Supernatural 15x20 - Tumblr Posts
Okay I think I may be in shock but the only thought I can form is that "I stayed up til 3am to watch that??"
Before I was crying because Dean died and now I am crying because of how terrible that episode was
I'll say some more coherent things later, after my lesson, but for now you have to remember:
We control Supernatural now.
The show has finished, and maybe it wasn't the ending we wanted, but that can't be changed. From now on, we create the media. So editors, writers, artists, and anyone else:
We riot.
And if anyone has any fics they have written, fix it or not, please send them to me.
The end of the road
!! SPOILERS FOR THE SUPERNATURAL FINALE !!
I’ve slept on it (read: 3 hours after crying myself to sleep), had two mental breakdowns - one on the way to school and one on the way back (On My Own played and I fucking lost it) and now I’m ready to write this.
First of all: I am not attacking any of the cast or crew in any way; I understand that they said the ending would not be for everyone and that it is impossible to please everyone. It just genuinely did not feel like I was watching an episode of Supernatural.
The first half, in my opinion, was actually okay. We got some wholesome Miracle content, the pie scene (minus the mention of Jack and Cas) was kind of fun, and I was loving the references to the writers. I’m all here for some creepy ass vampires and I went into this episode kind of expecting Dean to die, as I didn’t really see any other way the show could have a definite end. Even though the nail thing was a bit strange, I think his whole death scene was very moving (if the ugly sobbing which nearly led to me puking was anything to go by).
From there, though, it went downhill faster than a cow on a skateboard. I mean, it was nice seeing Bobby, I guess? But what possessed them to mention Cas and pretty much explicitly say he was free from the empty, and then not do anything about it? I mean, for Dean to do nothing was so unbelievably out of character that I was just plain confused when they didn’t bring Cas back. We all saw him be basically suicidal back in season 13 when Cas was dead, and even last episode when Dean thought Cas was calling him he threw himself up those stairs to get to his angel (and do not get me started on the fact they could bring back a vampire from like season one and NOT A MAIN CHARACTER).
I am kind of glad Sam got his apple pie life and a peaceful death, but... what was with the blurry woman in the background? Are we supposed to think that it’s Eileen? How hard would it have been for them to have one shot of Eileen, even if she was just leaning on the porch or something. All we needed was one line of dialogue, one single mention of her, but no. No one knows what happened to her. (Also, do people actually name their kids after dead people?)
The ending was... a thing. If they were going to end the episode with only Sam and Dean, then they may as well have skipped this episode entirely and left us with that montage and the brothers riding off into the sunset. Somehow, that would have been more satisfying than the end we actually got; at least whether or not Cas came back would have been up to interpretation and we wouldn’t have had to deal with the weird deaths. Also, did my clown ass think Cas was gonna show up right at the end when Dean was stood at that bridge? Yes. But no, it’s just Sam. And as much as I love Baby, why on earth did Dean decide he wanted to drive her as soon as he got to Heaven? Bobby has explicitly told you that your family - which has been the main theme of the show since the very beginning - is practically next door, but no. Go kiss your boyfriend or say hi to your parents or something, you have all of eternity to drive around.
I think the thing that upsets me the most about this is that it is the end of the road. There will be no do overs, no new episodes, there is no way to fix this. We just have to live with the fact that this is how the show ended.
Now I say, we can do something about that. No one can change the finale, that damage has been done. But what we can do is create our own ending. Every person who has ever watched the show has the ability to create their own ending, their own codas, and I say we end the show the way we want to.
This may be the end of the road, but that doesn’t mean that the story is over.
I am forcing myself to watch the scene where Bobby explains the changes in Heaven so I can write a fix it but I can’t even see the screen because my eyes are sob blurry with tears
Forever Intertwined
A short coda to 15x20 because I couldn’t let it end like that. Spoilers ahead.
Castiel was no longer an angel of the Lord. He did not have the power to grip anyone tight and raise them from perdition. In fact, for all intents and purposes, he was human.
