15.20 Carry On
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| Title | Carry On |
| Episode # | Season 15, Episode 20 |
| First aired | November 19, 2020 |
| Directed by | Robert Singer |
| Written by | Andrew Dabb |
| On IMDB | Carry On |
| Outline | Sam and Dean take their final ride. |
| Monster | Jenny Vampires |
| Timeline | |
| Location(s) | Lebanon, Kansas Akron, Ohio Canton, Ohio Heaven |
| « Previous Episode | Next Episode » | |
Synopsis
In the Bunker, Sam and Dean go through their daily morning routine. Dean wakes up and is immediately greeted by Miracle. Sam goes for a run, pausing on the way to look at the world. Sam makes breakfast, warning Dean the toast is hot. Then Sam walks into his room shirtless, fresh from the shower. We see him neatly make his bed, while Dean messily makes his. Dean cleans weapons while Sam does laundry in an old washer. In the library, Dean is on his laptop along with Miracle, when Sam joins them. Looking for hunts, Sam tells Dean he's found nothing, but Dean has.
They roll up to a small town. Sam asks if Dean is ready; Dean assures that he is, as they step out of the Impala and enter a Pie Fest. While Dean goes to buy pie, Sam looks forlornly at a passing family. When Dean returns, Dean asks about Sam's sadness. Sam tells him he misses Castiel and Jack. Dean says he misses them too, but that they will honor their sacrifices by living. As Dean begins to dig into his tray of pies, Sam picks one up and shoves it in Dean's face, laughing as he tells Dean he has wanted to do that for a long time.
Later that night, the family from the Pie Fest is attacked by masked intruders at their home. Sam and Dean show up as FBI agents Singer and Kripke, and learn that the two children were taken, the father was killed and that the mother survived, but had her tongue ripped out. The local sheriff shows Sam and Dean a drawing of the attacker, which is just a skull. Looking through John's Journal, they find an old case of a string of kidnappings he never solved, and figure out it's vampires that prey on rural families with kids and wonder who fits the description nearby.
A van drives up to a house, the masked vampires get out. Only for one to be beheaded by Dean, and the other shot by Sam. Sam and Dean interrogate the captured vampire, who says they kidnap and raise the kids as a food source. After threat of a slow and agonizing decapitation, the vampire tells them where the children are.
Sam and Dean pull up to a creepy barn and get their weapons ready. Inside, they save the boys, only to be confronted by the masked vampires. A fight ensues. At one point, Sam is knocked out, and Dean is captured. Jenny, the woman who was turned into a vampire on Sam and Dean's first vampire hunt appears to a surprised Dean, who uses the time to banter, letting Sam recover. When she goes to bite him, Sam beheads her. The fight continues, while Sam and Dean kill the vamps, Dean is impaled on a rebar hook by one, who Sam also decapitates. Thinking they've won, Sam tells Dean they should find the kids and leave, but Dean tells him something is wrong with him, and soon realizes he's dying the way he knew he should, saving people, hunting things. Sam doesn’t want to believe, offering to get help. But Dean begs him to stay. Wanting him to come closer as he tells him things he needs to say. He tells Sam how proud he is of him and everything he admires. He admits to being so scared that Sam wouldn't have wanted to see him when he came and got him from school., because he didn't know what he would do without Sam. It was always them. Just them. Sam begs him not to leave. Dean tells him will be with him everyday in Sam's heart, and he wants Sam to not bring him back. He tells him to always keep fighting and that he loves him so much. Feeling he doesn't have much time left, Dean tells Sam he needs hear him say it's okay for him to go. After sometime, Sam is finally able to. They touch foreheads, say goodbye, and Dean breathes his last breath, collapsing into Sam's arms, trembling from his wracking sobs.
Sam and Miracle give Dean a hunter's funeral. Afterwards, Sam morosely goes about the Bunker, Miracle not leaving his side. Later, he sits in Dean’s untouched room, crying, and petting a sad Miracle when a phone rings from the desk drawer. It's Dean's "other other cell phone." An officer from Austin, looking for an "Agent Bon Jovi", has bodies with missing hearts. Donna Hanscum told him that he's the one to call. After a pause, Sam says he's on his way. Sam, packs up and walks through the Bunker library and Crow's Nest one last time. He turns to look around once more before leaving and shutting down all of the Bunker lights a final time.
From Dean's funeral pyre, we see Dean rise and go to Heaven. Happy that he ended up in Heaven, Dean is surprised to see Bobby Singer waiting for him. Thinking he's in a memory, Bobby tells him he isn't and that Jack released him from lock up and changed Heaven, with Castiel's help. It's no longer endlessly remembering your greatest memories. It's living all together with the people you love, happily, revealing that John and Mary, Rufus are all nearby, telling Dean that it's not just Heaven, but it's the Heaven Dean deserves. They share a beer that tastes likes the first Dean had with his father, which was bad at the time, but he gets nostalgic. When Dean says it's almost perfect, Bobby assures him "He'll be along," knowing who Dean needs to make Heaven perfect, also mentioning that time works differently in Heaven. When Bobby asks what Dean wants to do, Dean sees Baby with the original license plates. He decides to go for a drive while Bobby tells him, "Have fun."
