'Supernatural' Season 15 Episode 18 Review: Was that a fitting goodbye? Death of [spoiler] shatters everyone
Spoilers for Season 15 Episode 18
Mulling over whether or not Jack Klein will die in the final season of 'Supernatural' or how to save him should the situation come, the ardent fandom had almost lost track of yet another potential candidate for the big old sacrifice club. Castiel (Misha Collins), who's been part of Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam (Jared Padalecki) Winchester's worlds since the beginning of the show — and over a decade now — finally says his goodbye to the man he loves.
It's not a good day for fans who have eternally shipped the two as something more than platonic, as Castiel's final moments with Dean were nothing short of tear-jerking. But as the angel leaves with his goodbyes, getting sucked into the empty, what the rest of the characters and fans too are left swirling in is whether or not the goodbye was fitting.
Picking up where they left off in the previous Episode 17, 'Supernatural' Season 15 Episode 18 shows us the aftermath of Jack (Alexander Calvert) nearly exploding. He doesn't, to clarify, but he suffers in this world as Sam and Dean refuse to let him go despite his earnest pleas. This is where Billie (Lisa Berry) shows up and sends Jack to the Empty.
In return for his safety, she wants God's death book that Sam is pretty hesitant to give back to her, knowing her intent of sending people back to other worlds. Eventually, he succumbs when Jack's safety becomes a priority, as while Billie is reading the new ending courtesy our hunters and what they have recently accomplished, Dean uses her own blade to slice her.
Meanwhile, other people are disappearing too, in a very 'Avengers: Infinity War' style. Alt Charlie's girlfriend Stevie disappears from the breakfast table. And so do the other hunts who gather, like Bobby, and later, Sam's love interest Eileen. Cas and Dean then decide to head to Death's Library to kill Billie, but end up having to hide inside a room to save themselves from her.
Billie only wants vengeance by killing Dean, nothing more. This is where things start getting emotional. The team of writers has always been criticized for putting the main character through the utmost, with beggings and pleadings of making Destiel canon, but while it was romantically canon, it's only fitting that Castiel's final scene should be around Dean, sacrificing everything for what the other man stands for.
In probably the most sentimental goodbyes of this year in television, Castiel realizes he can get Billie off their back through his deal with the empty — it will come for him when he feels a moment of true happiness. Ths gives Cas a gigantic epiphany as he ends up admitting to Dean that ever since he made the deal, he wondered “what my true happiness could even look like,” he tells Dean. “I never found an answer because the one thing I want is something I know I can’t have. But I think I know now happiness isn’t in the having. It’s in just being.”
Assuring Dean that despite his many emotions he still does everything out of love, Cas breaks down in tears — and by extensions, fans too by this point. He calls Dean the “most caring, selfless, loving human being”. Those final moments where Cas admits “Knowing you has changed me. Because you cared, I cared. I cared about the whole world because of you. You changed me, Dean" are something one would have never expected but here we are.
The show bosses are indeed pulling out the big guns for the epic final season, and eventual finale coming up, so of course, they make Dean choking through his tears, remarking "Why does this sound like a goodbye?”
The episode ends with Cas saying "I love you," and when the empty shows up, he says "Goodbye, Dean." The empty absorbs both Cas and Billie, leaving Dean distraught and crushed over what he just witnessed. Moments of Dean cradling his head in his hands, inconsolable, resonate with out emotions too. It's also worth noting that earlier in the episode, Cas gets an emotional goodbye with Jack too.
Cas tells him about absolution and how he doesn't need that from the Winchester's because "you're you". It's sentimental only if you think of the many second guessings and constant imposter syndrome Jack has felt fighting alongside the other three men. It only made sense that Cas would offer him these insights into the person he is.
Maybe Cas could have gone out with a better bang, but this is every bit as intense, raw, and painful as one would have imagined the character's departure to have felt like. All we gotta do is power through the tears till next week's episode.
'Supernatural' Season 15 airs on Thursday at 8.30 pm on The CW.