As far as CW finales go, it’s always a toss up whether fans will be satisfied with how they have to say goodbye to their favorite characters, but The Winchesters undoubtedly delivered one of the best in the network’s history as season 1 of the series finally came to a satisfying close. Supernatural took fans on a wild 15-year-long journey that left many fans upset after the final episode, because of how Dean Winchester’s story wrapped up, so his return in the prequel had viewers of the original series anxious to see how things would play out.
Thankfully, episode 13 of The Winchesters finally remedied the issues SPN fans had with Dean’s crappy send-off by bringing back Jensen Ackles in his full hunter glory and provided answers to all the questions viewers had about where the prequel fits in with Supernatural canon. As it turns out, the events of The Winchesters all take place before the final moments of the Supernatural series finale, where Sam Winchester joined Dean in heaven.
Dean explained to the young hunters that he stumbled upon their world by accident while driving through the multiverse as he searched for a world where his family lived a long, happy life together. This quickly took care of the canon discrepancies between both SPN-verse shows by confirming that The Winchesters is set on one of the many different Earths created by Chuck while he looked for an ending he was satisfied with.
Ackles promised Supernatural fans before the prequel started that The Winchesters wouldn’t retcon anything from the original series, and he surely delivered. Not only that, Ackles gave Dean some well-deserved closure, which he never received during the Supernatural finale that had fans up in arms.
Dean is technically still dead, however his final moments in the prequel were exactly what fans wanted for him when Supernatural ended back in 2020. As a character whose primary goal was always to keep his loved ones safe, Dean spent years struggling to cope with the fact that he couldn’t save his parents from the yellow-eyed demon that tore his family apart.
Although the John and Mary audiences met in The Winchesters weren’t the John and Mary they’d come to know in Supernatural, it was beyond gratifying to see Dean pass his expertise onto them and give them a chance to protect themselves in the future.
Handing the Colt off to Mary and warning her about the yellow-eyed demon was Dean’s way of saving his mother, just like giving his own hunter journal to Drake Rodger’s young John was Dean’s way of giving back to the father that taught him how to hunt. Both the Colt and John’s hunting journal were massive staple pieces in the original series, and it was a very full-circle moment to see these items return in The Winchesters.
Episode 13 also stayed very true to Dean’s character when revealing why he decided to meddle with a foreign universe and kill the Akrida. Dean confirmed that Chuck created the Akrida as a fail-safe option to destroy all life, including the Earth that Sam was still living on.
Even in death, Dean went above and beyond to keep his younger brother safe and The Winchesters finally gave him the chance to do the same for his parents, providing him the opportunity to rest peacefully in the afterlife. That also explains why Jared Padalecki was absent from the series.
Speaking of the afterlife, Dean was accompanied by two other familiar faces that Supernatural fans were surely delighted to see. First was Bobby Singer, who made it very clear in the beginning of episode 13 that he still affectionately thinks of Dean as an “idjit” after all these years.
Next was Jack, who took over in Chuck’s place after the Winchesters killed him in season 15 of Supernatural. Jack wasn’t too happy when he found out Dean had been meddling in human affairs, but his character threw in another great SPN reference by telling Dean it was time for him to reach the “there will be peace when you are done” part of the song.
The song in question was obviously Kansas’s “Carry On Wayward Son” and Jack was making a clear nod to the Supernatural theme song that carried the Winchester brothers through every season finale. There was also a parallel to the very first episode of Supernatural, when Mary makes it clear to John that “the driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.”
The story of John and Mary has also ended on a very positive note (for now) as the two agreed to hit the road and go searching for a new life together. They seem to have reached a compromise where Mary gets to enjoy normal life during the day and John and go hunting for monsters at night, an unusual work-life balance method that’ll hopefully work for the young couple.
Creators of The Winchesters have yet to confirm or deny whether the series will be back for a second season, but if this is the last fans ever see of the Winchester family, episode 13 was a great way to say goodbye.