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stereogeekspodcast · 4 years ago

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[Transcript] Season 1, Episode 2. Flashback Favourite – Supernatural

Supernatural came to an end in 2020. We look back at 15 years of the show and discuss why we loved it. Spoilers ahead for the finale of the show.

Listen to the episode on Anchor.

Read more about Supernatural here: Best Supernatural episodes Best Dean moments Best Sam moments The food of Supernatural Revisiting the Destiel scene on Supernatural

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Ron: Welcome to the second episode of Stereo Geeks! Today, we'll be talking about Supernatural. I'm Ron.

Mon: I'm Mon. In 2005, the world was introduced to Sam and Dean Winchester and their family business—hunting monsters. This year, in 2020, we said goodbye to the Winchester brothers and their lasting legacy. In this Flashback Favorite, we talk about Supernatural.

Mon: We’ll be discussing the entire series, including its finale, so there will be spoilers ahead.

Ron: We didn't we didn't start watching Supernatural in 2005.

Mon: No, I was too scared of horror stuff, so I refused to watch Supernatural

Ron: But I do remember us seeing the ads. I was quite intrigued. We eventually started watching it around the third or fourth season?

Mon: Yeah. I think it was after Mark Shepard attended the first Comic Con in Dubai.

Ron: That was in 2012.

Mon: He talked about it. And then we started following the show in earnest.

Ron: And then we went back to the first season and started watching it again. And yeah, it was quite the experience!

Mon: It's draws you in, especially with the dynamic between Sam and Dean Winchester.

Ron: Yes, the two brothers are similar in many ways to us.

Mon: Yes, I think so.

Ron: They're sweet. They're funny. They're sarcastic. They get into trouble a lot. But they always come back for each other.

Mon: And I like how it's always the little moments, which I like the most about their character dynamic. And the way they fight with each other. They get angry but then they have their backs, supporting each other at every turn.

Ron: That's exactly how you and I are. We fight. We get angry with each other. And then there's just a reason for us to come back together.

Mon: Absolutely. The show has been problematic at times and has a lot of issues. And we will touch on some of that in this episode. But honestly, it's really that central dynamic that keeps us coming back.

Ron: It's not just Dean and Sam that carry the show. We also see them grow their family. In the sense that they bring in Crowley, who is, for a long time, the King of Hell. Castiel joins them in season four, and he becomes an integral part of the show. He also becomes their family.

Mon: He's like a third brother.

Ron: He is a third brother. But, as we learn, he feels a lot more than that.

Mon: What do we enjoy about Supernatural the most?

Ron: Sam and Dean! Well, I like the fact that when we first started watching the ads for the show, we had very clear divide. I very much liked Sam, and you were very drawn to Dean.

Mon: I liked Dean because he’s snarky.

Ron: I liked Sam's sweetness. He was very sweet. He still is very sweet. He's also very much a younger brother.

Mon: He always needs to be protected and taken care of. But he's always very earnest. He's more responsible.

Ron: And he has a particular way of doing things. Whereas Dean is very much ‘let's just go and do something’. And sometimes, he doesn't plan. But Sam is very booksmart.

Mon: He's very meticulous. He's very organized. Dean is much more of the doer.

Ron: Sam is the researcher. And I am the researcher.

Mon: Yeah, I do.

Ron: You do things, I research things. So, that's definitely one of the biggest draws, that we saw parts of our personality in these two characters. But it was also the stories.

Mon: Yeah, it was very entertaining. We had so many different kinds of creatures from myths and legends. I would say I preferred when there were mostly vampires and werewolves. When the show really went into the biblical stuff? I've always struggled with it.

Ron: I guess I agree with that, as well. I do like how they handled the biblical elements. Angels are dicks. Demons can be friends. Those are unexpected ways of handling these elements. I really enjoyed that.

Mon: I think they worked really hard to subvert some of the expectations of it being seen as a religious show. I remember seeing an interview or something a long time ago, where Jared Padalecki was saying, when he saw the script, it was talking about angels and demons. He said, Oh, my God, is this becoming a religious show. But it wasn't. It was still the same show, just different characters and creatures being added to it.

