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| CARRY ON MY WAAAAAAYWARD SOOOOON! THERE'LL BE PEACE WHEN YOU ARE DOOOOOOONE! LAY YOUR WEARY HEAD TO REEEEEEST! DON'T YOU CRY NO MORE! |
And. So. It. ENDS! Everything that Sam and Dean have fought and struggled for since not only the beginning of Season 2, but the very beginning of the entire series comes to a head here. It is here that the stage is set for not only Season 3, but Seasons 4 and 5 as well. Without one particular moment in this very episode, Season 4 and 5 in particular would never happen.
There is no more time for heavy-handed words. Crank up the Kansas and let's. Do. THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!
"Carry On My Wayward Son" by Kansas is indeed what elevates the Season-Long montage, going over the Colt and everything in the myth arc with a little bit of emphasis on Crossroad Blues (which you know can't be anything but good!) as well. We see flashes of Part 1, leading up to Sam's death at the hands of Jake and Dean's last, enraged scream as he holds Sam's lifeless body.
In the present, Dean looks down at Sam's lifeless body in repose. Bobby enters, having brought a bucket of chicken, Dean for the first time in his life saying he's not hungry. Bobby notes Dean's drinking and attempts to carefully broach the subject of burying Sam. Dean refuses and, when Bobby tries to get him to come back to the hunt by saying the end of the world is at stake, Dean angrily yells at him. He's given enough and every time he turns around, it just gets worse. After shoving Bobby and yelling at him to leave, Dean apologizes. He still, however, wants Bobby to leave. Bobby tells him that he knows where to find him.
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| Jensen's solo scene here is one of his best. No lie. |
When he realizes Yellow Eyes isn't bluffing, Jake relents.
Back with Dean and Sam's body, Dean has a powerful monologue talking about their life when Sam was a kid and how he wanted to protect Sam from everything for as long as he could. Even without John having to tell him, Dean always felt that it was his responsibility. . .and he screwed it up, and now Sam is dead. Firmly on the despair event horizon, Dean screams out to Sam or to John or to the universe, asking what it is that he's supposed to do.
The Impala roars into life as Dean heads out with determination burning in his eyes. Popping open the trunk, we see him get together a box for the crossroads and plants in firmly in the exact center. A woman in a black dress, her eyes flashing demonic red. She's implied to be the same demon from Crossroad Blues but never directly stated to be as such in this episode at least. Dean lays it on the line - he gives his soul and Sam gets up off that table where he's rotting. He tries for the standard ten years, but she doesn't agree. . .then nine. . .then five. She refuses all offers.
Finally, Dean Winchester actually breaks down and begs. The Demon tells him that she'll bring Sam back, but will give Dean one year and one year only. If he tries to get out of the deal, though, Sam will drop dead on the spot. Dean kisses her, sealing the pact, and Sam awakens completely fine once again and looking very stunned.
Sam is checking his back - finding not so much as a blemish where the knife struck - and Dean returns to find him alive. Dean embraces him, much to Sam's confusion. When Sam tells him they can't patch up a wound that bad, Dean says Bobby can and that seems to get Sam off the trail. Sam resolves to hunt down and kill Jake for what he's done, Dean getting him lulled away with food.
Sam catches Dean up on his end of the events of Part 1, pointedly not telling him about the revelation about Mary and about the demon blood that now flows in his veins and Dean tells Sam about the burning down of the Roadhouse and the death of Ash and potentially Ellen.
Though Dean is adamant that Sam get some rest, Sam wants to get back in it. The two head back to Bobby's. . .and Bobby knows from the jump that something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. Bobby shows the boys some demonic omens he's found that have skyrocketed out of nowhere all over Wyoming except for one part of the southern part of the state, almost like demons are swarming around it. Bobby leaves Sam to look over the research to see if there's something he missed and asks Dean to come get some books with him out of the trunk.
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| Jim Beaver's Bobby goes from family friend to father figure officially in this episode. Saying that he merely nails it is doing a disservice to the man. |
Outside, Bobby lays into Dean. Hard. He calls out the Winchesters for their self-sacrificing fetish, Dean giving a rebuttal that he wouldn't be alive if it weren't for John's deal, so that his life can mean something. At the end, Dean begs Bobby to do whatever he wants to him, but not to tell Sam. Jim Beaver in particular gives a very good performance as a fatherly figure who is absolutely distraught over the fate of his son.
