Alice’s Top Ten Supernatural Episode Endings
8. Phantom Traveler
There isn’t much to this ending, but it still gets me every time. “Phantom Traveler” is an emotional episode and sets some standards for things to come, but the end is just the “gotcha” after we were sucked in by the rest of it. Dean finally asks the nagging question, how did Jerry get his cell phone number? His Dad gave it to him of course. Wha??? Okay, not John, John’s message. The two brothers take a private moment, sit on the back of the Impala and call Johns’ number. Sure enough, there’s a message. He’s alive, but doesn’t want to be found. He instructs people to call Dean. This is just the blow neither of them wanted to hear, especially Sam. They swallow the bitter pill, get into the Impala and go.
7. Bloody Mary
I wanted to make this higher. I had no idea how with all these great endings from the later seasons. The show has just gotten that good. Take one incredible song, aka The Rolling Stones’ “Laugh, I Nearly Died,” catch Sam in a brutally somber mood, and then throw in a freakish vision of his dead girlfriend on a street corner and a classic is born. The scene is really enhanced by the beautiful direction, the slow, tortured drive through the street as a troubled Sam sits in the passenger seat watching the haunting vision of Jessica in white, all to the part of the song that perfectly fits the deep emotional struggle.
6. When The Levee Breaks
They built up to this all season long. The brothers were constantly at odds and clearly headed in different directions. When Sam started sneaking around with Ruby after “Criss Angel is A Douchebag,” it was obvious that Dean was not going to take it well after finding out what Sam was doing with her. Especially the demon blood thing which was a huge insult to injury. Still, locking his brother in the panic room against his will, despite being well intentioned, was not going to end well either.
Sam started the knock “˜em out, drag out brawl by releasing 26 years of pent up frustration on his brother, not to mention riding the nice little roid rage going on inside. Dean never stood a chance. But for Dean to give the ultimatum of “if you walk out that door don’t come back,” a la his Dad when Sam left for Stanford, talk about history repeating itself. Yep, Sam never liked ultimatums. Stubborn Winchesters.
I have to wait until tomorrow for Ardeospina’s list? Huh.
One thing on the ending to Good God Y’All that you didn’t mention is Sam’s three knees.
Great list, Alice. But I’d suggest an honorable mention to Fresh Blood too. The last scene always kills me. Dean offering his treasured car to little brother as if saying: ‘I love you and I want you to be OK when I’m gone.’ Just plain beautiful. Sera Gamble is a goddess. 🙂
Fantastic list and given how my lists always have 13, I’ll never accuse you of copping out. You just need to build the cop out into the structure itself. 😀
Oh man, making a list of endings? I’d have to further cop out by having a season finale one, a Kleenex one, a non-Kleenex one. Devil’s Trap is so visceral, I loved Lazarus Rising because *that* is how you do epic. Make it human, make it *mean* something, not just an amped-up game of Risk.
And I have to second AndreaW’s suggestion, such a cool brotherly moment.
Ah, Alice, you’re not alone in liking a distressed Sam… Jared is marvellous in those scenes. Even though he’s great at comedy, he’s fantastic in tragic scenes… And I, personally, am a sucker for tragic stories… They seem altogether more realistic…. Ah, that sounds sick now.
What I wanted to say : great list, many of my favourites there. I love the death scenes, of course (don’t we all?) and those moments when Sam is slipping away, and we realize he is dead a heartbeat before Dean does – yep, I keep searching for that damn weeping box…
I loved the end of the Pilot, too. As much as I could see from teary eyes – it was so troubled, so matter-of-fact and therefore even more heartbreaking. And the end of Heart! Come on, how could you forget that!? I guess my all-time-favourite is Heaven And Hell. It is easily epic.
Loved all your suggestions, though, except that you left out Heart (sniff).
Cheers, Jas
Superb list, Alice, but “Heart” should have been on it as one of the biggest weepers. Sam’s loss of innocence and Dean’s realization that he can no longer protect his little brother from monster hurt always crushes me. While it’s not death in the literal sense, it’s death in Dean’s mind of his ability to shield Sam from having to do the worst–kill someone you love.
Love the list–most of my favorites are here! Can’t wait to see Ardeospina’s. One of my favorite endings? In My Time of Dying– that’s the one that stunned me and made me realize this show had got its hooks into me. I was totally surprised by how crummy I felt after. John didn’t seem to be around for S4, but I wasn’t expecting to see him go then!
