#spn episode reviews

[incesthemes]

final thoughts: supernatural season 12

i've been nursing a terrible headache all day and so i freely admit my opinions of this season may be negatively influenced by this. maybe tomorrow i'll wake up and realize it wasn't actually that bad and the real enemy was my brain all along. such is life.

i'll say upfront that i liked this season much, much more than season 11. not hard to do and the bar is in hell, but i think it's a good perspective for me to keep in mind while i write this. let's go.

i'm going to talk about mary first. i really like what she brought to the table. she created such natural conflict just by existing, and that's damn good writing. she was handled with so much nuance and care, and i'm extremely pleased by this because i pretty much hate everything else in this season, and actually i'm surprised with how well they handled mary compared to how poorly they handled everything else. that's just bizarre. pick a struggle guys you're hurting my brain.

but no, i love how she's developed as her own person, and how she gets to go off on her own and leave her kids and how that has major consequences but she's still not painted as a bad or neglectful mother for doing that. in fact she's not relegated to the flattened role of "mother" at all, and that's genuinely something special for this show, since it tends to keep their side characters to reductive caricatures that best suit their purposes. that would have been a really easy trap for the writers to step into, since that's the role she's had for the entire show up to now, the ghost of a mother haunting the narrative. she had very little character outside of that (except for her kickass part in 4.03, have i ever mentioned how much i love in the beginning? fuck man). but still the writers let her transcend that role and become something far more complex. i really love that :)

an aside: all of the winchesters, actually, get this incredibly nuanced treatment that hardly any of the other characters do. i like how much care and attention are put into crafting this fucked-up little family. it's definitely one of my favorite dynamics in fiction, probably ever. every one of the winchesters has so many layers to peel back and explore, such complex identities, and contradictory, human personalities. i love what connects them and drives them apart and how that's so often the same thing. they're really great characters who fit into their roles well, never too over- or underused. the family is very well done.

anyway back to season 12. i've been holding this in all day but now i'm finally going to complain about the british men of letters. because i'm sorry but they're kind of stupid 😭 and by that i mean their operation makes very little sense, and the rapid developments of their plan are so unattainable and nonsensical. you're going to wipe out every single american hunter? with your little team of 10 people? and to what end? i get they want to exert control, but first of all, this is missing the whole entire point of (american-style) hunting, from a doylian AND watsonian perspective:

hunting thus far has been presented as a deeply traumatic, solitary life decision individuals have made after experiencing a tragic loss or otherwise had a life-changing encounter with the supernatural. they're not recruited, they have very little support, they have an old-fashioned, underdeveloped communications network, and again: they're solitary creatures. they make their own decisions, play by their own rules, hunt their own game. it's suggested that most or a majority of hunters seem to go after exclusively the supernatural entity that got them into hunting in the first place, and only the more prolific hunters have a wide range of skillsets.

this isn't something that can be controlled. and by that i mean, wiping out every hunter isn't going to stop hunters from existing. because as long as there are monsters, people will continue to be traumatized, and people will continue to hunt. even if you wipe out an entire generation, you can't stop a random individual from having her family eaten by werewolves and deciding to hunt werewolves down from now on. no matter what the BMoL try, this is an impossible thing to control, and it's stupid to try. again, from both a watsonian and doylian perspective.

the actual motives and objectives of the BMoL are so all over the place and messy that it's really difficult to follow throughout the season, too. first you're going to torture sam for information—all the while bragging about how much intel you have access to and how much you know about the winchesters. if you know sam so well, why don't you know any other hunters, huh? why do you need him to tell you? but i digress. then you're trying to recruit hunters to work for the men of letters, and it's all friendly and inviting and organized. then you're going to exterminate all the hunters because they don't want to listen to a foreign organization no one's ever even heard of and has only been in the states for like 5 months? they're portrayed as nothing better than petulant children who can't stand that the girl on the playground wouldn't give them her dolly.

and honestly that would be fine, in isolation, i guess, if the whole portrayal of the UK didn't weird me out on so many levels. i don't know what goes on in the UK, and also i didn't read harry potter, but the whole "secret magic school" and "secret magic society" thing feels so reductive and bland. like okay you have a real-world hogwarts. sure. can you at least try to be more creative about this. i was fine with the men of letters existing outside of the US, that's to be expected and i was actually excited to see what would come of that. but as soon as they put in a fucking magic school they lost me.

like first of all, why is the UK soooooo developed in this area where the US lags behind? are other countries following the UK's example? is europe equally monster-free? is the US the last haven for monsters??? and if the BMoL are so advanced, where the hell have they been for ummmm (bad at math) what, 60-ish years now? they just let the US chapter die and cut off communications? no attempt to support the country whatsoever? leave the US to rot? until just now, after some random americans kicked off 2.5 apocalypses. yeah sure. i can get behind that (heavy sarcasm). it's just—be realistic. if you're going to make such an advanced and all-powerful organization, where the fuck have they been all this time? the scale should match the presence.

