#andrew dabb i’m in your walls

[eatingdiceforfunandprofit]

yes i know it’s been said before and it will be said again. BUT. supernatural spent 15 years building these two characters that hundreds of thousands of young queer people related to and projected onto and LOVED and then killed them both. the finale looked those kids in the eye and said “it wasn’t worth it. you’ve fought for years and years and it didn’t matter. there is no happy ending for you.”

i can’t actually describe how much that infuriates me.

[trisscar368]

hanG ON WAIT is the entire reason it was vampire jenny in 15.20 because of the queer coding in Dead Man’s Blood

The woman who got turned by the bisexual vampires comes out of nowhere, Dean gets stabbed by a very phallic object that should not have been in the plot, and because it’s dean it’s through the heart (because it’s always Dean’s heart)

Dean spends the episode in a gray life, hugging the dog (and Cas is always the dog), and he doesn’t want to keep going when there’s a chance to get out

IS THAT WHY

DID DEAN WINCHESTER DIE BY BISEXUALITY

Cause he sure as fuck died of a broken heart

[sortasirius]

What the Fuck Happened to the SPN Finale?

Okay so here it is, my Charlie Kelly style manifesto.

Before I get into it, I recognize that I will look like this to many of you, and that’s okay, I understand:

Secondly, your personal Takes about the writers don’t interest me, I don’t need to hear them. This, as I’ll explain, is going to remain a writer positive blog, and that’s the end of it.

Third, and most importantly: some of what I’m going to talk about is fact, and some is highly educated speculation. I will notate what is speculation, just so there’s no confusion or hot takes in my inbox that I’m a conspiracy theorist or stirring shit up for no reason.

A list of what I’ll be discussing

The episode in regards to the rest of the season

The episode issues: length, editing

Scene placement and speculation of scenes cut

The scrubbing of Jack, Cas, Eileen

Network involvement and general timeline of when things were cut

Misha: theories on where he was, official company line, why we can’t expect to hear anything directly

The silence of the cast post episode (in Misha’s case, mid episode) and what this might mean

Jensen speaking with Kripke about the ending: why it doesn’t mean what you might think (also why kripke remained positive on the ending)

Walker, and why this episode had a major shift

Why the network would do this or get involved

Why the writers of the show simply aren’t the bad guys here, and what I “want” out of this post, since I know it’ll get asked

This is very long and under a cut, but I hope you’ll give it a read.

The Episode In Regards to the Rest of the Season

So, I’ve discussed this already here, but it’s the most obvious thing to me, and that’s the way this episode simply doesn’t fit with the rest of the season.

These people in this room have, truly, been nothing but consistent when it comes to their arcs, especially this season, and the marked dropoff in quality for the finale episode is just too sus to discount to me.  Dabb’s whole focus has been character-based.  In his seasons, we’ve moved far away from MOTW and bro-codependency, the found family taking it’s place.  Does it really sit right to anyone that that was all thrown away in literally the last episode of the entire show?

This is speculation on my part, but as a writer myself, there is no way I would be happy or willing to stamp my name on something that I didn’t think would, at the very least, wrap up the season+ character arcs that I and my team had been crafting.

And before anyone comes in here saying, “well GOT did that!”  Bruh.  The writing was on the wall for GOT long before the final episode.  You could tell that the showrunners just wanted to be done (not only from the plot, but from the fact that they lobbied for a shorter season).  Miss me with that, it doesn’t apply here.  Andrew has, besides Singer and J2, been with the show longer than anyone.  He cares, he is meticulous and detailed, and this ending feels worse than anything Bucklemming has ever written, let alone Dabb.

Additionally, I’ve seen a lot of people say that Dabb was never behind Destiel, that it was all Bobo and Meredith and no one else.  That is reductive to the point of insult of the work Dabb has done to get this greenlit.  This man did not write the s13 Dean grief arc to be slandered like this.  That being said, YES, Bobo and Meredith were the leads on the DeanCas arc this season, but ANDREW IS THE SHOWRUNNER, TO GET EVEN THE CONFESSION APPROVED BY THE NETWORK HE WOULD HAVE TO HAVE THEIR BACKS.  AND HE DID.

Finale Issues

So, now that we’ve gotten the fact that this episode doesn’t hit on any of the major themes the show was barrelling towards all season, let’s discuss the fact that the episode is just...weird.

Not only is it shorter than any other episode (I think with the intro and the credits/crew thing at the end, it was around 38 mins), but it was also...idk, 90% filler?

One of the lovely humans in the POLOL server did the legwork here, and broke it down:

This is weird, y’all.  Most series finales are LONGER than normal (Lost, SOA, Longmire are the ones I can think of off the top of my head), and for the final episode to be this?  I saw more than one person point out that we only really needed 19 episodes, what was the point of 20?  AND THAT’S EXACTLY IT?  WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS FINAL EPISODE IF THIS WAS ALL WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET?

It simply doesn’t make any sense, the first half of the episode was rushed, a final monster hunt gone wrong, but in the second half?  Nothing really happened?  Sam lived his entire life and Dean just drove around.  It doesn’t make sense to have all the emotional arcs left unaddressed in an episode that definitely needed some kind of spark.

Here’s the speculation I have: the episode seemingly went through a lot of changes between the initial inception of the final season and when we actually got it, but I think it would have been passable (as in, we wouldn’t be sitting here asking each other why each arc feels incomplete) until the editing room got ahold of it.  The only think that makes this episode make sense is network fuckery.  Truly, that is the only thing.  It explains the weird, cuts, the rushed pacing of the first half followed by nothing in the second half, the double montages of “Wayward Son” back to back, and Dean just...driving around for the last half of the episode.

Scene Placement and Speculation of Scenes Cut

Before I get into this section, the info of the shots in the episode I have come from a source that @occamshipper​ got a week or so before the finale.  She’s talked about this here.

So here’s what Min was given:

1-5: 1 INT MEN OF LETTERS – DEAN’S ROOM Dean is greeted by Miracle

6-10: 6 INT MEN OF LETTERS – HALLWAY/SAM’S ROOM Sam has his routine

D1 1 11-15: 15 EXT FARM HOUSE Establishing

N1 1/8 16-20: 19 Dad’s journal, marker, drawing of masked man in journal.

21-25: 23 INT IMPALA – PMP Driver picks the music

N2 1 3/8 1,2 26-30: 28pt2 INT BARN: A face from the past

28pt3 Sam and Dean say goodbye

28pt4 Shot early for technical reasons, presumably the overhead shot

N2 31-45: 41 INT MEN OF LETTERS – SAM’S ROOM Sam’s alarm goes off D4 1/8 1 46-60: 56 INT N7glasses for Sam, laptop.

So...it all fits right?  It all tracks with the actual episode, where it lands, etc.  The issue is between shots 29-40 which were apparently “too big to spoil.”  Uh.  Where are they?  And where’s 28 pt4?

After Dean dies, the next scene is Sam burning him, then shot 31, the shot of his alarm going off.

So.  Where are those 11ish shots?

PLUS we have the boards, which are scenes we KNOW were actually shot:

As well as scenes for 20 that were shot in 19.

It’s just...weird, it’s weird and again hits on the fact that the episode is so short and like 80% montage.

The Scrubbing of Jack, Cas, and Eileen

So now we have to reckon with the fact that Eileen was last mentioned by Sam after she got snapped by Chuck, Jack’s last mention is that he’s off being God somewhere, and Cas’ last mention is a ~knowing look~ between Dean and Bobby.

I’m sorry, make it make sense:

????????  That’s the end if it?  They don’t need to be discussed after this???  It’s just simply not something a writer would do, they would not introduce these characters, these arcs, without thinking there’s going to be some kind of follow through here.

So not only were three major characters (including two leads and both of the original characters’ love interests) completely wiped from the finale episode, it was as though Sam and Dean never even needed them, which just...ain’t it.

So why Eileen and Jack too?  Why not just take Cas out of it if they were afraid of the gay?  Because, ultimately, the episode went back to Kripke’s original story: just the bros, they only need each other and no one else.  They don’t want anyone else, they don’t need anyone else.  Easier to go back to something they knew was successful than trust the writers and their audience and take a big leap.

Alex even said he shot for 20 with “some of the guys” here.  What happened to that footage?

The complete 180 of it all still shocks me, I still cannot believe that we were essentially at the finish line, and the network just stopped short, and decided to go run another race, at the expense of the arc of this fifteen year legacy show.

Network Involvement and When Things Were Cut

Okay, now into the juicy stuff.

So I’ve pretty well established that network fuckery is clear, but how much did they get involved, what was the original intent?

Well again, we may never actually know what Andrew’s original script was, but I think, at the least, it would involve Dean speaking his truth to Cas and Sam living a life with Eileen.

Now, it seems today, that Misha said that Jimmy Novak was supposed to be in the finale in one iteration of the script, and while initially my brain was like “that truly makes no sense and he’s either straight up lying or telling a half truth,” I think what may be happening is Misha talking about as much as he can right now.

So Jimmy right.  Weird as fuck.  Why would he been in the Roadhouse and not Cas?  My current thought (this is about as reachy as I’ll get) is that Jimmy had no lines, could he have been in the Roadhouse as a red herring, like it said “Jimmy” in the script but it was just Cas in human clothes, a way to get around the network saying Cas couldn’t be in the final scene.  Also, you’ll notice that Misha didn’t say that Cas wasn’t supposed to be in the ep at all, just Jimmy in the last scene.

All this to say, there have clearly been multiple versions of the script, getting lighter and lighter with Cas and Eileen as the network pulled further and further back.  Remember, Dabb has to get things approved before they get shot, and if the network kept asking and asking and asking to cut Cas and Eileen, he had to find a way to work around it.  Granted, I still think that if we had been able to get a Dabb script that wasn’t torn to shreds in editing, it wouldn’t be so bad.  It may not be what a lot of us wanted (Dean speaking his truth to Cas and a reciprocation), but doing everything he could to give it to us in subtext or visual clues.

Plus, in all honesty, my man can’t keep his story straight anyway.  He said twice in his panel that the Empty and offscreen Heaven ending weren’t his original ending either.

In addition, remember that Jensen did ADR post episode 18, AND said in a meet and greet last weekend that Dean’s reaction to Cas’ confession was “cut down.” (Source here).  Many of us clowns got excited when we first heard about ADR, because we thought it would be upping the ante on Dean’s reaction, but I remember being a little sus when it was just crying.  My speculation on that is that they cut out Dean actually SAYING something, @winchestersingerautorepair​ spoke about that here.

The biggest sins were, in my opinion, committed during editing, where the network got too gun shy and sliced the episode until it was nothing but a heartless bro-fest of a finale, not mentioning anything about the other major characters that we all love, and letting the boys just suffer in separation until Sam died and finally joined Dean in Heaven.  The editing came by cutting all the major emotional beats between anyone other than Dean and Sam, leaving the skeleton of the story intact, just shorter and less...poignant than it was ever supposed to be.

Misha

We know Misha was in Vancouver, we know he quarantined, but we also know he wasn’t in the final scene, when he spoke about being in the last moment of the show months ago.  We were not crazy, he was there, he quarantined, and, in all likelihood (speculation but fitting with the timeline), he actually may have shot something (not much, but something).

I have sources here, here, here, and here showing where Misha was at that time.

Remember, the man was completely open about coming back until they finished shooting (look at this thread).  The switch happened, just like everything else, halfway through them shooting.

Please also remember Jake Abel posting his “Where’s Misha” video here.  Jake isn’t malicious, he isn’t being nasty here.  Misha was there, and everyone that’s trying to convince people he’s wasn’t just...isn’t telling the truth about it.

This is one of the things that makes me really mad, because they’re literally attempting to gaslight people into thinking, “oh we were totally wrong he was never supposed to be there” WHEN HE WAS THERE, WE KNOW HE WAS THERE.

So we’ve already heard from several people (Meghan Fitzmartin, Jay, a PA on the set of 19 (WHO WAS NOT WORKING FOR 20), Misha himself) that this was all down to Covid restrictions.  Ultimately, as this post says, we’ve heard FIVE versions of where Misha was.  None of it makes sense, but the Covid protocol seems to be the company line that others are repeating.

You may ask: why?  Why lie to all of us when we have questions?  Why, in Jay’s case, say that we’re all spreading false lies to stir up trouble, when we just have questions and things that do not make sense.  Simply?  Warner Brothers is absolutely massive.  These people have their careers to protect and are likely all under NDAs.  They want to work for WB again and don’t want to burn bridges, including Misha.  It sucks, but that’s why it’s unlikely that we’ll hear someone come out and say, “yeah we’re lying to you.”

Silence of the Cast Post Episode

So this is...probably the worst part of all this, at least in my opinion.

The guys had all been pretty excited about the end of the show (especially Jared, but Jensen’s panel last week was Jensen as happy and jokey and positive as I’ve ever seen him.  He was so excited about episode 18, about what it meant for Dean and for Cas, and I just cannot buy that he would have been that excited unless he thought there was something more in the episode.

