Welcome to week thirty-nine of the rewatch project, superfans! This week brings a treat—a pair of comedy-heavy episodes where the show’s writers have a blast poking fun at their always-lovable, if slightly-unhinged fandom.
Cheers to us all!
THE OFFICIAL FYA SUPERNATURAL DRINKING GAME:
Take a drink every time:
• There’s a corpse
• A demon possesses and/or makes a deal with some hapless schmuck
• Dean refuses to discuss Hell
• Dean crams his face full of junk food
• Sam drinks demon blood
• Anyone is tied up
• Either brother picks a lock
• Someone employs a Titan of Classic Rock as an alias
• The Glorious and Faithful Impala is damaged in the line of duty
4x17: It’s a Terrible Life
Monster of the Week: Ghost, Scrooge edition
We open on Dean in a sharp suit. He drives a Prius. He listens to NPR. He works as a corporate stooge and uses corporate buzzwords. Darlings, brace yourselves.
He eats salads.
What is even happening right now?
Something nefarious is afoot. Dean runs into Sam in an elevator. Sam says he thinks he recognizes him, but Dean shuts him down.
Sam, clad in the dorkiest polo and khaki combination I’ve ever seen, heads to the company’s call center where he works tech support. He has daydreams of another life, where he’s some kind of ghost hunter with Dean. It’s clearly weighing on his mind, to the point where he accosts Dean in the elevator asking if he believes in ghosts, and telling him about his dreams.
I kind of love Dean Smith.
Things get worse when a tech support worker makes a small error, loses his mind over it and rigs up some MacGyver-esque system so that he can microwave his own head. After his corpse is carted away, Dean calls another worker to his office, saying he made a few mistakes on a form. The guy freaks out and stabs himself in the neck with a pencil. As Dean tries to help, he sees a shady figure standing nearby.
The ghost isn’t angry. Just disappointed.
Dean summons Sam to his office, wanting to talk ghosts. They figure out they both started at the company three weeks earlier and something strange is up. Sam hypothesizes that the suicides are unnatural. Both dead men were summoned to a certain office before they killed themselves. When they head up to check it out, they find the ghost terrorize yet another worker. On instinct, Dean hits him with an iron wrench and he disappears.
Later, the boys do internet research, finding a series of “how to kill monsters” video on the Ghostfacers website. The Ghostfacers actually offer solid tips, namechecking the Winchesters in their tips on rock salt shotgun and corpse burning. Now prepared, they head back to the office, searching for the ghost’s remains. Sam gets caught and hauled off by security. As he pulls him into the elevator, the ghost attacks the systems, making it stop between floors. The security guard decides, over Sam’s objection to crawl out between floors. NEVER DO THIS, DARLINGS. Why?
That’s why.
After Sam extricates himself from the pile of security guard goo, the boys meet up and finds the ghost’s remains, engaging in a bracing round of fisticuffs before dispatching it through salt and fire. Well done, newbie hunters!
Brotherly Angst Quotient: Born hunters
Once Dean Smith and Sam Wesson kill the ghost, Sam is unbelievably pumped and wants to continue their partnership, taking their act on the road to save lives. Dean is skeptical, envisioning a life of credit card fraud, motels, and diners full of saturated fats.
Maybe you could fight ghosts in Canada?
But Sam keeps trying, confessing to Dean that his dreams involve the pair of them living as hunters. He thinks something evil is messing with their minds, replacing their real memories with fake ones. Dean gets angry, insisting that his Stanford degree and perfect family (parents, Bob and Ellen, sister, Jo) are absolutely real. He kicks Sam out of his office, telling him its time to return to their lives.
Sam gives it a shot. It doesn’t last long.
Your Monday catharsis. You’re welcome, darlings.
Meanwhile, Dean’s boss comes to see him, offering him a bonus in order to make sure he’s not going anywhere. But out of the blue, Dean turns it down and gives his notice. He just feels deep down in his soul that he’s not meant to be a corporate suit.
“Finally,” the boss says with a smile. He touches Dean’s forehead, and suddenly our favorite hunter remembers who he is! Turns out the boss is an angel, Zachariah. He wanted to prove to Dean that the path he’s on is in his blood, and to show him that there are worse fates than driving a muscle car and banging hot chicks on the way to fight evil. Dean, remembering all the salads and ties and lemon-cayenne cleanses, agrees. It’s time to stop whining and stop the damn apocalypse.
Paradise Lost of It All: Dean’s back in the fight.
How Drunk Are We?: Pleasantly! Take four drinks for three corpses and one donut.
The Quotable Winchesters: “Angel or not, I will stab you in your face.” -Dean
Moment Most Likely to Inspire Troubling Fan-Fic:
IT Crowd/Supernatural crossover! Roy/Sam, tallest slash ever.
Notable Cameos:
Storied character actor Kurt Fuller (Psych, The Good Wife) plays Zachariah.
