Hard to believe that Supernatural has endured for over a decade. The “little horror show that could” began in 2005 on the now defunct WB network.
The initial premise of the show involved two brothers driving across the country in their classic 1967 Chevy Impala hunting supernatural evil. “Saving people, hunting things, the family business,” echoed by Dean Winchester way back in the second episode of Season 1, Wendigo, is still the battle cry of the show.
But over the years, the simple formula of the monster of the week has transformed into an expansive mythology including a never-ending angels and demons war, a desire to close the Gates of Hell and now the approaching amoral force known as The Darkness. We have seen both Winchester boys sent to (and later freed from) Hell, a soulless Sam and a demon Dean. Some fans have enjoyed these plots while others have longed for the return to the glory days where Sam and Dean’s lives seemed less complicated.
In Swan Song, Sam mind wrestled Lucifer for control, used the Horsemen’s rings as a key to open a hole in Stull’s Cemetery, a portal leading to Hell, and then plunged to his death. Dean, mourning his brother, tried to honor Sam’s dying wish. Dean moved in with Lisa and Ben in a desperate attempt to have that “apple pie life” that had long eluded the brothers. Sam was the tragic hero who had sacrificed himself for the world.
Should Supernatural have ended there? Or, is it a good thing that we get to see the Winchesters, our favorite wayward sons, carry on into Season 11?