SUPERNATURAL Recap: Season Finale Fizzles

Season 11. Episode 23 “Alpha and Omega”
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
Written by Andrew Dabb

The season ends not with a bang, but a whimper. Actually, it’s a lot better that way because a bang would have killed Dean (Jensen Ackles)! Still, it was not the best season finale ever, especially after last week’s exciting build up.

The failure to lock up Amara (Emily Swallow) left everyone feeling defeated and God (Rob Benedict) dying. Lucifer was cast out of Castiel (Misha Collins) during the battle, which we saw when bright light came streaming out of him in last week’s ep. Interesting that it was light, but Lucifer is an archangel, not a demon. Rowena (Ruth Connell) alerts everyone to what’s happening to the sun. It’s dimming, not going supernova.

A remorseful Amara walks around a beautiful park, touching flowers and killing them.

Dean goes for the beer but Sam (Jared Padalecki) wants to brainstorm. Castiel and Dean leave in the Impala, which gives them a moment to talk. Cas is remorseful for letting Lucifer use his vessel, mostly because it didn’t work. Dean forgives him and calls him a brother.

We see a tall cool blonde (Elizabeth Blackmore). She is a Woman of Letters from London. She has a secret lair that has pictures of Sam and Dean getting arrested, etc. Dean is making a face in one of them. This is not good. The Men of Letters should be paying attention to what the bad guys are doing, not following Sam and Dean. Evidently the old men think killing the sun has gone a bit too far, blame Sam and Dean, and are sending her to Lebanon, Kansas (population 218) to take care of it.

The gang decide that they have to kill Amara. Since God is dying, the only way to bring about balance is to eliminate both. Chuck (God) admits that she is vulnerable to light. Sounds sensible. God is in no shape to bring up the ten thousand suns set to supernova that it would take. Cas suggests souls, since they are full of light and power. Cas goes to heaven to ask the angels for souls, Crowley (Mark Sheppard) goes to raid Hell, and the boys go to Waverly Hills Sanitarium, where they play ghost busters and trap the ghosts in a crystal. Dean does a perfect imitation of Rowena, by the way. Hysterical.

Unfortunately the boys are the only ones who make their quota. The angels have decided to lock up heaven and wait to die with dignity: Crowley’s lieutenants have taken souls with them for power. Billie the Reaper (Lisa Berry) shows up at the bunker. She saw them looking for souls and gets them all they need.

Dean is elected to carry the bomb of souls because he is the only one who has a chance of getting close to Amara. Instead of carrying the crystal, the power is transferred into him and he triggers it by putting his forefinger and thumb together.

Meanwhile, Amara’s had a talk with a little old lady about how you love your family no matter what. I think she can sympathize with being put in a nursing home.

Dean says his goodbyes and visits his mom’s grave. He tells people what he wants for a funeral and what he wants done with his ashes. God whisks him off to see Amara. She knows, of course, that Dean is carrying a bomb in his chest and getting close to him could be lethal. She says that she is not eating the sun, that it was a consequence of God dying and that everything would go with him, including her. Dean talks her into forgiving God. She teleports him there and heals him. He heals Dean, and they go off together hand in hand. Amara says that she wants to do for Dean what he did for her.

The rest of the company has gone to a pub called the Lazy Shag. Really? Is this what God’s safe house is called, because there certainly isn’t a pub called that in Kansas. Maybe it’s Crowley’s place. He makes comments about the help running off at one little apocalypse. They then do pretty much nothing. They see God disappear, then they see the sun shine brighter, and they are sure that Dean is dead. The music when they see the sun come back is very odd for Supernatural.

Sam and Cas go back to the bunker. The Woman of Letters is there and dispels Cas. She confronts Sam, who says she won’t shoot, but she does.

Dean is lost in the woods without a cell phone signal because everyone just left him there. He hears a woman calling for help. It’s his mom.

The finale is weak. It makes sense that Amara gets talked down. It’s the best possible outcome. But there are two distinct theories about what would happen if one or both of them die, and they can’t both be true. Amara says if God dies, all of Creation will die with him and she will, too. Chuck never says that. He has plenty of chances to contradict them when Sam goes by the theory that both of them dying will balance things out and allow creation to live. Does God keep quiet, or does he not know? If he’s keeping quiet, he’s doing it so Dean will get the chance to convince Amara to relent, since Dean doesn’t want to kill her. Or Amara is just wrong.

And then there’s the issue of the souls. Wouldn’t that kind of firepower heal God? It seems likely, since all that soul stuff came from him to start with.

What happened to all of the people that Amara ate? I’m not so worried about the ones she killed. They are either in Heaven or Hell, Purgatory or hanging around as ghosts. But the souls she inhaled are still in darkness. What about them? What about restitution for what she’s done?

I’m not sure Mary coming back is a good thing. She should be enjoying her heavenly reward, hopefully with their dad. We will see.

I’m sure Sam is fine. You don’t have God say the world will be fine because Sam and Dean are protecting it only to have him casually killed by someone who should be an ally.

I kind of wonder if they really were planning a series ending before they got renewed for a twelfth season. I mean, it’s smart to plan for ending the series if you have to. If Dean had died, it would have been exactly the way he wanted to go. In a blaze of glory with Sam well away from the battle. He got to say goodbye, planned his funeral, gave Sam the car keys and visited his mom’s grave. Maybe they got the actress so he could be reunited with his mom after he died. Dean has always thought that Sam would be the sole survivor. He talks Sam into picking up a brochure for the retirement home, but doesn’t get one for himself. He has always planned for Sam to go on without him. It would have been the perfect ending.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m perfectly happy to watch for another season. I’m also perfectly happy not to see Dean blow up. I would like to see him surprised by reaching the finish line in one piece. But the finale just feels cobbled together.

My favorite part? Rowena and Chuck talking about their children running around naked, and Crowley, overhearing them, saying he was glad the world was ending.

“Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness and darkness the right hand of light.” Ursula K. Le Guin

Supernatural will return in the fall on the CW.