Supernatural celebrated 200 episodes this week with “Fan Fiction.” This is a milestone very few series ever reach, and 10 years ago I bet there were few people who believed the show would make it. But the title is an homage to the fans who dared to hope the show would continue and whose support made it happen. The episode was written by Robbie Thompson and directed by Phil Sgriccia. I can’t wait to see what other fans thought of the episode. While I thought the “meta” in this episode took me out of the episode itself, I still thoroughly enjoyed the attention to so many things the fans have asked about time and time again. Clearly, the writers heard the fans’ pleas even when the answers didn’t come in quite the ways we expected.
I’ll be especially curious to find out what viewers who aren’t immersed in fan culture thought of the episode. Were there too many in-jokes? Too many “technical” fan culture terms? Surely, there must be a faction of viewers who don’t follow that aspect of the show – Supernatural has casual viewers too, right?
It strikes me that casual viewers might not have realized that the person who uses the publisher ticket turns out to be none other than Chuck – Carver Edlund (Rob Benedict) – the writer of the Supernatural books, last seen in “Swan Song,” when he was clearly identified as both God and Eric Kripke – and he disappeared. Ending the episode this way, was the perfect bookend to the episode as the only element to the “THEN” montage at the beginning is a typed page with Supernatural, “The Pilot” created by Eric Kripke – just as God created the world, Kripke created this one. And hey, writers? Since you are clearly paying attention to us, now that Chuck IS back in the world, we’d really, really like to see him in another episode – preferably kicking Metatron’s (Curtis Armstrong) ass. But even just as Chuck the writer would be fine. Am I the only one who squeeed when we saw Rob’s face?
All of the press leading up to this episode underscored from cast, writers, and producers that this episode was a love letter to the fans, so my hope is that the fans take it in that way because there is plenty to squee about in this episode. The stage show itself, helps to set the stage (pun intended) for the episode, we have a teaser within a teaser. Director Marie (Katie Sarife) is immediately concerned that her cast isn’t taking her script seriously. The scene they are filming pre-dates “Dark Side of the Moon” (the episode in which the brothers go to Heaven, Cas (Misha Collins) learns the ‘samulet’ won’t find God, and Dean (Jensen Ackles) throws it away), so Marie wants to know why Siobhan – “Dean” (Alyssa Lynch) – isn’t wearing it. Siobhan tells her it kept hitting her in the lips, so she took it off. This is a nod to the fact that Ackles lobbied to get rid of the prop because it did keep hitting him in the face – painfully, and chipping his teeth! We learn that Siobhan is not crazily committed to the part and only wants credit for college applications.
The first victim of the “real” case is the drama teacher, Mrs Chandler (Alberta Mayne). She is going to stop the play because there’s too much drama in the drama department. This is also a nice reference to the drama which also erupts in fandom. She wants to know why they couldn’t just do Godspell and insists that Supernatural doesn’t make good theatre because it isn’t about life. Of course, it is. Ultimately, the monster in this episode is Calliope (Hannah Levien) – the Goddess of epic poetry or the muse. Calliope points out why Supernatural is special and why it attracted her – and SO many fan fiction writers: “Supernatural has everything. Life. Death. Resurrection. Redemption. But above all family. All set to music you can really tap your toe to. It isn’t some meandering piece of genre drech. It’s epic.” Her description sounds a lot like Kripke’s initial pitch for the show, but also like so many answers to why do you write fan fiction for this show.
One of the signatures of the show has always been the title card that changes for every season. This time we go from the stage shows version, which Marie says needs more effects, which she articulates by hand waving. What follows is then a lovely montage of most of the title cards we’ve seen over the years, including all the special one-offs. You can see it and the rest of the title cards here. Loved it! It’s also a nice homage to the effects team who have done an amazing job over the years with a pretty limited budget.
