#SO GOOD I LOVE MEREDITH GLYNN SO MUCH

[monstermoviedean]

forgive me if this doesn’t make any sense but… if the “one day” that “something changed” is supposed to be jack being born, then idk if i like the implication that, before then, cas had just always felt lost and purposeless. are we talking since he left heaven, all the way back in s4? like idk but i’d always thought it was pretty clear that even when cas is unsure and making mistakes and misguided, even when he feels lost at times, starting in s4 when he began to help dean, cas had chosen his purpose to be protecting humanity and protecting his family. and he never really stopped trying to do that, that desire never really gets lost, even if he takes a wrong turn at times ie s6. so like that quote is confusing to me cause imo cas’s vision from jack should have just reaffirmed his desire to protect humanity, but the quote implies that he had found a new feeling of purpose with jack? what purpose, if not loving and protecting humanity? which imo was always there?!?

sorry for the word jumble, but your comments on that quote, a quote i’d not really paid much attention to in the past tbh lol, got me thinking 😅

this makes complete sense!!! and you definitely got my brain wheels turning so thank you! no yeah absolutely, it's weird, and the more i think about it the weirder it gets. here is the dialogue we're referencing, btw. i'll give the benefit of the doubt here and say: there are a lot of days cas could be referring to. it could be the day of lucifer rising, for example, or the day he was resurrected from purgatory, or the day he was resurrected from the empty. it could be any number of days. i cannot conclusively state that any one day is "the day."

but here's what led me to assume it was a jack-related day: that since jack has been back, cas has been hitting the "jack's destiny" talking points hard, and that he ends the speech with "i found a family, and i became a father. and in that, i rediscovered my faith. i rediscovered who i am."

on jack's destiny: here are the examples i can find from s15, all from 15x12. there aren't any additional discussions involving cas about jack's destiny in 15x11, 15x13, or 15x14.

so this is what immediately sprang to my mind when i heard cas talk about purpose. that in season 15, at this point, cas believes his purpose is to help jack fulfill his destiny. he is connecting his worth to jack's "success" in terms of jack doing what he's "supposed" to do. he has faith in jack. he has faith jack will be good for the world. without jack he is lost.

and this actually echoes 12x19 the future. this is from the production draft shared by @spnscripthunt-inactive. notice the themes of feeling no longer lost, of having faith, of feeling "normal" "for the first time in a long, long time." it may be worth mentioning that both 12x19 and 15x12 (where the above quotes come from) were written by meredith glynn and robert berens.

all of this together reads to me as: cas is defining himself and his own success by jack's success. and that changed on the day jack showed cas a vision of the future, a vision of "paradise" (according to cas). cas needs to believe his faith and trust in jack are correctly placed, that he is doing the right thing. he needs to believe he has a purpose, and he has decided his purpose is helping jack fulfill his (jack's) purpose.

and to thing #2 that made me believe the speech was about the day cas decided he was tied to jack: the way he closes the speech. "i found a family, and i became a father. and in that, i rediscovered my faith. i rediscovered who i am." finding a family and becoming a father are two separate things. finding a family happened much earlier. becoming a father is necessarily tied to jack (i'm not inclined to count claire here - not because she doesn't matter, but because i don't believe cas OR claire view cas as her father). and the way it reads to me is that when cas says "in that," he's talking about "in becoming a father." because it came later. i read it as "finding a family helped, but what really made me rediscover my faith and who i am was becoming a father." and that aligns pretty closely with what is said in 12x19!

so to your point (oh wow that was a long tangent, sorry). literally everything you're saying is spot-on to me. i think we can trace the roots of cas feeling lost and seeking a purpose all the way back to s4 - definitely! i think it's a huge struggle for him because he wants to have a purpose, he wants to feel like what he does matters, but it is difficult for him because he feels like he doesn't know what's right. prior to season 4 his purpose had been clearly spelled out for him (he's an angel, he does god's will). and while he no longer accepts that purpose as his own, i think he craves something as simple and straightforward as that purpose. it's really difficult for him in those s5-s12 years when he's bouncing around, trying to figure out what he should be doing! but i think you're absolutely right that the underlying theme, the underlying purpose is always protecting humanity, protecting his family. i'd add an element of "doing what's right/stopping evil" too. but yeah, cas DOES care about humanity. he DOES care about the little guy. he DOES want to prevent human suffering and misery, and to help relieve it wherever he can. it matters to me that cas cares about humanity because that's one of the things that makes him so different from the other angels. i think over time his tactics change to achieve the goal of protecting humanity, but the goal itself does not change.

so does being jack's father = protecting humanity? kind of. if we believe that jack will successfully usher in paradise, then yes, cas helping jack fulfill his destiny would make things better for humanity and arguably protect them (or reduce the amount of protection they need). but i don't think this has the same level of attention/care towards humans that cas has previously shown. it's about making sure jack succeeds so he can fix everything. it's not about making things better right now.

and this is where i get into opinion territory: i, like you, don't like the implication that cas has always felt lost and purposeless! lost, yes. unsure of his purpose, yes. but i feel like the framing here is that cas has just been aimlessly drifting about for all these years, totally incapable of finding a purpose. i do not think jack and god are the same but i don't see much of a difference between "i am an angel, i serve god's will" and "i am a father, i serve jack's will." especially because there is a chance, however slight, that jack was manipulating cas. that the vision jack showed cas was not a guarantee.

it feels to me like jack hands cas a purpose the same way god handed cas a purpose. and i thought the beauty of cas choosing free will was that he got to choose his purpose himself. this feels like it was chosen for him and he went along with it because it was easier to have a purpose selected for you by a being of unfathomable power. and i sympathize with that immensely! and i also think there was profound beauty in cas discovering his purpose on his own, even when it was a struggle.

[shallowseeker]

Recruiting Dean

Via the Nightmare-land of all his current anxieties.

Zach I - Zach II - Zach III - Say it ain't so - Cas can DIE?! - Bobby, demoralized - Dean and Cas's mutual, pissy fatalism - Love blooming, personal space - You're not much fun, so why am I laughing so hard? - Dean's anixety at being a vessel - Sam: Everybody please panic, I'm a vessel, too!

Disclaimer: I love ALL The End meta, from the ones that look for hidden meanings and the ones where Chuck is hiding incognito in his first-row seats, but I thought this would be a Hella a fun way to ask this question.

///

What if The End is all about Dean and Zach? What is almost everyone IN IT is Zach, tapping into and mocking Dean's churning ruminations and anxieties?

What would that analysis look like? What might we predict? We know that Zach recruited a Jehovah's Witness, and after Dean's call with Sam, Zach entered the motel to try yet another sales pitch.

Zach got into Dean's bedroom. But maybe this time, Zach's going deeper. Perhaps he got into Dean's dreams, too.

In the previous Zach adventures, he tried to give Dean a vision of a loser's life, one Dean wouldn't be able to stand: a corporate yes-man who listened to NPR and steamed his latte like a wuss. Remember his pitch in It's a Terrible Life?

ZACHARIAH: Save people, maybe even the world. All the while you drive a classic car and fornicate with women. This isn't a curse. It's a gift. So for God's sakes, Dean, quit whining about it. Look around. There are plenty of fates worse than yours. So are you with me? You wanna go steam yourself another latte? Or are you ready to stand up and be who you really are?

But just like he will later miss the mark on Adam's personality a bit, he misses on Dean at first, too. Dean cares about family.

"My father's name is Bob, my mother's name is Ellen, and my sister's name is Jo." // "Are you saying my family isn't real?"

///

We'll hear Zach make more pitches to Dean in the beautiful room in Lucifer Rising. Time-honored things that, from his experience, tend to work when recruiting humans, from happy memories to food to TV fantasy to food to sexual adoration:

ZACHARIAH: Try a burger. They're your favorite. From that seaside shack in Delaware. You were 11, I think. DEAN: I'm not hungry. ZACHARIAH: No? How about Ginger from season 2 of "Gilligan's Island"? You do have a thing for her, don't you? DEAN: Tempting. Weird. ZACHARIAH: We'll throw in Mary Ann for free. DEAN: No, no. Let's... bail on the holodeck, okay? I want to know what the game plan is.

///

ZACHARIAH (to a crying Dean): And when it's over... and when you've won... your rewards will be... unimaginable. Peace, happiness... two virgins and seventy sluts.

///

We'll get a whiff of AU Zachariah's tactics with a nervous, broken Kevin Tran in s13, too:

Meredith Glynn had intended a more... grayscale view of Zach's intentions via @spnscripthunt-inactive, but either way is very good. Very Zach:

Who knows why, but in Meredith's version, Zach is convinced that Jack is the way, not Kevin.

Anyhoo, more on the Jack-Zach interactions later. For now, I'm just thinking about the whiff of Zach's and upper Heaven management's style of recruiting tactics through Kevin's words:

LUCIFER: Kevin, what are you doing, getting mixed up with Michael? ... KEVIN: ...Michael's taking me with him to paradise world so I can meet hot women. LUCIFER: I'm sorry. What?

Jack, who had also been tortured (stabbed, burned, drowned) by Zachariah, tried to reach out to Kevin. Mary even more so:

KEVIN: Y-you don't understand... then the end of the world happened, and everyone around me-- my friends, and my… my mom-- they all started to die. ... KEVIN: No! Michael says… that when I get to Heaven-- when he lets me into Heaven-- I'll get to see my mom again. I don't care! You don't understand. I… You don't know the things that I've done. I just want this to be over.

Now, we see the truth. Kevin was never interested in the recruitment line, something-something hot women. Not really. That was just a boisterous shield to hide the deeper pain.

He just wanted to see his mom again.

///

So. When we reach 5x04, we see Zach adjust fire with Dean.

In 5x01, he tried a different, more forceful way of recruiting Dean, making him feel terrible about himself.

...I feel like looking at The End as a nightmare land of all of Dean's anxieties is a really fun way to revisit it.

But before that, if we consider this question, what might we predict for Zach to uncover, based on all the stuff Dean is feeling Weird (TM) and Stressed (TM) about right now?

Based on all the other stuff we've been thinking about, I'll make a small list of potentials, starting with the Bobby-Dean confrontation at the end of last season...

[mlobsters]

supernatural s13e8 the scorpion and the frog (w. meredith glynn)

DEAN Well, see, here's the thing. When a demon tells us to jump, we don't ask how high. We just ice their ass. BARTHAMUS How very "Dean" of you.

this episode and the last i've briefly thought about how in-universe the supernatural books exists and so this rando demon who has been "following their career" also like. surely read those books. and i dunno, man. that periodically skeeves me out :p

weirdly angled prolonged and interesting eye contact

ok blood from a man that's been to hell and back, does sammy not also qualify? and including the clip of dean in hell crying out for sam thanks always love that reminder 🥲

anyway this self-aware heist thing is ... whatever. bunch of random people i'm supposed to keep track of? meh :p

the musical score was largely unobtrusive (outside of the series-long quirky music) last episode, lennertz did it. this one i'm rolling my eyes at so i'm gonna guess it's a gruska :P (it is lol)

s13e8 as shrike / game of thrones s5e8 hardhome - richard brake as the night king

apparently this sadistic murderer been to hell shrike dude was the night king. who we are, i guess, glossing over the fact that he got out of hell

the moral of the scorpion and the frog, the end they both drown, right? can't blame a shark for being a shark?

