The Supernatural season 11 finale, “Alpha and Omega,” brought the Darkness arc to a close.
Carry on, my wayward son.
The mytharc for Supernatural season 11 had a lot of potential: the force that was released by the removal of the Mark of Cain from its host turned out to be God’s sister. We returned to another sibling story — no surprise, since the core of Supernatural has always been the bond between the Winchesters.
So why, when the story between God and Amara was coming to its head, was only Dean present? Sam’s silent, tearful acceptance of Dean’s plan to go kamikaze on Amara felt out of character. And so was his willingness to sit in a bar with a dying God, the former King of Hell, a centuries-old witch and an angel and let it happen. Though I did enjoy the mismatched group hanging out. It’s so unexpected and kind of perfect.
Anyway, the core trait of the Winchesters has always been their codependence and their willingness to let the world burn to save one another. It’s been commented on repeatedly by outside characters. And when one did die, the other tried to turn the world upside down in an effort to save the other. The reason Billie (whose presence was a bright spot in the episode) was so adamant on sending them into Empty was this tendency to bring one another back, disturbing the natural order.
But Sam’s almost total silence in this episode is symptomatic of the character the entire season. I’ve shared my frustration with the writing of Sam in season 11 before, and my main point remains that Sam has completely lost all voice and agency in recent years.
While Sam used to be the character at the center of the mytharcs, Dean was the point of view character — thus putting both characters front and center. In recent seasons, Dean has become the mytharc-centric character. And I have no issue with that. My issue is that Sam did not become the point of view character as a balance. He has become voiceless to the point of silently letting his brother walk into certain death in tonight’s finale. And that is not the character I fell in love with all those years ago.
Dean surviving the encounter doesn’t make this any better. Sam expected Dean to die and assumed him dead after the sun stopped dying. The most direct parallel I can draw is to “Swan Song” when Dean agreed to Sam letting Lucifer possess him. But when it became clear that Sam was lost, Dean put his life on the line to be there for his brother at Stull Cemetery. Sam has become a shell of a character, and I’m more than a little bitter about it.
Let’s not forget Dean telling Cas that letting Lucifer out of the cage was the right move to make. I have no words for how wrong he was about that.
Moreover, the resolution of the conflict between God and Amara was completely and utterly anticlimactic. All it took was a two-minute conversation with Dean playing Dr. Phil for the two to decide to love one another again, go off on a sibling vacation and stop the world from ending? It makes the entire season, filled with the aforementioned potential, feel pointless.
(That being said, I really loved the monster of the week episodes this season.)
We’re also introduced to a new character: a woman from the British branch of the Men of Letters. Bela Talbot 2.0? She has a creepy Winchester stalker wall in her Men of Letters basement, and she’s eventually sent to bring them in. To some Men of Letters council or something? I have no idea. Anyway, she sneaks into the bunker because its security is worse than S.T.A.R. Labs’ or the Arrow cave’s and seemingly shoots Sam.
And in the final moments of the episode, Amara tells Dean she is going to give him what he needs most. (Here I thought she meant Sam, but silly me.) Dean eventually stumbles into a clearing where he finds his mother, alive.
Side note: Was anyone else surprised the Winchesters had never been to Waverly Hills Sanatorium? It’s supposedly one of the most haunted locations in the country, after all.
Season 12 will feature two new showrunners, one of whom wrote tonight’s season finale.
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