They get distracted, however, as Ellen breaks into the junkyard. A shot of holy water later to prove she's not a demon and she explains why she wasn't at the Roadhouse - she went out to get pretzels. She had been taking to Ash, who told her to look in the safe, before the line was cut. By the time she came back, the place was in ashes. She did get what was in the safe, namely a map of Wyoming with several Xs marked. Bobby checks a book of exposition and finds that each X is an abandoned frontier church - all of which were built by one Samuel Colt, each church connected by a private railway line and forms a 100 square mile Devil's Trap.
Dean contributes to the research, finding that there's a cemetery in the exact center. He theorizes that Colt may not have been trying to keep demons out, but keep something in.
We cut to a car pulling up to a railroad line, driven by Jake. Yellow Eyes pops up, telling him that he has to open a crypt in the cemetery and even gives him the key to do it - the Colt. He even tells Jake that the Colt is the only gun in the universe that can shoot him dead. Jake turns the gun on him, but Yellow Eyes convinces him to not kill him by promising him power and protection and the beginning of a better world.
Jake gets to the cemetery only to be jumped by Bobby, Dean, Sam, and Ellen. He's shocked to see Sam, insisting that he's dead and there's no way Sam is up and walking after what he did to him - having cut clean through his spinal cord. When it seems he's at the end of his rope, Jake tells Ellen to put her gun to her head and - though she struggles against it - she obeys. He essentially holds Ellen hostage, even as Ellen tells them to shoot him, they give into his demand and drop their guns.
Bobby and Dean save Ellen at the last second as Jake uses the Colt to open the crypt. Sam empties his entire gun into Jake in a very cold manner, even as Jake lies on the ground begging for his life. That, however, is another problem entirely as the door has opened. . .and Hell has indeed finally broken loose. A maelstrom of demonic black is released, lighting up the railroad tracks and even blacking out the screen entirely.
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| Hell has awakened... |
The power is such that it shatters the railroad tracks, allowing Yellow Eyes through. Dean checks the Colt, realizing he's got the one bullet left. When Yellow Eyes pops up, he telekinetically pulls it from Dean's hand and tosses him aside. As Sam, Bobby, and Ellen try to close the gate, Yellow Eyes taunts Dean (after tossing Sam aside) about how he has basically failed everyone around him and now he's going to die horribly. Also, the thought that Sam. . .might not all be Sam anymore after the dead.
But, as Yellow Eyes rises up and points the Colt at Dean to finish him off...the spirit of John Winchester, having crawled up out of Hell, grabs Yellow Eyes and tears him out of his host body. He drops the Colt, leaving Dean to grab it. By the time Yellow Eyes gets back into his meatsuit, it's too late and...
And...
Okay, hang on. I need to put a warning up here.
. . .yeah, I know this isn't on film. Watch it here provided the YouTube link still works.
John and Yellow Eyes' smoke cloud struggle for a spell, but the Demon gets loose and slips back into his meat. By the time he is on his feet again, he looks up just in time to see Dean pull back the hammer and fire the last bullet of the Colt. It hits home, going right through the heart with Yellow Eyes looking stunned before wrenching back, his body beginning to light up and and smoke, electricity crackling around the wound before he falls over. . .and knows no more. The yellow in his eyes fades away into the blue eyes of Fredric Lehne. The Yellow Eyed Demon is dead.
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .okay, I don't know about you, but I need a cigarette. Maybe five.
I'll go ahead and say this within the review part of the episode - this is the highwater mark for taking out the Big Bad in Supernatural. Every other death after this? Not nearly as satisfying, and I'll get into why in a bit.
Bobby and Ellen manage to close the Devil's Gate, but the damage is done, a bunch of demons got loose on the world. The ghost of John stands, looking to his two boys with a smile, even laying a hand on Dean's shoulder. Not a word is exchanged, they all know what they want to say to one another. John backs away, and there isn't a dry eye in the house as a bright light shines from within John, which eventually envelops him and causes him to dissolve.
