15.19 Inherit the Earth
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| Title | Inherit the Earth |
| Episode # | Season 15, Episode 19 |
| First aired | November 12, 2020 |
| Directed by | John F. Showalter |
| Written by | Eugenie Ross-Leming Brad Buckner |
| On IMDB | Inherit the Earth |
| Outline | With everyone in the world gone, Sam, Dean, and Jack make their last stand against Chuck. |
| Monster | Chuck Lucifer Michael |
| Timeline | Immediately after 15.18 Despair |
| Location(s) | Kyoto, Japan New York City, New York Hastings, Minnesota Lebanon, Kansas |
| « Previous Episode | Next Episode » | |
Contents
Synopsis
Sam and Jack wander the empty streets of Hastings, Minnesota as Dean arrives in the Impala. Sam tells Dean he couldn't save anybody, and as he starts asking Dean about Billie, Dean stops him and reveals that Chuck was behind everyone disappearing. When Jack asks where Castiel is, Dean tells them Castiel died saving him by summoning the Empty to take him and Billie. As Dean apologizes to a shocked Jack, Sam attempts to try and reach other people on his cell phone.
Sam and Dean enter a deserted diner, while Jack sits outside mourning Castiel. When Jack goes to enter the diner, the plants he passes shrivel up and die. Inside Dean has himself a beer, while Jack questions what they are going to do, only for Sam to tell him there is no one to save. They attempted to rewrite Chuck's ending, and the world paid the price.
Later that night, Sam and Dean wait in front of the Impala when Chuck appears before them. The Winchesters admit to Chuck that He won, and they are willing to give Him His ending: Sam and Dean will kill each other so long as Chuck brings everyone -- the people, the birds, Castiel -- all back. Chuck appreciates that they've given up, but finds Sam, Dean, and Jack being alone in the world to be much more entertaining for Him and turns down their offer, then begins gloating that their "eternal shame, suffering, and loneliness" is all because they refused to take a knee.
Back at the Bunker, Sam finds a passed-out Dean in the library surrounded by bottles. Jack soon enters and tells the brothers that he is feeling something weird -- a presence out in the world besides them -- prompting the three to hit the road to find this "presence." While at a pit stop, as Sam is filling up the tank, Dean finds a dog. Elated to have found another living thing he names it "Miracle" and places it in the Impala with the intent to bring the dog back to the Bunker, much to Sam's surprise. However, as soon as Dean places Miracle in the backseat, the dog disintegrates to Dean's dismay. Looking up, Dean notices in the distance a grinning Chuck who gives Dean a salute before disappearing, visibly enraging Dean.
As night falls, the three arrive at a church -- St Michael's. Upon entering they are surprised to find Michael alive. He reveals that once the rapture started happening, he took refuge, making sure to avoid using any of his powers so as to not alert his father. When asked about Adam, Michael informs Sam and Dean that Adam was taken with the rest of humanity, and goes on to tell Sam, Dean, and Jack that after God left, it was his efforts that lead humanity into believing in an all-knowing and all-loving God. When Dean reminds Michael that he ignored them when they reached out to him, he affirms he has had a change of heart after what Chuck did to the world, and offers to help in any way he can.
At the Bunker, Sam presents Michael with Chuck's Death Book in hopes that he will be able to open it. When it proves impossible for Michael to do so, Sam and Dean convene in the kitchen and discuss their options, due to their belief that Chuck is preparing for His next move. All of a sudden, Dean's cell begins ringing, and much to his and Sam's shock Castiel's voice is heard on the other end. The Winchesters rush to the Bunker door, but upon opening it Dean finds Lucifer standing there and quickly slams the door shut. Lucifer is however able to gain entry and materializes in the war room. He explains that after God wiped the planet clean, the Cosmic Entity woke him up and tasked him with finding God's book to use against Him. Knowing that the Winchesters wouldn't trust him, Lucifer produces a token of good faith -- a bound reaper named Betty -- whom he proceeds to kill, reminding everyone that with Billie dead, Betty is the first reaper to die and thus becomes the new Death, and therefore is capable of reading God's book. As Dean ungags and tries to help up the resurrected Betty, she headbutts him and leaps to her feet, breaking free of her restraints and materializing a scythe in her hands. As the new Death, Betty asks to see God's book. Sam and Dean take her to the room where they are keeping it, but are denied entry by Betty.
