OK, disclaimer the first - I skipped to the end to post, I'll go back and read what y'all have said in a minute

Disclaimer the second - I was too tired to watch last night. I think I was asleep by 8. This is actually a fitting end as most of my years of watching SPN I had to timeshift for one reason or another.

Maybe a disclaimer maybe something else I'm not sure: I really disliked Inherit the Earth. It irritated me a lot. I guess I'm glad they got the whole Chuck think wrapped up in the penultimate episode. And the empty world was nicely evocative.

The Long Road Home was wonderful.

I didn't have any idea what to expect from the finale itself. It was really sweet.

I dropped in, because the mayor of Lawrence, Kansas read a proclamation yesterday (during her last full meeting as mayor) declaring the Lawrence the hometown of Sam and Dean Winchester.

Aw. That is so cute!

I hereby declare NO MORE SPOILER FONT IN THIS THREAD!!!!!! Everything is aired. And trying to read everything y'all spoiler-fonted just recently is making my brain hurt, for some reason.

Amy, the classic MotW feel of the first part of the episode made me really happy. The Urban Legends SPN was always my favorite, theology SPN my least favorite. Dean's death scene was really beautifully written and performed, and Sam's life reminded me of bothe the Six Feet Under finale and The Good Place. It's like, hm, I can see where they were making narrative choices rather than being immersed in the story, which I am not sure how to feel about, but they were good narrative choices so yay?

There was peace when they were done, and, really, that's enough.

There was peace when they were done, and, really, that's enough.

I heart this. Can you imagine all these years and they followed through with the promises of the song? Happy Sigh.

I keep thinking Dean finally got his brother "outside," because I'm really good at making myself cry, lately.

There is nothng about this ep I didn't like. Except the wig. J2 knocked it out of the park. I was exhausted at the end of that scene, and I have no doubt they were too, considering it probably took them a day to get it blocked, rehearsed and shot. Amazing work, really.

I don't know what show a certain faction of fandom thinks they've been watching all this time. And another faction, as well. Simply, show gave us *brothers*. And it was perfect, for me. I was mad about Dean insisting Sam live out a "perfect" life without him, but I understand it.

Someone on another site posted that she handwaved the ep as Dean's belief, in the in-between of dying and waking in heaven, or his belief in heaven waiting for Sam. That what we saw was the things he wanted for Sam. That what had happened was, the job in Austin, Sam shut down the bunker and dropped Miracle and the bunker keys off with Jody and went on the hunt alone--and didn't survive. That's why Dean's wait was so short. Whichever, I'm good with it.

And by the time I recognized Brothers in Arms I wanted to *cut* whoever chose that excruciatingly perfect song for this ep. Other than those things, I'm so good with this ep. It's kind of a miracle.

Brothers in Arms was so perfect. And I just love that song in general.

I have no idea what people are saying in places that aren’t here. Probably for the best.

The old-man wig was atrocious. Really, really bad. I wonder if that part of the episode was a last-minute decision somehow? But whatever. A wig is a wig.

Haters elsewhere are, I guess, enraged that Castiel didn't appear in the finale. This is me rolling my eyes forever. Otherwise ... I'm not sure? Like I said, for me it was perfect (and I'm so SO glad you enjoyed it, Bev!).

Despite the fact that I didn't notice they were wearing the same outfits they wore in the pilot (which, bless their hearts, all of them), this episode went all the way back to the original season -- Sam and Dean, hunting things, saving people, just the two of them, no big bad to speak of, no outside powers providing last-minute saves or complications. Just them, and the consequences of living the kind of life they do.

And for a goodbye? It was even perfect to me that they died. The truth is, they both should have been dead years ago (and would have been without those special favors and outside powers). That Dean died of something as mundane as being driven into rebar was completely fitting for me -- it wasn't some Big Bad, it wasn't a revenge death via Lucifer or the angels or anyone else. It was just ... collateral damage from a fight in an old barn.

Asking Sam to stay with him was also perfect (again, for me). Of course he didn't want Sam to walk away and leave him there alone! And of course Sam stayed. (That scene, man. Ugly crying doesn't even begin to describe it. They were so, SO good, and I loved that it was clearly harder for Jared to get through than Jensen -- when he loses it, he loses it completely.)

Sam's life from there on did seem afterthoughty to me, but there's only so much you can do in one one-hour episode. And in terms of seeing more beloveds in heaven, there's always the question of where do you stop? Even if COVID hadn't been a factor, you're never going to please everyone with who does and doesn't show up, and it's not practical to have every secondary character who ever meant something there. I was more than fine with Bobby being the representative of those characters, because ... BOBBY.

And I actually liked that it was OVER. This was the end of the road for the show, and while leaving a wide-open ending worked for me on Angel, finally giving Sam and Dean that peace (sob) was such an important thing to see.

What's more, for me, is that ever since Thursday night, I've been dipping my toes into old episodes, some I haven't watched in years, and really loving it. And reading old fic, and actually thinking about writing fic again (but most likely just thinking about it). I wish everyone could be as happy as I am with how it ended.

In the meantime, like JenP said (HI JENP!!), I love everyone in this thread. ♥

There is definitely a sense of--both completion, and relief, as at the end of a long span of work, or the end of a beloved's illness, or the end of a prison sentence. Fulfilling the requirement and the commitment, and being finally free. That may be an odd thing to say about a show I have loved deeply and to distraction, but an ending, closure, a clear--if teary--eyed goodbye is better than being cut down by bad ratings or a pissy network exec who wants more T&A onscreen. Or 17 year old males instead of 37 and 40 year olds.

Rambling, sorry. The reality of ending won't finally hit until fall premiere season and there won't be a new SPN season. That will be the final nail, for me. But even with that, there are constant TNT reruns, Netflix rewatches, and glorious fic of fifteen years of fabulous writers, incredible art by amazing artists, and also incredible graphic art by photo manip magicians. And vids! This fandom taught me about vids, for which I'll be eternally grateful! The fandom arts are endless. And the charities spun by this fandom will go on, and keep the show's name forefront in people's minds for a long time. People with stories of time on the set, or random encounters with cast, or other meetings with people who made the show over all those years will continue to come forward. We haven't seen the "end" of Supernatural. All those reaction gifs? Those will still be relevant ten years from now...they will have passed into cliche, if they haven't already.

We saw Whoserface on Lucifer recently and I pulled up Jus im Bello and had DH watch it with me to meet "Nancy" as I first met her. He'd seen it, years ago, but his brain doesn't have retention for fandom and film stuff. So the Netflix archive is handy. And failing that, I have DVDs. Including the first Paley panel. It still ticks me off the second never made it onto a Season set of dvds--but at least we have the "Jensen doesn't think he's funny" segment on YouTube.

Tl;dr--I'm sad, in a way. But as the Major General said when the constables kept singing rather than going after the pirates, "Mabel, they *don't* go!" The Winchesters and friends are still around--wherever I look for them, they're there. It isn't goodbye, not really. Though I am glad their journey's done, and they ended up together and on their own terms.

Aw, I love that, Bev, and you.

Thanks, Amy. You too (smooch)! And everybody in this bar!