As he turns over the engine, "Carry On Wayward Son" plays from the radio. He declares he loves that song and drives. While he’s driving we see Sam raising a son, appropriately named Dean. An aged Sam uncovers a still mint condition Baby, and sits behind the wheel, looks forlornly at the passenger seat he occupied for so long, grips the wheel where his brother Dean used to grip, and cries. The music changes as we see a dying elderly Sam lie in medical bed at home beneath pictures of his beloved long gone family. Dean, his son, is an adult now with an anti-possession tattoo on his forearm. He comes in to hold Sam's hand. As Sam struggles to breathe, Dean tells him, "It's okay. You can go now." We see Sam tearfully breathe his last breath, like Dean did all those years ago.
In Heaven, Dean stops at a bridge and gets out of Baby. He walks to the railing to enjoy the view, when suddenly his demeanor changes. He smiles, and without turning, calls, "Hey, Sammy." As he turns, we see Sam in the clothes he wore when they hunted the Woman in White, he smiles and replies with a simple "Dean." They look at each other, smiling, then hug a joyous hug. Dean leads Sam to enjoy the view, his arm around his shoulder. They're free to enjoy the perfect Heaven together forever, having finished their work and are finally at peace.
Characters
Definitions
- Alcohol
- Aliases
- Anti-Possession Symbol
- Chest Hair
- Chuck Won Theory
- Costumes & Disguises
- Crew Cameos
- Dead...or are they?
- Dead Guy Robe
- Dead Man's Blood
- Dean's Bedroom
- Dean's Cell Phone
- Dean's Monster Mashups
- Diegetic Music
- Food
- Green Cooler
- Harvelle's Roadhouse
- Heaven
- Hugs
- Hunter's Funeral Pyre
- Idjit
- Impala
- John's Journal
- Kuma Blu
- Men of Letters Bunker
- Monsters
- Nipples
- Photo Album
- Pie
- Pranks
- Rebar
- Sam's Blurry Wife
- Sammy
- Sam and Dean's Initials
- Season 15 Callbacks
- Single Perfect Tear
- Son of a Bitch
- Specialty Bullets
- Table of Death
- Tattoos
- Unconscious
- Vampires
Music
- "Ordinary Life" by Van Morrison
- (playing over Sam and Dean starting their day)
- "Brothers in Arms" by Dire Straits
- (playing over Dean's funeral pyre and Sam's mourning)
- "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas
- (plays on the Impala's radio as Dean takes the Impala for a ride in Heaven and Sam lives his life on Earth with his son; also played in 1.21 Salvation, 2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two, 3.16 No Rest for the Wicked, 4.22 Lucifer Rising, 5.22 Swan Song, 6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much, 7.23 Survival of the Fittest, 8.23 Sacrifice, 9.23 Do You Believe in Miracles?, 10.23 Brother's Keeper, 11.23 Alpha and Omega, 12.23 All Along the Watchtower, 13.23 Let the Good Times Roll, and 14.20 Moriah)
- "Carry On Wayward Son" by Neoni
- (playing as Sam passes away from old age and reunites with Dean in Heaven)
Quotes
Sam: I'm not Sad Sam. I'm just... I'm thinking about Cas, you know? Jack. If they could be here.
Sam: Yeah, or vampires.
Dean: Oh, it speaks. Not a mime. Still evil, though.
Sam: Yeah, the Woman in White.
Bobby: Yep.
Dean: What memory is this?
Bobby: It ain't ya idjit.
Dean: Yeah it is, 'cause the last I heard you... you were in Heaven's lockup.
Bobby: Was. Now I'm not. That kid of yours before he went... wherever, made some changes here. Busted my ass out. And then he -- Well, he set some things right. Tore down all the walls up here. Heaven ain't just reliving your golden oldies anymore. It's what it always should've been. Everyone happy. Everyone together. Rufus lives about five miles that way -- with Aretha. Thought she'd have better taste. And your mom and dad... they got a place over yonder. It ain't just Heaven, Dean. It's the Heaven you deserve. And we've been waiting for you.
Dean: So, Jack did all that?
Bobby: He'll be along. Time up here, it's... it's different. You got everything you could ever want... or need or... dream. So, I guess the question is... what are you gonna do now, Dean?
Dean: I think I'll go for a drive.
Sam: Dean.
Trivia & References
- Eeyore is a depressed and gloomy stuffed donkey character from the Winnie the Pooh stories by A.A. Milne.
Dean: Dark, creepy, something out of Wes Craven's erotic fantasy? Yeah. It's 100% the place.
- Wes Craven was a horror filmmaker best known for the Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream franchises.
- "Aretha" is possibly a reference to R&B and soul singer Aretha Franklin.
Minutiae
- "As I head out to the first day on my LAST season finale, I can’t help but be incredibly grateful for all that #Supernatural and the #SPNFamily mean to me. It’s been an incredible journey, to say the least. I, for one, am hoping that #SupernaturalNeverDies."
