WELCOME TO THE END.

Are you crying? Because I’m crying. But also, I can’t stop shaking because I’m so FREAKIN’ excited for what this finale just set up! So before I ramble on and spoil everything in the first paragraph, let’s start at the beginning of the episode.

Now that Jack has freed himself from the Ma’lak box, he throws Sam, Dean, and Castiel across the room before flying away. Dean very quickly declares that they need to find him because at this point, Jack’s “just another monster.” Cas, not wanting to hear that, leaves, at which point Dean and Sam try to figure out how to kill Jack (though Sam’s not quite on board either). Dean’s idea? Ask Rowena to make one of the soul bombs that they almost used on Amara. As Dean tells Sam, “he was family but this, this is not Jack anymore.” So once again, the boys are going to have to do the hard thing, the ugly thing. It’s not their first time and it likely won’t be their last.

Meanwhile, Jack is walking through a crowded street when he becomes overwhelmed with the number of people around him who are lying. So, with two little words — “stop lying” — he launches the world into chaos. Sam and Dean discover something’s up when they visit a facial recognition software business — they’re trying to track Jack — and Dean tells the woman at the front desk, “I’m Dean Winchester and I’m looking for the Devil’s son.” Dean can’t lie. And neither can Sam, because when Dean asks his brother who his favorite singer is, Sam doesn’t give his usual answer of Elvis. Instead, he says Celine Dion. (Keep being you, Sam!)

Just then, the entire office erupts as people start admitting to hating each other and, in an all-too-real plot point, a woman discovers her male co-worker makes double her salary! Sam and Dean take shelter in a nearby conference room, where two newscasters on TV are talking about how the president just spent more than 2 hours disclosing his entire tax history, deep ties to Russia and North Korea, and a demon deal he made with someone named Crowley. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This show is so creative and I love it so much!

Across town, Castiel is trying to find a way to Hell when CHUCK SHOWS UP!!!! “You called me,” Chuck explains, referencing Castiel’s prayer using the amulet a few episodes back. That’s why Chuck is here. Well that, and the whole Jack problem.

Chuck then takes Castiel to reunite with the Winchesters, and when they land at the facial recognition software office where everyone is fighting, Chuck says, “See, this is why people need to lie. It’s good. It keeps the peace.” Cas points out that it’s an odd stance for, you know, God, but he explains: “I’m a writer. Lying’s kind of what we do.”

Chuck and Castiel then join Sam and Dean in the conference room, and when Dean very quickly gets angry and wants an answer as to where Chuck’s been, we see God do something he’s never done before: He yells back at Dean. “DON’T,” Chuck tells him before zapping them all back to the bunker so that they can talk. There, Chuck explains that he’s been everywhere and nowhere. Oh, and he saw Springsteen on Broadway. (He loved it.) As for Amara, she’s been with him, and currently, she’s in Reno. Chuck says he’s been letting the brothers fight their battles. He admits that the British Men of Letters of it all was a little weak — no show is more self-aware than this one — but it’s not until things get really bad that he has to step in.

With one snap of his fingers, Chuck sets the world right again after Jack’s “stop lying” bit had affected literally everyone. But if Jack can do all that with two words, what else can he do? Chuck’s not sure, but he knows it’s bad, and he knows Jack must be stopped. Furthermore, he knows how. Just like that, a new gun shows up on the table.

According to Chuck, that gun, which he just made, will kill anything. It doesn’t use bullets. Seeing as how existence is all about balance, the gun will send waves of multidimensional energy … it’s a long story. All you really need to know is that whoever fires it will also die. And Chuck can’t fire it because if he dies, all of existence dies.

Castiel wants to know why they have to kill Jack. Why can’t they just restore his soul? Chuck explains that souls are complicated, even for him. And even if he could, would they want him to? After what Jack did to Mary? Castiel tries to find another way, but Dean stops him. This is how it’s going to happen, and of course, Dean’s going to be the one to pull the trigger. He tells Sam as much, but Sam isn’t about to say he’s okay with that. “I’ve already lost too much,” a tearful Sam tells his brother.

