Supernatural – Alpha and Omega

By: Stacy Miller

It’s the season finale and the big epic battle between the light and the dark, God vs The Darkness, turned out to be all talk and very little action as brother and sister finally kissed and made up. Dean (again) played therapist while Sam, Castiel, Crowley and Rowena did nothing more than sit on the sidelines letting Dean face all the danger.

The episode Alpha and Omega picked up where the last one left off with God (Rob Benedict) lying nearly dead on the floor where he is aided by Sam and Dean. When everyone heads outside, they see an interesting sunlight and Chuck explains that Amara (Emily Swallow) is feeding on the sun for power.

Back at the Men of Letters bunker, Team Winchester do little more than sitting around drinking. Dean (Jensen Ackles) wants to fight, because you know Dean, he always wants to fight. “If you got something for me to punch, shoot or kill, let me know and I’ll do it,” he says. But Rowena (Ruth Connell) would rather make tea and talk about Crowley (Mark Sheppard) as a child and how he’d like to run around with no pants. Chuck talks about how Adam and Eve were similar. This scene does little more the lighten the mood I guess.

Dean is driving around in the Impala with Castiel (Misha Collins) riding shotgun. Dean tells Castiel that he understands why Cas allowed Lucifer to possess him with Cas saying he thought he was doing the right thing. Dean says he agrees and they share a bro moment with sappy lines that include: “You’re the best friend we’ve ever had. You’re our brother Cas. I want you to know that.” It sounds like a speech you give when you know the world is ending and you’re going to die!

Sam (Jared Padalecki) surmises that since Chuck is dying it is throwing the balance of light and dark off and that they need to kill The Darkness in order to restore it. Although he still doesn’t want to kill his sister, Chuck reveals that Amara can be killed with the power of 10,000 suns. Okay, where is Team Winchester going to get 10,000 suns? Apparently, a soul is as powerful as 100 suns, so they need to get them some souls! Castiel will go to Heaven and Crowley will go to Hell. Sam and Dean decide to go to Waverly Hills Sanitarium to round up the souls of the many vengeful spirits that reside there. A soul bustin’ we will go! At Waverly Hills, Dean orders the “Caspers” to come out and play. Sam and Dean manage to trap some souls while Reaper Billie (Lisa Berry) watches as they leave.

Billie later arrives in the Men of Letters bunker because, you know, ANYONE can enter it. We have God, an angel, a demon and a witch so why not a reaper? Billie tells them she can get the souls they need. “Dead folks, kind of my thing,” Billie says. She trades a strange look with Crowley before leaving. Hmm…curious. I’m sure the shippers out there went right to work! Billie leaves with an ominous hint that she will see them soon.

So, Team Winchester has their bomb, but how will they ever get close enough to Amara to use it? Well, the bomb won’t be carried on the outside, but concealed on the inside…of Dean! Rowena does a spell putting the bomb inside Dean’s chest and tells him how to detonate it with his fingers when he gets close enough to Amara. Sam is not happy about this because they’re about to save the world again with one of them dying!

The group head to the cemetery to the grave of Mary Winchester. Dean says his goodbyes and asks Castiel to look after Sam, who will be a wreck after he’s gone, to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. Sam and Dean sure know each other! Then, Dean makes his own death arrangements saying, “Okay look, I want a big funeral, all right? I’m talking epic. Open bar, choir, Sabbath cover band and Gary Busey reading the eulogy.” Dean also has an idea on his final resting place. “And for my ashes, I’d like it here.”

While the fate of the world rests in Dean’s hands, or rather his chest, we see a blonde English woman (played by Elizabeth Blackmore) in her fancy home. She kisses a little boy goodbye as she gets ready to leave. I’m sure she’ll be important later.

Amara is in a garden where she meets an old woman who talks about how her husband has died and her son wants to put her in a home. She says, “But you know family, even when you hate them, you still love them.” It seems the writers of “Supernatural” love having the non-descript guest starring character sharing similarities with the main characters and their situation.

When Dean arrives, Amara admits that she knows about the bomb he’s packing. There goes the element of surprise. So, Dean takes a different approach. He reminds Amara that she and Chuck are family and need each other. Even when he and Sam had some terrible fights, they always managed to forgive each other because they were all they had.

So, Amara transports a weakening Chuck to the garden. She admits that she was jealous when he created everything and humanity because for a long time, it was just the two of them. She wants them to be a family again. So, the light and the dark join together again as sister and brother are reunited. Amara gives Chuck back his strength and Chuck takes the bomb out of Dean. And they all go off skipping and singing? It sure seemed that way because this all was pretty disappointing. Not that I wanted Dean to blow up or anything, but an “I forgive you and I love you and I want us to be family” between two powerful entities who were at odds for centuries, eons in fact, made this all seem anticlimactic! In gratitude, Amara tells Dean she’s going to give him what he wants most.

Meanwhile, Sam, Castiel, Crowley and Rowena see the normal looking sun and realize that Dean did it. Sam is misty-eyed knowing this probably means his big brother is dead. Aw…seriously, is there any other actor you know that can pull off the sad puppy dog look better than Jared Padalecki

Later, Castiel is zapped out of the Men of Letters bunker by the angel sigil. The blonde woman is Toni Bevell and tells Sam she’s a member of the London Branch of the Men of Letters chapter. They have been watching Sam’s destructive antics for years and she’s come to take him in. Sam refuses to go down easy and when he doesn’t surrender, Toni fires her gun! Has Sam been shot? The answer to that will have to wait until Season 12!

For the final scene of the finale, Dean is walking in an unidentified place and gets the shock of his life when he sees Mary Winchester! “Mom?”

So ends Season Eleven of “Supernatural.” Questions remain regarding Sam’s fate. Was his life traded for Mary’s? And has Billie’s promise to someday reap the younger Winchester come true?