Concept: Jack Kline was turned into an Ostium

And looking at how the Ostium was used in the season finale further underscores what will be needed in the future for the story to move forward, and for Jack and his family to heal.

Let's go through it:

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"A living black hole for divine energy" / "a power vacuum" is akin to how the Ostium functions. (And remember that Chuck orchestrated this outcome.)

The final step of Jack's transformation in 15x17 and the way the Ostium is activated are also similar:

i thought it was really interesting when we saw what betty did, wearing the bracelet and looking at the akrida-possessed people, she saw long green tentacles of light reaching down into the people from the sky. not connected back to some place on earth (or under it, wherever their queen is holed up), but *up*

what does that say about the source of these monsters? what does it mean that “something not of this world” can kill the queen? and what does that mean for dean, if they believe he’s the threat? is he not of that world because he hasn’t even been born yet in 1972, and he’s of the future?

or is he not of that world because his telling of this story is “rewriting” the world, which might be all put back the way we knew before when he’s done?

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.

parallel universe theory becomes parallel universe factttttt

or wait is it because he’s from heaven now? 🧐

Technically he’s not of this world for like 7 more years XD

I’ve been trying to go through each option one by one, like

Option 1. It’s because of time travel - I feel like this is the least likely explanation? For one thing, narratively speaking, “Dean is time traveling!” isn’t really a reveal. We’ve already assumed that to be the case. We don’t know any of the details around it, the how/why of it all, but, like... he was born in 1979. It’s 1972. It’s sort of assumed. And yet imo the “not of this earth” thing was presented as a reveal, as new info. It’s telling us something else.

More practically speaking, I don’t see how simply being from the future would cause him to be a threat to the Akrida. Especially since we never so much as heard about the Akrida in the original show: it’s not like he’s got extensive experience in fighting them in the future, you know? But it’s possible that I’m missing something here.

Option 2. It’s because he was in heaven - I’m not sure about this! I feel like, given the backdrop of a multiverse (and the Akrida explicitly being from “another universe”), “heaven” would be included in “this earth.” Like... in spn itself, the alternate worlds each seemed to have their own associated heaven, which was part of that world. Apocalypse World had its own set of AU angels, an AU!Cas and an AU!Michael and so on, and so presumably they had their own heavens. In s15, Chuck says that there have been many Castiels.

I’m not sure if I’m articulating this clearly at all, but basically I feel like -- from the perspective of a bug monster from an alternate universe -- a character simply dying and going to his own universe’s version of heaven wouldn’t qualify him as being “not of this earth.”

But maybe I’m overthinking it. Maybe while in heaven he picked up some special Akrida-fighting powers. Maybe he became transformed into an angel or something. Who knows.

Which leaves Option 3. Multiverse? This is an AU?

or: Option 4. None of the above. Something Else?

idk, idk. Does any of that ping anybody as anything?

i surface from time to time waving the chuck won theory flag and i’m back again babeyyyyy

*the following is an utter denial of that heaven endgame and that cas is there so if you don’t agree with that then this post may not be for you! 

Let’s talk about this shot. 

This shot… makes me feral. Especially knowing 15x04 was the first episode they shot for the season. 

This shot is why I just cannot accept the fact that they are actually in Heaven, nor that Cas is there. 

Let’s start here. The fireplace mantle.

This mantle is like an adult toy shelf. We’ve already been in Becky’s space where she’s creating things that are like “toys”. They’re models, sets, other merch items. But here, it’s all decoration. You have funko pop stuff action figures — toys. It’s all toys up there. It’s a toy shelf. 

While they’re talking about Chuck getting his motivation and inspiration back, he takes the little Sam one down, fiddles with it, and puts it back in the opposite direction. 

There is also some Cas ones up there.

It’s a toy shelf. 

A lot of folks will say that the presence of Cas at that Road House means he’s in Heaven, but in my one on one with Misha he said that Jimmy was supposed to be dressed as Cas. 

