SPN Georg: Recent Episodes
Mittensmorgul
Mittens watches Supernatural for the 9159193rd time and discusses overarching themes, character arcs, and the cosmology of the Supernatural universe. Now salsa you mittens. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I typed the tagline for the title card for this one several weeks ago, before I came to a hard decision. Quoting the Animals song from the beginning of the episode, We gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing we ever do... it kinda feels on the nose now. Since everyone can probably already guess what I mostly have to say about this one, I'm gonna use this space for a personal status update.
I've got an incredibly busy couple of months coming up, and have been seriously stressing about finding the time to write and record episodes through like... the end of summer. I've also been stressing over continuing to use spotify as my podcast host. It was bad enough before, but now to post there I have to agree to their "ai features" being applied to my little podcast, and I just... can't with that.
So for now, this will be the last episode I'm recording for a while. That doesn't mean this project as a whole is going away though! I already have the next episode "in the can," completely written up for AO3. And written more "properly" and completely than the notes I've been posting there to this point.
Considering my schedule, though, updates might be more or less frequent, and won't stick to the weekly posting schedule I've maintained for years now. What I will do is write up my complete notes, and then just post them when they're done. Some weeks, you might get two, other weeks none at all, depending on how stressful my life is being. But recording and editing the audio essentially doubles the amount of time these episodes take for me to do, so hopefully I can still mostly stick to getting out 3-4 a month still. We shall see!
Thank you to everyone who has been listening along (and reading along now!). I'm just finding it hilarious I started the podcast because I wanted to do a thorough meta rewatch without having to type everything out again, and here I am just deciding it's easier to just type everything out again...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
My very long post of why i think Cas could’ve gone through the Purgatory portal with Dean
A brief post about destiel in early season 8 (and a much longer one…) (oh wait look here’s more) (look there a LOT in my tag for this one…)
Sometimes my old posts hurt me for multiple reasons (i miss you alex)
The beginning of Naomi’s influence on Cas
The Male Gaze shot (and a second post about it)
Homework for next week: Watch Duck Amuck
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Garth! That's really all we need to know to enjoy this one, right? Good!
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
My rewatch notes from July 2019
A bit of Set Dec Appreciation via the Angry Pig sign
Rewatch notes from May 2017 (i.e. garth is Doing His Best and you can too!)
Amy Pond vs Benny (more tied into 8.09 than here, but also tangentially relevant)
We have call sheets and script sides!
You can read my notes for this one here on AO3
And I will say here very briefly, there will be a change to the format coming up in a couple weeks, more on that soon!
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no, really, how does benny know how this portal works? how is he the only being in the universe that seems to know about it, and exactly how it works? how does he know it’s only for humans to pass through? why does cas so easily believe it’s truly only for humans to pass through? i have always believed that it’s because it suits their respective agendas to believe that, whether it was the truth or not. In this essay I will…
Okay, that's just one of my usual questions around the beginning of season 8, and I will continue to ask them! But there's plenty of other things to wonder about in this episode, like how did Sam end up spending an entire year with Amelia... mysteries we will never really understand, I suppose. But at least we do get some insight into just why Dean trusts Benny so much. All this and more! including Dean's exasperation with Sam, Sam's exasperation with Dean, and interesting new facts about vampires!
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
My rewatch notes from November 11, 2020
My rewatch notes from January 2018
Some Destiel for you (i swear, completely relevant to this episode, but still important)
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I forgot to mention the cut scene on the dvd for this one, or maybe I just blanked it out of my mind, but Sam tries to call someone from a phone booth and then hangs up. When she calls back, he hangs up again. After Sam and Dean leave, Kate runs over, calls the last number dialed, and gets Dr. Amelia Richardson, veterinarian, who is very confused about Kate asking if she consults for the FBI.
I think the only thing this tells us is that Sam is having conflicted feelings about having left her, even despite the circumstances we’ll learn about in a few weeks. But I can see why this scene was cut for time. This episode is already jam packed, even if this likely would’ve helped make Amelia feel like less of an imaginary character.
But there are many scenes that did air, so let’s talk about those.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My Tag
A short essay on What Makes a Monster, and why I love this episode
The feminist lens of Bitten (written while s8 was still airing)
Lizbob’s excellent thoughts on the character of Kate
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why is dean always the target of heartache, heartbreak, heart attacks, and other various and sundry attempts to stab, poke, crush, fold, spindle, mutilate and impale his heart? it is a mystery! but we're gonna wail about it for a bit today...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
oh look a destiel mirror
down the bunny hole…
My tag for this one is short, but it’s almost entirely about the heart imagery in the series that gets pinned to Dean. I kind of regret pushing that so hard for so long, considering what happened in 15.20, but >.>
The notes for this episode are on AO3 right here
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We all remember the origin of the tagline, “the destiels will never have that now,” right? When Sam hugs Cas in 9.11, folks cheered that Cas hugged Sam before he hugged Dean, as proof that Dean doesn’t like Cas or some nonsense. And then everyone else just laughed at them, because the destiels had already had the destiel reunion hug in this episode for like a year and a half. So we decided we will also have THIS now!
I swear this episode is about a lot of other stuff, too. We can have it all now!
Including some LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series, revived for one last ride… (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) And now that all of those are posted, we’re on our own for the destiel insight. But trust us, it’s there all over the place :’)
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Welcome to Carver Era! Sam hit a dog, and Dean spent a year in Purgatory. Wait, where's Cas, and why is Dean resurrecting and then hugging a vampire? Now you're all caught up! Kinda... :'D
Sometimes I think we need to talk about Kevin so we won't have to talk about any of THAT ^^ yet. But since we're here to talk about all of it, that's what we're gonna do. :)
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
A post on how I understand the purgatory portal to work
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
Why Dean’s so pissed Sam didn’t try to look for him
Vending Machine Meta
This week's notes on AO3
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As we bid farewell to the Gamble Era and usher in Carver era, Kevin goes from having leviathan troubles to demon troubles, Cas chooses to take responsibility for himself and he and Dean are destined for Purgatory, and poor Sam is left standing all alone in the aftermath... at least the leviathans are effectively washed from the earth...
Gosh that makes it sound like not much of import happens in this one. I'm really underselling it here, so instead let's just jump to...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
my tag (there is A LOT of good meta posts in the tag for this one, but not so many that it’s overwhelming. Probably a good week to spend half an hour reading :)
lizbob’s dean and cas are in love series (part 1) (part 2) (part 3)
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I just realized how threatening the subheading on that graphic looks... I am not actually out for blood over Dabb's nonsense car things... >.>
For those unfamiliar with our longstanding feud with Andrew Dabb over car and driving continuity issues, there’s some pretty glaring examples in this episode. Obviously the Supernatural Universe is not OUR universe, they have cities we don’t and vice versa, you know, like their Lebanon, Kansas is a thriving small town on the show and barely exists enough to mark on a map here, as just one example.
But Hoople, North Dakota to Missoula, Montana is not a 7 hour drive. It’s nearly 15 hours on a good day, on the highway. If that wasn’t enough, they doubled down on looking for somewhere within a 300 mile radius of Hoople. And Missoula is over 900 miles away. So either take this as your occasional reminder that the Supernatural universe is not our universe, and it’s kinda silly to make these sorts of comparisons because of that, or use it to fuel your personal vendetta against Mr. Dabb for not apparently knowing how to read a map.
We’ve reached the penultimate episode of season seven though, and we’re finally almost free of Gamble Era! Everything is coming together now, including a weapon they’re hoping will finally be able to kill the Leviathan, so we get a lot of plot to plow through.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My Tag
My rewatch notes from July 2019
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KEVIN! This poor kid... just add him to the list of Terrible Things Chuck Did.
We have a Leviathan Tablet and a new prophet to read it, which wakes Cas into a state of abject denial and depression of what he did, brings the angels back into play, and sets Sam and Dean on a big scavenger hunt for parts for a weapon powerful enough to end the leviathans.
Also, bees.
I think that about sums it up... oh and there's a lot of suffering of the personal emotional kind for everyone! Wheeee! Thanks, Ben Edlund!
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Chuck is a real jerk
A reminder of why I don’t give too much credence to heaven/angel hierarchy
Rewatch notes and general yelling from October 2019
Thoughts on bees and honey on a very very old post
Cas and games and bees by ladyofthesilent
A more recent post by ilarual about the bees and guilt
A post from s13 that covers how I see the tablets and their power
Rewatch notes from January 2018 (focusing on the thread of being sorry and playing sorry connecting back to 4.22)
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
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CHARLIE!
That's all I need to say, right? Oh, we also get the plot set in place for the rest of the season, with the awesome heist they pull on Dick's Brick. Dean gets to be both a lil geeky AND a lil queer. And Bobby goes terrifyingly close to vengeful. So much happening, and we're at least now pointing directly toward the season finale, so borax ahoy!
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
scene analysis of the flirting split screen
my rewatch notes from July 2019
an interesting discussion of queer subtext
more on the flirting scene
dean vs harry potter (he’s so right)
the origin of my dean is bi tag
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It's another one of those episodes I always used to forget existed until it came back around on the loop again. Yeah, we get some weird Bucklemming-flavored ghost lore, but it proves at least interesting in context with Bobby's ghost. Because we also finally get to see Bobby's ghost again, right along with Sam and Dean, with the reminder of the mytharc happening elsewhere feels like a throaway line in this episode.
But this one is worth watching, and we can find enjoyment, especially in meeting the hunter Annie, and reuniting with Bobby. Because after this week we'll run headlong into a cascade of mytharc leading up to the season finale. We can enjoy one last little deviation from that plot.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Also, I've finally started importing all my past scripts into Ao3, in case anyone is interested in reading them. Partial notes/intro scripts begin with 3.13 Ghostfacers, and full scripts begin with Chapter 82, Episode 138 - 7.12 Time After Time. I'll be adding scripts weekly when podcast episodes drop, since now that I write them out in full, they might actually be interesting to read. Maybe. If you're really super nerdy about this show like I am. :'D
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We officially have a Gross of SpnGeorg! wheee!
I sincerely appreciate Garth as a person, and as a friend to Sam and Dean. If anyone could've made them feel even a little bit better about the universe after last week, it was ~~Mr. Fizzles~~ Garth.
I also appreciate the expansion of the supernatural universe, especially through the medium of Beer Brands. We talk about beer in Supernatural having meta relevance (think El Sol, Kingdom, and Schultz, for starters), so the genesis of an entirely new category of beer brands (the trendy independent brewery that makes beers that dean ends up enjoying unironically) is fascinating to me personally. I love anything that expands the spn universe like this!
Also filed under things I love about this episode: Dean gets to be the sober one, and for once in his life, it works against him, especially after a season where his excessive and growing alcohol intake had been a lowkey running theme.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
My rewatch notes from July 2019
A liveblog chat with Lizbob from July 2017
A Tidy Metaphor for Performing Dean, and Sam’s recurring inability to really understand his brother
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Do I need to introduce this one? Really? We're all here for the return of Cas, and a massive turning point in the structure and narrative of the series. There's just so much good here, even if Cas gets shoved back in a box at the end of the episode. At least he's ~there~ again.
So much changes after this point, but first and foremost, Dean reclaims just a tiny shred of hope. And in season seven, that's huge.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page (in addition to all the usual great stuff, scroll to the bottom for LOTS of links to PR
My tag (far more robust than most other s7 episodes lolol)
The Studio and Network Draft script
thevioletcaptain’s post about DaphnE AlleN
My rewatch notes from October 2019
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5)
Shipper Zero discusses the song choice of Turn Into Earth
Aah, shipper Zero again…
A long collaborative post about Daphne
there’s so much more in my tag, though, so please if you have an hour to kill, think about scrolling through :)
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Yes, things locked in boxes unwittingly released to wreak havoc and ruin lives. Again. Still kinda shocked at how many times Sam and Dean still attempt to lock things up to solve their problems after all the escaped things they've had to round up and deal with over the years.
We also get a lot of innuendo and queercoding for Dean, and Sam's decompensating fast now that that he can't stuff his hallucinations back in their box with the scar button on his hand. We also finally begin to learn some of what the Leviathans have been planning. And while they may be practically invincible and invulnerable, they're also apparently largely... not all that competent as a whole.
Okay, I think I'm pas de done for now, so let's have some LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
And I guess that’s all for this week, which is probably for the best. Next week is gonna be A Lot.
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Does this make Dean the dog again? Also, a very good reminder that antipossession symbol tattoos are a thing in this universe, and maybe it would've been a good thing for them to have shared with a heck of a lot more people than they did, you know?
Also, some very interesting parallels through the MotW, a guy who went to extraordinary measures to bring back the demon (angel?) because he was in love with him. Two episodes before Cas comes back...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page (including links to minutiae and trivia about the episode, transcripts, promo clips, etc. as usual… I stopped adding all those things separately a while back, so every once in a while I like to remind folks how much interesting info is on the Superwiki page for every episode!)
My tag
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series
A life well-lived comes from the structured pursuit of meaningful happiness. (rewatch notes from January 2018)
My rewatch notes from May 2017
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I love this episode. After half a season of beating on Dean emotionally, while all of Sam's crazy fit under the Hallucifer umbrella he could control with the button on his hand, Sam finally gets some horror from the outside.
From clowns.
I mean, Dean has to face some baggage from his childhood, as well, but it's not as dramatic as Sam getting pounded on by maniac clowns. Plus we get an actual (magically created, anyway) unicorn!
This whole episode just feels like a reprieve from their otherwise unrelenting series of losses, and we really needed the break right about now...
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My Tag
My Rewatch Notes from July 2019
Lizbob’s notes on Sam and Dean characterization that use this episode as one example
My fic Dean’s Days Off (14k, fluff, destiel) exploring what I always felt Dean was up to when he dumped Sam off at places like Plucky’s for a few hours
More Dean Posting
Even More Dean Posting
My rewatch notes from March 2016
Lizbob’s rewatch notes (long, but worth the read, because we might be the two largest appreciators of this episode in the world lol)
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Oh, bucklemming with their fast-growing monster babies... only they foisted this one off on Dean. To me, this one has always felt like a ham-fisted attempt to balance out the Amy Pond storyline from earlier this season, that just makes it all the more unbalanced.
Sam might think the scales are balanced now, but mostly because he's not exactly in touch with reality himself here... or at the very least not seeing Dean clearly. This is the part of s7 where the writers seemed to forget Sam was constantly hallucifering all over the place, but that makes a hell of a lot more sense when we do remember that while watching.
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My tag (only two pages of posts!)
The People’s Choice Pantsless Promo video
My rewatch notes from July 2019 (mostly about Sam and Dean and their main conflict throughout s6 and s7, really… and Sam’s dependence on his Magic Anti-Hallucination Button to the exclusion of actually perceiving reality unless it fits with his personal understanding of it. Plus, proof there can be good stuff even in egregious bucklemming episodes… Seriously, if you only click one link here, make it this one.)
My Complaint™ about the handprint disappearing
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Time travel, and Dean gets to meet a personal hero in the flesh, while Sam and Jody have to save his ass from 1944. I love watching them all work at the same problem from opposite directions, and are able to make everything come together in the end. Plus who can resist Dean in that suit? Or resist just how much Dean loves that suit? Plus he's absolutely brilliant throughout this one (thank you Robbie Thompson, yet again!), and brilliantly queercoded. I could talk about this one for ages, but I already did...
Fine, just enjoy this one. I know we all will.
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My tag
My Dean is a Genius post from July 2020
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (yes, the same one as for the last few episodes)
Lizbob’s post about the final deleted scene from this episode
My rewatch notes from May 2017
My post about Sam and Dean’s Rochambeau history
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Sam and Dean each try to cope with Bobby's death and honor him in their own way-- Sam by helping a young girl asking for Bobby's assistance, and Dean by obsessively trying to decode the numbers Bobby died to give them. It's all not particularly healthy, but they all learn something by the end.
Sam learns that Vetalas usually hunt in pairs, and Dean learns that if he doesn't want to quit, to walk away from hunting entirely, he should convince himself he'll be fine until the end of the week and then paste on a smile and be a professional. Thanks for that helpful advice, Frank!
Have I mentioned I kinda love that guy? I mean... the advice itself is kinda horrifying, but it reveals new hidden depths in Frank. Plus we meet Krissy and her dad, who I always wish had been truly able to free themselves from hunting. But this is Supernatural, so you know how that goes...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
My rewatch notes from May 2017 (where two is better than one)
A reminder of lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series post from 7.09 (which will also be relevant in 7.12)
My rewatch notes from July 2019
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Welcome to another episode, it's time to feel Sad and Angry... sangry? That's right, Bobby dies.
Sam is sad, but struggling hard to maintain his grip on reality, and it hurts him deeply that he can't fully mourn Bobby. I mean, we can't see it here, but just imagine how horrible the Hallucifer in his head could be in this situation. His beloved father figure dying could've proved nightmare fuel for Hallucifer.
And Dean is just furious about it, but hey, at least he's feeling something other than the nihilistic depression? He finally had a specific, direct target for all that pain, and it's one Mr. Dick Roman, Leviathan.
Do they have any idea how to actually kill him? Well, no. But that doesn't matter to Dean's anger.
And then Bobby (and Rufus! how awesome is it to see Rufus again, even in this horrible circumstance). I think nearly everyone is still mad about Bobby. :'D
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Rewatch notes from July 2019
Rewatch notes from July 2017
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Can you guess when I joined GISHWHES for the first time? Aah, nostalgia for Team AngrySandwich! So clearly I enjoy this episode (at least until the last two minutes...) :'D
Dean finally gets a little respite from his feelings via the aforementioned sandwich, only for realty to crash back down on him ten times as hard. And he and Sam each have a heartfelt conversation with Bobby, before the aforementioned last two minutes.
But before that, we have an awful lot of fun... A return to the mytharc and Dick Roman and a glimpse at the sinister larger plans the Leviathans are carrying out while the narrative strips Sam and Dean of everything they love... even the simple things like "electricity" and "running water."
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag (only 3 pages and half of them are gifs, so really here’s my rewatch notes from July 2017)
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series
The fic I can remember off the top of my head where I sneaked Ranger Rick in: Around the World in 24 Days, technically part 5 of the Tumblr Anonymous ‘verse (aka Project Beyonce). It’s over 101k, rated M, and destiel, based on the Amazing Race. I made Rick one of the easter egg cameramen, so it’s not like he’s got a big part. But never pass up a chance to plug your own work! :D
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And here we finally get an episode that gets right to the heart of Dean's fears. He's just trying so hard to be a Good Brother. To respect Sam's wishes, to let him make his own decisions about his life, and not only does Sam STILL think Dean is being judgmental and controlling when he tries to save Sam from what is very obviously a terrible situation from the outside, Sam resents him for it the entire time (well, until he snaps out of the love potion spell anyway...)
It's a very specific (and really skeevy) way to show us in small scale how Dean is feeling about Sam and his larger season issues about the Hallucifering, and being concerned that Sam really doesn't have as much agency in all of this as he's trying to convince Dean that he does. Because boy is Sam making some weak choices...
Plus, who can really hate Guy the demon?
I mean, thank heck Dabb gets to bring Becky back in s15 for some redemption after this one, but this one also highlights just how much Chuck's hand is stuck to everything in the story. Always good to keep that in mind during a rewatch.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
My rewatch notes from July 2019 (if you only read one thing, etc. etc.)
Lizbob’s excellent meta about Book Fandom vs Show Fandom
Because I can, even if I think I linked this one way back in 1.04, have a fic where I bring back Guy the demon for a short bit… The Terminal Job (24k words, rated M, case fic, destiel)
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I do really enjoy this one, even if a lot of the fandom doesn't. I do enjoy Dean finally getting to feel at least a little relief, justifying his actions and turning at least a little of that back around on Sam.
It's a bit of an unconventional case, and I always enjoy those. And the character growth is incredibly on point considering this is the only episode these two writers ever did. They'd definitely been taking notes.
And since it's Thanksgiving, I'll just let the episode stand on its own this week. It's a good one to just sit back, relax, and enjoy some pie with. :)
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag (only 3 pages of posts, lots of versions of the Virile Manifestation of the Divine gif set mixed in with some good meaty Dean meta! It’s worth wading through a bit…)
My rewatch notes from May 2017
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series
My fic, It's Lily Dale, 14k of destiel wacky case fic about truth and lies, and Sam getting accidentally cursed in Lily Dale. Rated T.
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Welcome to the show, Robbie Thompson!
Do... do we need more hype than that for this week's episode? If so, we get more Jody Mills! We get Sam, Dean, and Bobby having to confront their gooey leviathan duplicates, we meet Frank, we get a little trip down memory lane to some early s1 cases, Baby goes into her s7 lockdown and we begin the journey of POS cars. But we also get a breakthrough on dealing with leviathan in general. They're highly allergic to borax. So saddle up your mule team and let's enjoy the ride!
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag for this episode
Filming locations map
My rewatch notes from July 2019
I won’t post this for every Robbie episode, but here’s an interview with him discussing every episode he wrote for Supernatural
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas Are In Love series, about the All Out Of Love scene
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Bucklemming is back, and for them this one is actually pretty enjoyable, so I'll take it. Plus you can't be mad about Spike and Cordelia as feuding witches.