my ideal for the BMoL would have been a much smaller scale organization that utilizes black and white ideology to train killers, preferably infiltrating judicial organizations to maintain peace and provide cover for hunters. they shouldn't be like. running the fucking government or whatever this all-encompassing scale is that the show presented. it was a cool and interesting idea to bring in the men of letters. it was not a cool and interesting execution. it barely holds up to any scrutiny and requires so much handwaving and excuse-making that i just cannot get myself to like it at all.

ok. rant over. i've already mentioned all of the other plotty things that annoyed me about this season in other posts, so i'll move on from my complaining.

i'm going back to mary because i love mary. what i like is how sam's relationship to mary throughout his life is, in a big way, paralleled with sam's relationship to mary after her resurrection. he never gets to confront her abut what she did to him and what she caused. the only person who ever gets to talk about this is dean, both in 12.14 and in 12.23. and maybe other people disagree with this choice, but i really like it. i like the distance between sam and mary, because that's who they are to each other. they never got a chance to know each other, but they are the impetus for each other's suffering. sam never got to know his mom except through dean, who acted as a medium to impart acceptable knowledge to his brother. mary never got to know her son at all. and when she comes back to life, this dynamic, this chasmic distance, remains between them. and dean is caught in the middle of them, just like he's always been throughout his entire life. i think by making mary's presence in season 12 so dean-centric, the show managed to highlight just how wide that chasm is between her and sam. sam doesn't get to speak up for himself or talk about his past or tell mary anything about himself or who he is. dean tells her for him. just like mary never got to tell sam anything about herself; dean told him for her. the dynamic persists, and dean remains caught in the middle, ever sam's protector and shield and greatest advocate.

sam was actually pretty damn wonderful this season. i'm clinging onto sam's character arc to distract from my angry disappointment with the british men of letters. the transition and development from mid-season 11 to 12.23 was awesome and well-paced, which is frankly something i didn't know the show knew how to do anymore. so i'm extremely happy with how subtle and natural the buildup was, especially for a show that doesn't have the word "subtle" in its dictionary. i don't think i have nearly any complaints about how sam was handled this season honestly. maybe some nitpicks, but no serious complaints. he was just great. he reclaimed agency and willpower for himself in a really unique way that didn't compromise his enmeshment with dean (and thus didn't backtrack on any of the previous toxic relationship developments that have happened, like i'd feared would happen), and he grew in a very positive and interesting way that i really enjoyed. go sammy :)

the whole apocalypse world ending in 12.23 was way too drawn out and overdramatic, also i still hate lucifer's rewritten character, also i think it was deeply unnecessary to lock mary in there with him, also why was cas even there at all he did Literally Nothing and then died immediately, also why did it take so long for the portal to close after crowley died, that's so unbelievably contrived and stupid as hell—

BUT. otherwise i liked the finale. if i ignore the whole apocalypse world thing it was great, even. big win for me since i did not like season 11's finale (big shocker). i'm really tickled that sam was the one to find jack; i think that will create some interesting developments in season 13 so i'm looking forward to that. i hope jack imprints on sam like a duck. based on posts i've seen floating around tumblr, that's more or less what happens so i'm excited about that lmao.

anyway. this was the longest 4.5 days of my life. i'm going to detox like hell after this, because lord knows i need it. i haven't decided what i'll watch, so it might be more movies or maybe a miniseries. who knows. but i desperately need to funnel some wincest fanfiction directly into my mouth now. something to cleanse me of this season. thank you and god bless 🙏

[evas-spn-thoughts]

s01e05 - Bloody Mary

All I remember about this episode is to not say Bloody Mary 3 times in the mirror, and that at the end, there is a ton of mirrors.

And that's all I remember.

My review style is to type my thoughts scene by scene while I watch the episode, so I have no further thoughts on this episode yet.

Better people would probably watch the ep first while making notes, but I am not a better person so I make a whole post while the episode is on.

I do a lot of pausing while I watch 😂

Post watch edit, okay I'm not gonna lie, I kinda don't care for this episode, it's fine, but I just don't really care about it. I don't feel like on a second watch it carries forward the boys plot that much. Maybe that's because I know the reveals already, but yeah... I just don't care for it.

The opening is very strong on Sam's want to find Jess's killer, and Deans insistence on hunting.

It's a bit weird having the cold open happen after the title screen, I don't feel like that's what happens in later seasons.

Anyway... we open on a group of girls pressuring another girl to say 'Bloody Mary' 3 times into the bathroom mirror.

The girl does do it, and her friends bang on the bathroom door, because that's what's fun when you are a kid. Its definitely happened to me post horror movie when I was younger.

Her dad asks her and her friends to keep it down - fair enough. You then see him passing mirrors on his way back to bed and see a female form in the mirror, which is very creepy.

Then her older sister comes home and walks up the stairs to see a pool of blood in the bathroom.

It's a very good cold open, that is very creepy.

We get Sam in an oddly coloured nightmare. He sees Jess burning on the ceiling and engulfed in blue flames??? weird choice but okay.

Dean wakes him up, clearly worried about Sam. Dean implies that Sam hasn't been talking about his nightmares. 'You know sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this'. This is an example of Dean clearly being open to talking about Sam's problems, whereas Sam is very much keeping tight lipped about all of this.

