SPN 5.09 - Make it stop
I found that halfway through this episode I started thinking about columnist Maureen Ryan and something she said about S5: By the way, if Season 5 is terrible, after all these "Watch 'Supernatural'" pieces I've done, I am moving to another country and living under an assumed name. . I haven't been following her columns, but I suspect she's been pretty quiet on the topic of the show lately. Also the “Real Ghostbusters” made me immediately think of the Ghostfacers, and that this episode should have been, more than it was, about Chuck in the same way that the Ghostfacers episode was about them. But in the end it ended up being about not much of anything (except how to write a really hackneyed plot).
That said, I was feeling much more generous about it on the re-watch than immediately after the episode ended, when words like "abomination" and "show killer" were coming to mind, as well as the very uncomfortable feeling that I had more insight into Kripke's psyche than I ever cared to. Some of this generosity had to do with the fact that things that made me snort or laugh the first time still did the second. The second is that I think that not all of the blame for this episode should end up at Kripke's door. And the third is that there were a few small elements in the show that struck me, rightly or wrongly, as a rather sweet gesture to the fans.
The actual fans, that is, rather than the ones depicted in the show. Because while I'm sure that SPN has, numerically, quite a lot of male fans, they are in no way the majority of who anyone on the show has ever interacted with or been given a face to in this fandom.
The episode opened well enough, with Sam and Dean's urgent arrival leavened by the odd sight of multiple Impalas in the parking lot (guess Dean may know where to look for parts now). This was one of various touches that amused me, although perhaps not always in the way intended. For example, I laughed at the panels being announced at the con because they were spot-on (and really, Dean’s face in reaction to his panel? Priceless). Unfortunately though, they were spot for at an actual con. You know, one where the audience is 95% women (only half of whom are under 30) and where no one is actually LARPing.
(But I also enjoyed Sam’s look of perplexed curiosity at the homoereotic subtext one).
I will say this about the crowd, though. I appreciated that it was probably the most diverse group I’ve seen on the show yet, even if relatively devoid of women or older people.
I also appreciated that Kripke mixed in his own issues with fan ones, such as in the Hookman’s two questions. I had to laugh about the Ruby mention because, you know, there was just buckets of crazy in fan reactions over that character, not to mention the implied Sam vs. Dean jihad.
I’m on Chuck’s side regarding the whole publishing their story thing. I can certainly understand why Sam and Dean don’t want their personal issues sent into circulation, not to mention the invasion of privacy in the minutiae of their lives (or even getting them back into the sights of law enforcement). But that cat’s out of the bag already anyway as the episode made pretty clear. Not only do I have sympathy for Chuck being compelled to write because he’s a writer, but really, that’s his job. He’s the prophet after all, and the purpose of a prophet is to spread storytelling as far as it can go. I really felt Kripke dropped the ball here in not turning this episode into a meaningful story by delving into the issue of Chuck’s role in all this. After all, why is a prophet needed for this story? Who is he really serving? How much of Sam and Dean’s lives is he continuing to see? And does he have a moral obligation to refuse to write and publish as a way of resisting the angels in the same way Sam and Dean are? The more one thinks of it, the more Chuck’s role becomes a morally complex and interesting one in the larger scheme of things. Yet this was completely unexplored, leaving the real issues involved in the dilemma something the audience was apparently supposed to grasp without being shown.
Another interesting point in the episode, though not one that I can imagine could really stand up to any exploration, was Dean snapping at how anyone could want to be Sam and Dean, or who could exploit their lives for amusement. I had to smile at Damien pointing out that, as fictional characters, they really couldn’t feel one way or another about their situation. From a meta standpoint it was a rather interesting statement from a creator to his audience but one that, given the ending with Damien and Barnes being a couple, is one I suspect he’s ambivalent about.
An unfortunate aspect of the whole con storyline distraction was how it overshadowed a rather interesting haunting, something we haven’t seen in some time. I found it no surprise that the strongest point of the episode was Kripke’s strength, which is the horror story. I like how he tied LARPing's antecedents into the overall plot, and also set out to have a female ghost who was a protector and grief-stricken mother rather than the villain. There were shades of the rather similar Playthings plot here, but it had its own spin. What's more, if the three boys were being equated to the grown LARPers we had yet another commentary on the perils of fandom to the objects of that fandom in their attack on Sam and Dean where the players were, metaphorically, slicing into their minds and exposing them for all to see. Given the small connections being made to Barnes and Damien's own experience, when what they thought was just a game turned out to have grisly consequences, I don't think this was accidental. And this is part of why I can say I don't think Kripke is entirely to blame for what I see, overall, as a failure of an episode. For one, his writing of the teleplay with a story by Nancy Weiner smacks of another cleanup job where perhaps in a different situation the episode might have been more balanced among more important storylines with con bits added for flavor instead of filler. But the more important problem to me is what the show revealed about the acting.
In a sea of Sam and Dean wannabes, Sam and Dean themselves don’t come off a whole lot different in this episode. This lack of distinction was not helped by uninspired dialogue ("This is bad.""Gee, you think, Sammy?") but as long as these two have been playing these parts you'd think there was something more they could bring to the roles that would make it really clear (to the audience) that, of course, these are real hunters, and real people, rather than actors working their way through lines of dialogue. If there was an episode where the JA and JP needed to make Sam and Dean larger and realer than life it was this one, and they really, really didn’t. A lot of episodes have been saved from being complete pieces of mediocrity by a strong scene or two with these leads (if not guest stars) but they seriously dropped the ball here.
