Nerds and Beyond Staff React to ‘Supernatural’ Season 13 Finale

Briar
25 Min Read

Keeping with the theme of most Supernatural finales, last night’s season 13 finale was no exception and left fans everywhere a heavy mix of shocked and heart broken. We know most fans reacted the same way we did, and all of our minds were collectively blown, so we thought we’d take the time to sit down with our staff and try to put some of our thoughts, feelings, and predictions for the season 14 premiere into words.

WARNING: This post will contain spoilers from last night’s episode, so if you haven’t already watched, please stop here!

Here we go…

 

Tricia:

First of all: DING DONG THE DEVIL IS DEAD! I was with most fans in hoping that it would be Sam who finally got to kill Lucifer, but with the Michael/Lucifer showdown re-run I guess that only could have happened if Sam was possessed by Lucifer, and I am definitely glad that never happened. I am ultimately satisfied with Sam throwing the archangel blade to Dean and basically giving him the tool he needed to get the job done. Teamwork, and Lucifer is actually really dead, for good. So that’s a win.

I liked how the show continued to highlight the bond that Sam and Jack made earlier in the season. I don’t know that Jack would have sacrificed himself for anybody other than Sam, but I am really glad Dean!Michael popped in and stopped him before it was too late. I was not at all prepared for a Jack death, so I’m glad that was prevented. And let me just add, I did not know that Dean with wings was a thing I needed so badly until I saw it, but wow. I hope we get to see more of that next season!

I was absolutely not at all surprised that it was Michael who ended up possessing Dean; I think we all saw it coming and did not want to think it was going to be that predictable. I wish we could have seen more of the conversation between Cas and Dean in the bunker before Dean said yes and how exactly that went down, because I really can not imagine Cas would have just let Dean do it without a fight. We saw him protest, which was in character, but I’m sure there would have been more. I hope we get flashbacks from Castiel’s perspective in season 14.

As for how in the world are they going to get Michael out of Dean? I guess the plus side is that they already know how to do it – love can break through the possession mind control thing from when Dean broke through to Sam when he possessed by Lucifer, so we know that it can be done. I’m guessing they won’t replay the brotherly love thing all over again, so maybe a different type of love can break through this time? Dean was able to break through to Cas when Cas was brainwashed by Naiomi – can Cas break through to him in the same way?

I was really impressed by how different Jensen’s body language was as Michael. It was easy to see he was not Dean just by the way he held his body, his facial expression, and then at the very end, his walk. I am not at all surprised by that because Jensen has been knocking every single acting choice he made this season out of the park, but man, it was nice to see.
I can not wait for season 14!

Deb:

Can I just say: Wow! I should have kept count of how many times I said it while watching the episode. Or how many times I caught myself yelling “No!” at my TV.  Or how many times I caught my mouth hanging open as I stared in disbelief at the screen.

Not that the episode was without issues for me, the main one being the flying fight scene between Dean!Michael and Lucifer. Although, I am sure it was a total blast to film, it was too much Crouching Tiger for my tastes. Dean with wings however? Yeah, I’ll have me some more of that please!

Speaking of Dean as Michael, I kept telling myself and everyone else within earshot that I was not going to be ok with Dean in that role.  It didn’t make sense to me.  I could see no scenario where Dean would just say yes to Michael after all these years.

I couldn’t have been more wrong! By the time the episode ended, I had completely reversed my decision. The glimpse we got of Jensen as Michael took my breath away (and it wasn’t just the blue eyes, although that was another WOW moment for me,) it was so obviously not Dean.

Through his facial expression, voice inflection and body language there was no doubt that Dean had left the building. Even his walk was different! Bravo Jensen! I can’t wait to see how he fleshes out this role next season.

More kudos to Misha, who gave us a glimpse of an utterly devastated Cas, sitting in the bunker, knowing that Dean is gone, probably for good, with no way to find him.  For once Cas is completely at a loss at what to do next.

