Supernatural Review: Inherit the Earth (Season 15 Episode 19)

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• I found this Season ending a bit rushed. It would have been better as a 2 episode finale. I found Jack’s black hole for divine energy implausible because he should have been sucking divine energy from Sam and Dean along with the rest of creation. They appeared unaffected, yet plants withered as a Jack walked by them. Chuck, Lucifer and Michael should have felt Jack tugging on their divine energy and after Jack sucked Chuck’s divinity, he should have triggered an implosion of the entire universe into a singularity. Black holes never die. They just keep eating.

  I did like the ending for Chuck. It was similar to Imotep’s in the 1999 Mummy movie. Chuck becoming mortal and having to survive without his divine powers was appropriate for one who had abused his divine power.

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  • After a few days of thought about why the conclusion SPN S15ep19 had the emotional impact of eating a bowl of saccharin , it dawned on me that the speech the SPN writers gave Michael in the church scene was designed as a direct atheistic attack on organized religion. It seemed to me that the SPN writers were more obsessed about putting down organized religion than just letting the story unfold by allowing the characters to develop/relapse, which would have given a more emotional and intellectual stimulating experience for the audience. The evidence is in the dialogue they gave Michael, as follows.

    Michael: “I never spent much time on Earth. I was curious about the perception of God and Heaven.”
    Dean: “And?”
    Michael: “Amazingly the believers loved him. They have for thousands of years. I guess my efforts were more effective than I had hoped.”
    Sam: “Your efforts?”
    Michael: “When God left Heaven, I was certain he would return, so I made sure that all the angels and prophets burnished his image on Earth. The all knowing, all seeing, all caring God.”

    Michael’s dialogue here is a typical atheistic/Ayn Rand propaganda argument that sees organized religion as a con game, but it ignores the whole history of organized religion that included it being a social justice counter force to the abuse of power by the secular realms of government, society, and business. A modern example: Martin Luther King Jr. He was a Christian minister of the Southern Baptist Church and he was able to use the moral power of his faith, the communal structure of his local church, and the universal structure of the Christian and other Abrahamic faiths to rally people across the nation and world to condemn the evils of racism, injustice, militarism and greed. The roots of that moral power drive all the way back to the Old Testament prophets, like Isaiah, who lambasted the wealthy and powerful of his day for abusing the poor and powerless.

    I propose that there were 3 more entertaining ways that the SPN writers could have handled Michael and the conclusion of the Winchesters conflict with God-Chuck. In all 3 ways the key to Michael’s motivations are with Adam, specifically his relationship with Adam. Why the SPN writers ignored this is unknown but it is artistic malpractice.

    In S15ep08, the audience sees that Michael and Adam have forged a partnership. In the diner scenes, Adam exhibited no ill will towards Michael, who in Season 5 had bullied Adam into consenting to be possessed by the archangel. In fact, Adam in the diner scenes appeared to enjoy Michael’s camaraderie and vice versa. So the audience surmises that during the course of reaching their agreement, Adam and Michael underwent a truth and reconciliation process where Michael apologized to Adam for abusing him, and Adam forgave the archangel. In the scene in episode 8 when Adam presses all of Michael’s buttons about his blind allegiance to his father, the archangel never verbally or physically abuses Adam. He gets angry at what Adam says but he refuses to punish or abuse Adam for speaking honestly to him. Adam never seemed to fear retribution from Michael in that scene and that would only happen if Michael respected him, maybe loved him in philia, brotherly love.

    In light of Adam’s and Michael’s partnership, here are the following 3 more emotionally stimulating ways that the SPN writers could have resolved Michael’s story arc and the Winchesters conflict with God-Chuck.

    Option number one: Since the writers wanted Michael’s story arc to end as a negative tragedy, they should have employed a Shakespearean tragic plot line model to show why and how Michael will devolve backwards to his “soldier who blindly follows orders again” way. In light of S15ep08’s buildup of Adam and Michael’s positive relationship, the audience had a right to hear Michael say good-bye to Adam. Adam’s death would have triggered psychological trauma in the archangel, and he could have expressed that sense of loss in his good-bye to Adam.

    If I had the opportunity to edit episode 19’s scene in the church and beyond, I would have had Michael sitting in a pew in near total darkness saying his goodbye to Adam, the only friend he ever had. Then Michael would enter a confessional where through a grill or curtain that gives him cover but allows him to see the Winchesters and Jack enter the inside of the church, I would have had Michael spit revenge at Sam & Dean. He had given them God’s secret spell in episode 8 that was used to cage the Darkness. It was obvious by the rapture that they had botched it. With his father at full power, Adam and Michael were vulnerable to God-Chuck’s wrath. Adam’s death was God-Chuck’s fault, but Michael would have blamed the Winchesters for it because they failed to cage his dad when he was weak. Michael would want revenge on the Winchesters and with his father he would beg for forgiveness and seek absolution.

    Because God-Chuck became obsessed with getting his Death book, I would have had Chuck appear in the confessional booth used by the priest. This way Chuck would still hide himself from Michael, but the archangel would recognize his father’s voice. Chuck would tell Michael that he would grant his son absolution if he got his Death book from the Winchesters, got it opened and brought it to him. Michael would conclude with “Your will, not mine be done.” A dark twist to the same words Jesus used at the conclusion of his agony in the garden.

    Then Michael would exit the confessional and greet the Winchesters and Jack. He would tell them about Adam’s death and that he had been grieving Adam’s death which is why he ignored their prayers. Because Adam was dear to him, Michael tells them he wants revenge for what happened to Adam but doesn’t tell them that the revenge he seeks is against them, not his father. He returns to the bunker with them as a spy for his dad.

