The post below contains spoilers from Supernatural‘s Season 14 finale. You have been warned.
Throughout Supernatural’s 14 seasons, we’ve seen many “big bad” characters. You know, the ones they fight every season, who become part of the main plot to thwart the Winchesters and company. The original big bad was Azazel (yellow eyes), followed by Lilith, Lucifer, Raphael, Dick Roman, Metatron, Abaddon, The Darkness, British Men of Letters, AU!Michael, and so on.
So, with Season 14 wrapping up and Jack’s soul gone, many of us were left believing that Jack would be the “big bad” next season. After all, they had always said Jack could go either way – good or bad – and since he had been good since the beginning, and with everyone knowing what he was capable of, we were holding our breath as to when he’d eventually turn. The “accidental” killing of Mary Winchester, all but solidified it for me that Jack would be the Season 14 “big bad” but, how wrong I was.
In the finale of Season 14, we’re introduced to what is probably the “big bad” for the rest of the series. You’d think with the show ending next season, Season 15, that they’d have the biggest antagonist of all, right? Well, they may have just done that with Chuck. In the finale, God returns seemingly to answer a prayer that Castiel had sent out in an earlier episode with Anael, to help save Jack. As Cas was asking to be let into hell to study the cage, as a possible alternative to save Jack, Chuck appears behind him.
At first, we get a glimpse of the Chuck we love – dorky, with bad jokes. You know things are going to get serious, however, when Chuck pulls out a guitar (a la “Don’t Call Me Shurley”) and Dean grabs it and smashes it, intent on having all his questions answered. As the story progresses, we see that Chuck wants Dean, Sam, and Cas, to kill Jack with this mystery gun. He tells them that it’s the only way to stop Jack, but that it will do the same harm done to Jack to whoever fires it. Later, Sam asks Chuck about alternate universes, and Chuck explains that out of “all the multiverses, you two are my favorite.” Chuck then tells Sam that he knows where Jack is, and that Dean is already on his way to him.
In the cemetery, when Dean comes to realize he does not want to kill Jack, something in Chuck snaps. He talks about how, “this is not how the story goes” and we really start to see that all along, Chuck was about the story, not the actual characters in it. Sam and Dean argue that this is their lives, not a story, and “when will it end?” What happens next will forever change the course of the show. Sam, angry, picks up the gun and shoots Chuck in the shoulder. This prompts Chuck to get furious, saying, “Story’s over. Welcome to the end.”
While it wasn’t the villain we expected, for me at least, it’s welcomed. There’s no bigger antagonist to close out the season than Chuck. When we were first introduced to him, he was simply a prophet who wrote books about the Winchesters and seemed like a quirky, nervous human, and that’s how he is for the majority of the episodes we see him in. At the end of Season 5, we see Chuck disappear, which really prompted fans to wonder if he was supposed to be God.
This is the last we see of Chuck until Season 10, when he returns at the end of “Fan Fiction” after a play is adapted from the books he wrote about the Winchesters. Chuck appears at the very end of the episode, saying, “Not bad,” in regards to the play.
He returns next in Season 11 in what is my favorite episode of the series, “Don’t Call Me Shurley”, brilliantly written by Robbie Thompson. The layers of Chuck are really starting to peel back, and we see more of who his character is. In this episode, we see Chuck’s power, and Metatron says, “there’s the guy I know and love,” and that angels were terrified of him. He seemed to have a soft spot for Sam and Dean, however, as he helped them with The Darkness, and the boys helped reunite him with his sister.
Now, in Season 14’s finale, we once again see how powerful Chuck is, and we see more of that personality that Metatron mentioned in Season 10. Chuck has created countless universes. He’s seen many versions of Sam and Dean. It’s more apparent, now than ever, that he really never did care about them, it was just about the story. His story.
It’s an incredible twist to a show that’s surpassed 300 episodes. After that many years and episodes, I’m amazed the writers are still able to surprise us all, and turn a beloved character into an antagonist. This finale definitely sets up for another apocalypse, at the hands of Chuck, and we’re excited to see where the final journey of the Winchesters takes us.
How do you feel about the finale, and Chuck potentially being the “big bad”? Let us know in the comments below!