This finale set up season 14 perfectly.  I’m so excited to see what happens.  I’m very happy that our Supernatural world has its Bobby and Charlie back. I’m even happy that Ketch is still lurking around somewhere. Somehow having these characters back makes me hopeful that whatever hurdles our Team Free Will must face next season, they will face it together, as a family.

Brianna:

In classic Supernatural fashion, this was another fast-paced and hard-hitting season finale that had me gasping, yelling, and on the edge of my seat. As a whole we can celebrate the continued inclusion of Mary, Bobby, Charlie and the group of rebels from the apocalypse world into next season. Bobby’s desire to stay in our Supernatural world was a great relief as I love Jim Beaver and his portrayal of Bobby. He even called them “the boys” which already has me hoping we see Jim pick up a similar role to the late Bobby Singer of our world.  I would also be highly interested to see what Charlie and Rowena are getting up on their own next season. We are left with only a cryptic line that they are off somewhere together. Hopefully we get some insight into that.

The last thirty minutes of the episode left us reeling from the huge action scenes and several near deaths. Though it was painful to watch, Jack’s struggle to cope with his self-placed blame for others deaths was phenomenally acted by Alexander Calvert. Jack’s nightmares, negative self-talk, and naïve willingness to trust Lucifer to take him to the stars (presumably to where he can no longer hurt others) only served to strengthen my love for the character. Ultimately, he was even willing to sacrifice himself to save Sam, proclaiming “I love you, I love you all,” as he begins to stab himself rather than kill Sam as Lucifer demands. Jack is every bit the good, caring nephilim we were hoping he would be.

Ever the hero, even as Michael’s vessel, Dean swoops in (literally) to save the day. He stops Jack sacrificing himself and kills Lucifer. The pure relief and happiness on the brother’s faces following Lucifer’s death spoke volumes as Sam proclaimed simply, “You did it.” And Dean answers “We did it.” Sam’s utter relief was almost too much to watch, his facial expression was that of someone coming up for air after staying underwater for too long. However the joy is short-lived as Michael takes over Dean’s body and disappears. I must pause here to draw attention to Jensen’s amazing acting skills. He had only one line as Michael and about two minutes on screen, but we can see him change from Dean to Michael in two seconds. Two seconds and I was 100% convinced by Jensen that he was no longer our Dean. I hope he gets to flesh out that character and stretch his acting wings (along with his angel ones) in this new role for a while; he will undoubtedly blow us all away.

I’d also like to give a shout out to Misha Collins’ brief final scene of a shocked and “fraught” Castiel, as Misha put it. His painful expression of loss echoes that of Dean’s at the end of last season. It was brief but very effective.

That said, the writers left us to wonder whether Jack is now human. It appears his grace was not completely drained but he does not use any powers so we are uncertain. We must also wonder how Sam, Castiel, Jack and their comrades will locate Michael and expel him from Dean. Sam expelled Gadreel, a regular angel, but we are in uncharted territory when it comes to archangels and their vessels. Sam was able to very briefly overpower Lucifer in season 5, but it was unclear if Sam had the strength to fully expel him.

All in all, it was an incredible episode with only one clear plot line for next season. Save Dean Winchester.

Emily:

LUCIFER IS DEAD! FINALLY!! THANK CHUCK!!!

Well, that about does it for my thoughts on the finale. (Only kidding.)

Usually in season finales, there is a glimmer of hope the boys are usually heading into some big fight, and there is a beacon into the future. The penultimate episode may have ended on that vibe, but this one had none of that whatsoever.

From Maggie’s (temporary) death to Lucifer being his dick-ish self to a very sad Jack to Michael arriving and being, well, Michael, this episode felt like a constant beat down with no end in sight. Until the last ~10 minutes when everything got awesome. Literally. I was in awe. Jack almost dying, Lucifer FINALLY DYING, and of course, Dean!Michael. Eight seasons later, Gabriel’s prediction finally came true and damn, that entrance was INCREBIBLE. Now, Michael’s takeover was harrowing but inevitable. And while I did not enjoy seeing Cas and Sam’s faces, I am so excited to see Jensen flex his acting muscles.

