Recap of Supernatural
Season 11, Episode 23:
Alpha And Omega
God comes to a decision about Amara that has direct repercussions for Sam and Dean.
Writers: Andrew Dabb
Director: Phil Sgriccia
Body Count
For this episode: Everybody Lives (a first for a Supernatural season finale)
For the series so far: At least 1273 humans (of which 19 were witches), 1126 angels, 186 demons, 71 vampires, 52 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 22 gods, 19 zombies, 17 werewolves, 10 hellhounds, 8 Bisaan, 7 shapeshifters, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 djinn, 5 reapers, 4 dogs, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 3 Khan Worms, 3 Thule, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 rugarus, 2 vetalas, 2 zannas, 1 banshee, 1 cat, 1 crocotta, Death, 1 deer, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 familiar, 1 lamia, The Mother of All, 1 nachzehrer, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 pishtaco, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 qarin, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shojo, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 soul eater, 1 Titan, 1 wendigo, The Whore of Babylon, 1 wicked witch, and 1 wraith.
Tropes
- Abandoned Hospital: Sam and Dean visit Waverly Hills Sanitarium. For a creepy bonus, it's also packed with ghosts.
- Anti-Climax: In the end, Chuck manages to convince Amara to heal his mortal injuries and they both have Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence once again, aiming to resolve their differences with one another with Dean's help.
- Apocalypse How: A Class Z is happening due to God having been mortally wounded. If he dies, Earth, Heaven, Hell, and everything else will die with him, including Amara. And without the two biggest powers to make anything else, it'd probably stay that way. Thankfully, Amara makes a Heel–Face Turn and heals God, saving it.
- Back from the Dead: Amara resurrects Mary Winchester as a thank you to Dean.
- Balance Between Good and Evil: Well, Balance Between Light and Darkness. God and Amara's existences balance each other out, and the destruction of one would not only destroy the other as well but the universe itself. The group decides to try and kill Amara to void both sides and hopefully restore balance.
- Bottomless Magazines: Downplayed Sam fires 8 shots out of a shotgun with a maximum capacity of 6 rounds.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Dean indulges in a hilarious imitation of Rowena's Scottish accent, complete with high-pitched voice, as he recounts her instructions regarding the ghost-catching gem. Sam appears as nonplussed as the audience.
- Climactic Music: Amara's Heel–Face Turn and healing of Chuck is accompanied by the sun dramatically brightening along with an awesome electric guitar solo.
- Crazy-Prepared: The British Men of Letters have been apparently watching the Winchesters extremely closely. So closely that they fully expect Sam to walk back to the bunker accompanied by an angel, and have a banishment sigil ready.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Finally cemented by Amara's Heel–Face Turn. She's really not evil and she was only an "amoral force" as Death described her because she had no exposure to anything outside herself and thus couldn't develop empathy. And because Humanity Is Infectious, Amara developed a kind of humanity of her own as Dean points out.
- Face Death with Dignity: Rather than partake in the soul bomb plan, the angels choose to seal Heaven off and simply await the end.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Before going off to blow himself up, Dean tells everyone that he wants his funeral to have an open bar, a Black Sabbath cover band, and the eulogy read by Gary Busey.
- Godzilla Threshold: Making a soul bomb and killing Amara are both this. Obviously turning several hundred thousand souls into a Weapon of Mass Destruction isn't something anyone would want to do normally and God doesn't want to kill Amara (she IS his sister), but with God dying killing Amara to balance things back out is about the only hope they have of saving the universe (and even then they're not sure it will work and are just guessing).
- Go-Karting with Bowser: While Dean is off implementing the soul bomb plan to try and stop Amara (and then trying to talk her down), Sam, Crowley, Rowena, Chuck, and Cas have nothing much to do...so they break into a bar and spend most of the episode just hanging out.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Amara admits to God that she hated his creations because she couldn't stand the idea of him needing something that wasn't her. She finally comes around to seeing WHY he created them and accepting creation.
- Heel–Face Turn: Amara finally sees the beauty of God's creation and she rejoins him as brother and sister.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Dean allows himself to become the soul bomb with intent of destroying Amara. Thankfully he figures out another way.
- Humanity Is Infectious: Dean points this out to Amara that her time experiencing creation has led her to develop her own kind of humanity.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Dean and Crowley are happy to get trashed when all hope seems lost.
- Incest Subtext: Amara and Chuck. The scene in which they finally reconcile and disappear together is written almost romantically. There's also Amara's affection for Dean, which had been explicitly written and framed as romantic, turning out to be because she sees him as a Replacement Goldfish... for her brother. There is also a basis for sibling incest with deities and Biblical figures and Chuck canonically had relationships with his own creations ("children").