While all of this is going down, Jack pays a visit to his grandparents, but when his grandmother doesn’t want to talk to him — they asked around and found out that he doesn’t work with their daughter and she thinks he killed her — Jack, well, leaves. In a moment of anger, it looks like he might hurt her, but instead, he leaves, something he explains to Castiel when he meets him at a cemetery. Jack finally admits to Castiel that he can’t feel anything but that he’s been trying to do the right thing ever since he killed Mary. “All I ever wanted was to be good,” Jack tells Castiel, who decides they need to go somewhere safe where no one can find them. Except Dean’s already found them. And he’s holding Chuck’s gun. (Are we calling it the Equalizer?)

Back at the bunker, Sam is getting answers from Chuck. How many other worlds are there? He lost count. Apparently there’s one in reverse, one where there’s no yellow, and one where there’s nothing but squirrels! (Spin-off, anyone?) Chuck says that what Michael said about him creating new worlds as if they’re drafts of a book is false. “You and your brother, of all the Sams and Deans in the multiverse, you’re my favorite,” Chuck says. Why? Because they’re so interesting.

Sam deduces that Chuck is always watching, even when he isn’t around, to which Chuck speaks for the entire fandom when he says, “You’re my favorite show.” So why does it always have to be on Sam and Dean to fix things? “Because you’re my guys,” Chuck says before admitting that he’s afraid of Jack. But he doesn’t need to be … because Dean’s taking care of that now.

Cut to the cemetery, where Castiel tells Jack to run, but Jack’s done running. He throws Cas out of the way and gets on his knees as Dean takes aim. Sam shows up and runs to try and stop Dean as Jack tells the older Winchester brother, “I understand. I know what I’ve done. You were right all along. I am a monster.” Sam looks over and notices that Chuck is enjoying the show … until Dean lowers the gun. He can’t do it.

Dean throws the gun on the ground and only then does Chuck step in. This isn’t how the story’s supposed to end, the writer says. This is the father killing the son. This is Abraham and Isaac. This is epic. Or it’s supposed to be. That’s when Sam realizes that Chuck’s been playing them their whole lives. He wrote it all, didn’t he? This is his favorite show, after all.

Chuck tells Dean that if he picks up the gun and pulls the trigger, he’ll bring Mary back, but Dean says no. “My mom was my hero and I miss her, and I will miss her every second of my life but she would not want this,” he says. Dean realizes that Sam is right. Why doesn’t Chuck just snap his fingers and end Jack? Why the games? He’s sat back and watched the boys fight monster after monster, dying repeatedly, and for what? “When does it end?” Sam asks, a very fitting question for a show about to go into its final season.

This isn’t a story to Sam and Dean. It’s their lives. “So God or no God, you can go to Hell,” Dean says, at which point Chuck smirks. He then snaps his fingers and burns Jack out. But as he walks away, Sam picks up the gun … and he shoots God.

Spoiler: It doesn’t kill Chuck, but it does piss him off. “Fine,” Chuck says. “That’s the way you want it? Story’s over. Welcome to the end.” Just like that, the world goes dark. Sam, Dean, and Cas gather around a dead Jack, who wakes up in the Empty. But Billie’s there, and as she puts it, “We should talk.”

As Motörhead’s “God Was Never On Your Side” starts to play — the same song used in the season 14 Comic-Con trailer for the show — the world shakes. Souls are escaping from hell, and the dead awaken. Every monster the boys have killed is now back. We see the Woman in White from the pilot! We see John Wayne Gacy’s ghost! We see Bloody Mary! And, standing in the cemetery, the boys are surrounded by zombies! ZOMBIES!!!

As Chuck said, welcome to the end. Ugh, it’s such a perfect line to lead into the final season of this show, and with it, God has set up the biggest challenge yet for the Winchesters. All the work they’ve ever done has been erased. It’s a post-apocalyptic world, not unlike the one in the episode “The End.” I love everything this is setting up, in particular, the way in which God is, in some ways, the final villain of the show. He’s never been a perfect God, but for the first time, he isn’t on the Winchester’s side. He’s a wrathful God now, and with all of the earth’s monsters unlocked, the Winchesters have WORK TO DO. I have no idea what comes next, but if this finale doesn’t get you excited for the final season, nothing will.

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