Supernatural (Season 8)

Show: Supernatural

Season: 8

Episodes: 23

Created By: Eric Kripke

Released: 2012-2013

Rating: 3.5/5

Basic Plot: The Winchester brothers attempt to close the Gates of Hell forever.
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Ending a Let Down
I'll start off by saying that the Season 8 Finale was wonderful. Had its ups and downs but, overall, was good. However, the main plot of this Season was closing the Gates of Hell. I won't say here if the brothers managed to close them or not. What I will do is bring up Season 5 of Fringe and how important the device (that the Fringe Team spent all Season getting parts to build, around half of the time not even knowing what it would do) was at the end. That's about how I felt when the closing the Gates of Hell plotline was concluded.

Sam and Dean's Relationship
The whole of Supernatural is based around Sam and Dean's brotherly relationship. If they weren't working together, there would be no show. Yes, there might be stuff happening, but the show known as Supernatural would be no more. This season has the two brothers seeming to take their relationship to an unhealthy level. I don't mind Sam getting a normal life during the beginning of the Season, what I have a problem with is that he never looked for Dean (who had been sent to Purgatory at the end of the previous Season). This caused the brothers to be farther apart than before and it was painful. Mainly because it seemed Sam had been written out of character for it to happen. Sam ends up making Dean lose contact with a friend and Dean texts from Amelia's phone to stop Sam from interfering with a job. However, only what Dean did is shown by the other characters to be wrong while what Sam did is okay. Luckily, by the middle of the Season their relationship is back to normal. The too close, co-dependent Winchester normal. Though the Finale brings back the fact that Sam seems to have a need for Dean to care only about him (which is unhealthy as sibling love is a great thing, but it shouldn't stop other relationships from forming). All in all, though, the Season ended with the Winchester brothers having a much improved relationship from the start of the Season.

Meg's Death
Now I do ship Megstiel, but that isn't the reason Meg's death bothers me. Meg is a character who is female and has survived many odds. Odds where other female characters have failed. So the death of such a long running character had to be handled with delicacy. Right? Nope. Now, Castiel not knowing that Meg died loving him is a good pain. That's a pain that hurts and burns, but is still a good pain. What isn't good is that Meg is basically tossed aside with neither Sam nor Dean having a word for her. I can understand the brothers not liking her, as she's been a villain in the past, but not acknowledging the one who saved your ass is unforgivable. A long running character needs a good death scene.

Final Thoughts
This was the first Supernatural Season I kept up with. In other words, I dvred each episode and watched them as soon as I could. I would've done this last Season, but Fringe and Supernatural came on at the same time. And I like Fringe more. So I went into this Season with no knowledge of how the Season would end. It was a great ride and when the Season Finale came up I was jumping up with fangirl glee when the "Carry on my Wayward Song" portion came up in the beginning. While there were some great moments of this season (Charlie getting a backstory that had nothing to do with her being a lesbian, the Winchester brothers getting a secret lair, and the Trials among other things) there were also some bad things (Meg's death, Sam being written out of character during the beginning of the Season, and the episode "Bitten" [don't believe I did a vlog of that episode, suffice it to say it's my least favorite Supernatural episode so far] among other things). With the Finale there is some hope that next Season will be full of lovely pain.