Supernatural probably has a few more seasons left, at the very least it has one. Supernatural has been renewed for season 12 already and it’s ratings haven’t slipped at all. Like any TV series in double digits, there has to be less seasons ahead of Supernatural than behind it. Supernatural stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are thinking about the ending themselves. They sat down with Entertainment Weekly to discuss some of their theories, hopes and wishes for the final moments.
It Ends with One or Both Brothers Dying
A big thing that comes up in the interview is the idea that both Winchesters won’t make it out alive. Ackles is certainly a fan of that choice saying, “I always thought Dean would make the ultimate sacrifice for his brother. I guess if I had to choose something, that’s probably what I would choose.” It would certainly fit with CW’s Supernatural. The Winchesters die all the time for one another on the show but obviously this would be a bit more permanent.
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This ending also feels a bit too safe to me. It could be very, very sad but it’s a bit too expected. There is an expectation that the Winchesters would die and that one would have to carry on alone. It’s been done to death (pun intended) on the show and seems like the wrong note to end the series. Of course that being said it might make for a nice tragic ending if an ally, someone like Castiel, made the sacrifice for the Winchesters.
It Ends at the End of the World
Ackles also considered the show ending with the apocalypse. At least that was his theory when the show began in season 1 and he wasn’t wrong. Series creator Eric Kripke originally intended for the show to end in season 5, hence why he named his last episode “Swan Song.” Ackles recognizes now that the show has moved past that point. He said, “You can’t end the TV show with the worst thing happening. As we’ve evolved, I think that there’s different roads that the show could certainly go down that would be interesting. I think we’ve taken some really good turns.”
It’s a very good point. “Swan Song” is about as good an ending involving the apocalypse as Supernatural was going to find. There will always be another world-ending threats because it is the nature of the show but “Swan Song” was the perfect bittersweet series finale. It just ended up being a season finale. The show is beyond something that “neat” and it would just feel like an imitation.
Ambiguous Ending(s)
Ambiguous series finales are controversial. Fans don’t like trying to figure out for themselves what really happened at the end. Personally when they are done right and aren’t lazy, they can be fantastic. Jared Padalecki is a fan of the uncertain ending as well. He has several theories about how the show could end without really ending.
“Part of me, loving Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, always thought it’d be great to see the boys against insurmountable odds and to freeze-frame on them and just hear stuff in the background.” Padalecki said, “You don’t know if they die, you don’t know if they live, but you know that they’re going to go out in a blaze of glory.”
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Padalecki also has considered something similar to a scene in “Swan Song.” He continued in the interview, “And then I went back and watched a few of the episodes, I watched through “Swan Song” and the scene of the boys laying on the hood of the Impala. I think that’d be a nice way to go out if we had to — watching the end of the world. Or looking up at us from the trunk and throwing the weapons in and saying we’ve got work to do. All of those kind of leave room for opinion and room for interpretation. I don’t think we should see the boys die or live, we should wonder.” If you’re not catching on, Jared Padalecki is a very big fan of the audience not having full closure.
Jokes aside though I do think that could be a perfect end for the series. The show has gone on longer than ever could have been expected so it would be nice to imagine the adventures continue after the final credits roll. It doesn’t need to be final. You can’t get an less final than ending on a quasi cliffhanger.
Happily Ever After
Interestingly though neither Ackles or Padalecki seem to have considered a fully happy ending. Padalecki thinks that that as long as the brothers are alive they’ll keep fighting. Ackles agreed. Neither entertained the possibility that Supernatural will end with Sam and Dean living a somewhat normal life. Maybe it wouldn’t fit the show and maybe things have gotten as normal as they are going to get for the Winchesters. They do have a home base and they have series of familial hunter connections but I always imagined something much more cheery as the end.
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I think it would be ridiculous to imagine either Winchester retiring completely from hunting but I think I’d like to see them set up some manner of roots. The show hasn’t been good with dealing with that type of thing in the past. Any time Sam and Dean have tried to settle down it blows up in their face. It would be heart-warming to see them finally work it out as the series ends. Supernatural probably shouldn’t end with Sam and/or Dean with a wife, kids and a white picket fence. It’s too much. However something between that and the “fight until we die” mentality would be nice.
But what do you think? How do you want to see Supernatural end? Sound off in the comments.
Supernatural season 11 airs Wednesdays at 9pm on The CW.
(Image courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