Dean's guilt is still getting the better of them, and Sam is pushing way too hard trying to make Dean talk about his feelings. I'm sure that won't lead to a catastrophic personal situation for them... This episode is pretty good at pointing out some of the foundations of Performing Dean, though, so credit where that's due. And for a guy that wants his brother to open up, Sam can get pretty snarky and judgmental in the few moments that Dean actually does. It doesn't give Dean a lot of incentive to actually show his feelings.
Especially when half those feelings are worry over Sam (even if this episode doesn't really show it much, we shouldn't forget he's still hallucifering it up in there), half are worry and turmoil over the nebulous situation they've found themselves in (the leviathan, having lost Cas, having lost Bobby's house as a home base, etc.), and half are just plain old guilt. (yes that's three halves, Dean has a LOT of feelings, okay?)
LINKS!
The Superwiki page (with loads of links to outside media and promo stuff)
My tag
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series focusing on Dean’s nightmare
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
This episode is here seemingly only to flog us with the fact that Dean Is Not Doing Well. Sam may have bounced back guilt-free and performatively coping with his hallucifering, but when Dean gets a second to breathe he just dives head-first into feeling trauma, guilt, and loss. And that's a super terrible combo platter on a good day.
And this is not a good day... >.>
Yes I get a little grumpy with Sam, and Dean, and this whole stupid situation. At least Osiris has cool decor, I guess.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Filming locations map
My rewatch notes from July 2017
My rewatch notes from May 2017 (aah, the good old days when the tnt loop took less than 3 months)
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
The trick to this one is to see everyone's perspective, or you end up hating someone in short order, and that is not what we're here for... >.>
While I like to stick to the watsonian perspective when I talk about the show, and I do in the episode, I want to mention the doylist perspective here for just a second. This one really feels like the assignment was "have Dean cross a line to show just how poorly he's coping" since so much of the first two episodes were about Sam's lack of touch with reality and the couple attempts they made to poke at Dean's mental state through everything were dismissed as unimportant in the face of the rest of their problems, even though it was clear that was a bald-faced lie at the time.
So this feels like an overcorrection on that front, using the unfortunate sequence of events and kind of almost glossing over Sam's Hallucifering, or showing us from Dean's perspective just how subtle it can look, as he does Mostly Okay from what WE see after the initial disconnect from reality in this episode. Yet it has Dean going so far off the rails that he's choosing murder as the safety net of protecting Sam from himself... and of course this will come back to bite him a lot, even into next season. And that I do get into during the episode.
But the writing choices here just lead to some of the emotional unevenness of the early part of s7, and I do find that mildly annoying. >.>
LINKS!
The Superwiki page (with additional links to interviews with Jensen about filming, under the Minutiae section)
My tag
Filming locations map
The Production Draft script, Blue Revisions, and Pink Revisions, plus the Second Unit Call Sheet
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
And boy is it ever cruel! The subtitle there refers to the plot climax of this one, but also to season seven as a whole. The entire thing is built on pain being the key to reality, and doesn't that just suck! Like, massively! It sucks for Sam, it sucks for Dean, and it sucks for all of us! But we shall endure. :'D
We lose Cas right at the start, and then Dean carries his coat away like a widow leaving a soldier's funeral with a flag, and that sets the stage for his grief and guilt for the first long segment of the season. Meanwhile, Sam's just not coping well with his smashed walls and resurfacing Hell trauma, and using Dean's technique of repressing and denying is really, really not working for him.
So, bring on the pain and losses and gooey jerks who are this season's Big Bad-- a metaphor for capitalism. Wheee.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page (with loads of bts photos from director Guy Bee)
My tag
Filming locations map
Commentary from Serge Ladouceur
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part 1) (part 2)
Promo clip 1, Promo clip 2 (that has that sort of corporate ad vibe s7 plays into…) (for the record, this is the last time I'll include promo clips here, since they're all linked from the Superwiki page if you're interested... I'm trying to save word count for posting purposes, and we'll see how that goes!
Questions, concerns, comments? Contact me here on tumblr (through the inbox or dm's, I'm around a lot), on Bluesky, on discord as mittensmorgul, or via email at mittensmorgul @ gmail. :)
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Same as the old boss... (won't get fooled again... screaming)
Welcome to season seven, where they could've done something truly great but instead did this... We could've had a season of Godstiel, trying to save Cas from himself and Leviathan Possession, but no. Though the specific way they screwed this up becomes the foundation for the relationship between Dean and Cas for the rest of the series, so at least we have that.
And isn't it a LOT easier to watch s7 knowing that going in? I think so!
Plus Death is in this one, and I adore that guy. At least as much as I really don't like Lucifer-- even this imaginary version currently plaguing poor Sam.
At least we have one more episode with Cas, even if he's really going through it. And I'm gonna spend a lot of s7 referencing s15. Partly because Chuck seemed really enamored with the Leviathan as a monster, but also because it feels very relevant to Chuck's Favorite Story in a lot of ways.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
filming locations map
Promo for Season 7 #1, Promo #2, Promo #3, Webclip
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love Series: (yeah this one’s A Series Of Pain!) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
Since I mentioned it in the podcast, the list of all the creative insults Crowley used
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
A season finale that really runs as part one of a two-parter. I had to firmly sort the events of this one out of the events of 7.01, and mostly succeeded, I hope.
Poor Sam has to put himself back together after Cas breaks his wall in a desperate last-ditch attempt to go through with his awful plan. Somewhere along the line, this power grab stopped being About Saving Dean and morphed into something truly awful. And all the while Our Guys have NO idea what Cas's actual goal in his determination to defeat Raphael actually is! They don't understand what Raphael in power in heaven would mean for them very specifically! Resuming the apocalypse, forcing Lucifer and Michael into Sam and Dean, and the end of everything on earth!
I will never be over the fact that if Cas had just shared that tiny fragment of information with them from the start, Sam and Dean both would've been all about helping Cas defeat Raphael, whatever that ended up looking like. But heck, they never even had a chance. And now, Cas has no idea why all his friends are "betraying" him, because he's so single-minded in his goal of busting open Purgatory like a cold one and drinking down the boys... like... without that One Key Detail, it sounds like an insane plan! And it even sounds like an insane plan to folks who DO know what Raphael plans to do (like Balthazar!). So really.. this is just a mountain of frustration and sadness and The Consequences Of Their Own Actions. And it all lands on Cas right here... :(
The Superwiki page
My tag
Filming locations map
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series
Flee or Die (my wailing summary of s6)
My rewatch notes from July 2017
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Things really start falling apart... Cas's plans are breaking down, Bobby's chasing leads from H.P. Lovecraft, and Dean's chasing the demons who went after Lisa and Ben, and makes terrible choices as a result. It's just Bad Decisions Day all around!
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My Tag
Filming locations map
Sera introduces 6.21 and 6.22
Extended promo clip for 6.21 and 6.22
My reply to an anon in April 2019 about why Dean had Lisa and Ben’s memories wiped
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (post 1) (post 2) (post 3)
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
This week: Studies in new levels of crippling emotional pain! That's right, we've arrived at The Agonies! I really don't believe I have to work hard to introduce this one, so I'll yammer about the caption i put on the graphic this week: big plans for that fish.
Yes, Cas is the fish. Way down the line, he's just got so much fish and fishing imagery attached to him, that really this one does feel like a little fishy just flopping up out of the water for the first time and testing out what free will is all about. Unfortunately pretty much everything goes sideways for him.
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My tag
Filming locations map
Video of Ben Edlund talking about directing at Paleyfest
(there’s a large number of interviews with Edlund, Misha, and Mark S. linked at the bottom of the Superwiki page for this one, in the interest of character count limitations on Spotify, I’m not linking them all here lol, but please have this one titled “Castiel’s Betrayal is going to hurt Dean deeply”)
Synopsis of The Man Who Would Be King 1975( film)
Probably important for this episode even more than usual, Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series. there are… a lot of parts this week, and I didn’t bother trying to figure out if they have a correct order, and the numbers are just to differentiate the links. so here goes, good luck! (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6) (part 7) (okay does everyone understand this episode is about Cas doing all of this For Dean)
The CW Promo video (notable for Cas’s lines being cut to a pleading “STOP ME!”)
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Hello everyone, this is your captain speaking. If you look out the left side of the plane, you can watch Castiel's carefully constructed plans begin to unravel in catastrophic fashion! Because by the end of this episode, he's reaching the point of no return. He's got maybe one more chance to take it all back after the events of this episode, but we all know he's passed that emotional point of no return months and months ago (when he walked away from Dean raking leaves insert a bajillion sobbing emojis here).
So we get Dean's own humanity working against him, but also working for him. And he gets to be a Jefferson Starship for a hot minute. And we see Cas willing to sacrifice his own "humanity" to do what he believes he needs to do to save everyone else (and especially Dean).
It's all just sad.
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My Tag
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part one) (part two) (part three) (part four) (and i just realized I borked the order, read them in reverse for a chronological experience lol)
Filming locations map
CW Promo
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
We get yet another peek at the undercurrent of season 6, the bigger picture of what's really going on with Cas. And again, it's one of those things you can't notice until you know the full trick of the season. But on rewatch, it's so much more heartbreaking when you know what's coming.
I also really do think this is where Dean's fascination with cowboys and the wild west moves from loving movies about it to actually taking an interest in the real history of it all. Kinda hard not to when you're immersed in all that authenticity! Plus I really love his coat.
We also get a little more of the backstory of the Colt. I honestly wish I could watch the conversation between Samuel Colt and Elkins, considering 140-odd years later we find the gun in possession of a guy named Daniel Elkins, a renowned vampire hunter. I... would honestly love to hear the story of the Colt and the Elkins family, and how they became the guardians of this weapon that was so entirely foundational to the entire narrative. Alas, that's left to our collective imagination... What I do have, is:
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag (with lots of posts comparing this one to much later Dabb Era plot arcs, for obvious reasons)
Storyboards for the gunfight scene
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are in Love series installments for this episode: (part 1) (part 2, which is the big neon sign to the bigger plot of s6 i mentioned hidden in this episode for those who know enough to see it)
Video of the Bonanza opening title sequence on which this episode’s special title card was based
Ennio Morricone’s The Ecstasy of Gold scene from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, not for any particular reason, but because I enjoy the tumblr post about it :’D (okay, the music in this episode is all a nod to Ennio Morricone and old Spaghetti Westerns in general, so enjoy the gay little run for three and a half minutes uninterrupted)
Filming locations map
CW Promo video
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
For an episode that feels very much like a throwaway MotW romp of silliness on a first watch of the series, this one sure does have some much stronger implications buried in it when you know what's coming three episodes down the road...
By the time we learn Crowley loaned 50k souls to smack down Raphael before the events of s6 that we've witnessed to this point, I think we forget that this whole wild plan in THIS episode was specifically engineered to manufacture... 50k new souls. It almost feels as if this was a last-ditch attempt for Cas to try and "fix" things, to get out of that deal, to pay Crowley back and walk away. But it failed. It only puts Sam and Dean in more direct danger, and he abandons it as quickly and messily as he began.
IT'S A TRAGEDY. And on a first watch, you can't possibly understand it. Which is why we do this! For the pain! :D
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My Tag
Filming locations map
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part 1) (part 2) (part 3)
My rewatch notes from April 2017
The CW Promo video
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Yes, the title is Agatha Christie, and the themes are kind of similar in a general sense... a bunch of people all enticed to the same location and everyone ends up dead. Well..., not entirely everyone. Their true "host" for these events is still walking around (Eve) and Sam, Dean, and Bobby all live to fight another day. But everyone else? Eh... not so much.
Khan worm monster gets squished though, which... ew lol.
But as I say in the recording, overall in the big scheme of things, while we do finally learn little bit more about Eve, this one ends up feeling rather sad and pointless in the bigger scheme of things. And I just find that a little disappointing.
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My Tag
Filming Locations map
CW Promo video
We're also into the final hours of the @spnscripthunt fundraiser and raffle in support of World Central Kitchen, and we're still nearly a thousand dollars shy of our original goal. You have a chance to win one of up to 30 Supernatural scripts autographed by the cast (one entry for every $10 donated! details at the link for all of this), but you only have until Midnight Eastern Time on Saturday night to donate!
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
I realized after i finished editing this one that I didn’t even talk about the title of this one. It’s a reference to a very specific fourth wall break in cinema history. From my second favorite movie released the year I was born, Blazing Saddles. I’ll link to a post with the video clip from the end of the film below though.
For anyone who doesn’t know the film though, it’s a western. It’s a dang silly Mel Brooks western, too, with a lot of social commentary (heavily rooted in when it was made… 1974…). And at the end of the movie, at the climax of action, we… cut to an exterior shot of a film studio, and then move into a studio where they’re shooting a big old-timey song and dance number (think Fred Astaire’s backup dancers sort of deal), dozens of flamboyant men in tuxedos singing about “doing the French Mistake” when a director calls cut because someone was out of step. The director himself them proceeds to show the dancers how simple it is (and the flamboyant director refers to the dancers as “Sissy Marys” and “faggots” in his grumpy orders… but then proceeds to throw out his hands, stick out his tush, hands on his hips, give them a push… finishing by accidentally kneeling down in a fountain…
then as the dancers try again from the top, they’ve just begun when… the cast of Blazing Saddles literally comes crashing through the wall. Just knock out a whole wall of their set and keep right on fighting. The director desperately tries to call cut, but one of the cowboy characters runs up to him and says nah I’m working for Mel Brooks! like that’s supposed to give him permission to run roughshod over another film, too.
Which… seems plausible, because one of the top-hatted dancers likes the idea of this, yells COME ON, GIRLS to the other (again, all male) dancers, and run right into the cowboy brawl. And it all turns irrevocably gay. All the cowboys paired up with dancers and making love not war.
So I needed to at least make note of that somewhere. :’D
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My tag
The Blazing Saddles reference post, with video
s15 meta rewatch notes (less than 300 words… a very succinct post)
Filming locations map
Interview with Sera Gamble
a one minute long promo video that is entirely worth your time to watch… go do that right this second before you hit play on the podcast… no really please do
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Do I have to describe this one? >.>
Haunted kidney, Baby is a sex doll, and this is about as far from a win as the Winchesters ever get.
Dean's relationship with Lisa is firmly and officially over. Sam Sams, and pretty much everyone else dies, so... wheee? >.>
In better news, this is officially the shortest episode of the SPN Georg podcast to date, so there's that...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
my rewatch notes from July 2019
my rewatch notes from April 2017
shameless self-promotion of my own fanfic because this episode includes a flash of Dean’s phone screen, with a selfie of his feet propped up in the motel room from 6.09 and a link to the fic in question, (specifically the second installment in the series and beyond, but here have the whole thing lol) mostly because i feel bad y’all had to endure the haunted kidney
Filming locations map
Splinter unit call sheet and sides (script pages)
CW Promo video
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Yes, I had to watch it again, despite Sam's specific struggles in this episode being a source of... let's call it personal emotional distress for me. So I'm gonna talk lightly about it as much as possible.
I also am super creeped by the concept of the spider people, so... winning all around for me I guess. >.>
In far better news, this episode has our only full draft script from season six! We've got the green draft, which you can read in its entirety at the link below. This was the very first script that I personally bought, long before the Script Hunt server was established, and started us on the long strange journey of collecting as many as possible.
Which brings me to two additional points this week:
- The @spnscripthunt is currently running a donation giveaway of (potentially, depending on the total donated) 30 autographed scripts from our collection! To see the full list of prizes and check our progress, please visit our World Central Kitchen direct contribution page. Currently we're at just over $2k raised, with 15 scripts unlocked for giveaway! The raffle closes on August 26, 2023, so enter soon for a chance to win one!
- We're always on the lookout for additional scripts to add to the collection. If you have any scripts that aren't already in the publicly available free collection (a full list of what we already have can be found here on the Superwiki, with links to all of them for your reading pleasure), please contact the scripthunt via any of our social media!
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My tag
My rewatch notes from July 2019
The Full Green Draft Script
Filming locations map
CW Promo video
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
No I will never be over the fact this is the only episode we actually hear dragons exist, and they're basically... dudes. I mean, par for the course, but still disappointing just a little bit.
Dean gets to experience having wealth, Sam gets told the truth about his soulless year, Cas is the dingdong who breaks the news (and gosh is he looking ragged too...), and we're into the murky middle of season six. This run of episodes is... not my favorite lol. But here we go.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Filming Locations map
My rewatch notes from July 2019
Interview with Adam Glass
CW Promo video
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
This is in my top three favorite episodes of the entire series! Enough said!
Okay, fine, I'll say more.
This one asks us several Big Questions and is as vague as Death about the answers. What is a soul even? Who is Sam without his and was existing without his soul really living? Or really Sam? And what's the larger point of season 6 as a whole? Because yes it really is all about the souls -- souls as a source of power but at what cost? Oh the humanity, etc. And getting a peek at the Larger Cosmic Order and what it means to keep it in balance, as well as what happens when that starts to break down and chaos and destruction ensue... all important concepts in later seasons (Cosmic Consequences!).
LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My tag
My Rewatch Notes from July 2019
Map of filming locations
Interview with Robert Englund from the time of filming
CW Promo
SpaceTV Promo
SpaceTV Sneak Peek
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
There's just a lot going on in this one. So much. We get the return of Meg, in an enemy-of-my-enemy situation, we get Samuel and learn the depths to which he's willing to sink to get what he wants, the horror of his current situation, and we learn that Crowley was never able to get Sam's soul out of the cage making all their work for him bringing in monsters to torture (and yeesh to that...) pointless. But at least it looks like Cas is still on their side? >.>
I mean... it FEELS like we're getting to the heart of the truth, it FEELS like at least some of their problems have been resolved, right? GAME SHOW LOSER BUZZER NOISES
Welcome to season six... where the second you think you know the truth you fall through a trap door into a deeper layer of falsehoods!
(it's all still incredibly important to the overall narrative, and again, you can only tell that when you already know where this is all leading...)
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Filming Locations Map
Promo videos: cw promo, space promo, space sneak peek 1, space sneak peek 2
Some of my thoughts on Cas and Sexuality
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are in Love series to punch you in the feels
Brett Matthews' original vision for the tentacle monster
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
I love this one. Even if it ruined Space Oddity for me forever. :'D
It's like nine different crimes against Dean Winchester in a glittery glue bomb. Plus it's also the absolute best Soulless!Sam episode. I do thoroughly enjoy every minute of this episode, though, so I'll just let everyone else go about enjoying it, too and stop yammering in the notes about it. :'D
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag (this episode is so very gif worthy)
this very short post
Filming locations map
An interview with Ben Edlund
CW Promo (leans into the fairy)
SpaceTV Promo (leans into the x-files references)
SpaceTV promo 2 (both ufo’s and fairies!)
And because I can, please have my suggestion for how they could’ve made an awesome fairie case relevant in later canon… Hurry Up And Wait (rated M, bonus destiel, special surprise guests, 22k words, written during early s12)
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
(except these dogs, because they're actually monsters, but purgatory probably needs doggos too so...)
I am not gonna sugar coat this one. It's... not good lol. Like it's one of the episodes I'd repeatedly forget existed at all until it came back up on the rewatch. Unfortunately I've rewatched the series so many times now that I'm incapable of forgetting it exists now.
Like all the worst episodes, though, there's like three minutes at the end of the episode that's actually too important to overlook as character/meta/overarching narrative plot points, and I did my best to not talk about it out of order. I mean, I had to suffer through this one (several times, thanks to having to edit it lol), so it's only fair that everyone has to hear about the weird dogs.
I do appreciate this one for demonstrating just how not-great Soulless!Sam as a hunter... Since everyone from Bobby to Samuel has been saying all season that Sam has been an incredible hunter over the last year, it's really satisfying to have some direct evidence that hooboy... being uncaring and ruthless is a terrible, terrible hunting strategy. So that's something, I guess.
Anyway, have some LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My tag
Filming locations map
An interview with Jared and Jensen pre-s6 by KSite TV
CW Promo
SpaceTV Promo
SpaceTV teaser clip
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
The Campbells are up to some shady shit. The Alpha Vampire gets to break some delightfully terrible news. And oh yeah, Sam popped outta hell wrong!
I think I covered pretty much everything I wanted to in this one, so I’m gonna lay out some puzzling conundrums in this space for everyone to ponder instead:
The Alpha Vampire could tell Sam had no soul at ten paces, but apparently none of the other supernatural beings Sam had encountered in the previous year-plus could tell (or at least none of them bothered to tell ~him~ or any of his cohorts). (obviously leaving out Veritas last week who was shocked he could lie to her, assumed he wasn’t human, but didn’t pick up on the why...) I feel like this was written for a “make for a shocking and badass moment for this episode” while not really considering the wider implications of this statement meant for the cosmology and supernatural beings in their universe on a larger scale.
(maybe because they’re predators vampires have different senses for detecting prey, and more finely honed skills at differentiating what they’re sensing? as opposed to angels and demons who don’t specifically prey on humanity in this way? eh... there’s just so many holes in the logic to poke at! and this is in an episode I generally enjoy!)