Ron: And they really expanded their roster. Initially, the main antagonists were demons, and I enjoyed the way they were bringing in that kind of mythos. But I like the other kinds of creatures that they brought in from around the world.

Mon: I think we learned more about their interpretation of djinns and other creatures who, you know, you really had research!

Ron: Yes, we don't know that much about all the other places outside of India. We do know some of the legends from the United States and from the UK. But it is good to see some elements from South America.

Mon: There was that episode with the Japanese ghost, remember? Who's tied to that beer or wine? That was a funny episode.

Ron: Ma Kali ends up in one episode, played by Rakesh Sharma, who is very cool. So yeah, that was fun. Not many Indian elements in the show, but still enough to for us to enjoy.

Ron: But we need to talk about the fact that the show was supposed to end in season five.

Mon: You can clearly tell the demarcation between when they had a full plan and when they went off the rails. Eric Kripke, the creator of the Supernatural, he had a five year plan, and it was supposed to end with Sam making a sacrifice and taking Lucifer down with him to hell, and essentially saving the world. However, the show was renewed for another season.

Ron: Which is usually good news!

Mon: Unfortunately, that means that Sammy came back and they had to come up with a whole new plan. And you can see how varied and inconsistent the stories and seasons are from that point on.

Ron: I think season six still works. They had soulless-Sam, which was a very interesting interpretation of the character. But season seven, you can that it was laboured.

Mon: I don't think anybody thought the Leviathan were interesting or scary creatures. And it was probably the most forgettable season, aside from maybe a few episodes here and there.

Ron: True. Dick Roman as a villain would have worked in 2020. The corporate douchebag definitely is a villain right now. In season seven? Not so much.

Mon: You're right. And he didn't have that kind of charisma. They didn't pad up that mythos. It really did that season a great disservice.

Ron: And remember, this is the season where Bobby died.

Mon: Oh, really?

Ron: Yes. He died at the hands of Dick Roman. When we look back at it now, Bobby, who was basically Sam and Dean's adoptive father, going down to somebody like Dick Roman is so unfair.

Mon: Oh, wow, that is unfair. And then we move on to other seasons, which honestly, they're a blur from eight to 15. They really are a blur. We had purgatory, that was an interesting the concept. I loved it. Dean being stuck in purgatory, fantastic concept, and him befriending a vampire, Benny? Dean, of all people, who hates anything which is not human, almost sacrificed himself to bring a vampire back to Earth. That was quite an arc for him.

Ron: It was a great way of changing the character. And it cemented Dean and Cas' relationship while they were in purgatory. Despite the fact that they were separated for a very long time, Cas comes back to him when Dean prays to him. It is a very beautiful moment. And now that we know how Cas felt. A lot of people have been pointing to that moment saying, this was one of the one of the earliest indications about how Cas really felt about him.

Mon: Actually, that does make sense. Because Cas bends every possible rule in the angel-rulebook to save Dean and Sam and the rest of the Winchester family.

Ron: Yes. Cas was obviously a rule follower for a very long time until he met Dean. And then his entire concept of what was good and bad completely changed and it's quite touching.

Ron: Of course, the show wasn't without its problematic moments.

Mon: In the early seasons of Supernatural, I have to argue that Dean may have come across as a creepy dude. Just because he has that sweet face and general charisma, and of course, he has a good heart. He would lie to a lot of the people he would meet to get his way.

Ron: I actually don't remember that. I'm kind of relieved that I don't.

Mon: He used to go around telling ladies that he was a producer or something. That is textbook, 101, creepy guy behavior.

Ron: The problematic elements that I was thinking about was the fact that they do not have enough people of color on the show.

Mon: Okay, we are talking about systemic problems.

Ron: And also, the ladies on the show almost always ended up dead.

Mon: They're all dead. We don't have any in the finale.

Ron: If you go back to the very first episode, not only did we lose Mary Winchester in the past, we also lose Jessica, Sam's girlfriend. Later, we lose Jo, and her mom, Ellen

Mon: They are fellow hunters and were series regulars for a while, but they died in a blaze of glory.

Ron: Later on, Charlie joined the show, played by Felicia Day. She was pretty much a little sister for them

Mon: Charlie was the first queer character of note on the show and she was a regular for several seasons

Ron: She was a great character. She brought out such a wonderful side to them. Made the brothers very protective. They were very friendly. They enjoyed having her around. She's so smart. so helpful and Then she died.