To me, this plays into the theory that Chuck just cannot control Cas whatsoever and it’s only gotten worse as time goes on. He can’t even create a fake Cas. The only way to do so is to pull over his vessel who’s in Heaven and dress him like Cas. The last time we saw Jimmy he was not wearing the coat and tie. So putting him in this outfit would have really signaled to us that something is wrong. 

More on that in a bit. Stick a pin in that. It’s a big reason why I don’t believe Cas is with Dean by the end, nor do I want him to be. 

But going back to the toy shelf — look at this at the end. 

I always forget her family photo is on this toy shelf. 

In talking with friends about the Chuck Won theory, I use the metaphor of Chuck putting Dean and Sam up on the ‘toy shelf’ bc he’s done playing with them. Much like this toy shelf here. 

But that does not mean they’re dead. And this family portrait up there is why. 

Chuck by the end of the episode Thanos’ed Becky’s family and then her. But before he dusts her, they have this exchange:

Sam and Dean aren’t dead, they’re just away. They’re put back up on the shelf. Chuck is done with them.

The shelf itself? The Empty. 

My poor friends have had to listen to me ramble and rant about this theory that Chuck and The Empty were working together, and that’s how Chuck managed to get the plot going in his favor. 

This right here is why I think that. 

The Chess Board TM 

Right now the game is not in play. Everyone is set at their starting positions, where they know to be. The position that esablishes their role. Chuck at this point in the narrative doesn’t know where to go or how to start in that direction, so the game is not yet in motion. 

But there’s a chessboard regardless right in the foreground of the shot [thanks jackles] and that’s another metaphor I keep mumbling about to my poor friends. 

If the toy shelf is The Empty, then the chess board is Chuck’s plan; his game. 

In constantly thinking about the Chuck Won theory, I think about who’s left on the field — and no one is. 

Chuck managed to get rid of every threat against him by the end of the show. And, if he’s in cahoots with The Empty, then he knows about Cas’ deal. He knows he can’t tell Cas what to do, but he can put Cas in a situation that’d force him to act. 

So now we got:

Billie — who already didn’t like the brothers, Dean in particular all that much, antagonized against Dean after Dean hits her with the thingy thing she has idk I can’t spell it. Chuck starts dusting people, Dean thinks it’s her. They have a forced hostile relationship, thus putting Dean in a lot of danger. Chuck knows the only way to contain her is to get the Empty down there to get her but there’s no way to do that — unless —

Cas — Putting Dean in a situation where his life is in danger like that would automatically cause Cas to respond. Chuck may not be able to control him but ‘too much heart’ was always Cas’ problem, and while it’s a strength it’s also a weakness that can be exploited at times. So, put Dean in a position where he’s about to die, Cas is going to call The Empty down to get Billie and sacrifice himself in order to save Dean. 

So now Chuck got rid of two threats and they’re gonna be kept there by The Empty who’s working with him. 

Jack — The Empty, working with Chuck, is leading Billie on a little bit with this plan that Jack can be Thee Solution TM but here’s how to do it. However, the plan wasn’t actually to defeat Chuck, it was to prime a vessel for him. If you can’t beat Jack, join him — by… possessing him. In my opinion, this season was about preparing Jack to be a vessel, not to defeat Chuck. Why I think this is because Jack had a monolouge at the end of 1519, but the ‘villain’ in 15x20, Jenny, had 8 words. Jack to Chuck is the villain. But also, ironically, Chuck is the villain to OUR protagonists, and Chuck also knows that. So Jack-Chuck got the monologue, and said ‘Chuck [myself] wrote himself into the narrative, that was his mistake.’ So essentially, Chuck nabbed himself a new ride and is off to the races. 

Amara — Chuck appealed to her sense of love for humanity and this idea of love as a weakness in general and basically silver tongued his way into getting her to join up with him. How on earth did the boys defeat Chuck when he’s literally at full power now? But anyways. 

Michael — I don’t think Michael was AS big of a threat but likely Chuck knew that Michael could be talked into doing the right thing by Adam. But literally just in case as an insurance policy, he feeds Michael and pulls down Lucifer to feed to Jack so Jack can get strengthened up. Adam, his moral compass, is also gone, making it easier. 

