Why Did Supernatural Kill Kaira Again

Thursday night saw the end of an era: the serial finale of the CW'southward cult striking and longest-running show, Supernatural. After 15 seasons, over 300 episodes, and innumerable grapheme deaths and revivals, the show that was synonymous with internet fandom civilization finally let its demon-hunting brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles), drive the Impala into the sunset.

Afterwards the Covid-nineteen pandemic interrupted its terminal season in the spring, Supernatural rounded out its last few episodes throughout November. And as it headed into the abode stretch, the evidence caught unexpected mainstream fizz for something barely related to the prove itself. The sudden attention was due in office to the total accident of the evidence'due south most popular fandom ship, Destiel (Dean and his guardian angel Castiel), becoming canon during the 2020 presidential election's lengthy waiting menstruum for results.

The coincidence spawned endless jokes and memes across social media. Only less tangentially, the show's second air current was also due to pandemic-driven emotion over the rare deviation of a show that had been effectually for so long, many of its fans had literally grown upwards with it.

y'all realise how big this is? spn finally making destiel canon on their terminal season? breaking twitter and tumblr? the longest slow burn down to ever ho-hum fire??? the sometime fans returning??? the old accounts reviving??? in the middle of a pandemic?? in the middle of THE US Ballot????

— nethmi (spn spoilers!!) (@lwtsvelvet) November half dozen, 2020

To anyone familiar with Supernatural's long history of putting its characters through the narrative wringer, Thursday's finale — titled "Carry On" in homage to the show's unofficial theme song, which we heard repeatedly throughout the episode — was both bittersweet and baffling, simultaneously surprising and anticipated. Nosotros'll spoil specific details further downwardly, just suffice it to say that at that place's a reason that Jensen Ackles, who plays Dean, said over a year ago that he'd had "then much trouble" with the catastrophe.

The end of Supernatural, nevertheless, was arguably much bigger than the resolution of its plot. Alongside older monster-of-the-week dramas Buffy and Angel, Supernatural arguably helped spawn a whole legacy of low-key ensemble fantasy serial. The testify'due south fandom was mayhap one of the offset to help usher in the mod era of geek culture: an environment in which artistic teams cojexist with its series' fans, evolving the show in harmony with them rather than in spite of or in directly opposition to them. This is a lesson enough of newer franchises have failed to larn, to their ultimate detriment, but that many others have also taken in stride.

At the same time, Supernatural and its fandom spent years locked in a fragile love-detest tangle, From 2005 to 2020, Supernatural wrestled with its own regressive tendencies and a pattern of flagrant misogyny. Throughout the series' many memorable meta-episodes, Supernatural originally kept portraying its own female person fans as creepy, embarrassing stalkers, while perpetually treating its female characters equally cannon fodder. Over its first decade, however, this gradually changed, shifting from open up derision to open up commemoration.

The result of all this was an ending to the plot that fans could exist satisfied with — though the final episode arguably wasn't the story's proper ending, which actually came in the episode correct earlier the finale. The series finale itself was — well, information technology was a lot, and it clearly wasn't designed to make every fan happy. And despite everything I simply said about how the show evolved its depiction of women over time, the finale didn't characteristic a single recurring female grapheme.

"Comport On" was a bonkers look at what a "happily always later on" might exist for the Winchesters. Information technology lasted near a day.

Carry on, wayward Impala.

The CW

Prior to the premiere of "Conduct On," the CW aired an hour-long documentary commemorating Supernatural'due south 15 seasons and giving members of the large ensemble cast a hazard to bid the bear witness bye. The special served the dual purpose of letting everyone fondly reminisce and jerking fans' tears; by the time the documentary'south recap reached the 300th episode, which showed the Winchesters having a loving family meal together for the start and but time, I was a little verklempt myself.

Supernatural actually resolved its big final season story arc in the penultimate episode, which drew praise from both media and fans for being a satisfying wrap-up of the themes of the flavour and the series every bit a whole. Nosotros'd followed the efforts of Sam and Dean to oust a corrupt God — who, in this universe, is an egocentric writer named Chuck — and deliver free volition to the universe one time and for all. In what might be considered a twist, that story wrapped upwards earlier the finale, leaving Sam and Dean free at final to live happily e'er after.

