The last episode—and earlier seasons—provide clues for my predictions for what happens after Sam, Dean, and Castiel somehow extract themselves from the risen dead.
Chuck, in the last episode of Season 14, stated he does not like Billie—he liked the ‘old Death.’ Billie—though she has had issues with the Winchesters—will also have issues with Chuck; by undoing Sam and Dean’s work, he’s undoing hers, as well. So Billie’s plan will be to, in alliance with the Empty, raise all the demons and angels to return to earth—led by none other than Jack.
When Jack returns to earth, he will need to face Sam, Dean, and Castiel. Sam and Dean will be unsure of trusting Jack, but Castiel will convince them to do so, and ultimately, Jack will become a forgiven and permanent member of ‘Team Free Will,’ as the Winchesters and Cass have been nicknamed.
Of course, raising the demons and angels will bring back angels who didn’t like Sam and Dean (such as Zachariah), as well as Crowley, the former King of Hell. Some might argue that Crowley won’t be back because it’s been rumored that the actor who played him, Mark Sheppard, was unhappy with the way his character exited the story. But since growly Crowley was such a fan favorite, I think he’ll be back for at least a few episodes. At the beginning of Season 14, Sam told some demons there would be “no new King of Hell.” Well, Crowley was the old king, and I predict he’ll be back at least temporarily—and that he’ll show up with a cheeky grin and say “hello, boys,” as only Crowley can.
This should make for some interesting interactions, and not just between Crowley and the Winchesters. He and his mother, the witch Fiona, parted on less than pleasant terms, and in the course of working to help the Winchesters, they will find resolution.
Billie’s raising will also bring back the Trickster—the archangel Gabriel—which should make for at least one funny episode. We’ll need a few episodes with comedic relief!
Not every risen angel and demon will happily join Billie’s plan—cue Lucifer and the angel Zachariah who will raise mayhem.
Meanwhile, the Darkness—a.k.a. God’s sister, a.k.a. Amara—will be unhappy with Chuck. After all, she was attracted to Dean in her season, and gave him back his mother Mary as a thank you for understanding her. She and Chuck went off to ‘work things out,’ and as much as she hated Chuck for locking her away while creating his worlds, she will be angry that Chuck is willing to, well, chuck his creations. I think her reasoning will be along these lines: wait a minute… you locked me away for eons to play with your creations, and just because they’re getting feisty now, you’re willing to destroy them?
Whereas it will take Sam and Castiel to convince Dean to form an alliance with the risen Jack, it will take Dean to convince the others to form an alliance with Amara. Ultimately, they will. Since she brought Mary back once, she will bring her back again, and Mary will willingly join in the fight.
But my gut tells me that Dad Winchester will not be back. John will be up in his and Mary’s heaven, waiting for her. (More coming on that.)
As all of this unfolds, Sam and Dean will learn from Kaia, from the alternate world that Sam and Dean visited in past seasons, that God/Chuck is destroying all of his creation drafts, one by one, because if his ‘characters’ aren’t going to behave, why not destroy them and start over? (God/Chuck was first portrayed as a writer, and as a writer, I can, well, relate to this impulse.) Kaia will know this because she will have tried to return to ‘her’ world only to find it no longer exists. Since alt-world Kaia killed our-world Kaia, she will have to confront Claire (the daughter of Jimmy Novack, the vessel for the angel Castiel), because Claire and our-world Kaia had just started a tender relationship before our-world Kaia’s death.
Once Team Free Will realizes God is destroying draft after draft, working his way up to his favorite draft—the world we know through the show—Sam and Dean will again be challenged, as they were in past seasons, to “play their roles” as vessels of Lucifer (Sam) and Michael (Dean) to fight out an epic battle.
But Lucifer can reoccupy Nick, who is already all too willing to be Lucifer’s vessel. (Chuck could bring Nick back to life.) And… Michael already is locked away in a cage in hell, occupying none other than Adam—son of John Winchester, and Sam and Dean’s half-brother. Chuck will convince Lucifer/Nick and Michael/Adam to work with him to destroy these worlds—and start over elsewhere. After all, in an earlier season, Lucifer/Nick was all too happy to let alt-world Michael come to destroy our Supernatural world, even asking Jack to come with him to other places in the universe. (Cue at least one scene where, rejected at first by Dean, Jack is tempted to join forces with dear old dad/Lucifer/Nick, before deciding his alliance is with Team Free Will. I’m guessing Castiel—referring to what Jack’s human mother would have wanted—will be elemental in convincing him to make the right decision.) Also, how apt for Chuck to team with his fallen angel Lucifer and a human given the name “Adam.”
I predict at least one scene in which Dean says, essentially, “We don’t have a choice!” and Sam replies, “Dean, we always have a choice!” But ultimately, the brothers Winchester will reject this plan and, as Team Free Will, finally reveal to all of humanity what they’ve revealed to just a few individual humans over the years: that angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters—“all of it!”—are real. (Except, as pointed out in one episode years ago, Big Foot. Much to my disappointment. Anyway.)