The Powers That Be have set up a lot of great potential storylines for next season: Michael!Dean, human(?) Jack, The Ginger Adventures of Charlie and Rowena, dilapidated Heavan, and now that they won’t have their spinoff (grr,) Wayward Sisters. I thought after 13 seasons my interest would wane, but here we are. Supernatural, you reeled me back in. See you in October!

Olivia:

So, the finale. That ending was not as surprising as the writers thought it was. But I have to say, I’m excited for it. I was very against Dean getting possessed by Michael, but now that it’s happening, I’m actually looking forward to it. One, because, we get to see Jensen show off his amazing acting skills. This man deserves all the Emmys, so to see him play this new character is going to be really exciting.

Two, because, this is something that we never got to see in season 5. We saw Lucifer possess Sam, but we never saw Dean say yes to Michael. I’m really excited to see Michael walk the Earth and cause chaos, just how Lucifer has. Perhaps this AU!Michael will see an opportunity to fix Heaven and make new angels. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m very excited to see how this plays out plot-wise. I’m also really excited to see how we get our Dean back. We will probably get him back sometime this season, but I hope we get longer with Michael!Dean than we did with demon!Dean. I’m very excited to see how Dean eventually expels Michael, and how next season will be heavily focused on Cas, Sam, and Jack all coming together to save Dean.

Another thing I wanted to touch on, besides the big reveal of who Jensen was playing, was Dean’s speech to Jack about making mistakes and moving on. That speech was so well delivered by Jensen, and the speech itself was so nice to hear, and so true. I also love how Jack finally knew the truth about Lucifer, and finally called Lucifer what he really is. A monster.

Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW

Speaking of Lucifer, I am a bit sad that Dean was the one to kill Lucifer. I always had hoped Sam would kill him, with perhaps the help of Rowena and Cas, who were also victims of his. Having them finally get rid of someone who had hurt them so deeply, and be the ones to end him, would have been something so great for their characters. However, I think it makes sense that Dean killed him, since Dean sees it as his job to protect his family, and he was protecting Sam and Cas, and the world, from Lucifer. It’s also why I didn’t mind Dean saying yes. I hated the idea before. But given how powerful Lucifer was, having taken Jack’s powers in addition to his own, combined with Michael’s other vessel being damaged, I think Dean, as did Cas, knew Dean had to say yes. I think this also hurt Cas, knowing there was nothing Cas could do to help him or protect him.

All I know is, going into this finale, I hated Michael!Dean so much. But now, I’m beyond excited. Last season, i hated the ending, watching Cas die tore me apart, and I wasn’t excited for season 13. But this finale makes me so excited to watch everyone fight to get Dean back next season.

Nicole:

Well, lucky number 13.  This finale was something that I didn’t totally expect.  Yes, there were things that I had seen coming, but the way it played out was completely different than I had thought.  We got to see that the rebels are safe in the Bunker while Sam catches them up on current events.  And Rowena and Charlie on a road trip?!  I absolutely need to see the pictures from that! Jack has a very Winchester like moment when he talks to Dean about his nightmares of all the people he wasn’t able to save, and Dean confides that he has the same nightmares.  Thank you Jensen for making me tear up so early in the episode.  We see a lot more of Jack’s struggle between being good and being evil, and I was really worried that Luci was going to be able to convince Jack to go away with him.  Michael breaks into the bunker, (cue wire scene 1) and they fight.  Thankfully, Jack was able to hear Dean’s prayer and heads back to the bunker.