Misha live-tweeted the episode, and was watching it with his kids.  It’s well known that Misha and the kids don’t watch the show because it’s too scary, and let’s ask ourselves, why would he have them watch an episode that he’s barely even mentioned in?

He also stopped live-tweeting at a very specific point in the episode (Dean’s death) and has not mentioned Supernatural since then. 

None of them, not Jared, Jensen, Misha, or even Alex, said anything about the episode for nearly 36 hours, when Jensen posted a salty photo on instagram.  It’s just...not what you’d expect for the end of a 15 year show, when the cast and crew are so close to the fans, so close to each other. 

My theory?  They didn’t know.  They thought Misha was, at least, going to be in the episode in some way, and when he wasn’t, they decided not to say anything.

You really think that Jensen “Heller” Ackles would have been so excited about the end of the show last week if he thought Cas wasn’t going to be in it at all?  Nah son, doesn’t make any sense.

Even today, in Jared and Misha’s panels, they seemed sad and...more than a little careful, both saying that there were things they couldn’t say, both talking around things that we all have questions on.

Jensen Speaking with Kripke

So this is where a lot of people are getting fodder to take shots at the writers, saying that Jensen hated it from the beginning, but I don’t think so.  I actually think I know what Jensen went to him about, and it wasn’t the lack of Cas or the weird pacing or the montages (which I don’t think were there when Jensen got the script); I think it was the manner of Dean’s death.

I know a lot of people were upset about that, upset with how...normal it was, coming off an episode where they literally beat God.  I actually didn’t mind it, I thought it was an interesting thematic take to be like: you can be a hero all your life, but sometimes shit happens, and you just die.

But imagine how hard that was for Jensen to read.  He would run to Kripke for that, because for him, Dean dying by being impaled by a piece of rebar had to be tough to swallow.

So, why didn’t Kripke say that?  Why didn’t he say, “oh well he had a problem with Dean’s death, none of that other stuff was in the script.”

Guys.  Why would he get involved?  He’s not going to burn bridges any more than anyone else is.  He said the ending was good because it’s the easy thing to do, it’s simple, will cause him no problems in his career, and he can just ignore the people trying to engage with him on it.

Walker

Something else to talk about is the major shift this episode had from the rest of the season: the shift from Dean to Sam.  I am NOT saying that Sam isn’t important, he definitely, absolutely is, but it was DEAN who really needed to wrap up his arc, Sam just needed to move on, get married to Eileen, become the leader he was always meant to.  So what changed?  What was with the shirtless scene, the Austin number and random case there, most of the episode being heavily Sam focused, going through his entire life in a montage?

Anyone else notice the 375 Walker promos, or Jared’s little spiel about Walker and how he hoped SPN fans would “come along for the ride.”

It’s...kinda obvious?  CW wanted to appeal to who they think the key demographic of SPN and Walker is: rural areas in the South.  It would explain a lot, why so much editing, why so Sam focused, the Austin number, the number of Walker promos, all of it.

I’m not saying this is fact, I don’t know that it is, but it is a little suspicious that even in Jared’s panel today, he talked A LOT about Walker and how he hopes SPN fans will watch it.

Why Would the Network Get Involved?

Simply put: $$$

If they think Walker can be the new SPN, and that those crazy SPN fans liked it originally, it’s a lot safer to go with the “original intent” of the show than do something risky (like making one of your two original leads queer).

And?  They don’t care.  They don’t care that the episode didn’t make sense, they don’t care that all the emotional arcs were left hanging, they don’t care by (potentially) smashing together two of Dean’s monologues (one to Sam, one to Cas) that it came of as...gross. ( @curioussubjects​ wrote a beautiful post showing how part of that death speech was likely meant for Dean here).  They don’t care, they never have, they just want to make their money and move on from the too-loud fandom that fought for representation too hard for too long.

It can’t help but feel insidious, which, honestly, it might be, but it really all comes down to the next cash cow, which, they think, is Walker, even at the cost of the fifteen year legacy show.

The Writers and What I Want

So here it is, all this weird, sus shit laid out on the line.  And you know what?  To me, there is no way to blame the writers, because they didn’t want this.

I don’t think Dabb and Bobo would have gone ahead with the confession in 18 without thinking that there would be some closure to that arc, they wouldn’t have done that not only to the fans, but for the sake of their own story as well: no writer wants to start something that they can’t finish. (And this applies to both Cas and Eileen).

Here’s a basic rundown of what I think happened: they had a clear arc from 18-20, ending in reciprocation at some level from Dean, Sam marrying Eileen, Hunter Sam as the new Bobby, Dean in heaven with Cas and big roadhouse reunion at the end. Covid prevented a good amount of that. Network had to stare at big gay 18 for six months, got cold feet. Thought about Walker, target audience and alienation of the rural areas if it went full gay. Misha quarantined and likely shot something (not much), he was then cut by execs and went home. They likely added in lines referencing Eileen and Cas to make it clear but more subtextual. They wrap, editing gets it and hacks it to pieces, so we get a shorter episode that’s mostly montages and jarringly bro-centric with nothing else. Arcs are left hanging. Dabb gets episode but it’s too late, there’s nothing he can do. Actors aren’t told so they can continue to do positive PR for the ending, they all found out at the same time we did: hence almost complete silence about the finale.

And you know what?  They warned us.  I talked about it here, but they’ve been telling us all season that Chuck wasn’t the writer, he’s the network.  I don’t think, still, that they thought it would be cut up like this, into something so unsalvageable that it’s been panned by almost everyone, even people who didn’t care much about Dean and Cas.

Finally, a masterpiece can be ruined by editing, and while I’m not sure even the script they ended up shooting on was a masterpiece (due to the network meddling already), but to me it’s blatantly obvious that it’s no one but the network that caused this, that took away closure for Dean, Cas, and even Sam.

So what do I want?  Nothing really, there’s nothing we can do, but I wrote this mostly to show people that the writers are not your enemy.   In fact, to the people trashing them?  You’re doing exactly what the CW wants you to: blame the obvious targets, blame Misha, blame Jensen and Jared, blame Dabb.  Scream and yell at them on Twitter and about how the show is ruined because of them.  The network keeps their engagement levels high, they don’t get as targeted for their behavior, and just keep moving along.

Just, please, think about who did this,  Mourn the show, be angry, but not at the people who fought tooth and nail for this for literal years, not the people who wanted it more than we did, not the people who cannot say anything because of their careers and the NDAs they’re bound by.

Someone is going to spill eventually, but until then, we just have to wait, and continue to be loud.

[flyingfish1]

the true antagonist of the Dabb era

Agent Camp: I don’t believe in torture. Doesn’t work…. You know what does work, though? Every time? Nothing. See, when I leave, that door closes. And it stays closed. And you stay in the dark. Now, maybe that doesn’t sound so bad. But after a month? A year? You spend enough time staring at these walls, just you with all that nothing, you’ll get so crazy to talk – to see someone real – you’ll tell me exactly what I need. -12x09 (Andrew Dabb)

Dean: We were already dead. Being locked in that cell – with nothing – I’ve been to Hell. This was worse. -12x09 (Andrew Dabb)

Cas [about being in the Empty]: It’s like – nothing. -13x06

The Empty [to Jack]: You ready to go? Cas: You stay away from him. The Empty: Castiel, you know how this goes – the good souls here, the bad souls there. The angels are mine…. I'm taking him. [To Jack] And where I'm taking you is worse than Hell, because at least Hell is something. -14x08

Ruby: Why do they call this place the Empty? This place is full. It's full of sorrow and despair playing over and over again, of angels and demons dreaming about their regrets. Forever.   -15x13

Chuck: Picture it. The two of you, your little lapdog Jack, rotting on a lifeless planet. Knowing it’s this way because you wouldn’t take a knee. Eternal shame, suffering, and loneliness. -15x19

Nothingness. Isolation. An eternity of loneliness, lifelessness, regret, despair. Nothing and no one around you that’s real. “Just you with all that nothing.”

The Empty.

It’s the thing that’s been lurking in the background of the story for the entire Dabb era. Sometimes appearing as itself, and sometimes appearing metaphorically as a human-made prison or a God-made desolate world. (But even as itself, it’s a metaphor, isn’t it?)

It’s the one antagonist they haven’t dealt with yet.

It’s the thing that has Cas.

And it’s the thing that represents the lack of everything they want and need most in their lives: Connection. Community. Love. Reality. Happiness. Hope.

And they are going to defeat it, and they are finally going to seize their happy endings.

[teamfreewill2pointo]

Family Don't End with Blood Transcription

Family Don't End with Blood Transcription [twitter version]

Jared: So, in Supernatural, our character Bobby Singer played by the wonderful Jim Beaver has a quote, “family don't end in blood”. 

Jensen: You know, it's one of the many, kind of, mottos of-of Supernatural and it is the family that you choose and it is the people that you care about and that you fight next to and that you fight to save. And that inspire you. And that push you. 

Singer: No, I think definitely the family was going to be a theme right from the beginning. I mean the Pilot story was and- and whatever the mythology of season one was- was, you know, the search for dad. 

Dabb: You'll watch the first few moments of the Pilot and it very clearly plants this flag about what it is. It is a family show.

Misha: Like who's your clan and who are the people you care about the most? And obviously, two orphaned brothers couldn't care about anything in the world more than one another, but they envelop this community of people who also care about them and one another. Alex: Sam and Dean and Cas and Jack and these host of characters are kind of... with loss forced to reassess what family is, and what I love about the show is they kind of build their own version of that.

Jared: There's so many characters along the way that Sam and Dean treated as they would treat each other. Dabb: I think that was a core part of this, because Sam and Dean are two guys that, because they define everything by family, they're always looking for a family. 

Jared: You know, not everybody out there has a wonderful family life as far as their- their blood relatives.

Dabb: Sam and Dean come from a very dysfunctional family. Their father suffered this great, you know, world shattering tragedy and really spent the entire rest of his life trying to get revenge. And unfortunately, Sam and Dean came second to that.

Dabb: So when they got to be an adult, and I think a lot of people that come from dysfunctional families find this... is it becomes less about the family you're born into and it becomes about your family by choice. 

Jensen: When you find someone that's willing to fight alongside you for what you collectively believe is the right thing, then it instantly makes you brothers and sisters in arms. And that's exactly what these two brothers found. They found other brothers and sisters in arms.

Singer: Bobby really served as a, you know, a father figure. One thing we always tried to do is that if we had a guest character that really kind of hit the mark, we would say oh, you know, we got to keep going with this- with this person. Bobby, that, character is certainly one of them. 

Beaver: If you're walking the walk, and not just talking the talk, I think probably respects that immensely and- and he sees that in Sam and Dean. 

Buckner: Crowley, Charlie, Jack, Rowena... all these people had a commonality. I mean, they were all alone in their own little universes to a- to an extent. 

Singer: When Misha showed up... and created the- the Castiel character, we knew we had something special. 

Misha: It's been such an interesting arc with the character of Castiel on Supernatural.

Jensen: You know sure the story at the core was- was about these brothers, but it was also about this- this ragtag gang of fighters. 

Samantha Smith: Most hunters are solitary. It’s lonely. And, when they can connect with other people who understand their pain and their life and their dedication and their purpose, there's going to be a bond there.

Jensen: I'm thankful for, not only the characters and how they were written and how they affected the Winchester's, but also for the actors and actresses that have portrayed them, because they too have become family with Jared and I. And they are- they're part of this crazy circus that is supernatural.

Dabb: Jared and Jensen are both excellent actors, but I think their biggest achievement on this show is the example they were able to set for everybody. And you know, it's kind of a famous story, but Eric Kripke sat them down, you know, the first season we're like, “This is your show. You guys set the tone of this show.”

Kripke: They're bringing so much more to it than I ever could have written, in their grounding it and they're making it real. And it's clear you watch these guys, and they're smart guys, going through this story and I'm-I’m thrilled.

Dabb: Both Jared and Jensen are capable of carrying a show on their own. As they now will go off and do, I'm sure. The fact that we could get them together for this period of time- again, I don’t know that’s something you are going to repeat on a TV show for a while.

Buckner: They-they really are quite incredible. Jensen learned to tap dance for an episode... I keep hearing the phrase “once in a lifetime” and probably so. 

Dabb: To get two guys at this caliber who are leading men to come in and do that job into it so well, and so thoughtfully- again I-I said it earlier, but I don't think I'm gonna find that again in my career.

Jensen: That's the crazy thing about being on a show this long and- and not just being on a show this long, but being with a large- a large majority of our crew has been with us either from the beginning 15 years or they've been with us 12 years, or 10 years, or eight years. 

Jensen: That's a long, long time for these professionals to be in one- to be on one job. 

Singer: Our set was always loose. The crew felt part of the family. They were in on the joke. The guys were always great to the crew, had great respect for the crew.

Sheppard: Truly great people all at the peak of their abilities. Some great, great wonderful writers, some extraordinary producers over the years, the various showrunners from Kripke at the beginning, to Sera, to- to Jeremy, to Andrew. It's been an amazing journey. 

Misha: I've just been both grateful and inspired to be around a crew like this. We laugh so much and I-I know that Jared and Jensen and the producers all agree, we wouldn't be here if the crew of Supernatural wasn't the crew that it is.