That didn’t mean that there wasn’t anything he could do while he waited for his love.
Jack was more than willing to help; Cas and the Winchesters were his family, and anything that he could do to make them happier or guarantee that they got the peace they deserved was his top priority before he left. He snatched Cas from the empty and deposited him in Heaven, listening to any and all suggestions his father had. Before long, a new Heaven had been built; a shared one, where families and friends could be reunited, and everyone had been given what they had fought and bled for: free will.
Now, all Castiel could do is wait.
Time passed differently here, but the angel enjoyed watching the sun dip below the horizon, leaving behind lazy wisps of gentle oranges and yellows and pinks, its last rays twinkling on the stream below him. The bridge was his favourite place to be; he found the sound of the rushing water and rustling trees relaxing, and he felt he deserved some peace after spending so long fighting.
Today, though, the usually calming sounds of the wilderness were interrupted by a rumbling that was definitely man-made. Cas’ back straightened, but he did not dare to turn around. He would not be filled with false hope, only to be disappointed.
“Hiya, Cas,” a familiar voice said softly, and he felt his entire body freeze, unable to tear his eyes from the horizon in case he was wrong.
Apparently, it didn’t matter anyway. The hunter joined him, his arms resting on the rail of the bridge, allowing his head to tilt to one side and rest on the former angel’s shoulder. “I love you too, dumbass,” he whispered after a moment, his breath tickling Cas’ neck.
“Hello, Dean.” Castiel smiled, and they watched the sunset together in silence, save for the sounds of nature and the beating of two hearts, forever intertwined.
AO3
Some highlights from the imdb reviews of Carry On
"I should have joined Cas in the empty"
"I watched the episode with zero expectations and still managed to get disappointed"
"I feel like Sam's wig had covid"
"Pulling the end out of a cards against humanity deck would have been better"
"Mr Ackles I am so sorry you were in this"
"Jensen Ackles should legally be allowed to commit murder. Just once. As a treat <3"
"I wish I died before this aired so I could die in peace"
"Only 1 star and it's for the dog"
"Sam's dollar store wig will haunt me in my dreams"
And my personal favourite:
"I've heard knock knock jokes with more narrative cohesion than this"
The fact that Bugs has a higher rating than Carry On is sending me
I love how people either hated it or loved it, there is no inbetween.
Remember when we thought we were the 30% MINORITY who’d get the ending they wanted lol apparently we were not only the majority, but the only sane ones, too
Dean: if we don't keep living, all that sacrifice is gonna be for nothing.
Also Dean: *dies like two days later*
I just wanted to say that I’m gonna try and write a new fix it fic every day, so they might not be very long but I am enjoying writing them. If anyone has an ending they want to suggest, please feel free to ask me and I will write it for you!
Also, I’ll be posting a 15x20 fix-it fic list later today, so if anyone wanted some fics by some other people that will be up in a few hours. Again, if anyone wants to suggest a fic rec list, please do!
And finally, I am begging people to check out these fundraisers that our amazing fandom have set up:
The Castiel Project for The Trevor Project
Dean Winchester is Love for NAMI
The Sam Winchester Project for Together We Rise
Eileen Deserved Better for National Association of the Deaf
The Jack Kline Project for Random Acts of Kindness
Stairway to Heaven
Here is the third alternate ending I have written! The idea was based on one by @exmintha, so thank you for that. It is 1,044 words long, and you can read it on AO3 here. Remember, if you want to request an ending, please send me an ask!
“It’s okay. You can go now.”
It had only been three days since Dean’s death, and Sam had never been more glad to be surrounded by his family. Jody and the girls had organised the funeral, Garth and Bess had brought enough food to feed an army, and he had no idea what he would have done without Eileen. Join Dean, most likely.