Dean, Sam — Just… put them back on the toy shelf. They believe they defeated the bad guy, and just go back to life as normal. Almost way too normal. Like a deep regression. Get Dean out of the way first bc his death was always going to be tragic bc Chuck likes that shit. Sam can live his little life or whatever and then he can bite the big one and go join Dean and they have no idea that they aren’t, actually, in Heaven or reality at all. 

So that’s the chessboard cleared, and Chuck’s calling Check Mate. 

*another side tangent — a lot of folks write off 15x01 to 15x03 but if you take into consideration what was going on, in a broad sense, you get a bunch of souls, trapped in a bubble, trying to escape. And wouldn’t that just be fitting for a continuation? 

Some other things I wanted to note:

I don’t believe Cas is in heaven. For one thing, narrative wise, makes no sense. There’s no Empty rescue, there’s no reason to believe he got out on his own. The Empty CAN hold humans, they just don’t default to The Empty. But Billie threatened to throw them in there so — The Empty can hold humans so even Cas’ fading grace wouldn’t have had an impact. In all the times Cas has died we have had to wait a very long time to see him again. There’s just one time, the season 5 finale, where we didn’t. Otherwise: Season 4-5 hiatus, Season 7, Season 7-8 hiatus, season 12-13 hiatus and subsequent episodes etc etc. To me, bringing Cas back for 15x20 kind of dulls the impact of 1518 which was just one episode prior. There’s just 15x19 between them [and no even if there was a 22-23 episode season it’s still not enough time]. There’s no effort made to get him. Plot beat wise, it makes literally no sense for him to just magically appear like haha hey waddup it’s ya boi skinny penis 

But also, going along with the Chuck Won theory — Bobby had said that ‘Cas helped’ Jack fix up Heaven. How… in the fuck… did Jack get Cas out of The Empty? How. The Empty hates HATES both of them. ABSOLUTELY Hates them. 

Also, Jack said basically he was going to be hands off, and I’d imagine that includes plucking people down from The Empty. 

However, you know who does pluck people out of The Empty? Chuck. Though no, I don’t think Chuck took Cas out of The Empty either. 

But also, The Empty is loud! Everything is awake! We have no reason to believe it’s not because we weren’t given evidence that anything happened up there. Where we left off was: Cas and Billie taken ALIVE to The Empty which is awake and loud now. Nothing else. 

And Jack MADE it loud. The Empty hates Jack, The Empty hates that Cas keeps getting away — they’re not going to just walk in and walk out. 

So that made no sense to me. 

But also on another note: In 15x02 they managed to sneak in that VERY pointed and thematic line of “You asked what about this is real? We are” from Cas. 

Cas is the ONLY one who has escaped the narrative. It’s why Chuck hates him so much. Cas is the beacon of ‘real’. He’s the truth, he’s the antithesis of Chuck. He’s the Free Will guy and Chuck is the Puppet Strings Guy. 

The reason why, if the Chuck Won theory is correct, I don’t want Cas in “Heaven” is because I don’t want Dean to ever EVER EVER question if Cas is real or not. I don’t want him, if Cas is rescued and they all live happily ever after, to constantly be worried at night that he’s still locked up somewhere and whatever is happening isn’t actually happening. 

Cas has to remain this beacon of truth. Chuck can’t recreate him or make an imitation. Cas has to be able to exist as someone Dean can look at and go ‘Real’. So if Chuck Won is correct, and they’re really not in heaven and it’s all a mirage to placate the boys, then I don’t want Cas there. 

I don’t want Cas, The Truth, Reality, to ever be anything other than that. 

i can’t get over this. 

i came across this answer from mollins:

and the first thing i thought of was this question and answer from jibcon 2019 [kudos to @curvedsphere​ for transcribing it forever ago]

Q: How would Sam and Dean want Supernatural to end?

