The ninth season has been the victim of a great deal of meandering, and so it makes sense that this season finale would also seem to be falling into the same trap.  It’s a good thing that the hook for the end of the season itself was directly related to Dean’s descent, because of all the things that have been explored in this “middle chapter”, that’s about the only one that worked.

With the situation in Hell firmly concluded and Crowley in charge, the not-so-small matter of the angelic choir is the biggest area of focus to consider.  And for better or worse, Metatron is the villainous side of that equation.  After taking Castiel out of the resistance leadership role, it felt like the writers didn’t quite know what they were doing.  On the contrary, it turned out to be a smart move; Castiel might try to be a leader, when pushed to it, but he’s much better as the soulful lone angel trying to do right by God’s design (and Dean Winchester).

The biggest problem is that Metatron never evolved into a consistent villain.  His power set was all over the map, and his motivations were a combination of megalomania and ADHD.  This is no more apparent than his plan to “go viral” by posing as a human with miraculous powers.  Was it really just to draw his enemies into a fight on his own terms?  In that regard, it’s unnecessary; he had more than enough power and resources to set the terms at any point.  One could argue that was the entire thrust of the “Meta Fiction” concept.

If there was a real surprise in this episode, it was the absence of Dean losing his humanity altogether and ending up in a brother vs. brother fight to the death with Sammy.  It’s still in the cards; if anything, the deferment works a bit better, now that Dean is apparently much further down the demonic path than he ever was as a resident of Hell earlier in the series.  And hence the reason why the demonic civil war had to be resolved; it keeps the lines of control clean on that end.  Not to mention that Dean is getting a taste of his own medicine, since he’s getting the demonic equivalent of what he did to Sam earlier in the season.

All that said, the narrative groundwork is already well in place to restore Dean somewhere down the line.  Why else go through all that trouble to explore the possibilities with Crowley and his potential restoration?  And while Castiel doesn’t want to be the leader of the angels, his role in Metatron’s overthrow and ongoing humility could mean a much greater and more organic following.  A part of me still wonders if God will be brought in before it’s all said and done; after all, if the angels really need someone to lead them, and Castiel doesn’t want to do it no matter how much they look to him for it, why not find the real Father to prevent yet another pretender to take control and mess things up more?

In other words, even though the ninth season has been a muddled mess, it continues to reveal that Jeremy Carver is sticking to his three-season plan to make Supernatural’s later years feel more cohesive with what had come before.  The Sera Gamble era was hardly a high point, but it has been reframed in some important ways by Carver’s first two seasons.  It really does feel like there is a grand conclusion, or at least a solid landing point, coming at the end of the tenth season.