Why Supernatural's Final Episode Is Still So Unpopular 6 Years Later

Published Sep 25, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

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While Supernatural still boasts a massive fan base, the CW series also produced one of the most hated finales of all time, and it is not hard to work out why viewers were so disappointed by its ending. Although the longevity of The Simpsons remains unmatched after more than 800 episodes across 37 seasons, there are a handful of other long-lasting TV institutions that can boost similarly impressive track records. Among them is the dark fantasy procedural Supernatural, which aired for 15 seasons between 2005 and 2020.

Debuting in September 2005, Supernatural initially seemed like a clever way to cash in on the then-recent ending of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, here was a monster of the week procedural horror fantasy where unlikely heroes overcame their differences to take on paranormal threats, some of them zany and some of them genuinely terrifying. Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, half of Supernatural’s appeal came from the monsters and the horror, but half came from the self-aware sense of humor and the thoughtful character writing.

However, Supernatural also boasted enough differences to feel like more than a mere retread of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s successful formula. Buffy the Vampire Slayer had an entire Scooby Doo-style gang of heroes, so Supernatural had just two mismatched brothers. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was set in a small town, so Supernatural centered on a cross-country road trip that constantly changed location, like Prime Video’s Reacher. Buffy the Vampire Slayer focused on high school students, so Supernatural’s heroes were in their twenties. And, finally, Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a series finale that viewers didn’t resent.

COVID Limited The Amount Supernatural's Finale Could Do

Yes, while Supernatural managed to last an astounding 327 episodes and become the longest running live-action US fantasy show ever in the process, the show still dropped the ball with its November 2020 series finale, “Carry On.” Before the specific issues with the finale can be dissected, it’s important to take a moment to look at the massive fan base of Supernatural, and their atypical loyalty.

When the horror anthology show American Horror Story debuted in 2011, the FX series commanded a season 1 high of over 3 million viewers. 13 years later, season 12 of the series hit a new low with under 0.3 million viewers. In contrast, the most viewed season of Supernatural, The WB’s season 1, had an average viewership of 3.8 million. The show moved to The CW in season 2, but still managed to maintain a massive average audience of 1.6 million by its 15th season.

It is hard to explain just how impressive this audience retention rate was, yet anyone familiar with the passion of Supernatural’s fan base is unlikely to be surprised. The show was a cult phenomenon that spawned a gigantic fan community, so its series finale was set to be a bittersweet culmination of a decade and a half of fan fiction, fan art, online community and innumerable fan theories. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and production was halted on the series with two episodes left to shoot.

An Entertainment Weekly interview revealed that the finale’s original planned ending had to be scrapped due to the logistics of shooting during the pandemic, but this was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to fan complaints. Although critics gave “Carry On” surprisingly positive reviews upon its original release, the fandom was disappointed by God’s unexpectedly swift defeat, the show deliberately sidestepping the infamous Destiel debate, and Dean’s death.

God's Defeat Came Way Too Easily

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If the ending of Netlfix’s Stranger Things proved anything, it is that progressively going bigger with every series finale doesn’t always mean better results. In keeping with this emerging trend, Supernatural’s ending saw Dean take on God himself (Chuck), only for Chuck to be outsmarted by Jack draining his powers while he was distracted by fighting the Winchester brothers. It would have been a letdown of a final fight in any show, but compared to some of Supernatural’s earlier big bads, this twist was downright insulting.

Season 5’s Lucifer was only defeated by a season-long search for the four rings, and this defeat still damned Sam to Hell for what looked like eternity. Defeating Dick in season 7 required the gang to travel to Purgatory and resulted in the death of Bobby, while Aurora’s defeat only came about because demons, archangels, and angels worked together, and even this didn’t fully destroy her.

Supernatural Didn't Deal With Castiel's Final Lines To Dean

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In comparison, Jack outsmarting Chuck felt like a weak and unlikely twist. Of course, there was also the question of Supernatural’s famous Sam and Castiel storyline. Castiel’s death saw him explicitly confirm that he loved Dean, but he vanished out of existence before the show could explain whether this was a platonic or romantic confession on his end. Dean’s dazed non-response was underwhelming regardless, but the final episode made this twist even worse.

Although the Supernatural finale confirmed that Castiel was helping Jack rebuild Heaven after being released from the Empty, the show never reunited him and Dean. After spending years implicitly building up the fandom’s romantic pairing of the same-sex couple, Supernatural stopped short of Dean ever acknowledging Castiel’s love for him, a choice that felt cowardly, unfinished, and hollow.

Even for fans who hated the pairing of Destiel, this was a letdown. While many viewers hoped Dean would reciprocate Castiel’s last-second declaration of love, having the character instead respond by admitting that he never recognized, realized, or reciprocated Castiel’s romantic feelings would, at least, have been a definitive end to the pair’s story. Instead, viewers got a frustrating non-entity of an ending.

Dean's Death Was Really Soft

Image via MovieStillsDB

On the topic of frustrating non-entities, after defeating God himself, it was fair to expect that whatever did kill Dean would be fairly substantial and dramatic. However, Supernatural slipped up again here when, instead, Dean died by cutting himself with a piece of rusty metal on an ordinary vampire hunt. While this was clearly intended to subvert the expectations of viewers, the twist worked a little too well.

Instead of Dean’s Supernatural death acting as a jarring reminder that even the toughest characters could be unexpectedly killed, the twist felt more like a reminder of just how many moments throughout the show’s fifteen seasons really should have killed the Winchester brothers much sooner. Thus, in its finale, Supernatural managed to make its earlier seasons feel both less believable and more action-packed than its weak final outing.