TV Verdict

For the second time in as many nights, a season finale ended on a big-ass, game-changing cliffhanger and the screen faded to white. Writer/director/creator Eric Kripke took his fourth season angels vs. demons apocalyptic battle arc to its conclusion and the verdict is: well, I can’t wait for the fifth season, so “Success!” I suppose.

Spoilers incoming.

The episode prior saw the Winchesters slugging it out over Sam’s demon blood addiction. We pick up with Sam and Ruby heading over to an abandoned convent, the earthly location of Lucifer’s prison. Dean meanwhile, after receiving a bodacious earful from Bobby, is placed into a holding facility by Zachariah the Shifty Angel.

There, Zack spills the beans: the angels have been pulling for the apocalypse this whole time, to establish Heaven on Earth. Of course, a whole bunch of people will die in the cataclysm, but Dean will fulfill his prophecy and smite Lucifer and after that it’s Eden time.

Dean is of course unhappy with this and implores Castiel to free him and send him back to Sam to stop him from killing Lilith, because, as it turns out, she’s the final seal. Whacking her means Lucifer is free to @#$% things up.

Castiel eventually relents, works some angelic mojo to banish Zachariah, transports Dean to the convent while he fends off the Heavenly hordes and–well, too late. Sam ices Lilith, a plan we find out has been coordinated by Ruby this whole time. Sam is of course pissed, but gains a moment of catharsis when Dean shows up and stabs the sulfur out of Ruby.

By then, the special effects have started and with a flash of light and a feeble “He’s coming!” uttered by Sam…the end credits roll over a white screen.

My reactions:
–A solid capper to a great season, sporting a diabolical cliffhanger in all senses of the word. The episode pacing was bit off, though. Dean essentially spent virtually all of his screen time in a room staring at hamburgers and the exposition was delivered in voluminous disgorging. There were far superior individual shows in the season, but the vicious ending and the promise it holds for next year make it memorable.

–Speaking of next season. It’s nice to see the brothers mending fences already, as it will surely be the two of them and Cas battling angel dickheads and the Big Bad of all Big Bads, Lucifer himself. Which I love by the way. If you’re doing a show on the supernatural, why not go all in with your heavy?

–The angels’ plan is still murky to me. Especially the cryptic “God has left the building” stuff. I doubt Kripke is going to go with a hard Nietzsche route next season and predict the Man Upstairs will eventually rain down some righteous fury on the a-hole angels who thought kickstarting the apocalypse would be a swell idea.

–Bobby lives!

–The inclusion of Azazel into the plot bordered on the contrived. You know, “everything that came before this was predestined, starting with the Season 1 pilot” gimmick–but I think I can buy into it. Again, it helps that your ultimate villain is Satan himself.

–Sam restraining Ruby while Dean got his stab on was bananas.

Well done gentlemen. See you on the other side.