Of course, this being Sam and Dean, they keep right on fighting monsters — and it's a random monster fight, not long after their large win, that finishes Dean off one time and for all. That'due south right: Dean actually dies, not nobly or epically, but in an inconsequential baddie-of-the-week fight, after he gets randomly impaled on the butt of a giant knife. That very weird injury allows him just enough time to bid a teary goodbye to Sam, and allows Sam enough time to come up to terms with the fact that it'south really the final farewell.

Nosotros marked this section for spoilers, just actually, if yous thought Dean, with his perpetual death wish, was going to make information technology through the serial finale, y'all've been watching a dissimilar show. At its heart, Supernatural has ever had one core conflict: Sam'due south wish to exist able to live his own free life, abroad from Dean and the monster-hunting concern. Meanwhile, Dean has ever dreamt of the kind of peaceful existence that the prove has repeatedly hinted to u.s. that he was only ever going to observe in heaven. As Dean himself tells Sam in the episode as he'southward dying, "You knew information technology was always going to end like this for me."

The 2d half of the serial finale focuses on Dean'south arrival in heaven as Sam moves on with his life dorsum on Earth. We become a montage of Sam living his own life through the years, including fathering a son whom he names Dean. All the while, Dean enjoys a long tranquility joyride through the heavenly countryside in his beloved motorcar.

In the final moments, Sam passes away on Earth, with his son at his side, and rejoins Dean in sky after what's been only a few minutes for Dean. As the two brothers cover in an idyllic spot in the countryside — considering even heaven still looks like America's heartland — we're treated to a flyaway shot and a final shot of the bandage and crew, standing there with Jared and Jensen, thanking u.s.a. and waving goodbye.

The rapid pace of all this is jarring — but it's also exactly how I predicted that the evidence would terminate. Considering of the quick pacing and the randomness of Dean'southward decease, nonetheless — practically ignominious, with Dean getting randomly impaled, and with barely any chance for him to enjoy his liberty — it was destined to be controversial.

Notwithstanding, fans were mainly baffled at both Dean'south fashion of death and the many unresolved plot lines or absent-minded elements from the episode. One of these — Castiel — is a glum footnote that many fans will have a hard time accepting. Cas, an angel whose 4th-flavor inflow involved personally dragging Dean out of hell, had always been particularly fond of Dean. Two episodes earlier the series concluded, he confessed that "the one thing I want is something I know I can't take," before going on to tell a shocked Dean that he loves him. Cas so promptly yanked himself into another dimension in a sacrificial attempt to save Dean's life, but eh, this is Supernatural. We know death is never that permanent — and hey, there were still two episodes left.

Only Cas, though he somehow made it back to heaven, didn't reappear in the finale. Whether or non y'all recall Dean himself is queer, every bit many fans do, having Cas declare his dearest for Dean and never getting a response is a big plot thread for the show to leave dangling. Possibly the creative team decided to leave the confession of beloved for the fans to play effectually with on their ain. However given that the show's mantra has always been "family don't end with claret," and that Sam and Dean'south "family" has e'er included Castiel, information technology's a distressing matter to see histrion Misha Collins left completely out of the final episode.

Also missing were the women: Non one still-living female person graphic symbol made an appearance. The show plainly intended the finale to be all well-nigh Sam and Dean, but it brought their surrogate begetter Bobby dorsum; why not a few more friends? The other longtime characters don't fifty-fifty get to bid Dean adieu — Sam builds a private funeral pyre for his brother, and mourns alone.

All in all, this was an extremely foreign, even alienating finale. But so again, ending the series past being totally at odds with its fanbase is a classic Supernatural movement.

Supernatural's fandom was e'er more progressive than the prove itself

During election week 2020, an unexpected source of entertaining counter-programming emerged: the sudden social media noise generated when Supernatural kinda fabricated Destiel catechism. The revelation immediately revived the show'southward fandom, every bit many previous fans of the show who'd stopped paying attention in contempo years abruptly tuned in once again to meet how their dearest transport was doing.

The jokes flew that an unpredictable election week had generated the unlikeliest possible outcome of the evidence — a ship that about fans considered besides taboo for its famously regressive canon suddenly condign textual, and before the election results were announced to kick. (Additionally, an unconfirmed rumor that Vladimir Putin might resign hit the net at the same time the Destiel news did, turning many of the memes into an even weirder spin on Destiel somehow spawning Putin's resignation.)

