Supernatural executive producer Jeremy Carver previews what we can expect from the final stretch of new episodes of the show’s eighth season.
The return of familiar faces
Carver tells EW, that fans can expect more “blasts from the past” than only Sarah Blake (Taylor Cole), who we last saw in the late season 1 episode “Provenance” and will be reprising her role in episode 8×22, titled “Clip Show.”
“At least one more familiar face will appear. I can tell you that if you think we’re going far back [in the show’s history] with Sarah, keep going. We go back further than Sarah,” Carver teases.
As for the purpose of their return, Carver previews that “[t]hese blasts from the past are related to the trials and not in a very good way.”
Hellish confrontation
Carver also discusses how the final episodes of the season will resolve the three trials the Winchesters are trying to complete in order to seal the gates of Hell permanently. “Inevitably, this is all leading to a big conclusion with Crowley,” he says.
“I think we’re going to see Crowley rising to a new level of ruthlessness we haven’t seen before in order to defend himself and his kingdom, as it were.” To do so, “we’re going to see Crowley presented with a new twist on things that will effect him forever, as well.”
The ’emotional mark’ of the missing year
Carver also tells Zap2It that the consequences of Sam not looking for Dean in the year between seasons 7 and 8 have not been “put to bed yet. It’s something that will be dealt with in one form or another again.
“It left an emotional mark on our fans, and I think it’s left an emotional mark on our brothers as well. That’s, I think, the point of it,” he continues.
“I think the idea was two brothers that are maturing and changing, and may not always act or be the way that we would hope them to be. We as people are not as people hope we’d be, and just because we’re not what others hope we are doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”
However, though many fans have remained upset that Sam did not look for Dean, calling it out of character and theorizing that there must be something else going on with him, Carver says that the reasons Sam has given for returning to a civilian life were his real reasons. “What has been put to bed, in many ways, is Sam’s rationale for why he did what he did,” he explains.
“That said, it’s still an open wound of sorts. We’ll see that dealt with in ways that we aren’t quite expecting.”
Sam’s ‘reconnection’ arc
Meanwhile, with Sam being the brother who has been taking on the three trials despite being the focus of so much of the show’s mytharc already, there has been further fan outcry about Dean being sidelined. “I know exactly the debate you’re talking about,” Carver says. “I understand it, on one level… I just hope the fans realize that we’re not leaving anybody on the sidelines.”
Carver adds that “it wasn’t so much a debate [in the writer’s room] as to who was going to take the trials, as it was that we sat down and really looked at the arc of, frankly, Sam’s character in particular, this season.” This is because Sam completing the trials brings his journey full circle, from hunter to civilian to hunter once again.
“He started out reluctant to be even hunting at all, and he found this reconnection,” Carver explains. “The discovery of the Men of Letters and his connection to a line of family hunters that he could really relate to renewed his interest. He’s really been on this arc, of not just reconnecting with is past, but reconnecting with his brother.
“To me, it felt perfectly natural that it would be Sam undertaking these trials, for all the reasons he said in Episode 14,” Carver says. “I don’t think we left anything on the floor with that one. That was pretty much what it was.”
Supernatural returns with new episodes on Wednesday, April 24 at 9:00 p.m. ET on The CW.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.