The first scene with the actual Winchesters is another fan present. Dean, in a t-shirt working on Baby’s (the Impala) engine. We get a great shot of her sweet, pristinely clean engine. Thanks so much for putting all the grease on Ackles… We also hear some great classic rock playing – Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown.” It’s a nice nod to the Canadian roots of the show. We then move to the trunk and some long, loving shots of all the tools of the trade that fans have come to know and love over the years. Sam (Jared Padalecki) then comes out of room 200 to join his brother at the trunk. Dean is eager to get back on the road. He’s rested and back to their “normal.” Sam is skeptical that there is a case, but agrees to check it out. And then we have another fan present. In an echo of the end of the “Pilot” and the end of “All Hell Breaks Loose Part II,” Dean drops the shotgun into the truck and says, “We’ve got work to do,” shutting the trunk to take the scene to black.
The brothers arrive to start investigating and Dean remarks about “theater kids.” Sam reminds him – and us – that he was in a production of Our Town – see season one’s episode “Shadow.” We get some classic banter between the brothers as Sam points out that he also did Oklahoma! and Hugh Jackman was cast from that play. Dean responds, “You ran tech, Wolverine!”
The brothers enter the theater to be immediately confronted with Bobby and Cas and their lives set to music – the camera tilts to mimic how off kilter this seems to them. Marie and Maeve (Joy Regullano), her stage manager, immediately think they are with the publishers. Dean objects to the music, insisting it should be classic rock – just as Kripke insisted it had to be classic rock to the networks. There’s a nice flub of “Andrew Floyd Webber” instead of Andrew Lloyd Webber of musical fame that was actually improvised by Padalecki and Ackles.
Maeve responds that this is Marie’s interpretation of the books, and thus starts the real dialogue of the show – what is the place of fan fiction? Even amongst the cast of the play there are differences of opinion. Maggie (Natalie Sharp) who plays Sam is angry that Marie isn’t sticking strictly to canon and becomes the second victim when she threatens to have the play shut down. I loved that her choice of play would have been The Outsiders – a nice nod to SE Hinton, who is a super-fan of the show, visits set every season, and has even been in several episodes. Dean – like Ackles has expressed – is also a firm supporter of canon. We’ve already seen this in season four’s “The Monster at the End of the Book,” which introduced the books in the first place. However, we see Dean grow during the course of the episode. He tells Marie, “This has been educational, seeing the story from your perspective. You keep writing, Shakespeare.” He accepts and validates her. Marie pushes, “Even if it doesn’t match how you see it?” To which he responds, “I have my version, and you have yours.” It’s a live and let live philosophy that should be more widely embraced.
Dean’s education includes the BM. It’s hilarious when both Sam and Dean immediately think bowel movement. Marie, of course, means “boy melodrama,” while others of us likely filled in bro-moment. She explains the trope for him: “You know the scene where the boys get together and they’re driving or leaning against Baby, drinking a beer, sharing their feelings. The two of them alone, but together -- bonded, united…” And then Dean is distracted by how close the two actors are standing, asking whether Marie realizes they’re brothers. This is a direct parallel to his reaction to Wincest in “The Monster at the End of the Book.” Marie just looks at him and says, “D’uh.” But then she introduces him to “subtext” – “Reasons” - and waggles her eyebrows. Fan fiction is full of the exploration of subtext and is often at the heart of transformative works – which Marie also helpfully explains to Dean.
Dean protests that there’s no space in Supernatural when he finds the robot costume. And as an aside, Robbie Thompson, the writer of the episode, has a love for robots and his avatar on twitter is a Robocop riff. Marie explains that what she’s written is transformative fiction. Her second act picks up where the books leave off. We learn that there is space, ninjas, tentacles, and Destiel – all except space are frequent subjects of fan fiction. I loved Dean’s summation of the show between the end of season five and now: “So Sam came back from Hell, but without his soul, and Cas brought in a bunch of Leviathans from Purgatory. They lost Bobby, and then Cas and Dean got stuck in Purgatory, Sam hit a dog. Uh, they met a prophet named Kevin, they lost him too. Then Sam underwent a series of trials, in an attempt to close the Gates of Hell, which nearly cost him his life. And Dean, he became a demon, a Knight of Hell actually.” To which Marie responds by laughing and saying it’s the worst fan fiction she’s ever heard – a complaint some disgruntled viewers have made about the show. She then does what any self-respecting fan fic writer would do, she offers to hook him up with some good fic links!
