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Moriah
Written by: Andrew Dabb
Directed by: Phil Sgriccia
Air date: April 25, 2019
Sam, Dean and Castiel are thrown into a collision course with Jack, who becomes disenchanted with all lies and forces all humans to speak only truths. They get assistance from God, but things might not what they seem.
Tropes
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Dean, Sam, and Cas fight with backs to each other as the zombies close in on them.
- Badass Fingersnap: How God exercises his power.
- The Bad Guy Wins: God kills Jack, sending him into the Empty, and punishes the Winchesters for their disobedience by plunging the world into eternal night and unleashing the souls in Hell upon Earth. Set to the tune of "God Was Never On Your Side".
- Bolivian Army Cliffhanger: Sam, Dean, and Castiel are left to face a horde of the living dead, while Jack is sent to the Empty and meets with the Shadow and Billie.
- Call-Back: The last part of the episode is a very clear echo of "Swan Song", another season finale that took place in a graveyard. God is involved, Sam and Dean decide to Screw Destiny, and a close ally dies (but unlike Castiel and Bobby back then, Jack remains dead for the time being). Also, the door to Hell is opened, but instead of being used as an entrance to trap four people, it serves as an exit to millions of dead souls. Incidentally, this also makes it similar to another season finale, "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2", which also took place in a graveyard (although the escapees were demons).
- The Cameo: Constance Welch and Mary Worthington, both season 1 characters, cameo as two of the countless ghosts released on Earth in the ending. They're joined by the more recent John Wayne Gacy.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Jack forces everyone on Earth to speak only the truth.
- Continuity Nod: The episode confirms that Jack indeed has lost his entire soul, as he goes to the Empty upon death (had he still had even a piece of soul left, he would have been deemed worthy of entering either Heaven or Hell, as was the case with Lily Sunder).
- Deal with the Devil: In return for Dean killing Jack, God promises to bring back Mary. He refuses. God then kills Jack anyway.
- Evil All Along: When Dean vehemently refuses to kill Jack, "Chuck" drops the God Is Good facade and reveals His true colors as a sadistic manipulator who only sees His creations as a source of entertainment.
- The Extremist Was Right: It turns out that Lucifer, Michael, and Amara were all right about God: that he's a vain arrogant Jerkass who cares about nothing but his own grandiosity.
- Face Death with Dignity: As with his previous near-death experience, Jack is not afraid at the prospect of Dean killing him, while Dean is clearly troubled by the whole thing.
- God Is Evil: Of the all creation being Chuck's Cosmic Plaything variety. It turns out that the real reason why Chuck lets Sam and Dean do all the heavy lifting in saving the world and never gets personally involved is because Chuck literally set all of it up as a form of entertainment; he's essentially watching a gripping television show. He could save the world and stop all the evil and suffering on a whim, but chooses not to because it's all so entertaining to him.
- God Is Flawed: God can create souls, but He cannot restore them if they are lost. It's simply too complicated for Him. Or so He says. Given that He doesn't want them to save Jack, He's implied to be lying, like He did about the Equalizer being dangerous to Him.
- Greater-Scope Villain: As it turns out God was the source behind the misery that befall Sam and Dean's lives from the beginning. Aside from (presumably) the Darkness, he could have just snapped his fingers at any point and made it all stop, but he didn't for his own amusement.
- Immortal Breaker: The Equalizer (or Hammurabi), a gun Chuck just created, powerful enough to kill Jack. It can't kill Chuck, though, or at least Sam fails to do so.
- Kill the God: Almost. Sam shoots God with the Equalizer. It does nothing.
- Literary Allusion Title: Moriah is where Abraham brought his son Isaac to be sacrificed in the Book of Genesis, a parallel to God wanting Dean to kill Jack.
- The Night That Never Ends: God sends the world into eternal night.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The moment Chuck simply snaps his fingers and reverses the truth curse set by Jack, Dean and Sam start to realise that God has no problem intervening in the world and that his reasons for not doing so are starting to look a little more sinister than his usual Hands-Off Parenting excuse.
- Psychopathic Man Child: Chuck treats all of reality as his plaything, and when the Winchesters refuse to keep playing along he essentially rage-quits and decides to destroy the whole world with monsters.
- Psychotic Smirk: Chuck has one before snapping his fingers to kill Jack.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Dean and Sam have the rare chance to do this to God's face, especially when it turns out he sees creation as all just his Cosmic Plaything.
- Reset Button: God reverses the changes caused by Jack forcing everyone to speak truths.
- Sarcastic Confession: When Chuck was first introduced, he lamented that he was a god torturing real people with bad writing before being informed he was just a prophet. The revelation of his true motives after the revelation that he is God makes that interaction this.
- Self-Deprecation: When Chuck mentions some of Team Free Will's past adventures he describes the British Men of Letters plot as being "a little weak" which is a criticism a lot of fans had.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum:
- How Chuck reacts to Sam and Dean choosing to exercise that pesky free will that he endowed humanity with, instead of doing things the way Chuck wants them to. Or at least, it probably won't be suicidal for him, given how many worlds he has already created and discarded.
- A straighter example is Sam and Dean chewing out God for making their lives utter hell and telling him to just end it. Then, when God refuses and kills Jack, Sam shoots him with the Equalizer, hoping to kill God despite knowing that this would end all reality. However, it doesn't work on God himself.
- A possible explanation is that Sam shot God in the shoulder on purpose. Sam's a good shot, and since weapons like the Colt, the demon-killing knife and angel blades only work on the vital areas, it's possible that Sam assumed that the Equalizer would work the same way. Sam didn't want to kill God because he knows it would end reality, but he did want to hurt him.
- Take That!: During the period when no one can lie, the President (who the previous season confirmed was Donald Trump) admits to having made a demon deal with Crowley, implicitly so that he could get elected.
- Tranquil Fury: When Sam shoots God with the Equalizer in an (unsuccessful) attempt to kill Him, He responds with calm, but also shows His rage immediately upon departure.God: Fine, story's over. Welcome to the end.
- Wham Line: By God, clueing in Team Free Will to the fact that He considers their struggles entertainment.
- Written-In Absence: God states that the Darkness returned to Earth with him and is currently staying in Reno. Apparently, she is addicted to keno.
- Zombie Apocalypse: God releases souls in Hell to roam on Earth, including previously defeated enemies like John Wayne Gacy, the Woman in White, and Bloody Mary.
"Fine, story's over. Welcome to the end."