“Are you ready to go?” Jody asked, concern shining in her eyes as she offered the keys of the Impala up to him. The pyre was all ready, they simply had to drive Dean’s body over to the quiet spot so they could salt and burn it. Afterwards, Sam was planning on taking Eileen and Miracle and spreading Dean’s ashes in the graveyard in Lawrence. Dean had said it was as good as an eternal resting place when he thought Amara would be the death of him, and Sam couldn’t think of anywhere more fitting.
Sam cleared his throat, shaking his hair out of his eyes and reluctantly taking the keys. “Yeah. Thanks.”
“We’ll meet you there, okay?” Jody reminded him, leaving after a final sympathetic look.
The familiar rumble of the engine comforted Sam slightly. If he shut his eyes for a moment, he could imagine that Dean was simply sleeping in the backseat; that they were on some random hunt that would be over in a few hours and they would go to some shitty diner and eat crappy food and Dean would drink too much and Sam would complain about his eating habits.
They would never do any of that ever again.
Hurriedly, Sam blindly pressed play on the radio, desperate for some kind of music to drown out his depressing thought. The melancholy notes of Stairway to Heaven drifted through the speakers instead, and Sam let out a miserable laugh. Of course Dean’s Baby knows the perfect song for the occasion.
But in the long run,
There’s still time to change the road you’re on
And it makes me wonder.
It is as if Dean is trying to tell Sam something from beyond the grave, and of course he would have to do it through a Zeppelin song. Sam huffed again, but nods to nobody anyway.
“I promise I’ll keep you waiting, jerk.”
One moment, all Dean feels is pain and anguish and tears and the next he is hit with an overwhelming wave of relief. The brilliant sun blinds him for a moment and he sticks his arms out reflexively, but as his eyes adjust he is simply met with the familiar sight of Bobby sat relaxing outside the Harvelle’s roadhouse. He laughs, a liberated, carefree laugh that he almost didn’t recognise as his own.
“At least I made it to Heaven,” he remarks, and he smiles.
{o0o}
When Sam arrived at the patch of wood where Claire and Donna had built the pyre, he nearly drove the Impala straight into a tree. Even as he climbed out the car he was sure he must have gotten the wrong place, but that doesn’t make any sense, because there are the girls and Eileen with Miracle and Garth and-
“What is this?” he asked, his voice tight.
Surrounding the clearing there must have been a hundred people. Sam wasn’t even sure he recognised all of them; they ranged from other hunters to people they had saved and he was almost certain that that was the Ghostfacers hovering at the back. In fact, the longer he scanned the crowd, the more people he recognised - Linda Tran, Jesse and Cesar, Cole Trenton - he was fairly sure even Becky was there, being a hell of a lot more respectful than he imagined she would be at a Winchester’s funeral.
“Did you really think that other people wouldn’t want to pay their respects?” Claire asked Sam, a sad smile tugging at her lips.
“He deserved a good send-off,” added Donna.
Sam didn’t know what to say, his throat suddenly a lot tighter than it was before, so he just nodded silently and let the funeral begin.
They were right. Dean did deserve to be remembered as a hero.
{o0o}
“I think I’ll go for a drive,” Dean suggests, and so he does.
The roads in Heaven are strange; one moment he is driving down a dirt road and the next an empty motorway. Sometimes the sun shines down on him, sometimes he drives in the dark. Dean doesn’t mind. He doesn’t have a particular destination in mind, and he knows the road will take him where he needs to be.
He visits Charlie first, who hugs him so tightly that for a moment Dean has to wonder if he can die again. She then proceeds to aggressively tell him that her death was not his fault. It is like a weight off Dean’s shoulders that he doesn’t even know he is carrying, and by the time he reaches the next spot, he feels much lighter. Kevin, although slightly more sarcastic about it, agrees with Charlie, and Dean feels like he could cry.
Dean makes his way back to the roadhouse, and to his surprise, finds everyone there waiting for him, already in the midst of a celebration in his name. Ellen, Jo, Ash, Pamela, Missouri, Rufus… it feels like everyone Dean has ever known is in this place. He allows himself a few drinks and enjoys talking to all these people who he hasn’t seen in what feels like a lifetime, but he knows there is one more thing he must do before Sam arrives, whenever that is.