It’s never really explained later in canon how the Alpha Vampire survived being taken directly to Crowley for torture, unless Crowley just didn’t have a weapon capable of killing him. Or just like... came to an accord with the Vampire and released him, or the Alpha escaped yet again. He just turns up again next season like nbd. And I have questions :’D
But all that’s not exactly relevant to the episode. What is relevant to this one and upcoming canon for the rest of s6 is that I truly believe this is the first time that Cas actually learns how tragically wrong he’d been in his assumption that he’d rescued Sam from the Cage. (and makes me question the logistics of how that cage rescue actually happened... Crowley-- we’ll learn in later seasons-- had been studying the magic of the cage for his own purposes, he would’ve had access and either granted access to Cas or else yoinked Sam himself and handed him over to Cas to raise from Hell. I just cannot reconcile Cas having done the deed all on his own, all by himself, and not realized he’d missed a significant bit. Because he is genuinely shaken and disturbed in this episode when he learns the truth about Sam... and it’s one of the main reasons he continues to avoid Dean... guilt, shame, horror...
Anyway, on that cheerful note, please have some LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My tag
Filming Locations map
CW Promo
SpaceTV Promo
SpaceTV sneak peek
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
aka truth coming out of her well to punch humanity in the nuts...
Welcome to the brutal, painful truth. Let’s start this week with a trigger warning for suicide and implied offscreen rape of a minor, because even if this show will gloss over stuff like that, I try to give a heads up about it. Because yikes…
Poor Dean has been desperate for the truth all season long, but everyone and everything has stood in his way. And now? he’s about to be kicked, repeatedly and forcefully, with the harshest possible version of the truth on all fronts.
He suffers the consequences of his poor choices in the previous episode regarding Lisa (and again, if Dean was actually Ben’s father, you’d think that would be something she would’ve been compelled to reveal in a Most Painful Possible Way in this episode, but she doesn’t, which is the final nail in my personal coffin for the fandom theory that Ben was really Dean’s kid... but that’s entirely beside the point of this episode, really...)
And we learn the truth that Sam has known all along that something was really wrong with him, and he’s been hiding it. And also unfortunately, Cas only shows up BEFORE Dean gets hit with the truth spell, so we’re still in the dark about what’s actually going on with him, though it is becoming clear that he feels pretty dang bad about it all anyway.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Filming Locations map
CW Promo video
SpaceTV promo video
Space TV sneak peek
I really do hope folks have been looking through my tag every week, but if you’ve fallen behind on reading Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series, this seems like a good place to start linking those again :’)
Also, since I recorded this episode two weeks ago, and Discord has FINALLY invited me to update my user name, I’m now just plain old mittensmorgul there as well. Come say hi! :)
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Dean gets to be a vampire for just long enough to have some awkward homoerotic tension and blow up his relationship with Lisa. We all get clobbered with just how Not Right Sam is behaving, and if seeing it from Dean’s pov isn’t enough, Samuel explains it in complete sentences for us. There’s just nothing subtle about this one, folks... But gosh is it fun to talk about :D
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Filming locations map
SpaceTV promo
SpaceTV Sneak Peek clip
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Welcome to our favorite director, Jensen Ackles! There’s just so much that happens in this episode, and he did a great job with it. Like a lot of season six, it looks like a fairly straightforward MotW case (or series of cases), but rewatching s6 is so much more interesting when you know where everything is headed.
The monsters are all acting “weird;” something is really really wrong with Sam, and Dean is really worried about it; Bobby finds a way to finagle his soul back from Crowley-- so right there we have lots of hints about the whole season. It’s the souls. And that will still sound like a cryptic statement seven episodes down the line when Death gives Dean that exact warning, but it really does sum up... pretty much all of s6 when you know everything that’s actually happening.
So we get to have some fun this week, learning a little more about Bobby’s life when he’s just at home doing his own thing, we get to enjoy Rufus and Jody again, and we get to meet Bobby’s new neighbor, who I assume immediately moved and never looked back. :’)
LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag
Filming locations map
Sneak Peek promo video
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
CAS! IS BACK! FINALLY. And also unfortunately just in time to set him up to take the big fall for basically all of s6.... >.>
So much of season six makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE on a rewatch, which is one of the reasons I was so excited to get to this point in the podcast. For folks who’ve never rewatched the series, or maybe only rewatched favorite episodes, hopefully we’re all learning a new appreciation for some of the less-loved parts of canon. But I think we can all agree that Balthazar is very lovable in all his nihilistic hedonism.
Plus we get new lore about angels, souls, and what’s been going on in Heaven for the last year... sort of...
Something is very wrong with Sam, and Dean’s reaching a breaking point about it that will still take multiple episodes to really come to a head, so I do some griping about that s well.
And we learn that Dean and Cas do share a more profound bond (he wasn’t gonna mention it!) in the very episode where (oops!) the handprint mysteriously disappears from Dean’s arm AND we learn about angels being able to lay claims on human souls... so all that’s very interesting, yes?
LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag (about six pages of posts)
Filming locations map
CW Promo
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Poor Sam (maybe it would help if he actually had a soul?) can’t figure out how Dean knows anything about caring for a 6-month-old infant whose mother has just been brutally murdered...
And poor Dean is Doing His Best and finally realizes there isn’t really a good solution to his dilemma of protecting Lisa and Ben from his life, and what he unwittingly brought to their doorstep. It’s tragic, no matter what he does.
Something is very fishy with the Campbell hunters, though, and it’s patently obvious on a rewatch when we all know how this shakes out. Golly I love doing a rewatch! It makes the foreshadowing hit like anvils.
This week’s links!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag (extra-short this week!)
(the two main posts to focus on are probably my episode recaps from April 2017 and July 2019)
Filming locations map
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Finally back from my personal hiatus, and I’m eager to get right into Season Six! I’m not sure that s6 is near the top of anyone’s favorite season list, but there’s just so much meaty goodness hidden away this season-- especially for my fellow Dean girls-- that I’m 100% serious about being excited to get into it. Maybe I can even change a few minds along the way (though... nobody will ever convince me to like a handful of s6 episodes, which will become abundantly clear when we hit them :’D).
I recorded this episode a month ago and edited it last week without going back and recording anything new for it. New episodes will now begin rolling out on my previous schedule, and hopefully I haven’t entirely forgotten how to do this. Thank you again everyone who’s stuck around to continue this journey out beyond Kripke era with me!
That said, let’s get right into the relevant links for further reading:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag
My rewatch notes from June 2020, which basically sum up all my feelings on this one
Filming locations map
Set report and bts photos
Interview with Fred Lehne about playing Azazel again
Interview with Sera Gamble about the “noir” season six
SpaceTV Promo #1
SpaceTV Promo #2
CW Extended promo clip
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Welcome to the end of Kripke Era (sort of... he steps back, but is involved enough with s6 to have written 6.22... and he sticks around to help shape s7 before running off to Revolution and taking two free Led Zeppelin tracks with him... thanks for nothing, pal... >.>)
(aside to note i got my annual reminder that kripke is like two and a half weeks older than me while paying more attention than usual to write notes for this-- he gave the impala his own birthday, plus 7 years-- and i always feel like i’ve been mugged when i remember all of these facts)
So this is a fandom favorite, often cited at the top of Best Episode lists and I... don’t really like it much. Sorry! lol I am not sorry. It’s 15.20 turned inside out, with at least the veneer of a hopeful ending because everyone was alive at the end of the episode so they could continue to live to fight another day. Which is like one microstep above what 15.20 left us with >.>
Anyway, that’s probably enough side-eyes emoticons for one intro post, and I say more than enough in the episode itself. So let’s get to those links:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag (heftier than usual)
The Production Draft script (white draft)
Filming Locations Map
Interview with Sera Gamble
Interview with Mark Pellegrino
Interview with Julie McNiven and Rob Benedict
CW Promo
SpaceTV Promo
Extended promo clip
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O Death! I will always love this episode just for the intro scene (and many other things too, but heck... that’s how you do a character intro!).
The penultimate episode of s5, and of Kripke Era. There’s just a lot going on, and I realized as I lay in bed after recording this that there was so much more I wanted to say about Death, Chuck’s Story/Process, and the parallel of Death having been shackled by Lucifer and prevented from acting independently here and yet how his actions (and non-actions to this point, including his cryptic message to Bobby delivered by zombie!Karen back in 5.15 Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid) are SHOCKINGLY similar to how Billie was made a pawn of Chuck’s’ s15 narrative. For many of the same reasons.
So at least now I’ve said it somewhere, but this is how I view Death throughout the series.
But I think I covered everything else in the episode, so...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series for this ep (here and here)
Filming locations map
CW promo clip
SpaceTV promo clip
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
Crowley is the devil the Winchesters know, but the Winchesters are the devil Crowley knows, and everybody’s gonna compromise at least a little to reach the common goal. And they all hope it’s gonna be worth it. With only two episodes left to go in s5 after this one, it’s getting to desperation hours...
I enjoy straightforward plot episodes. The main horrifying revelations in this one revolve around Sam, the awful choice he begins contemplating about how they might even remotely have a shot of dragging Lucifer back into the cage (I still hate the show for putting him through this), and just how tragically and inevitably he’d been manipulated into exactly this position his entire life. Even when he’d thought he’d been safest, when he’d thought he’d freed himself from a life entangled in the supernatural while he’d been at Stanford. It had all just been part of a very, very long game. And it’s heartbreaking to learn here at nearly the eleventh hour how little choice he’d ever really had in any of it.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag
Filming locations map
An interview with Mark Sheppard
Casting notice of Matt Frewer as Pestilence (which honestly should’ve been on the previous ep, but here it is now)
The CW promo video
The SpaceTV promo video
An Extended promo clip
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support
And we’re back after my unplanned and unscheduled week off! I’d probably feel better if our first episode back wasn’t notoriously Problematic™... But we do our best with it, and get through it with a side helping of the best pie in the tri-state area (honestly... what three states are we supposed to be measuring here? this is Muncie, Indiana...)
Anyway! We get Gabriel apparently committing to the side of Humanity, and apparently getting killed for it. Trickster gonna trick, though, and it’s nice knowing he’ll eventually be back again.
But he does provide them with a MacGuffin of hope, and a key to maybe finding a way to defeat Lucifer and stop the apocalypse...
LINKS:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag
My rewatch notes from June 2019
Filming Locations map
Short sneak peek promo video
Interview with RSJ about this episode, honestly worth it for the title alone
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Episode 100! blows party horns
regarding my tagline on this weeks’ graphic... I think everyone knows that the outtake we know that quote from comes courtesy of the season 5 gag reel, along with a number of other outtakes from this episode, and it feels suitably celebratory for the 100 episode milestone!
Yes, this is the 100th episode of Supernatural, but it’s also the 100th episode of this podcast! Thank you so much to everyone who’s stuck with me. I love and appreciate y’all so much :’)
We finally meet the real Adam (not the ghoul impersonator), Sam proves his faith in Dean even when Cas (and Dean himself) has despaired of it, and Zachariah meets his richly deserved end. It’s slightly on the long side this week, but I didn’t want to leave anything out... and to that end, I’ve also got a bit of supplemental reading for those interested, as well.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag
A post from norahastuff about the innuendo
Some wildly ironic rewatch notes from June 2020
Some thoughts on Adam
Some thoughts on Zachariah and his fatally misguided sense of self-importance (the citizen kane meta)
Have my whole zachariah tag honestly…
Filming locations map
Teaser post about the 100th episode
Short interview with Kurt Fuller and Jake Abel
Article about the 100th episode cast party
The CW promo
Extended teaser video
And because I am here for suffering, Lizbob’s two posts from the Dean and Cas are in Love series about this episode (part 1) (part 2)
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Heck that’s a lot of numbers :’D
We’re approaching the end of s5 and the apocalypse is heating up. Sam is trying to hold everything together while Dean and Cas are experiencing personal low points and losing all hope. And then they run right into the Whore of Babylon, preaching purity culture and manipulating her followers into damning themselves to hell. Good times, good times...
This one went a little longer than I was expecting, because I had a harder time watching it than I was expecting. But I’ll leave that to the podcast I already recorded to cover it rather than writing a whole essay here. This one took it out of me enough already.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
My rewatch notes from June 2020, June 2019, and July 2017
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are in Love series (part 1) and (part 2)
Filming locations map
Casting call for the Gideons
The CW Promo video, an extended promo clip, and the SpaceTV promo
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
We finally get to explore the Great Gig in the Sky... Heaven, as it were. I could talk about this episode for hours. Days, even. But what is Time. (and yes, I considered just assembling this entire post out of song titles and lyrics from the album, but I figured that would give us all Brain Damage... fine, I’ll stop now)
We finally get a peek behind the curtain, but what are we actually being shown? Who’s actually doing the “showing,” and what agendas (including Chuck’s) are influencing what Sam and Dean experience there?
Plus Dean and Cas both take major blows to their confidence in having any hope of defeating Lucifer and stopping the apocalypse. God has always been a dick, honestly. Sam... is still desperately clinging to hope, for now. Things are looking pretty grim all around, though.
I talked long enough in the episode, so here have some links:
The Superwiki page
My Tag for the episode
My cosmology of the spn universe tag
my tag for Heaven (and hell, purgatory, and the empty)
my tag for soulmates (mercifully briefer than the previous two lol)
filming locations map
the Network Draft script
an interview with Thunderbird Dinwiddie (Pamela)
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Slightly off kilter since it was written, filmed, and intended to air BEFORE what we all think of as 5.14, it still punches us all in the face with Bobby Feels, with Sad Dean Feels, with zombie pie, and with JODY MILLS.
It’s an exceptionally short episode this week, so here let’s get right to the bonus material:
The Superwiki page
My tag
Rewatch notes from June 2019 and April 2017
Lizbob’s post about this episode, which I think is essential reading for all the emotional threads, as well as her posts about Karen and pie, (here and here)
The Network Draft of the script
Filming locations map
Two interviews with Jim Beaver about this episode, one in Movieweb (archived) and one in the LA Times
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Famine. We’re back to the Horsemen, the apocalypse, and learn some deep truths about Team Free Will. I think the most important takeaways from this episode are to remember that it was written and produced to come AFTER the episode that aired as 5.15 (Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid), and immediately before 5.16 Dark Side of the Moon. It makes so much more sense emotionally and for character continuity that way... thanks 2012 Winter Olympics for screwing it up lol.
The surface level read of Dean and Cas’s revelations in this one obscure a much deeper truth for both of them. Sam... is the most surface-level honest about his hunger. And it’s all agonizing!
Plus we learn some very painful things about John and Mary Winchester, and just how much Heaven meddled in their relationship. Which I find doubly fascinating now that we’re watching The Winchesters. We’ll talk about all of that and more, but there’s also a lot of bonus material for this one, because I’ve talked about all of this before, as well.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
A convenient post with lots of links about my understanding of Castiel, the nature of angel grace, and human souls
Edlund’s quote about his intent with Castiel’s hunger
My rewatch notes from April 2017 (honestly i could probably just read out this post and call it a day)
My rewatch notes from June 2019
Filming locations map
Interview with Edlund from buddytv
The CW promo
Extended promo clip #1
Extended promo clip #2
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Heaven (and in this case, specifically Michael) has an agenda. The long-scheduled apocalypse is proceeding apace, but how does one convince one’s recalcitrant vessel to play along? Well, a nice little demonstration of power, combined with a charmingly delivered (I’m sure Michael thought he was ever so polite about it) reminder that there’s no such thing as Free Will and everything in the history of the universe had been leading them to that moment where Dean will say yes and accept his fate.
Kinda horrifying, when you think about it in those terms alongside Dean’s ultimate confrontation against this in s15. And even worse when you think about 15.20, where it finally played out that way, with the rest of the entire story rendered irrelevant in 40 minutes. Good times... >.>
But this is where Dean plants his free will flag, which will become his final major plot arc of the entire series-- wrestling with the notion that none of it may have ever been real at all. So this is a big one. Plus, John and Mary in the 70′s, which is wild now that we’re seeing The Winchesters.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this ep
My tag for this ep
My rewatch notes from June 2019 and April 2017 and October 2016
Molly Hatchet’s The Creeper
Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same
Filming locations map
The CW promo (what if the Winchesters were never born? interesting question!)
Extended teaser clip
SpaceTV promo (Sam Winchester has to die!)
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
That one where Sam was Gary! A true MotW that has Dean mostly tiptoeing around Sam in the aftermath of his confession at the end of the previous episode. Even when “Sam” is behaving in incredibly un-Sam-like ways, Dean’s still hesitant to poke too hard at it. I’m not sure this episode could’ve worked under other circumstances (Dean would’ve twigged to it sooner if he wasn’t trying so hard to be agreeable with Sam), or otherwise would’ve just been sad (like if the reason the other didn’t twig to it was due to them being on the outs... it really wouldn’t have been as humorous). Small favors, I guess?
Anyway, what more can we really say about this one. Have some (hopefully) fun extras to go along with it:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My (incredibly sparse) tag for this episode
The glorious Sam Samming post
My rewatch notes from June 2019 and from April 2017
Filming locations map
Casting call for Gary and Nora
The CW promo video
The SpaceTV promo video
A bit of shameless self-promotion, please enjoy a link to my six-way body swap fic, since the show never took this concept to its full wackadoo potential, but I really tried to... Until I Know This Sure Uncertainty, I'll Entertain The Offered Fallacy (rated T, canon case fic, ~13k words, set near the end of s12, very comedy of errors)
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
It hits me once in a while how many monsters almost managed to take out Sam and Dean, and the wraith in this episode is an especially good example-- she of the “okie dokie” and the absolute confidence in her own understanding of the situation to control it all, to manipulate the story to her own advantage with a smile on her face and a spring in her step. She really thought she was invincible, right up to the moment she wasn’t.
Is that just “plot armor” for Sam and Dean? Eh, I don’t think so. I mean, the angels weren’t really worried for the vessels of Michael and Lucifer, you know? Zachariah voice we’d just bring you back. This really is Sam and Dean just being better than the monsters, back in the day when they weren’t Sam and Dean Winchester the legendary hunters monsters tell scary stories about in the dark.
File all that under: Why I have zero problems with later canon that outs Chuck as God controlling the story all along. This is why Sam and Dean are his favorite characters.
Okay, since all of that has nothing to do with what I actually talk about in this week’s episode, let’s just get on with it...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Scripts (production draft, blue revisions, one line schedule, Director’s notes on blue revision draft)
The Dr. Babar clip from the movie Fletch (13 seconds)
Filming locations map
Casting call for Martin and Erica (and her original surname was Fletcher, edited to Cartwright for production… still a “job” name but a very different job)
My rewatch notes from June 2019
My rewatch notes from April 2017
CW Promo for the episode that aired immediately after 5.10, leaving viewers on a pretty dark note about what this episode would be like in the wake of watching Jo and Ellen die
A later promo clip that let the audience know it’s not all darkness, it’s also uncomfortably silly
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Why bring back the magical Colt after hyping it up all season as potentially the only weapon that can kill Lucifer only to bring it back, declare oopsie no there are actually five random and unspecified exceptions to this weapon’s power that we will never actually address in canon, and then lose it in the woods to have it disappear without another mention for years? Yeah, I got no idea either. Such is the fate of so many Special Weapons on this show. This one just bugs me for so many reasons.
We bid farewell to Ellen and Jo while Kripke burns down his narrative as a sacrifice to the Apocalypse. Lucifer is transparently manipulative toward Cas and Sam. I actually feel bad for Meg for the fact she’s a True Believer in Lucifer as her god, and Crowley introduces himself as the smartest character on the show. Bless :’)
on to the links!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (six pages of posts)
My rewatch notes from June 2019
My rewatch notes from April 2017
Filming locations map
Goldenrod Revisions script
Casting call for Crowley (spelled CROWLY, and is for a “recurring guest star”)
Chicago Tribune review of Fallen Idols with Mark Sheppard’s casting announcement in the final paragraph
CW Promo
CW Extended Promo
SpaceTV promo
(provided for the context of how the CW was marketing the show vs how SpaceTV chose to promote it... very different in significantly interesting ways...)
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Chuck makes problems for everyone. But that’s pretty much the meta overview of the entire series, isn’t it? In this episode, he specifically gets to be a petty lil guy, though, which gave me an awful lot of real estate to roll around on.
I think I started this episode by hoping it would come in shorter than last week, and... uh... sorry about that? I was really on track to succeed at that! And then I had to keep adding in meta tangents. Once again, though, at least it’s a fun episode to spend time with.
Let’s get right to the links!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
He seems helpful and dreamy… Lizbob’s thoughts on in-narrative book!fandom vs our tv show fandom
The Winchester Gospels tag on my blog for all your book fandom needs
Gore Orphanage Wikipedia page for Kripke’s inspiration behind the case
Production draft script with notes by James L Conway
Technical package (9 pages of set diagrams)
Casting call for Demian and Barnes
The CW promo for this episode
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
like the graphic says, play your roles or be stuck in tv land forever! if that ain’t the most meta thing ever said in canon...
This episode is definitely a favorite, but it’s also a really rich one to discuss for so many reasons. It’s basically just a way scaled back and condensed version of s15. Thematically, if you leave off the wtf of 15.20, it’s the s15 speed run.