Jensen: I’m gonna jump in. I think that…their idea, their ideal scenario, would be for all those that were in heaven go back to heaven, all those that were in hell they go back to hell. All of the demon and heaven and hell and angel, all that stuff kinda goes back to status quo and it goes back to season one when it was just monsters. just having to fight those things that go bump in the night. (jokes) And then I think it’d be cool, they can kind of teach their knowledge to maybe a younger generation of hunters. And that’s, in my opinion, how I think the brothers would love for the world to kind of end up, is back to a state of normalcy but they still have jobs, so to speak. Yeah. I doubt that’s gonna happen, but we’ll see.

my point? these two are talking about some kind of continuation they just gotta be

God, I WISH. That would be perfect. I don’t remember that jibcon 2019 answer. Maybe I never saw it, or maybe I did see it and it aligned so perfectly with where I wanted the show to go/where I assumed the show WAS going that I just went, “[Thumbs up] Yes good” and went on my merry way. For the longest time it did feel like that’s where things were headed, to me -- and obviously to a lot of other people in the fandom too -- it felt like we were going to be seeing TFW as the “new Bobby,” only with access to even more knowledge and expertise than Bobby had (the MOL library, Rowena’s journals, Sam’s own witchy experience, Cas’ angelic experience, etc. etc.), taking care of the newer generations and helping them learn about the supernatural.

I don’t want to get my own hopes up about a specific continuation, so I don’t want to assume that’s what’s happening -- I know they’ve both talked about maybe doing some kind of reunion miniseries, I’m not saying I think it’s off the table, I just don’t want to pin my own hopes on any one specific concept, you know? So I don’t want to assume that they’ve discussed it with any intent. But even then, even if they haven’t talked about this at all and it’s entirely coincidental, I find it so telling that Misha AND Jensen AND the fandom could potentially have all independently come up with this “TFW as mentors and guides to the younger generation” concept for the characters’ futures. Like... maybe, just maybe, that’s where it made the most sense for the story to go??!! [nudges the finale decision-makers] Huh?!

But man, an actual continuation with this plot sounds just about perfect to me. Sigh. That would be so nice.

Dean needed to hear he is loved as much as he loves. Cas needs to hear he is wanted as much as he wants.

Dean needed to know that it is not the anger that defines him, but the love. He deserved to be told that he is a good person who is made of love. He needed to hear that Cas is in love with him, that his love for him is true happiness, that he has always wanted him.

Cas needs to know that he is wanted not for what he can do or provide, but simply for himself. He deserves to be told that he is loved not for what he can do but for who he is. He needs to hear that he is loved back, that happiness is simply in the being but it’s also something that can be shared, that he can have what he has wanted because Dean wants him back.

no but the foundations of dean’s self concept are truly shaken to their core right now. his inability to accept love outside of familial dynamics and him constantly assuming the role of nurturer and caretaker is the result of his conviction that being loved is the reward for doing a job right it’s the only way he can rationalise being loved and cas’s unconditional love for him simply because of who he is is something he can’t even UNDERSTAND at this point. he’s fully error 505 not found. and when cas’s confession and death force him to finally submit to the mortifying ordeal of knowing himself and admitting that maybe he IS inherently worthy of being loved, when he can accept cas’s love and and thusly has to accept himself he can finally break the cycle of rage and helplessness that has been driving him this season and be FREE

Supergood 🌸 w/ Michael Sheen

Oh LOOK!

So all the panic over Misha not coming back was indeed for nothing? He confirmed he was coming back to film the final episode after lockdown to Michael Sheen.

Now everyone say THANK YOU MICHAEL SHEEN

HANG ON A SECOND:

First -- good catch, op. Thank you.

Second -- seeing this jogged my memory of another moment in this same video. It starts at about the ten minute mark:

[Misha gets up to grab a trench coat and put it on]

Misha: I have a -- one of my trench coats here. I’m gonna just grab it. Because, um, right as the pandemic was setting in.... As we were shutting down production, a little part of my brain thought, “It’s possible that we’ll never come back and finish this show. And if that happens, I want to make sure to steal some of my wardrobe before it’s too late.” So I took this.... and several other little props and other mementos from set.

So, yeah, more suggestions of him being set to “come back and finish this show.” But also, if this is all accurate, then...

“As we were shutting down production”? He was on set then? I know we’re all focused on the finale right now, but production shut down during the filming of 15x19.