Clambering back into Baby, Dean flicks on the radio as he drives away. He laughs when Space Cowboy comes on, filled with the memory of that case he worked in Tombstone.
He has one last person to visit.
He arrives at a bridge overlooking a wide stream and allows himself a minute or two to lean over the fence, shutting his eyes and allowing the gentle breeze to wash over his face. The sound of the water below him is relaxing, and he realises that he feels at peace for the first time since he was four years old.
“Hello, Dean,” says a familiar voice, and Dean knows he is home.
15x20 Fix-it Fics
!!MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!!
I think it is fair to say that at least a solid 70% of fans did not like the finale we were given, but it’s okay, because that means there is an abundance of fix it fics for your consumption.
Carry On by Castielslostwings on AO3. (8,039 words).
Tags: Coda, Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Heaven, Castiel Deserves Better, Love Confessions, First Kiss, First Time, Reunions, Explicit Sexual Content.
My Ratings: 5 stars.
Description: “I think I’ll go for a drive.” This is what happened between that moment, and Dean meeting Sam on that bridge.
Notes: This was written beautifully and was genuinely the ending that Dean and Cas deserved.
Loving Castiel by taegi on AO3. (1,996 words).
Tags: Fix-It, Post-Episode: s15e20 Carry On, Canon Compliant, Coda, Fluff, Getting Together, First Kiss.
My Rating: 5 stars.
Description: “How did you find me?” Dean asks. Castiel squints and looks at him like he’s the sun. “Your, uh, yearning was pretty loud,” he says sheepishly.
Notes: Kind of bittersweet, especially with the mentions of Dean’s death, but it is lovely to see my boys together and finally happy.
One Last Ride by xylodemon on AO3. (1,093 words).
Tags: Fix-It, Episode Related, Reunions, Spoilers, Destiel is canon.
My Rating: 5 stars.
Description: [15x20 episode coda -- anything I put here would be a spoiler]
Notes: This was so beautifully written and so sweet!
Maybe the Real Heaven was Us All Along by masked on AO3. (855 words).
Tags: Episode: s15e20 Carry On, Coda, Canon Compliant, Fix-It.
My Rating: 5 stars.
Description: At the end of the road, Dean gets a visitor in his Heaven.
Notes: I love how pretty much everyone just collectively agrees that this is how it should have ended.
Grace by july_19th_club on AO3. (5,164 words).
Tags: Fix-It, Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Resurrection, Reciprocated Confession.
My Rating: 5 stars.
Description: A man dies. What happens next will shock you. [script]
Notes: This was written beautifully, and now I really want to see this filmed! So much better than the ending we got.
The Cry of Elisha after Elijah by intothesilentland on AO3. (5,844 words).
Tags: Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Post-Episode: s15e20 Carry On, First Kiss, Reunion, Canon Compliant, Heaven.
My Rating: 5 stars.
Description: The kicker is, Dean had been trying to live. Really live. And not bite out in anger at the fraying of his heart: Cas, gone, Jack, gone—all that was left was him and his brother, and Dean had been trying to live, in spite, in light of that. In a world like the unsteady first steps of a child, apprehensive arms and hands cradling the air around them, ready for a slip, excited for a step, Dean had been trying to walk forward, too. Though every step had meant every pain. Upon his death, and arrival in heaven, Dean sets out to find the angel. He has to tell him. Cas has to know.
Notes: That poem at the start was really moving in this context, and the dialogue was so weirdly in character that everything was so real. It was definitely written better than the actual ending.
You Deserve To Be Loved by sandean_cas on AO3. (1,005 words).
Tags: Castiel and Dean Winchester Need to Use Their Words, Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Fix-It, Coda.
My Rating: 4 stars.
Description: Castiel senses Dean's longing and meets him on the bridge.