We find out they are in Toledo, Ohio.

The coroner is being very difficult in helping out the boys, who say they are students getting information for their paper. He is taking an attitude with Dean and not giving them any help. At one point he throws Deans words back in his face and Dean says to Sam that he is 'going to hit him in his face, I swear'. Dean isn't always very good with people trying to hold up their hunt and especially with men talking down to him, sometimes he turns it flirtatious in some way, but in this case the guy is closer to their age and he just gets annoyed... which, fair enough, the guy is a pain.

They end up having to pay this guy to show them the body, with Sam using Deans 'earned' money to do so. Dean gets an attitude about this because Sam didn't earn the money, Dean did, but Sam clearly sees money won 'in a poker game' as unearned or of less personal value.

Sam has a low opinion of the hunter lifestyle which we have already seen, and with his lower opinion of it comes a condescension towards Dean and how he gets them money. The show makes it seem like Dean is the one who gets the money for them, and Dean seemed genuinely annoyed that Sam gave it away.

There are headcanons all over the place for how far Dean has had to go to get money, one of which Jensen has helped put into the universe. I generally believe that it wouldn't be a stretch for Dean to have had to resort to some unsafe methods to make sure the family had money when John would go off and hunt and leave the boys alone, but I think that by s1 he is only hustling pool and using credit card scams and not having to resort to any other means. Later in the season the family's blasé attitude towards Deans lack of care for his person and the normality of Dean using himself as bait shows that they likely dont know how much danger his face and beauty could get him into.

The boys go to the house from the cold open, and we see that the younger sister blames herself and Bloody Mary for the father's passing. Dean reassures her 'he didn't say Bloody Mary, did he?'

They go on a wander round the house to see the crime scene, and there is a slightly funny moment where Sam doesn't want to say Bloody Mary in the bathroom.

They are caught by the sister's friend and Sam pulls the all emotional and caring card so that she doesn't call them out on snooping.

We get a short exposition scene of Sam explaining all about the lore of Bloody Mary and we see that they are in the library and the computers are out of order.

Jill is on the phone to Charlie, and decides to say Bloody Mary in the mirror... like an idiot. She says it and then screams to freak out Charlie, but after she hangs up and is getting changed we see Mary in the mirror in another very well done creepy scene.

Jill sees herself in the mirror and her reflection isn't copying her movements, which is scary. The reflection says 'you did it, you killed that boy' all the while her eyes are bleeding... again creepy. Jill then dies.

We get Sam having the same dream as before - the blue one - and Dean sitting across the room. Sam wants to know why Dean let him fall asleep and Dean says it's because he's 'an awesome brother'.

Charlie calls the boys about Jills death. They break into Jills room to see if they can find anything and Charlie is now 100% on side with the boys.

We find out that potentially Jill killed an 8 year old boy with her car - she did kill him, its just the friend only said it was Jill's car. His name was written on the back of the mirror.

We get another name on the back of the other mirror. We discover that she is Donna's mom, and by linking back, the assumption is that Donna's dad killed her mom.

We get some exposition about mirrors revealing secrets - which might be important later in the episode - and about who Bloody Mary is, and the boys go and see the old detective who dealt with Marys murder case.

The old detective states that 'Mary spent her last living moments trying to expose this guys secrets' which fair enough, I respect that. The mirror that was there when she died was returned to the family and the boys go and find out who has that mirror.

Meanwhile Donna and Charlie are in the bathroom and Donna is an idiot and says Bloody Mary 3 times in the mirror because she doesn't believe. Even if I didn't believe which tbh I don't, I wouldn't say it in the mirror if others had died, I'm not an idiot.

The boys are in the car talking about mirrors again, when Charlie phones, they get her to their motel, and Charlie starts to explain what happened.

But Dean very quickly explains that he means that she needs to explain her secret. Charlie explains that she had a loving but scary boyfriend, and they got in a fight, and he said that if she left, he would kill himself and she left and he did. The fact that the show paints this as Charlie believing that she is at fault is incredibly annoying, because he was being manipulative and it's not on her to stay with that.

Thankfully in the next scene, Dean says exactly that. But 'spirits don't exactly see in shades of grey' which is a great line.

Sam offers to summon Mary because just smashing the mirror isn't enough. He is very certain about Mary coming after him.

After this statement, Dean breaks about the Jess issue. He says that he's tired of Sam blaming himself, that it isn't his fault that the 'thing' got Jess. He says the nightmares are gong to kill Sam. He says it wasn't Sam's fault

He offers to let Sam take a swing at him if it'll make him feel better because Dean 'dragged him away from her'. Dean is big on allowing people to blame him for things that aren't his fault, and Dean clearly feels some sort of blame for Jess as he brought up Sam swinging at him very quickly.

I know keeping secrets is part of the Winchester brothers life story, but this whole 'I have a secret, and I'm going to tell you I have a secret, but I wont tell you what the secret is' thing is maddening. Sam is keeping secrets that he doesn't have to keep and believing that he has this more important journey to be on, but isn't letting Dean in on what the journey is or what the secret is.