Alex Calvert: I came into this show relatively late compared to everybody else.

The relationships that I've seen at work and away from work are incredible. People have started families. People have had kids on the show. You know, I think these people are-are gonna be in each other's lives forever because of this bond that they formed. 

Dabb: This is a show where assistants have gone on to write scripts. 

This is a show where crew people have gone on to direct. It's a show that has tried to be supportive to people who show that passion and that work ethic to get up there and do it. I certainly have felt supported. I mean, I-I went from a staff writer to running the show and you know, so obviously I felt very supported (laughs) in kind of my goals.

Jared: You know, I've-I’ve met my wife, mother of my kids. I met one of my groomsmen. I met a ton of dear friends, and I have a new extended family, our SPN family.

Jared: I'm honored and flattered and grateful that I got to be a part of that journey. 

Alex: I think the- the overwhelming thing that I'd like to express for me and I think for a lot of people on the show that maybe don't get a say, which I want to represent, is the crew and the people that build the show and paint the show. 

Alex: You know, costume to show and- and are here everyday working on it. I think a lot of it is just gratitude and thankfulness that- that we get to do what we do. 

Dabb: On the writing side of it here in Burbank, that's always felt like there's a family atmosphere. I feel it's a great gift where we work with so many people that are both talented and professional. 

Buckner: They- a lot of laughter in that room. I remember a tabletop strewn with toys, and play-dough, and slinkies, and etcha-a-sketches, and blocks that got played with endlessly. I know there's a whole wall covered with index cards with various, either funny, pointless, or stupid, things that the writers have said over the course of many, many, many meetings that's tacked up on a wall. And remember just a lot of give and take and a lot of feelings of safety in that room. It was maybe the largest production office I've worked in. The tiki bar in the middle of the office, always laid out with cakes or whatever for birthdays. 

Eugenie: We were a community. We were a brotherhood. We were a sisterhood. And, that kind of was the way everything was run. 

Buckner: One of the writers I remember once, had major surgery and had to come to work in sweats, a really loose fitting stuff. So a lot of the writers showed up in PJs as a-as a sort of show of solidarity. So there's just lots of ways that people supported each other. 

Dabb: And I just feel incredibly lucky to have worked with, number one with Bob Singer because I've worked with him for 15 years now. It has been the most rewarding... partnership, mentorship, whatever you want to call it, of my professional life. In terms of being able to learn from him. 

Jared: His involvement in the series was so necessary from day one. He can walk on set, look at me, not really saying anything, just give me a face, and I'm like got it. And that's built over time.

Singer: I come in with a plan, but it's not chipped in stone and then, you know, lots of times, you know, the guys would have ideas. Sometimes I would accept them readily. Sometimes, we had to talk about them, but there was always this mutual respect. 

Jensen: He has been just this... Yoda character for our show. I call him my confident captain. He's just- he's been- he's been the real compass of this- of the show for so long.

We have come together in times of crisis. We've lost several of our crew members. We lost Yap. We lost Matt Riley. We lost Kim Manners in Season 4. 

Singer: Kim was a great guy and a great director. Everybody responded to his talent but also to who he was. 

Jared: He used to say, you know, we're not curing cancer, and I spend more time with you than I do my wife, my kids, my dogs. So, if we're not having a good time, then what are we doing? 

And so we tried to make sure that we kept it light and that we all realized like hey, we're putting on makeup and playing pretend for a living. 

Sheppard: I came into a couple of episodes, with a show that Kim Manners told me I really needed to do someday because I would really enjoy it and I'd love the boys. And he was right. He was absolutely right. 

Singer: The hardest part of season four was- was losing Kim. And I think the… the best thing we could say about losing Kim was that we never replaced him. I didn't feel like anyone should have that job other than- than Kim. So, you know, that was hard.

Jensen: I'm not quite sure when the-the phrase was coined, but the SPN family, as the- the fandom is- is lovingly known as. What we are on set as a crew is now reflected in- in what we see as a fandom. 

Misha: The SPN family, Supernatural family. I've seen so many instances of people gathering together to go support a Supernatural fan.

Misha: It's so lovely and inspiring and I-I-I honestly, you know, hope that that could serve as a template for how greater society works.

Buckner: When these guys were feeling for each other, or for other characters, or when they were afraid, or, you know, when they loved somebody, it just radiated off the screen, and the fans really picked up on that. 

Jared: I know several of the fans personally and care about them deeply. And it's neat to talk about a shared passion. Man, I love Supernatural too. Like, I love the storyline too. I like that episode too. Like let's talk about it. 

Jensen: We have this unique situation with our show where we're able to do these fan conventions and we do them quite often and it gives us an opportunity to get in front of a lot of these people and have honest real conversations with them face-to-face. And that's, in my opinion, that's helped shape the show. 

Buckner: And this is not just limited to the United States. It's a worldwide thing. I mean, there are these conventions held, you know, everywhere in the world. 

Eugenie: The fans are so polite. They're- they're very respectful of each other's appreciation of the same show they appreciate. It's like we're all in this together. 

Alex Calvert: I can tell you that the people that I've met and that have been affected by the show and the fans of the show will- will tell you a hundred times over that this is not the end, that this goes on forever.

Singer: They've bonded over this show. And-and have created their own Supernatural family. And have a tremendous respect for what we do, but respect for each other. 

Just a motivation of why we wanted to always keep the show going and keep it fresh was not to disappoint the fans. We certainly didn't want to disappoint them, because we didn't want to disappoint family members. 

Dabb: There's nothing I won't miss. This has been, creatively speaking, an incredible gift.

Buckner: Just be able to go to work and have that kind of freedom and not dread going into a place. 

Jensen: We love the show. We love the story.

We love these characters. We love the- we love the people that we make this show with. I hope and I believe that that translates on camera.

Eugenie: You know, there's always reruns. I'll always be able to see Sam and Dean. 

Alex Calvert: I think everybody loves that- that Sam and Dean, you know, can go through hell together literally, and give each other a big hug at the end of it and know that they're gonna be alright because they have each other. I think that's a really beautiful concept of the show.

Singer: That bond is really, I think, you know, the heart and soulless show, and what gave us the longevity that we had. 

Misha: I also genuinely hope that the supernatural family is something that carries on past the end of the shooting of the show. I hope we can continue collectively to do good in the world and to set a good example and to be a family to one another. 

Jared: Sam and Dean, much like Jared and Jensen, over the course of Supernatural were allowed to add many members to their family, and they would do anything for their family members and vice versa. This world and this journey isn't just about fighting for yourself or fighting for somebody that it'll- it'll benefit you. It's not about the glory. It's about doing what's right and taking care of good people. And I think Supernatural from day one has been able to accomplish that. [Huge thanks to Kira who helped me clean this up!!]

End of the Road Special Transcription Winchester Mythology Transcription

[shirtlesssammy]

2x13: Houses of the Holy

Providence, Rhode Island

A woman sits in the dark, smoking cigarettes, and watching TV.

The lights start to flicker and the television flickers back to an evangelical preaching. Her house starts shaking and her angel statues start falling. There’s suddenly a bright light and the woman watches it in awe. 

Sam Winchester, decked out in white scrubs, greets his patient, Gloria. Sam wants to talk to her about what she saw that night. Gloria tells him that she stabbed a man in the heart “because it was God’s will.” Sam wants to know if God talked to her (too busy fucking with your life, Sam) but she says no and that an angel came to her. The angel told her that the man she stabbed was guilty. She needed no other proof to do it. 

Sam later finds Dean enjoying some music and magic fingers. 

Dean’s on lockdown because he robbed a bank in Milwaukee. They discuss the case. It really seems that Gloria is just a religious nutjob. And Sam would agree if she wasn’t the second person in town to have murdered someone because an angel told them to. “Supernatural maybe. But angels? I don't think so,” Dean insists. BLESS. 

They then have a very fun conversation about how unicorns don’t exist (And Truly, BLESS Andrew Dabb. This dude took this one off joke and made it reality.) In any event, Dean firmly doesn’t believe in angels. (In a far off voice I hear: This is your problem, Dean. You have no faith.) 

Once they stop arguing about angels, they decide to check out the victim, Carl’s place. They head to the basement to see what secrets he had hidden. 

Sam finds scratch marks on the wall. On a closer inspection, he also finds a fingernail. They start digging up the dirt floor and find a skeleton. 

In a lonely apartment, a man lays on his bed, drinking himself to oblivion. His lights start flickering and the room starts shaking. Suddenly there’s a bright light.

Cut to the man, Zach, walking to another house and stabbing a dude right in the gut. 

Dean’s listening to the police scanner when Sam walks back to the motel room with food. He also has news that three people disappeared from the library where Carl worked. Dean has other news --the not-angel struck again. 

They head out to the victim’s house and sneak inside. Sam hacks into the dude’s computer and Dean browses his catalog collection. Sam finds locked emails that turn out to be to an underage girl. 

Dean is baffled by this spirit or demon they’re dealing with. Sam points out it’s like an avenging angel. Oh, Sam, if you only knew angels are dicks. Dean connects the two victims --they both go to the same church. 

They meet with the priest posing as new parishioners. They discuss this whole angel crap but the priest is a believer (obv.) and talks openly with Sam about what angels are thought to be like. They look at a painting of Michael, the archangel, while the priest describes his belief that they’re “more loving, than wrathful.” 

As they’re leaving, Dean notices a memorial on the steps of the church. It’s for Father Gregory, who was shot there two months prior in a carjacking. Dean thinks they’re dealing with a vengeful spirit, but Sam still humors the angel aspect of it all. Dean knows that Sam prays everyday (and I sit weeping in the corner, thinking of Purgatory.)

An angel statue begins to quake. Sam looks at it with curiosity, only to be overtaken by awe as bright light suffuses the room. He passes out. 

“I saw an angel,” Sam gasps to his brother later. He reports that the angel spoke to him and told him to kill a man. The kicker is, the doomed guy on Sam’s hit list hasn’t actually committed any crime...yet. Dean’s unimpressed by Sam “Minority Report” Winchester’s insistence that he’s been chosen by the angels and God for this mission. I give Dean a high five, then methodically throw rocks through every single one of my windows as I think about the next thirteen seasons. 

Their mom used to tell them every night that angels were watching over them. “She was wrong,” Dean says bitterly, “There’s no higher power. There’s no God. There’s just chaos. Violence. Random unpredictable evil that comes outta nowhere. Rips you to shreds. You want me to believe in this stuff? I’m gonna need to see some hard proof.” (I gallantly resist making a dirty joke about Castiel’s “hard proof.”) 

Ahem. Anyway, Dean’s solid on the ghost theory. At the priest’s crypt they find wormwood growing - it’s a sign of a restless spirit. LOLLLL early seasons. Sam agrees to hold a seance. 

They head out of a corner grocery a little while later, stocked with SpongeBob mats and candles for the seance, when Sam sees THE SIGN. Light glows around his mark - the guy he’s supposed to kill. While Ace of Base plays in my head, Sam makes a move  to kill - er, stop - the ghost-tagged perp. Looking to forestall Sam’s murder-to-be, Dean tells Sam to run the seance and tails Sam’s suspect on his own. Dean watches the guy pick up a date, and then they’re off again.

Meanwhile, Sam’s obediently running the seance.

The priest appears in the crypt, horrified to see what looks like THE VERY DEVIL WORSHIP taking place. “I can explain,” Sam says before utterly failing to explain anything. And then light fills the room. The priest wonders if it’s an angel, but Sam sorrowfully notes that it’s only Father Gregory’s ghost. 

The glowing angelic vision suddenly distills into a normal human figure. Father Gregory wonders why Sam isn’t killing his marked man. After all, he’s an angel and he commanded it! Sam glumly explains that NO, Father Gregory is just a normal ectoplasm-slinging ghost. 

Dean loses the trail of the marked man, while Father Gregory explains that his kill orders are redemption for the killers and every one of his marks is guilty. “This is vengeance. This is wrong,” the older priest declares and I look VERY HARD at the rest of the show. 

Meanwhile, the guy Dean was tailing parks his car in an abandoned alley and attempts to attack his date. JAB HIM IN THE EYEBALLS, LADY! Dean bashes his head in just in time and saves the date. The guy drives off and Dean follows quickly on his tail.

The old priest offers last rites to Father Gregory, who begins to flicker. 

Sam watches in full puppy eyed mode as Father Gregory disappears, presumably to high five ghosts in Heaven. 

Dean chases the Bad Guy through the streets until a truck pulls out in front of Bad Guy’s car. A metal pole bounces off the truck, pierces the windshield, and impales the guy right in the chest. 

Later, Sam morosely packs his bag back at the motel. 

For What the Fuck is this Motel Room Design Science:

Sam’s sad that there wasn’t an angel watching out for people on Earth. Dean pulls out his flask, takes a big swig, and promises to watch out for Sam. “You’re just one person,” Sam tells him. He’d hoped there was a higher power guiding their lives. One who’d grant Sam salvation. 

