Supernatural Stars on Why 'Satisfying' Series Finale Idea Was 'Hard to Digest'

Vlada Gelman

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It seems Supernatural will be taking the lyrics of Kansas’ “Carry On Wayward Son” — aka the show’s unofficial anthem — to heart for its upcoming series finale. As the tune promises, “there’ll be peace when you are done,” and that will be true for the Winchesters.

In the past, when asked how he’d like Sam and Dean to go out, “I always said I wanted them both to die,” star Jared Padalecki shared at San Diego Comic-Con. “I always said [like] Butch and Sundance, and people would yell at me and throw stuff.”

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It’s not that Padalecki wanted the characters to suffer or have an unhappy ending after years and years of struggle. “I think that was my way of saying I want them to achieve peace,” he explained. Having been looped in on what the series finale holds, “I feel like Sam and Dean find some version of peace. Whether or not that’s alive or dead, or if Amara possesses me or whatever the situation is, I feel like they find more peace than when the season starts.”

The end of Dean and Sam’s story was a little more difficult to come to terms with for Padalecki’s TV brother. “When we were in the room and the idea came down the pipe, everybody was kind of signed off on it,” Jensen Ackles recounted. “My reaction was more like, ‘OK, OK.’ I struggled with it for about a week or so, and then I realized I’m too invested, I’m too emotional. I’m too close to this character. To see anything with finality on it, it’s just hard to digest. I talked to a few people about it and got some clarity on it and have tried to look at it from a different perspective. I, now, have come around to being like, ‘This is a really good ending. This is satisfying.'”

Also giving the final hour their seal of approval: creator Eric Kripke. “He actually has been told the ending, and he kind of likes it,” executive producer Robert Singer said, noting that he and co-showrunner Andrew Dabb were set to have dinner with Kripke the following week.

But perhaps the most important reaction will be that of the #SPNFamily that has kept the CW drama on the air for fifteen seasons. At the end of the series, Dabb hopes that the fans feel like the hundreds of hours they put into watching the show were worth it. “You don’t want to leave people feeling hollow. You don’t want to leave people feeling cynical,” Dabb said. “That doesn’t mean the ending is always happy and everybody high-fiving, but it means that the journey was worth something and came to a place that makes everyone feel it was, again, worth kind of taking that trip.”

Supernatural‘s fifteenth and final season premieres Thursday, Oct. 10 at 8/7c on The CW.

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