Since I ran so long in the talky-talky, I’ll keep this short and get right to the links for this week:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (7 pages, but very worth it) (and all the tumblr links below are to posts in this tag… but seriously click through because there’s so many awesome gifs and fanart posts too)
This post about the cosmic structure and Gabriel’s role
And this one about the function of Free Will in this episode
Meta about 4.16 technically, but very relevant to this episode
Rewatch notes from June 2019
Sometimes people just die
The Cosmic Timeline
April 2017 rewatch notes “Dean’s Instincts”
Dean knows what makes Dr. Sexy sexy
Filming locations map
Interview with Richard Speight Jr. (archived link)
The CW promo video
SpaceTV promo video
Supernatural the sitcom opening theme video
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
like the graphic says, sit down, shut up, play the game while you watch your brother die... a chuck metaphor with gambling!
It amuses me to no end that while I was editing this week’s audio, I had the TNT loop on the background and watched 15.09 The Trap and 15.11 The Gamblers. Both of which involved Chuck, gambling as a life and death scenario, and being pushed to just play Chuck’s game and do what they’re told-- sit back and accept his endgame for their story.
Wow! The Pain!
I promise I will not say anything about all of this in relation to 15.20, in which Chuck FINALLY succeeds in forcing them to do exactly that, without even a hint of protest from either of them. Or I will start screaming and not stop until I shout myself hoarse!
Anyway, this is a pretty straightforward MotW (with Bobby!), so let’s get right to the links:
LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
The Casting Call for old!Dean (as well as for Patrick and Lia)
The CW promo video for this ep
The SpaceTV promo video for this ep
Interactive filming locations map of Vancouver
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
steadfastly refuses to sing the song despite having to sing it about 50 times when i was in 6th grade...
There’s a lot to unpack in this episode. There’s some similarities to Jack’s endgame problem-- wanting a world without lies. Sure, lies can cause problems, but so can the truth, if you’re suddenly overwhelmed with it and forced to deal with it.
Poor Cas gets turned into a toy for a hot minute, and the nature of how Dean interacts with him is evolving, too. After the horror of 5.04, it’s hard to blame him for that.
Sam and Dean are seemingly back on the same page at least, and Sam gets to plead with the antichrist to choose the right thing, because nobody could stop him if he refused. And isn’t that a kick in the pants? It’s pretty healing all around.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (only two pages, and about half the posts are about Action Figure Cas, which is always fun)
the CW promo “Win or Lose”
An extended CW promo clip
the SpaceTV promo
the “SOON” segment from the end of last week’s episode
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
It’s a short one this week, friendos! The podcast, yes, but also the episode itself. It runs so short they included a SOON segment at the end of the ep promoting the next three episodes!
And for one filled with painful irony-- a god cosplaying as beloved icons in order to devour fans of said icons-- and a good number of classic lines (four score and seven years ago, I had a funny hat!), the episode overall is pretty straightforward.
Plus, as a nice break, Sam and Dean actually communicate well! They make a little bit of personal progress! Hooray for MotW episodes!
LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (11 whole posts! Including this one! like five whole minutes of reading!)
Chicago Tribune piece with Kripke and Sera
Chicago Tribune episode preview (unfortunately the embedded video was Flash media, but the text lives!
EW interview with Kripke about Paris Hilton
Video of J2 talking about working with Paris at Vancon 2009
short promo clip from SpaceTV
Also, if you know of the spn script hunt group, we’re currently raising money for the Trevor Project (and giving away autographed scripts!). So if you’ve clicked through the links in any of my episodes to read various scripts, casting sides, and other items in our collection, maybe consider making a donation. The script raffle portion of the drive runs through December 5, and we’re closing in on our final goal of $5k! Thank you to everyone who’s helped us get there!
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I survived this one. It’s Thanksgiving day as I type this up, and I’m giving thanks for that.
Despite my personal issues with this one, there’s a ton of important stuff for Dean here-- stuff that I believe will haunt him (and in some ways stunt his emotional growth out of the fear that he could become That, or that Cas could, if he’s not careful) for years to come. Plus this one really doubles down on his previous feelings about Zachariah. None of them are positive, lol!
ANYWAY, let’s just be glad I got through it and get to the links!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
An EW interview with Jensen about this episode
Two promo videos, one from the CW and the other from SpaceTV
(also not a link, but a reminder if you have the DVD/bluray, there’s a commentary track with Edlund and Kripke for this episode too!)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
We all love this one for the wonderful growing relationship between Dean and Cas, and wail at the horror of everything Sam experiences-- from being force-fed demon blood, the compounding guilt, the fear that he can never get out or his life and destiny can never change, and his first face to face with Lucifer... it’s a big one.
How free are they, really? Is destiny still coming for them? Are they doomed to play out the Grand Narrative being written for them?
(points forcefully at the series finale and screams incoherently)
Links that may be of interest:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
My rewatch notes from June 2019
The CW promo video for this episode
Lizbob’s two posts from the Dean and Cas are in love series (here and here)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Edwin Starr gave us the perfect title for both halves of this episode. :’D
Good God... or at least Cas is hoping God would care about his creation, even if we eventually learn the truth years down the line. The hope and faith Cas has now is destined to be shattered in horrific ways that will power his arc for the rest of the series, though, so I am here for it.
And War, the first Horseman of the apocalypse we meet and definitely the easiest to defeat at least. Even if you can’t actually kill War, you can see it for what it is. It’s definitely an eye-opener for our heroes, yes? Seeing through the cosmic manipulation, even on this relatively low level, will become their biggest tool in defeating The Narrative™.
(too bad it finally crushed them for good in the series finale, but anyWAY >.>)
(yes, sorry, I end up yelling about that quite a bit, as is to be expected)
(I’ve just accepted that every episode of the series will just involve me yelling about why the finale sucked at this point)
that said, have some LINKS!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Two different promo clips from the CW and SpaceTV
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Welcome to Season 5, where every angel suddenly has a sword with zero explanation! That sentence sums up my general feelings about season five in a meta fashion. It’s all very Chuck.
Dean is having a really hard time dealing with the fallout of s4-- the devil’s on the loose, and it’s all because he failed Sam, and because Sam basically renounced him, trusted a demon more than him...
Sam was manipulated all last season into Doing The Thing He Did, so convinced of his own power, his own righteousness, thought he was saving the world instead of damning it... and explained away Dean’s hesitancy at all of it as “weakness.”
Cas is resurrected for the first time and is “cut off from Heaven,” gradually falling closer to humanity, and also slowly realigning his faith in his terrifying new reality.
and a bunch of other stuff! lol... it’s a season premiere, there’s lots of stuff... Becky the Really Unflattering Fan Avatar (who was more “the fan Chuck chose because her understanding of the line between fiction and reality was just as askew as Chuck’s was and that suited his purposes”), Nick the vessel of convenience for Lucifer, the return of Meg, Bobby paralyzed and in the hospital after stabbing himself to save Dean... so much... maybe a little too much...
Here’s some links that may be of interest:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Rewatch notes from June 2019
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas Are In Love series posts for this episode (part 1) and (part 2)
September 2017, notes on retcons, destiny, and free will
Article from SpoilerTV with a page of the script
A bit on the Angel Blade retcon (post 1) and (post 2)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Spoiler alert: Chuck won. Mostly, anyway. Team Free Will is just finding their spark, and just having their eyes opened to just how badly the story had been manipulating them before. Only none of it happens in time to stop the apocalypse, and Chuck’s story gets to continue chugging along.
I hacked out this post the other day that sort of sums up my feelings on 4.22 vs 15.20, and I think it serves as a nice intro piece to this episode
We all know what happens in this one, and I have lots to say about it all.
Links of interest:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (17 pages of posts! so many!)
An ask about Cas and doubt and free will
My rewatch notes from June 2019
Zachariah, Ruby, and Sam’s tampered voicemail
Chuck’s moment of perfection, only slightly marred by Cas’s rebellion
The CW promo video for this episode
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
The penultimate episode of any season ramps up the drama, but hooboy, this one is made of angst! We’re closing in on the end of Chuck’s One Perfect Season, where everything worked perfectly for his story from start to finish. At least he’s never really gonna meet with this much success ever again (because 15.20 doesn’t count lol).
Sam’s in demon detox, Cas is doing Heaven’s errands, and Dean is breaking his own heart. But Sam? He gets some twisted A Christmas Carol experience, Dean wrestles with his complete inability to save Sam from going darkside that he’s been terrified of since 2.01, and Cas is Causing Problems on behalf of Heaven’s agenda.
A few links to stuff that may be of interest:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
A post from January 2020 about Chuck’s narrative and s4 being the closest he ever got to success (before 15.20, which is another story)
Rewatch notes from June 2019 (also linked in the above post)
The CW Promo video for this episode
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Poor Jimmy Novak. And poor Sam. And poor Dean. And poor Amelia and Claire. And honestly, poor Cas. Poor dude just got heaven-tortured into a mental reboot. All those "doorways to doubt" have been slammed shut, and his compassion for humanity has been erased. (don't worry, he'll get that back eventually)
As for Sam, his whole bleak secret gets exposed in the worst way possible (driven into withdrawal by Ruby deliberately ignoring his pleas for a refill, and then pushed into a situation where he had a whole demon right there to drain, and innocents' lives on the line to save). And then he gets shoved into detox.
And Dean has to witness it all. He's been worried for Sam all year and the tower of lies has collapsed, just when he's also lost the helpful Heavenly ally he'd just been winning over to his side. He hasn't even got anyone to turn to for help with Sam now. Well, he's got Bobby, but Bobby is also flying by the seat of his pants and has no concrete idea how to help Sam.
Amelia and Claire have had their lives upended all around, too. They'll never be able to unsee what they've seen, they've lost Jimmy forever, and even the stability they'd gained after Jimmy left the first time is shattered. Amelia will become desperate to get her husband back at all cost, and Claire will become embittered toward the angel that possessed her for a hot minute, stole her father, and then abandoned them (and especially leaving her abandoned when her mother disappears).
Marching toward the season finale, everyone's about to go up in flames.
Links for this week!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
I lied, have some rewatch notes from June 2019
Destiel in two screenshots
The McShane Network Outline of the entire episode (9 pages)
CW promo video
SpaceTV promo video (better than the cw one)
Extended CW promo (last 40 seconds of the cold open)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Golly, I spend this whole podcast talking about the pointlessness of revenge, but that’s rather conditional. And specifically in this case, in s4 overall, and every other revenge arc that comes to failure in this entire series, that condition is ACTUALLY KNOWING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SITUATION!
Blind revenge is always doomed to fail. These ghouls enacted this massive plot for revenge against John Winchester, not even knowing he’d died more than two years before. This was entirely a situation of their own making. They could’ve gone on the rest of their lives just doing their ghoul thing and never come to the attention of hunters, let alone Sam and Dean. But nope, they set out on this mission without having all the facts, and paid the price for it.
Just like Sam and Dean in all of s4. Sam’s on this revenge mission against Lilith, is absolutely convinced he’s doing the right thing, and only with our benefit of hindsight know just how incomplete their data set is going into it. They’re literally spending the entire season working on the wrong problem, by design! And they end up manipulated into exactly the situation they’d spent the season trying to avoid. If only they’d had all the facts up front...
So yeah, revenge, ghouls, the Winchester Brother who was never intended to join the narrative in any larger way, to have died before his first appearance on screen. And round and round we go with the emotional manipulation! Right into the apocalypse.
Bonus materials for this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
A brief interview with Dabb about this episode from the official s4 companion book
An interview with Jake Abel from the official Supernatural magazine
Rewatch notes from June 2019
The CW 20 second Promo video for this episode
If you need to see it, here’s Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli jumping the shark. They REALLY dragged this out :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Welcome to Chuck’s story. Was Chuck written deliberately to eventually grow into the Overarching Big Bad of the entire series? I really doubt it. Does it work perfectly anyway? Yes, yes it does.
And because of that, rewatching this episode with the clarity of hindsight becomes a transformative experience. Oh Chuck, I see what you did there... you cruel, capricious god
(who really should’ve been properly overcome within the narrative, but it was always His Story, and the show we watched on our screens was His Narrative... and understanding that makes it weirdly easier to cope with the lack of a decent ending in some ways, so I’ll probably never stop talking about it...)
All that said, there are copious volumes of bonus material this week for anyone interested in Chuck’s Process (which he even says directly in THIS episode, it’s not just a s15 concept, he’s really that deep in his role as the Author). Let’s start with the easy stuff first, though:
The Superwiki Page for this episode
My tag for this episode
But especially these posts:
- Gabriel as Chuck Lite and their mirror narratives
- Rewatch notes from June 2019
- Lizbob’s essential reading on Book Canon vs Show Canon, because the show we watch isn’t even the story Chuck is trying to craft in canon, and most importantly Chuck’s Story is not the Truth
The regular 20 second CW promo video
The special extended promo video that’s essentially a book promo for the Supernatural novel series. Fun and meta!
And if you’re feeling intrepid, please enjoy exploring these tags: Chuck’s Process, Free Will in the narrative, and my standard Chuck tag... “if you say mysterious ways so help me i will kick your ass”
There’s probably more I could add to that list, but that’s well more than enough for a good start :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Gosh I love this episode. It throws the viewer off balance wondering what the heck is actually going on, right up to the end when Zachariah boops Dean and all the rest of us back to “reality” and washes the bright colors away again. The real hunt/case of this episode isn’t the ghost Sam and Dean learn to deal with, it’s whatever the heck Zachariah’s actually up to with the entire charade. And what that boils down to is the concentrated essence of manipulation by cosmic forces that is s4. And all that ONE EPISODE BEFORE we meet Chuck for the first time... but we’ll save that rant for next week.
There’s some pretty detailed meta on this week’s episode, though, and I’ll again encourage everyone to at least give a skim to those links... all the links of interest can be found right here:
The Superwiki page for the episode
My tag for the episode, it’s only four pages and about half gifsets, but all the meta posts are worth it
The blue revisions script with a special extra: the director’s hand written notes
The full Ghostfacers instructional video on youtube
The CW promo video for the episode
An interview with AJ Buckley (aka Ed Zeddmore) from around the time this episode aired
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
This... is a big one. This is the episode where I first sat up and realized why Cas stuck around, why he became such an important and beloved character (s7 was airing at the time of my first watch, if you needed context for that). His entire character arc for the rest of the series pretty much takes off right here. But the seeds of his entire relationship with Dean are also planted here. This was the first episode of Supernatural that I watched, got to the end of, and then immediately went back and watched it again. It’s that important.
Also, the episode where we first see an Angel Blade, aka the “Sword of Lucifer” that was supposed to be a one-off, or at least a Unique Special Weapon, that Kripke was like... nah that’s too good, and just handed them out like tic tacs at the beginning of s5, completely retconning all of s4. Wild stuff.
That said, I’ll just jump right to giving y’all links, because there’s a lot...
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (all 12 pages of it lol... it’s A Lot of meta)
Especially these posts that I usually link individually, but heck, so many I grouped them by topic:
Retcons, Angel Blades, and the Writing Room: 1, 2, 3
Castiel and his Character Arc: 1, 2, 3,
Watch notes from June 2019
the CW promo video
The extended scene of Dean and Cas talking before torturing Alastair, 100% must watch 5 minutes of footage
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
RIP Pamela. RIP Dean beginning to feel even remotely good about himself. RIP Sam’s secrets (well... soon... we the audience have seen a glimpse, but Dean is still getting stonewalled...)
This is a hard episode, and even more so because it follows several MotW episodes and wrenches us back into the big mytharc plots. But also because we can watch Sam completely abandon the concept of being “careful” with his demon powers and “not letting it get too far” that he’d promised Dean earlier this season. It hurts.
We watch Dean regain memories of one of the worst days of his life and have to reconcile all of that on the fly while facing off against the demon who tortured him in hell for forty years. It’s a lot.
And Cas... he’s still “other.” He’s still an outsider and not a friend or even an ally. Right here, he looks a lot more like someone just using Dean for his own purposes, which is also kinda scary how easily Sam and Dean both just... believed it had been Bobby sending them info on this case all along. What is even real? What’s the deal with this natural order that Sam has accepted he might not really be part of, while Dean struggles to accept himself only to have even that ripped away by the end? Ow.
Supplemental links for this week’s episode include:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tumblr tag for this episode
But especially these posts:
- Rewatch notes from April 2017
- Rewatch notes from September 2017 (encompassing 4.15-4.18)
- A post possibly more relevant to s14 than s4, but it encompasses the themes from this episode and gives us a hefty dose of Cas Angst leading into next week’s episode
A Mini-Hellatus extended CW promo video, including scenes from 4.15 and 4.16
And interestingly, a casting call announcement for Alastair and Cole
Finally, for the truly intrepid listener, here’s my cosmology tag. I debated including a few other tags, but that’s enough to be going on for now :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Did someone say queer Dean content? Because we have some of that here...
Truly there’s been so much written about this episode, strictly about Dean and his sexuality, that I’m gonna take one little paragraph here to say that the surface-level parallels (including the vast majority of the THEN segment of this episode) are all sending up flaming red flags about Sam and what he’s secretly up to with Ruby. Even though Ruby isn’t even in this episode. Because if we weren’t already worried about Sam and the terrible secrets he’s keeping from Dean, this episode does its best to launch flare guns at us over it.
But the queer Dean content? I got plenty of that too!
Links that will likely be especially of interest this week:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
But especially these posts:
- A very concise (but long, but still concise) read that I pretty much nod along to, written by Lizbob after this episode was mentioned again in Regarding Dean (12.11) (yes this is the post I mention specifically at one point in the episode)
- And a summary of this sort of subtext even going forward through s11, conveniently in one post
- There’s also a post with completely borked formatting (tumblr was having some sort of glitch the day I reblogged it that put the replies in a strange order, but scroll down and read Cass’ (thevioletcaptain) reply to the anon first, then jump back to the top and read the replies
- Three Very Simple Points
- And if you really want to dig into some of the meta written about this episode specifically, here’s a list of links curated by Mel
Network arena (previously posted for 4.12), as well as casting sides for Nick the Siren and Dr. Cara Roberts
An interview with Jim Parrack (the actor who plays Nick) from the official Supernatural magazine (archived from the source) and if that’s hard to read (tumblr version with embiggenable images) (yes, that’s the one where he talks about leaning into the sexuality of the siren, while also playing the character as not strictly male or female)
The 20 second CW Promo for this episode
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Poor Sam thought he completely understood the situation when he was a freshman in high school, but fifteen years later from an adult perspective things look very, very different. And doesn’t this just define a big part of Sam? This burden of guilt he carries for so many things that aren’t really his fault, yet he still feels responsible for? Owwww.
Granted, this theme pretty much sums up the mytharc plot of s4, too, from both Sam and Dean’s perspectives-- not having the full story, believing they know the right thing from Sam’s putting his trust in Ruby in their mission to kill Lilith, and Dean not having the full story of what’s going on with Sam and assuming they’re on the same page...
And Dean in this episode, what we learn about him on the cusp of adulthood gives us a lot of insight into the mask of Performing Dean, his ability to fit himself into a situation as both a shield and a tool to get even a little of what he needs. It’s just sad all around. :(
But that’s why we watch this show. Bring on the suffering!
Supplemental materials for this week’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
But especially these posts:
- headcanons about the wonky timeline
- More, slightly older headcanons about the wonky timeline
- technically about s12 (and about four other episodes because meta), but very much about Performing Dean in this episode too
- rewatch notes from June 2019
- rewatch notes from April 2017
Story Arena and casting sides for Amanda, Dirk McGregor Senior, Mr. Wyatt, April, and young Dean
And yet another CW promo video
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Disclaimer: I have no idea what kind of person the actual Criss Angel is, but the dollar store version of him in this episode is most definitely a douchebag. They don’t let us forget! It’s like this episode was written to test the network censor’s last nerve over how many times they could say “douchebag” in a single episode. :’D
Sometimes when I’m editing an episode, I have to stop and debate whether or not to go back and add a clarification or expand on something I said, and I’m still genuinely turning this one over in my head. I didn’t add anything, but hooboy, I kinda want to. Specifically, pointing out how anvil-heavy some of the conversations between Jay and Charlie are-- not just to Sam’s situation in s4 with Ruby and his guilt in s5 (and even later... think 8.23 and his confession, that he always felt like he was letting Dean down), but to so much of the Brother Drama that drives a large part of the series. His guilt and his own feelings of failure so often drives him to make irrationally terrible decisions.
I’m not letting Dean off the hook on that one. I mean, his feelings of failure over Sam’s death in 2.21 have been driving this plot for the last two seasons. And he will make objectively terrible decisions in the future, like taking on the Mark of Cain, saying yes to Michael, etc. But his choices are so often motivated by his personal feelings of failure, his personal depression and feelings of worthlessness, while Sam’s are motivated almost entirely by his feeling that he has failed DEAN. There’s a difference.
Anyway, I can’t really figure how to add a conversation about all of this without totally derailing the chat about THIS episode specifically, so I just crammed the little notification here and hopefully listeners will be ready to pick up on it between what I did say out loud. :’D
Supplemental material for this week’s episode is kinda light anyway:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
But mostly these two rewatch notes posts: one and two
The CW promo video for this episode
The Network Arena for this episode (the arena being a short outline of the episode presented to the network for approval before writing even begins. In this case, it’s about a page and a half of text. in the same document is the original idea for 4.14 as well… which we’ll discuss when we get there)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I know this is an episode that a lot of people forget exists (or really try to forget it exists). But for how truly terrible the rest of this episode is, that final scene with Sam and Dean under the bridge is critical to Dean’s character, and understanding the breaking point of s4, as well as Dean’s arc going forward. For like... the rest of the series. So yeah, I’m mad it’s at the tail end of an episode almost nobody rewatches because the rest of it is so terribly forgettable.
