SPN Georg

Famine. We’re back to the Horsemen, the apocalypse, and learn some deep truths about Team Free Will. I think the most important takeaways from this episode are to remember that it was written and produced to come AFTER the episode that aired as 5.15 (Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid), and immediately before 5.16 Dark Side of the Moon. It makes so much more sense emotionally and for character continuity that way... thanks 2012 Winter Olympics for screwing it up lol.

The surface level read of Dean and Cas’s revelations in this one obscure a much deeper truth for both of them. Sam... is the most surface-level honest about his hunger. And it’s all agonizing!

Plus we learn some very painful things about John and Mary Winchester, and just how much Heaven meddled in their relationship. Which I find doubly fascinating now that we’re watching The Winchesters. We’ll talk about all of that and more, but there’s also a lot of bonus material for this one, because I’ve talked about all of this before, as well.

LINKS!

The Superwiki page

My tag

A convenient post with lots of links about my understanding of Castiel, the nature of angel grace, and human souls

Edlund’s quote about his intent with Castiel’s hunger

My rewatch notes from April 2017 (honestly i could probably just read out this post and call it a day)

My rewatch notes from June 2019

Filming locations map

Interview with Edlund from buddytv

The CW promo

Extended promo clip #1

Extended promo clip #2

Heaven (and in this case, specifically Michael) has an agenda. The long-scheduled apocalypse is proceeding apace, but how does one convince one’s recalcitrant vessel to play along? Well, a nice little demonstration of power, combined with a charmingly delivered (I’m sure Michael thought he was ever so polite about it) reminder that there’s no such thing as Free Will and everything in the history of the universe had been leading them to that moment where Dean will say yes and accept his fate.

Kinda horrifying, when you think about it in those terms alongside Dean’s ultimate confrontation against this in s15. And even worse when you think about 15.20, where it finally played out that way, with the rest of the entire story rendered irrelevant in 40 minutes. Good times... >.>

But this is where Dean plants his free will flag, which will become his final major plot arc of the entire series-- wrestling with the notion that none of it may have ever been real at all. So this is a big one. Plus, John and Mary in the 70′s, which is wild now that we’re seeing The Winchesters.

LINKS!

The Superwiki page for this ep

My tag for this ep

My rewatch notes from June 2019 and April 2017 and October 2016

Molly Hatchet’s The Creeper

Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same

Filming locations map

The CW promo (what if the Winchesters were never born? interesting question!)

Extended teaser clip

SpaceTV promo (Sam Winchester has to die!)

That one where Sam was Gary! A true MotW that has Dean mostly tiptoeing around Sam in the aftermath of his confession at the end of the previous episode. Even when “Sam” is behaving in incredibly un-Sam-like ways, Dean’s still hesitant to poke too hard at it. I’m not sure this episode could’ve worked under other circumstances (Dean would’ve twigged to it sooner if he wasn’t trying so hard to be agreeable with Sam), or otherwise would’ve just been sad (like if the reason the other didn’t twig to it was due to them being on the outs... it really wouldn’t have been as humorous). Small favors, I guess?

Anyway, what more can we really say about this one. Have some (hopefully) fun extras to go along with it:

The Superwiki page for this episode

My (incredibly sparse) tag for this episode

The glorious Sam Samming post

My rewatch notes from June 2019 and from April 2017

Filming locations map

Casting call for Gary and Nora

The CW promo video

The SpaceTV promo video

A bit of shameless self-promotion, please enjoy a link to my six-way body swap fic, since the show never took this concept to its full wackadoo potential, but I really tried to...  Until I Know This Sure Uncertainty, I'll Entertain The Offered Fallacy (rated T, canon case fic, ~13k words, set near the end of s12, very comedy of errors)

It hits me once in a while how many monsters almost managed to take out Sam and Dean, and the wraith in this episode is an especially good example-- she of the “okie dokie” and the absolute confidence in her own understanding of the situation to control it all, to manipulate the story to her own advantage with a smile on her face and a spring in her step. She really thought she was invincible, right up to the moment she wasn’t.

