Where do I even start?

First of all, a long overdue shout out to the cinematography on this show. It has always been visually gorgeous, and they may have outdid themselves with the final Chuck scene location.

This was an excellent episode, with a sob-inducing montage at the end, leaving us wide open for the series finale.

THEN

Dean kills Death, again; Jack explodes and comes back sans powers; Castiel sacrifices himself to save Dean.

NOW

We see shots of empty cities, sidewalks and playgrounds, and cut to Sam and Jack wandering the street, looking a little dumbstruck. The Impala rolls up, and an exhausted Dean strolls over to the only other living beings on the planet.

Everyone’s gone. I couldn’t save anyone. It wasn’t Chuck, it’s Billie. “Where’s Cass?” Jack asks.

Cass is gone, Dean tells them, still wearing the jacket with Castiel’s bloody handprint on the shoulder.

The grimness of all humanity being gone sets in as Sam tries calling everyone, getting only voicemails.

The boys walk into a cafe, an empty football field on the television. The whole planet has been cleaned out of people.

Jack leans on a planter outside, “Cass?” He gets up, doing his best Charlie Brown impersonation, and the plants in the planters he passes wilt and lose their color.

Sam takes all of it on his massive shoulders. He blames himself for thinking they had another way. When Jack says they can’t give up (He really is a Winchester now), Sam says there’s no one left to save.

Night descends. Sam and Dean wait by the Impala for Chuck, wondering if he’ll show.

“Hey guys.” Chuck waves. Chuck is such an ass.

The Winchesters wave the white flag. Dean says they will play any game he wants, but Chuck has to bring back everyone, the birds, and especially Cass.

“Yeah, no.” Chuck says its too little, too late. He really likes the idea of the three of them rotting away on a lifeless planet. Eternal shame. Sophisticated, he thinks. Impressed with himself, he claims this new story is a page turner, and leaves the boys.

Everyone mopes around the bunker. Sam finds Dean passed out on the floor, a whiskey bottle his pillow.

Jack sits upright on his bed, hearing the faint tinkles of… something. They get in the car and drive around on Jack’s insistence that something is out there.

They stop at a fill-up station, and on his way to the men’s room, Dean finds a sweet, fluffy dog.

Dean is overjoyed. The first happiness he’s had in days. He insists on taking the dog with them, and promises an irritated Sam that the dog won’t ride shotgun.

As Sam goes to get Jack, Dean places his furry prize in the back seat of Baby, talking to him like he’s a long lost friend. Just as Dean smiles and chuckles, the dog poofs. Dean looks up to see Chuck who waves gleefully.

Can’t even save a freakin’ dog!

It’s night as they pull up in front of a dark church. Jack is sure the presence he’s feeling is in there, or very nearby. As they walk to the altar, thunder and lightening illuminate the dark room.

Michael shows himself. He knows Chuck was looking for him, so he decided to hide. Adam is gone, just like everyone else. He’s been spending his time catching up on Earth stuff. Turns out he was the self-appointed PR angel, making sure humanity knew all about God once he left all those years ago.

But now, Michael says he’s ready to help. They bring him back to the bunker, and show him God’s death book. They are hoping Michael can open it and read it so they know how to kill God.

Michael uses his best archangel mojo, but the book refuses to open.

Sam and Dean sit forlornly on the steps of the kitchen. They’re screwed. Dean’s phone rings, the caller ID says it’s Cass! Cass’ voice comes through the speakerphone, “Dean, I’m hurt. Let me in.”

The boys leap to their feet and run to the front door. Dean reaches it first, and takes one quick beat before opening the door. Lucifer’s annoying mug greets him. Dean slams the door in Lucy’s face, a look of horror paints his face. (I thought for sure we were done with Lucifer. I was wrong. It’s fine.)

Lucy just zaps himself into the room. He says the Empty booted him with orders to get the death book and take out Chuck. He rambles on like he does, and seems genuinely happy to be back bothering these guys.

Sam and Dean are not amused.

Lucifer knew the boys wouldn’t be happy to see him, so he brought a prezzie! A reaper named Betty. But before anyone can say anything, Lucifer stabs her in the gut.

Betty is the first reaper to die after Billie. We all remember that this is how we get a new Death, but Dean seems to have lost the thread. After a few moments, Betty wakes up as the new Death, fancy ring and scythe included.

Betty wants the book so she can read it. She locks the boys out so she can read the thing alone.

Back in the library, Michael arrives, and is all, Lucifer? Really??

Lucifer and Michael bicker as Jack, Sam and Dean watch dumbly. Before things get too heated, Betty appears with the book in hand. She knows how it ends.

Just as she is about to read the ending, Lucifer snaps her dead, zings the open book into his hands, and tells them that it was Pops who took him out of the Empty. He’s dad’s favorite now!

Lucifer tosses Sam and Dean into a bookshelf, and the archangels shoot balls of light at each other. Mikey seems to succumb to Lucifer’s light ball, and he turns to Jack. Still wanting his son on his side, Lucy tells him that his only way out of this thing is to leave with him.