He didn’t just spent 40 years in Hell. He didn’t just break and get up off that torture table and pick up the razor and start torturing others to save himself. He liked it. He ENJOYED being the torturer, because it enabled him to let all that pain and suffering slide away, leaving him completely empty of feeling. Very demon-y. But also what he wishes he could feel again-- nothing at all. CRY WITH ME ABOUT DEAN PLS.
Also, this is the shortest episode of this podcast yet, for obvious reasons :’D
Things that may be of interest to listeners:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tumblr tag for this episode (there’s only like 15 posts there)
But especially these four posts:
- Lizbob’s reply to someone asking about this episode being “bad”
- My June 2019 rewatch notes with Kripke’s quotes
- April 2017 rewatch notes
- a really nice shot analysis/appreciation by Lizbob
Casting sides for four members of the Carter family, the story arena (detailed outline presented to the network before writing began), and the Yellow Draft of the script
The wikipedia article about the X-Files episode “Home”
The CW Promo video for this episode
And a link to the X-Files/Supernatural crossover fic I wrote for gish 2022, in case anyone is into super meta with a side of crack fic :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
If their ability to find an escape hatch out of this one irritated Chuck, I can’t help but imagine that’s at least part of what pushes him in 4.18 to “write himself into the story,” you know? When does Chuck ever show up in the story, when the Winchesters could really use a helping hand from a loving God? Nah. Well, maybe a little bit... but mostly it’s when they’re finding loopholes in the story-- the whole “we’ll find another way” rather than make this most awful choice the narrative has been pushing them toward. But that’s besides the point, because this episode isn’t about him :’D
Mostly what we learn about here is the intro to all the stuff that will underpin Castiel’s entire character arc for the next 13 seasons-- the nature of angel grace, what an angel is, what differentiates and what makes them similar to a human soul, and the oppression angels experience under Heaven’s rules of “obey or die.” Right there you get the foundation for Cas’s fear of allowing his “humanity” to blossom, and if you let me I’ll rant forever about why this alone makes his end in canon the ultimate tragedy. But I won’t do that today >.>
We also learn a little more about Dean’s 40 years in Hell and that he wished he couldn’t feel any of that at all-- the worst human emotions. He’d give up the good stuff just to not have to feel all that bad stuff, as Anna tells him even knowing what he experienced and feels right then is worth it to her, that she doesn’t want to give up any of it to go back to being an angel who can’t really feel any of it...
on to the references for this week’s episode!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
but especially these posts:
- the destiel uh.. the dean/anna sex scene and other callbacks to 4.01
- June 2019 rewatch notes
- on Dean’s “weakness”
- angels and emotions
- this episode’s installment of lizbob’s “dean and cas are in love” series
- and a second “dean and cas are in love” post for this ep
- Anna, Grace, and Humanity
- April 2017 rewatch notes
- that old nugget that “Cas stole Anna’s role in the narrative” after this episode... if you read this you must read the whole thing and not cherry pick the bits that confirm your preferred narrative, while remembering that tvtropes and the fandom wikia are not reliable info sources :’D
The cut scene of Cas and Uriel talking about their orders that is absolutely essential, likely cut because it gave too much away of the larger plot (1:47 long video)
The CW promo for this episode (:20 long)
Interviews with Gen & Thunderbird linked on tumblr bc i hit AnchorFM's 4k character lim
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
aka that one where Chuck submitted fic to a bang because he wanted art for it
I joke, but... it’s kinda like he was trying to fill in those missing months while Dean was in Hell a little bit, and then Anna was forced to beta it, and illustrated a few scenes.
Yes, this is a two-parter that ends on a big cliffhanger, and it’s not even a midseason finale, let alone a season finale. We go right into the second half next week, and together these episodes give us yet another mirror to how the larger season arc functions. But only in hindsight. Season four, still with the shenanigans!
Sure we learn loads about how Ruby inserted herself into Sam’s life without learning The Biggest Issue (Sam and his demon blood...), and we learn that Dean knows this Big Bad Demon hassling them and trying to kill Anna, but not the nature of their interactions in Hell. What we do learn in this episode does go miles to give us a larger picture of what happened during those months, knowing what happens by the end of the season, having the full context of what we’re clearly still missing as the story unfolds, gives us an entirely different perspective on the underlying drama and the painful twist that still awaits us.
Things referenced in this week’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
But especially these posts:
- one about the persistent yet entirely unfounded rumor that Cas somehow “stole” Anna’s role in the show
- rewatch notes from April 2017
- rewatch notes from June 2019
My tags for angel grace discussion: On the nature of angel grace, angels and souls, you learned it from the goats. There’s a bit of overlap between them, but there’s a lot there despite that.
The CW’s promo video for the episode
An interview with Julie McNiven about playing Anna
Casting sides for Anna and Alastair
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I am so personally partial to episodes wherein Sam and Dean experience maximum wtf, which so often defines Edlund episodes. Especially as the series continues and they have leveled up so much since the early days of “this is so far out of our paygrade” for every little monster they run across. Sometimes knocking them completely off balance is the best way to shake loose important character development. As it is in this episode.
Directly to the point today, with the links relevant to this week’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
But especially these posts (since a lot of my tag is funny gif sets and later seasons meta for this one):
- April 2017 rewatch notes
- September 2017 rewatch notes
- that long convo with lizbob i’ve tacked to the last few podcast posts... still relevant tho...
- January 2020 rewatch notes
(and a quick personal aside to scream internally about how they should’ve finally received the payoff they deserved at the end of the series, because GAAAHHHHH)
The archived interview with Ted Raimi including comments on his appearance in this episode
The CW Promo video for this episode
Casting sides for Wes and Hope
And finally, since I talked about the SPNscripthunt project at the end of this one, you can find everything we’re working on right here, and a continuously updated listing of our collection on the Superwiki scripts and sides page!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
What I consider to be the beginning of Castiel’s arc toward truly understanding Free Will and eventually accepting it for himself, this episode is packed with things that will become central tenets of the show for the rest of the series. Considering this is Julie Siege’s first episode, and she only wrote a total of six episodes over two seasons, her impact on the core of the narrative of the entire series can’t really be overstated.
Sam battles with his own power, his addiction to it, and can’t even see just how much it’s already begun to burn him. He also gets to meet angels for the first time, and it really blows the shine off the whole heaven, god, and prayer thing he’d always believed so strongly in before. And that revelation-- that angels are dicks-- doesn’t really help Sam with his own internal struggle this season. Poor Sam. Maybe he’s just not “sincere” enough in his belief in that Great Pumpkin...
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
But especially these posts:
- a conversation with lizbob from January 2017 (accidental meta)
- rewatch notes from April 2017
- rambling about Cas and what his confession means to him here
- a simple observation on a single screencap from my March 2019 rewatch
- rewatch notes from June 2019
- rewatch notes from January 2020
- thoughts on Cas’s character arc, specifically in relation to Anna’s character arc
- from Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (there will be a lot of these for the next 4~ seasons!)
Casting sides for Tracy, Don, and Uriel (the ones for Uriel are worth the click alone)
The extended scene of Uriel and Cas talking about their orders (less than 2 minutes, on youtube)
the CW promo for this episode (30 seconds, on youtube)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Where everything is scary. Poor Dean is infected with Ghost Sickness, forced to experience the fear of a murdered man. He’s infected not because he’s a dick, not because he uses fear as a weapon or scares people because of his job, because Sam does all of that too. He’s infected because he’s buried a terrible secret about himself-- one that he feels ashamed of. Times like this I’m glad I do an “all spoilers on the table” podcast, because it’s what he did in Hell and specifically the fact he’s covering it up that made him susceptible to experience the fear of a man who was literally tortured to death and then had his murder covered up by the men who committed or abetted it. It really makes the case in this episode look super on the nose, but only when you finally get the context of Dean’s true secrets from Hell. Which don’t hit us for a few more episodes yet...
There’s an awful lot to be said about this one, not least of which is Dean lip synching to Eye of the Tiger as a little bonus at the end of the episode. :’D
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
Casting sides for Luther, Sheriff Britton, and John Garland
My tag for this episode, but especially these posts:
- Queer themes in 4.06
- A deconstruction of Dean’s fears by amwritingmeta
- on Dean and Fear
- Dean’s dark secret
- in case you missed Sam’s eye flash at the end of the episode...
- lizbob notes on 4.05, 4.06, and 4.14 which i’ll fling at y’all again probably
- Kripke’s statement on this episode
- The significance of Eye of the Tiger (and the full length video of it)
- My notes from a 2019 rewatch
And for those who want to have Dean’s little speech about how crazy their lives are handy, this kind soul has put it on youtube (it’s about a minute and a half) :D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Aah, I love Ben Edlund. This one feels, in retrospect, like a microcosm view of the Grand Narrative of Supernatural as Chuck’s story. I could probably do a thesis paper on this episode, but instead I kept the podcast version under an hour... I mean, the queercoding in this one ALONE, the direct commentary on the Hays Code shoved into every level of the storytelling from the surface “black and white that’s all shades of grey” in the most literal sense to Dean’s admission that the “simple” film he’d want to live out is Porky’s II, there’s almost nothing about this one that turns out to be what it appears on the surface.
There’s a lot of bonus content for this one, too:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My (remarkably small) tag for this episode
But especially these posts: this one about the metanarrative of the series, my watch notes from my post s14 rewatch, this one from lizbob’s Dean And Cas Are In Love series, this one about the Dracula references, a chat with lizbob from 2017, my old rewatch notes from April 2017, and a very long series of posts on the queercoding in this one
Casting sides for Jamie and Dracula
Two 15 second CW Promo videos for this episode that remarkably still work on youtube: here and here.
and for the heck of it, have my queercoding tag if you’ve got a few hours to kill... :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Major important developments, ahoy! Dean discovers what Sam has been up to with Ruby since he was dragged to Hell, and he is not impressed. If it was all so great-- as Sam has desperately tried to convince himself-- then why hide it from Dean? From everyone? Why completely cut even Bobby out of his life completely and lie about Ruby? Sam attempts to justify his choices and actions, but savvy viewers who know how all of this plays out by the end of s4 will be able to see the season-long addiction metaphor Sam is already struggling with. And even we the viewers won’t know what’s driving Sam back to making that choice again, what’s strengthening his powers, for a good long while to come...
Also, Dean uses the nickname “Cas” for the first time, and the entire fandom decides it has one s. :’D
(and nobody enjoys watching Jack Montgomery eat... ew...)
Things referenced in this week’s episode:
the Superwiki page for this episode
my tumblr tag for this episode
but especially this post here
Casting Sides for Michele, Jack, and Travis
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Or at least, In the Beginning as it stands in canon until we find out about the earliest events in creation... but this is early enough to be getting on with for the current storyline. :’D
Sam is barely even in this one, off doing shady shit with Ruby. Dean is told to “stop it,” but not what “it” is. He assumes it’s something to do with his parents, something that happened in the past, and runs smack into the knowledge that Mary was raised a hunter and made a deal with the YED that led to all the events in the series to this point... it’s a lot, folks...
But Dean also learns that as a baby, Azazel dripped demon blood in Sam’s mouth, and THIS is the information Cas warns him about when Dean returns to the present. THIS is what Dean must learn-- what on earth Sam is up to with Ruby-- and THIS is what Dean must stop. And if he can’t stop Sam, then the angels will...
Things that may be of interest:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
but mostly these four posts:
- https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/173464045535/how-do-you-feel-about-the-idea-that-there-is
- https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185613732715/403-in-the-beginning-which-is-actually-either
- https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/187579858080/in-4x03-when-dean-goes-back-in-time-a-guy-says
- https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/650814269410213889/they-literally-set-john-up-as-an-asshole-from-the
Casting sides for Mary, casting sides for John, and casting sides for Deanna
the transcript of the commentary track with Kripke and Carver from the bluray/dvd extras
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Aah, and episode where Dean doesn’t get any pie, but instead is handed an existential crisis! After wrestling with issues about his belief in angels and then God, he comes to the conclusion that if God is real, then he has to be a jerk, because why would he let all this awful stuff happen to people? And that is a very valid question.
Cas talks him through it in a way that provides zero comfort, and pretty much only makes things worse by confirming that the devil is also real and trying to escape. Also, the angels are gonna be relatively useless to Dean in trying to stop the devil from escaping... >.>
Meanwhile, they’re confronted by literal ghosts from their past driven to torment and kill them in revenge. So, the fun never stops.
Things referenced in this week’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode but especially these posts:
- this one by norahastuff
- similar thoughts i had to norahastuff, and a main reason why I personally prefer to understand that Dean remembered Hell explicitly right from the start and lied about it rather than slowly recalling it all over time...
- some thoughts on Cas
- more thoughts on Dean and Cas
- Lizbob thoughts
The production draft script for this episode that Chris Gauthier (the actor who plays Ron Resnick) auctioned off to benefit the IRSSS
and a link to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society if you’d like to make a donation as well.
Along with a reminder that all the scripts and sides and other little bonus things like that are part of the collection put together by the @spnscripthunt group. We have pages and scripts from nearly 1/3 of the series, and always welcome donations of a PDF scan of scripts we’re still missing. Check out the scripthunt for more info!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
HERE WE GO! We all know what this one is. This is the one where the destiel starts!
and some other stuff happens, but come on folks... WE GET CAS NOW! Watching him grow into the person we will know at the end of the series is an absolutely glorious journey I’m thrilled to talk about with everyone now. :D
As promised in the podcast, I have a lot more reference posts for folks to read this week, and I hope at least some of it feels worth it to y’all.
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode, which is 23 pages long lol (told y’all this was a big one, I wasn’t kidding) so I picked a few posts I feel are most foundational to how I think about and discuss this episode:
- Lizbob’s Hellatus Rewatch post for this episode, from 2015
- some Handprint notes
- notes on the gas station and the magazine rack
- my 2017 rewatch notes
- a bit on the metaphysics of Cas resurrecting Dean
- old but excellent meta on Castiel’s arc through about s9 or so...
- a short and sweet thought about destiel
- an entry from Lizbob’s Dean And Cas Are In Love meta series
- how the heck did they end up in Pontiac, Illinois?
- some thoughts on Sam and Ruby
- The art of Retcon Continuity: fitting Azazel into the larger narrative now
- The extended barn scene (no music, totally different feel to it)
The Three Day DeanCasVersary Post on tumblr (and a slightly outdated version on ao3...
We also have casting sides for Castiel, casting sides for “Kristy,” aka Ruby, and casting sides for Pamela, in addition to the call sheet/shooting pages for Pamela. And I can’t recommend enough doing a compare/contrast between the casting and shooting pages of the exact same scene.
I think that’s enough words to leave everyone with, so I’ll leave off my usual rambling summary. :D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Aah, the end of season three. Maybe it’s not exactly where the writers intended to end up (with six planned episodes slashed from the season), but hooboy does this one pretty effectively set up Sam’s entire arc in s4... and honestly? When we understand what Sam was originally intended to sacrifice of himself to save Dean from going to Hell, I really REALLY appreciate s4 for what we got instead.
So, this episode ends up being a HECK of a lot of Dean saying random things out of frustration/anger that end up being the Oops It Was All True! plot points of the end of s4... and not a lot of meta on its own. But I superduper appreciate it for what it is.
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this ep
My tag for this episode (three pages)
but especially these two posts here and here
The casting sides for Zoey/Lilith, casting sides for her father Jimmy, and for her grandfather
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
And once again, I realized I left something out of the podcast that could probably be a whole episode on its own... the tagline on my title card this week. In this episode, we learn that John had hunted Doc Benton years ago, probably in the 80′s when he first became a hunter. He cut out Benton’s heart and thought the job was done. Clearly it was not. Over the years, we learn of so many of these old cases that he either half-assed (maybe out of inexperience, maybe out of lack of information, maybe out of carelessness or because his single-minded focus was on revenge for Mary’s death-- whatever the reason), or just ignored entirely as “not urgent enough to look into further,” even when we learn these things were annual or otherwise repeating incidents.
Yeah, sure, no hunter can take care of every supernatural evil single-handedly, but heck... there seems to be a lot of evidence for why other hunters cut ties with John, and while some of those can be chalked up to his own paranoia and desire to shield his kids, some of it sure looks like carelessness. Especially the week after we were reminded of John, even if it was just a ploy of that MotW and not ~actually~ John.
One of these weeks we will delve deeper into this one. But not this week. There’s enough going on in this one as it is. I mean, by the end of the episode, folks even seem to forget what comes off as almost a throwaway line from the opening scenes, the fact that exorcising the last ten demons in a row had led to zero human survivors. That humans who survive possession (especially longer-term possession) are exceptionally rare. Especially when a common complaint about later seasons is that Sam and Dean become more “careless” about just killing possessed people when they could be saving them via exorcisms instead. The show is already drawing this murky line where safety, expediency and practicality have to be weighed against the vanishingly small chance of actually being able to save a single human life post-possession. Yeah, it’s something for us to consider, but the show has been blatantly saying for a while now that in most cases, demon possession isn’t really a survivable situation for the human victim.
Referenced in this week’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
But mostly these two posts linked here and here
The production draft script for the episode, as well as casting sides for “Demon” and “Victim” (which are just two pages each, and I believe taken directly from that white draft script)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Here at the tail end of strike-shortened season 3, where multiple plotlines of the early season have been put on the back burner to await development in s4 (notably Sam and his demon powers, and the temptation to go to the dark side) in capitulation to the fact they wouldn’t have enough time to develop them fully to save Dean from Hell... instead we dive headlong into the unavoidable and turn the wrench that will seal Dean’s fate.
For the second time in two weeks, Sam is tied to a chair, helpless to save an innocent seated across from him, and instead is forced to watch them die. Kinda meta for Sam’s complete lack of ability to save Dean from Hell...
Desperate to find a way to save himself, Dean falls for the bait-iest bait to ever be baited, and clings to the flimsy hope that his father is really reaching out from the beyond with a way to save him. Of course, it was all manipulation by the MotW who could control the narrative for his own benefit. But it also horrifyingly gave Dean a conversation with his “father” that he never expected to get. Forgiveness, love, and regret, in his father’s voice, that wasn’t really his father at all. Kinda... ouch.
(don’t worry, Sam will have his turn running down a lead built of false hope next week! lolol)
Join me for Crying About Dean Hours!
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (it’s a short one, only a single page of results, but there are a few posts there that may be of specific interest)
(and if you have the blu-ray or the dvd of s3, check out the 23 minute featurette about the effects department, and the five minute featurette about Baby and her wranglers... sorry I couldn’t find links to these videos online) UPDATE: mel found the Impala featurette for me!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
A little meta statement on the Writer’s Strike and a genre shift from the Reality TV format back into the standard scripted drama of the overarching Supernatural narrative. Sam and Dean actually curse! The Ghostfacers think what they’re experiencing is “reality,” but from our perspective already entrenched in the Supernatural world of Sam and Dean, we can see how little they really understand about the supernatural they’re merely attempting to prove the existence of. It’s wonderfully refreshing, also, that even after all their experiences over the course of the episode, they’re still able to return to their relatively normal lives while Sam and Dean are off to battle apocalypses... well everyone except Corbett, I guess... Poor guy. He just wanted to be loved <!--3
Things referenced in this week’s episode include:
The Superwiki entry for this episode
My tag for this episode
Especially including these two prior rewatches: here and here
The Ghostfacers web series
The bonus episode called “Found Footage” (which was pulled off youtube but I found on tumblr :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
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Justice in war... the code of ethics that judges actions on the battlefield. On the surface, this episode makes us question what is right, cuts off almost every choice Sam and Dean could’ve made, and backs them so far into a corner they’re literally shackled together and shoved in a cage. It was a situation that we won’t find out for most of an entire additional season of the show that was specifically engineered to shove this exact pressure point to see what would happen.
It’s incredibly easy to watch this episode from that surface level and come to the conclusion that Ruby was right, that they should’ve listened to her and done her (morally questionable) spell-- sacrificing an innocent to save everyone’s lives. It’s easy to judge Dean for his refusal to cooperate with that plan without the later proof that he’d been 100% right all along.
But there are cues even within this episode that should at least cast doubt on that interpretation, starting with the title begging us to examine the morality of their choices. This is why I chose that tagline for the weekly graphic: “If that’s how you win wars, then I don’t want to win.”
Because Ruby does present this from the outset as “war.” As a battle that must be won. But it was ALL a manipulation-- at the time it was written, perhaps a more immediate manipulation intended to drive Sam to his original fate to corrupt himself in order to save Dean from going to Hell, but folded into a far larger narrative that would eventually unfold throughout s4 because the writer’s strike made it impossible to complete this arc over the four episodes they had left to work with in s3, and no guarantee that the show would even be picked up for s4 yet.
She berates them at the end of the episode for their failure to save everyone, but seven of those people they mourned were dead before Sam and Dean were even released from their shackles, and the thirty people Ruby’s plan would’ve saved also walked away safe and sound because of Dean’s plan. Only, he didn’t have to murder an innocent to make that happen. Only Lilith’s choices after the fact cost the lives of the three additional people who were killed. That had nothing to do with Dean’s plan being one with a “body count,” as Ruby put it. They were played, their emotions manipulated, and Sam was just a little more compromised morally because of it.