Anyway... Sam summons Bloody Mary, and chaos happens.

We see the boys breaking mirrors, and then Dean has to go out and deal with the police and by deal, I mean that he tries to talk to them and instead knocks them out. All the while Sam is seeing evil reflection Sam, and we learn that Sam was dreaming of Jess's death for days before it happened and that he blames himself for ignoring them and trying to be 'normal'.

Mary then climbs out the mirror like a scary lady and is holding the boys down with power.

But never fear... Dean holds up a mirror and shows Mary her reflection in the mirror and Mary is vanquished.

The mirrors all broken should have given us an inclination of how unlucky the boys would be in life.

Sam tells Charlie she should forgive herself for her boyfriend's death, good advice, and Dean says that Sam should follow his own advice.

Dean asks again what Sam's secret is and instead of using this perfect opportunity to tell Dean, Sam doesn't. Again... maddening.

[softsophos]

Peer Review Time! Let's rate episodes my friend gave 5 Stars when they watched for the first time

[mismatchedwonders]

I love that even though it was a campy underproduced and (probably) underfunded show, SPN gave us some genuinely GREAT actors.

Like, just look down the list:

Jensen is INVOLVED and CAPTIVATING

Misha is VERSATILE and EMOTIONAL

Jared

Jim is SERIOUS and COMFORTING

Jake is ENERGETIC and ENTERTAINING

JDM is MULTIFACETED and REALISTIC

Ruth is CHARISMATIC and DELIGHTFULLY WICKED

Richard is FUNNY and FLEXIBLE

Rob is INTERESTING and LIKEABLE

Alex is BELIEVABLE and GENUINE

Mark is CONFIDENT and FASCINATING

Samantha is SWEET and GROUNDED

Sebastian is SNARKY and FUN

Mark (P) is SCARY and SYMPATHETIC

Rachel is COOL and PASSIONATE

+a whole lot of others that I can’t remember + a hell of a lot of the guest cast also did sooo good. Just wanted to take a second to celebrate the performances people turned in for the Yeehaw Brothers in the Muscle Car show

Edit since I’m already seeing shit about it: I don’t have replies on bc I never had them on to begin with. In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t posted on here nearly at all since I got this blog, I don’t care that much about it. This is simply a place where I go to talk into the void so my thoughts aren’t constantly in my brain.

Also, regarding Jared, I have my own complicated feelings about him as a person, especially considering that he’s done a lot of scummy shit and brushed off that behavior with “uwu I have mental health issues” which, yes I can sympathize with since that is an AWFUL thing to struggle with (and I’m in a similar boat when it comes to shit like depression) but that’s not an excuse to behave how he does.

Also, no one else from the show has been able to find work? Lmao fucking where are you getting that? Almost everyone from SPN has acted in at least one other thing since it finished airing, and even some THIS YEAR, whereas Jared has only acted in ONE SHOW that he produced and got created for HIMSELF, and even then it was canceled (bc it wasn’t that well-reviewed by anyone, even by wipe who like the guy).

I don’t categorically hate ALL of his acting, there are a few episodes where he is genuinely good. But he just progressively got worse and worse over the series. And as for the “steady acting career” before SPN, sure, if you count roles in D-list mediocre movies as steady work. And in a lot of those, his acting isn’t much different.

And I know for a fact that people will say stuff like “well if he’s so untalented/unpleasant, why was he kept on? Why does he have work?” Well, see above, and there are plenty of fundamentally untalented actors that continue to get work bc they’re conventionally attractive

So yeah, just a bit of clarification

Have a lovely day 😘❤️

[hexedwinchester]

What's your favourite episode?

hi tough question noni!!

I'm assuming you mean SPN (because I do Walker reviews too)

i love quite a few episodes for different reasons but if there's one episode that I can watch anytime and I've it saved in my phone like a rainy day stash it's S04E21 When The Levee Breaks.

Why? Because it's Sam centric and purely focuses on his psyche. I love his interactions with his hallucinations, it's so distinct, isn't it? He is scared around Alastair but gives a tough talk to Young Sam. He is hurt and vulnerable around Mary and appears shattered around Dean.

Massive kudos to Jared Padalecki for beautifully portraying all of this and an addict on withdrawal: the shakes, the tired eyes, the conscious swallows and his magical ability to make himself appear small and vulnerable. Like damn, this man !

And you know what's the banger? Despite Dean letting him rot away into his detox, when he catches upto Sam, Sam is still willing to forgive him. He asks his brother to join him and Ruby to kill Lilith. He wants his brother by his side but Dean denies because of Ruby and calls him a monster to his face. I love Sam's tolerance here, he is so patient until the last straw and then it's over. After everything that Dean out him through, he was still willing to forgive Dean who didn't deserve it btw, but finally stops putting up with his bullshit.

