The End of the World on Supernatural
The Popular Horror Series Addresses the Coming Apocalypse
Sep 13, 2009
There are any number of theories about the end of the world. In fact, it seems that since the beginning of the world, people have been discussing how it might meet its demise. Theories have ranged from nuclear holocaust to a supernatural showdown between good and evil.
Stories of the apocalypse, via nuclear means or acts of nature, have gained in popularity over the last few years—meteors and the melting of the polar ice caps are a particular favorite. On the television series Supernatural, however, the end of the world boils down to a smackdown between angels and demons—literally.
Lucifer is Coming
The ever-growing and changing mythology of Supernatural took an interesting turn last season when the long-accepted hordes of demons were joined by a variety of angels. Unfortunately, the angels weren’t much easier to deal with than the demons, and the season gradually revealed that they were manipulating events to bring about the final showdown. Sam and Dean became unwitting pawns in this game, both playing roles in breaking several of the most important of the seals holding Lucifer at bay.
At the end of the last episode, the last seal was broken, and Lucifer had begun to rise. This season picked up where the last episode left off, with Lucifer entering the world and finding a host, from whose body he will presumably wreak havoc until sometime next May when Season Five winds up.
Supernatural’s End of Days
Supernatural has been gearing up for the end of the world for the past two seasons, with revelations that Sam was primed from infancy to lead the demonic hordes as their Boy King. With the gates of hell opened, demons roaming the world, Sam sliding down an unexpected path with his demon lover Ruby and Dean dragged back to life by Castiel, the show has mixed its own mythology with bits and pieces of Judeo-Christian based stories of the apocalypse to create an original brew. And with Sam and Dean on opposite sides of the conflict throughout last season, the original dynamic of the show has been significantly altered.
The show hasn’t shown the full aftermath of Lucifer’s arrival yet, other than hints of apocalyptic weather and natural events reported on the news. Whether the show runners choose to follow the Biblical sequence from Revelations remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen if the show will further explain the background of the war between the angels and the demons, and how the Winchester family fits in. Hints have been dropped along the way, but several elements remain unexplored.
Even with some of the details still not filled in, Supernatural has taken some chances in its storytelling by changing the basic structure of the show as it has progressed in order to tell a much larger story. If producer Eric Kripke decides to continue past the fifth season, one has to wonder what he’ll tackle to follow the end of the world.
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