Okay, I think I summed up the entire episode, but I have FEELINGS about this one. It’s the intro to morality and manipulation in SPN, and I love it for that.
Referenced in this week’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
But especially these linked posts focusing on the morality and free will aspects of this episode, and this one about the sexual innuendo of Dean and Victor’s comments
a flickr album of behind the scenes photos from this ep and 3.11
casting sides for Deputy Amici, Nancy, and Sheriff Dodd
and i think this is just about as many words as anchor lets you use before you run out of characters (3992/4000) lol
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Aah, the one where Doris the average human waitress kills Dean Winchester at least twice! A pig in a poke. Yet another mirror for Chuck's Process encapsulated in a single episode... A message appropriately delivered by God's own little messenger, Gabriel. Heck, there’s just too much in this episode to tidily sum it up in one little blurb paragraph, yes?
So many memes have come from this one little episode, too. Clowns or midgets? Yesterday was Tuesday, but today is Tuesday, too! Heat of the Moment (I still feel like checking the calendar every time I hear this song, just in case). Do these tacos taste funny to you? You mean we can’t even go out for breakfast? Sam Winchester cries his way through sex, etc. You think you’re being funny but you’re being really, really childish. Dingo ate my baby crazy. What do you want, a Pulitzer?
I think my main takeaway is that the fandom lore states that Tuesday is Sam’s least favorite day after this, but I’m nominating Wednesday for Worst Day for him... that was the day he didn’t get a do-over for, you know? At least not until suffering through six months of Robo Sam hunting the Trickster in scary Travis Bickle fashion...
This week’s supplemental reading:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
With a special focus on these posts:
- s12 meta rewatch from April 2017
- Lizbob’s thoughts on Dean’s role in this episode
- s15 meta rewatch from October 2019
- a small cabbage sums up why the series finale is so unsatisfying after reflecting on this episode and its message
- since I mention it in the podcast, my Sam vs Reality tag
- a brief homage to Doris
- a brief visual demonstration of the color washing out of Sam’s world
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
When we left Dean at the end of the last episode, after spending the entire season to that point accepting his own fate, not fighting back against it despite being truly terrified of it, he’d finally learned something about that fate that was too big to ignore: the fact that all demons started out as human souls corrupted by Hell. He would’ve taken an eternity of torture in Hell, but becoming a demon? Becoming the thing he’d spent his entire life hunting and seeking revenge against, and being powerless to stop it? OW.
But that was the final push he needed to dig really, really deep in this episode to unearth the tarnished shard of his own self-worth. Or more accurately, that tarnished shard buried deep inside him finally trapped him in a lucid dream and kind of literally holds him at gunpoint and forces him to listen to it. Not very polite, Deano, but at least he gives him the good shake he needed (and that Sam had just about despaired of getting through to him about).
But time is running out, and even with a mote of self-worth, they’re still no closer to actually saving him. Abusive parents shattering their kids’ dreams, abused kids who’ve lost the ability to dream for themselves (the literal dreams, and the figurative “dreams for your future”). And the beginnings of Bobby’s hunter origin story.
Things referenced in this week’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
but since my tag is larger for this one, have a curated selection of posts:
- Lizbob’s overarching view of the Dean/Lisa stuff, especially in s3
- My watch notes from 2017
- More watch notes from much later in 2017
- My watch notes from 2019 (includes 3.11 watch notes, because that does for Sam what this ep does for Dean)
- a closer look at their respective dreams
- a closer look at their dreams, but from 2016 :’D
Casting sides for Jeremy
Casting sides for Dream Dean (yes, it’s just the Dean vs Himself scenes)
quick reminder you can always find me on tumblr or on twitter at SPNgeorg or mittensmorgul, on discord at mittens#4865, and at mittensmorgul@gmail.com, if you’d like to chat :)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
aka that one where we learn about witches, hex bags, and how demons are made...
For an episode that does a TON of work and covers a lot of ground creating lore that will become a core part of the show for the rest of the series, I am SHOCKED, I tell you, at how short I managed to keep this podcast ep! I think I finally settled on a good format that I can work with! YAY! So as always, I’m interested in feedback from listeners, if there’s anything I can do to make this more enjoyable, more informative, or more entertaining, I’m open to suggestions. Also, adding “the birds and the bees of demon creation” to my long list of specific meta topic podcasts I intend to make someday... >.>
Ruby though! Being her awesome manipulative self! Witches! Dean feeling specifically bad for the poor bunny rabbit! and Sam completely losing his shit and charging head first after a coven with zero info, immediately after telling Dean that Sam has to change to become more like Dean... well, there he is, demonstrating the point, with predictable results!
Also, Dean is forced to really look hard at himself, his lifetime of choices, and confront why he felt he’d had no other choice when he accepted some truly messed up self-sacrifices... i.e. oh look Dean might have just a kernel of self-worth buried down deep in there somewhere, and we’re gonna be poking a big pointy stick at it right at the end of this episode!
Things referenced in this episode that may be of interest:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Casting sides for Tammi, Renee, and Elizabeth
Also, you can always find me on tumblr or twitter at spngeorg or mittensmorgul, or discord at mittens#4865. Come say hi! :)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
well, I’ve now been doing this for just a few days shy of a year. I’m mildly impressed with myself for sticking to it, never missing an episode even in weeks where real life and technical difficulties tried to interfere... like this week! When I lost an hour of recording and had to start over... I guess I can assume that the lost episode was probably a stellar performance that could never be replicated and nobody would ever know... but I won’t :’D
I love this episode. There is a LOT going on in here, and it’s painful for both Sam and Dean. Dean’s performance mask cracks and even Sam gets another look underneath. The monsters of the week’s entire shtick is that they’re performing normality with false cheeriness as a means of survival, blending in and pretending they’re Just Folks until it comes time for their annual sacrifices. And they even go through those rituals with the same sort of ingrained cheer they approach apparently everything with... we only get to see their mask crack a little bit, like thousands of years living that way just ~made the mask convincingly real~ even to them.
Remind you of anyone?
Also, we learn the origin story of the Samulet (and why I have no fondness for it), deal with young Sam’s regret over having pushed Dean into telling him the truth about their lives, and through that learn about how much Dean has served as a shield for Sam throughout his life. Ouch, right?
Things referenced in this episode include:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
and specifically my rewatch posts dated June 2019, April 24, 2017, this collaboration between me and lizbob from November 2016, and lizbob’s gifs of Sam vs the Reindeer. Good stuff :’D
Casting sides for Young Sam, Young Dean, Madge and Edward
And because I am that kind of dork, have the childhood flashback-inducing special presentation graphic. :’D https://youtu.be/-4_d_6A8nE0
and because I am also this kind of dork, here have a link to the holiday fic I mentioned because Sam has a little rematch with a reindeer: McMansion Hell. Or... if you prefer Sam vs The Easter Bunny (since it is technically April Fool’s fic and hey... guess what day it is... have Plotbunny instead. They’re both canon case fic, and because it’s me, destiel. :)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I’ll begin this week by apologizing for the short length of this one, but I’ve had a migraine for the last three days and it was either record or miss my posting date... luckily I’ve typed up what serves as a nice summary of this one about three years ago, and my general thoughts on it. You can read that here (it’s pretty short for an episode post for me, too).
This episode is a turning point for both Sam and Dean, though. It’s also got a nice “nothing stays locked up forever” reminder with Gordon getting out of jail. Dean was ready to kill him after 2.10 and Sam thought he found a better way to deal with him, but even Sam now understands that Gordon will never stop trying to kill them. He didn’t even have to become a literal monster for Sam to accept it was an “us or him” situation, but that definitely helped in the final confrontation. I still think Sam’s shifting attitude adds to the s3-s4 arc of him gradually going to the dark side too.
For Dean, it takes Sam’s plea to “drop the act” he’s putting on, the false bravado Dean’s been using to cover his own terror about his rapidly approaching fate. Which... is Sam neatly explaining what we all mean by “performing Dean.” While Sam might know there’s terror lurking under Dean’s “everything’s fine!” mask, he’s not aware of the even larger pool of self-worth issues Dean is even more terrified to confront, and his own feelings about what compelled him to make that deal in the first place. But that’s coming up over the next few episodes. Wheee! I guess? :’D
Things referenced in this week’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Casting sides for Dixon
Network Draft full script
Production Draft full script
Blue Revision Pages only (24 pages)
Pink Revision Pages only (11 pages)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Let me just take a moment to scream YES! FIFTY! Thank you to everyone who’s listened. We’ve hit a milestone! And we’re still nowhere near close to done lol!
Here we are, though, at a one-off episode for both writer and director that Kripke has mentioned he doesn’t care for. All things considered, I do enjoy this episode. No big plot movement, but a nice bit of character respite before Dean takes a dive toward his own personal reckoning over the next few episodes. They do deal with the fallout over Sam killing the crossroads demon in the previous episode, and we do hear (however unintentionally intended) Castiel’s name for the first time in canon, so it’s not entirely one-off nonsense. Plus Bela once again getting the better of the Winchesters-- this time to an even more potentially disastrous end for her.
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
The post I mention about the spell Sam uses with the name Castiel in it
Casting sides for Gert, aka Mzzzz. Case
Storyboards for the shower scene
and because I mentioned it in the little postscript to this episode, here have a gratuitous link to my own fic I’ve been rereading over the last few weeks: The Exception to Every Rule (posted February 9, 2017, Actor!AU, Dean/Cas, rated M, 59k words, with notable guest appearances by Bela, Becky, Lisa and Anna all being the best possible allies to Dean and Cas, because it’s my fic and I can do that. Suck it, Kripke. lol)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
This little MotW episode weirdly encapsulates the entire overarching metanarrative of Supernatural in miniature, and isn’t that incredible? A little girl’s spirit using fairy tales that bleed over into reality, manipulating people-- sometimes directly, but the Winchesters specifically because of who they are and can’t abide the suffering of others when they are able to step in and fix things-- through the retelling of those stories for her own reasons.
Does this make Chuck’s involvement and meddling in reality a desperate cry for help? Because it kinda looks that way. When paralleled to Callie in this episode, using the only stories she has to tell her own story, to speak her own truth and hope that someone will understand her, it’s hard not to see it that way. Only Chuck’s story he constantly sought validation over was built of his own history and actions, and not (as Chuck complained a lot in deflection of responsibility for the consequences of his actions) something that was done to him.
Still, an interesting thought exercise that really does encompass my personal understanding of Chuck’s narrative.
Oh, plus direct parallels through fairy tales to Sam and Dean’s current character situations, too. And a cute lil frog.
Things referenced in this week’s episode:
The Superwiki Page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Including these specific posts:
- https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/186338460140/i-think-its-really-interesting-how-in-3x05-dean (kissing frogs as metaphor)
- https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185523476045/305-bedtime-stories-the-dark-side-of-fairy (the hand of Chuck in this episode)
- https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/164973039730/trisscar368-spn-3x05-bedtime-stories-is-a (a kindly cabbage breaks down the frog prince fairy tale for us)
Casting Sides for Dr. Garrison
Casting Sides for the crossroads demon
Storyboard drawings for the cold open scene (if you check out nothing else, please take two minutes to enjoy this fascinating look behind the scenes of crafting an episode!)
Bonus: In this episode we also learn Sam is not a skilled artiste (with thanks to shirtlesssammy for this incredibly accurate screencap... also go read all their episode summaries, they’re all posted now and going up on ao3 as well!):
And as mentioned at the very end of the episode, Saturday is A More Profound Con! It will be a series of zoom panels with fic writers, fan artists, and meta writers (including lil ol’ me!). Registration is free and open right here, where you can also see the schedule and panelists. You can also follow the con on Twitter for more info. We hope to see you there!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I cannot BELIEVE I failed to use the phrase “it’s spirals all the way down” in this entire episode, but that’s what it boils down to honestly. This episode feels like it hits on so many themes that become the big spiral narrative of the entire show. Not to mention miscommunication between Sam and Dean, which knowing what the future holds for them even out through s4 and s5 sets up SO MUCH of their issues with Sam, his relationship with Ruby (which will be mirrored a lot in Dean’s relationship with Cas beginning in s4), Dean’s issues with Hell and his demon deal, right on through the entire narrative structure, the cosmology of the universe (in that “as above, so below” way Chuck loves), and I probably spend too much time flailing about Ruby’s entire arc, considering we’re only four episodes into her first season... :’D
Things referenced in today’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Blue revision pages of the script
Casting sides for Father Gil
Casting sides for Ritchie (aka Iggy in this draft)
Casting sides for Ruby (which anyone who cares about her entire narrative arc, the process of creating her as a character, and some insight into the writers plotting the s3-4 narrative in general should absolutely read... it’s three whole pages and so very worth it)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Destiny. Something that will become a core theme of the show, opposite Free Will. In this case, at least, it’s just a cursed rabbit’s foot that escaped the curse box John Winchester had stuffed it in and hidden away in his secret storage locker rather than actually destroying the thing years ago. Funny how what goes around eventually comes around again, yes? Locking up problems is never an actual solution on this show (or in real life, fwiw).
Rather than start singing the Circle of Life here, I’ll stay on point. :’D
Let’s begin with a moment of silence for Sam’s left shoe.
Things referenced in today’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Casting sides for Bela (really interesting since they were written for casting purposes and not taken from any part of canon at all)
Casting sides for Kubrick
Casting sides for Creedy (mostly overlap between the two, for obvious reasons)
The Network Outline for 3.03 (link now updated!)
And one last bit of business, apparently I failed to add the closing music to last week’s episode, and only just noticed. Only took 46 episodes to screw up that badly, so I guess it was time for a fail :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I wrestled with the jokey tagline on the image this week. I nearly went with something about Ruby, since she’s the other Big Deal Thing happening in this episode, but I’m still stuck on the thematic similarity between Lisa and Carmen from Dean’s djinn dream in 2.20. I mean, they even look similar. Like, maybe his long-ago memories of Lisa influenced his mental process in choosing that particular El Sol ad model as his ideal partner in his dream world, you know? And then the reality of Lisa when he walks back into her life in this episode is just... not at all what he was expecting. The dream kind of shatters a little bit, but in a way that helps him come back down to earth and confront himself, rather than just trying to run from his problems (like his ticking clock and his one way ticket to Hell) and bury them under hedonistic distractions.
(also, we discuss this episode with the understanding that Lisa is not a liar, she’s not deceiving Dean about Ben’s parentage, and that Dean is 100% not Ben’s father, just in case anyone takes issue with that.)
But also, there’s Ruby, and the beginning of her arc that is so damn satisfying to watch when you already know her whole story. She is one of the things I always point to when people suggest that Supernatural is a bad show, or that it was poorly written. Her entire arc wasn’t an accident. Well... we all know how late s3 pulled the rug out from under the plot and then replaced it with angels, but for her part in the Big Scheme of Things, she was always supposed to be the little demon on Sam’s shoulder whispering the secrets to his own downfall in his ear. It just ended up having far more long-reaching consequences in the narrative than originally planned thanks to the whole Apocalypse thing happening. :D
So this is a big one all around!
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Casting Sides for Ben
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Why tf did Sam open that motel room door and observe with his eyes. I mean wtf did he think he was gonna see? Sound travels through doors, Sam. You could’ve just called and left him a voice mail. Or did you think he was gonna be demurely under the covers with the doublemint twins? Truly sad, Sammy.
Oh, and this episode also sets up the Main Problems of s3:
- Who was that masked chick? (Ruby!)
- Wait, there’s a kind of knife that can KILL DEMONS?! (thanks again Ruby!)
- What the hell did they (read: Azazel) let out of Hell?
- and can Sam save Dean from going to Hell at the end of the year? (lol, nope)
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
A post I wrote in June 2019 summing up how I see s3 (after rewatching 3.01 and 3.02, so this is also relevant to next week’s episode, but the first few paragraphs do a nice job of setting a baseline for Dean’s character arc this season, and going forward in general)
LuckyMojo.com, the site referenced in Kripke’s notes on set dressing in the casting sides for Isaac
Casting Sides for Isaac (with the agonizingly incomplete conversation between Sam and Dean, for which this is all we have at the top of page 5 of these sides):
“Dean thinks on this for a beat. This means more to him than he lets on... maybe Sam is cured of his dark destiny...
DEAN: That’s good. (then) Impeccable sense of timing there, Sammy, but still, it’s good.”
BUT WHAT WAS GOOD?! WHAAAAATTTTT I BEG OF ANYONE WHO HAS A COPY OF THIS FULL SCRIPT clears throat and straightens rended garments
Casting sides for Walter/Envy
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
For just a minute, yeah, this episode feels hopeful. Despite ~everything still hanging over them~ they got a MASSIVE win. Like, win of a lifetime, quite literally. Sure they still have problems going into s3-- Dean’s deal and his one year left to live, the worry over whether Sam “came back right” (spoiler alert, he did, this is all just mind games being put in place to manipulate them), and oopsie all those freshly escaped demons wreaking havoc... but heck this one does end on a good note otherwise.
Yes, that sounds ridiculous, but it’s true! You’re watching Supernatural! This is just how it is :’D
Things reference in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (chronological order, so you can get progressively more hopeful about the series, and then just stop reading when it gets to the series finale era posts lol)
The dvd/blu ray featurette about the making of this episode
Plus I engaged in a few fun little what-if games throughout this episode, and I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on what might’ve been different had a few tiny little things happened differently in this episode. Not because it would’ve logically made sense to make those changes, but the show itself has given us an opportunity to wonder about them with the introduction of “the author” to the story, and the concept of alternate universes where things happened differently. :D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Where once again I mention something in passing on the episode graphic that I completely fail to mention in the actual podcast! But this one is a blink-and-you-miss-it handful of frames that’s far more ominous with the context of the rest of the series. And in context of this early part of the show (and the next two seasons or so) makes Sam’s hiding the whole demon blood from Dean at least a little more understandable but also 10000x more horrifying.
(for reference, Dean doesn’t learn about the demon blood thing that Sam learns in this episode until 4.03 when Azazel himself tells him...)
But this episode: After so long of Sam and Dean having no idea what this big bad “Save Sam or else you’ll have to kill him” threat that had been hanging over Dean all season, it’s finally rendered irrelevant as a “choice” in this episode. We get some awful, awful “I didn’t have a choice,” and the Special Children Hunger Games. Plus the demise of the Roadhouse (and Ash), and the reminder that Kripke hates letting his characters have nice things. We’re watching Supernatural.
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
The post I mention laying out my understanding of the YED’s role in the larger canon of s1-5 (if you read nothing else from my links this week, read this. It’s one of those “no, this isn’t actually a plot hole if you look at it from this specific angle only” type explainers, and informs how I look at the rest of the series. Also, it’s not THAT long lol.)
The lyrics I reference playing when Dean walks into the cafe after Sam vanishes
Casting sides for Jake
Casting sides for Lily (both of which came from the Network Draft dated 2/26/07)
Production Draft script dated 3/07/07, with Blue Revision pages dated 3/08/07
The Devil’s Road Map featurette on the s2 Blu Ray
I did my best to keep this one short, knowing next week we’re in for a roller coaster of agony. Have a good one, everybody... :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
no really, this episode is A Lot. Being #42 must be some sort of cosmic joke. Djinn, the introduction of El Sol and everything that implies, Dean’s horrifying self-worth issues, the cases Dean discovers were “undone” in his dream world (the Shtriga that nearly killed Sam as a child and became a punishment from John as an adult, their first demon and the plane crash case that exposed Dean’s fears, the clown/rakshasa that follows kids home and murders their parents, and the little girl from Playthings bringing up Dean’s promise to Sam that he will kill him rather than let him turn evil... there’s a lot of baggage to unpack even in those references...), the literal definition of “performing Dean” and just... so much angst.
Of course this episode ran long. I could’ve talked so much longer (and did... I edited out like 40 minutes and it’s still That Long...). But instead I’ll just assign supplemental reading!
The Superwiki Page for this episode
My tag for this episode (sorted chronologically so you don’t get a lot of later seasons meta mixed in at first)
The wikipedia page for From Hell It Came (because it’s a wild read)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Poor Victor Henriksen. The Winchesters are just so far above his pay grade right now. :’D
But also, yeah, things never stay locked up on Supernatural-- from curse boxes to wherever Amara was stashed away since the dawn of creation, if there’s a lock then there’s always a key, or a blowtorch in this case.
Also, working from “sanitized” reports that don’t come close to the truth always lead to surprise outcomes. And hiding the truth to protect yourself or others is pretty much always gonna blow up in your face down the line.
Plus the ghost of John Winchester, Dean feeling responsible to repay his debts (or just feeling a duty and loyalty to those he feels beholden to), poking the back of our brains about that awful last promise John extracted from Dean that’s coming due any day now...
Heck I really enjoy this episode.
Things mentioned in this podcast that may be of interest:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
The Green Onions Story
Casting sides for Deacon Kaylor
Casting sides for Mara Daniels
Casting sides for Randall
The Crime Mittens post (it’s hilarious, if you click on no other links here, click this one.)
All other mentioned posts from this podcast are in my tag for the episode (it’s three pages and like half of them are gif sets) :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I didn’t even realize until i was entering the metadata for the mp3 file last night that this was EPISODE 40 of spngeorg! First off, I can’t believe I’ve stuck with this project for 40 whole entire weeks, or that we’re still in s2 of 15 of Supernatural. :’D Thanks to everyone who’s been on this ride with me!