     Now, Luci has always irritated me for one reason, and that’s the complete inability to accept responsibility for his own actions.  He is CONSTANTLY playing the victim and that drives me crazy.  I think I would have been able to like his character a little more if he took responsibility, but that has NEVER happened.  So when he is crying to Jack about how everyone has wronged him, it just infuriated me more. This is when the first real twist for me happened, and that was finding out that Luci had made a deal with Michael.  Funny how those demonic qualities just keep popping up. Lucifer disappears with Jack and Sam, and we see how distraught Dean is at losing half of his family.  And so he agrees to let Michael in, but only if he allows Dean to remain in control.  At this point, I was SCREAMING at the TV, but Michael agrees and we have the Dean!Michael possession that has been hinted at by the cast and writers since the mid-season premiere.  And then Luci steals Jack’s grace.  It doesn’t look like he took all of it because the wound was still glowing when he sealed it, but it was enough to severely power down Jack.

Luci and Michael!Dean fight and Dean is able to kill him. HIP HIP HOORAY!!!  Finally, Luci is gone, wings still smouldering on the ground and it looks like there’s finally a win for the Winchesters. Of course, that can’t be real because then what would happen with the show.  Michael wrestles control back from Dean and flies off.  So we have Sam and mostly human Jack in one location, Cas devastated because he had to watch Dean agree to let Michael possess him, and Mary and Bobby not 100% sure exactly what is going on. The final shot is Dapper Dean in a suit walking down the street and the freeze frame of his eyes lit with grace.

The acting was phenomenal from everyone last night.  Mark was whiny and petulant, Jensen brought me to tears, again, Jared showed us Sam’s strength and belief in what is right, Alex played both the child and the adult perfectly for each scene, and Misha gave us tears, hope and finally despondency. He watched the thing he had been trying to avoid since season 5 happen right in front of his eyes. I’m excited to see what this will bring us next year and how Team Free Will is going to save one of their own.

Crystal:

I was especially excited for the Supernatural season finale because we were finally going to get to see what character Jensen was going to get to play. I truly believed it would not be Michael. I thought it was too obvious and predictable and that there was no way that the writers would take such a route. Well, I was surprised, but not in the good way. Recycling an eight year old plot was bad enough, but in an effort to keep with the “back in time” theme, Michael!Dean and Lucifer had an 80’s badly-dubbed kung fu style aerial battle. I laughed watching that and I’m pretty sure laughing at a to-the-death battle is not the reaction they wanted.

That aside, the rest of the episode was pretty enjoyable. Jack is alive and seems to have some of his grace still. Whether or not he can regenerate will remain to be seen, but I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t be able to. I am so glad that he’s alive. Lucifer is dead and while I will miss his snark, it was time for that character to be removed from the equation. Castiel is heartbroken because after all he’s done, his human ran off with another angel. So incredibly unfair and I hate how badly the writers continue to treat Cas.

I expect the next season to be full of Sam, Cas, and Jack gathering all their allies to come up with a plan for extracting Michael from Dean. If Gabe can come back (please let it be so) maybe he can get Michael out. It seemed like Lucifer would have been able to, but perhaps that was only because he had Jack’s grace. I kinda hope Castiel is able to get in there and kick Michael’s ass until Dean can expel him. My last thing is actually just a pipe dream wish. There is someone who knows a lot about possession and CW has been having his character all over other shows. Perhaps it’s time for the boys to find Constantine. Not gonna happen, but they’ll have to find information somehow. Fingers crossed that Michael takes good care of the suit he’s wearing until we can get Dean back.

 

So there you have it! Whose feelings did you identify with most? Did anybody’s reactions differ from yours? Anything you want to tell us about how you felt about the season finale? Sound off in the comments because we’d love to hear it!

Season 14 of Supernatural will return to Thursday nights this fall on the CW!

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By Briar
Briar is the Editor-in-Chief of Nerds and Beyond. She has been running the site since 2015 with the goal of being a unique, professional news site dedicated to all the things she loved - and providing fans with the best content available. Briar oversees the day-to-day operations and runs all of the social media. She loves all things Disney, Star Wars, Supernatural and anything tech related. You can follow her @thebriarroseee.
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