“Knocking on Heaven’s Door” starts to play, while Dean confesses his current emotional state. He proposes that the insane way the Bad Guy died MIGHT have been God’s will. I kick Chuck right in the nuts. 

Quakin’ Quotes:

Aw, dammit! That was my last quarter. Hey! You got any quarters?

There's a ton of lore on unicorns too. In fact, I hear that they ride on silver moonbeams and they shoot rainbows out of their ass

You’ve got faith. I’m sure it makes things easier

One of the perks of the job. We don’t need to operate on faith

Men cannot be angels

There’s so much evil in the world, Dean. I feel like I could drown in it.

 Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[mittensmorgul]

hey mittens! i know you’ve written off the finale at this point (and haven’t we all), but i was just wondering: do we know whose idea it was to have kripke co-write that ep? because like, in hindsight, that was...a choice, and i’ve been thinking that might explain SOME of the weirdness of that ep (emphasis on SOME because uh. i really do think that some of the cringiest details didn’t come from writers at all). anyway—thoughts?

I don’t think Kripke had anything to do with writing the final ep. It just... felt like a Kripke ep, and I’m starting to think that Dabb did that intentionally. He’s the most meta writer the show might’ve ever had, and in refusing to allow Sam and Dean to live out past their ultimate victory, in choosing to “force an ending” on the characters instead of leaving their world “open” with no concrete ending, he succeeded at the task that Chuck- as Kripke’s avatar in the original story of Supernatural-- had failed to do.

Dabb, in a very real sense, is the one who “ended the story of Supernatural.” He wanted to bring it full circle, to “close the universe” and make it “reboot-proof.” This is something he’s talked about going back as far as SDCC 2019, and many of us had hoped that would mean something “better” than what Chuck wanted for the Winchesters, and for Cas.

I was hoping, and watching the show for the last few years under the assumption that Dabb’s in-story avatar was more a combination of different characters. At first, Billie, who started as a reaper but was elevated to the role of Death (like Dabb himself started as a writer who became more important to the telling of the tale, and eventually became the final showrunner who would eventually reap the show in the end, as it were).

After Jack’s introduction, I wondered if he was going to “grow into the role” of the Authorial Avatar. After all, he served as a mirror for all three other characters, reflecting their stories back at them and allowing them to process their own emotional and psychological issues by helping Jack through them. I wrote long ago, back in s13, how this enabled TFW to sort of graduate from student to master, in the martial arts sense of the word, because one truly only completes learning a thing through the process of teaching others.

And then the Empty became involved as an actual being that manifested through the identities of others, and didn’t really have its own identity other than “I need to sleep, stop disturbing me!” which... felt like it might’ve become relevant when Jack’s power was able to break through into its realm.

Then these three beings began plotting the final overthrow of the Original Author. One laid claim to the lives of Sam and Dean (Billie), one laid claim to Castiel (the Empty). We watched Jack-- the incarnation of “balance” and the vehicle through which the show demonstrated what the human soul’s function is, what the function of angelic grace WITHOUT a human soul’s function is, and what Jack as a whole being with both actually is, as he fully came to his own understanding of what humanity, human love, and the responsibility and function of cosmic power and balance is within himself.

I never doubted (especially after he consumed Michael’s grace and made that power his own) that Jack’s function would be as the ultimate role that Chuck had been trying to force on Dean since s11-- “the firewall between light and darkness.” That Jack would be the crucible to fully unite the power embodied in Amara and Chuck. Chuck’s ending was about as poetic as it gets, and I 100% appreciate Jack’s “end” in the narrative that isn’t really an end for him, because the story also implied that Chuck’s original “problem” stemmed from his wanting to give himself an ego and play with his own creation like so many tinkertoys, to force his will on a universe he created to be ruled by the will of others. 

The ultimate act of Team Free Will left Chuck fully human and an effectively blank book, with no power to force anyone else to play his games. Excellent, right? Poetic even!

But the story wasn’t really over, because in our world, there was one more episode, a coda fic if you will. And all of the characters I’d associated with Dabb-as-avatar were... rendered mute. Billie was dead or dying in the Empty, Jack came into his full power and had already healed the universe, implying that the Empty’s conditions were fulfilled and could finally go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, Chuck’s Book, while appearing blank, still contained all the words. Only Death could read them, and as far as we know, nobody in that universe had ascended to that role. But in our universe, we know that’s Dabb’s function in the narrative. What sort of ending could he write?

Most of us hoped that it would be a “once more, with feeling” sort of “you can finally lay down your arms and make a new life for yourself” ending. Many of us were baffled first off that Jack wouldn’t have brought Cas back from the Empty to Earth. We never really had a satisfactory explanation in canon of what happened there. Was Cas actually dead? What function does he have if he’s in Heaven? Has he been relegated to a role of duty and service as punishment for daring to yearn for human things? It just... it felt like the final stab from a story that had just told us that he truly has been the one disrupting for in Chuck’s story, that he was something that Chuck could never force out of the story or control, who demonstrated free will and learned to love humanity because of Dean, and yet doomed to never have that for himself. Most of us felt that line in 15.18 deserved subversion in the aftermath, and yet we never even get concrete confirmation that he’s even really alive in the same way he was before. It’s... what Chuck always wanted for Cas, to shunt him out of the story and render him powerless and plotless.

What did Chuck want for Sam and Dean? What story did he force them into over and over again? One of them tragically dead and the other miserable and mourning. He wrote billions of iterations of this exact story, over and over throughout billions of universes created for the sole purpose of doing exactly this to every incarnation of Sam and Dean he possibly could. Most of us hoped this might be the ONE universe where that was subverted, like it was the ONE universe where Castiel refused to fall in line with Heaven’s orders and plans. But nope, Dean died tragically (almost immediately after saying in canon that the only way they could honor Cas and Jack’s sacrifices for them was to keep living), and Sam lived a rather bleak and hollow life where the only thing we know he did was to raise a son named for his dead brother.

Chuck would’ve been freaking DELIGHTED!

Which... brings us to Heaven... where we get the vague hint that Cas “helped” Jack “knock down the walls” and make it a paradise that Dean would love and feel rewarded by. We never actually find out what role Cas played in that, or if he was also there in some capacity. But how I’ve always personally understood Heaven as it was in Chuck’s creation, was as a self-sustaining and ever expanding Destiny Generator, like a power generator or a giant battery where each Heaven Cubicle functioned as a cell. The show itself has been using the soul-as-power-source for ages (it was pretty much the running theme of s6-- it’s the souls!-- and this theme was returned in force in s11, culminating in the “soul bomb” plot of (gasp!) Andrew Dabb’s season finale.

Heaven was beginning to break down as a “machine” and a power generator not for lack of human souls, but for lack of angels to maintain the structure of heaven itself. In one of his first episodes, Cas even described the function of angels as being “agents of fate.” Their sole role was to literally “hold Chuck’s narrative together.” Metaphorically in the story-- in the original Apocalypse as the guides who tried to force Sam and Dean into the roles they were destined for-- as well as metaphorically in Heaven which was the “battery” that gave the angels their power in the first place. Remember what happened to Cas when he has been “cut off from Heaven” and began to lose his powers.

So the way I’d always understood the function of Heaven in Chuck’s story was exactly that. Without Chuck’s narrative, the walls would fall and the paradise Jack’s birth heralded would come to fruition THERE. Because as long as there is life, and free will, and more than one person on EARTH, that sort of paradise is an impossible dream. We’re seeing that exemplified now in real life, actually, with people claiming their rights and freedoms are being infringed upon by being asked to wear a mask and limit their social interactions to prevent the spread of a deadly virus. Does their “freedom” override the “freedom” of others who would prefer to remain alive and not infected by a virus that could kill them? It’s an impossible balance, because true freedom cannon exist in life without compromise and sacrifice.

Which brings us to Dean, and his essential humanity, which had been exemplified in his selfless love of humanity so strong that he became a cosmic disrupting force of his own by simply refusing to let Chuck’s story defeat him. He struggled with this throughout s15 as Chuck told him that his life had never truly been his own, and that he’d always been a character in a bigger story. He’d finally begun to feel at peace with who he was, with the family he’d made for himself, and everything and every experience he’d endured that had shaped him into the person he’d become, and Chuck’s revelation led him to doubt everything. In the end, he was finally able to see what truly DID matter, what really WAS real (thank you to 15.17 for confirming that Cas was one of those things that Chuck had also never intended to be part of his story, and that Cas truly had always chosen Dean freely, because his doubt of Cas was one of the main things hurting Dean in s15, epitomized in his crisis in 15.09 in Purgatory). So the fact that Cas was not “allowed” to come back to Dean afterward feels... punitive. The fact that Dean was not “allowed” to actually experience a real human life on the Earth he’d devoted his entire life to saving, the fact that Sam was never able to achieve peace and happiness in a life he’d struggled to find balance between a destiny he’d never wanted and a normalcy that had been merely performative for decades because shoving the majority of his life experience down to play at being “normal” was never truly possible, and required truly accepting all of himself to actually free himself from the half-life we saw him live after Dean’s death... all of that just... it’s exactly what Chuck would’ve wanted for all three of them.

And it’s depressing af, that when given the power to “end the story of Team Free Will,” Dabb chose to enact Chuck’s final draft, rather than handing blank books to these three to write their own lives. And it just looks like Kripke’s writing, because it kind of is his story. We just hoped it wasn’t, and that the final avatar of The Author in the story would be TFW themselves. But that was probably never meant to be. Because destiny is apparently still stronger than human free will, and isn’t that just depressing af.

[theartofangirling]

Andrew Dabb, I will fight you with my bare hands

EXT. OUTSIDE THE ROADHOUSE. DAY.

DEAN steps forward, looking around himself. The sun shines on green hilltops while birds sing; it’s almost too picturesque to be real.

DEAN (wryly) Well, at least I made it to Heaven.

BOBBY (offscreen) Yep.

Dean turns to see BOBBY sitting on a chair outside the Roadhouse.

DEAN What memory is this?

BOBBY (chuckles) It ain’t, ya idjit.

Dean isn’t buying it.

DEAN Yeah, it is. ‘Cause the last I heard, you...you were in Heaven’s lockup.

BOBBY Was. Now I’m not.

Dean looks at him, confused, and sits down in the seat beside Bobby.

BOBBY That kid of yours made some changes here. Busted my ass out. And then he, well, he set some things right. Tore down all the walls up here. Heaven ain’t just reliving your golden oldies anymore. It’s what it always should have been.

Dean continues to stare at him, frowning.

BOBBY Everyone happy, everyone together. It ain’t just Heaven, Dean. It’s the Heaven you deserve. And we’ve been waiting for you.

Dean takes a moment to process this.

DEAN “We”?

BOBBY (smiles) When I say everyone, I mean everyone.

For the first time, we—and Dean—hear the faint noise of voices and music coming from inside the Roadhouse. A smile starts to grow on Dean’s face.

BOBBY Well? What are you waiting for?

Keep reading

[according-to-the-laura]

StackedNatural Day 52: 7x08, 10x05, 11x06

StackedNatural Masterpost: [x]

November 11, 2011

7x08: Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!

Written by: Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin

Directed by: Tim Andrew

Original air date: November 11, 2011

Plot Synopsis:

Sam runs into Becky and they end up getting married. Dean finds it suspicious that Sam is falling for her and decides to investigate.

Features:

Garth and Dean team up, annual trip to Vegas, the nuptials of Sam and Becky, love potions, Wiccan demon, Becky kills a demon, the most disdainful portrayal of the fans that the writers have ever managed.

My Thoughts:

I was so desperately not looking forward to this episode that I ended up setting the bar very low and the show was actually able to step over it. For one, I didn’t remember this being the episode that Garth is introduced, and I adore Garth so that brings it up a few points. Also I think it’s funny that Leslie Odom Jr shows up to play a gay little crossroads demon.

Unfortunately Becky is the stand in for the show’s biggest fans, young women, and they make it very clear how they feel about us. I thought it was funny when she was using Sam as a prop to make herself look good at her high school reunion and I wish they had leaned into that a lot more rather than giving her such low self esteem that she attempts to commit sexual assault via date rape on the main character. Even with my mental editing skills for the Secret Good Supernatural that lives in my brain and the Ghostfacers Effect I can’t make Becky a respectful nod to the fans.

Mine and Nic @weedsinavacantlot’s theory is as follows: Andrew Dabb wrote this episode and the series finale, as well as showrunning the final season. This is the episode that Becky features in the most out of her run of episodes, so that connects her to Dabb pretty strongly. Davy Perez wrote Atomic Monsters in season 15 and used Dabb’s own character to warn us about what was coming in the finale. Is it an unhinged theory? Yes! But very fun to think about.

I love Garth but with this being his first episode they haven’t quite nailed his characterization yet, I do think it’s funny that they invent him basically to make fun of him and then he ends up taking over for Bobby and being a fan favourite side character. Kind of the same thing that Perez did for Becky in Atomic Monsters, actually. We’re connecting the dots here.

Add a rule to the Supernatural drinking game: Every time you think some white dude is Paul Rudd, take a drink.

Notable Lines:

“Ignoring everything, have you forgotten the average life-span of your hookups?”