On to the actual episode!
I LOVE THIS ONE. Seriously, if I haven’t made myself clear, it’s episodes like this one that make Supernatural what it is. There’s so many meta seeds planted here: the Author and the Story, and how the story of Supernatural is being told. The writers plucked fruits off episodes like this through the entire rest of the series, and it’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this project in the first place.
I only wish I hadn’t been as under the weather as I was this week, or this episode would be three times as long. So I guess that’s a good thing! (and yeah, at least I don’t have the plague, and I’m starting to feel better now, which is a huge relief)
Things referenced in this podcast (with apologies that there’s actual homework this week because I couldn’t brain very well for myself):
The Superwiki Page for this episode (just go enjoy all the trivia and minutiae they crammed into this episode)
My tag for this episode
Casting sides for McG
Casting sides for Tara
that one post on my blog I mentioned in the podcast
one more post that tidily sums up the wtf of using That Clip in all the 15.20 promos, because I think I failed to adequately convey the wtf in this podcast :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
This episode always hurts. It hurts more knowing how much more Sam and Dean will eventually learn about werewolves, and what they might have been able to do to help Madison if only they had known. Some episodes just get better with hindsight, but this one just feels more painful-- for Madison, yes, but also for Sam. That boy just carries so much guilt.
I do appreciate this one for the chance for Sam to maybe understand just a little how heavy the baggage Dean has been carrying all season is, even if it doesn’t really change anything (including Sam’s understanding of Dean long-term), but if nothing else it sort of hammers us in the face with the reminder.
Plus we get the absolute longest full moon cycle in the history of the universe. I mean sheesh, how many nights of the full moon does San Francisco get, anyway?! And Sam gets like a twelve hour nap, which is the longest I think he’s slept since the series started :’D (yes, I am mocking the timeline of this episode).
Things referenced in the podcast:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
all along the watchtower plays in the distance lol... even if in this episode the song tied to the guest star of the week was House of the Rising Sun, same deal. And once again, if you haven’t watched Battlestar Galactica, can I take this opportunity to recommend it most strongly. Then you’ll get this reference. :’D
I love this episode. It’s a wonderful exemplar of the inside-out storytelling Supernatural uses really well most of the time, and helps us get through difficult things when we know the trick of them. Since this is why I started this podcast in the first place-- because Supernatural only improves with rewatches, when you know how things will resolve (well, except the series finale because wtf...), entire episodes, hell entire SEASONS of this show look completely different. I’m just here to point that out in every way I possibly can.
Plus, Sam and Dean are FINALLY working well together. TEAMWORK! And Sam gets to directly save someone. It’s the catharsis we as the audience have needed for a while, too.
Things referenced in this week’s episode:
Battlestar Galactica (kind of joking, but seriously, All Along The Watchtower is to that series what House of the Rising Sun is to this one... and like AATW, the end is the beginning. Plus Tricia Helfer.)
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (again, not a lot, but what’s there is meaty)
Casting sides for David McNamara (trying a new system, since the slideshare was giving me fits this week)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Once again, I shall use this space to laugh about something I didn’t even mention in the actual podcast: the snarky comment in this week’s title card. For those who can’t see it, it’s “That episode that makes fun of Urban Legends, you know that thing this show was originally intended to be about...” Because yeah, the original pitch Kripke made for Supernatural was (aside from “Star Wars in truck stop America” that we always hear) along the lines of “two brothers traveling the back roads investigating urban legends that are really real.”
I mean, just look at s1-- Bloody Mary, Hookman, the Woman in White. The show obviously branched out VERY quickly into a broader cosmology and mythology for the entire universe, and only occasionally delved back into common urban legends. So much for Kripke’s “original vision” of the show-- more along the lines of Kolchak: The Night Stalker that what Supernatural quickly grew into. I think it’s amazing that by mid s2 the writers are already comfortable poking at the silliness of the premise to carry a series past a season or two of stories. Good for them for realizing the potential they had to expand and elevate the universe they were creating.
And now that I took so much space typing about what this podcast episode ISN’T about, I’ll take this paragraph to mention that it IS about the narrative itself manipulating Sam and Dean for its own purposes in a startlingly meta way. Not because John Shiban knew what the show would eventually grow into, but because the writers leaned so heavily on the story’s foundations to keep building it bigger and bigger in later seasons. And Gabriel, to me, is so closely tied into that narrative. Our “As above, so below” character who keeps coming back to teach this lesson. So meta. :’D
Things I mention in this episode that might be of interest:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (there’s some good stuff in there this week!)
Lizbob summing up how making the Trickster into the Archangel Gabriel is a retcon that levels up the whole narrative
My post attempting to explain how I see Gabriel’s role in the narrative as a mirror for Chuck
The Weekly World News dated February 19, 2007 with the tie-in article about Supernatural (and can we collectively cackle at the cover headline about “first photos of Heaven” being revealed in an episode where we get our first appearance by an Actual Angel in the show, even if we don’t KNOW it’s an angel for another 3 seasons? Because that’s just freaking hilarious)
Casting Sides for the Trickster
Casting Sides for the frat boy alien abductee
The entirely delightful Sam Samming post (it doesn’t have the screenshot I mentioned in the podcast, but the “you’re too precious for this world!” hug is in there)
Standard reminder you can find me on tumblr @spngeorg or at @mittensmorgul, as well as at mittensmorgul and spngeorg on twitter, or via email at mittensmorgul@gmail, and mittens#4865 on the discord. Come say hi! I swear I don’t bite... mostly... :D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Yeah, in an episode where Sam isn’t actually Sam until right near the end, I spend a lot of this episode going “Sam... er, well Meg really, but she’s using Sam’s face,” and “Meg... but Sam because those are his fists.” I think I at least achieved the objective that nobody will forget that Sam is just Not Sam for most of this one, which was my goal. :’D
So how does Meg’s little game fit in with the Grand Plan of the Yellow Eyed Demon? Where’s Chuck in all of this mess that on the surface looks like Meg tormenting the Winchesters for her own purposes? Because he’s there. He’s the story, and Cain vs Abel is one of his favorites, especially if you see that “killing the brother that turns evil to save him from himself” could (horrifically) fall under the heading of “You have to save Sam” too.
The story is out to get us all.
Also, shoutout to Jared for convincingly playing a character so obviously Not Sam that it was honestly a little creepy...
There’s not a lot of links to extra stuff this week, but these may be of interest!
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
We’ll hopefully be back to having at least some bonus content next week!
Until then, I actually made a twitter for this podcast! You can still find me @spngeorg and at @mittensmorgul on Tumblr, and at mittens#4865 on discord, as well as mittensmorgul and now spngeorg on twitter!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
yeah... welcome to the screaming portion of the inside of my head :’D
So much of the foundation of angel lore, God’s Will in the Supernatural Universe, and the spiral narrative overall is planted firmly in this episode: Sera Gamble’s sneaky trick to get to write about “angels” while Kripke was still on the No Angels in SPN Ever line. But also predates Dean finding a handhold on his own free will and beginning to think he actually has true autonomy in the universe. (that doesn’t really come for him until mid s3 when he gets to shout down his dream!demon!self and reject his father’s orders.
(and poor Sam might have his hopes of angelic redemption crushed in this one, but he’s still holding on to his nebulous destiny to turn evil and need killing with both hands... )
But this is a good start...
Things referenced in this week’s episode:
The Superwiki Page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Casting Sides for Father Gregory
Casting Sides for Father Reynolds
Network Arena for the episode when it was still titled “Touched”
Oh, and that little comment in the episode title card image at the top there? yeah, go read the Arena linked immediately above. Scroll to the final two scenes. Read them and cry about the series finale with me.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Aah, Ben Edlund, that scamp who’s always shining lights into the underbelly of this show and the nature of storytelling itself. This episode is about subtext, and about why trusting the surface level read of the story will ~~get you killed and replaced by mandroids~~ leave you confused. The real story is never just what’s happening on the surface. And this entire episode serves as an excellent reminder of that fact.
Plus, Sam being a dick actually gets a guy Dean liked killed (there’s reasons I am not a Sam Girl... I can’t forgive him for this as easily as Dean seems to...). Yeah I know he’s doing the best he can while operating on the presumption there’s nothing he can do to change his “destiny” to turn evil, or whatever he’s built up this vague warning into in his own head because he actually has no literal concrete information on why Dean might have to kill him yet... like... just that vague ominous warning. And yet Sam takes that with both hands and shapes his entire identity around the fact that he will have no choice but to become evil, like he has no free will to choose, like, not to do that...
sigh
Meanwhile, Dean still doesn’t get a vacation, even after Sam’s poor choices end up inadvertently putting them back on the radar of the FBI. They really should’ve just gone to the beach instead.
Things I refer to during this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (which is only two pages of stuff, even if a couple of the essays are on the long-ish side...)
Casting sides for Victor
Casting sides for Ron
The white draft script with blue pages revisions embedded
the VFX department creating that one scene with the helicopter
And since it's Thanksgiving in the US as I upload this, it feels appropriate to remind all of you how thankful I am for you <3
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Creepy dolls, yes, but also some meta goodness. When you have a dollhouse that’s an exact replica of the big house, and everything that happens in reality also happens in the dollhouse, you get a tidy metaphor for the concept of “as above, so below” that the show leans on completely in later seasons. “Smashing toys” here might be literal, but... it’s like the whole plot of the cosmic nonsense from Chuck, the archangels, right on down the line.
Plus Dean must confront the fact that people might think he’s queer, and mostly he just feels uncomfortable at being seen. (summed up nicely in this post from mid s10, to which I would only add that this was before Dean essentially completely opened up to Cas, since this post describes it as Cas being “sort of” allowed to be intimate with Dean, and that intimacy effectively explodes in following seasons).
Plus Dean is hammered over the head with the awful promise that John extracted from him before dying, and which has slowly been grinding him down all season long. Sam effectively grabs that bit of sandpaper and replaces it with an industrial belt sander (warning for folks who adore Sam, since I love him too... I am... not fond of him in this episode lol... even less so in the next one...).
But I did manage to keep this one pretty close to an hour! Yay me!
Things that may be of interest:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Casting sides for Susan (dated 10/23)
White Production Draft (dated 10/30)
You can find me here (obvs), and also at mittensmorgulon tumblr, mittens#4865 on discord, mittensmorgul on the tweeter, or email me at mittensmorgul@gmail. Tell me how you listen (do you watch along with the episodes? is this podcast more of a refresher of the series in itself? do you have thoughts or input on how I could made this more valuable to you the listener? I’d love to hear from you!) We’re already 1/10th of the way through the series now, and I appreciate all of you along for the ride with me. :)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Aah, Hunted. The truth of John’s final order to Dean finally comes out, and this episode goes to prove exactly why it took him so long to tell Sam. Their behaviors and actions in this episode, now that I’m really thinking about it, kind of set the groundwork for my tag sam sympathizes and Dean empathizes, even if the first post in that tag is my rant about 9.14... (i just reread that post and it goes a long way to explaining my thoughts about these two morons and their disgustingly unhealthy codependency, so it’s worth a read if for nothing else than to understand the pov from which i talk about them and the show).
Gordon Walker returns to again be humiliatingly bested by Sam and Dean, and we learn Jo has chosen to go out hunting on her own. So it’s not all just miscommunication and tantrums. :’D
Things referenced in this week’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
specifically this post
and this one
Casting sides for Ava Wilson
And while we’re here, the ONE significant bit in this script that didn’t make it into the episode (the show and this podcast both lol...) is a little bit that would seem to provide motivation for Ava to ditch out on her fiancée and dive headfirst into the demon army hunger games, thus giving her disappearance at the end of this episode a more powerful ambiguous possible meaning. As aired, the episode leaves us with the assumption that Ava was content to return to her old life, eager to get back to her little bubble of personal happiness, but this one tiny bit of the casting sides script sheds just the tiniest bit of doubt that that was actually the case. This is right after they steal Scott’s psych files. The scene as aired cuts right after Ava says, “I’m awesome!” Which is where this bit of the script picks up:
[Sam looks up at Ava. She’s giddy, grinning from ear to ear.
SAM: You’re serious?
AVA: Oh my god, I felt like I was in “The Sting.” That was the most fun I’ve had in my LIFE!
Sam raises an eyebrow.
SAM: Huh.
AVA: What?
SAM: Nothing. It’s just... you’re getting married in two months, and THIS is the most fun you’ve ever had?
Ava’s smile fades. Oh shit, he’s right.]
Kinda makes her look like she’s about to seriously reevaluate her entire life, giving credence to the read that maybe she was in a bit of a spiral, making her even more vulnerable to taking Azazel up on the whole Demon Powers thing we discover about her at the end of the season. But it was cut...
Alrighty then! A final apology for just how long this episode ran (my goal is always to keep them under 100 minutes, and I squeaked this one in under the wire, even after cutting about 40 minutes from it >.>)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Aah, Croatoan. The midseason finale of s2. There’s just... too much in this episode to sum it up tidily in a little synopsis like this. I really tried to keep the podcast under an hour and a half and came SO CLOSE but still failed (don’t worry, it was over two hours before I edited it >.>). So instead, I’m just gonna cackle about the fact John had a crackpot theory about the Roanoke Colony disappearance that Azazel probably laughed his ass off over as he planned out this whole test for the Winchesters.
Is Sam immune to the weirdo demon virus? (yes) Do people who have the demon virus behave as expected? (yes) Can the demons control the situation once everyone is infected, manipulating them not just to become ravening monsters who kill everything but who are still capable of manipulation to follow a specific agenda and accomplish complex tasks? (yes)
(i mean the croatoan infected were methodical and not mindless, yet still followed multi-step orders like “guard the bridge” and “do not let the Winchesters leave town” and specifically isolating Sam so that he a) understood that he had been specifically and directly infected with the virus and b) could be proven to have been immune to the virus all along. MULTIPLE infected people had an opportunity to infect him and chose not to. He could’ve been infected without even knowing it, surreptitiously, and yet no, they specifically wanted him to KNOW he was being deliberately targeted and infected. SINISTER! and PURPOSEFUL!)
This is s2′s “it’s all about the blood” that functions like s6′s “it’s all about the souls.” Because yeah, it’s all about the blood-- from Sam’s demon blood infection to the blood bowl phone demons use. Because that’s exactly what Azazel did to Sam by feeding him his blood. He turned him into a phone receiver for manipulative visions.
OKAY. Before this turns into an essay, here are things referenced in this week’s episode that may be of interest:
The Superwiki Page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Casting Sides for Mark Vargo
Casting Sides for Dr. Lee
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Heck, I can’t believe I’ve done 30 of these now! I’m 1/11th of the way through the series! LOLOLOL!
Poor Dean, has his second-worst fears confirmed, that John sold his soul to Hell for Dean to live. Don’t worry, he still has his worst fears waiting to be confirmed-- what that whole thing about having to possibly kill Sam if Dean fails to save him could possibly mean...
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode (heck it’s only one page... how do I not have more posts about this one?)
Casting Sides for Dean’s crossroads demon (please go read to see what was added to her lines, about how Dean was “supposed to be dead” and John was “supposed to be alive” just adding to his burden of guilt and slathering on a heaping helping of cosmic consequences gone wrong)
Casting Sides for George Darrow (please go read to appreciate the fact they took out the awkward scenes of George having to explain Hoodoo to Sam and Dean like they were children)
Casting Sides for Robert Johnson (which are basically just neato to read, and confirm that the scripted date for when he sold his soul was 1928, and got borked by whoever keyed “1930″ into the chyron by mistake, creating the baffling anomaly of an apparent 8 year demon deal, instead of the standard 10)
Would you like to join our discord server to chat more about these episodes? Or about anything and everything to do with Supernatural? Message me here on tumblr or over at my main blog (I’m @mittensmorgul), and I’ll give you a link.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I always thoroughly enjoy this episode. You can’t go wrong with Linda Blair, Sam and Dean both reaching Peak Competency in extremely trying circumstances, and demonstrating what professional hunters with a lifetime of experience working together are capable of. Even when the real monster is actually just another selfish human.
They go in expecting a vengeful spirit, and discover it’s a death omen instead, in search of justice for her own murder even when she’s lost the ability to communicate. She finds a way and justice is served. Satisfying!
Plus Dean is unceremoniously declared “alive” again by law enforcement, which means he’s back to being wanted for murder again... his run of relative anonymity couldn’t have lasted... and it’s going to make this complicated going forward.
Things referenced in this week’s episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Casting sides for Detective Sheridan
And because I can’t resist shameless self-promotion, I mentioned some fic I’ve written sort of kind of tangentially related to this episode. Specifically, a fic where I used Detective Ballard as a VERY minor character, because I really do wish we’d seen (or at least heard of) her more in later canon. I vote her into the Wayward Society for characters I appreciate :’D
The Exception to Every Rule
And then I ramble a bit about wishing we ever touched base with any of the varied characters over the years who accidentally learned of the Supernatural (either through experiencing it themselves, or else reading their own stories in one of Chuck’s books...) who maybe didn’t run off to become hunters, but still felt like they had something to contribute, to support others who are suddenly thrust into the world of the supernatural... I like to imagine they start a big support group...
Worst Case Scenario
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Aah, a nice distracting MotW episode! But also one where we get to tangentially explore Dean’s relationship with his parents and hunting through Jo’s essentially opposite relationship with hunting and her parents...
Plus serial killers, Sam is oddly written due to Jared’s surgery on his hand, and I actually remembered to introduce myself at the beginning of the episode again! Also, everyone be grateful I cut out the bit where my entire family was singing Tiny Dancer for no discernible reason!
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
the tl;dr of my tag for this episode which is, unfortunately, very long in itself (don’t worry, the whole tag for this episode is really small...)
And a shorter follow-up to the above post (really a continuation of it)
Subscribe, like, rate, review, all that jazz jazz hands
Want to join the discord server where we talk about these episodes? message me on tumblr (you can reach my askbox on the links to my blog above) and I’ll get you a link! <3
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
aka that one where I forgot to introduce myself at the beginning of the episode. (Hi, I’m Mittens... just pretend I said it in the podcast) But it took me 27 episodes before I completely forgot who I was, and it’s possibly appropriate for the episode about mind control powers... :’D
This is Ben Edlund’s first episode, and oddly my shortest episode in a while (yay?!), and these are not the droids you are looking for.
Dean’s first brush with mind control is more than a little distressing for him, even when he has to constantly reassure Sam (like so many of the victims in this week’s episode) that they’re okay, everything is going to be okay. It’s all fine.
(and at that point the victims I mentioned offed themselves in horrifying ways, so this does not bode well... lol)
(I mean, we are watching Supernatural, so that’s a general reliable assumption all the time, so...)
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki Page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Casting Sides for Andy Gillette (later renamed Andy Gallagher)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
When Dean’s current character arc is paralleled to a zombie girl, we know there will be Feelings™. This boy has so much guilt-- blaming himself and his continued existence as an alive person on the planet for his father’s death, blaming himself for everything Sam has been through since John’s death because of that, and still unable to address the “if you can’t save him, you’ll have to kill him” order at all... Meanwhile Sam continues making choices for himself based on what he believes his dead father would’ve wanted, and of course, Dean just feels all the more guilty because of it.
Oh, did we mention that all of this starts because Sam was insistent they visit a graveyard monument erected to Mary Winchester’s memory? Yeah...
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki Page for this episode
My tag for this episode
The post about pretty much all the porn in SPN being created for Sam and not Dean
Casting sides for Angela
Casting sides for Neil
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Episode 25 already? Wow! But also, this episode is a big one. A difficult one, too, since it marks a lot of firsts and introduces a lot of Big Concepts into the show that Sam and Dean will wrestle with for the rest of the series. Mostly, it clarifies that the morality of hunting isn’t black and white. Monsters aren’t all evil things that need to die. And Dean gets told that he’s just a killer for the first time. Which... is honestly what will eventually drive him to the culmination of his entire character arc over the next fifteen seasons.
In this episode, the horrific final order that John gave to Dean in 2.01 is exposed from a completely different angle through Gordon. Dean was ordered to kill Sam if it came to that, if Sam “lost his humanity” and Dean can’t save him. It’s the fundamental difference between Dean and Gordon, because where Dean will do anything and everything (including selling his own soul) to save Sam, Gordon killed his own sister without hesitation when she “lost her humanity.”
The wheel in the sky keeps on turning, and I think this is my longest episode yet... (sorry!) :’D
Things referenced this week that might be of interest:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
Network Arena for this episode
Casting sides for Gordon Walker
Casting sides for Lenore
The production draft script for this episode
Video of Jared at Jaxcon 2018 talking about injuring his wrist while filming this episode
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
So this week’s episode is a bit late, and a bit shaky... I have had an unbelievable checks clock 28 hours of the most ridiculous series of technical difficulties both with my laptop and in real life. It has been a doozy, folks. I’m just gonna apologize in advance if this episode is a little bit glitchy, but IT EXISTS and eight hours ago I thought I’d lost the whole thing, so I’m gonna count this as a win and move on. LOL.
On to the actual episode! More Dean Pain! And Sam suffers clowns, which is also pain!