Mon: She got killed by the least-memorable characters on the show ever! It was an ignominious death because she was killed by Frankenstein's descendants. Let's not even go there.

Ron: Very unfortunate.

Mon: Apart from Charlie, there were very few queer characters on the show, in latter seasons. We did see a few more but they were never there for more than an episode.

Ron: Dean did pair up with a couple of hunters, who we learned during the duration of the episode, that they were a married couple. They were also two men of color. So, it was a bit surprising considering the show had been not very friendly with queer characters before.

Mon: They were downright homophobic time to time.

Ron: I have to agree with that. If you remember the Supernatural convention episode, where a pair of Sam and Dean cosplayers turn out to be a couple. Dean did not look happy.

Mon: Yeah, Dean was very homophobic in the earlier seasons. But I think he got over it.

Ron: I hope that that was a criticism from the fans that the show actually understood and they worked towards overcoming. But I feel like now, when we rewatch older seasons, there will be elements that will be a bit more jarring than when we first saw them.

Mon: I worry about watching a lot of stuff from a few years ago, simply because there are so many elements which may have been considered the norm, but right now would be horrible to watch.

Ron: The show tended to focus mostly on white, male characters.

Ron: If you look at the posters for last maybe seven or eight seasons, there were only white men.

Mon: There was Sam, Dean, Cas, and Crowley and then it changed to Sam, Dean, Cas, and Jack.

Ron: There was room to change that. But the show never seemed to take it.

Mon: I don't know if it was because they were just blinkered or they just didn't care. But they didn't try hard enough. We started seeing more characters of color among the extras, among the episode regulars but even then, we could probably count them on one hand.

Ron: Unfortunately, that's been a problem with not just Supernatural. A lot of the CW shows, and a lot of shows in general.

Mon: Especially genre shows.

Ron: They do skew very white and male.

Mon: All that being said, I think a lot of Supernatural fans love the dynamics and the character arcs. Which is why it's lasted 15 seasons. It has attracted fans from all over the world, across races and orientations, which is a testament to how hard they've tried to make it an entertaining show.

Ron: It's definitely entertaining. Mainly because Sam and Dean find new ways to get out of situations.

Mon: There's action, there's drama.

Ron: There's a lot of heart. And I think that's why people like the show so much. That's why we like the show.

Ron: A great story can attract people, but great characters keep them watching.

Ron: What are some of your favorite episodes?

Mon: I started with ‘Mystery Spot’. That was the first full fledged Supernatural episode that I watched. It was probably not the best introduction because it was hilarious. But it was a great introduction to the two characters, and the differences between Sam and Dean. Dean's antics and his many, many deaths in that episode were just too good. Sam's reaction to having to relive that particular day. Brilliant. Also, the final arc of the episode is Sam desperately trying to figure out a way to save Dean, which gave me an inkling into how interconnected and dependent there relationship was. And also that it was the first of many, many resurrections after.

Ron: ‘Mystery Spot’ is also one of my favorite episodes, it is absolutely hilarious. But another episode that was also very funny was ‘Yellow Fever’.

Mon: That episode, it's just too good.

Ron: Jensen Ackles kills that episode. He is so good.

Mon: That guy has so much range. He can be so emotional, so dramatic. And yet, so funny.

Ron: He has excellent comedic timing. My favorite moment is always going to be him finding that cat, and losing his mind screaming.

Mon: I cannot not laugh at that. Even now, just thinking about it is making me laugh. And he makes it work. He really makes those silly moments, that slapstick humor work.

Ron: What are the other ones that you like?

Mon: Something that I have always found interesting, especially in the latter half of the series, they've tried to shake things up a bit, do things which are unconventional.

Ron: One of the bolder and probably more successful choices they made was the ‘French Mistake’.

Mon: It’s the first time they went meta.

Ron: Apparently, they were quite concerned about how people would react to it. I have read some pieces about how ‘French Mistake’ doesn't work. But as fans of the show, ‘French Mistake’ definitely works!

