Supernatural Season Five Finale

All right, all right, I'm late with the watching, but last night I took a break from my Thursday night line up in favor of going to The Blue Moon for some beer, Speakeasy Boys, and good conversation. So, I just finished watching Supernatural like fifteen minutes ago.

Well. I'm not going to rehash plot details much. Mostly, I want to focus, like everyone else, on the fact that there's going to be a season six. Am I worried? Yes. Am I glad? Yes. I went into this season thinking it was the last one. (In case you don't know, the show's creator, Kripke, has been saying for like a year and a half that there would only be five seasons of Supernatural. He wanted to go out on a high note, yadda yadda. Then, just recently, they announced there will be a season six, just without Kripke.) I was sad. I like the idea of not having to say goodbye to Sam and Dean.

All that being said...I'm just not sure how this is going to work out. What will they do next year? How do you write a story after you battle the devil and angels and go up against God himself?

For fun, I've decided to imagine what I would do if I were a writer for Supernatural, and was told to pitch my ideas for season six. Here goes:

Okay, the first thing I'd do is let some time pass. So I'd come back, reshow the last scene with Dean in the house with Lisa and Sam outside looking in.

Two years later...

Sam is actually a ghost. He was shot by Bobby, remember? That looked fatal. Lucifer went back in the box, but Sam's body did not survive, and Sam's spirit did not go there. He's been hanging out trying to make contact with Dean for two years, but Dean can't see him. Ben, who is really Dean's son, let's face it, sees Sam. Through some hocus pocus, Dean finally does see Sam.

They'll find out that there's some way they can get Sam's body back, and they have to jump through tons of hoops to do it. That's the primary arc of the season.

Meanwhile, the demons are without Lucifer, wreaking their regular havoc. Dean, who tried valiantly to "go straight" and live a family life with Lisa and Ben, has settled into habits that more closely resemble that of his dad, going on long hunting trips and scouring newspapers for demon activity.

Conflict will arise from Dean's attempts to keep Lisa in the dark and safe (her safety will become big--hell, maybe she's even pregnant or something) and trying to protect Ben from the kind of life he lived as a kid. Ben, of course, who should be...let's see, he was like eight in season three, so we figure two years of the show plus the two years we're skipping...twelve--hmmm... Well, maybe we skip more like five years, putting Ben more like fifteen or something, so he's rebellious as all hell and crap? I dunno. Ben gets into the mix, of course figures things out, and Dean struggles with his role as a father, whether or not to teach Ben to take care of himself or not, with his own issues with his relationship with his dad, etc.

I think I'd tune in for that.

Okay, okay, I stole the Sam is a ghost thing from the last season of Angel. I still remember that moment being classic. "Blondie Bear!"

While I was watching the season finale, I realized something. I'm writing the same story. Jason and Azazel's story is about two people who are destined to be pivotal in the "end of the world." (I think this is why I have to write the new trilogy. I didn't actually have an apocalypse in the last one.) It's just that I've got two people who were teenage lovers, not two brothers.

With that in mind, I'd like to make a list of things that Supernatural did that I don't want to do in my new trilogy.

1. I don't want to incorporate the Judeo-Christian apocalypse literally. There will be no God or the Devil in J&A stories. Ever.

2. I don't want to waste perfectly good opportunities to create epic battles between my two main characters.

3. I don't want to fall into the trap of simplifying the ideas of good and evil.

4. I don't want my characters to have traits that make it impossible for them to grow, just so they're recognizable to the audience. For instance, Dean is always a smart ass and he can't stop seeing Sam as his little brother. In the last books, Jason was motivated completely by his desire for a normal life. In the new books, he will not be.

5. I don't want to create retcon-ish type devices that supposedly resonate with the audience when the audience only experienced it for the first time fifteen minutes ago. Sam's seeing of the toy soldier would have been epic if the toy soldier had been referenced in the first episode of the show. Instead, it was mentioned in a flashback at the beginning of the last show and then used in a decisive moment. I call this CHEATING!!

Kay. Well, I'm off to watch The Vamp Diaries and Happy Town now. Happy Friday all. :)