Is that just “plot armor” for Sam and Dean? Eh, I don’t think so. I mean, the angels weren’t really worried for the vessels of Michael and Lucifer, you know? *Zachariah voice* we’d just bring you back. This really is Sam and Dean just being better than the monsters, back in the day when they weren’t Sam and Dean Winchester the legendary hunters monsters tell scary stories about in the dark.

File all that under: Why I have zero problems with later canon that outs Chuck as God controlling the story all along. This is why Sam and Dean are his favorite characters.

Okay, since all of that has nothing to do with what I actually talk about in this week’s episode, let’s just get on with it...

LINKS!

The Superwiki page for this episode

My tag for this episode

Scripts (production draft, blue revisions, one line schedule, Director’s notes on blue revision draft)

The Dr. Babar clip from the movie Fletch (13 seconds)

Filming locations map

Casting call for Martin and Erica (and her original surname was Fletcher, edited to Cartwright for production… still a “job” name but a very different job)

My rewatch notes from June 2019

My rewatch notes from April 2017

CW Promo for the episode that aired immediately after 5.10, leaving viewers on a pretty dark note about what this episode would be like in the wake of watching Jo and Ellen die

A later promo clip that let the audience know it’s not all darkness, it’s also uncomfortably silly

Why bring back the magical Colt after hyping it up all season as potentially the only weapon that can kill Lucifer only to bring it back, declare oopsie no there are actually five random and unspecified exceptions to this weapon’s power that we will never actually address in canon, and then lose it in the woods to have it disappear without another mention for years? Yeah, I got no idea either. Such is the fate of so many Special Weapons on this show. This one just bugs me for so many reasons.

We bid farewell to Ellen and Jo while Kripke burns down his narrative as a sacrifice to the Apocalypse. Lucifer is transparently manipulative toward Cas and Sam. I actually feel bad for Meg for the fact she’s a True Believer in Lucifer as her god, and Crowley introduces himself as the smartest character on the show. Bless :’)

on to the links!

The Superwiki page for this episode

My tag for this episode (six pages of posts)

My rewatch notes from June 2019

My rewatch notes from April 2017

Filming locations map

Goldenrod Revisions script

Casting call for Crowley (spelled CROWLY, and is for a “recurring guest star”)

Chicago Tribune review of Fallen Idols with Mark Sheppard’s casting announcement in the final paragraph

CW Promo

CW Extended Promo

SpaceTV promo

(provided for the context of how the CW was marketing the show vs how SpaceTV chose to promote it... very different in significantly interesting ways...)

Chuck makes problems for everyone. But that’s pretty much the meta overview of the entire series, isn’t it? In this episode, he specifically gets to be a petty lil guy, though, which gave me an awful lot of real estate to roll around on.

I think I started this episode by hoping it would come in shorter than last week, and... uh... sorry about that? I was really on track to succeed at that! And then I had to keep adding in meta tangents. Once again, though, at least it’s a fun episode to spend time with.

Let’s get right to the links!

The Superwiki page for this episode

My tag for this episode

He seems helpful and dreamy… Lizbob’s thoughts on in-narrative book!fandom vs our tv show fandom

The Winchester Gospels tag on my blog for all your book fandom needs

Gore Orphanage Wikipedia page for Kripke’s inspiration behind the case

Production draft script with notes by James L Conway

Technical package (9 pages of set diagrams)

Casting call for Demian and Barnes

The CW promo for this episode

like the graphic says, play your roles or be stuck in tv land forever! if that ain’t the most meta thing ever said in canon...

This episode is definitely a favorite, but it’s also a really rich one to discuss for so many reasons. It’s basically just a way scaled back and condensed version of s15. Thematically, if you leave off the wtf of 15.20, it’s the s15 speed run.

