The words, “Dad’s on a hunting trip, and he hasn’t been home in a few days,” have haunted me since my brain was only half-formed. At 12, I filled pages with Dean Winchester’s one-liners during class, which somehow made me more focused. Maybe, but maybe not (ask my report cards).

The Winchester brothers, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), raised a generation on Thursday nights — and then another on Netflix. Every year, I paced with fellow fans for renewal news, until season 4, when Castiel (Misha Collins) pulled Dean from perdition and new seasons became all but guaranteed.

Chuck may say nothing ever ends, and in a way, he’s right. "Supernatural" eventually had to give fans its swan song, 15 years later. But like energy in science, fandom doesn’t vanish; it just transforms. T

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