Mon: Yes, I recall reading about Jared Padalecki talking about how when he and Jensen Ackles were called into the writers’ room, they were quite worried. And then they found out that this episode was going to be transporting Sam and Dean into the real world, where they will become Jensen and Jared. And it was basically a caricature of all these actors, they loved it, how the episode turned out, it was hilarious. It was funny. It was a joke-a minute. And it worked.

Ron: Everybody plays these really odd versions of themselves. Misha, is so good as this mousy outsider who doesn't quite fit in. It's brilliant. I definitely love that episode.

Mon: We have seen it so many times.

Ron: It's actually embarrassing, the amount of times we’ve seen it but I don't care because it makes me happy.

Mon: Two of the more unconventional episodes, which really shouldn't have worked, but are brilliant, and I would say the top two episodes in the entire series, and they are ‘Baby’ and ‘ScoobyNatural’.

Ron: ‘Baby’ is an episode where the entire story is told through the car's eyes. It's amazing.

Mon: The camerawork, the story itself. It's everything and they don't miss a beat. There's action in there, there's drama, there's bonding between the brothers. It's so beautifully played out because baby has been a character in the show for a very, very long time.

Ron: The season five finale did something similar. It made the story about how baby had seen Sam and Dean grow up. But this episode took it one step further by showing it from her point of view. And it was just so engaging. It is beautiful.

Mon: It was really beautiful, especially because sometimes a gimmick is just a gimmick. But this is not. This was a story seen from the point of view of an unconventional character but a very important character in the show.

Ron: And anybody who's watched the show from the very beginning will love this episode, because we love the car.

Mon: Yeah, that's for sure. And what about ‘ScoobyNatural’? When I heard about it. I was so scared.

Ron: I didn't want to watch this episode. We grew up watching Scooby Doo. We enjoyed the show, but it was very much a child’s show. We didn't think that we would actually engage with it as adults. And then ScoobyNatural came along, and we completely changed our mind.

Mon: I don't know how they made it work. It is so good. It has the ethos of Supernatural, but it maintains the tone and style of the original Scooby Doo cartoons. I think it's a testament to the fact that it's just entertainment. That's all that it is. And it still got those character moments, not just for Supernatural fans but for Scooby Doo fans. It was so good.

I love the fact that they were still able to include those silly little Scooby moments, like them running through the doors in the corridor, them getting scared by a ghost which is actually a human being. And the main story itself is in line with how Scooby Doo episodes used to be structured, but it still has the ethos of Supernatural.

Ron: The way they marry these two completely different shows, which are intended for different audiences, is just so incredible. And it's one of our favorites.

Mon: I can't imagine anyone who’s a fan of both the shows to go into that particular episode and not come out loving it. I was definitely worried about this very odd marriage of concepts. But while it was that, it was so entertaining.

Ron: I think our top five favorites from Supernatural are always going to be the most entertaining episodes and ‘ScoobyNatural’ has to be on that list because of that reason.

Mon: Well, let's talk about how confusing that finale was.

Mon: Well, a lot of people were confused by the ending of season 15, episode 19, because they had a little montage saying goodbye to all the characters who had appeared on the show. And Sam and Dean were basically riding off into the sunset.

Ron: It felt very much like a finale.

Mon: The boss fight had happened. Chuck was gone. Jack was God. What else did you need? But there was still one more episode. We were all confused. A lot of people on the internet were confused. You and I definitely were.

Ron: We actually had to Google it.

Mon: We were certain that we had got it wrong. Anyway, the next week, there was the actual finale, which started off as any other Supernatural episode. It began with the boys in the bunker, going through their daily routine, eating food, being silly, Dean finding a pie fest to enjoy some pie. And then they ran off to hunt some vampires. Everything was going just like the old days. And then Dean got impaled!

Ron: And you and I held hands and cried silently, because we could not believe it was happening.

Mon: So, this is how they set up the shot. You saw that giant nail sticking out of the pylon. And I was convinced, like most people, that yes, Dean is going to use that to impale the vampire so that Sam can cut off his head. And then when somebody did get impaled, I was like, yes, they caught the vampire. No, I was wrong. It was Dean who was impaled. And there was no getting out of it. It was such a shocking moment.

Ron: And we realized what had happened before Sam.

Ron: Because Sam didn't see that nail. So, he cuts off the last vampire's head, and he's just asking Dean to come along. And Dean can't, he's literally stuck.