SAM Dean? DEAN Yeah? SAM Don't get dead. DEAN You, too.

not their regular style but i'll take the crumbs in this episode i couldn't care less about

s13e8 as smash / twilight: breaking dawn part 2 christie burke as renesmee

and safe cracker girl i guess is crushing on dean, sure. i was in her imdb seeing if her age was in there (no) but actually pretty cool looking new series on syfy she's got the lead in, called the ark (trailer) but also??? she was a grownup-ish renesmee in twilight! LOL in that goofy fucking montage

oh good grief, and jackles gets to do some slapstick. to some fucking slapstick carnival music. i do enjoy him as an actor but not so much the comedy he often does in this show

yes sam is also me, correcting the shrike dude (nicely!) about his collection being incorrectly labeled. people love that, let me tell you

GRAB Hey, a little respect? It took years to perfect that spell. If your brother's too stupid to do his part, then that's on him. DEAN What'd you say?

always here for defending sam's honor

DEAN Well, looks like gun beats knife, so how about you hand over the safe, and then we'll all be home in time to watch Game of Thrones. LUTHER SHRIKE I'm more of a book guy.

that was cute, what with the actor being on GOT

SAM Wing it? Dean, these… these aren't like the lasers in Entrapment. There are infinite possible combinations [Sighs] and pressure-released darts. DEAN Did you just say "Entrapment"? SAM I don't know. I mean, I don't… I don't watch a whole lot of those kinds of movies. DEAN Yeah, but you saw Entrapment? SAM Catherine Zeta Jones.

oh right i've seen this bit in gifs, i'm like hey entrapment! i just mentioned that recently! oh right, because of this spn scene

(i'm closer to dean's age than sam's but all the more reason for it to have made an impression on him. her ass specifically was definitely part of the ad campaign)

well lemme guess. bart's bones? we pullin up that old nugget? givin myself a pat on the back, for figuring it out 10 seconds before the reveal

dean in just a henley and brief deployment of the mushy music to acknowledge dean is just totally not suicidal and hopeless anymore hurray 45 second conversation and we're done

[almaasi]

dean no protec

dean attac

but, more importantly

castiel is back

(reaction post typed while watching SPN 13x04 “The Big Empty”)

03:16

don’t know what to expect but cas cas cas cas cas

-

03:19

dude: “but you’re dead”

lady: “i was.... aren’t you gonna say hi back?” (leans in for kiss)

could the destiel parALLEL BE MORE OBVIOUS

(edit afterwards: welllllllllllllllll.... i guess this wasn’t really a parallel? but it could be)

-

03:21

wHOOPS AND THEN DEATH

-

05:2

dean to sam: “what, you ready to ditch damien?”

who’s damien

what

did i miss somethin already

............i guess it was a reference to something, regarding jack?? weird

-

03:24

there’s so much everything in jensen’s/dean’s eyes

-

-

05:26

i kinda hate anakin too

and yes i agree it probably is for the best that jack hates anakin

-

alexander calavert has REALLY long eyebrows whoa

-

03:29

of all the times i’ve read or written fics where dean is a parent, i can’t believe i never considered how great a parent sam would be

he’s......so good

-

03:30

JACK IS SO PRECIOUS

and just by this, i get the sudden feeling that dean is actually going to be right in the long run. later in the season something’s gonna turn jack bad, but in the meantime their characters and the situation would have changed so much that dean will be on the other side, defending jack and fighting to save him

-

03:3

DEAN HE’S NOT A DOG

but if he was a dog he’d be a chubby lil golden labrador

-

03:35

sam: “you’re starting to sound like dad”

dean: “is that a bad thing?”

YES IT FUCKING WELL IS

AND HOLY SHIT THE JOHN/MARY DEAN/CAS PARALLEL ALSO

JOHN TURNED ABUSIVE WHEN HE LOST MARY

OH NO

-

03:38

dean: “what gets burned stays dead”

except they burned cas..................

(which is the point of that line)

this episode so far seems to be setting up for There’s No Hope For Cas Coming Back And Everything Being Okay

except we know he does so ????

-

03:39

AND THERE’S CAS

-

03:41

so the pattern so far has been romantic partner back from the dead, a child back from the dead....

i guess what remains is: parent, sibling, or friend back from the dead

followed by cas

but what does that make cas, exactly

(edit: it ended with just those two. so never mind)

-

03:48

the big empty seems very much like the place eleven in stranger things goes when she’s in a trance

-

03:50

dean about jack: “he keeps staring at me”

sam: “yes, he wants you to like him”

CAS CAS CAS CAS CAS

-

03:51

dean is the ultimate mess

he’s been a demon, he’s been overtaken by the mark of cain, he’s been grieving before, but i don’t think he’s ever been this fucked up

he’s just a wrecking ball of carelessness

-

03:54

thank you to @oubliette-of-deduction for telling me there is indeed a family therapy session in this episode

man do they need it

-

05:55

jack: “hello!”

and hello to you too, random citizen

-

05:56

dean: “listen mr spock”

yes you’re right i think it’s high time i began headcanoning jack as autistic

thank you dean

-

05:57

mia vallens: “your mother passed suddenly? / no warning...no goodbye.... no closure”

something about meredith glynn’s writing just... always hits so close to home for me. just earlier this week i posted a fic that’s SO much like this episode in therms of themes (Marshmalloween http://archiveofourown.org/works/12569508)

-

04:00

god yes how badly do i want dean to keep journals??? VERY BADLY

i’ve kept one daily for 13 years IT’S WORTH IT

so good for straightening out internal conflict and thinking things through alone. like if dean hates talking about feelings with people a journal would be a 10/10 approach for that

rhghghgh i love meredith glynn i love her writing i wanna hug her and talk to her at length. my favourite writer on the current team <3

her stories have emotional depth and they’re gentle but also intriguing

and they make me happy too

-

04:03

dean: “[i’ve kept journals] ever since i was a little girl”

heeeeeeeeeeeeeee now mia could see dean as trans i’m on board

(but she actually saw through the bullshit, kudos to her)

-

06:08

love love love that mia is not just a not-bad monster but an actively good one who uses her power to help people

is this new to the universe?? at least for the “gross” kind of monsters (as opposed to the “magical” kind)? i think so?

cool

bonus: black lady with cool hair and nice lips

-

04:01

//BREATHES REALLY HARD BECAUSE THAT VOICE MISHA DOES IS SO INTERESTING

WHERE THE FUCK DOES ALL THIS COME FROM

MISHA IS SUCH A FREAKING GOOD ACTOR AND IT’S ALWAYS SO UNEXPECTED AND A NICE SURPRISE

-

04:12

//scREAMS AND FLAILS HANDS BECAUSE I SWEAR THIS MONSTER!CAS SOUNDS KINDA BRITISH and i ??? recognise the voice?? 

who is misha mimicking

it’s someone i know it is

like maybe Q from star trek

-

04:14

yeah that’s Q from star trek, no doubt about it

or alternatively, discord from my little pony: friendship is magic

not just in voice but in character

I LOVE IT

WHATEVER IT IS, I LOVE IT

-

04:16

holy shit though. i would not have put it past the production team to have asked misha to watch star trek: next gen and told him to mimic john de lancie

this is a spot-on mimicry and i am completely blown away

-

04:18

cas assuming the winchesters made a deal to wake him up is so important!!! cas knows how much he’s loved and wanted!!

-

04:25

Q: “i know alllll your little feelings. i know what you hate. i know who you love”

hghrhhghgh

(edit: imdb doesn’t have a name for this character, i’m just gonna call it Q from now on)

-

06:27

i think this time mia is not mia, jack’s in danger

(edit: nope)

-

06:28

yeah, that’s gotta be buddy. buddy’s gonna become kelly and then try and kill jack

oh no

(edit: nope)

-

04:34

what

-

04:37

i love that cas’ plan for coming back to life is to annoy the shit out of a cosmic entity

-

04:39

dean talking gently to jack while an argument happens elsewhere!!!!

-

04:41

right now i’m just praying mia lives through this

like that’s all i want from the rest of this episode

just her to live

-

04:45

without cas, dean is faithless

;~;

-

04:46

blackberries will forever be the symbol of unconditional love to me

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11909040

-

06:47

CAS

CAS CAS CAS CAS

also dear god i think meredith glynn and i have some kind of spiritual connection. i need to meet this woman someday. i need to talk to her. i love her. i love everything she makes and i’m crying and i love her

-

04:49

I’M SO EMOTIONAL

I LOVE EVERYTHING

-

04:50

that was a 10/10 episode and one of my favourites from like... the last 4 seasons. included in those favourites are “baby”, "regarding dean”, the one with the wizard of oz parallels with charlie and evil!charlie, and... that’s all that comes to mind

but this was so pure and good and emotionally satisfying and the characters were great and the story was great

A GOOD WOMAN OF COLOUR WHO’S GREAT AT HER JOB, WITH A FULLY-FORMED CHARACTER, WHO LIVES THROUGH THE EPISODE

MEN TALKING ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS AND SHOWING VULNERABLE EMOTIONS

CAS TALKING TO Q FROM STAR TREK AND PISSING THE THING OFF TO MAKE IT BRING HIM BACK TO LIFE

MEREDITH GYLNN THANK YOU FOR BEING THE BEST WRITER

[castiellesbian]

i feel like i need a glossary of terms or a contact list for all these people involved with the show. i have shit memory and dont pay attention to the credits who is sera (sara??) and why does everyone hate her!! why is he Bobo!!!!!! please... has anyone posted about this im desperate

lol well including everyone involved with the show would be difficult, but I’ll give you some highlights

Eric Kripke: creator of Supernatural, showrunner for seasons 1-5. People have differing opinions about him but general people enjoyed his run and he’s considered the best showrunner in the series overall. Not much to say because there’s a lot to say lmao (notable episodes: “Pilot,” “Lazarus Rising,” and “Swan Song”)

Sera Gamble: writer who was involved from the beginning of the show, became showrunner after Kripke left. Her seasons, 6 and 7, are typically regarded as the weakest seasons. She was a huge brothers-only supporter, and was responsible for Misha being written out of the show (as well as Jim Beaver, Bobby) in order to get the show to just be about the brothers again. There’s a lot of drama regarding her treatment of Misha/Cas, but more recently she’s known for the Magicians debacle, a horrendous example of the Bury Your Gays trope. She’s also involved with (the showrunner of?) You on Netflix. She was a pretty good writer, but overall fans dislike her because of her showrunning tenure (notable episodes: “Faith” with Raelle Tucker, “Death’s Door,” “The Born-Again Identity”)

Jeremy Carver: writer from season 3 that was promoted to showrunner from seasons 8 through.... some time in 12, the timeline has been a little murky to me. He was the one who brought Cas back into the main plot, as well as allowing the deancas storyline to become genuine subtext (we can argue whether it was queerbaiting or what he was intending to do if he had been running the series finale, but yeah). Unfortunately, he was also the showrunner when Charlie was killed off brutally, which dampens his legacy. People are conflicted about his seasons, but generally he’s looked upon favorably (not related, but the picture that comes up when you search him on google is NOT him, he’s really like a typical white nerdy looking dude lol) (notable episodes: “The Rapture,” “Sacrifice,” “Do You Believe in Miracles?”)

Andrew Dabb: writer from season 4, promoted to showrunner during season 12 and is the last showrunner of Supernatural (he wrote the finale). He was well-liked by deancas fans for awhile because of how much screentime they were allowed to give, and because of the focus on extended/found family. Sam and Dean only fans didn’t like him for the same reasons. Unfortunately, HIS legacy has been marred by the awful series finale, though it’s debated whether that was his fault or because of network meddling. (notable episodes: “Dark Side of the Moon” with Daniel Loflin, “The Prisoner,” “Moriah”)

Robert Singer: executive producer since the beginning of the show (he’s also co-showrunner throughout Supernatural, but I don’t think he typically was involved with the plotlines too often). He’s directed quite a few episodes, including the infamous wire fight episode (s13 finale) as well as the series finale. Married to Eugenie Ross-Leming, writer of the show

Eugenie Ross-Leming/Brad Buckner: writing partners TECHNICALLY from season 1, but they only wrote one episode until they were brought back in season 7. They are regarded as the worst writers in all of Supernatural, responsible for tactless death scenes of fan-favorites (and typically minorities) like Kevin, Charlie, and Eileen. They also feature a gross amount of dubcon/noncon, racism, weird unnecessary sex stuff, and are SUPER into Lucifer for some unknown reason (they have a crush on Mark Pellegrino I guess). They’re also just kind of bad writers in general, their pacing is weird and their plots convoluted. To be fair, though, they have written some good moments, like Dean trying to reach Cas in Hell’s Angel and Dean’s confessional scene in Paint It Black. But overall, they suck. Why are they still on the show even though BOTH sides of the fandom (who never agree on ANYTHING) dislike them? Well, because Eugenie is married to Singer. Nepotism. (notable episodes, the ones I can stand to watch lmao: “Holy Terror,” “Hell’s Angel,” “Our Father Who Aren’t in Heaven”)

Ben Edlund: writer from season 2 who left after season 8, but people STILL talk about him simply because he is arguably the strongest writer of the series. Cas fans particularly like him because he did most of the heavy-lifting regarding Cas’ characterization. He also wrote the famous bi!Dean scene with Aaron in season 8, where Dean is flustered after being flirted with. (notable episodes: “On the Head of a Pin,” “The French Mistake,” and my all-time favorite “The Man Who Would Be King”)

Robert “Bobo” Berens: writer from season 9, his first episode was “Heaven Can’t Wait,” which is all you really need to know about his influence on the deancas storyline. He’s also gay, so people particularly enjoy seeing how he approaches destiel in his episodes since it’s not just another straight guy potentially just catering to fans. He was also the one who was meant to go off and run Wayward Sisters, and is responsible for a lot of their development in recent seasons. I believe he also created Rowena? He wrote the episode this season where Cas confesses his love to Dean (along with other heavy deancas episodes like “The Trap”). Sam fans typically don’t like him because he doesn’t give him much focus. (notable episodes: “Heaven Can’t Wait,” “Who We Are,” “Wayward Sisters” with Andrew Dabb)

