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RSS'Supernatural' Stranger than slash fiction
When I settled in to watch Supernatural tonight, I thought we were in for a fun night of entertainment that took us away from the apocalypse story line in favor of some of the lighter shennannigans that the boys are known for. Boy, was I wrong.
The evening starts out with the guys investigating a haunting at a comic book store, which is where they are accused of LARPing the characters in a little known book series, Supernatural. Which has an underground legion of fans. And slash/fic writers (eww!)They pick up the books and get to reading, quickly realizing their lives have been fictionalized. They decide to find the author; "Carver Edlund" and go through a rep from the now defunct publisher, managing to convince her that they are mega fans with their knowledge of trivia and matching tattoos.
They meet Carver, whose real name is Chuck Shirley, and just like the fabled Shatner melt down, he tells Sam and Dean to 'Get a life!' before they convince him that they are his characters. Which is when he decides that he's a god. The Winchesters convince him otherwise before he reveals that in the latest writing, he had written himself into the novels a'la Kilgore Trout. And that Lilith is on her way for some fiery, demonic passion with Sam. The guys decide to do the opposite of the whatever Chuck's pages say in order to avoid Lilith, to Sam's chagrin. I figure that we are in for a Stranger Than Fiction type of episode, with the boys trying to convince a writer not to kill them, but I am way off.
No matter what they do, they keep stumbling into exactly what Chuck's writing says they will do. Dean goes after Chuck to find out exactly how he's accomplishing his psychic feats when Castiel shows up and tells Dean to unhand the man. Because he's a prophet of the lord. That bears repeating. Chuck is a prophet of the lord. Which is about when I started shouting at my TV. Even more, he's not writing trashy horror fiction. He's writing the Gospel of the Winchesters. And if THAT ain't a mindf**k, I don't know what is.
Dean rushes back to the hotel to get Sam and get the hell out of Dodge, only to find out that Sam has decided to stay put and face Lilith. There is a short confrontation before Dean leaves in frustration, only to stand outside the hotel...and start praying. Castiel shows up again but tells Dean he can't help him. Which gets Dean rather ticked off, of course. But Castiel doesn't stop there. He tells Dean that he can't help him because what the prophet has written must come to pass....and anything that endangers the prophet will be dealt with by an Archangel - heaven's fiercest warriors.
It's a sly move to give Dean all the info he needs. He gets back to Chuck's house and collects the reluctant prophet. Meanwhile, Lilith has arrived and despite all of Sam's preparations, he can't be ready for what she does: offers a cease fire. No more seal breaking and no coming apocalypse in exchange for his and Dean's life. It's an unbreakable deal but it must be sealed with more than a kiss. Just as it looks like some fiery, demonic passion is going to occur, Sam reaches for the demon killing knife, which Lilith wrests away from him. Dean and Chuck burst in and with an Archangel on the way, Lilith flees the scene.
Sam tells Dean he wasn't really going to go through with it, but that he was glad to learn that Lilith is scared of her own impending doom. And, because the writers like nothing more than the twist the knife in the final 5 minutes, we end with Chuck getting another flash of future insight. He wakes to find Zachariah watching him, who confirms that what he saw will come to pass. Chuck announces that he has to warn Sam and Dean, but Zachariah threatens him. And angel threats cannot be taken lightly.
There was a good deal of funny tonight ("I am the prophet Chuck!" and "You shoulda seen Luke" were two of my own favorites) but my goodness, the rest of the story really overshadowed that for me! Will Sam kill Lilith? How much of a role will Chuck play in the upcoming story, as the prophet and gospel writer? Is Zachariah the higher up that's pulling all the strings? Is Sam addicted to the power sucking down demon blood gives him? What are your theories?
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Zap2it Twitter Talk 
SO MUCH LOVE
They got me laughing, hiding behind a pillow during the slash discovery (ew!), loved the look inside Sam's head for once and of course, now I'm intrigued and ready for whatever is coming.
But above all, I'm scared. I don't know where all this is heading and it looks like a hell of a ride.
Great episode, no, fantastic episode.
This is an episode that was so NOT what I expected it to be. I'm going to have to watch it over again! LOL I think Dean is going to have to let go of Sam if he's going to do his job, I think Sam is addicted to the power of the demon blood and is afraid to face that. Zachariah was right, in that people shouldn't know too much about their futures. After all, it only made the Winchesters try to subvert it, and it happened anyway! You can't second guess every move and still be effective. Can't wait to see what happens!
Brilliant and compelling. So Lillith is afraid? Zachariah can either by protecting the boys from dwelling on fate or he could be rooting for the other side.
Although wild cards, I think the active players for the side of good in this story include Anna, Ruby and the questioning Castiel. All while the forces of heaven and hell combine and divide to fight amongst themselves.
Supernatural has always defined a solid line between good and bad, while Sam through his questioning of fate and not accepting he's destined for evil, lives in the moral grey area. When combind with Chucks vision of doom at the end, I just get the feeling there's going to be one helluva fight, not just the boys vs demons, but a fight to move away from prophesized fate and either prove that the universe is either black or white or that it's shades of grey... moral relativism?
Anyhow, that's how I'm seeing things.
Rock on Kripke and Edlund!
This season has been astonishingly good with the story moving into uncharted waters. Inventive, clever writing, great acting. Jensen keeps hitting homerun after homerun, week after week. Damn, he's good!
Castiel's delivery of the line "You should've seen Luke" cracked me up. Great insidery reference to the bible that probably sailed over may people's heads, which made that line even more witty as a result.
Loved this episode. Expected it to be straight ahead comedy but it was dark and twisty. Writers of this show have raised the bar and I can't wait to see how everything is going to end.
Oops...meant to say "many people's heads..."
Inventive writing? Yeah, if you call transmogrifying a text sacred to hundreds of millions inventive.
Think these guys would have the guts to do that to the Koran?
I loved this episode! I was laughing so hard in the beginning I had to put a pillow over my mouth. I am not a slasher but I thought that whole section hilarious because I know there are people like that out there. I loved all the inside jokes in the beginning, including Chuck's pen name.
I loved how even though the overall subject matter was dark they lightened it up but we still got the emotional impact it needed.
I agree- Jensen is doing an amazing job this year. I think they both are but I love seeing the layers.
Oh, I just remembered- I LOVED the scene in the laundry mat. I forget the exact lines now, but the part where Dean tells Sam that he can't see his face but those are his "brooding shoulders" and that Sam just thought Dean was a... you know what (not sure what language we can use on here).
When I was done watching this episode I deleted it off my Tivo because that's what I do with everything automatically, but the more I think about this episode the more I want to watch it again. I think I am going to recover it when I get home and watch it again.
Oh- and Chuck- everytime I see that actor I can't help but think "Richard!" from Felicity. I know he's been on a ton of things since then, but I can't help it. He'll always be Richard to me.
I think that it's not so much about choosing between the Bible and the Quran, but rather, which of the two books that Supernatural's main fanbase can relate too. And I can tell ya right now, it's not the Quran. If the writers had decided to use the Quran instead, I'll bet that people wont find it quite as interesting cos they wouldn't know as much about it.
And anyway, the two texts are quite similar.
I thought of Richard too!
That Luke joke had me rollin'! And for an ep as dark as this one was, I love that they always throw us some funny.
So excited to see what happens next!