And you? What's your episode and why? 😊

Thanks for this ask! 🤗

[assiraphales]

I still think it’s funny that the possibilities for how supernatural ended were endless like they could have made it as weird or unexpected as possible. when dean dies of rusty nail injury he wakes up from a coma circa “in my time of dying”. there’s a cut to chuck reading bad reviews on his final spn book. sam had a bad dream. the entire series gets rewound to the first episode and the voiceover is like “let’s try this again”. and YET writers were like “lmao no we got this”

[sam-winchester-admiration-league]

Review of first season of Walker: A Journey of Self and Family

4:30 Discuss typecasting and all eyes were on Jared to see if he can make a post-SPN career work and the answer is "yes!". "It was really good season of television."

8:00 Praises Jared for creating two distinct characters from each other, Sam Winchesters and Cordell Walker, and leading an amazing cast. Calls the show an "enjoyable ride".

18:10 Discuss how Cordell's psyche was affected by his own mismanagement of his grief and then going undercover for months where he had to be a new person.

24:05 Discuss the extra 5 episodes that surprisingly organically worked, especially considering it was neither like the 1st or 2nd season.

The last half discuss the ensemble cast: "Hoyt is our boy" in a stripper costume. Geri is sus. Poor Micki and her mother issue. Relates to August during his idiot teenage phase. Rebellious Stella just wants her dad home.

54:55 "Cordell has so much on his plate trying to keep everyone together. At the end of the day, Cordell was trying a lot and that's where the point of credibility comes into play. 'Jared sold the role very well'. Cordell is not the one to give orders, he receives orders even though he has a rebellious side. That makes him a much more engaging, fun character to see week to week."

57:50 "I really, really enjoy Walker. The creative team and Jared Padalecki knew what they were doing with this interpretation. It was not a CW Walker, it was Walker on the CW. You can see what they were doing, but at the same time it keeps you surprised on what they were able to do and what they wanted to do in every given moment on the show."

[sunflowerchester]

Vic (@peanutbutterandbananasandwichs) returns to cover S1E6 & 7, Skin and Hook Man. We do some shockingly emotional Dean character analysis, so grab your tissues. Don't forget to like, rate & review, and subscribe/follow us on whatever platforms you listen to the podcast. It really helps out! Check out this week's visuals on Instagram including our ratings for these 2 season 1 episodes. 

Correction: Vic said the Robbie Duncan McNeil didn't come back to direct spn again but she has just remembered that he DID eventually come back and directed S8:E21 -The Great Escapist. 

Episode Resources:

The Cult of John Winchester by @optimisam

Sam Caps on Tumblr

Follow us on IG for visuals and updates. Follow us on Tiktok for clips and memes.

Subscribe to the show on:Apple Spotify Youtube Patreon And anywhere else you listen to podcasts!

[lol-jackles]

Hi. Your blog is still on alarm on my dash. Really enjoying your opinions.

If your time allows you, I’d like to know your opinion & reviews on SPN 9X13.

"The Purge" has Sam and Dean go undercover in a health spa after finding a link to deaths where the victims have lost their entire fat reserve. They discover the owners are a pair of Peruvian monsters, a sister and brother who parallel Sam and Dean; the sister wants to co-exist with humans and help them by siphoning off surplus unwanted fat for food, the other only want to feed and more he tries his sister's way, the hungrier he got until he succumbs to his nature and kills for food. This foreshadow Dean's struggle to live with the Mark of Cain until he couldn't, increasingly becoming "hungry" as the season went on. Sam have lived and adapted with his freakish, "unclean" nature for so long that he is fully functional even if he never makes peace with it.

One of the strengths of Supernatural is their stand-alone/MotW/filler episodes usually advance the season-long arcs and even get referenced or talked about in later episodes. Despite Sam and Dean’s church codependent commitment ceremony in season 8's finale, they still got baggage and hence Dean lying about the extreme, desperate measures he took to save Sam’s life in season 9's premiere and keeping him in the dark.  Once Sam found out, he is angry and bewildered by Dean’s actions that he sees as betrayal, and draws up boundaries as a way of saving his relationship with Dean. But from Dean’s pov the new boundaries were walls set to destroy what is between him and Sam. So Dean conflated saving Sam from the Peruvian monster in this episode to saving Sam in those 2 previous episodes in attempt to remove the wall between them that Sam set up.

Remember, Dean isn't going to learn the same lesson each season, which is why he made Sam's anger over the Gadreel possession about his (Dean) own issue and left Sam alone (with Cas in the bunker) to hunt down Gadreel... only to run into Cain got the Mark to, huh, kill Abaddon instead for some reason.

Understandably Sam is frustrated as the 3 incidents were not the same: in the church, Dean told Sam the truth that the ritual will cause his death and promised Sam not only will they find another way, that he would never put some one else before Sam. Dean wasn't hiding information from Sam. Dean saving Sam from the Peruvian monster was a straightforward action, no underhanded agenda. So Sam told Dean the unvarnished truth: Dean didn't want to be alone. This gets brought up again by Billie in season 11's "Red Meat", and in season 13','s "Advanced Thanatology" Dean tells Billie that he's dragging down Sam.