At this point, the two stumble upon Kirsten (Nina Winkler) who plays Cas and Siobhan hugging. Dean asks what’s going on there. Marie says they’re hugging and goes on to explain that they’re a couple in real life. Dean doesn’t bat an eye at that but he does ask if it’s in the show. Marie says there is Destiel in Act Two – you can’t have subtext without S-E-X! To which Dean says, “What?” and looks at the camera. It’s a deliberate breaking of the fourth wall to look directly at the camera, and I’m not sure it works here.
We next cut to Sam and Dean discussing how Destiel should be pronounced. Sam clearly has no problem with the concept and even muses about pairings of Sam and Castiel. Dean is uncomfortable, especially when Sam makes it absolutely obvious with Cas/Dean – in case there were any viewers who still hadn’t gotten it. Of course, they are brothers, and Sam delights in tormenting Dean when the opportunity arises. Dean tells Sam he does not want to discuss it – and Ackles has been clear about not wanting to discuss it either. I’m not convinced that this scene will help to improve relations between fans and between fans and writers. But that doesn’t mean that Dean’s final words that accept alternative versions in addition to canon are less valid. Not wanting to discuss it, isn’t a condemnation – at least not for me. I think even more telling is Dean’s pep talk before the curtain goes up: “This is Marie’s version. I want you to stand as close as she wants you to. I want you to put as much SUB in to that text as you possibly can.” If that isn’t a ringing endorsement of go forth and write YOUR story, I don’t know what is.
The episode is simply full of nods to the 200 episodes and the writers don’t spare themselves from the odd criticism either. When the entire cast is gathered before curtain, Sam asks where Chuck is – you can see that Crowley, Jody Mills, Jo, Ellen, and Ash are all there now – and the Robot. I loved Marie’s comment that “the whole author inserting himself into the narrative, it’s not my favorite. I kind of hate the meta stories” and Sam and Dean agree! But I still maintain that the Robot is Robbie Thompson, so…. irony! Dean also quotes from Rent (which was adapted for film by a friend of Thompson’s). Maeve is worried about them getting in trouble for using lines from Rent without permission. This is a nice nod to fan fiction writers concern over copyright violation – it’s a generally accepted exception as transformative works in the US (and I could write another 3000 words on the topic). The speech ends with a shout out to the great Kim Manners when Dean tells the cast to “kick it in the ass” – Manners famous line at the beginning of a take. And did anyone notice Dean trying to straighten “Cas’s” always twisted tie - as "Sammy" fusses with "Dean's" samulet?
Manners, who directed so many of the episodes and was an executive producer until his death in season four, is also referenced through the X-Files references as that was his first claim to fame. It’s hilarious that Marie and Maeve refuse to believe that Sam and Dean are Sam and Dean but do believe they could be from the X-Files. Of course, “I believe” was the tag from The X-Files. They tell them they’re too old to be the brothers – though maybe Bobby and Rufus! Nice shout out to Rufus. We also have references to “Hellhouse” and the tulpa when they think that may be the monster, and of course, it’s inhabiting a version of one of the first really scary monsters on Supernatural – the scarecrow. I thought Marie’s scarecrow looked a lot more like the suicidal teddy bear from “Wishful Thinking” though. We get another Ghostfacer reference when they do the Ghostfacer salute to end the pre-show huddle. There is also a Harvelle’s Roadhouse set. We see a wendigo in the wings during the performance too. One of the cast members laments that she’d wanted to do Wicked. Dean remarks that that would have been easier – witches are easier to kill! But it’s also a reference to “Slumber Party” the Supernatural homage to The Wizard of Oz.
