Unity 15x17 - is once again killing me
See previous ways it tortures me including confirming Cas invented free will (x) and Chuck revealing that the future Sam saw in The Trap was a fake (x)
The Empty confirms what we knew from S5 and 13, it was a lie that Chuck is unable to affect the Empty. Chuck and Jack have brought Cas back from the dead numerous times. Chuck is an unreliable narrator and he lies.
But it also said that Sam is supposed to play a role in Chuck's death. Immediately, thought, the empty admits that it can't read Chuck's death book, only Billie can do that. ... Which means that any information we get from the empty is actually from Billie, another possibly unreliable source.
Then just to put the cherry on the cake, the empty reminds the viewer that the empty can't come to earth. Not until it's summoned.
Okay. So the set up for the confession I get.
But why point out that Chuck had dominion over the empty all along? Why revive and build up that lore unless it's going to MATTER in some way? Michael has already been brought back, and tbh nobody needed Lucifer back unless they were going to do something interesting with the fact that he was right about Chuck all along.
This scene firmly establishes in the text that Chuck and therefore Jack have the power to bring Cas back. The subtext had become text.
No doubt, no meta, no fanon. Jack just. Can.
But the scene also sets up that Sam is supposed to play an important role in Chuck's death (if Billie can be believed and that anything the empty says about it is only as reliable as Billie is.) But does he? He raised Jack, but that's been done. They could have proceeded from here without him just fine. So what is it that Sam does to defeat Chuck?
Sam does one thing. He defies Billie's and therefore Chuck's plan.
So which is it?
Is Sam the reason TFW2.0 defeated Chuck rather than falling into the trap spoonfed to them by Billie? Or was Billie's plan all a farce set up for them by Chuck? It doesn't work. It doesn't make sense. It makes about as much sense as dropping Cas's fading grace storyline after Rupture and Golden Time.
Why bother to set these things up, to set up Jack's power over the empty, unless the finale two episodes later was going to pick up on all of this. "no changes" my ass.