In the library, Lucifer needles Michael while building a house of cards. When Sam and Dean enter, Michael questions if they are seriously considering trusting Lucifer. Lucifer interjects, reminding Michael that for all of his being the "good son," he got no better from God than he did. When Michael tells Lucifer he did what he did because he believed it to be right, and not for God's love, Lucifer retorts that God clearly didn't have any love to give -- not to him, Michael, or humanity. Betty arrives in the library and begins reading from the book, but before she is able to reveal how to stop Chuck, Lucifer snaps his fingers and smites Betty before telekinetically pulling the opened book to himself. He confesses that it was Chuck who brought him back from the Empty, and begins mocking Michael, telling him that he is now God's favorite, while Michael is just a "cuck." Sam and Dean advance on Lucifer, only to be swatted away. As Michael makes his approach, Lucifer teleports to the other side of the room as Michael volleys energy at him. Lucifer hits Michael with his own blast of energy, before turning his attention to Jack and making him an offer to join with him or die with everyone else. Michael then appears behind Lucifer, but before Lucifer can do anything, Michael stabs him with an archangel blade, causing Lucifer to explode in a fiery burst of energy.
In the aftermath, Michael sits alone in the kitchen as Dean enters and asks if he is feeling okay. Michael tells Dean that he feels weakened from the fight with Lucifer, and laments that Chuck chose to bring back Lucifer rather than reach out to him. When Dean questions if Michael really wanted that, Michael assures Dean that he doesn't and points out that the book is fairly useless without Death to read it. Dean tells Michael that Sam has been using the Book of the Damned to try and translate the symbols.
Later in the library, Michael questions Dean on Sam's progress, when Sam enters and announces he found a spell that when done at a particular place, at an exact angle from the sun, will release an unstoppable force that will find Chuck and end Him.
On the shoreline of a lake, Sam prepares the ingredients for the spell in three bronze bowls. Sam, Dean, Jack, and Michael stand in a circle around them as Sam throws a match into the ingredients causing three spires of light to shoot into the sky. A confused Dean questions what happened, when Chuck appears before them and uses His power to toss Sam, Dean, and Jack aside. Chuck thanks Michael for warning Him about the plan, but can't forgive his son for siding with the Winchesters and violently smites Michael, causing him to explode in a painful burst of energy. As Sam and Dean rise to their feet, Chuck admits that their eternal suffering all alone in the world sounded good on paper, but made for boring entertainment and tells them He's "cancelling" their show. Sam, accepting his fate, walks up to Chuck and punches Him in the face, which has no effect. Chuck goes on to use His power to cause immense pain in Sam and Dean and as He is about to snap His fingers and end them, Chuck changes His mind and decides to get His hands "dirty." As He begins to brutally pummel Sam and Dean, they continue to stand back up over and over again. Chuck continues to beat down the Winchesters, breaking Sam's arm and Dean's leg. But the brothers refuse to quit, and continue standing up, much to Chuck's frustration. Using each other for support, they stand each other up, beaten and bloody as they begin laughing. When Chuck questions why they're smiling, Sam tells Chuck that He lost, as Chuck notices Jack standing behind Him carrying a somber glare. Chuck turns His attention to His grandson, and as He attempts to smite Jack with a snap of His fingers, nothing happens. Panicking, and with fear slowly growing in His eyes, Chuck continues snapping His fingers to no avail as Jack approaches Him. Laying his hands on Chuck's head, Jack absorbs Chuck's power into himself, rendering Chuck a soulless human. With God's power now coursing through Him, Jack snaps His fingers and heals Sam and Dean of their wounds.
