Supernatural

It's definitely time to start wondering how long Charlie has before they kill her off. I'd like it if they kept her around, but we know how that goes on this show. I predict one more appearance where she helps them with her 733t sk1llz, followed by a tragic death episode somewhere near a season finale.

Garth, on the other hand, could stick around for a very time, as long as it's mainly for telephone conversations where we don't hear him, so the actor doesn't have to get paid.

Hey, sometimes you can only rise to the top of one particular hill, so it might as well be the geeky one in this case. ;)

It really is these quirky one-off episodes I love the most, and this episode definitely delivered. I don't think it's possible to nerd-bait any more than this episode did. I mean:

a) Felicia Day
b) Felicia Day as a lesbian
c) Felicia Day as a lesbian making out with a hot fairy
d) LARP
e) Dean getting into costume and enjoying it
f) The final scene

Lots of LOL moments, and it was just fun all-around. So this now shoots into my top 3, joining the other two one-offs I loved the most. The list: Weekend at Bobby's, The French Mistake, LARP and the Real Girl.

She got to play a badass commando in Epitaph part 1&2 of Dollhouse, and nailed it. She also did an episode of Lie To Me as a schoolteacher. I agree, though, I always associate her with geekery and MMOs, but that's mostly because I watched The Guild and her 'Do You Want to Date My Avatar' music video.

edit: also, I'll just leave this here.

I object to this show's obviously fabricated depiction of LARPing as some kind of vacation school for hot, young, sex-crazed, equal-opportunity actresses. That has to be a damn lie, because if it's not, then I will be a very sad panda.

And I suspect that, unlike...say, Amy Acker (another from the Whedon family who would have been in similar parts), Felicia Day is content with her career being this and this adjacent sorts of things. She's clearly interested in this sort of thing. Though the Dragon Age 2 scenes playing on a constant loop in the computer tent was maybe a little much. Given that this is the sort of thing that her very own series she made all by herself is about, I'd say she's probably alright. Also, she'll be somewhat limited by her size and shape anyway. No matter what, Felicia Day is always going to look kind of nerdy. It's unavoidable. She's making the most of it.

For the episode, it's not their best joke show (nothing will ever top Wishful Thinking, pretty much ever), but it's better than some of the ones they've done recently, and given that this show is at least going to be around for a couple more years (it picked up hell of viewers when it moved into what is basically its old timeslot behind the live action DC character show), it's good to see it picking up some spirit and direction.

I also wouldn't be so certain that Charlie is going to die. The show doesn't universally kill its characters. Sometimes it just vanishes them (Chuck, who needs to come back and play god at some point), or it keeps them kind of awkwardly at phone distance while they go shoot their entire other show that they probably get paid more for anyway (Garth is kind of a bigger deal on Legit than he is here). For that matter, I don't think that we know that whassisface the crazy guy who temporarily replaced Bobby last season is absolutely gone. I think they just found a trailer full of blood, didn't they?

Frank, who left only a trailer full of blood behind? Oh I'm sure he's not dead. The nice leviathans just took him off to live on a farm somewhere, and he is very happy.

Frank is dead, baby. Frank is dead.

Garth is the new Bobby. This is something that is made incredibly clear in the last episode.

edit: hell Brian, just call it Arrow. Your bizarre Hollywood-speak and obscure (granted, sometimes not) references to various actors and previous shows makes it near-impossible to read and respond to. Dumb it down for us occasionally, wouldja?

The point there being that Supernatural was originally born to go after Smallville, it wandered around in the desert losing followers for a few years, and now that there's a new Smallville it seems to have gotten its viewers all back, so it's probably here for awhile.

And for Frank, I find it curious that he didn't die on camera. This show's basic pitch, way back in the beginning, is that you get a different horror movie every week, and not having Frank die on camera seems discontinuous with that notion. Given that Garth has his own show just now, I'm forced to wonder if Frank might not show up again at some point to avoid the talking on the phone schtick becoming too obtrusive.

Given that it's Frank, it may have just been his best effort yet at dropping off the grid.

so, thoughts on this week (As Time Goes By)? I liked the reverse on time travel (our heroes meet a time traveller who wants to mess with their present) but Henry seemed a little smaller than life to me. However, apparently the Winchesters come from a long line of Hollywood model types. /whistle

I really dug this week's story, but the girlfriend thought Harry's disdain for hunters was forced, which I get.

I will lay money that at some point before the series ends we find out that after a Man of Letters' final initiation s/he learns the names of the "elite hunter" bloodlines and the list includes "Campbell."

Also, as Mr. W points out, Man of Letters sounds like a placeholder name while the writers came up with something badass. I for one thought he was heading to a Knights Templar meeting, but maybe that's a hangover from my Secret World phase.

Hah, just saw this on the supernatural wiki recap of the episode:

So that was an interesting episode. I like that they've gotten a new Batcave to replace Bobby's place. It will be interesting to see if they will bother with re-building the MoL network.

I loved the batcave reference.. I thought it was a great episode. Liked the Gholam, Nazi necromancers! What more can you ask for from Supernatural.

Isn't it spelled Golem? Not to be a pedant, but that's how I've always seen it spelled outside of Wheel of Time.

I LOVED THIS EPISODE SO MUCH

<-- librarian

Sam knows the LOC! and he cut his hair! I'm a Sam girl again /swoon

NAZI NECROMANCERS!!

I would guess golem is one of those things like Chanukah that can be transliterated in a variety of ways, but golem is the AD&D spelling so it's the one I know ;p

I liked the way they did the golems' speech patterns. Usually silent, but when he does talk, it's very fast, very deep, and always grammatically correct.