Steve Yockey: writer from season 12 through the beginning of season 15. Also gay, and also responsible for deancas moments in recent years. Generally loved for his deancas subtext but ALSO because he is an amazing writer who came out with iconic episodes. (notable episodes: “Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox,” “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets,” “Peace of Mind” with Meghan Fitzmartin)

Robbie Thompson: writer from seasons 7 through 11, and wrote some fan favorite episodes in the meantime. He is also the creator of fan favorite characters like Charlie and Eileen. He was also one of the few writers who was vocally supportive of destiel during his tenure rather than just later. I’m not implying anything about his intentions, but it was validating for him to encourage fans during a time where most of the cast/crew ignored or actively dismissed it. Plus his episodes are just fun! (notable episodes: “LARP and the Real Girl,” “Fan Fiction,” “Baby”)

Meredith Glynn: writer since season 12, has worked closely with Bobo during their seasons together. She and Bobo cowrote “The Future,” which is the mixtape episode, so she has been taken in by deancas fans haha. She also wrote the episode where Cas makes the deal with the Empty, so it’s pretty safe to say she and Bobo had worked on the deancas plotline together :) She’s also liked some deancas-related tweets on twitter, so she’s being subtly supportive (notable episodes: “Regarding Dean,” “The Future” with Robert Berens, “Byzantium”)

Davy Perez: writer since season 12 (a lot of the ones I’ve mentioned are, since this is when Dabb became showrunner and made changes in the writers room). His episodes tend to either be horror or bizarre. I mention him because he’s responsible for episodes like “Stuck in the Middle (With You)” (Cas’ first “I love you”) and “Tombstone” (aka Brokebacknatural lmao). I don’t know much about him otherwise, but that’s why he’s brought up usually (notable episodes: “Stuck in the Middle (With You),” “Tombstone,” “Atomic Monsters”)

hopefully this helps, and hopefully I didn’t forget about anyone major. There have been a LOT of people behind the scenes so it’s hard to say who to include. Like, I didn’t mention Jerry Wanek, Jim Michaels, Kim Manners, Thomas J. Wright, or others who might be mentioned from time to time.

[sortasirius]

what makes you think the writers want deancas? not trying to be an asshole, i'm just genuinely curious as to why you think that. i know berens' episodes are pretty heavy with subtext so i can see why you'd say that he wants it, but i'm not so sure about the rest of the writers/dabb. it seems like meghan isn't a huge fan either, given her "they twisted it so fast" tweet :/ of course she's a very new writer (think she's only writing one ep this season?) but still

OKAY this is a great question, welcome to my dissertation.

I’m going to address the end of your question first. Meghan is actually DeanCas positive, she has been for quite a long time. She actually, a few years back, posted a picture of her reading a literal book about Destiel and captioned it “writing reading” or something like that.

This whole thing just comes out of a boiling over of tensions because of how nasty fandom twitter can be. Like I said here, I think this has just gotten blown out of proportion, they shouldn’t have posted all this randomly disparaging stuff, but also like...can you blame them? The fandom is a lot, we always have been, and they’re probably also under a gag order not to talk about the finale, and are annoyed that people keep asking.

So nah, Meg is not anti Destiel.

To the first part!! So let’s take a look at the show runners since Cas has been around.

Seasons 4 and 5: Kripke

Seasons 6 and 7: Gamble

Seasons 8-11ish: Carver

Seasons 11ish-15: Dabb

So starting with Kripke. Okay, yes, I will be the first to admit that we have some pretty incredible Destiel moments in these seasons, but it’s less directly written into the plot and much more from Misha and Jensen’s uhhhh ~chemistry~. The only times it was directly written into the script was when the episode was handled by someone like Edlund (“On The Head Of A Pin,” “The End,” “My Bloody Valentine”). And you have to remember, if in season 5, there are moments here and there where you’re like huh that’s suspiciously romantic dialogue, remember that Cas took Anna’s place. Anna was supposed to be endgame for Dean, but due to a myriad of issues and Misha’s general greatness, Anna was replaced with Cas.

Onto 6 and 7. Hmmm. Gamble. 6 and 7 are my two least favorite seasons and that’s no secret, and that’s not only due to the plain old weird shit in the overall storyline, but also that homegirl killed off Cas in s7 and then Bobby like four episodes later. (Also it ALWAYS rubbed me the wrong way they couldn’t have Baby in that season lol). We still had some great DeanCas moments, but again, it wasn’t really written into the overall arc (until they had to change the end of season 7 because of tanking ratings and bring Misha back lol, anyone remember the fact that Dean kept Cas’ jacket and would randomly dream of him? Yeah.). But we still had those moments, those distinctly romantic moments, probably the best example in these two seasons is from Edlund again, specifically “The Man Who Would be King,” I wrote a little about that here.

We move onto Carver, who gave us, at this point, the most overt DeanCas season with season 8 (season gr8 is a better name imo), and this is the first time Dean and Cas’ relationship is directly written as an arc of the season.  I mean, you have everything in Purgatory, Dean “seeing” Cas everywhere, the fact that he felt so guilty that Cas stayed in Purgatory that he manipulated his own memories to think that he was the one that failed Cas, because he couldn’t comprehend that Cas would want to leave him, and let’s not forget Dean snapping Cas out of Naomi’s hold on him in “Goodbye Stranger.”  It was a very obvious shift, not enough to alert the general audience, but more than enough for most of us in fandom.

It’s also important to note that this is when Andrew stopped co writing with Loflin and started writing his own episodes (”Hunter Heroici” anyone?)  I like Loflin fine, but Dabb was able to stretch his legs a little bit more once he stopped co-writing, and we also began to see some DeanCas themes in his solo episodes.

In any case, them and their issues being a big part of the seasons continued with Carver, and Berens entered the scene, his first episode (”Heaven Can’t Wait”) is one of my favorites, with human Cas and the fanfiction gap and Dean and Cas just generally being awkward and funny and sweet.  This is Bobo’s FIRST episode, remember that.  He comes right out of the gate with it.

Also in Season 9, this is when Dean takes the Mark of Cain, and the Cas/Colette mirror is born, so obviously, Dean and Cas are the fabric of the season once again.  This is also the season where Metatron says Cas is “in love with humanity,” and then immediately refers to Dean as Humanity so uhhhh yeah.

Onto season 10, Dabb and Berens continue with their greatness (I could write pages on the DeanCas date in “The Things We Left Behind” alone).  And then we have one of the best scenes in the entire show in “The Prisoner” where the Cas/Colette mirror continues and Dean, driven by grief and pain and rage and the Mark, still doesn’t kill Cas.  He still can’t kill Cas.

Season 11 is important because it takes choice away from both Cas and Dean, and shows us, as the audience, how much losing each other takes out of them. We saw in season 10 how much losing Dean takes from Cas, but what about Cas losing Dean?  Dean loses his choice with his connection to Amara this season, and loses even more when Lucifer reveals he’s been possessing Cas, and plays on Dean’s connection to Cas like a mockery.  It’s also worth noting that, similarly to season 8, Dean breaks out of the connection with Amara when he’s worried about Cas, and that’s something that even SHE is surprised by.

But then season 12, the beginning to the Renaissance.  This is when we get the writer’s that become important for what Dean and Cas are today, and, truly, why I believe they want canon Destiel as much as we do.

This is the first season with Dabb’s writers: Davy Perez, Meredith Glynn, Steve Yockey, and of course Bobo all come in with their incredible talents and gave us episode after episode of good content.  “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets” is probably my favorite, probably the best example of what I’m saying.  An episode where Dean is called out by an enemy directly, told to “roll the dice” on Cas’ life.  And Dean won’t, it’s not even really a hesitation.  And this comes from a character that has known Dean for ten seconds.  I also wrote more in depth about this episode here.  There are also some.....distinctly domestic details we get this season, specifically in “The Future” (written by Berens and Glynn) with the mixtape.  The most tropey of tropes mixtape.  Yeah, I’ll just leave that one here.

And then season 12 ends with Cas’ death, but also with the parallel between Sam and Dean with Jess and Cas.  Sam literally has to drag Dean away from Cas, just like Dean had to drag Sam out of his burning apartment in the pilot.  The episode drives it home in every way that it can: Dean is the one left kneeling by Cas’ body, while Sam goes to find out what is upstairs.  Dean is the one who stares at the sky, finally broken.  This isn’t a random thing, this is Dean’s whole arc, it’s the entirety of the beginning of 13.  Dean’s pain, his anguish, his anger.

Season 13 starts with them burning Cas, with Dean, who has begged God to bring him back, who has split his knuckles punching a door, standing, staring at Cas’ pyre with brokenness on his face.

I mean.....

Anyway, season 13 is where it gets interesting (well, I think all of this is interesting but I’m a writer nerd so).  So Cas comes back from the Empty in “Advanced Thanatology” written by Steve Yockey, and then a wombo combo of “Tombstone” by Davy Perez next (”Brokebacknatural” as the PR said at the time).  Listen.  This is the part that SPN crossed a line that they couldn’t come back from.  With Cas being Dean’s “big win,” the fact that Dean and Cas watch movies together, “I told you, he’s an angry sleeper.  Like a bear.” Talked about it here.

This is where, in my opinion, the network stepped in, but the damage was already done.  They had already established that Cas was Dean’s big win, that Dean’s poor coping was not due to Mary’s disappearance, but solely due to Cas, and that Dean and Cas have more married energy than anyone else.  The network had nixed blatant canon at this point, and they writing room had been pushing the boundaries of what the network would allow. 

After these episodes, we see a marked drop off of DeanCas heavy scenes.  They’re still there, still a part of the fabric of the season, but not as...obvious as it had been in early season 13.

And this continued through season 14, we’re back to scraps of Destiel scenes here and there, but to me it always felt like there was something bubbling under the surface, something distinctly unsaid in the themes of the season, even after the walk back of obvious “Dean and Cas are in love” scenes.

And then we get to season 15, which, y’all know I talk about all the time.  What’s important here is that Bobo and Glynn are both executive producers, calling more of the shots than ever before.  Additionally, it’s important to note that, though they only co write occasionally, Glynn and Berens refer to each other as “work husband” and “work wife.”  Each episode has just turned up the volume, and, not for the first time, but certainly the most obvious, Dean and Cas ARE the season.  Sure, they’re trying to beat God, they’re trying to finally find peace, defeat the final big bad, but really?  This season has been about Dean, and Dean’s relationship to Cas.

And not only do we have obvious and clear Destiel in nearly every episode, but we have episodes like “Last Call” which canonize bi!Dean (wrote about that here).

And, maybe most importantly so far, we have “The Rupture,” the breakup, and “The Trap,” Dean’s confession (both written by Berens).  And here’s the thing.  These episodes feel connected, but also feel like they’re missing something.  Beren’s last episode is 15x18, “The Truth.”  We’ve all spec’ed about what could happen in this episode, and I think *I* know what it’s leading to.  But for it to be leading to that, it means that the network has to have approved what we’ve all been waiting for years for.

Who got this change to happen?  Who got the network to change their minds?  It wasn’t us.  It was them.  I am fully convinced that Dabb and Berens quite literally put their careers on the line for Dean and Cas.  They believe in them, they’ve shown that from the beginning, but the only thing standing in the way was the network, never allowing them to take the final step. 

So, to answer your question: I think the writers want canon DeanCas because they’ve already shown us that they do.  Take a look at their episodes, at Dabb’s, at Beren’s, at Glynn’s, at Perez’s, at Yockey’s.  They’ve been telling us what’s going on with Dean and Cas for years.

Sure, I’m not in their heads, I guess I don’t know for *sure* that this has been their thought process, but if we put it all together, from the marked shift when Dabb fully took over in s12, to the change right after “Tombstone,” to the new shift, the blatantly romantic shift in season 15, what else is there?

I’ve said for a long time that we, the SPN fandom, are beyond lucky to have the writer’s that we do.  They’re all going to go on to have prolific careers and we were lucky to get them at the end of our little show.  I give them a lot of credit for what we have in the show today.

Just remember, they’ve been telling us in all of s15 who Chuck is.  He says he’s the writer, right?  But a writer who doesn’t have control of his characters?  A writer who wants to do the same ending over and over because it “works”?  That doesn’t sound like a writer, it sounds like a network exec.

They’ve been showing us what they want for years, and the way s15 is going?  I think they may have convinced the network to let us have it.

[curioussubjects]

Supernatural is fun because you always stumble onto stuff you already knew and connections you already made, but then it’s 1am and you’re in some stupor and you see thing again and suddenly you are hit with a brick to the face and--

I mean for real?

13.04 Empty:  I have tiptoed through all your little tulips. Your memories, your little feelings, yes. I know what you hate. 

