SUPERNATURAL: The French Mistake

Well, that was really fun. As a long-time SPN viewer, I’ve come to expect that the sillier the premise of an episode, the more likely I’ll be lulled into laughter only to be hit with some serious heartbreak and drama. I was mentally preparing myself for something major, but it turned out to be just a really funny hour with only a hint of forward momentum for the bigger mythology.

The real mission of the week took place entirely behind the scenes, with Cas and Balthazar making a power play to claim the celestial weapons stash, their only hope of beating Raphael. To do so, they had to occupy heaven’s weapons-keeper Virgil with a wild goose chase in order to give them the time they needed to pull it off. What we saw was the goose chase, and it was a ton of fun.

SUPERNATURAL is famous for its self-referential meta-ness; we’ve already explored the Winchesters as a book series, a basis for fan fiction, and even a convention. What was left to do but actually examine the tv show itself? Sam and Dean are thrown into an alternate reality where they’re actors named Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki (oh yeah, he’s Polish now) playing Sam and Dean in a show called Supernatural that films in (gulp) Vancouver, Canada. Finally, after circling the United States for six years, the boys venture over the border.

As fans of the show, we’re not just familiar with the actors – we know the creative team too, so it was great that we also got to see embodiments of people like Robert Singer, Eric Kripke and Sera Gamble (over the phone, anyway). I honestly can’t believe that it took watching this episode for me to connect that Bobby Singer was named after EP/Director Robert Singer; I mean, how did I not pick up on that? Incidentally, I just recently learned that the actor playing him, the ubiquitous Brian Doyle-Murray, is Bill Murray’s brother. I just blew your mind, right? It kind of blew mine when I found out.

I loved everything about the bizarro world, and the guys’ reaction to it all. I’m sure some fans were surprised to learn that Sam is actually married to fake Ruby in real life, and the reveal was handled really well. The fake Warhol prints in the dining room were a nice touch, too.

The filming montage, where Sam and Dean tried to ‘act’, was hands-down the funniest section of the episode. Dean’s weird psycho-glare at Cas never wavered through 15 takes, and it never got old. And Misha. The entire episode would have won me over for his cheeriness alone. Obviously Cas is a tad on the serious side (when he’s not watching porn), so it’s always fun when he diverges from that. Plus, the Twitter references were spot-on. It was sad that we had to watch him die, but since we are talking about bizarro Misha, better him than Cas.

Equally funny were everybody’s reactions to ‘Jared’ and ‘Jensen’ hanging out so much, or even speaking to each other for that matter. The ensuing discussions about whether they were in the midst of some kind of drug-related meltdown were great too (and timely; *cough* Charlie Sheen *cough*), especially the discussion about bringing Kripke in to calm the waters. For a minute there when Kripke was getting shot and kept walking, I was convinced they were going to have him be the physical embodiment of God in bizarro world as a nod to the fandom’s motto “In Kripke We Trust”.

In the end, the diversion worked and Balthazar and Cas secured the weapons, much to Raphael’s disappointment. Raphael is now in the body of a woman, incidentally – I like this – the show has not had enough female big bads (the women are usually bad, but working for someone higher on the food chain), and now this season we have two. Sam and Dean returned home, back to their termite-infested motel room and broke-ass hunting life. Despite all of the talk throughout the episode about how fun it would have been to stay as Jared and Jensen with the money and the happiness and the monster-free life, we know that this is where they belong, and where they want to be.

Burning question: what I really wanted to know was how the script in the show-within-the-show played out, since they were filming the exact episode we were watching, at least up until the brothers landed on the set. Was it a mirror of what we saw with the alternate reality situation, or did Sam and Dean stay in their world and duke it out with Raphael?

In a night of great lines, I had to restrain myself from basically re-printing the entire script. Here are some of the lines/moments that had me laughing the hardest:

* “Should we be killing anybody?” “I don’t think so.”
* We’ll have to cut the scene where the boys sit on the Impala and talk about their feelings.
* Fine. Whatever. Season six…moving on.
* “How many people would want to watch our lives?” “Well according to the interviewer, not that many people do.”
* Misha? Jensen? What’s up with the names around here?
* (Misha tweet) Ola, Mishamigos! J squared got me good. Really starting to feel like one of the guys.
* Baby Jensen on Days of Our Lives! Now, if only they had shown a clip from Dawson’s Creek; it would have been the closest they’d come to getting Oscar nominee Michelle Williams to guest on the show.
* Well, at least they’re talking to each other.
* You married fake Ruby? (Now, was this in reference to ‘Gen’ being the actress who plays Ruby or the fact that the role was originated by the hard-to-beat Katie Cassidy?)
* “I bought part of a dead person.” “Oh, cool.”
* (Misha tweet) IMHO J & J had a late one last night. ROTFLMAO
* It appears Jared and Jensen were seen beating an extra to death.
* He sold ‘Octocobra’? Mother of god, they’ll buy anything.

The promo for next week’s episode ‘And Then There Were None’ is below, and it’s great. It’s creepy and there are hints of some returning characters, but really no information on what exactly is going on, which is how a trailer should be. However, next week is the last episode before a month long break (the show resumes April 15th), so it’s bound to be a big one.

What did you think of the episode? How does it rank with the other times the show’s gone meta? Can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comments!

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