Over the still smoking body of the Demon, Sam and Dean reunite once more. Sam expresses amazement that Dean killed the Demon, though Dean says he didn't do it alone. He likewise expresses amazement that John could have crawled up out of Hell, Dean saying that he was probably the only person stubborn enough to do it. They've been prepping for this moment for all their lives and, now, Sam doesn't know what to say now that it's happened. Dean, however, does. He leans over and stares into the open eyes of Yellow Eyes and says.
"That was for our mom...you son of a bitch."
Boom.
Back at the Impala, Sam confronts Dean over what Jake had said about him very clearly being dead. Eventually, Dean has to come clean and tells him the stakes - he sold his soul to bring Sam back, having only one year. Sam says that Dean sacrifices himself time and time again, and asks Dean why he thinks he wouldn't do the same for him. He doesn't care what it takes, he's going to get Dean out of this.
Ellen brings up that while Yellow Eyes is dead, a lot of demons got out. Bobby tells the boys that he hopes they're ready, because the war has just begin. Boston's "Don't Look Back" kicks on, and we get a callback to the Pilot. Where there, Sam was bent on revenge and rage after the death of Jessica, Dean opens up the trunk in triumph. Tossing the now empty Colt into the trunk, the music on a high, he echoes Sammy's words in saying that they have work to do.
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| . . .yeah, I might need a sixth cigarette. That was spectacular! |
With this, we bring the episode - and Season 2 - to a close. How fortuitous that this has happened on the second day of the second month of the year 2022. I'd like to say I planned for that, but I didn't.
Season 2 is probably my personal favorite season overall for the show. For me, it has what is best in the acting, the writing, and the special effects work. Not to say that other seasons don't have strengths in this department, but this is where the show reached critical mass in all of this simultaneously and held it for the longest amount of time, at least for me. Plus, it was capped off by an explosive finale that had more than earned its pay off. . .plus a little extra to boot!
Yes, Dean's deal was incredibly foolish and short sighted of him. However, it shows thematic symmetry with what happened to his father and using his sacrifice to save someone else. His motivations are well set up and are very understandable, as are Bobby's and eventually Sam's reactions to his decision. Yes, we understand why Dean did what he did, but we also understand that he was very selfish and stupid in doing so even with his good intentions.
Despite that, the season itself ends in stark contrast to where Season 1 ended. In Devil's Trap, we saw Sam and Dean at their lowest point. Trapped with John in the broken fragments of the Impala, their fate uncertain. In All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2, we see them in triumph. Yellow Eyes is dead, their mother avenged and their father having crawled his way up out of Hell in order to save them one last time before going on to. . .wherever it is he is destined for. Sure, Dean has a one year expiration date and the gates of Hell just opened up in a big way, but this ending has such optimism about it.
You just know that they're going to send those demonic sons of bitches back where they came from and find a way to get Dean out of his deal.
Alas. . .alas. . .optimism's greatest foe is reality. And reality would come down on the Winchester boys hard in the Seasons to come. Sometimes very literally.
I did mention before that Yellow Eyes' death is the most satisfying of all the Supernatural Big Bads, and here is why. The Demon has had a looming presence through the entire show up to this point. That commanding presence has been done with only silhouettes and barely seen actors and this, I'll remind you, was before Fredric Lehne had three of his four appearances as the Demon in Season 2.
. . .yeah, he has another appearance way later on, but not quite in the way that you think. More on that way later.
The point is, beyond just being a personal fight for Sam and Dean, Yellow Eyes is able to control the ongoing events without ever being onscreen. It's phenomenal, and no other Supernatural Big Bad from Lilith to Lucifer to Metatron to even - and here's a spoiler warning - GOD HIMSELF manages invoke that same feeling of ever-looming presence. Yellow Eyes only showed up in three of the twenty-two episodes of this season, but he only needed to show up in that many to be effective. That is power. It honestly makes his death at the hands of Dean and John's ghost all the more satisfying.
With that all said and done, Season 2 is in the can! It was a Hell of a ride, and I honestly enjoyed all of it on my rewatch. Time has really made me appreciate a lot of Season 1 and Season 2 much more than I already did, when the story was as simple as two boys trying to find their father. . .and kicking a lot of ass along the way.
Will my appreciation continue into Season 3? You'll have to wait and see. Like my brief hiatus from Doctor Who before going into its Series 5, I'll also be taking a sabbatical from Supernatural reviews for a bit. What comes next? Like I said, you'll have to wait and see.
Be there!
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