Mon: Okay. I found that scene overlong, but it was literally made so that it would eke out our emotions along with the characters’ emotions.

Ron: I agree, because Dean's death speech would make a Bollywood film proud.

Mon: It lasted 15 minutes.

Ron: I think it was a very, very long scene. I was literally thinking to myself, how are you not dead yet?

Mon: He hasn't bled out. He hasn't gone ashen. That being said… the tears! It is a tearjerker.

Ron: There's a lot of emotion, on screen and off screen.

Mon: The restraint that the two actors showed as they delivered their lines was brilliant. But then when they finally… we're coming to the close of the scene, and the two of them, they touch heads, they hug each other, and then they really just let it go, let go of their emotions. Fantastic. It was a roller coaster ride.

Ron: Can I just say that Jared Padalecki has been astounding this season. From the very first episode of season 15, it feels like he's not actually acting, he's just there.

Mon: He's so natural. That scene where he’s half-sad, half-angry at Dean? That scene in the car when he's so furious at Dean for lying to him about Jack. Amazing. He should be given an Emmy just for that scene.

Ron: Because that kind of scene can be easily overacted. We have seen that kind of scene being overacted even on Supernatural. But everything is much more restrained. Much more organic this season. And especially the second half, which obviously had to be shot during the pandemic. You could see that they didn't have the kind of time or the luxury of reshooting sections. So they did their best when they had the opportunity.

Mon: I wonder if the break because of the pandemic also helped them reconnect with the characters and reconnect with their own talents, which is why the latter half just felt more natural?

Ron: I have to agree with that. In fact, I read that Jensen and Jared didn't actually get holidays for most of their run on Supernatural. So, the enforced break from the pandemic would have given them an opportunity to just reconnect with themselves.

Mon: I'm not surprised, actually. The schedules they have are insane on The CW.

Ron: So how did you feel seeing Dean die for good? Since Dean is your favorite?

Mon: Shocked! I couldn't believe it. No, seriously. You remember when the ads came on? And I was like, ‘no way did they kill Dean. No way!’ And I went on and on, because I was sure that this can't be happening.

Mon: My one argument would be that at one point, Sam says, ‘okay, we'll figure it out. We'll find a way to resurrect you’. And Dean says, ‘no, no more resurrections’. I feel like they needed a stronger line over there. Perhaps one that says there are no more resurrections anymore. Something to say that the world has reset. Because when you leave an opening, it seems really sad. And we'll get into why it seems even sadder that that if Sam had the option to go and resurrect him, why wouldn't he? So, I would argue that that's the only point where I really needed a stronger hand in the script.

Mon: But it still didn’t diminish the impact of what happened to Dean. He goes out exactly the way he thought he always would. In a fight, dead at a young age.

Ron: That is actually even sadder when you say it.

Mon: That's precisely what he says to Sammy, that this is how I was always meant to go.

Ron: Dean's trajectory was always going to be a young death. But it doesn't mean that that it doesn't hurt.

Mon: For sure, for sure. And I think because we were all expecting a happy ending and we will talk about the happy ending soon. We were all expecting a happy ending for these two brothers who have fought so hard for each other and for the world, that it comes as a real shock that the creators went for it. The world is cruel.

Ron: This is true. The world also goes on, no matter who you lose. I feel like this episode hits different because of the pandemic.

Ron: People have lost a lot of people. I don't think there's anybody who doesn't know somebody they've lost. We people who are gone now because of COVID. And everybody else is left behind. I think the finale was trying to tell us that people die. And the people who are left behind are grieving in their own way. But they don't have a choice.

Mon: And they go on with life, which is what we see Sam do. From the montage that we see, it seems obvious that Sam has lived a very full life. We can't know for sure whether it is a very happy life. We can just hope.

Ron: From what we see, Sam does have a happy life. It just has a Dean-shaped hole in it.

Mon: Well said. Who do you suppose Sam's wife is?

Ron: I don't know. I really, I really wanted to see who it was. You see a shape in the back when he's playing with baby Dean. But I couldn't tell who it was.