Sam's admission that he wouldn't save Dean under "same circumstances" means he wouldn't selfishly save Dean for personal gains, or without vital information. Back in season 3 he first sought Dean’s agreement to use the immortality serum instead of giving it to him without informing him ahead of time. Sam was ready to die in the hospital (season 9 premiere) and Dean essentially violated a do-not-resuscitate order (DNR). Nobody can really blame Dean for wanting to save Sam's life at any cost, but he fails to see things from Sam's pov that led to him needing boundaries in the first place.

I found the scene of Dean immediately recognizing roofies pretty on-the-nose. He said he didn't want to end up missing kidneys while traveling in little known places, which, yeah good idea, so why didn't Sam know what roofies look like? I took it as callback to when Sam didn't know he was being possessed by Gadreel under Dean's watch.

"The Purge" was one of the weaker MotW episodes but it still gets the job done of advancing the main storyline arcs. It started out as a lighter filler episode and ended with a "truth hurts" bite that leaves a deeply wounding mark that set off a fierce fandom debate.

[spnfanficpond]

Weekly Pond Newsletter

There may not be a newsletter next week, so keep an eye on our calendar (links at the bottom) for anything that comes up! To ask forgiveness for missing a week, have a nice Jensen gif:

Old Business:

Fic Highlight - We did another fic highlight! It's a Destiel Russian mob AU that both fluffy and bloody as hell. Click here for our review!

SPN Rewatch: Fanfic Edition - We had a great chat yesterday about the episodes 2.05 Simon Said and 2.06 No Exit! Click here to access the Archive and read what we discussed in the episode docs!

Last week's #TweetFicTues prompts were -

New Business:

Fishing For Treasures - Next weekend is FFT weekend at the @fanficocean! May's theme is Pairings (especially Rarepairs)! Be sure to head over there next weekend and see what wild and wonderful rare pairings people have come up with outside of the SPN fandom!

Sun Spin Stageit - Next weekend Michae Rosenbaum and his partner in music will be performing for a virtual audience on Friday at 8pm EDT. Click here for info and to buy tickets!

Question for YOU - We are considering starting up something akin to the Angel Fish Awards, but where writers tell us about awesome comments they've received on their fics! Admin Michelle spent some time during her chat yesterday bandying about different names, but didn't come up with anything that really spoke to her. Angel Turtle Awards? Ninja Angel Turtle Awards? Raphael Awards? (Because, you know, he was a TMNT and an archangel.) What do you guys think? Let us know in replies and reblogs!

(Divider by @glygriffe!)

That's all for this week! To see all Pond events, and also other SPN-related things like conventions and online concerts, check out our Google calendar! Click here for a static view in Eastern US/Canada time (desktop only, no mobile app access, sadly), and click here to add our calendar to your own Google calendar! We try to keep it as up-to-date as possible. If there's something you want to see on the calendar that's not there (maybe a convention we missed, cast birthdays, or something similar), send us an ASK and let us know!

Hope you have a great week! - From your Admins and Manta Rays, @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @thoughtslikeaminefield, and @heavenssexiestangel!

[lola-andheruniverse]

Fix It Wednesday - Caryl Fanfiction Rec

Dear fellow carylers, this one is for all of you that may be needing an emotional and psychological catharsis today *insert US election news reported by an SPN meme*. Sometimes it's just really necessary to imagine an asshole, rapist white dude getting what he deserves. Fix-it at it's finest. So let's get some revenge through art and fanfiction, shall we? (Beware of graphic violence). Burninating Negan, written by classic Trogdor19 (who is back and writing again 🎉 so don't forget to leave her a review after you read this fic), is posted on 9Lives, AO3 and FF.net.

Summary: Carol finds out what Negan did to Daryl. And then Negan is very, very sorry. Spoilers up to Episode 7x04. Rated: E Word count: 12.122 (04 chapters) Published: January 22, 2017 (complete)

[softsophos]

Peer Review Time! Let's rate episodes my friend gave 5 Stars when they watched for the first time

[twobluecows]

Supernatural “Heart of the Dragon” by Keith R.A. DeCandido

This is the second installment of my reviews of the Supernatural novel series, here is the first.

"Heart of the Dragon" is the fourth book in the series, and takes place shortly after season fives episode Changing Channels. (there is a historians note in the beginning of the book.)

Rating: 3/5 (getting better!)

This story follows another ghost murder cycle, this time it is every 20 years and takes place in Chinatown, San Francisco. We follow Sam and Dean in 2009, John in 1989, and Samuel, Deanna, and Mary Campbell in 1969 as everyone tries to get rid of the ghost and demon on the same hunt.

First things first, this book has some insanely racist shit through (mainly) the first third of the book, and it nearly pushed me to DNF when I first began. The author consistently uses dated slurs for Chinese and Japanese Americans throughout making the story overall plain awful and difficult to read. This book is well written and interesting in other respects, and it is great in regards to it being a story about Supernatural. If you’re going to read it be careful and know what you’re getting into. That all being said, it is impossible to ignore the racist bullshit so I’m docking two points.