Once Maggie is taken, Marie, as her understudy has to take over the part of Sam for the performance. We learn that she is a “Samgirl” – she tells Dean, “if Sam and Dean were real, they would’t back down from a fight, especially my sweet, selfless Sam…” Maeve, however, would appear to be Deangirl as she says to Sam, “If you cut your hair a little, you’d make a pretty good Dean.” Of course, this is also a nod to the fact that before Supernatural, Padalecki played Dean (a different character) on Gilmore Girls – with a much shorter haircut. In fact, the hair references alone are hilarious in the episode. The girl playing Dean is a brunette in a blond wig – blonder than Ackles currently is and there has always been much discussion over exactly what color his hair is in fan fiction. The girl playing Sam is blond and wears a brunette wig – and of course, Marie dons a wig to play Sam. Padalecki’s luxurious hair has been the subject of much discussion, memes, and jokes about wigs. Perhaps the best mirroring in the show occurs at the end when Sam stabs Calliope at the exact moment that Marie as Sam yells, “No chick-flick moments” and stabs the scarecrow. It’s also funny that in the play “Sam” is actually shorter than “Dean” once Marie has to step in.
The original songs for the show are terrific and a big shout out to Jay Gruska and Christopher Lennertz. We begin with “The Road So Far” – to which we see Dean bopping his head backstage but there’s also “A Single Man Tear” as homage to Dean’s one perfect man tear that symbolizes his inner turmoil – a phrase coined by Sera Gamble (showrunner seasons 6 and 7). It plays during a scene from “Crossroad Blues” when Dean was in turmoil and pain over his father selling his soul so Dean could live. “I’ll Just Wait Here Then” is from an exchange in “The End” which symbolizes Castiel’s devotion to both Dean and his mission to protect him. The irony is that Nina Winkler is a soprano and Misha Collins actually damaged his vocal chords because of how much he dropped his voice for the character.
The final song is the one that fans wait for to close out every season of the show: Carry On My Wayward son. It does not disappoint. “Mary” starts it and she is then joined by the Winchester “family” – John, surrogate father Bobby, Sam and Dean AND Adam! Fandom has long lamented that the brothers and the writers have forgotten about John’s other son Adam who also died in preventing the Apocalypse. Sam doesn’t even realize who it is until Maeve reminds him that he’s still locked in the cage with Lucifer. Ackles and Padalecki both have wonderful reaction shots to the cast singing the song. Dean is clearly moved and Sam smiles fondly.
And finally, there’s the Samulet. Marie tells Dean he should have never thrown it away. Dean responds that “It never really worked. I don’t need a symbol to remind me how I feel about my brother.” She then tells him to take it and calls him a “jerk” to which Dean, of course, automatically responds, “bitch!” He’s immediately horrified to realize he’s said that to a woman! Marie takes pity on him and laughs to break the tension, but we still get the Dean/Sam Bitch/Jerk moment! Dean’s statement is reinforced as we see how far Dean has come. He shushes Sam as they watch the final BM moment of the play. This is beautifully shot as “Dean” and “Sam” in the “Impala” are perfect mirror images to Dean and Sam watching backstage. “Sam” says “We need to be back on the road doing what we do best – saving people, hunting things” – it’s the show’s tagline. Sam agrees when “Dean” says “the two of us on the road together.”
The final scene of the brothers is of them in the Impala and Dean wordlessly hangs the prop samulet from the rearview mirror. The brothers have only to exchange a look for us to know that they are now in complete harmony – possibly for the first time in almost five years! Was anyone really hoping that Sam would then pull out the real samulet and hang it beside the other one on the rearview mirror?
The basic monster of the week story was a bit thin, but as a 200th episode? This episode was fantastically satisfying. I think the entire guest cast did a fantastic job. And hey, anybody else realize that this in the only episode where nobody other than the monster was killed? Even in “What Is and What Should Never Be” there were corpses hanging in the Djinn’s lair even if they didn’t technically die in the episode… What did you think of the episode? Was there enough love for fans? Was it too much love for the “in crowd”? What was your favorite song? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