I believe this is foreshadowed in Season 14, Episode 16, when the sheriff in this episode states: “Look, if those monsters are out there, why don’t you tell people? Give them—well, us—a chance to fight back.” Dean argues that not everyone will believe. The sheriff says, “So? Just record them, put it on YouTube.” Dean: “Knowing about monsters and fighting ‘em are two different things.” Sheriff: “So you make that choice for everybody?” (Oooh… God/Chuck has been making choices for Dean and Sam, and it turns out they are doing the same for all of humanity. Realizing this—a flashback to this scene is likely—will make Sam and Dean realize they must reveal the truth to the world.) The sheriff goes on: “Imagine telling them. Imagine the lives you could save.”
One reason I believe this is foreshadowed is that this exchange—in a break in a battle with the monster-of-the-week—took up too much time to just be a bit of throwaway dialogue. Clever that it was given to us several episodes before the final episode of Season 14, but I think it was very purposeful. As a writer, I know I don’t waste precious words as filler, especially on questions this major.
So ultimately, the battle to save humanity and the world will be God/Chuck’s very creations all joining together to stop him from destroying them—the ultimate in characters taking over a writer’s work (and Chuck was introduced as a writer, remember), and in the show’s theme of free will and always having a choice.
Before I share what I think the outcome will be, a few notes on loose ends: forget that Leviathan thread—or the British Men of Letters—being wrapped up. Every story, especially one this complex, has a few loose ends, and I’m guessing that looking back, these threads don’t particularly rate highly for the show creators. But what about Purgatory and Benny? It would make sense for Billie/Death to enlist the aid of the creatures in purgatory, but that’s where the Leviathans are locked away. As much as I’d love to see Benny again, I think he, and all of Purgatory, will be ignored because, as Castiel once hollered, “LEVIATHAN!”
All right, as for the outcome—here’s where some fans will dislike my prediction (and where I, admittedly, get teary-eyed.)
Sam and Dean must, of course, lead the final battle against Chuck and his henchmen Nick/Lucifer and Adam/Michael. They will realize that to win the battle, one or the other of them will have to—really and truly this time—sacrifice their lives. Dean will, as befits his character thus far, volunteer. Sam will tell him—no. We do this together or not at all.
And so, together, the Winchester boys will freely choose to sacrifice their lives to save Chuck’s creation, while destroying Chuck.
It doesn’t make sense to me that one or the other of the Winchester brothers would be destroyed, with the other living with this loss. And it doesn’t make sense to me that they would have a happily-ever-after on earth, because would they really be happy living regular lives, after years of “saving people, hunting things, the family business.”
Meanwhile, Adam (I hope—poor kid) will live on earth, with no memory of having been possessed by an archangel. Castiel will become ruler of Heaven. Jack will be the new God. Crowley will be the King of Hell again. In winning the battle against Chuck et. al., monsters such as vampires will be destroyed once and for all. Jack, as God, will remove humanity’s memory of monsters as having been real, but leave the idea of monsters as creatures of stories, as they are for us.
Sam and Dean will end up, of course, in heaven, with Mom and Dad Winchester—happy with an afterlife that looks like a regular life, with no monsters. (Cue at least one scene of Dean working on a car.) Perhaps Sam is reunited with his girlfriend, Jessica, who died Season 1, Episode 1. Perhaps Dean’s love, Lisa, and her son Ben tragically died on earth, but they are all blissfully reunited in Heaven.
In any case, the Winchester brothers will, finally—to borrow from the show’s theme song (“Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas)—be done after bringing peace to humanity. They will cry no more and lay their weary heads to rest.
*Images Courtesy of Shane Harvey/The CW
See More on Supernatural
About The Hollows by Jess Montgomery:
The Hollows, Book #2 in the Kinship Mystery series, is a powerful, big-hearted and exquisitely written follow-up to Jess Montgomery’s acclaimed debut The Widows.
Ohio, 1926: For many years, the underground railroad track in Moonvale Tunnel has been used as a short cut through the Appalachian hills. When an elderly woman is killed walking along the tracks, the brakeman tells tales of seeing a ghostly female figure dressed all in white.
Newly elected Sheriff Lily Ross is called on to the case to dispel the myths, but Lily does not believe that an old woman would wander out of the hills onto the tracks. In a county where everyone knows everyone, how can someone have disappeared, when nobody knew they were missing? As ghost stories and rumors settle into the consciousness of Moonvale Hollow, Lily tries to search for any real clues to the woman’s identity.
With the help of her friend Marvena Whitcomb, Lily follows the woman’s trail to The Hollows―an asylum is northern Antioch County―and they begin to expose secrets long-hidden by time and the mountains.