Chuck questions what they have done, as Dean tells him that they "won." When Chuck asks if this is how it ends for him, Sam throws down his death book. But as Chuck looks through the pages, he finds that they are all blank, due to Death being the only one that can read the book. Because of this, Dean explained that they had to come up with a Plan B. After realizing that Michael didn't like the fact that Chuck chose to bring Lucifer back over reaching out to him, Sam and Dean figured that Michael would betray them out of desperation to be "the favorite" again, and fed Michael a fake story about the spell. Dean continues telling Chuck that Jack wasn't just being turned into a cosmic bomb, but rather a power vacuum, and has been sucking up bits of life energy from plant life all over the place. When Michael and Lucifer had their showdown in the Bunker, Jack was able to absorb the waves of primordial creation they unleashed, which charged him back up. After Chuck killed Michael and beat down Sam and Dean, Jack absorbed pulses of cosmic light and darkness generated from Chuck's attacks, making the nephilim unstoppable to the point where he would absorb the rest of His power and become the New God.
After hearing this, Chuck begins to laugh, admitting for the first time ever he doesn't know what will happen, telling Sam and Dean that is why they are His favorites. He relishes the fact that he will die at the hands of Sam and Dean Winchester, the latter dubbed as the "ultimate killer", finding the glory in such a death. However, Dean tells Chuck that's not who they are, and Sam clarifies that it's not how Chuck's story ends. Sam and Dean explain that Chuck will live the rest of his life as a soulless human, condemned to grow old, get sick, and die unremembered just like all the other humans he abandoned, and eventually fade into obscurity. As Sam, Dean, and Jack silently walk back to the Impala, Chuck begins desperately crawling to them, pleading for them to wait as they drive off.
The Impala arrives in the empty streets of Hastings, Minnesota, where Jack proceeds to restore the world as it once was. Sam questions what happened with Amara after Jack absorbed Chuck's power, to which Jack tells Sam and Dean that she is with Him and that they're coexisting in harmony with each other. Dean announces plans to head back to the Bunker, telling Jack how they'll spruce the place up for Him. Jack tells the boys He's not going home with them, and plans to be a hands-off God, so as to not make the same mistakes Chuck did. He tells Sam and Dean He will always be with them as well as the rest of humanity, existing within everything found in nature with them, as will all the answers humanity will ever need to be the best versions of themselves without any need to pray or sacrifice in His name for guidance. Putting His hand over His heart, Jack tells the Winchesters He will be just as close to them before saying "goodbye" and walking off, disappearing before their eyes.
At the Bunker, Sam and Dean share a beer while sitting at the library table, and toast to all the people they've lost along the way. Sam tells Dean that with Chuck no longer writing their story, they get to finally write their own. "Finally free," Dean assures an emotional Sam, and with smiles on their faces they get up and walk off, revealing Castiel and Jack's names carved into the table next to the rest of the Winchesters' initials before taking the Impala for a ride and cruising off into the sunset.
Sam and Dean hit the open road, their fates finally in their own hands.
Characters
Definitions
- Alcohol
- Angel Blade
- Archangel
- Archangel Blade
- Back to the Future
- Bible
- Book of the Damned
- Chuck's Death Book
- Chuck's Endings
- The Cosmic Balance
- Death's Scythe
- Eileen's Car
- Enochian
- Healing
- Impala
- Men of Letters Bunker
- Nephilim
- A Practitioner's Guide to Exorcism
- Rapture
- Reapers
- Resurrection
- Sammy
- Sam and Dean's Initials
- Season 15 Callbacks
- Smiting
- Soullessness
- Spells
- Spiritus Vitae
- Table of Death
- Telekinesis
- Teleportation
- Vessels
Music
- "My Kind of Music" by The Morning Dew
- (playing in Sammy's Highway Cafe as Sam and Dean enter)
- "Get Together" by The Youngbloods
- (playing as Jack restores the world)
- "Running on Empty" by Jackson Browne
- (playing over the final montage as Sam and Dean drive off into the sunset)
Quotes
Lucifer: Uh, yeah, not so much. Um, after Pop nutted out and murdered pretty much everyone in the world, the Empty booted me with orders to find the missing God Book and use it on Chuck. Uh, normally I'm not very good at following orders as you guys know, but, uh, you do not want to mess with the Empty man. Total "B," especially after Jack blew up all over her and she killed Death. I mean, guys, never a dull moment. But that's the past. What's up?! We're a team again, guys.
