Supernatural Season 14 Episode 20 Review: Moriah

This Supernatural review contains spoilers.

Supernatural Season 14 Episode 20

The Supernatural Season 14 finale stars immediately where the last episode left off: Jack staring down the Winchesters after breaking free of the supposedly unbreakable box. The Winchesters and Cas scrape through this confrontation with only a few bumps and bruises, but the problem remains: What should they do about Jack? Visually, their discussion is framed in the foreground by the blasted open remains of the box. It’s a heavy visual reminder that their last foolproof plan was anything but. 

Let’s not forget that Jack is only a couple of years old and being confronted with the reality of his loved ones lying to him hits him especially hard. He has major trust issues. He makes a simple choice, as any child might. All lying is now forbidden. This leads to a lot of fun moments to lighten the episode before it gets increasingly dark. 

Lying is part of the fabric of society, an unwritten rule that the occasional lie can be beneficial, or at least avoid a fight. For the Winchesters? It’s part of the job description. They could never have gotten as far as they have without their aliases, cover stories and reneging on deals.

It’s pretty fantastic that the lying thing was introduced as Sam and Dean were at the facial recognition place searching for Jack. Dean suavely approached a woman and said, in his usual FBI tone, “Hi I’m Dean Winchester and I’m looking for the devil’s son.” Astonished, he tried again, adding, “This badge is fake.” A flabbergasted Dean gets Sam to admit his favorite singer is Celine Dion, and Jack’s latest meddling comes to light.  

Supernatural gets political in a hilarious broadcast that reveals the President spent two hours disclosing his tax information, deep ties to Russia and how he made a deal with the demon Crowley. 

Finally, the Deus Ex Machina of it all, our heavenly Chuck himself makes an appearance, so you know things are bad. Dude didn’t even show up for the first apocalypse, just sat back and watched. I was very excited to see him as I thought the writers would wait until the series finale to bring him back. Then things got more complicated, as Chuck fashions a Jack-Killing-Gun that will kill whoever uses it. 

Chuck also provides some fun, fourth wall breaking commentary on the show itself. “You wanna fight Leviathans? Cool you got that. You want to go up against — what was it — the British Men of Letters? Okay, a little weak but okay.” He says what we all said, that the Men of Letters season was weak. Takes guts to admit when you’ve misstepped and I appreciate that. 

It is in the bright, beautiful sunshine in an extremely photogenic graveyard when Jack meets up again with Cas, Dean, and Sam. The lovely atmosphere and pretty sunshine is a big deal, somehow tying into the vain hope that Jack might not be all-bad, that he still knows the difference between right and wrong. He reveals that he knows he made a mistake and is only trying to do good, but he no longer feels. “All I ever wanted was to be good,” Jack says in a heart-to-heart moment with Castiel, “But now I’m just empty.” It’s a tragedy.

That beautiful day is sullied first by Dean pointing the Deus Ex Machina gun at Jack. It’s a dramatic moment, and takes time to play out. There’s this super shallow focus on the gun, which switches to Dean’s face. You might remember the same technique used when Dean killed old Yellow Eyes.

The perfect weather and Dean deciding not to harm Jack is further sullied as Chuck reveals himself as the guy pulling the strings — I mean, of course he always was, but he’s more hands on than anyone ever knew. He is, first and foremost, a writer, and he’s been playing the long game to get an Abraham and Isaac moment between Dean and pseudo-son Jack.

The lights are turned out as Chuck declares The End. The rapture begins, souls escaping from Hell, including famous ones that Sam and Dean put away, like John Wayne Gacy and freaking Bloody Mary from Season One. The dead rise from their graves to surround the Winchesters and Cas, and the episode cuts to a sustained black screen as the undead horde attacks. 

Well damn, that’s how you end a finale. 

This was quite a way to lead into the fifteenth and final season of Supernatural, and I’m ready to dive headfirst into it.