Mon: I feel like because they cast an extra with long dark hair, she has to be Eileen. I'll tell you why. When Sam gets a call on Dean's phone for another case, the person specifically says Donna mentioned that you can help. Which means that Donna is back alive, which means Eileen is alive. And we know that Eileen and Sam were together before she disappeared, thanks to Chuck. So, I think Sam and Eileen had a happy life together, had baby who becomes grown up Dean. But as you said, there's always going to be that Dean-shaped hole.

Ron: And we know that Sam still misses Dean, because, well, he calls his son Dean. But he keeps the Impala. He does not drive the Impala. He leaves the bunker. And we see a much older Sam rip of the cover from the Impala. And when he sits inside, he is so full of sorrow and anger. And it's a great scene. It's so moving and all I could think was so many years have gone by and he still misses Dean. That is never going to change.

And I also like the fact that obviously, young Dean has been told stories about his lovely uncle. Because when Sam is on his deathbed, he is still holding on like Dean did. And young Dean then tells Sam the same thing that Sam told Dean so that he could go.

Mon: I think the episode was actually really good.

Ron: It's been very frustrating seeing what's been written on the internet about it.

Ron: I know people have different points of view about the show. The fandom is varied. The fandom has different reactions to it. There are a lot of people who stopped watching the show, understandably, after season five. It was a bit of a slog at times, but we hung on and this season finale, it rewards people who stayed throughout. Because there are a lot of moments in the last two episodes that call back to moments after season five.

Mon: One of the things that really worked for me with the finale, especially with Sam and Dean, their history really comes to the fore. The finale was a celebration of the central love story of this show, which is Sam and Dean and them being brothers for life, irrespective of how their lives actually turned out. The fact that Sam spent probably half his life without his brother, it is still a celebration of how much they loved each other, how much people in reality continue to love the people that they've lost.

We also have to remember that this finale was shot in the middle of a pandemic. There are going to be constraints, and you can see it. There is no way that the original finale, whatever storyline that they planned to go with, would have had such a limited cast of original characters.

Ron: Very true. There were also a few makeup moments that were very strange.

Mon: Let's be honest, Sam's old wigs were terrible.

Ron: And there was absolutely no makeup on his face.

Mon: It's like he grew old, but he didn't. Where can we get that superpower? That being said, Jared Padalecki, the way he held himself as an old man? Brilliant. He was trying so hard to make the lack of makeup work and the lack of a good wig really work for him, to show how many years had passed.

Ron: That scene in the Impala is the one with the bad wig and the no-makeup, but it still hurts when you see him so upset and still missing his brother.

Mon: What I feel is sometimes some people get so stuck in the technicalities of moments and scenes that they lose the bigger picture. We all want everything to be perfect. But if you're going to lose the essential message, the essential feeling, then maybe you’re missing the whole point of why this finale exists?

Ron: There were way too many people weighing in on the finale, making memes about the Impala going to heaven and not Cas. And I can't help but think, did you watch the finale?

Mon: I did not know people were doing that. They literally talk about Cas being Jack's right-hand man. He helped shape the new version of heaven. How are people not seeing that? And I understand some people's grievances. Let's briefly mention the Destiel moment from Episode 18 of this season. Cas and Dean are running away from Death. And the only way for them to survive is for Cas to sacrifice himself to the Empty.

Cas knows that the only way to successfully call the Empty, he has to be at his happiest moment. And he is the most happy when he confesses his true feelings for Dean. He says he loves him. So finally, after several seasons of the two of them making goo-goo eyes at each other, we know that Cas actually does romantically love Dean. And then he dies. And Dean doesn't react. Dean’s only reaction is that he starts crying, and he's alone, and he's despondent.

Ron: In my reading of the scene, Dean did react. He didn't tell Cas that he loved him. But his reaction when he lost Cas was unlike anything that we had seen Dean do before.

Mon: I couldn't agree more. If people want him to say, ‘I love you’, then, Dean has to accept that he's going to lose Cas forever, and he wasn't in the mood to do that at that time. But he does lose Cas. So, when we go back to the finale, and Bobby tells Dean that Cas has helped create a version of heaven which is actually heaven. Then, Dean makes this characteristic Dean-smirk because he's kind of saying to himself, yes, okay, Cas is alive, Cas is around, so yeah I get to meet him again. That's how it is. We don't get to see Cas in heaven, but no, Cas is there in heaven. I don't know what people are reading into the scene for them to think that Cas didn't make it there.

