YMMV / Supernatural S 15 E 20 Carry On

• Broken Base:
  • Dean's death is either seen as a fitting death for a character many see as a warrior and who wouldn't be able to live a normal life like Sam, or one of the most ridiculous deaths of a character ever with many wondering why Dean couldn't also live a normal life since he was shown to do that with Lisa and Ben.
  • Since fans have been arguing over which brother deserves to live a normal life more for years, the fact that it's Sam instead of Dean becomes this. There's also a third group that wished they had either lived a normal life together or died together so they could be reunited in Heaven.
• Critical Dissonance: The episode received generally positive reviews from critics, yet it's the show's 3rd lowest-rated episode on IMDb (behind "Bugs" and the Poorly Disguised Pilot "Bloodlines") and was roundly mocked for being anticlimactic and Narm-y.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: For all the reasons outlined on the main YMMV page, Dean dying on a random hunt while Sam outlives him until they reunite in Heaven doesn't exactly come across as a happy ending despite being presented as such.
• Fanon Discontinuity: A sizable contingent of fans outright ignores this episode and views "Inherit the Earth" as the true finale. The main reason behind this is mainly because it feels more like a Grand Finale due to the tension in the story as well as having an And the Adventure Continues type of ending which gives fans the option to imagine the future for Sam and Dean, ironically fitting the title "Carry On" better than this episode, where the Winchesters... do not carry on. Meanwhile, this episode is considered to be a very anti-climatic episode that killed off an iconic character in a ridiculous way while Jared Padalecki wore an unconvincing old man wig. Pretty much the only thing from this episode that is considered canon by these fans is the confirmation that Jack brought Castiel back to life to help fix Heaven, so that instead of reliving your best memories, all the characters can live together peacefully.
• Memetic Badass: The rusty nail, the one thing in all of Creation, not monsters, not the forces of Heaven, not the forces of Hell, not the Devil, not even God himself, that can kill Dean permanently.
• Memetic Mutation: The strongest being in Supernatural?! A rusty nail. ^Explanation  The only thing that killed Dean and made him stay dead.
• Narm: The entire montage of Sam growing old and raising his son Dean. It's clearly supposed to be a tearjerker, or possibly even enter Narm Charm territory, but between the unconvincing old-age effects used to make Jared Padalecki look older, the complete lack of investment the audience has in Sam's family (especially with his wife remaining faceless instead of being confirmed as an established character like Eileen), and the fact that it uses two different versions of "Carry On Wayward Son" back to back, the whole thing just comes off as laughable.
• Tear Jerker:
  • All the critics and narms aside, the fact that this is where Sam and Dean, the two brothers who have been through a lot together, finally DIE. Even more depressing is that they died separately rather than together, with Dean being the first to go. The sight of Sam in the bunker alone with an expression that basically tells us he is dead inside the whole time hits really hard.
  • Despite all the people he saved and all the friends he made along the way, Dean's funeral is lonely, with no one except Sam at his side.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: The infamous "Party City wig,"◊ a very unflattering and cheap-looking gray wig used to depict Sam growing old. It doesn't help that they didn't bother putting Jared Padalecki in old age makeup for that scene, so he just looks like a 30-something who dressed up as an old man for Halloween.