Since I ran so long in the talky-talky, I’ll keep this short and get right to the links for this week:

The Superwiki page for this episode

My tag for this episode (7 pages, but very worth it) (and all the tumblr links below are to posts in this tag… but seriously click through because there’s so many awesome gifs and fanart posts too)

This post about the cosmic structure and Gabriel’s role

And this one about the function of Free Will in this episode

Meta about 4.16 technically, but very relevant to this episode

Rewatch notes from June 2019

Sometimes people just die

The Cosmic Timeline

April 2017 rewatch notes “Dean’s Instincts”

Dean knows what makes Dr. Sexy sexy

Filming locations map

Interview with Richard Speight Jr. (archived link)

The CW promo video

SpaceTV promo video

Supernatural the sitcom opening theme video

like the graphic says, sit down, shut up, play the game while you watch your brother die... a chuck metaphor with gambling!

It amuses me to no end that while I was editing this week’s audio, I had the TNT loop on the background and watched 15.09 The Trap and 15.11 The Gamblers. Both of which involved Chuck, gambling as a life and death scenario, and being pushed to just play Chuck’s game and do what they’re told-- sit back and accept his endgame for their story.

Wow! The Pain!

I promise I will not say anything about all of this in relation to 15.20, in which Chuck FINALLY succeeds in forcing them to do exactly that, without even a hint of protest from either of them. Or I will start screaming and not stop until I shout myself hoarse!

Anyway, this is a pretty straightforward MotW (with Bobby!), so let’s get right to the links:

LINKS!

The Superwiki page for this episode

My tag for this episode

The Casting Call for old!Dean (as well as for Patrick and Lia)

The CW promo video for this ep

The SpaceTV promo video for this ep

Interactive filming locations map of Vancouver

*steadfastly refuses to sing the song despite having to sing it about 50 times when i was in 6th grade...*

There’s a lot to unpack in this episode. There’s some similarities to Jack’s endgame problem-- wanting a world without lies. Sure, lies can cause problems, but so can the truth, if you’re suddenly overwhelmed with it and forced to deal with it.

Poor Cas gets turned into a toy for a hot minute, and the nature of how Dean interacts with him is evolving, too. After the horror of 5.04, it’s hard to blame him for that.

Sam and Dean are seemingly back on the same page at least, and Sam gets to plead with the antichrist to choose the right thing, because nobody could stop him if he refused. And isn’t that a kick in the pants? It’s pretty healing all around.

LINKS!

The Superwiki page for this episode

My tag for this episode  (only two pages, and about half the posts are about Action Figure Cas, which is always fun)

the CW promo “Win or Lose”

An extended CW promo clip

the SpaceTV promo

the “SOON” segment from the end of last week’s episode

It’s a short one this week, friendos! The podcast, yes, but also the episode itself. It runs so short they included a SOON segment at the end of the ep promoting the next three episodes!

And for one filled with painful irony-- a god cosplaying as beloved icons in order to devour fans of said icons-- and a good number of classic lines (four score and seven years ago, I had a funny hat!), the episode overall is pretty straightforward.

Plus, as a nice break, Sam and Dean actually communicate well! They make a little bit of personal progress! Hooray for MotW episodes!

LINKS!

The Superwiki page for this episode

My tag for this episode (11 whole posts! Including this one! like five whole minutes of reading!)

Chicago Tribune piece with Kripke and Sera

Chicago Tribune episode preview (unfortunately the embedded video was Flash media, but the text lives!

EW interview with Kripke about Paris Hilton

Video of J2 talking about working with Paris at Vancon 2009

short promo clip from SpaceTV

Also, if you know of the spn script hunt group, we’re currently raising money for the Trevor Project (and giving away autographed scripts!). So if you’ve clicked through the links in any of my episodes to read various scripts, casting sides, and other items in our collection, maybe consider making a donation. The script raffle portion of the drive runs through December 5, and we’re closing in on our final goal of $5k! Thank you to everyone who’s helped us get there!