Ron: It was very, very frustrating.

Mon: I understand the frustration that they would have wanted to see more of the guys in heaven. Dean and Sam meeting these people who are their family, including Cas, Jack, their mom, their dad, I get it. But it was shot in the pandemic. We got a full-fledged season, a beautiful finale, which dragged a little bit, fine, but we got a finale, which does justice to the characters. And it hinted at what more we could expect for their lives in the future.

Ron: One of the things that I've been reading is that Andrew Dabb, who has been the showrunner since Eric Kripke left, he has been working very hard towards resolving some of the storylines from earlier seasons.

Mon: That makes sense. Because we do see a lot of characters returning in latter seasons. I guess that makes sense then.

Ron: Yes, that's what he's been doing. His idea for the finale seems to have been, we started Supernatural with the two brothers, we end it with the two brothers.

Mon: That moment when Dean has had a great ride in baby and she's on the bridge, he's just enjoying this beautiful scenery, and he just knows when his brother's behind him, and the look on Sam's face, and the body language that finally he’s got to be with Dean?

Ron: It's been what we’ve been waiting for, not just in the finale but the entire show, for the two of them to get their ending. The thing is that the two of them have been to heaven before. And it is very different. Heaven under Chuck was you reliving your favorite moment, which as we saw in 12 Monkeys recently, that’s not really anybody's idea of heaven. Tasting sushi for the first time is amazing, but tasting sushi for the first time for the hundredth time? That's not so great.

Mon: Everything loses its charm. With Jack's version of heaven, they're making new experiences for eternity. That's the best kind of happy ending that we could have thought of for the Winchester brothers. That is absolutely why this finale was good. Could the finale have been better? Of course, everything could be better! The whole show could be better! But this is what we got. And in a way, it's so sadly realistic. It's tragic. But they always intended it to be a happy ending.

Ron: Absolutely. And it has to be said, this is what happens to real people. Sam and Dean were able to continue living, despite going to hell, going to heaven, despite going to purgatory. The amount of times that they died and came back.

Mon: It was a joke by the end. It was rightfully a joke because there was no ending for them.

Ron: But we know why, it's because they were Chuck's favorite characters. But that also meant that they were Chuck's favorite marionettes. Freedom meant freedom to die, as well. And as difficult as that was for Sam to process, I think it is also a realistic approach that we probably needed in 2020. That was the best way to do it in 2020. Had it been the two of them growing old together, I think that's what the fans would have wanted, that would have been great to see.

Mon: We don't have to like it but I would just say it is a choice made by the creators. Ron: I think it was the right choice.

Mon: Let us know what you thought about the Supernatural finale and how you would have written, Sam and Dean's ending differently.

Ron: You can find us on Twitter @Stereo_Geeks. Or send us an email [email protected]

Ron: We hope you enjoyed this episode. And see you next week!

Mon: The Stereo Geeks logo was created using Canva. The music for our podcast comes courtesy Audionautix.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Transcription by Otter.ai and Ron.

#supernatural #supernatural finale #flashback #podcast #geeks #stereo geeks

0 notes

almaasi · 8 years ago

Text

reaction post typed while watching SPN 12x17 “The British Invasion”

the deadly duo writing anything:

06:08pm

yeah i downloaded this yesterday and i was just DREADING it so i put it off as long as it took for me to feel bad that my tumblr queue is empty. deadly duo? no thank you

even though i have next to no idea what this episode is about, i'm kinda smug that this was the least-watched episode of the season so far (via wikipedia), 1.57 million vs the 1.7m~ average this season, and will probably remain the least-watched episode given we’re nearing the end of the season

things i don’t care about that i’m expecting to happen: reversing/erasing mick’s character development with only the slightest hint to previous episodes, no cas, no characters of colour (or alternately, characters of colour who die or have something else horrible happen to them), lady characters with little to no personality and a weird inclination to rape or kill people, consent issues in general, logic fails, a wonky plotline that makes no sense and fucks up all the work better writers have done all season - and indeed, throughout the entire 12 seasons of the show