This seasons' arc is shaping up to be low-key compared to previous ones. Obviously the finale will involve the new prophet and the anti-demon/anti-angel tablets, and they'll probably work Dean's purgatory buddy in somehow. But there hasn't been the kind of constant acceleration towards a big final confrontation that we've seen in other seasons. I'm not complaining, because the one-off episodes have all been good. Also, you can only threaten to end the world so many times before it starts to become ho-hum.

I suspect that the season is playing lower key because the show already knows it's back for at least one more year, and probably more at the rate they're going. They've got time to breathe for a change.

I've liked both of these - particularly the Golem one. That episode was genuinely funny at points in ways that sometimes the show has not been. I very much appreciate that.

I don't quite understand why Kevin hasn't been secreted away to this magically warded sanctum they've just come into, considering that he's the most wanted person in the universe so far as Hell is concerned.

That's a good question. But apparently he's somewhere super protected already?

He doesn't have an archangel protecting him, obviously. Kind of running short on archangels these days. Did they ever specify exactly how many there were?

I don't think they have but typically there are seven. Of those we've seen Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. I seem to remember the show mentioning Metatron once so that's four. The other three names vary a lot depending on which lore you go with, but a lot of Christian mythology agrees that there are seven.

So I'm working today (my occasional Saturday shift) and it's slow, so I looked it up on supernaturalwiki

Michael, Lucifer, Gabriel, Raphael, and Metatron have all been referred to as archangels. It's never been said that they are the only archangels, but if there are others they kept awfully quiet in Seasons 4-6.

Lucifer and Michael are locked in the cage, Gabe and Raphael died in the Civil War. It's unknown where Metatron is or if he is still in existance. He is identified as the archangel who transcribed the Word of God onto the Season 7-8 tablets, but has not been seen or mentioned as a current entity.

Lucifer: "There's only five things in all of creation that that gun [the Colt] can't kill, and I just happen to be one of them." Afaik no one ever follows up on this, but I've been puzzling over it. It would make sense that if he is (or was) an archangel, and there are 5 of them, they would be the 5 "things."

Alternatively it could be five "categories" of things. Or becoming the devil makes him a different (unique) being, and his immunity implies nothing about archangels. And it depends on how he's defining "all of creation." I would guess that at least leaves Death out of the picture since he apparently was around before God and will be around after.

It's possible that I'm remembering wrong but I don't think Lucifer was ever counted among the seven.

Just saw the episode, loved it. Loved the new batcave, I loved Sam's cataloging of events and Dean's acceptance of it. I LOVED the Golem. So much good stuff that can take us in new directions for the final seasons.

The CW renews some other stuff and ' 'Supernatural'
http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/02/11/arrow-vampire-diaries-supernatural/

yay!

Awesome, but not surprising, IIRC CW plans to get ten seasons out of SPN, the 10th being the last, which is why they're likely taking their time and having a longer build up, which I like.

So... spending some time with my sister this week. She usually asks me if there's anything I want to watch. If this occurs, and I suggest Supernatural, what episode would you suggest starting with? Season1 Ep1 is obviously an important foundation episode, then jump to Season 1 Ep 9 ("Home") as discussed above? I would be tempted to do that, then pick and choose arc episodes until the end of Season 1, but maybe she would like the MOTW ones. I'm NOT showing her the racist truck one though.

Tough call. I personally think you get important character and world building stuff slogging through those first several post-pilot episodes (except Route 666....ugh...), but depending on how much time you have, you could likely just read episode synopses and then skip to ep 9.

I agree about the world building etc., plus it lays the ground for numerous call-backs in later seasons (one of the things I like about long-running shows) but hrm

It occurs to me that she may not have cable or internet yet (we're moving her into a new place in Portland OR) so this may not come up anyway.

so, showed her the pilot, she liked it!

oddly enough she had her own opinion on what to watch next ;p she wants to watch them all in order.

A wise choice. The show gets pretty awesome when demons show up, and then ridiculously awesome when Castiel joins the crew.

Favorite Castiel scene (probably paraphrased):

*Cas stumbles in, looking wasted*
Sam: "Cas, are you... drunk?"
Castiel: "I'm fine. I passed by a liquor store on the way over."
Sam: "...and?"
Castiel: "I DRANK IT"

It just makes me giggle imagining Castiel drinking the entire stock of a liquor store, and also because it makes me now imagine in my head "I DRANK ALL THE THINGS" thanks to this forum.

I know! The show kicks into gear for me when Cas shows up. I love drunk Cas and clueless Cas and nervous Cas and "I'm not a hammer" Cas and BAMF Cas (which we don't see that often but damn) and "I learned it from the pizza man" Cas. And she has to get through three whole seasons first! But I suppose it's worth it.

Don't forget potsmoking-hippie-cultist-orgy Cas in the episode where dickwad Zachariah shows Dean a possible future where Sam says yes to Lucifer!

And of course there's a video. I was sorta close!

Hippie Cas makes me want to cry actually. Although he is also funny. Life, and Dean, have so obviously broken his heart, yet he still follows Dean.

(I don't know exactly what this means but I think I "ship" Dean and Cas -- not necessarily romantically, although if the show takes them that way it would be kind of awesome)

My favorite Cas is "Unconvincing Liar Cas".

http://youtu.be/9jPTGP4UbWA?t=59s

Oh, that's a good one! I also love Clueless Cas. Voicemail? Good luck!

They kinda did, in a way, when Cas tells Sam that him and Dean "have a strong bond" when Sam keeps calling Cas while Dean is trapped in hell. One call from Dean, though, and Cas is there.

Misha said something at a con in November that they are going to explore that more this season. Although he might just have been teasing the Destiel crowd. :D

which they definitely do, viz.:

Hahahaha, that is awesome. Thanks for the vids.

PROFOUND BOND

not to mention the cosplay episode where they dedicate the whole thing to Sam and Dean slashfic. The writers at least know their audience.