14.08 Empty:  Oh, but not now. No, no, no, no, no. No, you see, I-I meant what I said. I-I want you to suffer. I want you to go back to-- to your normal life and-- and then forget about this and forget about me.

13.04 Empty:  I know who you love… what you fear.

14.08 Empty:  And-- And then, when you finally give yourself permission to be happy and let the sun shine on your face, that's when I'll come.

13.04 Empty:  There is nothing for you back there.

14.08 Empty:  That's when I'll come to drag you to nothing.

First of all Meredith Glynn pay for my therapy. Second, as I said, absolutely none of this is new. We know it’s Dean Cas loves and we know it’s Dean’s love that would shine on Cas’s face, but I think when you put those lines next to each other it’s much easier to see the connection: in order for Cas to let the sun shine on his face, he must overcome what he fears. The Empty knew this because it read Cas’s mind. It knew the depth of Cas’s fear and of his love in a way that Cas himself didn’t. Cas couldn’t see clearly through his fear, his surety that he was unlovable because of his failures. 

And the most tragic of all, even at them moment Cas does take that step, when he finally does overcome the fear that would cloud his vision of his own worth, of his own goodness reflected back to him through Dean’s love....Cas couldn’t see it. He was taken before Dean could actually say or do anything. The tragedy of the deal with the Empty is that is comes at the moment when all happiness unfolds, but before one gets to fully experience it. Cas is happy, sure, but those are the buds of happiness. Truly, Cas doesn’t understand it still, but he could, finally he would haven been able to:

Cas:  When I experienced a moment of true happiness, The Empty would be summoned, and it would take me forever. I always wondered, ever since I took that burden, that curse, I wondered what it could be? What my true happiness could even look like. I never found an answer because the one thing I want... It's something I know I can't have. But I think I know... I think I know now. Happiness isn't in the having, it's in just being. It's in just saying it.

He only got it halfway. Cas out here still missing the point! He’s still settling for what he thinks is his true happiness. But the deal was never about true happiness, was it? It was about permission. It was about Cas accepting that he was good, and wanted, and that Dean loved him. To be and say your ultimate truth means to have a clear view of the self and of the other, and of your environment, unburdened by self-loathing. 

The cruelty, the suffering here is that Cas was so close to his true happiness, and yet so far. 

[niche-pastiche]

SPN Clown Meta no one asked for.

From the person's mind that brought you the SPN Gun Meta no one asked for. It's the SPN clown meta no one asked for!

Though a more accurate title would be:

Clowns, Dean's internalized homophobia, Sam Meta and a case for Dean/Ash.

Just a warning up front, this deals with some heavy topics, and if that's not your cup of tea for meta, consider skipping this one

Things discussed within include: Discussion of the heavy implications that Sam is a CSA survivor. Discussion of the serial murderer and child predator John Wayne Gacy (no graphic detail). The "predatory gay" trope. Homophobia of the 1955 "Boys Beware" anti gay PSA variety. That same brand of homophobia, but internalized. The general homophobic background noise of the 2000s.

Use your best judgement and stay safe. I totally understand this meta's not going to be for everyone.

Okay lets start by listing off some episodes with clowns in them/mentioned in them.

2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown written by John Shiban Lots of clowns. So many clowns. Clowns out the wazoo. Going to go in depth on this one later in the post. 2.05 Simon Said written by Ben Edlund There’s a line about clowns. Specifically a reference to John Wayne Gacy. 5.11 Sam, Interrupted written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin Serial killer and sexual predator John Wayne Gacy's clown art is mentioned when Dean sees some creepy clown art done by Martin Creaser, an extremely anxious frightened man. 7.14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin Clown is an evil effeminate man working at a Chucky Cheese who specifically looks for vulnerable children (and brings drawings of their worst fears to life) 11.07 Plush written by Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder Clown is just a man. A good man. Mistakenly accused of being a bad man. 14.13 Lebanon written by Andrew Dabb and Meredith Glynn Clown is the literal ghost of John Wayne Gacy 14.20 Moriah written by Andrew Dabb Clown is the literal ghost of John Wayne Gacy. 15.01 Back and to the Future written by Andrew Dabb Clown is the literal ghost of John Wayne Gacy.

Please notice just how much John Wayne Gacy shows up in this. It's not the Joker (Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger or Mark Hamill varieties.) Not Bozo or Buster Keaton. The go to reference is John Wayne Gacy. We get one mention of Ronald McDonald.

5 out of 8 of those instances are Gacy. Three of them are his actual ghost. There's something going on here.

Now lets take a closer look.

(I put an absolute clown car worth of meta after the cut)

Going in reverse order, we can set 15.01 14.20 and 14.13 to the side right now. John Wayne Gacy is John Wayne Gacy. It's not deeper than that.

But who is John Wayne Gacy? Why's it relevant to SPN?

If we want to understand what 2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown says about Dean Winchester's internalized homophobia, we have to understand what all things he's internalizing. Dean's go to clown reference is Gacy, so it obviously left an impression.

Wikipedia puts it thusly:

"John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender known as the Killer Clown who assaulted and murdered at least 33 young men and boys. Gacy regularly performed at children's hospitals and charitable events as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown", personas he had devised."

But that really doesn't give a full picture of who this dude was, or what it has to do with Dean.

Gacy was a horrible predatory man who preyed on teenage boys and if you want the particulars of that you can look it up yourself. It was brutal. There were twenty-six dead, brutalized bodies were found in the crawl space of Gacy's home.

Which brings me to why this meta is about....

Clowns and Dean's internalized homophobia.

If you want to understand the Winchester's framework for who queer people are and what queerness is, you've got to remember that Dean was growing up during the AIDs crisis in an environment where the media he is exposed to is hardly likely to portray gay, much less bisexual men in a positive light. And Dean's ideas of queerness has been shaped by horror movies and high profile sex offenders.

I've never watched Lost Boys, but @deanwasalwaysbi puts it nicely, saying "Dean’s clearly very into Lost Boys, the 1987 queercoded gay vampire panic version of peter pan, complete with AIDS metaphors and fear of family acceptance."

That's the mental stage on which Everybody Loves a Clown is set. Queerness as predatory.

2x02 Everybody Loves a Clown

It's the second episode of season 2. John Winchester has just traded his life for Dean's. Dean is dealing with heaps of survivor's guilt. Their Dad, the head of household. The one traditionally responsible for protecting to the family (and who took that responsibility to unhealthy extremes) is dead.

Everybody Loves a Clown takes place one week later.

And Dean is managing. At the start of the episode, he's rebuilding the Impala. This is a good thing.

The Impala is Dean's childhood home, but also a symbol of himself. It's doing well when Dean is. It's not when he's not. This metaphor is established in the previous episode 1x01 In My Time of Dying during this conversation between Bobby and Sam while Dean is lying in the hospital dying after the car crash:

SAM looks down at the mangled car. BOBBY is there as well. SAM: Oh man, Dean is gonna be pissed. BOBBY: Look, Sam. This... this just ain't worth a tow. I say we empty the trunk, sell the rest for scrap. SAM: No. Dean would kill me if we did that. When he gets better he's gonna want to fix this. BOBBY: There's nothing to fix. The frame's a pretzel, and the engine's ruined. There's barely any parts worth salvaging. SAM: Listen to me, Bobby. If there's only one working part, that's enough. We're not just going to give up on... BOBBY (quietly) : Okay. You got it.

At the start of Everybody Loves A Clown, Dean is fixing things. He's staying occupied. He's putting in the work to get better. And so the car is getting better too. And he's fixing the car because it's something he can fix. He can't save his dad, but he can save this car. The only home he's ever known.

Dean's in rough shape, but he's getting better. He's putting in the work at self improvement.

The boys head to roadhouse, and find Ash asleep on the pool table. Like this. And the pose feels weirdly sexy in a way I can't pinpoint.

Sam moves on when they determine that Ash is not a chick and thus probably not Ellen, but Dean who walked closer, lingers longer.

And glances back while walking away.

Dean gets so distracted, in fact, that Jo is able to sneak up on him and hold him at gunpoint.

When we get our first real introduction to Ash...

Dean starts flirting with him within the first minute of meeting him.

"You got to be kidding me. This guy's no genius. He's a Lynyrd Skynyrd roadie." is a compliment coming from Dean. And Ash's appearance tells Dean enough to know that it would be one to Ash too. Dean's tone makes that clear even if you didn't know anything about Lynyrd Skynyrd.

If you watch Dean's body language in this scene, it may look a little closed off, but mostly it looks a lot like the thing guys do sometimes where they'll cross their arms so they can tuck their hands under their biceps to make their muscles look bigger. It's as adorable as it is obvious. And his body is turned towards Ash.

He's flirting. Dean Winchester starts this episode openly flirting with an openly queer man.

Ash responds positively, and Dean moves in closer.

What do I mean Ash is openly queer?

I can not possibly emphasize enough just how loudly queer this feral country boy is. This is 2006. Ash is wearing his gay little vest with his already very skinny frame and he's got one ear pierced.

Please trust me when I say that Country Good Ol' Boys like Ash (who we find out in 5x16 Dark Side of The Moon grew up in a snake handling church) did not pierce their ears in 2006 to be trendy.

People aren't going to see that and think he's cool, or punk. They're going to see it and know he's gay.

Literally the only reason for a guy like Ash to be walking around in 2006 with an earring is because he's loudly and proudly gay.

And Dean notices. Dean's interested.

By the end of that conversation, Dean's body language is open and entirely directed towards Ash. He's impressed. And he's considering it. As Ash leaves Dean takes his chance and complements Ash's hair. Look at that face. That is Dean's flirting face! And Ash is preening under the attention.

Gif description: "By the way, I dig the haircut." Dean flirts. Ash flirts back, preening a little as he says "Business in the front. Party in the back." Complete with a little hair toss of his mullet.

Of course, the second Ash leaves, Dean checks out Jo's ass. As if to remind himself and the world that he's still into women.

Sam's fear of Clowns. Why Clowns? Why Gacy?

Ellen hands Sam the folder on the child abducting clown and is kind of gentle, hesitates a little a first when she says "I was going to give this to a friend of mine."

I think the implication being that she was going to give it to their dad.

Which makes sense considering how almost obsessively protective their dad was of Sam. And honestly, in light of the clown symbolism, I'm feeling pretty dang protective of Sam too.

Okay let me explain. And tie things into another clown episode.

In 7x14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie, it's heavily implied that Sam was abused by a child predator after Dean left him at one of those play places as a kid. When Dean calls and asks Sam "Do you remember a chain called Plucky Pennywhistle's?" Sam's face looks genuinely afraid at just the mention of them.

SAM: [after a pause] No. DEAN: Really? Could have swore you loved those places. SAM: No, dude, I hated them. Uh, you would dump me and go trolling for chicks. DEAN: It's not like I left you in jail. I mean, those places are supposed to be fun.

Dean asks Sam to go investigate and when Sam expresses reluctance, sounding genuinely scared now, Dean wonders aloud "Yeah, what in the world did they do to you?" And Sam makes a face Dean can't see from over the phone that says clearly they did something.

The reason they stamp kids hands at those kinds of places are to make sure that each kid leaves with the adult they came in with, and while it's better than nothing, it's incredibly far from fool proof.

Dean left Sam in those places unsupervised as a kid, and if Dean's account is at all trustworthy it seems like Sam's fear of clowns was something developed after that started. And Sam would have been particularly vulnerable, as isolated as he was.

The bad guy in that episode turned out to be an employee at Pennywhistle's who targeted vulnerable children. And also targeted Sam Winchester.

In 1x18 Something Wicked, we find out that a Striga who disguised itself as a pediatrician and preys on children targeted Sam as a child. Azazel has appointed himself in the role of an evil coach at evil summer camp and made sexual comments about Mary Winchester while wearing the body of her dead father during 4x03 In the Beginning. (The same Samuel Campbell who Sam works so closely with after he comes back from hell soulless.) then broke into their house while John was asleep and bleed in Sam's mouth infecting him with demon blood. Then, there's a scene from 5x22 Swan Song which only works if watched while remembering that boys and men can be victims too.

In some astoundingly good acting by Jared Padalecki, we watch Lucifer (wearing Sam's skin) bring together people who have all taken advantage of him at some point in the past. An elementary school teacher. Sam's "prom date" (guys can also be coerced into sex) and Doug from "that time in east lancing."

The show doesn't say it outright, but it insinuates it. Rewatch that scene with an eye towards that and it becomes clear. Sam Winchester has been through repeated revictimization. (Sam's storylines are dark, y'all. Ruby was his abusive girlfriend and drug dealer. Meg 1.0 repeatedly makes unwanted sexual advances on him. Sam is dealing with A LOT.) There's themes of self harm/drug use (demon blood) and coercion and being taken advantage of that Sam's stories put center stage and portray as matters of importance to the entire world. This stuff that usually gets wrongfully minimized and dismissed as "teen girl problems", as if that makes it less important.

