The Supernatural series is one episode too long

Did Supernatural end the way you wanted it to? It didn’t for everyone

I watched Supernatural for 15 years. Yes, I watched from Day 1. So, I have feelings about the ending. Lots of them.

Whether you started watching Supernatural on Sept. 13, 2005, or just last week, the series finale was emotional for all sorts of reasons.

Yet, it was also polarizing. There are fans who loved it, some who hated it, and plenty who feel somewhere in between. For me, while I don’t outright hate it, I tend to lean closer to the side of wishing for something else.

That doesn’t make me right or wrong. It just makes me a fan with an opinion – and the fans get to enjoy the show and its finale on whatever level they want. However, I feel the better ending would have been Episode 19 where Sam, Dean, and Jack defeat Chuck and then the brothers drive off into the sunset together.

By ending the series without an epilogue, the viewers actually get to create their own ending for the brothers. Perhaps they imagined their lives went just as it did in Episode 20 or something completely different. At least, in this way, it will have felt as though everything Sam and Dean fought for (getting to write their story and championing Team Free Will) will have felt worth it.

There’s so much power in allowing people to fill in the gaps themselves. It gives fans the opportunity to give the brothers their own ending.

The series finale didn’t feel that way. They didn’t get to write their own story. Instead, Dean died in an old dirty barn, never getting experience of what life would be like without Chuck at the helm.

Instead, Dean fought and fought and fought, and maybe that’s always the way he was going to die as the character suggested during the series.

Then at the very end, Dean told Sam everything he needed to hear so Sam could move on with this life. (Side note: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki absolutely crushed this scene.)

The problem is all the sacrifices felt like they were for nothing. Castiel gave himself up for Dean just for him to die two episodes later.

How could Supernatural have ended?

My imagined ending for them was in parts similar to what happened in the final episode. I certainly pictured Sam married to Eileen with kids. Dean was the cool uncle who came back to visit them when he was back in town.

The brothers may not necessarily hunt together as much anymore, but that was the beauty in creating their own story. They can make the life they always wanted without having anyone else telling them how to live.

I didn’t feel Sam needed Dean’s permission for that. I felt Dean would be happy with however his brother chose to live his life. By killing Dean, it actually gave Sam an easy choice because it didn’t really feel like there was much of a choice anyway. Sam would never have continued hunting with Dean.

So, the brothers were still left without real choices in the end. Dean accepted his fate in death and Sam moved on to the life he once imagined he would have.

I would rather have been left wondering what the Winchesters were up to after they defeated Chuck, just thinking of crazy adventures they would have gotten into.

I get why Andrew Dabb, who wrote the episode, did what he did. But I don’t like it. Even days later, it doesn’t sit great with me and I’d like to just pretend Episode 19 was the way it went out.

You can still stream Supernatural on Netflix.