Faellie–huh? Sam’s 3 knees? Am I missing something obvious, I don’t get it…
I actually did kind of guess at the ending of Nightshifter, only after the Swat Team showed up. And that’s only because I watched “Ocean’s Eleven” with friends the night before! Didn’t make it ANY less awesome, though.
ElenaM, its a continuity/editing error at the end of Good God Y’All that just bugs me. Sam and Dean are sitting at a picnic table, and we see a long shot where Sam lifts his right leg over the bench. Then there’s a close-up where Dean asks Sam if he wants to take the Impala, and when he refuses Sam’s right knee goes over the bench again. Three knees. I really like the ep, and the ending, but that one gets to me everytime since I noticed it.
Come to think of it, maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it.
I didn’t wanna comment until I saw both of yours lists. The similarities are different and the differences are really interesting. It’s cool to see two peoples takes on same scenes. This was a really nice idea, I hope you guys do it again sometime!
A really wonderful list Alice. Love your picks. I find it impossible to do this kinda list. There are just TOO many candidates. I can’t make a top50 even if I wanted to 😀
I’m always very excited for the endings. The ending really makes the eppie for me, you know? And our show has the best endings. I tried to think of a weak one, and didn’t come up with any!
I agree on the Family Remains ending that it was too similar to Heaven & Hell but since we had hellatus to deal in between those eppies, I’m giving them a pass.
Even though I can’t make top10 lists, I have to say that the best ending for me is the end of AHBL part 1. Two reasons. That was the eppie that got me hooked. And that was the eppie that killed Sam. It was brutal. Haunting. And I’ll never forget it. I’ve never felt so crushed over a damn TV show. And since I didn’t know if it was the last episode of the season, or the series,(came across this while channel surfing) I was seriously freaking out. Brilliant, brilliant ending.
Thanks Alice. I really, really love this lists 🙂
Alice, can I say I lurve you dearly after closing out the list with an ending that involves that greatest Supernatural character of all time? Not to mention the screen shot is pretty hot.
And have you noticed that ever since his first entrance Cas has always been kind of a diva when it comes to appearing somewhere? He even does so in ways that are funny as heck like in “My Bloody Valentine”.
Great list, Alice! It was really cool to see where we agreed and disagreed on these endings, and to hear your take on them. I’m glad you had more from season 5, too, because I just don’t think I’ve watched the episodes enough to get the full effect of some of them. I need those DVDs stat!
And I wish I had known that 13 choices was a possibility… 😉
Thanks, Faelllie– No worries, sometimes nitpicks bug me too but this one’s actually kind of funny 😀 Must agree with Supernarttu, LOVED the compare/contrast lists & hoping for more! And yeah, great endings could be a top 50 list easy. Jennifer: lol.
Oh, btw, just an addendum to my earlier comment, when I said I kinda saw the end of Nightshifter coming I just meant the boys escaping in SWAT outfits, not that the shifter was hiding out as a corpse–didn’t see that coming, both twists were very cool
This is so hard! So many goodies … I’m a big gurly wuss so I hate the tearjerkers. My top 3 are probably Nightshifter cos it’s all round fabulous, the Black Truck Of Doom as it made me jump out of my skin and spill Stella all over the cat and provided the first of many You-Bastard-Kripke! moments to treasure and the fake sunset in Hollywood Babylon as it’s almost cheerful and I can only take so much gloom and despondency ( Eh? What’s that? What do you mean, find another series? 😆 ) Same goes for the disc-wiping-widget in Ghostfacers V. Party-hat-fancying-corpse-collector-bloke.
Can’t choose … Brain hurts …
Hi Alice and Ardeospina
I’m just going to comment here…no point writing the same thing twice.
Kudos to both of you for being able to bring it down to 10(or 13 depending how you look at it).
There is just too many choices and I agree with all your picks and everyone else’s.
I also liked the endings in Everybody loves a Clown …Sam’s little confession and Dean’s release of his agony over his fathers death. :cry::
And in Nightmare, Dean trying to reassure Sam that everything is going to be ok, but his expression as he is leaving says otherwise. 🙁
Can’t wait for your next LIST OFF… 😀