I hold out hope that Supernatural still has the power to surprise us with its eleventh season, but the writers’ room seems just too comfortable with sticking with the status quo. Did anyone genuinely believe that Dean was about to kill Sam at any moment during that scene? I certainly didn’t because even if he did, we know that within the first couple of episodes, Sam would be returned from the dead and Dean back from wherever in ‘outer space’ that Death had put him. As with Swan Song, it once again led to a showdown between the ‘good’ brother, this time Sam, and the ‘bad’ brother, a desperate Dean unable to see a way to get rid of the Mark without a whole lot of death.
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Narratively, it felt a little weak, a victim of both Supernatural‘s adherence to a particular formula and the ongoing Mark of Cain plot. This leads me on to one of the more negative aspects of this finale. It didn’t quite tease it out as much as I would have liked, but Rowena willingly sacrificing someone she loved to gain the kind of power she’s been craving versus Dean forgoing the sacrifice of both himself and Sam for love positions sacrifice and family as opposites. That theme about love and family developed into one of sacrifice for the finale. Within that, there has also been much about the importance of family to keep you on the straight and narrow, whether it’s through family cohesion (Sam and Dean) or the breakdown of relationships (Crowley and Rowena).
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Throughout the season, the focus has been on the internal demons that Sam and Dean had to battle, rather than the manifestation of monsters and witches that usually take their attention. The other positive was how well the season’s thematics worked when coming into the finale’s climax. Killing Death was certainly a bit of a shock and a development I wasn’t too happy about, even if we did get Ackles’ brilliant line reading of ‘I think I just killed Death’. I don’t believe Death is really dead (after all, that would be a major rewrite of the show’s mythology – who is going to reap God if not Death?), but as with Ruby, it may be that we see another actor take on the role of the grim reaper. Of course, given Dean took a scythe to Death at the end of the episode means that we might not see Richings inhabit the role again.
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He brings the necessary amount of weary gravitas whilst also playing well into the dark humour that befits the part. The return of Julian Richings as the wonderfully macabre Death is an always welcome addition to the show.