The Supernatural Finale’s Nullification of the Symbolism of the Road: Dean Winchester lived as a progressive hero and dies as a static shadow
During the emotional height of its grand finale, Supernatural’s Dean Winchester ensconces the show’s earlier themes as a road narrative by showing an elongated montage of him driving his classic car along an endless, American road. By returning to the original mythic and intertextual narratives from which Supernatural was born, the finale entrenched within its themes the grand myth of the freedom of the American road. However, this grand myth and symbol, representing the traveller’s metaphorical journey towards inner freedom and self-discovery whilst exulting their newly found connection to the beatific landscape on Earth, placed within the context of heaven - is rendered redundant.
Without canonical material to provide a true world-building of this new heaven, we must rely on the idea of heaven from previous seasons, as well as extratextual narratives of heavenly realms. The audience is told that in this new heaven, souls have freedom and new memories may be created. The vision we see of the finale’s heaven is glowing, sanitised, and idyllic. Coupled with the general Western audience’s presupposition that heavenly realms within texts will be devoid of true horror or suffering, we are to assume these new memories and freedoms will also be heavenly and devoid of suffering. This assumption is bolstered by the appearance of The Roadhouse, Bobby Singer, and Baby, all representative of ‘good times’ and shot with soft lighting (peaceful), then juxtaposed against Dean’s dark, gritty, violent, and horror-filed final moments on Earth. This entrenches the message that Supernatural is sending: Dean is at peace and saved from his suffering.
This disallowance of suffering in Dean’s heaven is antithetical to the myth of the road: the metaphorical journey towards inner-freedom, ‘self-display, and self-discovery’[1]. Conflict, suffering, and trials are essential towards self-discovery and character development, and this is truer for the ‘hero’ protagonist than others. Dean, our hero, in his sanitized heaven is now in stasis. His external goal of defeating god is destroyed, and his internal journey (created by reacting and responding to the trials and tribulations of a varied life) is curtailed. His symbolic drive through Americana heaven has been stripped of its meaning. Our hero is no longer a hero of the road and his journey of self-discovery is terminated. Kris Lackey in RoadFrames: The Amerian Highway Narrative, writes that ‘Car voyaging remains a symbolic gesture, describing in spatial terms a character’s education in or flight from domesticity’[2]. Whilst Dean is spatially driving away from home/Earth, his character is deprived of the ability to progress or to be educated by his surroundings, and therefore Dean’s drive through this physical space has been stripped of its metaphorical meaning. The physical road of heaven is illusory: it’s symbolism only taking on meaning and worth when the traveller changes in tandem with the view from the car window. The view from ‘Baby’ may change, but Dean cannot.
don’t get me wrong i am a finale hater at my core but there’s something poetic about how it’s thoroughly established throughout the show that cas was the “malfunction” in the system that caused the story not to go the way chuck wanted it to by developing free will and rebelling from heaven and then the moment he dies the story ends with dean dying and sam living an “regular life” the way it would’ve if the series never happened at all
like the series spends a lot of time saying cas is NOT the way he’s supposed to be. he rebelled the moment he saved dean from hell. he turns the narrative on its head by developing free will and making his own decisions. chuck even tells him that this is the only universe in which cas “didn’t do as he was told”. he ruins chucks plan for the brothers at every turn by caring about them.
then moment cas was gone the story went back to the way it would’ve ended if the show never happened and he had never affected anything. like the “error” was deleted and it reverted to the way it “should be”. dean died tragically and stupidly on a hunt way too young doing a job for his father. sam got out and lived an “apple pie life” and died old. they went to heaven with their family and it’s all The Way It Should Be, not matching up with the message of found family the show developed and instead returning to the blood family vibe of the early seasons pre cas. like he died and the story stopped resisting chucks wishes. idk i’m just yapping but it feels like something
It is quite nice to see a one off take about the small positive of the finale. Just because my main ideology is Fuck the Finale. I mean, still fuck the finale.
Yes Supernatural is 15 seasons long but it’s really simple. every season something happens and the world is about to end and one of the main characters goes I have an idea I’M GONNA KILL MYSLEF and that’s it. for 15 seasons. and the gay yearning of course
what gets me the most about supernatural is the way dean gets progressively more and more relaxed when castiel is in his space. yes, That personal space. and by like season 12 dean is putting his hand on cas in passing, he’s cramming into his side in a sitting booth, he’s grabbing his arms. he doesn’t turn his head when cas walks behind him. because cas is safe
I got my (now 18-year-old) daughter into Ao3 back in 2021. I taught her she should always comment - even if the fic looks old or abandoned or whatever. She did.
Well - she got this email this morning:
The fic was written in 2014 and essentially abandoned.
Bethy read and reviewed in 2021 (and was actually the only person who had commented at all).
Today in 2025 - the final chapter was posted by the author and this was her reply to Bethy’s comment.
———
Never question whether a fic is too old to comment on.
I can all but guarantee that the author had been sitting on that ending for all those years and had wanted desperately to sit down and get it written and posted but just never found the time, and your daughter’s lovely comment was the nudge they needed to finally make it happen.
I’ve been in the same position myself many times, lmao.
I feel like I’m in an episode of Black Mirror. Or maybe I’m just fully realising how ignorant people are about their data and the pretty dystopian and very possible catastrophes that could occur if China has access to Tik Tok data. And then people downloading RedNote… I feel like people on this website aren’t concerned? You don’t want apps from an antagonist nation state on your phone. At all. Urging everyone to please please don’t download rednote.
twitter is owned by a tech bro supervillain, facebook is getting rid of FACT checking bc it’s “biased” and moving all moderators to texas, tik tok is getting banned (I’ll b using a vpn but still), insta is owned by the dude getting rid of fact checking……but tumblr? good old tumblr? here she remains, vastly unchanged but for the few updates we usually bully staff into undoing. a true stronghold of democracy and free speech. waiting for those who abandoned her to come crawling back. bc yah. we’re still here
alright actually. two (?) years on what’s the one unexplained conspiracy breadcrumb about the supernatural finale that still irradiates you the most. personally i know the wrong-side-shove to the ground is most explainable by multiple takes/careless editors but it still drives me up thw fucking wall
okay just over 24 hours later i’d love to do a roundup
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