Other than that, this story caught me off guard with how well it handled the Campbells and John's perspectives. In the main SPN canon we don't know much about Deanna, other than she was just kind of there, in this story she is fleshed out more and is really a badass. Samuel and John are paralleled a lot between their two perspectives, both being generally bad fathers who raised their children in constant danger. In the 1989 sections we also get a glimpse of Bobby caring for a young Dean and Sam, which made me very teary-eyed. Oh, and bonus points for Cas appearances, while they were few and far between I enjoyed them.

Overall this story was a great dive into characters we didn't see much of in the main series, and an expansion of what we already knew about John's A+ parenting. If you decide to read this book precede with caution, as mentioned before it comes with a heaping of racist BS in the beginning.

Here are some quotes from the story that I want to highlight:

2 books done. . . 15 more to go. . . (Btw I’m on spring break so I have been doing nothing but reading and petting my dog, so on to the next one!)

Oh, and Shortie tried to eat this one too.

[hexedwinchester]

Supernatural S01E01 Woman in White

I'm re-running SPN for the nth number of time.. thinking of doing some reviews.. see if I pick up something I missed.. might not do it for all episodes..

The limited interaction and lack of warmth between John and Mary indicate trouble in paradise. He he slept on the couch.

The ominous music is so beautiful. Talking about the creepy nursery music when Azazel visits Sam's nursery. Later seasons played only sad music.

Mary notices the Supernatural signs: flickering of lights, static in baby monitor. Of course we later find out she comes from hunting background.

Sam did have one picture of John and Mary. Awww

Sam + Jess ❤️ she encourages him to get out and go to social things like Halloween but she is respectful about him not wanting to dress up. When it's shown that Sam didn't tell his family about his scholarship, she looks visibly sad, so she is somewhat aware of his strained relationship with his family. The next moment she tells him she's proud of him as if she knows he won't hear those words from his family

Why is Dean being weird: breaking in, flirting with Sam's gf? Yes Dean, despite your judgements, Sam is capable of finding a beautiful and sweet girl like Jessica. You know why? Because Sam is a kind, sweet guy

Sam is reluctant to go on the hunt but agrees when Dean tells him he doesn't want to do this alone. Aww Sam.

Sam stepping on Dean's foot because Dean was being rude to the police. Lol 🤣

Sam's loss of bodily autonomy starts with the very first episode and I'm even not even talking about the blood because that isn't revealed until later. I mean when Sam tells Constance that she can't kill him because he has never been unfaithful and guess what she does next! she forces herself on him?! WTF! Sam wasn't unfaithful, she forces and tricks him into being that. Just like others later on.

Didn't realise, that the Impala's seat folds back.

The "I'm taking you home" was way more sexier than intended

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Saturday, September 21

GLORY/FIRST: I honestly don't think there's a human word fabulous enough for me. Oh, my name will be on everyone's lips, assuming their lips haven't been torn off.

~~BtVS 7x01 “Lessons”~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Dolled Up (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by veronyxk84

Don't End With Blood (Giles, SPN xover, G) by CookieDoughMe

Youth and Beauty (Buffy/Giles, G) by GhostDetective

In(Discretion) (Giles/Faith, E) by fleetfootedfox

Thank You (Angel/Cordelia, M) by Serena The Drama Queen

Reflections of the Night (Ensemble, G) by Doe 23

Salvaged (Buffy/Spike, R) by RavenLove12

Salvaged (Buffy/Spike, R) by RavenLove12

Kiss It Better (Buffy/Faith, M) by Technicolorrevel

[Chaptered Fiction]

Shadowed Suspicion Chapter 342 (jojo's bizarre adventure xover, T) by madimpossibledreamer

Season 1, Episode 12: Play it Again, Chapter 1/4 (Ensemble, T) by Emcee

hit rewind, Chapter 76/? (Buffy/Spike, Buffy/Angel, M) by untiljanuary

Aegis, Chapter 18/? (Xander, DCU xover, T) by dogbertcarroll, Narsil

Recompense, Chapter 16/? (Buffy/Faith, M) by Moonkid10

CAT-SCRATCH FEVER, Chapter 5/5 (Buffy/Cordelia/Oz, E) by KNZ1

… A Stranger I Go Hence, Chapter 17/? (Faith/OMC, M) by MalkMcJorma

Soul Mate Magic - Chapter Five (Giles/OC, M) by emma-m-black

The Steps Saga, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Angel, M) by a2zmom

Superboys, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Angel, T) by OveliaGirlHaditRight

I Don't Want to be the One, Chapter 20 (Buffy/Spike, ensemble, T) by pommedapi

Unchained Melody, Chapters 1-3 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Geliot99

Getaway Gang, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by violettathepiratequeen

Out of this World, love..., Chapter 10 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by Miss Kitty

Lost in Desolation, Chapter 10 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Melme1325

Incarnate, Chapter 16 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Sigyn

Happily Ever After, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Dusty

Unchained Melody, Chapters 1-3 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Geliot99

Getaway Gang, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by violettathepiratequeen

What the Drabble? Vol. 2, Chapter 73 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by VeroNyxK84

Viral, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Harlow Turner

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: [Drawing of Jenny Calendar and Anya] (worksafe) by mistyintherivers

