Supernatural has gotten off to a roaring start in Season 15, and while the final season promises to bring up a lot of emotions for fans, the same can be said for Sam, Dean, Castiel and their assorted allies and enemies. Anyone who's stuck with the fantastical drama for more than a couple of seasons is going to be looking for some callbacks to events that haven't been referenced and characters who haven't been seen for a while. Supernatural has, indeed, been giving up such fan service since it returned, but you shouldn't expect Season 15 to be packed to the gills with such content.
It turns out that, while God releasing all the souls in Hell has certainly brought some old friends and foes back into the Supernatural fold thus far, showrunner Andrew Dabb hasn't planned the season around such reveals. When asked if he and his team were making sure to include certain things for the final season, here's how Dabb responded:
Yes and no. I don’t think you should approach things with checkmark storytelling, with a list of the 20 things we need to do because every episode has gotta have one. I don’t think that works for us. There are certainly moments and emotional things that we wanna touch on with the characters, but we also want to let the story evolve and tell itself, and that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve known the endpoint for quite awhile, but the path has changed, multiple times, since we’ve been back, working on the show, and I’m sure it will continue to change. We’re just riding that, a little bit. We’re not going, 'You know that Anti-Christ kid from Season 5? What’s up with him?' If it comes back into the story organically, we’ll happily deal with it. If not, and it’s a hanging chad that somebody could write fan fiction about, that’ll be great.
OK, now, I know this might seem like a plan that's kind of dismissive to the fans' expectations, but let's try to look at what Andrew Dabb told Collider objectively. Would you rather that he and his team just try to cram all the callbacks and characters from past seasons into Season 15 regardless of how it fits into the planned story, or that they use those elements of the past in the best way possible to help serve the storyline of the final season and the finale?
Obviously, using what they can to the best of their ability as it truly fits within the last Supernatural season ever is what's best. So, if someone or something you really want to see doesn't show up by the time the end credits roll on the final episode, try to cut everybody some slack, alright?
Andrew Dabb saying a firm "No" to "checkmark storytelling" seems like a solid plan. And, even without using that as a methodology for the final season, they're still managing to fit in quite a few things that take us back to the olden days of Supernatural. Having the gates of Hell opened will naturally lead to exploring what has become of the almost-forgotten third Winchester brother, Adam, who Sam and Dean found out about in Season 4, only for him to eventually become the vessel for Michael and wind up locked away with Lucifer and Sam in Hell. Dean could only get one brother out, and, of course, he chose Sam.
The use of Chuck / God as the Big Bad for the finale season is, in itself, a bit of a throwback because the character has shown up here and there since late in Season 4, with the Winchesters and Castiel originally believing him to only be a prophet (who's now spiritually connected to Sam). And, speaking of prophets, Kevin Tran has shown up again, along with a clown ghost to terrify Sam and the Woman in White. We've been told that there will be more such surprises along the way, as well.
In case you're wondering, Andrew Dabb and his writers haven't gotten to writing the actual finale for Supernatural just yet, but he does have some very fitting thoughts on what he hopes that particular episode brings up for fans.
Tears. That’s the goal. Tears and high amounts of alcohol consumption. That’s what we’re going for. And hopefully, some humor, along the way.
Well, I think Sam and Dean would approve. Whether or not we end with both, either or neither of the Winchester brothers finally having some sort of peace, I'm pretty sure that, at the very least, a lot of tears will be shed because no one will really be happy with the show ending. We can all watch their final fight unfold as Supernatural continues on The CW, Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST.