Is it messed up that this show had to give a man those stories to be able to address them seriously? Yeah. But I'm still glad they did it.

Because Sam's got a lot going on to write meta about if you look past the stories you'd expect based on his gender.

Anyway, it's little wonder why the show uses Gacy's Pogo the Clown as the quintessential clown instead of someone else. Because Sam's fear isn't really about clowns.

Back to Everybody Loves a Clown though. Dean doesn't know about the clown case yet. He's off going through the motions of flirting with Jo but his heart's not in it. And he realizes that so he gives up before even really trying. And like... she calls him on the fact he was going to try a pickup line. There's no chemistry there. Zilch. Zero. Nada.

In the office at the carnival, there are two chairs. One's a normal one, and the other looks like a clown. Sam looks incredibly uncomfortablewhen he has to essentially sit on this plastic clown's lap.

In this episode, we also discover that Dean hates funhouses.

Hmmm. I wonder why? Is it because they're full of mirrors that reflect yourself back at you, but distorted. Is the metaphor a little too on the nose surrounded by all those clowns?

At the job interview for the traveling circus or whatever, this exchange happens:

MR. COOPER: You see, this place, it's a refuge for outcasts. Always has been. For folks that don't fit in nowhere else. But you two? You should go to school. Find a couple of girls. Have two point five kids. Live regular. DEAN is about to say something, but SAM leans forward, eyes serious. SAM: Sir? We don't want to go to school. And we don't want regular. We want this.

Dean sits back and shuts up, looking at Sam trying to figure him out.

Suddenly Sam has started caring about what "dad would have wanted" now that John's dead. (Please take a moment to note that the entire plot of season 2 is about how the demon that their dad has been trying to hunt down and kill is one that sneaks into children's nurseries and bleeds in babies mouths and kills their mothers. This show is not subtle with its aids fears. But they're all filtered through a bizarre brand of masculine right leaning home invasion fantasy.)

And Dean's stuck reassessing how safe it is to come out of the closet right now.

Anyway, the rest of the episode happens and Dean and Sam fight a child abducting clown in a funhouse and Dean hates fun houses and Sam hates clowns.

And then it's back to the roadhouse.

What's with Dean's lack of chemistry with Jo?

I swear this interaction with Jo looks more than anything like she's trying and failing to flirt with Sam. But Sam's just being an idiot and reads it wrong.

I know that's not what they meant for it to look, but that's what it does look like.

And then we're back to Ash again with the way Dean says "Hmm. Can I be honest with you? See, normally I'd be hitting on you so fast it'd make your head spin. But, uh, these days... I don't know."

This is a boy who's probably not fully aware that bisexuality is even a thing. But Jo seems a bit more informed. "Wrong place, wrong time?" Jo replies knowingly, as they are waiting for Ash to return any minute now.

"Yeah," Dean mutters, not making eye contact.

"It's okay. I get it." She assures him.

And then Ash opens the door. Returning triumphant. And this time he's lost the shirt he had on under his home made vest. He's showing significantly more skin, and dropping a Pink Flamingoes reference.

Pink Flamingos is a cult classic and it's extremely queer.

This feels like Ash is testing Dean to see if it was just a fluke or if Dean really is queer.

To admit knowledge of Pink Flamingoes is to admit to some level of familiarity with queerness. And Dean does.

Sam looks confused at the reference, but Dean just takes it in stride. Ash glances at Dean, and then continues.

And then Dean, reaches out to touch Ash's laptop. And the way it is filmed is... It's kinda sensual? Anyway, Ash drinks Dean's beer. Ellen, who took in this squirrelly country boy after he got kicked out of M.I.T. for "fighting" (i think it was probably self defense), and who is raising this kid like he's one of her own, watched this interaction and offers them a place to stay.

Ellen hands Dean an excuse to stay the night.

Somehow I get the feeling Ash doesn't have a lot of friends. And even fewer queer ones. Ellen is being a good adoptive mama to this young gay man who likely has no other family to turn to. The entire roadhouse is so gay. I love it, y'all. (Even the gun Ellen pulled on the boys was a really butch choice. Gender roles are something that happen to other people in the Harvelle's roadhouse.)

But Dean says no. He's not quite ready to come out yet. But he's so close.

And then Sam and Dean are back at the Impala. Dean's Baby. Having a heart to heart about Sam's feelings and grief over their dad. Grief that Dean is (at that particular moment) doing his best not to wallow in. I don't think it's a coincidence that Dean is considering exploring more of what life has to offer right after John died in suspicious enough circumstances that Dean can guess that some kind of deal was made, even if he doesn't know for sure yet.

SAM: I miss him, man. And I feel guilty as hell. And I'm not all right. Not at all. (Tears in his eyes.) But neither are you. That much I know. (pause) I'll let you get back to work.

But Dean is listening to Sam here as someone who was just starting to think that maybe it's alright to be queer. Who was thinking that maybe the family he has left would accept him. Would understand that being a little different from who they thought was doesn't mean he's evil or predatory.

Dean goes back in the closet and hates himself.

They've been fighting killer clowns in funhouses and now he's hearing "You're not all right" as a sign to stay in the closet.

Because now's not the time. Or "it's not safe" or "think about your family" or how he "can't add one more thing for Sammy to deal with right now." or maybe it's just wrong.

So Dean takes a crowbar to the Impala.

Just last episode it was established that the state of that car reflects the state Dean's in as a person. So I think directly attacking his car like, destroying something he loves and cares about, counts as an indirect form of self harm.

So Dean beats himself the car up over it. The part of the car specifically made for carrying baggage around.

And stays in the closet.

Which finally brings me to the whole reason this meta demanded to be written. The episode title.

Everybody Loves a Clown by Gary Lewis & The Playboys.

It is a Dean/Ash anthem. Check out the lyrics and tell me this does not sound like Dean "Undiagnosed Adult ADHD, Internalized Homophobia, Closeted Bisexual" Winchester.

I don't know how to say that I love you 'Cause you would smile and say, "Tell a joke or two" Yes, I'm a clown but I don't wanna be Why can'tcha see the other side of me? Guess I'll be the guy who plays the part Of a clown with a broken heart Dreamin' of your love and not knowin' where to start

This is the episode that sold me on the idea Dean is Bi.

Originally I was going to write more about how Martin Creaser is also afraid of clowns and is so convinced that Benny must be predatory. But I think this meta has gotten too long already so I'll leave it here for now.

Dean/Ash took up too much space for me to get to Dean/Benny. But I think I made my case about the clown symbolism well enough without the Martin stuff.

[mittensmorgul]

In your opinion, which writer(s) wrote the best Dean episodes, Cas episodes and Sam episodes? Please don't feel troubled to answer it :)

ooh hello! This feels like a fun thought exercise. Thanks for asking!

I think I'm just gonna ramble about it rather than try to make lists or anything, because I personally feel like different seasons/eras of the show had writers that really stood out and gave me all the feelings :'D

Under a cut because it is long-ish, but also because these are my personal opinions delivered ramble-style and not like some sort of research paper even remotely attempting to be objective. :'D

I think I should start with Sam, since his character feels more consistently written to me across the seasons, but I have to start by pointing at Kripke himself. He wrote our intro to Sam, after all. Edlund gave us the best "soulless Sam" Episode with 6.09. And Meredith Glynn gave us some fantastic insight into Sam even in episodes that were equally about Dean-- like 12.11 and 15.17. Credit also to Yockey for 13.12 and 13.19 especially. He actually gave Sam emotional depth!

Sam as a character is kind of hard to judge according to the metric my brain set out for this. Like, I personally processed this question as "which writers revealed these characters' inner lives to us the most." And Sam as a character just... his "inner life" even from s1 was always a conflict with the Supernatural itself, you know? Far more than even the whole MoC arc for Dean was. Let me try to explain...

S1 Sam's biggest conflicts were find Dad so we can get revenge and I can go back to Normal Life and forget I was ever touched by the Supernatural at all. The demon blood/special children arcs were pretty much the same. His internal conflict was largely "am I evil, or even human?" And his personal goals were sort of the antithesis of the entire concept of the show we were all watching, you know? I didn't tune in to see Law Boy Sam and his Normal Life. I tuned in for Supernatural. lol

So from the outset, to keep Sam relevant to the narrative, the supernatural was essentially foisted upon him. Special Children. Demon Blood. "If you can't save him, you have to kill him." Sam was the object of the plot, and the vast majority of his character actions and choices and goals and desires were shaped by that.

Later seasons gave him a bit of a break from being the Plot Objective, to a certain extent, but every time he began to be even a little bit interesting in his own right (end of s12 taking charge of the hunters and then the AU hunters in s14, or his growing bond with Rowena and witchcraft in s13 and s14, for example), the plotlines never seemed to go anywhere truly deep for more than a random episode here and there. And that's just... disappointing. I mean, when the finale can only muster a blurry-wife-lonely-life montage for him, it only compounds the feeling that there just wasn't a lot to Sam as a character overall, that maybe deep down he just had no real internal hopes and dreams outside that basic generic notion of what life should be like for normal people, and that's pretty damn depressing.

Onward to Dean, because honestly he's the character we have with the biggest window into his emotional state throughout the series. Right from the start, Plot Happens To Sam, and we largely experience it through the filter of Dean's reactions to that.

In early seasons I credit John Shiban (starting with 1.06 Skin), Sera Gamble, and Raelle Tucker (starting with 1.03 Dead In The Water) with establishing the as yet untold depths of Dean Winchester. Sera obviously stuck with the show for a good long time and gave us some of my personal favorite episodes during that time, most of which I love for the Intense Dean Feelings (1.12 Faith, 3.12 Jus In Bello, 6.11 Appointment in Samarra). I'm not terribly fond of her showrunning, but heck she can write an episode.

But those folks took a character that potentially could've just been the two-dimensional dudebro monster hunter whose entire personality was classic rock and his car and made him into one of the most complex and nuanced characters in media. So credit to them for establishing Dean's hidden depths that future writers would build submarines (and one Ma'lak box that thankfully never made it to the bottom of the ocean) to explore.

In later seasons, my Dean champion was clearly Meredith Glynn. If you want to cry about Dean, just marathon her episodes. Well, her and Bobo enjoyed tag teaming on him, honestly, and that just made it so much better/worse. :'D

But I think overall Dean as a character was well established early on, and most writers over the course of the series were easily able to tap into that well without getting stuck on the surface level nonsense it was all too easy to float across when they chose to. More often than not, though, writers didn't get tripped up on the dudebro and chose to reveal the mess of Dean underneath. I mean, even Bucklemming occasionally nailed it (10.16 and 11.18 primarily for them imo)

Which brings us to Cas... the angel who fell in love with humanity, rejected Heaven and God, and chose his own family. I don't think any writer can touch Ben Edlund for ultimate Cas feelings. My biggest regret is that Edlund left the show before he could write a truly human Cas episode. If I could redo ANYTHING about the entire series (setting aside the finale, because that doesn't count), it would be to let Edlund write 9.03 and 9.09 instead of bucklemming... >.>

Why? Because yes, he showed us aspects of Cas as a phenomenal cosmic power, but he never forgot that none of it would've mattered without the crack in Cas, the little bit of him that set him apart from every other angel. And it wasn't his otherness or his power or his grace. It was his humanity. His fear of it at first (i mean his first episode with Cas in it was 4.16 ffs), and his evolution into gradual acceptance and then understanding and love. Not just curiosity of humanity as a concept, but his own desire for it in contrast to every other angel who rejected it for themselves and considered it "lesser."

Even at his most angelic, Edlund wrote Cas at his most human.

[according-to-the-laura]

StackedNatural Day 74: 14x08

StackedNatural Masterpost: [x]

December 6, 2021

14x08: Byzantium

Written by: Meredith Gylnn

Directed by: Eduardo Sánchez

Original air date: December 6, 2018

Plot Synopsis:

When Dean and Sam join forces with an unexpected ally, the outcome will alter the course of two lives. Meanwhile, Heaven faces an attack from a dark force, driving Castiel to make an enormous sacrifice to make things right.

Features:

Jack’s first death, Lily Sunder returns, Anubis, Jack meets Kelly, Cas makes a deal.

My Thoughts:

Oh my GOD this is a good episode. Just spent my lunch break crying in my office and trying to do it quietly. @Meg3point0 was also there and we were both just trying to stifle the insane “waauuugghh” noises coming out of our mouths every five seconds because every scene in this episode hits SO hard. Meredith Glynn, forevermore you have my blade.

I can’t think of a single thing wrong with this episode. Every emotional beat is nailed and there wasn’t a single thing that pulled me out of the story or made me roll my eyes. Super rare, in Stacked.