Dean: Oh, that is not happening.
Michael: I did what I did because it was the right thing to do, not to get His love.
Betty: Of course I'm sure. I'm Death.
Michael: Thanks for the blade.
Sam: Because, you lose.
Dean: We won.
Chuck: So this is how it ends. My book.
Sam: See for yourself.
Chuck: There's nothing there.
Sam: Since we couldn't read the book, we had to come up with a story about finding the spell which we knew Michael would feed straight to you.
Dean: All that prep work we did to turn Jack here into a cosmic bomb? Well, it turned him into sort of a -- a power vacuum. He's been sucking up bits of power all over the place. So when the two heavyweights -- your boys -- showed up to duke it out, oh... That charged him right up.
Sam: See, we knew Michael would warn you and you'd show up here. And you did. And you killed your own son.
Dean: And you beat the crap out of us. Releasing all kinds of power. God power.
Sam: Jack absorbed it all. It made him...
Dean: Sorry, Chuck.
Chuck: What? What?
Dean: See, that's not who I am. That's not who we are.
Chuck: What kind of an ending is this?
Sam: His power. You sure it won't come back?
Jack: It's not his power anymore.
Sam: Then I think it's the ending where you're just like us and like all the other humans you forgot about.
Dean: It's the ending where you grow old, you get sick and you just die.
Dean: Where?
Jack: Everywhere.
Sam: So you are Him.
Jack: I'm me. But I know what you mean.
Sam: What if we want to see you? You know, or have a beer or whatever?
Jack: I'm around. I'll be in every drop of falling rain, every speck of dust that the wind blows, and in the sand, in the rocks, and the sea.
Dean: It's a hell of a time to bail. You got a lot of people counting on you, people with questions. They're gonna need answers.
Jack: And those answers will be in each of them. Maybe not today but... someday. People don't need to pray to me or to sacrifice to me. They just need to know that I'm already a part of them and to trust in that. I won't be hands on. Chuck put himself in the story. That was his mistake. But I learned from you and my mother and Castiel that... when people have to be their best... they can be. And that's what to believe in. Well... I'm really as close as this. Goodbye.
Dean: To everyone that we lost along the way.
Sam: You know, with Chuck not writing our story anymore, we get to write our own. You know, just you and me going wherever the story takes us. Just us.
Trivia & References
- "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."
Dean: That's right -- the whole Cain and Abel thing.
- Cain was the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. When Lucifer tried to corrupt Cain's younger brother Abel, Cain made a deal so that Abel's soul would go to Heaven and in exchange Cain's would go to Hell. Lucifer agreed on the condition that Cain kill Abel himself. As previously stated on the show, this fits with Chuck's pattern of having brothers kill each other as part of His story.
- Michael says he was the source of the Abrahamic religions as he had the former prophets brand God's image on Earth. A piece of historical evidence is Mont Saint Michel on the island Mont Tombe at Normandy, France. The commune was built after the archangel Michael appeared to Aubert of Avranches in 708 AD telling him to build a church on the rocky island.
- "Cuck" is a shortening of cuckold, used to refer to a man who is subservient to a woman, and in porn where a man watches another man have sex with his partner. In recent years, it has become used by white supremacists to describe anyone who believes in something that they disagree with.
- "D'oh" is the catchphrase of the cartoon dad Homer Simpson.
Minutiae
Michael: That was then. This is now. Tell me what you need me to do.
- Dean previously mentioned in 15.18 Despair that Michael wasn't returning their prayers.
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
- 15.19 Inherit the Earth (transcript)
- Inherit the Earth script (Yellow Collated Draft)