Why do people keep thinking I'm threatening them?” “Because it sounded exactly like a threat, dude.”

“This isn't Wall Street! This is Hell! We have a little something called integrity.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 3.0

IMdB Rating: 8.0

10x05: Fan Fiction

Written by: Robbie Thompson

Directed by: Phil Sgriccia

Original air date: November 11, 2014

Plot Synopsis:

Sam and Dean investigate a haunting at a theatre.

Features:

Supernatural the high school musical, Calliope, exploding scarecrows mistaken for special effects, possibly the kindest portrayal of the fans that the writers have ever managed.

My Thoughts:

I watched this episode live when it first aired. We actually had a little mini party and had friends come over to watch with us because we all knew they were doing something special for the 200th episode. I remember loving it and thinking it was hysterical. And you know, it does stand up to that memory. There are a few moments that stress me out, but I’m extremely prone to secondhand embarrassment and that’s to be expected with basically any episode that gets a little meta.

The panic on Dean’s face when they walk into the auditorium is SO funny. But as Nic @weedsinavacantlot pointed out, he has a right: literally imagine walking into a room and someone starts playing a song about the foundational trauma of your life on the piano. Insane experience.

Jensen is hilarious this whole episode, actually. The way Dean’s brain turns completely off and he just starts yelling at high schoolers for their interpretation of the books is so funny. He’s just completely unable to rein it in.

The only thing wrong with this episode is that Cas isn’t in it. I spent this entire episode thinking about this fanart. I love that the play version of Cas almost gets their own little halo moment with the streetlights during their solo. And Dean flips their tie around so that it’s messed up the way Cas’ is. Too sweet.

We paused partway through this episode to watch the deleted scene where Dean calls himself a Deangirl and I love that for me. One of the Notable Lines below is from that deleted scene.

The Destiel scene is the best part of this episode (aside from the stunningly beautiful cover Carry On Waywayd Son). It is DEVASTATING for me that Sam saying “what about Sastiel” is the closest we ever get to seeing him make fun of Dean for having a crush.

Dean saying that he has his interpretation and Marie can have hers - Nic and I were cheering and basically throwing things at the screen because HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW THAT WE’RE GOING TO WIN RE:DESTIEL. I love that for us.

Notable Lines:

“The boy melodrama scene! You know, the scene where the boys get together, and they're-they're driving, or leaning against Baby. Drinking a beer, sharing their feelings.”

“I mean, shouldn't it be... Deastiel?”

“Family don’t end with blood, right?”

“honestly, the whole author inserting himself into the narrative thing, it's just not my favorite. I kind of hate the meta stories.”

“Supernatural has everything. Life. Death. Resurrection. Redemption. But above all, family. All set to music you can really tap your toe to. It isn't some meandering piece of genre dreck. It's... epic!”

“But underneath this broken mask / It is my father, with all his wrath”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 9.3

IMdB Rating: 9.5

11x06: Our Little World

Written by: Robert Berens

Directed by: John F. Showalter

Original air date: November 11, 2015

Plot Synopsis:

Castiel seeks out Metatron's help to stop the Darkness. However, Metatron is pretty happy with his new life as a freelance videographer for the local news and isn't inclined to help the Winchesters or Castiel.

Features:

Amara ages up and breaks curfew, the end of Cas’ binge watching, Cas’ PTSD, Crowley tries to parent, Metatron monologues while a man dies, Cas breaks into Metatron’s apartment, Amara saves Dean’s life, God’s sister.

My Thoughts:

This episode gets bonus points purely for having Cas in it because we missed him a lot these last couple days. It’s pretty good otherwise, although I do find that a lot of episodes that don’t have a monster of the week plot have pacing that feels a little off.

Cas’ arc in this episode is great for Casgirls* (*gnc) like Nic, who I was watching with, because they love to watch him being pathetic and he both has horrible PTSD flashbacks and gets microaggressed a bunch of times. I’ve never seen season 11 before this Stacked watch but Nic tells me that season 11 is Cas at his meow-meowest.

However Cas’ meow-meow arc is NOTHING to Crowley’s, who I firmly believe is actually the poorest little meow meow on the show. My man has been pining for Dean for multiple seasons and never gets to keep a win for more than a few episodes.

If you squint, there’s a fun parallel between Cas and Crowley in that they both learn to stand up to Dean because of their respective children. Granted, Crowley doesn’t actually care about Amara as a person, but it’s still kind of funny.

Nic had to pause during Sam’s fight scene because we were talking about how Sam’s plots almost never go anywhere in the later seasons (in regards to him trying to be a pacifist with the demons instead of killing them) because I said “this is the writing equivalent of getting hungry and going to the store but only getting a frozen pizza. Buy some ingredients!” and they laughed so hard they cried.

I don’t lov ethe way the Amara-Dean connection is written because it’s a little creepy, what with her being basically a teenager here, but I do think Jensen plays it more like he’s being hypnotized than like he feels an actual emotional or romantic attraction to her, and I appreciate that.

Notable Lines:

“Yeah, well, a man can't live on caviar alone, Dean.”

“I keep forgetting about you and Crowley's summer of love.”

“You are human now, and I could crush you like a bug.”

“Do you know how disturbing it was to realize that I couldn't bring myself to kill you? I've had tons of chances over the years, some you don't even know about, but, still… I made my peace with it, embraced my softer side, learned to accept that there was just too much going on between you and I-”

“I am sick of having my strings pulled.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 7.3

IMdB Rating: 8.5

In Conclusion: Absolutely galaxy-brained of Stacked to put Season Seven, Time for a Wedding and Fan Fiction together, and then tomorrow we have The Real Ghostbusters to complete the trifecta.

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[what-do-1000-swords-look-like]

More proof in the pudding for 15x20 breaking the fourth wall theory

I kind of already discussed this theory on this post here but in going over the last two seasons of GoT to add to this dark!Dany meta I’ve got going, I noticed something that I think is worth taking a look at.

GoT 8x06:

We all remember what happens after this weighted ominous walk of Jon’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XhfGY5pIPg&t=254s

“When I was a girl, my brother told me it was made from a thousand swords of Aegon’s fallen enemies. What do a thousand swords look like in the mind of a little girl who can’t count twenty? I imagined a mountain of swords too high to climb. So many fallen enemies, you could only see the soles of Aegon’s feet.” “This is our reason. It has been from the beginning since you were a little boy with a bastard’s name and I was a little girl who couldn’t count to twenty.” “You are my queen, now and always.” -- this is dialogue meant to call back to the Dany the audience has known since season 1 - this was done in an effort to keep her character sympathetic to the end but it’s problematic since she just torched an entire city that held a million innocent people, and it completely negates the true moral of her story - her brother is mentioned who we haven’t seen since season 1, who by all means is not a good influence or a hero in this story but in this last season, she has started to embrace the Targaryen side of things (that we’ve seen reflected in her wardrobe, I see you Michele Clapton, you brilliant woman, you) - the dialogue even invokes season 1 Jon in that one line, though obviously the focus is not on Jon but Dany herself - Jon who had just been acting as the audience mouthpiece in the jail scene with Tyrion (acting as the writers’ mouthpiece - again breaking the 4th wall), saying “You are my queen, now and always”, something the split audience (the ones who felt betrayed by Dany’s dark turn and still stan her to this day) keep saying - yes “now and always” was a common saying in the North, but this wording is purposeful as is this piece of dialogue for essentially what is Dany’s death scene, the most controversial death to come out of this episode, the end of this series I would even argue

15x20:

We all remember Dean’s monologue that took close to 10 mins to happen as he was “fading pretty quick”, so much so that Sam couldn’t call for help

undefined

“There’s a few things that I need you to hear. Come here. Let me look at you. There he is. I am so proud of you, Sam. Do you know that? I’ve always looked up to you. Remember when we were kids, you were so damn smart, you never took any of Dad’s crap. I never knew how you did that. And you’re stronger than me. You always have been. Hey, did I ever tell you that night that, uh, that I came for you when you were at school? You know when Dad hadn’t come back from his hunting trip? The woman in white, that’s right. I must’ve stood outside your dorm for hours because I didn’t know what you would say. I thought you’d tell me to get lost or get dead and I didn’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t have you. ‘Cause I was so scared. I was scared. ‘Cause when it all came down to it, it was always you and me. It’s always been you and me.” “I can’t do this alone.” “Yes, you can.” “Well, I don’t want to.” “I love you so much. My baby brother.” -- notice anything...familiar? -- this is dialogue meant to call back to season 1, to the original audience that started out with the brothers in season 1, that may not have stuck with the show for all 15 seasons but maybe ducked back in for the finale just to see how the show chose to end the boys’ stories - John is mentioned who is not a good influence nor a hero in the story which the show has gone out of their way to show time and time again, despite 14x13 - this is the result of one of their dad’s old unfinished hunts from season 1 including the “villain” - Dean mentions events of the first episode when John hasn’t come back from an old hunt, when he goes to get Sam from school, the woman in white being their very first MOTW of the show, even the dialogue from that first episode where the lines are reversed and Dean tells Sam he doesn’t want to do it alone - the dialogue is meant to invoke nostalgia of that pilot and that time, that version of the boys’ stories, where it was Winchester only - Dean’s death (outside of Cas’) is one of the most controversial deaths to happen this episode, even this series (though it has a lot of problematic deaths, i.e. Charlie but I mean in the main character arena) - this was done to keep season 1, specifically the pilot, in the viewers’ minds and as a callback to the beginning of the show, the dialogue was very purposeful, it’s also no coincidence that Sam is the focus here and once Dean is finished telling him goodbye essentially, he looks away behind the camera and talks about how he didn’t think today was going to be the day but it is (which adds to the pudding even more, because this is later season Dean talking who did not want to die on a hunt and wanted something different for himself, season 1 Dean always knew he would die young on a hunt) 

And let us not forget this:

Andrew Dabb: “If you thought Game of Thrones was bad, just wait” (x) - this is said in a joking manner but where is it said? Comic Con 2019, the same Comic Con D&D canceled their appearances at & left the cast who did appear to deal with the fallout. This isn’t a man flipping off people and being like “Ha! Crybabies, we’re doing what we want to do and that’s that! Ha!” He said it in a joking manner when he talked about how only 30% of people would be pleased after seeing the finale and Jared joined the conversation. This is the same man who pushed hard along with Bobo Berens for a spinoff that featured women and women of color as well as having proper queer representation but got shut down by the network in the end. The same guy who worked to separate Dean and Sam from their toxic co-dependency and bolstered the found family theme in the narrative, while also taking the baton that Carver started with of Dean and Sam thinking of what they would actually want for their endings, and running with it, developing that even further. 

What did GoT have? 2 final seasons as it were. To be fair, season 7 cannot be considered an alternate ending, it had way too many open endings but here (x) it’s stated that D&D did want to end GoT with season 7 initially before being convinced by the network to go to 8. They wanted to move onto other projects (that never happened because they’re egotistical greedy idiots, but I digress)  and their rush to end the series showed. HBO wanted 10 seasons but they didn’t want to move forward without D&D. GRRM thought at least 13 seasons would be appropriate. 

What did SPN have? 2 finales. 15x19 is not only the finale that closes up the mytharc but also the found family finale. I’m not sure if they knew this ahead of time or found out last second (Misha’s line of “Cas’ ending was supposed to be different but I don’t think we’re supposed to talk about that” still haunts me), but ultimately, that’s how it worked out. 15x19 was for the later season fans, the found family, the mythology fans (meaning Heaven, Hell, angels, nephilim, Lucifer, Jack, etc). That’s why we get the huge montage of characters at the end of the episode, the initials on the table, Dean demanding Cas be brought back in the beginning of the episode and Lucifer’s phone call, Dean and Sam wanting Jack to come back to the bunker but he can’t, Dean and Sam driving off in Baby together with “Running On Empty” playing. 15x20 was the series finale for early season fans, Kripke fans, Winchester-only fans. That’s why there’s no big montage in the beginning of the SERIES FINALE that they had done every season premiere, every season finale, and every mid-season premiere. They didn’t want the found family (yes, including Cas and Jack) in the viewers’ minds. But they couldn’t remove those two characters from the narrative completely (they were too integral later on in the series plus later season fans are watching this too) so they get mentions. This is why the Carry On My Wayward Son twice, Sam married to Blurry Wife and having Dean Jr., the Winchester-only mantle, the MOTW that calls back to one of their big bads (vampires) in season 1 (outside of YED & any demonic forces), why the brothers-only ending. This is why Dean is all ‘Cas who?’, why Eileen disappeared, and why Jack is off shooting a new spot for Architectural Digest. They only wanted Sam and Dean on your minds in 15x20 with the extension of John, Mary, Rufus, Bobby, and Baby with a touch of the Roadhouse in the background. This is also why no pictures of Blurry Wife on the Winchester-only mantle either. This is why Sam’s son was named Dean. This is why after putting on the Party City wig, Sam goes to sit in Baby and cries, thinking of Dean.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: 15x20.👏 Was.👏 A.👏 Vehicle. It’s no coincidence that W*lker was more heavily promoted during 15x20 than any other time before. That what happens in 15x20 for Sam and Dean (and that Sam is once again the focus after having the story split between the brothers for years before) parallels somewhat to what happens in Jared’s new show and his character. This is the same network that uses its shows to backdoor pilots of spinoffs and other shows time and time again (think Green Arrow and The Canaries, Legacies, etc). It’s also no coincidence that W*lker is in the same time slot as SPN had been in, that they intersperse the use of #SPNFamily and #W*lkerFamily on Twitter, that the C*W SPN twitter account is used to steer followers to their other content, that the C*W YouTube account for SPN no longer has any clips or promos available for that show, almost as if it doesn’t exist. You know why? Simple, they don’t want SPN on your minds anymore. They want you watching W*lker and any other new content they are cooking up and throwing at you. Don’t be surprised if they start heavily promoting another new show (besides their returning ones) during W*lker episodes now. That’s just the name of the game, how it works. They already pushed the audience they wanted from 15x20 to W*lker and now SPN is an officially closed chapter for them. Dabb and the actors had other projects to move onto. In their minds, it’s done...until they try to reboot it in some way in a couple of years. And it will not only feature a younger generation of actors but will have what they consider to be appropriate queer representation as well as POC representation in the new cast. It may be the same Winchester story though changed or a whole new story in that universe. You laugh but watch. It’ll happen. This network is not known for its quality or originality, only for their brand. There’s a reason they keep on showrunners to head up new content if their original source of content works and they become “favorites” (i.e Julie Plec).