But before Jack can refuse, Mikey appears behind Lucy. He flings around and stabs Lucifer right in the gut with the archangel blade, killing Lucifer once again. The still open death book falls to the floor with a thud.

As Lucy’s grace pours out of him, Jack is seemingly affected by all that power flying through the air.

Dean goes to the kitchen for a beer, and finds Michael sitting quietly. Mikey is gutted that Chuck picked Lucifer over him. Not that he wanted him too, but still! It stings regardless of how he feels about his dad these days. Dean says that Sammy saw some of the Enochian in the book, and thinks he can concoct a spell from those bits and pieces. Sam-fu!

Everyone is killing time doing research in the library when Sam comes in and lays out the basics of the spell. A certain place, a certain angle to the sun, etc.

The Impala stops at the side of a gorgeous lake, the mountains in the background are breathtaking. They set up the spell and WHOOSH, it spits fire and then peters out.

Everyone is all RATS! Chuck shows, tossing Dean, Jack and Sam aside. Chuck approaches Michael, chastising him for not being loyal. Michael starts to grovel, but Chuck isn’t having it. He puts forth his hand, and slowly disintegrates Michael. A powerful wave of energy pulses as Michael collapses into nothingness, sending ripples along the pale blue lake.

Sam and Dean scrabble to their feet. Chuck turns his anger on them. Seems like eternal suffering looks good on paper, but not so great as a show. He’s canceling it.

Sam steps forward and punches Chuck in the jaw, but Chuck is all, “Cute.” He takes out his God hands, and begins squeezing the life out of our boys. They fall to their knees and writhe in pain. Just before Chuck snaps them out of existence, he decides that getting his hands dirty might be fun.

As Sam and Dean come at him, he punches and kicks them easily. But the Winchesters keep coming. Chuck bloodies their faces, breaks bones, and snaps limbs out of joint. But still, our beautiful boys keep getting up.

Chuck begs them to stop. He keeps telling them to stay down. But they persist, because they aren’t the Lose-chesters. And after that massive beating, dirt and blood covering their faces, Sam helps Dean up, and they LAUGH.

YOU LOSE.

Jack is standing behind them, his face stern. Chuck approaches and snaps his fingers, but nothing happens to Jack. Chuck tries again, and again, as desperation takes over. Jack puts his hands on Chuck’s head, and sucks all the God energy out of him.

Chuck falls to the ground as all the energy absorbs into Jack. He takes a beat, snaps his fingers, and Sam and Dean are healed and back to normal.

So this is how it ends, Chuck says, spying his death book. He paws through it, but all the pages are blank. Even God can’t read a death book.

Sam begins to tell their real plan as we flashback to all the events of the episode.

Sam and Dean saw how upset Michael was to not be the favorite anymore, so they fed him a lie they knew he would bring straight to daddy.

That Jack bomb they made? Well, it turned Jack into some kind of energy sucker, and we see that our boys watched Jack unknowingly suck the energy out of those flowers.

So when Lucy and Mikey fought, expelling all that energy, Jack’s little energy vacuum sucked that right up too.

And when Chuck was beating the holy hell out of Sam and Dean? Well, that was plenty of power for Jack to come over and simply take every last bit of God energy left.

Chuck tries to turn this into a good thing. He wants the boys, his favorites, to kill him. It’s a really glorious ending that he could never conceive. He says it would be an honor to die at the hands of Dean Winchester, the ultimate killer. But Dean knows better, that’s not what he is. That’s not what they are. Killing Chuck would be too easy.

That’s not the plan.

Jack confirms Chuck’s power isn’t his anymore. So the ending of this story is that an egotistical narcissist has to grow sick, old and forgotten, just like all the humans he abandoned.

They get in Baby, leaving a sad, broken Chuck, begging to not be left behind.

They drive back to town, and Jack brings back all life. Empty train stations and quiet streets all around the world are suddenly teeming with life again. Fluffy doggo is even back!

Sam asks if Jack is the new God, but he just shrugs. Amara is with Jack, and they are in harmony. Dean is excited to have Jack back at the bunker, but Jack demurs. Jack says he’ll be around, in everything and everyone. People won’t need to pray to him, or sacrifice for him, but trust that he is part of them. Jack still refuses to acknowledge that he is “God”, but Sam understands.

Jack promises he won’t be hands-on, because he learned from Sam and Dean and his mom and Castiel that when people need to be their best, they can be. “That’s what they’ll believe in.” he states simply.

Jack is still a puppy, but a mature, kind one. He holds his hand to his heart, waves goodbye, and walks away.

The brothers have a beer back home in the library. It’s pretty quiet, and they toast to everyone they lost along the way.

We get to write our own story. Finally free. Jackson Browne’s “Runnin’ on Empty” plays. Jared and Jensen smile and run out the frame, and the camera pans to all the initials and names carved into the table behind them.

And if that doesn’t prime you for tears, we get an amazing montage of everyone over the years. It is pure happiness and a reminder of all the fun we’ve had these fifteen seasons.

Just watch, and try not to cry your face off.

NEXT

We’ve been told that episode 19 was like the season finale, so that leaves us with the series finale. Jared says it may be his favorite episode ever. Buckle up, my #SPNFamily!