One of the biggest problems that I had with the Supernatural finale is that Dean, at least in their eyes, could not find happiness in life — that he could only find happiness in death, in Heaven, after he had passed away, but not in life. For a character that was passively suicidal for much of the show’s run, whose character arc demonstrated him finally beginning to turn away from that, see the worth that was in life, and want to do something beyond hunting (since there was a job application on his desk in his room), to have killed him off like that sent the worst possible message to fans of the show. And mind, the show is rated TV-14 — this means that minors, and impressionable minors, can watch it if they so desire. And this was the message that was sent to them: who cares about the here and now? Your only happiness, or salvation, is allegedly in death. The CW should not have sent people that message, but they did. And they know that they’ve done it due to all of the negative backlash that the show has gotten in respect to the finale. They absolutely know.

Soon, I will have a fourteen-year-old of my own who can, at least in theory, watch Supernatural after his fourteenth birthday. But for an array of reasons that don’t have as much to do with him being autistic as they may seem at first glance, I will not be letting him watch this show, whether it is with me — assuming that I eventually do a rematch — or on his own. I loved this show until the finale and I am consciously choosing not to share this love with my child out of respect to what the finale tried to make the show.