This episode has the grief sequence that’s missing from 15x01. We get to see the distinct grief and relationship each of the three of them have to Jack and his death. Cas and Dean being out of the room when Jack actually died is heart wrenching but it works so well. Sam and Dean both textually refer to Jack as their child. This is beautiful, although immensely depressing that Dean is only able to express this when Jack is dead.

Meg has a theory that Cas feeling like the death is Wrong is because he is somewhat outside of Chuck’s narrative and he can feel when things are being changed in the story to a less favourable outcome. Dope theory.

I love so, so much that Jack and Kelly get to meet in Kelly’s heaven. Kelly was such a great character, and I really love how even though she dies when Jack is born, she’s such a huge influence on him, and he continues to love her and miss her instead of the story just glossing over the importance of the loss of a parent. Courtney Ford’s acting as Kelly is great, too. I love her and Cas’ genuine friendship.

The effects on the Empty (or the Shadow? I’ve been referring to the entity as the Empty but I think it’s technically the Shadow and the Empty is the place) in the white hallways of Heaven looks really cool, as does Anubis’ abacus. Sidenote, I love that Anubis is the one tracking which souls get into Heaven instead of St. Peter. Very cool. Erica Cerra as Duma/The Shadow rules extremely hard, she does not hold back at all and it works.

Another small but great acting moment was Misha, in the entire episode, but particularly as he’s leaving Kelly’s Heaven and sees Naomi, I think he plays shock and fear very well. He doesn’t forget that the last time he saw her she was lobotomizing him.

Jack got hugged like five times this episode and he deserves it, it should be the standard.

Notable Lines:

“What happens next… for someone like me?"

“The certainty… of death, even for angels, it's always felt natural, but this doesn't. Jack being taken before his time. I mean, taken before me."

“He’s our kid!”

“Take me in his stead. Take me. [...] I'm the one you want. I'm the one who woke you up."

"I want you to suffer. I want you to go back to-- to your normal life and-- and then forget about this and forget about me. And-- And then, when you finally give yourself permission to be happy and let the sun shine on your face, that's when I'll come. That's when I'll come to drag you to nothing."

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 10.0

IMdB Rating: 8.5

In Conclusion: Every one of my notes for this episode was just “he’s their kid waaaah” or “Meredith Glynn I am kissing you on the mouth”, so not much for detailed analysis today.

<< Previous Day | Next Day >>

[quwarichi]

"The writers are-" not to blame, and here's why

Usually, I ignore these posts saying "the writers are so bad, blaming COVID or whatever for the finale", but today I saw a mutual reblogging one of those, and I just went "shit, I'm gonna have to say it aren't I?"

Let's settle this; the writers (sans BL) are good at their job. But that's very general, calling them the writers. Each episode of all the seasons so far has been composed by a different person, even if we do have the rotating cast of them. Season 15's writers are made of Andrew Dabb (executive producer and co-showrunner since season 12), Meredith Glynn (producer), Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming (aka BL, executive producers), Bobo Berens (executive co-producer and story editor), Davy Perez (co-producer), Jeremy Adams, Meghan Fitzmartin, and Steve Yockey (producer).

Those are 8 writers for season 15, each in charge of 2-3 episodes or less (Meghan and Jeremy wrote one each) and that was that. I'd like to point out, though this might be just my personal opinion, that the show had made leaps and bounds in the growth of both characters and themes since Dabb took over, starting with season 12, I won't dive into that too much. Might make another post about that later.

So the process of writing a season for a show like supernatural, as far as I know as a person who doesn't work in the TV industry, goes a little something like this;

1. What is the season arc? A season arc, for those confused, is the drive of the story - the big problem they need to be solving, a threat looming over their heads constantly. There's one every season, usually paired with a deadline or a bad guy about to do bad guy things. For season 15, it was the fight for free will, at last, and the bad guy was Chuck.

2. Once they figure out the season arc, it's time to decide what they need to do to move the plot along, leaving a few key moments that must be inserted. There are also the character arcs to consider, which were especially important in the last season, to really wrap up their journey (I see you, Dabb, and your 15.10). The character arcs and the story arc usually intertwine at some point, to create motivations for the characters to act. We've seen it with season 10, season 11, season 12, and so forth.

3. And when the character and story arcs are done, the writers (8) divide and start crafting their episodes.

That's the writers, that's their jobs.

For anyone living under a rock, this season made destiel endgame part of the show's text, not the subtext. It was part of the plot, and it drove it. Two character arcs were relying on that plot, and it helped with the main story arc at the end. Bobo Berens, the mastermind behind 9.06 and so forth, wrote 15.03 (their breakup) 15.09 (their make up) 15.12 (their engagement), and finally 15.18 (the confession). Yes, Dean didn't get to say it back. Yes, killing Cas immediately after he said I love you is horrible and I hate it. Was it touching? Of course. Was it heartbreaking? Definitely. But was it Bobo's fault Dean wouldn't say I love you back? Absolutely not.

Bobo is an executive producer - an executive producer is usually the creator, writer, and showrunner of the show, meaning that he not only helps actively create the show, but he also helps write the script, and run the day-to-day production operations. He gets to do stuff most ordinary writers don't. But he answers to the network, like all other producers. And here comes the so-called villain, the one you've all been hating, but using the wrong name for:

The network.

The network producing SPN, the CW, is owned by WB, and those are a lot of acronyms, but they're important. You must realize that the writers, for the start of the season, told us exactly who's the villain. Here's an excellent article explaining why the meta-narrative is important for the show and how the TV Gods Are Watching. I'll be making a brief recounting of the article.

Chuck is the network, not the writers. He's the avatar embodying the network's push for the ending they believe would sell. The network's interested in money, not the fans. If the true ending might mean openly-queer characters and found-family of misfitted orphans, clustered together for the love they chose, not had to accept - it would mean that some people who watch the show, the demographic the network likes to think the show had most of, won't like it. Won't buy the DVD, won't watch the reruns. They also wouldn't be able to sell this to countries that are not okay with queer people, or that disapprove of the message the show would be trying to send.

Chuck is the network because he's pushing for an ending, a horrible ending, that he believes is what needs to happen next. Without the network's green light, nothing may air. The ending the writers wanted for this show, so evident in interviews and in the arc of the story, wasn't able to happen not because of lack of creativity or a big hard-on for fetishizing manpain. It was because it was the ending we wanted, and it couldn't do.

If you want more clarity, my advice is to go back to 15.04, visit the Becky and Chuck scenes - but imagine that instead of them, you're watching the network (Chuck) arguing with the writers (Becky).

The writers tried their best and crafted 18 beautiful, lovely episodes. Then another one that could've worked nicely if 20 went the original way. So don't go blaming the writers, throwing around "the writers this" and "the writers that". Blame the network. Scorn the CW, scorn WB, even. They're the ones who took our ending.

[thefriendlyfrog]

Too many thoughts on SPN 15x17, “Unity”

Welp, I don’t usually do this, but this episode was so great and packed with so many good parallels and callbacks I couldn’t help it! Meredith Glynn is such a great writer. So, let’s begin. Lots of spoilers under the cut.

The first scene opens up to Amara living life to the fullest in an Icelandic hot spring (I’ve been to some in Iceland and would 10/10 recommend – don’t bother with the Blue Lagoon, though). My eyes were immediately drawn to the super recognizable cover of Murakami’s ���Norwegian Wood”. Now, I haven’t read this book since, like, high school (now realizing that was a DECADE ago), but I do remember the general plot and themes of the story (I should really reread that again, it’s a good book). Basically, the story is recalled by our narrator and protagonist Watanabe at a later point in his life as he is reminded of a time of life when the Beatles’ song “Norwegian Wood” plays. I don’t want to spoil the whole book, but basically it is a coming of age story that is steeped in themes of regret, sex, love, and death (among others, it really is a literary treasure trove!). Skip the next paragraph if you don’t want “Norwegian Wood” spoilers.

In short: Watanabe’s best friend from high school commits suicide which haunts him and his friend’s girlfriend, Naoki, for the rest of their lives. Watanabe and Naoki become close and romantically involved, but she leaves for a sanitorium. Watanabe wants to be with Naoki despite her telling him that she doesn’t think she can love anymore (she described herself and her high school boyfriend as soulmates). Watanabe later meets Naoki’s opposite, Midori, a lively girl who Watanabe grows close to and is also interested in. Watanabe essentially doesn’t move forward as he is waiting on Naoki while having Midori waiting on him. At the end of the story, it is revealed that it has always been Midori and he realizes he wants to be with her.

I thought that this was an EXCELLENT pick for Amara to be reading. It really sums of a lot of surface and not-so-surface level themes in Supernatural. Wondering if there is a parallel between Dean and Watanabe about sort of idealizing a life (with someone) that isn’t meant to be while ignoring love in front of you? Would love to hear all of your thoughts.

Moving on (I’m skipping through parts of the episode to just focus on some key observations)! Amara tries to convince Chuck to fight on behalf of this world and wants to show him some of his creations. So, she brings him to Heaven to see his ‘first children’ (i.e., angels). She also refers to angels as having prefect angelic devotion which immediately made me laugh because our fave angel Cas is really devoted to Dean humanity and not Chuck. Ahh! This whole episode just kept pointing out how special Cas is.

And then, callback after callback began. Amara brings Chuck to the bunker so Chuck says, “Is this a trap?” which made me think of episode 9 (“The Trap” by Berens). This was almost immediately followed by another callback when Chuck says, “You can’t hold me here forever,” to which Amara replies, “I can hold you long enough.” Um, Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets (12x10, Yockey), anyone?

Ishim: “You can’t hold me here forever.” … Lily’s powers are wearing off as Ishim approaches her until Cas stabs Ishim in the back with his angel blade. Cas: “You held him for long enough.”

Like, COME ON! Almost verbatim.

Skipping forward to Dean and Jack’s adventure to visit my favorite hippies, Adam and Serafina (like seriously, they were fantastic characters!). Adam refers to himself as, “…first dude off of the assembly line,” which is similar language that has been used to referring to angels in the past (again, invoking Castiel?)

Then Dean assumes the woman is Eve but they both just shake their heads and chuckle, “I’m Serafina,” I’m definitely not the first one to point this out but… the First Man being in a near-lifelong romantic relationship with an angel named Seraph Serafina?! Uh, yeah, ‘nuff said.

Serafina also mentions that she saw Jack when she and Adam were, “…sipping mushroom tea on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,” which made me wonder if there was some sort of connection with Glynn’s season 14 episode, “Byzantium” (14x08), which is the episode Cas makes his deal with the Empty. Babylon was a fortress of the Byzantine empire (not going to lie, my historical knowledge about the Byzantine empire is preeeeetty limited).  

I also loved the whole speech by Serafina to Dean: “I mean, just think of everything that has had to happen to get Jack to this place, to this moment. Baby, it was meant to be,” Dean, of course, is upset by this because he is probably thinking that this was all basically predestined, and he has had no free will. However, he just needs to wait a little while longer until Chuck tells him to his face that he has never been able to control Cas since he laid his hand on Dean saving him from Hell.

Serafina also heals Adam’s wound and it is, of course, super reminiscent of Cas healing Dean (although, even Serafina doesn’t directly touch Adam when healing him – it’s, once again, unique to Castiel). Obligatory hand squeal: HANDS!!!! Wow, they are not even trying to be subtle about the whole hands thing. It is so IN YOUR FACE begging for the audience to notice it.

Adam then mentions how much power is in his rib: “But this puppy? Is packing enough punch to create LIFE. Or, in your case, destroy God.” Well, at this point I think we can all be pretty certain that in the end it will NOT be used to destroy God, so will it instead be used for creation? Excited to see how they defuse Jack’s supernova bomb next episode.

Rounding off Dean’s vignette is a heartbreaking scene with him and Jack in the Impala. Dean says, “I don’t know how to explain it. When I learned about Chuck, it was like – it’s like I wasn’t alive. Not really. You know, like, my whole life I’ve never been free. But like, really free. But now, me and Sam, we got a shot at living a life…But now we have a chance. And that’s because of you.” Again, this is before Dean learns that Cas’ actions were made of his own free will, and from the sounds of it, Dean’s connection to Amara as well. I also immediately wondered if Jack bringing Dean some sense of freedom was what Cas saw when Jack showed him “paradise”.

Moving on to Sam’s vignette: Sam remembers that Sergei mentioned the Key of Death was in the bunker (how did he remember this, wasn’t he unconscious at the time? A little disappointed Cas didn’t get to provide that little fact but I’m also glad that Sam actually served a purpose this episode and was a bit more front and center). They find the Key of Death and there is an inscription in Latin on the box:

Viator mortalis, cave, quoniam scias Clavem Mortis pensare graviter. Il tamen desideres ut introeas illum abyssum obscurissimum artis opus est tibi porta.