Maybe they were considering shutting things down during the filming of 15x18, and he reacted preemptively? (But even if that’s the case, it’s still pretty clear that he’s due to come back and do more filming afterwards.) Maybe he’s in 15x19, too?

I'm honestly stunned by this thought. I don't think anyone has even considered the possibility that he would be in 15x19 before but this is... hopeful?

I dunno i still don't trust buckleming to deliver but my gosh thanks to Michael Sheen we may have some more good reasons to calm our nerves! Lmao!

If indeed the details of him being in 13/15 contracted episodes so far are correct then I see no reason why he shouldn’t be in the last two episodes. Even with covid...it’s not like he’s a random guest star that it would be nice to bring back for a final cameo in a world where the extra filming barriers didn’t exist. He’s a main character. It seems unthinkable that they would cut him unless it was absolutely 100% necessary. I WILL laugh though if after all our nervous speculating Cas shows up in like the first five minutes of 19! :)

Supergood 🌸 w/ Michael Sheen

Oh LOOK!

So all the panic over Misha not coming back was indeed for nothing? He confirmed he was coming back to film the final episode after lockdown to Michael Sheen.

Now everyone say THANK YOU MICHAEL SHEEN

HANG ON A SECOND:

First -- good catch, op. Thank you.

Second -- seeing this jogged my memory of another moment in this same video. It starts at about the ten minute mark:

[Misha gets up to grab a trench coat and put it on]

Misha: I have a -- one of my trench coats here. I’m gonna just grab it. Because, um, right as the pandemic was setting in.... As we were shutting down production, a little part of my brain thought, “It’s possible that we’ll never come back and finish this show. And if that happens, I want to make sure to steal some of my wardrobe before it’s too late.” So I took this.... and several other little props and other mementos from set.

So, yeah, more suggestions of him being set to “come back and finish this show.” But also, if this is all accurate, then...

“As we were shutting down production”? He was on set then? I know we’re all focused on the finale right now, but production shut down during the filming of 15x19.

Maybe they were considering shutting things down during the filming of 15x18, and he reacted preemptively? (But even if that’s the case, it’s still pretty clear that he’s due to come back and do more filming afterwards.) Maybe he’s in 15x19, too?

a thing just brought my brain to a screeching halt.

the wThis finally penetrated past the Destiel euphoria…

Jack Kline, over the past several episodes:

- was given back his soul (basically, his capacity to recognize right from wrong, or, Knowledge of Good and Evil, if you will) by a serpent in the Garden of Eden

- consumed Adam’s Rib, the part of the First Human from which the Second Human was made

- now… has no powers - but doesn’t seem to be suffering illness from the loss the way he did when Lucifer stole his grace.

- in the promo for the next episode he’s wearing a white shirt and a white tee instead of his usual outfit. The last person we saw do that was… Chuck, back in S5 with the initial “God” revelation.

The key to how everything ends is going to be that Jack has finally become a real boy - that he’s the son of Kelly Kline, who believed he would be good, not that he’s the son of Lucifer, who believed he would not. That he was raised by Castiel, who saw so much beauty in Creation and humanity when none of the other angels did, who just told him that he was loved not for his powers, but for who he is, that what is important about him is that he loves nougat and wants to help people.

I think back to what Cas said about Jack, back in the long-ago days of Season 12… “I saw the future. I saw a world without pain or hunger or want. I saw the world that this child… that your child… will create. And it is a world without fear and without suffering and without hate.” And for a long time the signs and portents seemed to be pointing at “Jack will be taking over for God in the new order of things, after everything” but.. what if the world Jack will create is an entirely different one? where he is not the benevolent ruler, but the first inhabitant, who will raise his children without the resentment and hate and anger that led Adam to stay alive for 300,000 years in the hope of revenge? where Amara and Chuck will tell a new story instead of putting the old one through yet another theme and variations?

A possibly very related followup question: do we have any real idea who the girl in the Garden of Eden was?

Ooh. Wow. What a thought. It would be a great subversion of his s12 introduction as a Nephilim with the power to destroy worlds. And now with the current context of Chuck destroying all the AUs... having Jack create a new one would fit really well.