This is definitely one of those episodes that looks entirely different on a rewatch, with the context of the following 14 seasons of character growth and suffering. So much of Supernatural does.
(aka why I detest the concept of episodes being “skippable” or “bad” or “unimportant.” well... maybe a few are... but overall there is wonder and pain to be dredged from the vast majority of canon, and it’s plentiful in this episode. grab your shovel, we’re going digging!)
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
The casting sides for Jo, the alternate second casting sides for Jo, the casting sides for Ellen, and the casting sides for Ash. (again, highly recommend a compare/contrast read of all of these side by side along with the transcript of how these scenes transpired on screen... a fascinating read)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Gosh I love this song...
Welcome to Season Two! Most of the episode, it looks like Dean’s time of dying, but he just refused to go. Or, well... things happen, etc. etc., and surprise! Dean does not permadie in episode 1 of season 2, and in fact they go on to make quite a goodly number more episodes! Uh... spoiler alert?
Welcome to the official merge lane at the top of the on ramp to the Spiral Narrative of the entire series, the staking of Dean’s position on free will versus fate, the beginning of Dean’s intense personal relationship with Death.
(and I only get mad at the series finale like twice... maybe three times...)
Important things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for the episode
My tag for this episode
Kim Manners and Eric Kripke talking about “ghost rules”
Casting Sides for Tessa (14 pages)
Casting Sides for Janitor/Azazel (technically the script from 1.22 and not 2.01... sorry I didn’t link these last week, but they’re marked as for 2.01 and were the readings used for this character, but I’m including it here for the record)
And a few interesting things from the casting sides for Tessa that I mentioned in the podcast I'd include here:
-the second deleted scene with the “wounded man” is referenced at the top of the first page
-lol forgot to mention part of the first deleted scene included a gratuitous shot of a patient removing her top before the doctor shut the door, and Dean debating if he was a bad person for wanting to sneak another look >.> (glad that got deleted because wtf...)
-Several lines have been rewritten, mostly just for pacing (one likely because network censors wouldn’t let Dean say “dicking” lol), but one of John’s lines was mostly cut and the rest was changed substantially: “I... I know you don’t believe me... but you boys really are the most important things in my life. And I swear. I won’t hunt the Demon. Not until we figure out how to help Dean.” It’s replaced with: “ Wait, Sam. I promise I won't hunt this demon. Not until we know Dean's okay.”
-apparently the apparition of the reaper is referred to in the script as a “Black Phantom” before Dean identifies it as a reaper
-a whole section of Dean explaining the “Black Phantom” to Tessa and then flirting with her, and her flirting back... which was cut entirely
-Tessa asking if Dean was ever in AA (he says no), and then she justifies her acceptance of her fate with the Serenity Prayer. This whole bit was cut.
-another deleted reference to the bloodied man from the cut scenes, that Tessa now conveniently uses as an example of someone who refused to accept his fate and is now trapped in the hospital-- or is it just another of Tessa’s illusions for Dean?
-another deleted speech from Tessa to Dean in their final scene:
TESSA: You don’t think I can see it?
DEAN: See what?
TESSA: Beneath the bravado? All that pain and hurt and suffering? You're tired, Dean. You've had to bear so much... more than almost anyone. It’s time to rest. It’s time to put the pain behind you.
the scene then continues as written through Tessa’s possession and the demon healing Dean.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I can’t believe I finally made it to the end of the first season! Wheee! Er, or, maybe something less celebratory sounding considering the circumstances of this episode...
We finally get to meet Bobby! YAY! But Meg kills his dog... BOO. But Bobby teaches them some invaluable lessons about demons! YAY! But one of those lessons is that humans are possessed and trapped in their bodies by the demons... BOO. But they are able to free Meg from her possession! YAY! But sadly she dies of her injuries... BOO...
Heck I could probably just go through the whole episode like that, but I won’t because I have talked about it enough for one day already. :’D
Thank you to everyone who’s been along on this ride with me! It’s been fun so far, and hopefully you’ll be joining me for season 2 beginning next week! YAY!
Things I mentioned in this episode include:
The Superwiki page for this episode
Casting Sides for Bobby Singer
My tag for this episode
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
This week we visit a fictional town (in our universe, it’s real enough in the SPN universe) that was “created for sinners.” I like to think it’s Chuck taking a little dig at everyone, and they have no idea yet...
We also get our first introduction to Carry On Wayward Son in canon, which I marvel at probably longer than I should’ve, but this is my podcast and I do what I want. :’D
Impossible desires are explored: John wants Mary back (and he just wants this whole nightmare to end in general), Sam wants to finally get revenge for all of it, and Dean just wants what’s left of his family to be able to walk away from it all.
We’re basically just setting up angst for the finale here, and boy is there a lot of it to sift through!
Things referenced in this episode include:
my tag for the episode
the post by lizbob about Carry On Wayward Son
the post by lizbob about Sam’s lil polo shirt (conveniently also in Demonic Warning Red vs the Caution Yellow of his polo in 4.17)
the interview with Jerry Wanek where he mentions the motel screen with the crosses hidden in the design
costume designer Diane Widas explaining the evolution of Meg’s wardrobe to reflect her evolution in story
(at which point I stop typing for a few minutes to cackle to myself about Color Theory and positive associations with red outweighing negative ones when designing snail trail blood splatter décor in children’s hospitals, because I am an awful person)
the superwiki page for this episode (including links to the transcript and the casting sides for “Tom” the demon)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Welcome to another installment of the Free Will United Against John Winchester’s Direct Orders Fan Club! I hope everyone brought their clubs! :’D
We are introduced to the Colt, are informed that yes, vampires are a thing that exist, and begin learning the extent of things that John had been keeping hidden from Sam and Dean, ostensibly in the name of keeping them safe.
Since I talked an awful lot this week, I’ll keep these notes short and get right to the links to important reference materials:
The Superwiki page for this episode
The casting sides for the vampires Beau, Luther, and Kate, wherein there’s a few references to Genny, who you might better remember as Dr. Ellen Piccolo who slaps Sam and calls him a “brilliant coward” a number of times in Changing Channels, since it’s the same actress...
my tag for this episode
the tweet I mention toward the end of the episode
and finally, a link to my personal frustration over the fact I still can’t find the long post I made about how monsters are used for specific thematic representation on Supernatural, because I know I wrote this post and I’ll be golly gosh danged if I can’t find it now...
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Once again, Sam finds a clue to follow to a new hunt, prompted partly by three short entries in John’s journal of seemingly unrelated murders separated by decades. He and Dean are on the hunt for something that connects them all together. Sam is also pushed to the forefront of information gathering, through a budding relationship with Sarah Blake.
Yes, we finally get a bit of a look at Sam’s deeper emotional state, something beyond “find Dad, get revenge, bottle everything else.” Plus, Dean is a good brother. :’)
Things referenced in this episode include:
My tag for the episode (woefully light in posts, and I still haven’t edited the tag on the one that should’ve been in the 1.18 tag instead... I’ll get to it eventually)
The Superwiki Page for this episode
Even though it’s both in a post in my tag AND linked on the superwiki page, have a direct link to the relevant casting sides for Sarah Blake I refer to toward the end of the podcast.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Heck this one just absolutely murders me with Dean feels. This boy tries so hard, and thinks he fails at everything, and has been carrying this burden around most of his life. I could ramble on about this forever, but luckily it’s gish week and I’m thoroughly distracted or else I’d be having another Dean-induced breakdown on this post. Consider yourselves spared.
I do however break down frequently during this episode, so consider yourselves warned :’D
Things referenced in this post:
My tag for this episode
The Superwiki page for this episode
A bit of leftover business from last week's episode that I forgot to link... I mentioned there has been fanfic about Supernatural being made into a movie, which of course becomes A Case that TFW has to go investigate... It's called Meta Madness by angelswatchingover. There are likely others, but this is a favorite of mine. :)
I hope everyone participating in gish this week is having a blast, and hope everyone else is having a lovely week, too!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Pranks can go horribly, terribly wrong, and sometimes they can go so awry they can unwittingly alter reality.
What was likely intended to be a fun MotW episode at the time really does explore a lot of deeper themes about how the story can be made real just by the power of belief. We also get to gently poke fun at some of the earlier episodes and the frequently bumbling approach of Sam and Dean as they began to feel their way through hunting on their own through Sam and Dean’s reactions to Ed and Harry. They might not yet call themselves Ghostfacers, but their complete ignorance of the Supernatural despite declaring themselves “professional” investigators help us understand just how naive most of humanity really is to what’s actually out there.
And it’s a dang good thing we’ve been on this ride with Sam and Dean all this time and can laugh and be frustrated right along with them. :’D
Things referenced in this episode:
The Superwiki page for this episode
My tag for this episode
And this glorious, hilarious shot of the exterior of their Texas Motel Room. Seriously, if these guys were staring at you every time you walked up to your room, how comfy would you feel staying here?
Be honest now...
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
And we’re back to mytharc! What’s the point of this episode? What have we learned other than that Dean can’t even imagine a life for himself out beyond hunting, and that Sam can’t even imagine a life for himself where he continues to hunt? Well, for one thing, we learn that Dean also has very little faith in his own abilities as a hunter and is still conditioned to defer to John’s orders, even when those orders seemingly nearly got them killed by their own ignorance of what John should’ve told them.
After I finished recording this one, it hit me that like in Home, John was already in town, watching them, waiting like Sam was to see what entity Meg would summon in case it was the demon that killed Mary and Jess. So... if that’s true... John was really prepared to use Sam and Dean as bait for this thing... which is so entirely unsurprising at the same time its entirely infuriating. Father of the year, he was. >.>
Things referenced in this episode, in addition to my tag for it include:
The Superwiki page for this episode
This specific post about the diamond pattern bedspread
This other specific post about diamond patterns in general
I was gonna add in a few choice posts from my John tag, but fell down a ragey rabbit hole and had to stop looking down there :'D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Here we are, our very first entirely human bad guys, no supernatural connections at all. They don’t have a reaper on a leash or an old god in an orchard they sacrifice people to. Not even the angry spirits of the many people they’d hunted over the years. Just... really awful people. :’D
In Dean’s words from this episode: demons I get, people are crazy.
I mention in the podcast that this episode has themes taken from Deliverance (about psycho redneck hillbillies hunting people... “looking for love in all the wrong places,” as Jenkins says in this episode), from a short story called The Most Dangerous Game (about a super rich dude who hunts people), and a group of serial killers who lived on the Kansas prairie back in the 1870′s who were known as the Bloody Benders.
Also referenced in this episode is the Superwiki page for The Benders, and my tag for the episode, and I’ll throw in my tag for “demons I get people are crazy,” which is where I filed a lot of “humans are the vilest monsters” meta over the years.
Remember folks: if you have to bend over to look under your car in a creepy parking lot late at night, always stay a few feet back out of grabbing range of skeevy murdery dudes. Can’t believe this isn’t common knowledge. :’D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Sam’s the one having nightmares, but at least he has Dean to support him through it. It’s far more than Dean himself has ever had. Yes, another episode where something supernatural happens to Sam, and we the audience understand and relate to the supernatural difficulty through the filter of Dean’s perceptions, reactions, and emotions.
We also get to feel righteously judgmental toward John Winchester, righteously heartbroken over Dean’s entire life, and speculatively side-eye-y toward Chuck in the distant future. I mean, why is any of this happening to the Winchesters (or in this episode, to the Miller family) at all? Hmmm
Links and resources I reference in this week’s episode include:
The production draft script
The link to the Superwiki page for this episode
my tag for this episode
We’re gonna be going through the draft script of the episode and playing compare/contrast to the aired version on the discord server this week. If you’re interested in joining us, please send me a message and I’ll send a link. :)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Yeah, I'm even gonna take the slightly cringe episodes seriously, at least for my purposes of character analysis. And while the racist truck is basically a slow-motion car crash, so are my feelings for what is revealed about Dean in this episode.
Even with my sad Dean feels, a segment at the beginning of the episode I took to explain how I think of Death's role in the cosmic structure of the Supernatural universe, AND a long and slightly rambling story in the outro, this one still clocks in at under an hour. Totally not surprised, but it's also a weirdly a refreshing break for me! It's a lot easier to edit myself when I'm not concerned about how long the final product is going to be. :'D
Hopefully some of the background info on how this episode came to be in the first place might at least help others over the hurdle of looking too closely at the overall plot, and at least be able to take away some wonderful understanding of Dean's past and why he shields himself so much when it comes to opening up to and trusting people with the depth of his love for them.
Things I refer to in this episode include:
The Superwiki page for this episode
The full studio draft of the script for this episode
And even though there's only a few pages of posts there, my tag for this episode
Drive carefully! :D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
So we're officially here, the first episode that I had to stop and stare at a wall for a few minutes and then immediately go back and watch it again. I had been enjoying the show before this. It felt like a fun little adventure story about chasing a mysterious monster that had altered their lives forever, seeking revenge and answers and trying to find their father. But this episode? This changed things for me, far more than Home even did.
Maybe I just have a thing for Capital-D Death, in a cosmic sense. Then again, so much of later canon about God and faith and life and death (and Death) only serves to make this episode stronger in retrospect. And in some ways way more painful! Wheee! >.>
I've personally started to think of this episode as Chuck having discovered the Trolley Problem and wondering how to make it work as an overall life choice. Though he takes it to entirely new levels, and had been since the beginning of creation.
Things I reference in this week's episode include:
A Spiders George post I wrote the first time I watched this episode post-14.20, and the Big Chuck Reveal
My general tag for this episode
The Superwiki entry for this episode
The script (NOT a transcript, the actual script) for this episode
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
This week we get to talk about a lot of firsts... the first time we get to see Sam speak to John in canon! The first time we meet Meg! The first time Dean is denied a slice of pie! Wheee!
(and I only get a little bit mad about the finale like... twice... maybe three times... >.>)
Seriously though, there is a lot going on in this episode, big themes that will carry throughout the series about sacrifice, family, and what we do for selfish reasons versus selfless reasons. Have some fun links! I should probably post an apple pie recipe too, but my grandmother’s ghost would probably throttle me for publishing it anywhere :’D
My tag for this episode
The Superwiki page for this episode
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Hello again! Join me on an adventure in being eminently frustrated with Sam!
I mean, I feel for him, I get his frustration, but this feels like the first time he's ever really been confronted with the position that Dean's been in since he was four regarding John. He just lacks any sort of coping mechanism for dealing with it...
(unless you’re someone who totally relates to Sam in this episode, because honestly I am entirely baffled... I’m eager to understand, if that’s possible)
Links referenced in this weeks’ episode include (as usual) the Superwiki page for this episode (the link to the actual script can be found at the very bottom of that page, below the link to the transcript)
The link to the specific meta post I referenced in the episode
and the general link to my tag for this episode.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Welcome to another episode of SPNGeorg! This week we take Sam and Dean Home, a place that Dean swore never to return to, while Sam feels compelled to save the people he saw in his nightmare from the same fate their family suffered. And John... basically hides and does a bit of handwringing over the whole mess.
There’s an awful lot of seeds planted in this episode that will take years to bear fruit, but I appreciate this episode for the fertile ground it gives us.
References I used this week:
My tag for this episode
The Superwiki page for this episode
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
In which I endeavor to convince even one person that this episode isn't the complete trash Chuck seemed to think it was... I am fairly certain the main reason he hated it was because he wasn't really interested in the deeper character narrative of Dean's tormented childhood.
Links and things referenced in this episode, and helpful references in general:
Last time for Kripke's original five episode arenas
My tag for this episode
and last but not least, the Superwiki page for Bugs
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Welcome back for a bit of Urban Legend, and what already feels a little bit like a throwback to the original concept of Supernatural before it began evolving into a substantially bigger mytharc driven series. I suppose that's what happens when production issues make these sorts of delays and changes necessary. Lucky us!
Just a few things I referred to in this episode:
The quotes about how John Shiban was asked to join the SPN writing staff can be found here.
The network arenas from the original first five episodes can be found here. (and there's only one more episode to go from those original 5!)
What little I have in my tag for this episode can be found right here.
Questions? Comments? Thoughts? I look forward to hearing them!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Welcome to Dean's series long debacle with identity issues!
Gosh what else can I really say about this one? Heck I should probably say something more about it here... lol.
Sam still keeps in touch with his college friends, who know nothing about his life outside of the guy they knew in school. All that's about to change, as they learn far more than they ever could've bargained for. He might manage to save his friends, but Dean loses his identity in the process.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Hi everyone! This week we finally begin digging into the roots of the bigger cosmology of the Supernatural universe! I'm not sure the concepts of guilt and choice and fate vs free will were intended to spring from how we process and internalize guilt as presented in this episode, but nevertheless it will have far-reaching consequences even through s15. Small changes and production difficulties at the very beginning of the series had a vast ripple effect on how this universe grew and developed (and was revealed to us), and a few basic bits of all of that was planted as seeds in this episode.
As usual, if you'd like to follow along with the episode synopsis or transcript for this episode, you can find it on the Superwiki right here.
For anyone interested in joining the discord server waves hi to everyone who already has, send me a message @mittensmorgul or @spngeorg on tumblr, or to mittens#4865 on discord and I'll send you a link.
:)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
With the recent interview with Jerry Wanek reminding me of some interesting early episode behind the scenes stuff, as well as our Supernatural Script Hunt group going public this week, I thought it was a perfect time to talk about some of the origin story of how the series grew from Kripke's original ideas into the story we know and love. We'll also fully discuss 1.04 Phantom Traveler, but I do drop a rather larger than usual number of links in this one. So... here's some links! :'D
The Superwiki page for this episode: http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.04_Phantom_Traveler (linked there you will also find the transcript of this episode, including the transcript of Jared and Jensen's commentary on this episode, as well as the Yellow Revision Script)
The arenas Kripke submitted to the network on June 3, 2005: https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/182635407515/erik-kripke-on-twitter-for-the-300th
The "Harrison Draft" of the pilot episode: https://www.slideshare.net/JulesWilkinson/supernatural-101-pilot-early-draft
The Infamous Ackles Ass Equation post (aka the only complex math equation I recognize on sight): https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/179709219920/a-few-of-my-followers-asked-me-to-create-a-tumblr
Interested in helping us as a fandom to acquire more original scripts like the ones linked and mentioned above? Join us at SPNScriptHunt for details: https://spnscripthunt.tumblr.com/
And on a more personal note, I created a discord server for anyone who wants to talk amongst themselves about the episodes as we go along. DM me on twitter (@mittensmorgul), tumblr (@mittensmorgul or @spngeorg) or discord (mittens#4865) and I'll send you a link!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Oh my gosh, I think I might actually be getting a little bit good at this? Maybe? Hopefully? Maybe this is how Kripke felt when this episode of Supernatural first aired, too. Hmmm.
Come dive into the dark unknown depths of Dean Winchester and stay for a pleasant swim.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Hi everyone! I know this is on the long side, but we're setting up an entire universe here, and that comes with personal disclaimers about how I intend to talk about this show. Plus now that we're looking back to the beginning of the series, I hope we can approach the characters with a more nuanced and thoughtful approach, knowing that they're not just the surface level two-dimensional characters a lot of us had as first impressions of them fifteen years ago. It provides a lot of interesting insights into both Sam and Dean, and it's been fun for me to be able to talk about them both in such depth.
(though next time I think I'll focus less on "episode recap" and more on just the parts I find most interesting, because again, I kind of keep forgetting we've all seen the show before... so while it was a useful exercise for these first few establishing episodes, going forward I think it's safe to focus less on that and stick to the real point of this podcast... I am pretty sure there was a point when I started this project, anyway! Hope everyone's having a lovely week!) :)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
Welcome back for the first full episode of SPNGeorg! We're introduced to the world of Supernatural, and get to know Sam and Dean Winchester through a series of dead women! (one of them is actually in pink... a color that will come to symbolize Death on this show over the years, but yes, Mary's Iconic White Nightgown is actually pink...)
In happy podcast news, SPN Georg is now available on most podcast platforms! More will hopefully become available in the next few days, so keep checking if your favorite platform isn't listed yet (I'm looking at you, Apple).
In even happier podcast news, a wonderful listener, @linipikk on tumblr, created the gorgeous episode artwork! I was blown away when they sent it asking if I'd like to use it, and it's absolutely perfect. Thank you again!
I think I'm starting to figure this whole thing out, and while I still can't believe that I talked for an hour and a half about a single episode (and still didn't fit in everything I intended to talk about), there was an awful lot of baseline character stuff I wanted to squeeze in here. I think I got all the important stuff I hope folks will keep in mind as we progress through the series, as we watch Sam and Dean grow into their full potential.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support
I am the Spiders Georg of Supernatural rewatches. After watching the entire series on a loop for the better part of a decade, as well as reading and writing meta and fanfic, rather than attempt to organize the millions of words I've written about the show, I thought I might try just rewatching it all again, but out loud this time.
I'll be using a lot of my meta tags from tumblr for reference in the making of this podcast-- probably leaning heavily into "It's spirals all the way down," "Chuck's process," "spn cosmology," and "the scheherazade of supernatural," which is my tag for destiel but also relevant to the overarching structure of the entire series. I'll also frequently refer to the superwiki, an invaluable fandom resource with a convenient episode listing page that I've literally had open in a tab for the last ten years.
In this episode, I lay out my intentions and invite everyone to join me for one more road trip through Supernatural.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spngeorg/support