Ultimately, GoT was referenced many times on SPN, in dialogue between characters whether it applied or not. GoT was mentioned by the actors when discussing watching it, at cons and in interviews. SPN (and Dabb) was very well aware of GoT and what happened with that show. Not only because it was all over the media everywhere, being a pop culture phenomenon that had HUGE backlash, but also because they were there at the Comic Con where the backlash was felt strongest. To the point where even other people mentioned it in their panels (i.e. Seth Rogen). I’m obviously not in Dabb’s head nor was I on set when they filmed the finale or in the writers’ room with J2 and the writers when they pitched the ending so I don’t know. But isn’t it odd that 8x06 of GoT features a scene that has been confirmed by Kit Harington as breaking the 4th wall to speak to/get the viewers’ attention, make them think, and SPN is a show that has featured that same concept (usually in a comedic fashion) time and time again? And in 15x20 they have Robert Singer make an appearance? And the infamous bridge crew shot, J2 talking to you while still in costume as Sam and Dean from that same shot, and the voiceover “And cut” before it cuts to black? 

I don’t think we’ll ever really get answers. I think any we get will always be complimentary to the network, or “we can’t talk about it”, or “it was always planned that way”. I’m not saying those people are being less than truthful (and seriously, I don’t blame any of them, it’s PR and they need to protect their careers, feed their families, if you speak out on anything in this universe, something really serious or the tiniest thing, you risk ever getting hired again, you will be blacklisted, it’s not right and it’s certainly not fair, but this is the way this particular business works) but something is not adding up (a lot of somethings actually). I think there was definitely a different ending for Cas, possibly even Jack (meaning he might have made at least one appearance). I do think there may have been a different resolution to Destiel and Saileen (unless they truly planned to keep it ambiguous all along). I don’t know if Dean would have had a different ending, I think he might have at one point as suggested by the narrative during Carver’s and Dabb’s eras, but I’m not sure what their “true ending” was going to be regarding him or Sam. To have Sam be the one that died would have been redundant from Swan Song (5x22) so I doubt they would have gone in that direction. I hate to think it but I don’t think we’ll ever really know. As far as death scenes go, Dean’s death in 9x23 was way more meaningful and impactful for me when he tells Sam that he’s proud of them, than what we got in 15x20. No offense to the guys’ acting or to the boys themselves, but the 9x23 scene was more appropriate imho. And that also leads me to believe that Dean’s manner of death may not have been what they planned all along. But until we get answers (which again I don’t think we will), we’ll never truly know for sure.

As for me, this is just more proof in the pudding. I’m not saying Dabb & Co purposely sabotaged 15x20 at all but I wouldn’t be surprised if they kept the reaction to GoT’s finale in mind at a couple of key points while getting these last two episodes shot. 15x19 was our finale, sad to say. 15x20 was the network’s finale, meant to induce nostalgia and callbacks, bringing the boys’ original fans over to Texas to watch a certain ranger do roundhouse kicks. Sad but true. 

[incarnateirony]

If you had the chance to ask Dabb if he was intentionally using hermeticism/alchemy/gnosticism (spelling?) would you?

I mean not really. If I were to sit down with Andrew Dabb, I wouldn’t ask it at all. Kinda ridiculous from my POV. I’d sit down and ask why, and who introduced the idea, not *if* it was being used. Asking *if* it was being used at our current junction would be like sitting down with Kripke and asking if he intentionally used biblical inspirations. It’s fairly absurdist when you know the source text to do so and it subsumes the entire show (most flagrantly S4-5 on the christian lensing.)

Like, it’s everything from the story structure, the cosmogeny, various dogmatic quotes straight out of famous/key sources, various books Sam has had in study piles nearby, major imagery, names of temporary villains and challenges, you name it.

How that’s different from S4-5 story structure, cosmogeny, various dogmatic quotes straight out of famous/key scripture, times the bible was being studied, crosses in the background, or names of villains and challenges, I’m very unclear.

Hell, back in Kripke era they weren’t naming episodes after associated critical dogmatic/philosophical ideas routinely nor applying color coding based on the path, so rack that up in Dabb era’s favor on why it’s not even something to ask.

It’s similar to the weird expectation that gayness has to prove or question itself more than straightness, which comes with some weird concept of straight supremacy. Christian culture has similar ramifications.

But no. I wouldn’t ask him If. I would sit down and get straight down into the fine details like who proposed it, who on crew practices it with the naturalized lens it has (seriously I would bet a whole month’s income on one person on crew being a magister or adeptus of some related path with how well executed it all is), which specific denominations if any they were pulling their reads from beyond general gnostic/hermetic dual paths, etc. 

For years now, and I do mean years, the various SPN games I’ve run have religiously predicted show elements throughout Dabb era. My S12 plot rolled around S13. My S13 plot rolled around S14. My S14 plot– you get the idea.

So there’s four options here.

1. I’m a psychic who is hiding my ability and not winning the lottery to keep my cover

2. I’ve had script leaks for like 4 years

3. I’m the smartest goddamn meta person in the history of ever (protip: I’m not)

4. Dabb is using the same playbook.

I didn’t do it on purpose, it’s the same style of playbook I’ve always incorporated due to my natural lens. I didn’t expect SPN to suddenly onboard it in its end days. Hell when it first started happening I started flipping the fuck out because I didn’t catch at first he was straight-up using the same book and didn’t let myself believe it until mid-S-14. But it is what it is lmao

And I don’t mean vague like “I predicted the Darkness would show up lolol bc darkness” I mean straight up full plot runs, associations, even dialogue used in the show or the introduction of certain entities. Belphegor made people that know me shit their pants top to bottom. Chuck. Blossom. Marriage. Ouroboros. Serpent bearer. Cages. Matrixes. other shit older than that, I could go on for a small eternity but it’d sound like I’m bragging and that’s well beyond the point, because realistically, it’s not worth /bragging/ about as much as admitting: I’m not actually some kind of super genius, I’ve just naturalized into this for decades of my life long before anybody was arguing about gay angels.

Several years ago I introduced Hermes referencing himself as Baal Peor, while using the alias Jack (which I quickly had to change, thanks S12) “Oh, everybody says Hermes is younger than Apollon, like it’s a fact, like I wasn’t some protoindoeuropean god of giant penises and outcroppings of stone long before anybody was ever speaking greek.” and “Everyone calls Dionysus a god of fertility, when’s the last time you saw your grapes bumping and grinding in the vineyard? I am THE god of the dick, three actually, one for each ‘path’. If your flocks are many you know what they did down at the watering hole. Hell, sometimes they’d just carve a dick, if they didn’t have time to carve a whole dude.”

Everyone lauded how well he’d work in the show. I said, “nahhhh, if he’d been introduced years ago, sure, but this late in the game they’d use one of his christianized/demonized aspects and he’d be a contagonist turned antagonist dead within three episodes.”

Belphegor: Sup

Did this video seem sassier than normal? There’s a reason

Like is this meta or is this an RP fanvid at this point, what is the difference, please let me out of this box. I DONT LIKE IT ANYMORE

Literally my first livetweet on the fucking season be like

When 15.09 aired and me and my Dean ran screaming yelling “HOLY SHIT WE JUST WATCHED FRIDAY HAPPEN ON TV TOP TO BOTTOM AAAAAAAA” it just was what it was (Friday being the nickname of a famous RP advent/day from like a season and a half ago)

So again it just is what it is, and it’s far wider spread than I think people not in the given tradition can wrap their heads around.

I literally just left like 3 group chats I’ve been in for the past several years because I’ve reached my wits end with casual microaggressions or dismissals or intentional bad faith readings which essentially turn into attacks on the faith itself while people say it’s about their reading of the show, or turn around and accuse dogmatic behavior simply for pointing out the base cords that are wall to wall in S15 and how it’s driving the overall story notes of the show the same as you would christian stuff in S5. Can’t deal with it anymore. 

I’m so far past asking *if* it’s what they intended. I’m just done being exposed to supposed friendlies still trying to dismiss that it *is.* It’s one thing to not understand it all. That’s fine. I don’t expect people to understand it all. It’s a whole other kettle of fish to dismiss it out of hand because it’s not what you want and slap it away. This fandom loses their shit when it’s done over queer content to queer people with queer lenses but there’s literally nobody to play defense or protect us when it’s done to people who have their entire lives vested in a belief system that this fandom runs around shitting all over persistently, slapping down, insulting, intentionally reading in the worst light without any good faith attempts at figuring out what the invested party is saying, etc. SKDJfskjdfs I’ve been about half a hair from ragequitting fandom over it tbh.

[nerdylittleshit]

Thoughts about Spn 14x20

SPOILERS AHEAD! BEWARE!

WHAT. A. SEASON. FINALE. I admit I wasn’t that invested in season 14, mostly because Michael as a villain didn’t spark my interest. I was curious to see how they would handle the situation with Jack and what the stakes would be going into season 15, knowing it would be the last season. And the show went into a direction I did not see coming (and thankfully I had managed to avoid any kind of spoilers) and I am super exited to see where they will be going with this next season. Is this officially the most meta episode now? I think so. And I love it.

But, as always, let’s take a closer look.

You’re my favourite show

We start the episode with Jack escaping from the bunker and his wish for everyone to stop lying. Lies and truth are a big theme of this episode, so much that we are told twice that writers lie. The writer within the episode of course is Chuck but it also a meta reference to the writers of the show.

For a brief time Jack’s wish comes true and nobody can lie anymore. Which of course created some comedy gold (Trump’s deal with Crowley, Queen Elizabeth is a lizard etc) and a missed opportunity for Dean and Cas to talk about their feelings for each other (I guess this was the closest we could get to a truth spell). But we see the chaos it created, that we need lies to live peacefully together and the amount of power Jack has. And of course arguably the wish had no effect on Chuck, and yet by the end of the episode he is forced to reveal the truth.

A lot of what we see then felt to me like things we have seen before on the show. A family member that turns into a monster, making a hard choice or rather the feeling of having no choice, the brothers fighting, one of them wanting to sacrifice himself, a magical weapon. It is familiar because we have seen it before. And naturally a show in its 14th season is repeating some of their storylines, but it felt a bit like lazy writing to me, and I think that was actually their intention. We as an audience are meant to be reminded that this a story, because in the end it turns out it really is just that: a story.

I still think Jack is a rather unusual villain (if he is a villain at all) and that is what makes him so interesting. He still has the best intentions, he says that all he ever wanted was to do good. Despite his grandmother yelling at him he only tells her to stop and doesn’t repeat what happened to Mary. But he knows that he can no longer feel anything, he even tells Dean that he is a monster, and in the end he is ready to die. Despite Chuck killing him I think we will see him again. Billie visiting him in the Empty makes sure of that.

Dean’s decision not to kill Jack is interesting as he does indeed follow the script, at least as far as the biblical story of Abraham goes, who could not kill his son Isaak either, and despite Chuck claiming that this is not how the story is supposed to end. If we look at Supernatural one of its biggest themes has always been free will/choice. Sam even said so to Dean, that it always came down to them having a choice. Chuck himself, long before he was revealed to be God, even said to Dean and Cas “you are not supposed to be in this story”. The story of Supernatural is built on these characters having a choice. And Dean obviously uses his choice not to kill Jack.

