So many people talk about shipping and 15.18, with Misha saying his big exit was romantic (while Jensen has not changed from his comments about playing Dean straight, though his "best friend" is "loved" like a "brother in arms")
But that was such a small part of the episode, really.
My question is what do you think about the rest of it. Sam has an intense scene with Dean, then works with Jack, then carries the plot with everyone disappearing.
We leave Sam and Dean in a wasteland with the almost impossible task of getting humanity back from an angry God.
Putting turbo superhell and bad edits in the dungeon aside, now that we're years away from that social media meme-fest, what do you think about the episode AS A WHOLE?
Yeah that "big exit" scene was given too much attention by certain fans and in an otherwise decent episode. There were no years of buildup to interpret that scene as romantic, sorry not sorry destiel shippers, lol.
Anyways, I remember thinking 15x18 on a whole was solid and reliable. Sam and Dean's heart to heart talk, their lack of supernatural allies, Billie's natural law plan. I liked Sam's scenes more than the Dean/Cas/Billie scenes because he was dealing on-the-ground human crisis, so the stakes felt higher and more realistic. It was also a callback to his leader!Sam arc from the previous season. Yeah I liked Sam giving Jack a job so that he doesn't feel useless. There were other little details I liked, such as hunters and refugees leaving their weapons near the entrance.
Sam strengthen the protective wards but the audience just found out Bille is not responsible for the vanishing
A couple embracing before their impending death during the one-take massacre scene
People looking to Sam to save them.
Sam can only watch as people who trusted him vanish before his eyes
Donna wasn't supposed to vanish but she was also smoked out of existence, suddenly nobody was safe. The episode ends with a cliffhanger of Sam and Jack finding an empty world.
Huh, I've forgotten the episode title was changed to "Despair", if anything the despair seemed mostly about Sam's, from finding out Eileen had been taken out of existence, hugging Dean goodbye fearing it may be the last time he sees Dean, and then watching everybody vanish before his eyes. Castiel was never a main character, his big exit speech was to remind the general audience and casual fans that Dean is also a hero because he's going to die in two episodes.