    After failing to open God’s Death book in the bunker, Michael would contact his father for guidance. That would be answered with Lucifer’s entrance to the bunker. The way Lucifer’s scene was written I would keep pretty much asis. Michael would see Lucifer’s grab for God’s Death book as a threat to his absolution from his father, so he would fight Lucifer and kill his brother, but I would have had Lucifer either severely or mortally wound Michael, like injure his wings and legs so he could not escape the Winchesters. Being incapacitated, Michael would call out to his father to help him, thus exposing his treachery to the Winchesters.

    Chuck would appear, take his Death book, and tell Michael that he killed Adam because the young man was eclipsing him in Michael’s heart. Chuck called to him after opening the cage door but Michael did not respond because the archangel had forged a bond with Adam. That bond interfered with God’s call to his son, and then Chuck would tell Michael because he had betrayed him in episode 8 and helped the Winchesters, he never intended to grant him absolution, thus crushing Michael’s spirit completely. Afterwards, Chuck kills Michael thus ending the eldest archangel’s tragic story arc.

    After killing Michael, Chuck is buoyant with hubris. Paraphrasing from the end of the Book of Job, Chuck would brag about his creative power to the Winchesters while torturing and breaking their limbs with flicks of his fingers. Jack would sneak up behind Chuck and drain his grandfather’s divine energy thus leaving him mortal. With roles reversed, Jack would pronounce that Chuck will live the rest of his existence as a mortal and the Winchesters would mock Chuck and evict him from the bunker.

    This kind of ending would have been more emotionally and intellectually stimulating that the b.s. lines the SPN writers actually gave us.

    The SPN writers also seemed more concerned with the mechanics of getting Jack’s power boosted than with understanding that love and truth have psychological power that can undermine tyrants like Chuck. In the metaphysical world of SPN, this psychological power should be able to impact Chuck. I say that SPN is a metaphysical world because magic exists there. Magic does not exist in the physical world.

    Option number two: give Michael an heroic tragic ending. The models I would use are Saint Sebastian and Saint Maurice. The former was a Roman soldier and Christian in the Emperor’s Praetorian Guard, the elite troops of the empire. He joined the Roman army ostensibly to help other Christians who were being persecuted by the Roman emperor. At the time of the saint’s life, being a Christian was illegal and punishable by death. Sebastian was exposed as a Christian after converting some Romans, including a prefect, to Christianity. After refusing to renounce his faith, the emperor ordered him tied to a tree and had archers shoot him full of arrows. Because he appeared dead, the emperor released his body, which was taken by Saint Irene, who discovered that Sebastian was actually barely alive. She nursed him back to health. After his recovery and in the spirit of the prophets of old and of Jesus, he went back to the emperor and publicly rebuked him for his evil ways. After recovering from the shock that Sebastian was still alive, the emperor ordered his guard to beat Sebastian to death and the second time was fatal and final. [https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=103 ]

    Saint Maurice was the commander of a Roman Legion that consisted of six thousand Christian troops. When the legion received Imperial orders to persecute Christians, they refused and preferred to be executed for disobeying this order. Their cry before being executed was “It is better for us to die innocent than to live guilty”. [https://www.arquus-defense.com/saint-maurice-patron-saint-infantry ]

    So to paraphrase Saint Sebastian’s and Maurice’s acts, I would have Michael give public testimony before God-Chuck about why he loved Adam and how Adam showed him what love really is, love that his father never gave him. Since Adam was a pre-med student, a former Eagle Scout and his mother was a nurse, I would assume that Adam knew basic first aid and CPR. After leaving the bunker in episode 8, I would have had Adam find a little job. During the course of his tasks he would had to help a customer suffering some medical ailment, like a heart attack. Without hesitation, Adam would help the person using his knowledge of first aide and CPR. Adam’s instinctual agape love would impress Michael. That is how Adam would have taught Michael what love really is. Michael’s testimony is a rebuke of his father and could also be used in lieu of Michael’s goodbye to Adam.

    This act of defiance is Michael rebelling against his father but unlike Lucifer’s rebellion, which is rooted in narcissism, Michael’s is based in philla and agape love. In all his omnipotence and omniscience Chuck fails to understand what true love is and how powerful it really is. Apparently, the Ayn Rand addicted SPN writers failed to understand that concept too.

    Because Michael has learned what love really is, it would give him power to resist Chuck’s destructive power for a short time. Love has psychological and spiritual power. When Chuck stops to catch his breath, he is surprised to realize that his first attack has only injured Michael. At this point, I would have Michael paraphrasing Jesus’s words from the cross and say, “Father I forgive you for you don’t know what you are doing.” Surprising himself, Chuck has to increase his killing power against Michael in order to kill his eldest son. I would not have vaporized Michael but let Adam’s body slump to the ground. This increase in power weakens Chuck. Sam and Dean, inspired by Michael’s testimony begin rebuking Chuck. The truth of their rebukes injures Chuck and cause him a lot of pain. Moral truth has power too. Then Jack could sneak up behind Chuck and take the remainder of Chuck’s divine energy.

    A slightly different ending would have Chuck, weakened by his attack on Michael, regret killingly his eldest son leading him to repent of his destructive ways. The Indian emperor Ashoka could be a model for Chuck in this case. Chuck could retire and hand his power over to Jack and spend the rest of his mortal days trying to amend the harm he had done over the eons.

    Option number three: give Michael an heroic ending. The model would be the same as Option number two but Michael survives. He could be severely injured but is alive and Jack heals Michael and restores Adam to Michael, who go off into the sunset together.

    Any of the options I listed above would have given the audience a more emotional impact that what this episode actually gave us.

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