Chuck is interesting as he is both the writer/creator of the story as well as the audience. He is both active and passive. He has created the story and he has the power to intervene, yet for the most part he decides to watch what he calls “his favourite show”. And of course as an audience we can only take the story as it is – we can like it or dislike it, but we can’t change it. And this isn’t even “choose your own adventure”. Chuck can intervene and he can manipulate the characters to do what he wants (he sure tries) but he can’t force them.  And by forcing the story into the direction he wants he reveals his true nature. That he always had the power to kill Jack, but thought that Dean killing his own son (and by that killing himself) would be more dramatic. Or simply the better story. And that all the pain the Winchesters had to endure was nothing more than entertainment for him. And that is of course where the show calls out its own audience. Of course we did not choose that Sam and Dean had to suffer that much, but we watched them all the same, we used their lives as entertainment as well. This isn’t the first time the show has broken the fourth wall but I don’t think they have ever done it so clever before.

The question is where will we go from this. Not only was Chuck/God revealed to be the villain all along, as it seems he also undid everything the Winchesters have ever done, bringing back every monster they ever killed. Will they try to kill God in season 15? So far it didn’t seem like the CW had the guts to do something like that, but perhaps with the show’s final season they will. It would certainly be the ultimate act of free will. How will Billie and Jack fit in this? Was Sam perhaps right that Chuck was afraid of Jack? Did he willingly arrange the story in a way that would result in Jack’s death? Did Chuck realize that Jack is too powerful, that Jack perhaps has the power to kill God/replace him? Because as Chuck said, if he dies existence dies as well (then again writers lie). Can the Winchesters kill God without killing the universe? Is it Jack’s role to replace Chuck? Is Billie on their side because Chuck meddled with destiny? She told Dean there was only one way to defeat Michael (trapping himself in the box), because it was written in her books, and yet we saw a different outcome, suggesting perhaps that Chuck changed the story because he didn’t like what was written in Billie’s books. And we know from the old Death that one day Death would reap God as well. Whatever will happen it is going to be a very interesting final season. I’m pumped.

Some other things:

Sam finally calling Dean out to be a nerd. We knew it all along but it is good to hear it anyway.

The company named “Mirror universe”. The Mirror Universe is a big thing in the Star Trek universe. Of course we have already seen one other universe in the show and Chuck confirmed that there are many other universes. I wonder if they will play a role in season 15.

Chuck calling the British Men of Letters weak, aka Andrew Dabb’s way to apologize for season 12. Though I personally liked them.

[justanearth-boundmisfit]

Supernatural - Paleyfest Red Carpet From SpoilerTv

Couldn’t help myself, this is so full of bs. Big sigh, breathe, read:

(under the cut some extracts from the interview, with some things highlighted by me. Long post, and a few bitter thoughts)

Bob Singer Q: What keeps you excited about the show? A: We really make an effort to keep it fresh. You see the show from year one, it’s so much a different show now in terms of mythology and where we’ve taken it. And every year after we end a particular season, we end on a cliffhanger, which we really don’t know where exactly we’re going to go next season. Which is challenging for us. We’ve always managed, I think, to keep it fresh. If we couldn’t keep it fresh, I wouldn’t be here that long. We’ve seen the guys grow into these parts, the recurring actors… there was Misha, Mark Pellegrino, Mark Sheppard for a long time. All terrific, they play these characters for the show, and it’s enjoyable. That’s the big thing. It’s still fun to do, and I feel like every year’s a new challenge. 

Brad Buckner

Q: Have you got a favorite of the episodes that you’ve written? A: I did like how “War of the Worlds” turned out because of the evolution of Lucifer from being this pure monolithic evil character to one that discovers the possibility of being a father and what that’s like and experiences being human in a weird way. He’s never had any empathy for human beings. And the fact that he was disgusted by human beings is what got him into so much trouble to begin with. And now he’s kind of discovering the idea, the subtleties of that and it was an interesting idea to play with.

Q: Mark Pellegrino is amazing in the role… A: He’s gold. And he throws in little things. Basically sticks to script, but every once in a while just tosses in something that is just terrific. Q: And he’s been great with Danneel [Ackles – Sister Jo] – they have amazing chemistry together. That was fabulous! A: Yes! And coming up is his first meeting with Jack, the son. And that’s going to be brilliant.

Eugenie Ross-Leming 

Q: What’s your favorite episode that you’ve done so far this season? A: I’m trying to remember the episodes we’ve done… I love writing for Lucifer. He’s just so deliciously bad. I really like the last episode that we wrote that has not been shot and the one right before it that is about to be shot because they’re heading for the climax, so they’ve got a lot of blood and guts, betrayal, and heartbreak, and redemption. A lot of these characters are looking for redemption in this episode, and they’re trying to find redemption through Jack. Everyone’s got a piece of Jack. So I kinda like the last two.

Andrew Dabb 

Q: And there have been so many new dimensions to the show. Mark Pellegrino has been great, and I’ve really enjoyed his chemistry with Danneel, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of them… A: Cool! Anything you give Mark he makes better, everything you give to Danneel she makes better, and I would say that’d what makes writing for them great, you know they’re going to improve anything you put on the page.

Q: Is there anything you can tease us about what’s coming up? A: There’s a really cool Gabriel episode coming up. That I think people are really, really going to enjoy. A really cool Rowena episode people are going to enjoy, and we’ll see the return of our good friend Death coming up.

Misha Collins

Q:How does it feel being on a series that’s been around for 13 seasons?

A:Thirteen seasons is amazing in any day and age. The show has been on so long now that it represents a significant portion of our lives. It’s actually a quarter of my life that I’ve been working on this show. Half of my adult life. It’s a big, big part of both my career and my personal development, and we all feel that way. Jensen, not too long ago, was telling me and Jared about a dream that he had about the last scene of the series and both of us teared up because it’s that emotionally connected to us. So it feels like we’ve won the lottery and it feels like a big part of our lives.

Q:So Castiel seems to be moving back into being a soldier again, the way we first saw him. How does it feel going back to Cas’s roots?

A: I think it is going back to his roots. I think Cas came into contact with humanity and the boys and it mitigated some of his militarism and now he is kind of abandoning that because he feels like it didn’t work. Cas, I think, logs his failures, so over and over again he’s tried things and he feels like they haven’t worked. I don’t think Cas spends much time reflecting on his triumphs? It’s more regret and loss for him, so I think that he is sort of taking off the fetters and doing what it takes to get the job done. Even if that means casualties.

Full interview is on the link above, although there’s no much left out.

Some thoughts:

So basically, it’s the Lucifer fest and redemption arc. I’m going to throw up. They are giving him a redemption arc and they are giddy with it. Yuck! Buckner being so happy with the Lucy/Jo thingy, ofc he is happy the creep! As much as I don’t like Pellegrino I give him props for changing the scene where he takes part of her grace, and refused to make the full on sex scene Bucklemming wrote! Sick fuckers! I want to punch him right in his old pervert face. 

Also they are so glad for the Scooby ep! And oh boy! If we are pissed now, you have no idea how much more we are going to be after that one. There’s a comparison threw in there, that is going to make every bitter Cas fan scream murder around the world. I don’t think they are going to edit that out. But just waiting for the real ep to talk about it. Have at hand something strong to drink if you are planning on watching and you love Cas.

Misha is just a recurring role, hey! I’ve been saying for ages, that Singer doesn’t like Misha, and that they don’t treat him as a regular. Don’t shoot the messenger. I know I’m not positive with this show, but this can’t be twisted as me being bitter. It’s just what the fucker said. Also talking about Misha in past tense. And hey! If metas can read anything from a fucking color on the wall, I can make my own assumptions with what’s right in front of my face. No subtext here.

Cas going back to his roots. Really? Full powered and everything or just another guilt trip from the bros? I bet is the latter. Also Cas is going to keep killing for them it seems. It doesn’t seem that he is out of his depression at all, as some metas said was going to happen after his death. He is full of regret and loss, not my words, Misha’s. At this point in the season if people didn’t realize that they killed Cas for man!pain I don’t know what you are watching really. Misha talks about Cas giving up, and going back to his old soldier self, and that’s NOT progress! I don’t see how metas are going to twist this into happy go lucky Cas, towards the big destiel ENDGAME! I see a colder, killing machine Cas in the few episodes that are left. In the middle we have Dean really obsessed with Daphne. ENDGAME my ass. (Stop lying to people, and shippers I’m sorry you keep being manipulated like that)

Btw I still maintain that they were going to keep Cas dead. The way Singer talks about Misha sort of gives it away imho. Again, the outrage was too strong. That’s why Misha asked to film our reactions, remember that? And Mark S. liking that anti Misha tweet that said if Mark’s fans were as crazy as Misha’s, Crowley wouldn’t be dead.

I’m fuming tbh. I know, I know, I should take my own advice and just not expect anything from this show. But they just keep getting worse and worse and when they talk my head boils. It didn’t help that the girl doing the interview seemed obsessed with Lucifer, or maybe that’s what pr wanted her to ask. It wouldn’t surprise me. 

All in all it is even worse that I imagined. But well if there is little Cas to see, at least I know I’m not going to be watching this crapfest. 

Out. 

[shirtlesssammy]

15x07: Last Call

Then:

In case you forgot, Dean and Cas are  f i g h t i n g. 

Now:

Texhoma, Texas

It’s bar time at a lonely little dive bar and two friends are stumbling to their car. Well, one is helping the other. Sally needs to vomit and runs to the bushes. Her friend, Angela, gets in the car instead of holding her hair back. I’m side eyeing your level of friendship here, ladies. Sally turns around from her puke-athon to find Angela and car gone. 

Cut to Angela tied to a chair in a basement. There’s a line slowly draining blood from her arm --and a monster feeding on it behind a door!

At the bunker, Dean continues his nihilistic spiral by drinking all the beer in his room and surfing the internet for cases. He finds one!

Cut to Dean wandering into the kitchen where a very cozy Sam and Eileen are making all the breakfasts. 

Dean knows when he’s a third wheel and decides to check out the case on his own. Sam and Eileen are living their best lives. He doesn’t want to get in the way.

Dean arrives at the Texhoma sheriff’s office and meets Sheriff Dillon. He asks about the disappearance of Angela. The sheriff isn’t convinced she’s gone. Her car went with her. He suggests that maybe she ran away to LA. Kids do that. They usually return within the week. He boasts that he stayed for a month. 

Ok, I can’t recap this with a straight (*wink*) face anymore. WHAT THE WHAT was happening here? There is SO much staring and awkwardness. I loved it but also wanted to hide under a rock. 

In any event, the sheriff admits that Angela’s friend has issues that usually keeps her at Swayze’s Bar 24/7. Before Dean can head out though, the sheriff tells Dean that he could go to LA and look for Angela. He could give showbiz a try himself. Cue camera zoom and, “You’ve got the look.” 

Dean    is    confused. 

That night Dean arrives at Swayze’s Bar. Dancing, drinking, and live music greet him. Also, a flirty waitress asks for his phone. This is a No Phones Allowed bar (guns are ok #AmericaYouAreTheWorst  -and what’s even worse? As an American, I didn’t think twice about this line until international fans vomited on Twitter. Sigh.) Dean, who’s currently on a case, just drops it in the basket. I guess he won’t be calling Sam if he needs anything. He asks about the friend, Sally. The waitress, Lorna, hasn’t seen her yet. She does slap Dean’s ass as she walks away though. Sigh. <Insert discourse on all the times Dean’s been sexually assaulted and harassed throughout the years.> He turns around to watch the waitress walk away when he notices the lead singer of the band. 

“Lee Webb.”

They’re old friends and ecstatic to see each other. Lee owns the bar. I wonder if they watched Swayze movies together in their youth?

Back at the bunker, things are snoozeville in Research Land. Eileen suggests they stop to do something fun. ooooOOOOOooooo. Sultry looks and awkward glances ensue. Sam takes her hand, she looks expectantly towards him, he leans forward, and...CAS INTERRUPTS! Bless the angel and his timing. Sam deserves it after 12 years of doing it to Cas and Dean. Cas and Eileen meet. Yay! 

*Classic SPN Dialog Alert*

Cas: I thought your were…

Eileen: Dead? Yeah, I got...better. 

Then Cas asks the important question in life: “Where’s Dean?” Lol, you two are divorced, remember? Anyway, Cas comes with ideas. He thinks that Sam and God are connected through their wound. 

At the bar, Dean tells Lee that John died 13 years ago. Damn, when you put it like that, it’s overwhelming to think about how much of their lives we’ve watched. Lee’s sorry to hear it. They toast to his memory. They talk about the last time they saw each other. (A cult thing in Arizona.) Lee did one more case and hung up his hunter spurs. Dean asks if he regrets walking away. Nope. 

At the bunker, Cas is going to probe Sam. Well, his wound really. Cas does his angel magic and that leads to Sam getting tossed against the wall. Ooops. 

Cas calls and leaves a message with Dean (on all his many, many phones it seems.) Cas growling directly into the phone is all kinds of wonderful. 

Dean’s busy reminiscing about orgies Lee and him had with triples. Yeah, they split triplets up “fair and square.” Um? <Insert lady doing complicated math gif here>

Cut to Sergei. Remember him? He sold Cas “archangel” grace back in the day. Cas needs his help. Cas goes all BAMF on him and we collectively swoon. Cas also makes another phone call. 