(in case you’re new here, i don’t like these writers one bit, and i’m forever bitter that they still write their garbage for an otherwise okay/good show, and, most importantly, never seem to attempt to improve. i give them the benefit of the doubt every episode and they always let me down. i, like many people, have stopped expecting things.)

aside from the occasional use of the b-word and a lack of characters of colour, this show is otherwise fine - and has at least improved with the misogyny and representation in recent years. but i’m pretty sure a majority of the really shitty racist rapey misogynist stuff in this show has the deadly duo’s names on it. they keep writing things that erase other people’s better ideas and change the course of the story, and alter the overall feel of it, and since their episodes irrevocably become part of the canon, their writing never stops affecting the show negatively.

someone give me a meme where they are forcibly removed from the planet

okay okay enough whining let’s just watch this thing

06:23

oh god no the adorable deaf lady eileen is in the recap

IF SHE DIES

I WILL PERSONALLY EXHALE MY ACTUAL SOUL

AND HAVE IT FLOAT ACROSS THE OCEAN IN A HAZE OF FURY TO VISIT THESE WRITERS

AND I WILL ḊẼ̍̍S̈T̑R͑̌̃̊̊̆̄O͊ͧ̏Ý̊͂ ͂ͯ̉̈́͋T̡͇͔H̯̼E̗̹̹̜͞M̳͚̫

06:26

mick looks so much like cas that if someone missed the previous episode, and then saw this recap, they’d probably just think cas got a haircut and didn’t shave for a couple days

06;27

funny how “outside london, england” looks remarkably like vancouver

06;28

eyyy the framing so the headmistress has horns

i’m a sucker for that kind of symbolism

06;29

tbh this is giving me a doctor who vibe, maybe because of the british school kids and a creepy vibe

specifically the episode with anthony head as the headmaster and the screechy bat aliens

06:33

but three episodes ago mick didn’t raise his hand when sam (or mary?) asked “who here has killed something”

inconsistency, or mick just lying by keeping quiet?

06;39

EILEEN HI YOUR HAIR LOOKS GOOD

sam: “so, after we talked, you went back to coeur d'alene, idaho?”

eileen: “right”

the exposure script........ guys........... i’m suffering

06;42

“i did some digging, check your phone”

eileen talks the same way sam does, that’s cool

DEAN LOOK AT THE GODDAMN ROAD

06:44

“that’s the plan”

i wanna hug eileen so badly, she makes me happy

06;45

eileen: “bye sam”

dean: “that’s cute”

sam: “c’mon”

yeah DEAN it IS really cute when two people are in a long-distance relationship and have a phone conversation and say “bye [insert name here]” at the end of the phone call

speaking of, WHERE’S CAS. WHEN DID YOU LAST TALK

06:48

mick is basically crowley and cas mixed together and poured into one asshole with a pretty face and childhood trauma

man they need some new character archetypes

06:51

dean: “it’s not kelly’s fault, she didn’t know lucifer was her boyfriend”

mick: “yeah, could happen to anyone”

SOMEONE LOOK ME IN THE FACE AND TELL ME THAT’S NOT ABOUT SEASON 11 POSSESSED!CAS DESTIEL, I DARE YOU

06:53

mick: “you should’ve shot her between the eyes immediately”

i still see these kinds of comments on the spn people’s instagram, i guess a lot of people missed the point of the season where the boys are going for the Some Monsters Are Decent People approach

06;55

lucifer and diagon’s telepathic conversation kinda reminds me of season 4/5 for some reason. makes me a lil nostalgic

07:01

dean’s all squirmy and sleepy and wants to cuddle his own arm

07:02

doctor to daigon: “you’re her... partner?”

diagon: “no.”

doctor: “birth coach?”

diagon: “sure”

cute character thing or lowkey homophobia, who knows

07:05

lucifer’s hair looks fluffy

also i feel dull inside and kinda melancholy

this episode makes me feel like i’ve forgotten something and it’s cold outside and there’s no heater inside, and as though i’ve got five hours left to wait until dinner

just generally unenthused, really

and very distinctly, it’s reminding me of 2007/2008 when every day felt like that, at the peak of my doctor who obsession, when i started watching spn. idk i don’t feel good right now, i want this to be over

feels like i’m wasting time