Notes: This was so cute, and it is my headcanon that the reason Cas didn’t go and immediately find Dean was because he was scared to see what Dean’s response would be.
surely heaven wants for you by cenotaphy on AO3. (3,782 words).
Tags: Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Heaven, Coda, Post-Finale, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Dean Winchester, Outdoor Sex.
My Rating: 4 stars.
Description: Cas doesn't come to him. Dean can't really argue with that, given the circumstances. In all the history of balls in courts, he thinks there might never have been a ball as thoroughly in a court as this one is in his. He drives for what feels like a long time but might just be a single sunny afternoon, or maybe years (time's funny here, Bobby had said), just enjoying the music, the shifting landscape outside his window, the hum and creak of the engine. Finally the forest opens up and the road narrows down in a way that he's fairly certain wouldn't typically happen on any kind of earthly interstate, and he glides the car to a halt at the edge of a lake.
Notes: This was such a beautiful and moving exploration of Dean’s feelings.
the miracle of death by goodnightfern on AO3. (802 words).
Tags: 15x20 Coda, Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Canon Compliant.
My Rating: 3 stars.
Description: They say in Heaven love comes first, but Heaven sure ain't a place on earth.
Notes: I love the way they have portrayed Dean’s heaven; the whole thing was just quite relaxing.
The End of the Beginning by violue on AO3. (1,773 words).
Tags: Canonical Character Death, Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Grief/Mourning, Gap Filler, Missing Scene.
My Rating: 3 stars.
Description: Dean's just about ready to say goodbye.
Notes: The idea of Cas as a reaper is really sweet.
A shameless self promotion:
nothing ever really ends, does it? by LinaRai on AO3. (1,989 words but more chapters being added).
Tags: Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Fix-It, Cafe AU, Established Relationship, Resurrection, Heaven, Reunions, Alternate Ending.
Description: A collection of different endings of Supernatural, because we deserve better than the one we were given. Each one is self-contained, and they are all varying lengths!
Notes: I’m adding a new chapter to this every day, and I’m hoping to write 50 in total! If you have any suggestions for an ending you would like to see written, please ask me, and I would be happy to write it for you!
And a bonus Good Omens crossover because I can’t help myself:
Nothing Equals the Splendor by ElliottRook on AO3. (1,744 words).
Tags: Fix-It, Post-Canon, Crossover, Canonical Character Death, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-Episode: s15e20 Carry On, Coda.
My Rating: 5 stars.
Description: Aziraphale wants to be left alone by Heaven, with the exception of his good friend Castiel, who he shares a history of impossible-seeming romantic problems with, and he's very pleased to hear about the new organization of Heaven after Castiel's last adventure.
Notes: Aw, Aziraphale giving Cas relationship advice was so adorable!
I hope you enjoy these, which are all somehow better written than the ending we got. And they’re free. And not (as far as I know) written by professionals.
Fan Fiction is Better Than This
I wanted to have a go at writing a script today, which I have never done before! I’m aware that it might not be perfect, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Because it is extremely awkward to format, I’m just gonna include the link to it on AO3.
Remember, if you want me to write an ending for you, just ask!
THIS COULD'VE BEEN EVERYTHING
So I decided to step into the editing room and make one little change…
This ladies and gentlemen, and everyone else, are the people who wrote off Dean and Castiel in the most disrepectful way. You wonder why? Roll the video. You see nothing wrong with these clips? Oh… i feel sorry for you. If you honestly think these people love and respect both Jensen but especially Misha you are in the wrong. I am sorry but “jokes” and “funny” has its barriers. And the way Misha was treated all these years, the example above being only one from many, is just utterly disrespectful. For someone who works as hard as Jensen and Jared you are telling me this is the attitude he deserves? Saying he is “not as high quality” as the ‘duo’ of the show? I’m sorry but i cannot and will not have any respect for these kind of people.
Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins didn’t deserve this kind of attitude.