For Hand Porn Science:

At the bar, Dean tells Lee all about Ghost Sickness (ah, that very funny episode, until it wasn’t. Andrew Dabb’s first episode. Lilith makes an appearance.) Lee asks about his current case. Dean shows him a picture of Angela. Lorna sees it and is surprised Lee doesn’t recognize her. She’s in the bar all the time. WHERPS. Someone’s a lying liar. Anyway, the conversation moves on and Lee tells Dean he could have this life. (*crying Rocky’s Bar noise*) Dean wants to know who’ll kill the bad guys? “You deserve a break, bro.” Ok, fair. 

Lee then gets the band to play “Good Ol’ Boys” AND convinces Dean to join him on stage. Dean takes another shot and joins his friend. Dean’s on stage, but HE IS FREAKED OUT. Poor boy. He starts singing though. 

And he can sing?? Ok. I will accept. Because I have to. Why would he pretend to not be able to sing for all these years? I mean, I guess, why does Dean pretend to be something he’s not is the main question we have about this poor soul in general. 

A fight breaks out in the back - Blondie’s getting harassed. “Road house rules?” Dean asks, invoking our lord and savior, Swayze. Hell yeah. Dean and Lee make quick work of the bullies and Dean discovers that Blondie’s actually Sally Anderson, the best friend of the girl who disappeared. 

Cas lets Sergei into the bunker. Sergei is positively ENAMORED by the bunker and all the delightful treasures within. Cool your jets, man! “You’re here for a reason,” Cas growls. 

“Aren’t we all?” Sergei replies, and my eyebrows go WAY UP high in the air because that is some straight up authorial intent nonsense. They head in to the infirmary and Sergei uses a crystal to scan Sam like it’s a medical tricorder. Sam’s dying, according to Sergei. 

Sally spills the details, including the disappearance of the car. “You can’t rapture a car,” Lee protests. 

“It was a good car,” Sally tells him and I am definitely not now thinking about the Impala getting sucked up to her eternal rest in Heaven. Nope. Not thinking about that at all. 

Instead of Heaven, Lee suggests that the car may have gotten dumped in the lake. Lorna, who is probably a TRUE CRIME enthusiast, suggests the scrapyard, though. Dean marks that as his first stop. 

Sergei delivers some truth about Sam’s wound. It’s a soul-deep wound and connects his soul to something that wanders the world. When Castiel probed it, Sam’s soul was squeezed out of his body. Please be like me, and envision Sam’s soul as the toothpaste in a half used toothpaste tube squeezed by Castiel’s fist. If Sam’s soul wanders too far, he dies. Or, as in my analogy, the toothpaste tube of the soul explodes. Soul toothpaste everywhere!

In the junkyard, Dean discovers the victim’s car and more appallingly, her body hidden in the trunk. A gun is cocked behind him. It’s Lee! He knocks Dean out cold. 

Sergei smears a potion on Sam’s wound. Sam begins to thrash violently while Sergei chortles to Cas about deliberately hastening his death with his “cure.” Wherps. Shockingly, trusting the villain who cheerfully harmed Jack has backfired! Sam flashes on Chuck’s conversation with Amara - particularly on all the bits where they discuss Chuck’s current weakened state. While Sam flashes, Eileen drives Sergei into the wall and chokes off his airway. FANS SELF. 

Sergei demands the “Key to Death” in exchange for saving Sam’s life. It’s a key with a skeleton handle which can open the door to Death’s library. OKAY GUYS THIS IS NOT A DRILL I am very excited! First: a trip to the library! Second: it’s a SKELETON key, pardon me while I savor this pun with all I’m worth. Please, please can we visit Billie with a magic key? PLEASE????

Um. Anyway. Castiel isn’t taking any of Sergei’s bullshit. He pulls out his phone and shows a photo of Sergei’s niece, under surveillance by Bobby. At Castiel’s order, Bobby will kill her. This takes all the wind out of Sergei’s sails. 

Cut to Sergei chanting over Sam just before Sam wakes up, mostly intact. “We good?” Sergei asks. Sure! BFFs. 

Dean wakes up tied to a chair in a basement with an IV in his arm. “You awake, Buddy?” Lee asks, and isn’t that just an improper endearment to use at this time? Lee heads downstairs to deliver his villain monologue to Dean’s face. No sense in killing him while Dean was knocked out, right?!

Lee reveals that he had a very bad hunt that caused him to despair ever winning against the evil in the world. When he did his last hunt in this town, he found the monster who is now locked up in the cage in the bar’s basement. “As long as you feed it, it gives you money. It gives you health. It gives you anything you dreamed of.” Lee feels that the world owes him for his many monster kills from his younger days. The world isn’t divided into good or bad, nor does it care for anybody’s moral high ground. “But I do,” Dean says, and it’s like a rallying cry for our poor hot-dog-pantsed hero.

Lee releases the blood and it begins to travel up towards the monster’s cage. “Dean Winchester, the righter of wrongs. You’re gonna keep digging. You’re gonna figure me out.” Lee pats him on the shoulder one more time, bro-like, and heads up the stairs again. 

Dean sizes up the situation, rocks the chair and shatters it on the floor like he’s made out of granite, and pulls out the needle. It’s monster fightin’ time! 

Upstairs, Lee hears the commotion. It’s basically a lot of loud snarling and banging. Just a typical Friday night for Dean Winchester, amirite? Footsteps climb the stairs…and the monster’s head is thrown through the doorway.

They engage in a good ol’ fashioned shootout before confronting each other face-to-face. “I am you,” Lee tells Dean. But he’s a version that realized the world was broken and bought into it. 

“Then you fix it,” Dean insists. “You don’t walk away. You fight for it.” And, as it turns out, they fight for justice, I guess. They fight and Dean skewers Lee with a broken pool cue. 

“I’m glad it was you,” Lee says about his death which is twenty flavors of fucked up. Look, I know there’s all this meta about how this is Dean’s unrealistic fantasy and it shows him his true calling isn’t tending bar. That is all ABSOLUTELY accurate. But GUYS this also reads like another lesson from Chuck to poke Dean back into hunting and eventual fratricide again. Hot dog pants don’t kill people (EVEN THOUGH they straight up murdered fandom a few weeks ago). What parts of these episodes are meant to be Chuck and what are meant to be “free will”? I have no idea and I’ve never been more in love with this show!

!!!

Um. Anyway. 

Dean returns to the bunker. Castiel, just striding innocently through the war room, is ASSAULTED by Dean’s surprise presence. “Dean,” he says, so very softly. GAAAAAH. 

Dean asks after Sam. Castiel delivers the good news and can NOT maintain eye contact. WHEN WILL MY SUFFERING END? Castiel strides away and Dean follows him to check on Sam. 

Sam, bless this poor clueless bean, is ecstatic with his new knowledge from his near-death visions. He realizes he saw Chuck’s memories, and knows he is weak now. Sam’s ready to take the Team Free Will monster truck and just rollllll it right over Chuck. Easy peasy! 

________________________________

Gimme a Bro-Quote, Bro:

Duke? Like put up your dukes?!

I need a break and so do you. Why don’t we do something fun?

Livin’ the dream!

Can’t just keep lip syncing Eye of the Tiger while no one’s watching

You can’t rapture a car

Best friends don’t just leave without saying goodbye

I like this you, Castiel. It’s very…Russian

Good or bad. The world doesn’t care. No one cares, Dean.

________________________________

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[tinkdw]

The issue is that Sam isn't getting it. He thinks Dean is just in a funk because of everything that's happened, and that getting him to focus on Mary is the key to pepping him up and getting him back into action. Because that's what they do normally; focus on what they *can* change. He's just not getting why Dean is so down and out about Cas, who Sam misses but in his mind is beyond help. But that's not Dean's issue; he understand Cas is gone, he just can't get past it. And Sam can't see why.

Yeah I mean Sam is not getting Dean’s feelings because he doesn’t feel the same way and he thinks he understands Dean but it’s getting more and more obvious that actually he doesn’t and I find that very interesting given the whole “Sammy knows”/“Sammy doesn’t know” meta readings have been pretty varied over the years on different topics, but it seems to be building towards a NO right now regarding Destiel in particular, probably so that it has to be said out loud and textually obvious for him to get it so the audience get it. Excellent.

But yes also it’s not the first time Dean couldn’t get past something about Cas.

x

He couldn’t get past the fact that Cas betrayed him and broke Sam’s wall. Of course it’s about Sam and his wall being broken but here, this conversation, this is about how he can’t get past what Cas did and at this point he doesn’t know why (it’s the set up at Cas’ return for season 8′s fuck I’m in love with the weird, dorky little guy, see all the Daphne is Dean and Dean protecting Cas by omitting the truth just as Karen told him people do for the people they love thing, oh and the “your boyfriend first” and trenchcoat stuff, I mean jeez, subtlety is not the strong point of this episode).

Then there’s this, 5 years later and after the realisation that what he feels is love not just intrigue and lust, understanding why he couldn’t get past it… 

This ^^^ is an Andrew Dabb episode my friends. 

The episode that was so brilliantly subtextual and focused on showing the opposite of the positive point it was making to subvert it and show it as BAD that certain people totally misunderstood the message, just like 5x16. 

This is also the episode that set up the end of the toxic codependency that went down in 12x22, which is what 5x16 was all about. Dabb likes to link his work, knows his shit on the show and knows his endgames. Just saying.

So yeah, expect pain and a giant neon parallel to “I just watched the man I love die, there’s no normal after that”, textually at some point soon based on all the blatant textual addressing of past canon in exactly this way so far this season.

[spnreactionblogging]

the heroes’ journey

SPOILERS BELOW

oh it's the garth episode, I know because he's in the recap

also congrats dj qualls for coming out

I loved garth and i'm glad to see him back

clair de lune sure is a choice for this scene

I'm totally fucking blanking on what kind of SPN monster she is to have a spike like that

even if you didn't know garth was in this episode you could tell that guy was gonna be a werewolf because of how they cast werewolves in all TV ever

i love sam cooking...

I'm here for the high-density amount of piano in this episode thus far

sam sweetheart where the fuck are your oven mitts

honestly I fucking love seeing them deal with regular everyday bullshit like this, it's refreshing

"regular jackoffs" as they'd say on metalocalypse

written by andrew dabb so should be mostly okay

DEAN: It's Garth. [picks up] Hey, Garth. GARTH: Hey Dean, it's Garth. DEAN: [gestures to Sam like "duh"]

this is the most relatable Dean's been in several seasons, I feel this every day of my life

a "no good, very bad day" invokes a book I loved as a kid and I appreciate this

does he have twins named sam and dean? I feel like I already knew this maybe but can't remember

I absolutely do believe garth that dean smells good especially since he has not fought anything today

AHAHHAHHAHAH SAM AND CASTIEL THANK YOU GARTH

AMAZING

AMAZING A++++++++ i'm living

just little narcissist injury things, not having someone's kid named after you but having the kid named after your brother and friend

oh a wraith, with the stabby shit. that's right.

did dean just crack his tooth on a candy

oh yeah garth's a dentist.

I love the idea of garth being a werewolf dentist, I'm so happy for him. that's mutual aid, man

dean when is the last time you went to a dentist, honestly. have you ever gone. dean do you floss. this is america what am I talking about you haven't been to the dentist since mary died

"the giant's crying"

I like her stuffed wolf

17 cavities jesus christ

I feel like sam takes scoville units seriously, especially after the ghost pepper thing in the earlier episode

I love dean in this nitrous-oxide induced dream outfit, I love how much jensen is excited to dress up lmao

goddamn jensen and dj are excellent tap dancers?? nicely done

GARTH: We love 50 Shades. BESS: We do. BOTH LAUGH SAM: Who's the hero in that? GARTH: The point is--

god. GOD

"for the first time in your lives you're having normal people problems. you need to get a colonoscopy, stat"

glkdjlkdjfgldfkgjdflgk

"the furrowed brow and the puppy eyes, that never actually works for you does it?"

fucking owned, sorry sam

a grenade launcher jesus christ

seven grilled cheeses sounds delicious but also yes diarrhea inducing

oh he's puking instead well there you go

willing to bet this is just chuck wanting them to fight to the death in a cage fight

cutty is having them do final destination no items

I love the like UFC or whatever intro, the fucking mugshots

DEAN: Just how I wanted to die - with a freaking audience.

oh dean... fourth wall jokes

picking locks is tough, actually

the like winchester family leitmotif was surprisingly sad in this moment despite goofy circumstances

"shirts off" lmao

"C4, a hunter's best friend!" solid snake feels the same way

I love that garth's hat makes it look like he has floppy puppy ears

DEAN: This Cas keeps looking at me weird. SAM: So kind of like the real Cas.

TIL about the cologne/aftershave hai karate

well that was sweet. I miss garth.

interesting that in the last episode chuck's like "oh no what if the whole world was monsters!!!!!!!!!!! that would be so bad!!!!!!!!" but here we have garth as a werewolf dentist, like. that's pretty wholesome

I rewatched the tap dancing scene because it's just so damn good, I'm glad they're able to use these gorgeous sets and the talents of the cast, the wardrobe department, the camera and lighting crew, all of it to make this come together. make the most of these tools and talents before it's over, why the hell not