4x18: The Monster at the End of This Book
Monster of the Week: Lilith
Sam and Dean, pretending to be FBI agents, work a ghost case by interview a comic book store employee. As they ask about cold spots and what have you, the guy starts cracking up, asking if they’re LARPers from the Supernatural book series. To the boys amazement, he describes their lives in detail and shows the book series he’s talking about.
Ouch, bargain bin.
They buy up all copies and head to the motel to read about their own exploits. The last book ends with Dean going to hell.
Hot boys reading books should always be documented.
Like any true fan, as soon as Dean finishes the books, he hops on the message boards to read fan posts. Sam has to explain slash fic to him. It is amazing, darlings.
Since the author uses a nom de plume, they track him down by interviewing his publisher, a total fangirl who rhapsodizes about how sensitive book Sam and Dean are, much to their actual chagrin. After they win a Supernatural trivia contest and show her their anti-possession tattoos, she’s convinced they’re true fans and points them to the author, Chuck Shirley.
It takes some doing, but eventually Sam and Dean are able to convince Chuck they’re neither crazed fans nor his characters brought to life, but real, actual people. He freaks out a little, apologizing for the stuff he’s put them through. They question whether he’s psychic but he shoots them down. If he were psychic, why would he slave over these books to eke out a living?
This GIF pretty much sums up my life.
Even though his publisher went under, he’s still been writing continuations of the series. He gives Dean the latest manuscript, and they head off to read it.
While they’re getting their whites whiter, Chuck has a nightmare where he sees Sam and Lilith about to get it on. When they boys return, he tells them Lilith’s coming for Sam that evening in the guise of a comely dental hygienist.
Dean is not having any of that. He comes up with a brilliant plan. They should read Chuck’s manuscript and not do anything he mentions. He goes to the extent of ordering a tofu burger to change it up, darlings, so you know he’s serious. But it’s all for naught. Everything that Chuck writes ends up coming true one way or another (including Dean being hit by a minivan and the Impala having its window smashed out by hooligans!). Enraged, Dean goes to Chuck’s house, accusing him of hiding something. But just when he starts to get rough, Cas shows up!
Cas says Chuck is a prophet of the Lord, a conduit for the inspired word of God. As he has seen it, so shall it come to pass, all that. Dean storms back to the motel only to find that Sam has burned their protection against Lilith. He’s ready for the battle. Dean takes a walk and prays. Cas appears and says he can’t interfere with prophecy. He can, however, point out that Chuck is protected by an archangel aka heaven’s most terrifying weapon. A light bulb goes off over Dean’s head and he rounds up Chuck at gunpoint, taking him to the motel.
Meanwhile, Lilith shows up in Sam’s room. She evades his devil’s trap. He hits her with a blast of his new power. It barely musses her hair.
Actually, it kind of improves it.
She’s there to offer a deal. She has foreseen she won’t survive the apocalypse, so she’s ready to back off the whole seal-breaking thing on one condition: Sam and Dean have to die. Sam agrees. But she says her contract requires more than a kiss. He embraces her. Then he tries to stab her! She gets the upper hand, but before she can kill him, Dean and Chuck burst in!
Heh.
Almost immediately the archangel’s presence begins to fill the room. Lilith freaks and exorcises herself right out of that hygienist’s body. When the threat is neutralized and Chuck back safe at home, Dean and Sam skip town. Dean’s surprised that Sam didn’t take Lilith’s deal. But Sam says he could see she was scared and on the run and it gives him hope.
Brotherly Angst Quotient: Unsympathetic
Sam asks Chuck if he knows about the demon blood. It wasn’t in the books. Chuck said he left it out on purpose because he thought it would make Sam look unsympathetic. He says stopping the apocalypse is Dean’s job. Sam argues that Dean’s not strong enough and he needs to look out for him, and even Chuck admits that seems to be where the story is headed.
Paradise Lost of It All: Adding to the mythology! The Winchesters are now important enough to get their own personal prophet, who is in turn important enough to get a watchdog archangel.
At the end of the episode, Chuck wakes tormented by visions. Zacariah is at his bedside and asks if he saw it. He did and he wants to warn Sam and Dean. But Zachariah won’t let him. Duh duh duh….
How Drunk Are We?: Happily! Take four drinks for a corpse, a double bacon cheeseburger, an almost-demon deal, and the Glorious and Faithful Impala’s injury at the hands of disrespectful youths.
The Quotable Winchesters: “(Reading aloud) ‘Sam turned his back on Dean, his face brooding and pensive.’ I mean, I don't know how he's doing it, but this guy is doing it. I can’t see your face, but those are definitely your pensive and brooding shoulders.” –Dean.
Moment Most Likely to Inspire Troubling Fan-Fic: Sometimes Supernatural inspires trouble fan fic. Other times, the troubling fan fic inspires the show.
Notable Cameos:
Rob Benedict of Felicity plays Chuck the Prophet
The guest star so nice they had to cast her twice, Keegan Connor Tracy of Once Upon a Time and unrelated Supernatural, 2x7, plays the fangirl publisher.