Jensen responded:
- "Here we go, brother. This one’s for all the marbles."
- "So last night we completed 326 of Supernatural. And at the very end of every one of those scripts are three words: To Be Continued. Today we start episode 327, and at the very bottom, of the very last page of this script are only two words: (He holds up the script showing the words The End) Happy Friday everybody."
On the post Jared commented:
- "Let's bring it home brother"
Misha posted:
- "Don't make me cry. Again."
- "There's only one scene that I haven't done that I would've done for the end of the show and I'm certainly not going to give it away, maybe one day I will. But I can assure the fans that my ending was so much darker than the ending they're going with, so anyone who's like, 'Kripke should've ended it,' I'm like, 'You would've hated my ending!' Because it was a horror movie and it was going to have a horror movie ending, so I can promise you the ending [they went with] you'll love much more than if you had let me end the show."
Sam: No.
- Dean wants to use a shuriken (star knife) as a weapon. This has been seen in their weapons cache throughout the series, but never used.
Jenny: Hey, Dean.
Dean: Well, look at you. You know, we tried to kill each other back in the day. Yeah. This is so weird.
- A reference to the events of 1.20 Dead Man's Blood where Jenny and Kate were the only vampires to escape the Winchesters on their very first vampire hunt.
Dean: Yes you can.
Sam: Yeah, well, I don't want to.
- Sam and Dean's exchange as Dean is dying is verbatim from 1.01 Pilot, when Dean asked for Sam's help in finding their father. When asked at a StageIt Creation event the weekend after this episode aired, Jared said,
- "It was written that Sam says, 'I can't do this without you.' I thought it was neat to throw back to the pilot and say, 'I can't do this alone,' instead, like to reverse roles."
- He also said he and Jensen were given license by writer Andrew Dabb and director Robert Singer to "just go with the flow" during Dean's death scene.
- Dean's surprise/relief to have made to Heaven stems from Belphegor's revelation in 15.02 Raising Hell, that souls that have been to Hell cannot gain entry into Heaven without God's blessing.
- Sam and Dean (first seen in 10.03 Soul Survivor)
- Mary Winchester (first seen 14.18 Absence)
- Young Dean Winchester II
- Dean, Mary and Sam (first seen 14.19 Jack in the Box)
- Young Sam and Dean
- Sam and Dean (first seen 10.03 Soul Survivor)
- Dean, Bobby and Sam (first seen 10.03 Soul Survivor)
- Young Dean II
- As he described at the November StageIt panel, it was Jared's idea to mirror Dean's death with Sam's. The line "You can go now" was inspired by what director Bob Singer related he had said to his own father.
- Dean: And you told me yourself that you see a way out. You see a light at the end of this ugly-ass tunnel. I don't. But I tell you what I do know – it's that I'm gonna die with a gun in my hand. 'Cause that's what I have waiting for me – that's all I have waiting for me. I want you to get out. I want you to have a life – become a Man of Letters, whatever. You, with a wife and kids and – and – and grandkids, living till you're fat and bald and chugging Viagra – that is my perfect ending, and it's the only one that I'm gonna get. So I'm gonna do these trials. I'm gonna do them alone – end of story. You're staying here. I'm going out there. If landshark comes knocking, you call me. If you try to follow me, I'm gonna put a bullet in your damn leg.
Sam: Dean.
- Another reference to the first word spoken by Sam to Dean in 1.01 Pilot, adlibbed by Jared with the circular storytelling of returning to the pilot in mind.
- Jensen: Thank you, the fans. Through blood, sweat, laughter, and tears, you've kept us on for 15 years.
- Jared: There's no way we would have ever been here without you and your support and your love, so thank you. We will remain forever grateful for the opportunity and the honor to play these characters for so long, and we felt you guys here with us all the time. So thank you.
Fans started a number of fundraising campaigns including:
- The Trevor project for Castiel. This raised over $55k which Misha acknowledged in a tweet saying "This was ALL you. Never underestimate your power. Proud of you all."
- The National Association of Mental Illness for Dean
- Together We Rise for Sam
- Random Acts for Jack
- National Association for the Deaf for Eileen
On Dean's death:
- “It was a success story — it was Dean’s success story,” Padalecki reflects on the “Supernatural” series finale. “This guy gave his life for years and years and years and ultimately gave his life to have his No. 1 on the planet live as normal a life as possible.”
Jared also disclosed that no version of the script revealed who Sam's wife was after he quit hunting.
- “I think it was very, very purposely ambiguous and strangely I agreed with that,” he says. “I feel like a lot of what Sam did after Dean died was almost in honor of what Dean would have wanted, and Dean would not have wanted his little brother to marry Eileen, Ruby, someone in the life.”
- "They were like, 'We're writing that script right now, but we just found out Kansas is actually going to be in Austin playing one night and it happens to be three days before you start working.' So I was in prep and basically, they broke the main unit early on the previous episode so that they could do a full company move over to the Moody Theater in downtown Austin and we could set up and shoot, essentially, a rock concert. So I shot that while in prep, and then a couple days later we started rolling on principle photography for me."