Okay, fair warning: I took Latin for 4 years but it has been awhile so my translation is super not perfect, but I figured I would take a stab at it because the subtitles were wrong at times and Google translate is not perfect. I translated it as something like this:

Mortal traveler, beware, because you know the Key of Death should be considered seriously. However, if you want to enter the darkest abyss, this work of art is the gate/door.

Honestly, there were a few words that I couldn’t find the right conjugations to and I know this isn’t 100% accurate, but it gives you the gist.

Sam then visits Death’s library and finds the Empty there, killing people (?) to get in touch with Death, whom they hasn’t been trusting as of late. We learn that Death’s plan is to assume the role of New God and restore the world back to order, bring back rules. The Empty is wary because they don’t know if they can trust the promise of being able to go back to sleep. Trust issues, the Empty says, because of “your busted-ass friend in the trench coat,” another subtle-not-so-subtle mention of Cas. But why, exactly, did Cas give the Empty ‘trust issues’? Was it because he woke up in the first place? Because he has ‘traipsed in and out’ of the Empty without dying?

We also learn that only Billie can read Chuck’s Death book, and, this may be a crack idea but… maybe Cas should be able to read the book because he was the one that killed Billie and made her Death in the first place? Seems like Cas might have a connection to Billie. It would be cool if Cas were the one to read Chuck’s book.

Finally, we learn a bit more about the Empty, and how they can’t go to Earth unless summoned. Hmm…

Flash forward to Amara and Chuck in the bunker. Amara tells Chuck, “It’s not too late, brother,” and, if you’re like me, you finished that sentence with “it’s never too late (to start all over again)”. So many great Destiel songs out there, but “Never Too Late” takes the cake for me.

Amara and Chuck decide to become one, become ultimate balance. Chuck extends his hand and Amara grasps it as she is absorbed into Chuck. I don’t even know if I really need to say this, but… HANDS! (Destiel is already canon to me but if the show is going to make it more explicitly canon for the audience, it’s going to be through hands as I know people have been shouting about for several seasons now).  

To finish, let’s talk about that kick-ass scene with TFW 2.0 at the end of the episode. We find out that Chuck’s real ending is to have Dean regress and give in to rage and kill everything he loves, probably ultimately leading to his own death. Woof, what a tragic ending (tragedy ≠ good ending). So, we’ve got to subvert that which Dean does after a heartfelt plea from Sam (“You would trade me?”). I enjoyed how much Dean looked back at Cas during this exchange, especially after Sam tells Dean that Eileen will die again. The parallels, the connection.

Honestly, I’m not sure why Cas and Jack were in that scene other than to have some meaningful glances exchanged between Cas and Dean and because TFW2.0 is together in the next scene. But… whatever, more Cas so I liked it.

And finally, the scene that had me shaking with VINDICATION.

Cas to Chuck: “What, you consumed your sister?” Chuck: “We came to an understanding, so spare me your contempt Castiel, the self-hating angel of Thursday. You know what every other version of you did after ‘gripping him tight and raising him from perdition’? They did what they were told. But not you. Not the ‘one off the line with a crack in his chassis’” (Cas looks back at Dean after a moment)

Okay, so let’s break this exchange down. So much satisfaction with just a few sentences. Bravo, Ms. Glynn.

“We came to an understanding.” Didn’t Michael and Adam say the same thing after they decided to share equally in their bond and vessel? Callback #1.

“…self-hating angel of Thursday.” Ahh, it’s been so long since we got mention that Cas is the angel of Thursday. The last time was, what, when Crowley says it to Cas back in season 6? By the way, it was totally meant to be that Supernatural will finish off the series on a Thursday. Callback #2 (ish).

“You know what every other version of you did after ‘gripping him tight and raising him from perdition’?” This is the second time the show has repeated Cas’ first line to Dean near-verbatim in two seasons. You know, just in case the audience forgot Dean and Cas’ infamous first meeting (which I am like 99% sure we are going to get hella callbacks to next episode). Callback #3.

“They did what they were told. But not you. Not the ‘one off the line with a crack in his chassis.’” Again, Chuck is closely paraphrasing what Naomi said about Cas in season 8:

8x21 “The Great Escapist” – Naomi: “You're the famous spanner in the works. Honestly, I think you came off the line with a crack in your chassis. You have never done what you were told. Not completely. You don't even die right, do you?”

Callback #4. Seriously, Glynn packed four callbacks into such a short time period. Wizard.

My only *criticism* of this final scene is that Dean and Cas didn’t seem to react too much to Chuck’s news about Cas always having free will (although, I think Cas already knew this, but it is news and confirmation to Dean!). I highly suspect that will come next week, though. I’m SO excited (and also terrified) for next week. We are definitely going to be getting a lot of Cas next episode. Misha, in an interview, mentioned that we would get Cas’ ‘chapter’ in 18, and I’m wondering if this will be the true Cas-centric episode? I don’t know, maybe the Cas-centric episode was “Gimme Shelter” but I was expecting more of a “The Man Who Would Be King” kind of Cas-centric episode.  

All in all, 10/10. I keep reading and seeing things that are galaxy braining me, so it has been super fun reading all the meta and reactions to this episode.

Three episodes left. Get your tissues ready for Cas’ death (oops, is this even a spoiler at this point?) next episode. And remember, “Nothing ever really ends,” and “The end has no end,”

[norahastuff]

Have I mentioned before how much I love Meredith Glynn? I mean of course I have but it always bears repeating. Her episodes balance interesting plot developments with explorations of the characters’ emotional states so well. 15x06 was no exception. 

Fishing is something that comes up quite often in Supernatural, and it’s often linked to feeling closer to humanity. Last season when Jack found out he was dying, he knew how he wanted to spend his final days:

Since I've been alive, everyone assumed. I would be this special "person" who goes on forever. Only now it looks like forever might be a couple of weeks, so -- We don't know that. What I do know is I'm done being special. Before my life is over, I want to live it. I-I just want a chance to… get a tan...to see a hockey game...get a parking ticket......get bored... and when it's all over...die.

Jack knew he wasn’t this all powerful immortal being anymore. He was essentially human. So how did he wish to live out the rest of his life? Doing human things. Being normal. And Dean granted him his wish. He took him for fast food, taught him how to drive but the one activity that was Jack’s choice? Fishing with Dean.

There was also 10x01. When Cas and Hannah were looking for the angels that did not want to return to heaven, they found them fishing and waxing lyrical about how much they valued humanity and free will.

Cas: Daniel. What are you fishing for?

Daniel: Trout, mostly. They do love a good curlytail grub. Trick is to find that special spot just outside the run, where the big ones -- the smart ones -- are holding low.

Cas: Do they -- do they put up much of a fight?

Daniel: The ones who truly want to be free? They do.

The metaphor was pretty obvious, the fish were the angels, yearning to live on earth, free and enjoy the things that humans did. 

In 15x06, Cas continues the fishing metaphor

Andy: What can I do for ya? Bait working out good?

Cas: Oh, yeah. The... bait's good. I think it's the fish. They've begun to anticipate me. Andy: Yeah fish can be smart. I’d switch up spots.

There are different kinds of fish, sure some are very resistant to learning poetry, as Cas has lamented in the past, but some are very smart. Now that Sam, Dean and Cas know all about Chuck and his machinations, they too have begun to anticipate him. Or is it that he can’t anticipate them anymore? The metaphor is starting to become jumbled because so is the status quo, as is Chuck’s place at the top. I don’t think it’s exactly breaking news that we’re most likely going see major changes to the scale of power by the time this story draws to a close.

And then there’s the Dean of it all. It’s interesting because Dean and Cas start the episode in similar emotional places. Sam has already resolved to fight God and has been spending his time trying to track him down. Dean and Cas however...well they’re not quite there. They’re trying to distract themselves from all of the awful things; Dean by watching the cartoons and eating the food that brought him comfort as a child, and Cas by trying to do the things Dean told him were relaxing. It’s not like Cas really has much experience in taking some time for himself to de-stress, and he has always taken his cues on human things from Dean. I’m using this point as an excuse to add one of my favourite *camera pans to Dean moments of the series. 

Cas: There’s seemingly nothing but chaos, but not all bad comes from it. Art, hope, love, dreams. 

Hannah: But those are human things.

(I still laugh at this every time!)

Anyway, both Cas and Dean are looking to escape, but by the end of the episode, while Dean may be in the same hopeless place, Cas has gotten some of his resolve back. As Melly told him:

taking yourself out of the game doesn't really change the game.

Facing off against the sheriff, yet another crappy Chuck knock off, Cas realises how right Melly was. He’s not going to let entitled selfish men like Chuck break him. He’s going to fight. Because he has value. He can make a difference.

If I stay, nothing changes. It’s time for me to get back in the game. 

Meeting Melly and her son, fighting the Djinn and ending his reign of terror on the small town, Cas was reminded of why he fought. Dean can’t see that right now. He can’t see a reason for fighting, for believing. He’ll get there. He just needs to find some hope again. 

And just one extra thing, even after Cas struggles to heal Caleb, showing how depleted his powers are, he still vows to get back in the game to defeat Chuck. Because it’s not about his powers. It’s about him or to quote Cas quoting Dean, 

I had something else that was extremely helpful. I had myself. Just the basic me, as, uh...as Dean would say, without all the bells and whistles.

That was how Cas described how he felt, to Jack, back when he lost his powers and became human. It seems he’s starting to remember that again.

After Melly sees Cas shrug off the bullets (amazing scene) and heal Caleb, she’s awestruck and asks him 

That’s a...miracle. Were you sent by God?

Cas doesn’t refute her claim. One, because he doesn’t want to shatter her worldview by telling her that God is a cruel egotistical dick, but also because...well he was. He had his role to play in the original plan, but also God sent him back, after Raphael killed him, after Lucifer did, even after the Leviathans. But Cas never did whatever God sent him back to do. He repeatedly ripped up whatever script God/angels/anyone really tried to get him to play by and forged his own path. He’s never played the role Chuck wrote for him to play, and I think Chuck forgetting that isn’t going to work out particularly well for him in the end.

(Okay I guess that was two extra things)

[mlobsters]

supernatural s13e14 good intentions (w. meredith glynn)

well that was a little bit of the old spn spark for a second there, with the hallucination/vision/whatever hot!zachariah was giving jack. very sweet and sad. something about the sound design and the dialogue.. of the offscreen voices of sam and dean, it had sort of a... theater feel to it? (watching with headphones and maybe a little bit high so, grain of salt) plus just the very... childlike wish fulfillment of kiddo with absent parents.

DEAN You know what? We made it, though. You, me and the kid. Finally under one roof. SAM And you know what, honestly, it doesn’t matter where he’s been. I’m just glad Jack’s back. DEAN Right, home safe. Where he belongs.

like 💔 i didn't realize they really went with this nuclear family thing straight out

also when the fake fire is happening sam and dean sound about as distressed (maybe more?) as you'll ever hear them in this show and that was distressing even knowing it couldn't be real

ZACHARIAH Yes. And not just a single one-way ticket like the prophet’s spell. This boy, he can open a rift big enough to march an army through. He has so much power. We just… have to make him use it. MICHAEL Then make him.

ok but like. why doesn't michael make his own army of nephilim? he's an archangel still right? what am i missing

i'm sorry donatello but all i can think is

the zachariah!cas sending the images of destroying the environment and wars etc to jack for proof of why humans are bad, reminds me of the fifth element?? i think? leeloo discovering all the bad parts of humanity? and then i think only will save the world? by the power of human love from bruce willis??? lol i've seen that movie a ton but it's been a long ass time

captions staying on for this screenshot 😂

this random fight scene with these random figures from the bible. and donatello being twitchy and obvious as fuck that he's clearly up to something. demon tablet not to be ingested while soulless and under asmodeus's influence?

donatello choking out dean from a distance and laughing like a loon, all righty

so now mary gets the catharsis of hearing from an unbiased source that her demon deal is what ultimately saved the world

bro. there's some bizarro music going on during this fight over donatello being soulless what is HAPPENING. jay gruska, is that you? (of course it is). ugh, if only i wasn't committed to keeping that earlier video clip 😞 (fine it's so goofy i'm adding an mp3 of it) it's tonally a mismatch to the vibe onscreen and is just super random. the horns that come in... lol. anyway.

but we're escalating up to cas whatever, trying to torture it out of him?