- Karmic Jackpot: Dean helping the two most powerful beings in all creation bury the hatchet and save all creation finally results in Amara and God rewarding him by bringing his mother back to life.
- Kill the God: Sam and Dean decide to destroy Amara with a soul bomb. However, Dean finds another way.
- The Magic Goes Away: In this case, Chuck and Amara depart the Earth to spend some quality time reconciling with each other. Chuck tells Dean that humanity will be fine because they have him and Sam to watch over them.
- Load-Bearing Boss: It turns out Chuck is this for all creation. When Amara delivered a fatal blow to him, it caused reality to start to unravel and everything would also die including herself. This trope likewise applying to Amara for the same reasons is why God never killed her.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Or rather, "What Have I Done to God?" Amara has this reaction upon seeing flowers die in reaction to her touch, finally realizing what she has wrought with what amounts to beating up her brother while caught up in a temper tantrum.
- Powerful and Helpless: After delivering the fatal blow to her brother in the previous episode, Amara will die along with him because the cosmic balance has been upset.
- The Power of Love: What ultimately resolves the conflict between Chuck and Amara. They're still family, after all.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Or Womanchild, anyway. Amara is revealed to be this all along. Her Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum was all about the fact that she missed her brother and wanted to be with him again without him having other things to focus on than her. When she realizes this, she asks for his forgiveness and to have her brother back.
- Put on a Bus: Chuck and Amara take off to the ether or somewhere to be together. It's unlikely that they'll get involved in the world's troubles again anytime soon.
- Reality-Breaking Paradox: What would happen if Chuck or Amara died. Fortunately the only thing powerful enough to kill either of them is each other. Unfortunately Amara already hit Chuck with a fatal blow that would see all of creation including herself die with him.
- Replacement Goldfish: Dean gets Amara to admit that he's just a replacement for Chuck as a companion for her. It helps her tor realise that she and Chuck can still be family together.
- Rousseau Was Right: Amara heals Chuck's injuries, helps to avert the apocalypse, and even brings Mary Winchester to life. Since she is the ultimate negating principle of the universe and arguably the reason evil exists, this goes beyond the standard Heel–Face Turn.
- Skewed Priorities: Lady Antonia makes a transatlantic flight to arrest the Winchesters while all of existence is in the process of fading out, an action that would be completely meaningless if they hadn't saved the world with zero help from her.
- Soul Jar: First the crystal, then Dean himself.
- Soul Power: The Plan for killing Amara requires enough power and light to equal 10,000 exploding suns. They decide to collect souls since each one is equivalent to 100 suns each.
- Star Killing: Chuck's slow death is also causing the sun to slowly die as a prelude to the universe winking out of existence if God dies for real.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Revealed to be this for Lucifer, of all people. A family member of God who loved Him above all else but, influenced by the Darkness's nature, became jealous and bitter when he created humans and loved them.
- Take a Third Option: Instead of killing Amara or letting creation be destroyed, Dean convinces her to try and reconcile with God and saves the world without either having to die.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Dean ultimately does this instead of destroying Amara.
- The End Is Nigh: While Dean confronts Amara, Sam, Castiel, Crowley, Rowena and Chuck pass by a group of people holding these signs while on the way to a bar. Crowley quips that they're not wrong.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: The second type, as Lady Antonia insists that her servant call her "Toni" instead of "milady."
- Thicker Than Water: Amara just wants her brother back, and forgiveness for all she had done. He grants both.
- Uncertain Doom:
- At the episode's end, Sam is apparently shot by the Men of Letters agent who was sent for him and Dean, although we don't see him actually hit by the bullet and his fate is left hanging for the next season.
- Lucifer was ripped out of Castiel in the previous episode, but Cas doesn't say he was outright destroyed, leaving his status and whereabouts as a loose end.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: Dean convinces Amara of this in the process of talking Amara down. Amara admits he's right and revenge didn't make her happy at all.Amara: I just wanted to hurt him. To make him pay.Dean: Yeah, that's revenge. It will get you out of bed in the morning, and when you get it? It feels great...for about five minutes.
- Was It Really Worth It?: Dean doesn't use the exact words, but he clearly has this idea in mind when he asks Amara if vengeance is really what she wants, because Vengeance Feels Empty and deep down the thing she really wants is her brother, the very thing her revenge would cost her. Amara's reaction to seeing the effects of God dying earlier implies she'd been asking herself the same question.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Sam tells Toni that they both know she won't pull the trigger. She does, but whether she actually hit Sam or not remains to be seen.
- You Have Failed Me: British branch of Men of Letters are so fed up with brothers's unwitting screwing of the world so they sent an agent to capture or kill them.