But all of this celebration over the prove'southward overtly queer reveal, particularly every bit it seemed to come mainly from fans who supported democratic candidate Joe Biden, wasn't without a certain corporeality of irony. After all, Supernatural spent most of its 15-yr run delivering regressively conservative themes, despite having a large, relatively progressive female fanbase.

It took a long time for the evidence itself to admit its own core demographics, though. Throughout the series' early and center seasons, the writers consistently seemed to exist writing for (and in some instances almost) an imaginary audience of mostly male viewers. The show catered to the thought that Supernatural fans were akin to archetypal superhero or comic-book fans, geeky men driven by fantasies of becoming the hunky Winchester bros, rather than geeky women (and queer people) driven past fantasies of — well, you tin fill in your own blanks.

At the same time, Supernatural's omnipresent American heartland aesthetic wasn't exactly easy to align with its weird fangirl demographic. Its heroes sported a family proper noun synonymous with "gun." The show combined the urban fantasy themes — offset fabricated popular by its CW (so-The WB) predecessor Buffy the Vampire Slayer — with the denim-clad, muscle car-driving character tropes of Dukes of Hazzard.

In keeping with the theme of Sam and Dean every bit "good old boys," the show clung to regressive views of gender, race, and sexuality. Over its long run, it became notorious for killing off scores of its female characters, most of whom had been introduced as brief love interests for the heroes.

That wasn't necessarily misogynistic — plenty of other characters too died to provide more ongoing malaise for Sam and Dean — but that storytelling arroyo left the show little room to evolve in the directions that many of its fans desperately wanted information technology to. It didn't help that a romantic relationship between Dean and Castiel headed upward the list of unlikely possibilities that the show's well-nigh loyal fans wanted to see the most — or that the show had a tendency to queerbait those fans instead of truly taking the idea seriously.

The result of this core aesthetic conflict was an ever-widening disparity between the imaginary fanbase that Supernatural writers thought they had, and the imaginary progressive evidence that many fans were recreating for themselves on Tumblr, AO3, and other fandom social platforms.

Just over time, all of this conflict began to settle. It helped that around 2012, in conjunction with the rising of Tumblr equally a fandom platform, and the subsequent rise of interest in both SuperWhoLock (the notorious mega-fandom combining Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock) and Destiel, the prove's ratings miraculously started to increment. In 2013, the show's viewership jumped from the previous flavor by a total 33 percent amongst women age xviii–34 — something almost unheard of for a show then nearly 10 seasons into its run.

That ratings increment made it much harder for the artistic team to dismiss the women ensuring that it continued to air, and this new Tumblr-driven audience began to rapidly shift the relationship between Supernatural and its fanbase. By the fourth dimension the 200th episode, "Fan Fiction," aired in 2014, the testify had come around swiftly to a total embrace of its fandom as existence full of geeky, passionate women.

To its credit, Supernatural kept evolving from there: It took notable pains to expand its globe-building, add more female person characters, and give more than depth to the few female characters it hadn't killed off at that signal. There were definite setback moments, including two painful season x graphic symbol deaths, a spinoff airplane pilot endeavor that no one liked, and another spinoff pilot endeavour that everyone did similar — but which however failed to win a serial pickup.

Notwithstanding, it's incredibly revealing that the second spinoff endeavor, "Wayward Sisters," was centered entirely around a group of female person demon hunters, rather than being another recycled dude fest. Ultimately, "Wayward Sisters"' failed spinoff endeavor embodied the Supernatural producers' shortcomings rather than its artistic evolution. Producers couldn't comprehend a full story-verse built effectually women, and the bear witness continued to uphold a dudebro-centric worldview.

While Thursday nighttime'south controversial serial finale may have left fans consternated, the corporeality of nuance and evolution Supernatural showed over time was a testament both to how much love went into crafting the story, and how much mutual respect the product and its audience came to share.

How much of that consideration ultimately went into the finale is difficult to say. While there's still no Supernatural spinoff series currently on air or in the works, fans who've stuck with the show for fifteen seasons undoubtedly withal want more. Wherever Supernatural's legacy goes from here, the road so far has conspicuously been a unique i — and the fans who've walked it this far will brand sure it's not over yet.

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Source: https://www.vox.com/culture/21578512/supernatural-series-finale-recap-review-what-happened-dean-destiel-memes

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