SAM Our plan, Dean. The spell, get mom back. Donatello’s soul is gone. That’s not just something you come back from. DEAN You did. SAM Yeah, because you convinced Death to get my soul back from the cage, but Amara ate Donatello’s soul. There’s nothing to get back. It’s gone. CASTIEL And Donatello’s already corrupted. I… perhaps the kindest thing to do would be to end his suffering. SAM What? CASTIEL I don’t like it either. But if Donatello’s life ends, then another prophet comes into being and they can finish the translation. DEAN So what, you just wanna kill him? SAM No! No killing! We just need the spell.

interesting how frantic padalecki is going with this. terrified the Plan is being wrecked yet again

CASTIEL I am going to do something that I promised I would never do to a human being without their permission. I’m gonna strip the spell from your mind. DONATELLO You—you—you—you can’t. I—I’ve absorbed too much power. Y-y-you’ll fry us both! CASTIEL I might. DONATELLO Ardeat intus— CASTIEL I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let you or anyone hurt the people I love. Not again.

well then. cas saving them from the moral quandary again. like killing billie for them

i don't even know what to say about this apocalypse world business with bobby, mary and jack. jack's just. poppin angels, ready to throw down with michael

SAM Well… guess you could say Donatello is alive. CASTIEL You told me not to kill him. DEAN Yeah, but, Cas, you turned him into… he’s brain dead. Machines keeping him breathing. What’s wrong with you? CASTIEL Nothing. SAM Cas— CASTIEL His soul was gone. He was corrupted. He was a danger to himself and to you and to all of humanity. Did you know that he was working with Asmodeus? SAM What? No. CASTIEL Not by choice, but he was. Some people just can’t be saved. DEAN Yeah, but who gets to make that choice? You? What exactly gives you the right? CASTIEL Nothing. I took it. And if I hadn’t acted, we would still be sitting around and talking about what to do next. We would be wasting time. And it’s time we don’t have, Dean. I told you, war is coming. War. And I did what soldiers do. Now we needed the spell to open the rift, and I got it. We need four major ingredients: the grace of an archangel… a fruit from the Tree of Life… the Seal of Solomon… and the blood of “a most holy man.” We find those things, we can bring everybody home. And together, we can beat Lucifer and Michael. This is the only way we win, and this is the only way we survive. It’s like you said, Dean. Whatever it takes.

i mean, surely sam and dean have made these kinds of decisions time and time again. especially when the "whatever it takes" is saving each other. but now cas can take the responsibility/blame for doing the ends justify the means thing

[avauntus]

Supernatural - a retrospective

This is super self-indulgent, and I have so much else I’ve promised-- I owe a long-fic rec post, and ao3 comments, wip work, and that’s just my fandom stuff I’m behind on. *sigh*

But it’s late on a Saturday and now I’ve finished Supernatural, I want to share what I think are my top few eps, and a few other comments. I promise some of this will be different from the “greatest hits” you probably usually see, and I’ll try to make it worth your time. *wry smile*

Look, we have to have categories like: “Most Likely to Live in My Head Rent-Free for the Rest of my Life” and “Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction” that are different from “Favorites,” because that’s just the cursed energy this show has. ;-)

My top five

#5 - 13.01 - “Lost and Found”

Written by: Andrew Dabb | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia

In fandom, this is most often referred to as the start of the “Grieving Widower” arc, tongue-in-cheek. Also has Alexander Calvert (Jack) walking around completely in the nude for the first third of the ep. (Neither of these are why this is in my top 5, but he has a good story about wardrobe for his ‘first day.’) 

I didn’t expect much out of this episode the first time I watched it, but I’ve gone over this ‘section’ of the show maybe 3-4 times in my Netflix catch-up, and I watch this one in full every time. From Jack being...not at all what anyone expected and an unsteady vindication, to the stunning cinematography (there’s a post that compares shots to Brokeback Mountain, but I think the shots here might be better), to the sheriff who takes the time to remind her deputy that “...there’s no such thing as ‘weird.’ Everyone’s normal in their own way,” to the slow reveal of exactly how hard the events of the previous night (12x23 - All Along the Watchtower) are hitting Dean and Sam and in different ways...(how long the episode takes to reveal to you how Dean fucked up his hand, and what he was saying when he did. Augh!) The Winchesters are trying to rally, but they have been taking hits for a long time, and the cracks are showing.

 #4 - 15.06 - “Golden Time”

Written by: Meredith Glynn | Directed by: John F. Showalter

Supernatural  has a terrible track record with representation in all stripes. It is infamously consistent in killing off anyone minority, female, or non-White. One of the interesting things about the chaotic meta-narrative of season 15 is you can see the lack of fucks some of the writer’s room had to give about not even being subtle about tearing down that type of ‘White-male-hero-journey” now that they were in a literal “what will they do, fire me?” situation.

I’m a Cas fan, and this episode, which gives him an actual, ‘case-of-the-week’ hunter’s narrative where he gets to save the day on his own, successfully, was wonderful. I love that for him! But more than that, for me, this episode is emotional to me for other reasons-- the way Dean and Cas circle around each other on their angry phone call (with the body language! They are broadcasting so LOUD and neither can see because they’re on the phone!), Sam’s story here, where he’s inheriting things from Rowena that allow him in turn to save Eileen, to Cas’ speech and quick anger at the lake when you reflect on his entire journey of self-realization from a soldier of blind faith to an agent of free will... “You selfish little men in your positions of authority...” I just... *clears throat, grabs tissue* 

#3 -  6.20 - “The Man Who Would Be King”

Written & Directed by: Ben Edlund

Speaking of Cas’ journey... I know some folks don’t like the angst and drama of the ‘Heaven and Hell’ plots of Supernatural, but I am here for it. Oh, did we need another reason to include this episode? This has some of the most metal quotes I have heard from any TV show. Ever.

I mean, look at this:

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have said: Freedom is a length of rope. God wants you to hang yourself with it.”

“Explaining freedom to angels is a bit like explaining poetry to fish.”

The delivery of: “It's not too late. Damn it, Cas! We can fix this!” “Dean, it’s not broken!” is one of those Supernatural bits that will live in my head until the end of time. All of Edlund’s episodes are among my favorites, but this (along with “5.04 - The End”) was on another level. 

#2 - 5.16 - “Dark Side of the Moon”

Written by: Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin | Directed by: Jeff Wollnough

I think of this episode every time  I hear Bob Dylan sing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” This is kinda a giant montage episode, but the connecting concepts are so...satisfying. 

“Heaven is your favorite memories.” “ It’s called the axis mundi. It’s a path that runs through heaven. Different people see it as different things. For you, it’s two-lane asphalt.” “This is your idea of heaven? Wow, this was one of the worst nights of my life.” “I don’t think I realized how long you’ve been cleaning up Dad’s messes.” “It’s awesome to finally have an application—a practical application—for string theory.” “Everyone leaves you, Dean. You noticed?” “Why is God talking to me? Gardner-to-gardener, and between us, I think he gets lonely.” “You son of a bitch, I believed in... ” Whoosh.

#1 - 4.01 - “Lazarus Rising”

Written by: Eric Kripke | Directed by: Kim Manners

So...this is the episode where Castiel, angel of thee Lord, shows up. And that’s primarily why it earns the no. 1 spot, because 80% of my enjoyment of Supernatural from this point on was Cas-adjacent. Plus this entire episode just hits. ALL OF IT. Dean’s homecoming. Ruby, my darling. Bobby’s entire vibe. Pamela Barnes, easily one of the most interesting women Supernatural ever introduced. Cas being so hot to say “Hi” to Dean he forgets he wounds people. 

But beyond that-- the way the show writes their ‘oh, by the way, angels’ narrative! If you haven’t seen this episode, would you believe me if I told you that THIS EPISODE, the episode where Supernatural said “canonically, Judeo-Christian Heaven is real, btw” involves no churches but does involve a séance, a soulmark handprint brand, and a himbo angel that “gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition”...but they were all “no homo, guys” for years?

Truly no one was out here doing it like Supernatural even back in 2008.

Others--

15.18 - “Despair” 

“Most Likely to Live Rent-Free in My Head for the Rest of my Life”

Written by: Robert Berens | Directed by: Richard Speight, Jr.

You know why this episode is here. It broke reality. I could be wrong-- but I’d put good money on this episode being the subject of academic theses in the future. That doesn’t automatically make for interesting story, but...

Has there ever been a case, in a mainstream US TV show where a major lead character (Cas) came out as queer so late in the game in a narratively-important way? I’m not aware of it, but I might just be behind on my television.

This episode has great writing, and (blessedly) amazing direction and blocking anyway. Check out the above gif - that is some next level foreshadowing going on in the cinematography, and this isn’t even the most remarked upon shot in this episode. (Seriously, I had to search for 40 minutes for this gif, please respect my game, lol.) Everyone who was involved in 15x18 is giddy talking about their investment, from the costume designer to the actors to the director to the writer...

...And then a bunch of them steadfastly have avoided posting much Supernatural-related since. So that’s...loud. There is a bunch of subtext in this episode that is screamingly loud; there is a bunch of text in this episode that makes several things clear fandom has been chattering over for years and years. The meta-commentary around this episode continues, months later. There are over 700 fics on AO3 with this episode tag.

I have more to say about the themes of ‘free will’ and ‘love’ and ‘identity’ tied to this episode, but seriously-- you’ve probably read 17 versions of it on Tumblr already, so.

This is the last time we see Cas, and the last time Supernatural can claim anything close to narrative consistency. For that alone, it’d earn free head-space.

Runners-up: “4.20 - The Rapture”; “5.04 - The End”; “7.21 - Reading is Fundamental”; “8.21 - The Great Escapist”; “9.06 - Heaven Can’t Wait”; “12.19 - The Future”; “14.08 - Byzantium”

6.17 - “My Heart Will Go On”/8.07 - “A Little Slice of Kevin”

“Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction”

Written by: Eric Charmelo & Nicole Snyder (6.17); Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia (6.17); Charlie Carner (8.07)

Usually the show kills off it’s “one-episode” female characters, but do you know one time it didn’t? When the Moirai (the Fates - specifically Atropos, the shearer of the Threads of Fate) showed up in canon in 6.17. She was posited to have “two older sisters that were bigger than her- in every sense of the word,” ...and Castiel had to back down when she challenged him to a cosmic game of chicken over the Winchester’s lives.

Then they never returned to that idea again. 

“A Little Slice of Kevin” is on here for the opposite reason -- an amazing idea that was really underwritten in the episode it showed up in. Dean Winchester has been dragging himself across the fabric of universes; the literal Word of God is in play in a warehouse in Middle America; Cas is back from Purgatory, but what does that mean, micro and macro? As a person on the street, what would it mean, or feel like, to learn you were a Prophet of the Lord, uncalled? That what you are, everything you are, is a cosmic contingency?

Maybe Fate has an opinion on all these shenanigans?

Perhaps all that doesn’t make sense, but it certainly made an impression on ~2012 me. To this day, it remains the WIP I can open up and fool myself with the ‘twist.’ I wish I remembered where I was going with it so I could finish it.

Runners Up: “2.20 - What Is and What Should Never Be”; “5.04 - The End”; “6.15 - The French Mistake”; 12.12 - “Stuck in the Middle (with you)”; “13.05 - Advanced Thanatology” “14.03 - The Scar”; “14.10 - Nihilism”; “15.15 - Gimme Shelter” ... and “15.20 - Carry On” (obviously)

Fifteen seasons. There were plenty of other episodes I loved that didn’t make these limited lists. But overall -- thank you, Supernatural, for the run. Even if I’m upset at the ending, I can appreciate the game. If you watch the show, what were your favorite episodes?

[hellerism]

5, 16, 18, pick one you'd like to answer

5. favorite character that only appeared in one episode

cassie for sure. i really cant believe they never went back to one of their best characters. but whatever shes a recurring character in the secret good supernatural in my head

16. thoughts on chuck

i honestly LOVED him as a villain. the characters fighting to free themselves from the roles that thee biblical god (and consequently the writers) wrote them in was genuinely compelling to watch, and i really loved the themes of free will and breaking free from the narrative they were able to examine with him as a villain. the meta narrative of death of the author and fans taking over the story was great. thematically, the way that the characters freed themselves and defeated him not through the violence that they were forcibly written into, but through the son that they raised and the family they chose is INSANELY good. in practice, not so much (fucking buckleming), and of course they completely butchered whatever they were trying to say with the finale. but i appreciate what they did with him in the rest of the season.

18. rank the writers (as many as you remember and know)

i actually have them sorted into categories bc i am a normal person

besties: ben edlund, steve yockey, davy perez, bobo thee berens

good friends: nancy won, robbie thompson (although im considering moving him up to the besties category)

frenemies: jeremy carver, meredith glynn

neutral: andrew dabb (he oscillates between this and archenemies depending on my mood)

archenemies: buckleming

sera gamble: sera gamble

pick one i’d like to answer...

1. whats an unpopular ship you like?

i cant get on board with everyone hating on sastiel like obviously deancas is superior but sastiel is literally just vibing. theyre fun

ask me about my spn opinions!