If I were feeling conspiratorial, I'd say that this recent trend to placing other actors in the role of Sam and Dean (or for that matter having JP play Lucifer) springs from the writers making the point that JA and JP aren't the only possibilities for playing them. The actors playing Barnes and Damien may not have made a particularly convincing Sam and Dean, but they came off as more realistic (and, as we went on, sympathetic) people.
Other Comments
1) I wish I could have gotten a better look at those posters on stage. Was there a photo of JA on one of them?
2) So does Becky borrowing Chuck’s phone from his pants indicate they were already sleeping together before the episode started?
3) So they drove all night to get to the inn. Wow, Sam and Dean must obviously be angels in disguise because they seem to run through a lot of episodes on next to no sleep.
4) I’m surprised Sam didn’t suspect the clown of being up to no good.
5) Is the reference to the wealthy Scandinavian investor a shout out to someone?
6) The raspy, growly voices made me laugh. Hopefully there will be less of this in the future rather than more.
7) I also laughed at the Lennon/McCartney and Jagger/Richards shoutouts. As Mike pointed out, those names are far too familiar for Sam and Dean to use on cases, so I liked how Kripke wormed them in here, where their obviousness was the point.
8) I should also add I quite liked the con director. He seemed familiar to me, but I thought the role was actually the best one of all the “con type” portrayals.
9) “But seriously dude, don’t eat my Skittles.” Heh, can’t imagine where that reference came from.
10) I like how in Letitia’s first appearance to Alex she saves him when he’s tied up and being thrown around (presumably by the invisible three kids). That was a nice hint that I didn’t even catch the first time around.
11) I liked the mirroring of the drink scenes. And also the way in which “dead chick”’s use of her cell phone was set up. No surprise that it was all the Dean players who kept hitting on her, nor her response to them. That’s what would happen to Dean if he didn’t, you know, look like JA.
Her comment about him not being afraid of women made me laugh though, because Mike had pointed out earlier that at an actual SPN con where people were LARPing you’d see a sea of Ellens and Jos in the room. And if Dean walked into a room filled with Ellens? You’d see a man afraid of women.
12) Why was a map of the area hidden in the painting frame anyway? Who would have done that and why?
13) Wow, that Becky, she’s subtle.
14) So, a guy with the County Historical Society is working a weekend night? And they call the congoers geeks.
15) Uhm, if there’s a cemetery on the grounds why do they need a map to it to begin with? And wow, Sam is an amazing expert on maps to gauge at a glance that the map’s a century old at least (we already learned in past episodes what a photographic memory he has to have also read it so quickly).
16) Why is it that Dean’s the one who’s so fed up by Damien and Barnes running through the Asylum confrontation? Shouldn’t it be Sam who is beyond uncomfortable having to listen to that? Especially after what’s gone down since?
17) Bobby and Rufus, hee! But looked at another way, interesting that Sam was put in the role of the obsessive and paranoid Rufus.
18) You know, given that we already had two people standing around doing nothing but holding flashlights, I found it completely incomprehensible that Sam was, instead of standing shotgun at the ready for Letitia’s appearance, as even we know he should have been after so many salt and burns, he was just looking around and distracted enough to get sent flying. Dean’s already doing all the digging, then he also has to do all the rescuing as well. Why does Sam even need to show up? He’s about as useful as a LARPer.
19) What kind of fans are Damien and Barnes if they don’t know how to do a salt and burn? I mean they were just quoting Asylum for crying out loud!
20) “How original, Supernatural bringing you more creepy children.” HA! Best laugh of the night.
21) Becky must have a serious thing for Chuck if she’s not even noticing the guy sitting next to her.
22) ”Just give her the puppy dog thing, ok?” Heh.
23) I don’t get how the fake Letitia was supposed to fool the ghost kids. Like they need to be tipped off by an ill-timed ring tone that she’s not the real thing? This didn't make any sense to me.
24) Did we really need the Bionic Woman sound effect when Chuck swung the microphone stand just to make that whole sequence extra cheesy?
25) On the one hand, it was nice to see some acknowledgment of how tough digging up graves is (not to mention that these days most are overlaid with cement so you can’t just break through to them anyway). But it ends up being the lighter that gets used for dramatic tension? More importantly though, why would they gather the bones OUT of the graves when they’re already pressed for time? Wouldn’t that also run the risk of leaving unburned bone pieces in the grave holes?
26) I suspect there’s an awful lot of fan board reading going on in the SPN offices. I mean why else cast an overweight Dean and a big nosed Sam?
27) Barnes sells stereo equipment? Now there’s a dying profession. Kind of funny that “Sam” is the apparent music aficionado.
28) Ok, I laughed at Sam finding the ability to go on after Becky. And also reminding Chuck that they have guns.
29) Exactly why does Becky decide to suddenly remember the issue with the Colt and tell Sam? What would make her think Sam didn’t know? What would make her think they didn’t have the Colt with them already?
30) Chuck’s comment about not being as big a fan as Becky was a rather nice nod to all the attention to detail that fans put in.
31) I enjoyed Chuck’s little ad-libs at the end and Sam and Dean signaling him that he could stop. The bit about Nancy McKeon amused me in particular. The Jumping the Shark comment was both brave and unfortunate. It was brave in acknowledging what may really be the last straw for a lot of people in how this season has been going so far. But it was also unfortunate because the actual JtS episode was a fine episode in many ways, and just highlights the difference between playing with a cliché while putting a unique SPN spin on it, and writing a script that reads like a magnetic cliche set result.