Gifset: Every Tara look: S4E17 Superstar (worksafe) by lovebvffys

Artwork: If I drink enough (Buffy/Faith, worksafe) by artseamoni

Artwork: Virginia Woolf, in a letter to Violet Dickinson, September 1907 (Buffy/Spike, worksafe) by silkspectred

Gifset: Buffy Meme: [2/8 Episodes] 5x16 The Body (worksafe) by lovebvffys

Fanvid: a willow edit bc s6 is so special to me (worksafe) by bananabeans88

Video: Interview with YOU! Part 1 by Slayin It with Juliet Landau

[Vid Collection] Fall Equinox 2024: After Life (2 fanvids for BtVS) by Unrevealed authors

[Reviews & Recaps]

Angel Season 1 Opinions by Business-Chair4961

PODCAST: It's DJ Adam! (S4E21) by It Stakes Two

PODCAST: Episode 74: Somnambulist by Gym Was Cancelled

[In Search Of]

ISO: I need help finding info on the green mushroom shirt Xander wears in the 2nd episode of season 1 requested by blackdogwalksatnight

[Community Announcements]

[Prompt] Angel doesn’t do the memory wipe by buffyversekinkmeme

[Fandom Discussions]

The fact that Angel knows a lot of things about Cordelia is probably explained by some moments off-screen by cangel4ever, vampandvisiongirl

Watching seasons 2 & 3 of Angel and man. Gunn was NEVER just the muscle. by paarthursass

One of the reasons Buffy the Vampire Slayer is so good by coraniaid

the thing i just don’t get about the whole “buffy should be alone” thing by pinesorneedles

Something that isn’t talked about enough is how totally unhinged Buffy can be like by paperpuzzles

This may be me jumping the gun by judging the season too early [...], but I dunno, Buffy season 3 is kinda turning into the “gas leak year” of BTVS? by trojanteapot

season seven is good because buffy anne summers. by artloife, nicollekidman

in btvs 5x22 “the gift” when spike and buffy go to buffy’s house there’s that little moment of disconnect [...] by lesbianmarrow

So much of the horror in Buffy comes from struggling to achieve bodily autonomy in a world where everyone else is trying to take ownership over your body by 5bi5

giles suffocating ben in the gift was kind of hot it must be said by lesbianmarrow

How would you rewrite Xander? by MR422

I really love how the Mayor evolved during Season 3 by sKullsHavezzz

Connor might have gotten a worse storyline than Dawn, but he was a better character by yeahitsme9

What’s your favorite rando scene that you lost it at? by HockeyPuckRattleSnke

In the series, what does losing your soul mean to you? by murder_drone_V_N_Usy

Out of Mind…Out of Sight by UhOh_HellNo

S6x18 Entropy by raccoon_smh

Connor IS the most tragic character of these universe by FoxIndependent4310

Favorite songs from "Once More, with Feeling" by StarsThatGlow

Giles’ exasperation with Xander and Cordelia is my favorite thing about him by spectacleskeptic

Anybody else take a drink whenever Giles cleans his glasses? by okgloomer

Am I the only one who genuinely likes Connor? by Fancy_Fuel15

Multiple slayers by Electrical-Host-8526

[S4E4] Cordy’s Yearbook by TheHan27

Did anyone else think Buffy was crazy for sending the Gem of Amara to Angel? by HinduHillbilly

Slayer's blood by Lloronalina

How episodic is this show, and what are some core episodes? by FelixDaPenguin

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[laf-outloud]

Hi! Hope you forgive me for using your blog to vent. The spn podcast never ceases to rub me up the wrong way. The way that they fail to understand the key points of certain episodes (sex and violence, and i know what you did last summer being just a couple of examples) initially baffled me. However now I've come to realise that it's logical, really. Actual fans (not including destihellers obv) watched the show, understood its themes, the darkness, the despair, the love and connected with it on an emotional level. Now we have these two random guys that never showed any interest in actually watching the show in FIFTEEN years despite making a ton of money off it, thinking that their opinion counts for anything. It doesn't. They are not the target audience. I might as well ask my mother to review the show (she'd do a better job). It absolutely bugs me that they have these great guests and lure us in that way. I wish I was strong enough to resist and boycott the damn podcast. But I'm not. By god I wish at the very least they made their analyses more intelligent, but they won't. If anyone out there knows of a more satisfying, intelligent podcast, I'm here for it. Thank you - from your snarky anon

Nothing to forgive, anon!

I would suggest that these two guys still don't have any interest in watching the show. They created the podcast to squeeze even more money out of the SPN fandom. It was never about actually understanding the themes of SPN, or connecting emotionally. It was about taking their convention schtick to the airwaves, i.e., shallow comments, occasional behind-the-scenes tidbits, sucking up to certain actors in order to play to their very loud (but small in number), chronically online fanbases, etc.

I'm impressed you've stuck around this long, but I wouldn't hold out hope for things to improve. I don't know of any other podcasts, but that's not generally my thing. If someone else has some suggestions, please feel free to share!