Bobby's on a supply run when Balthazar (Sebastian Roche) arrives. He's seen the Godfather movie. Balthazar is big on movies isn't he? Just like Dean (Jensen Ackles) in a way. They wanted Dean to be the meat suit for the wrong angel, me thinks, last season. He draws a symbol on the window. Raphael's after him, which is no big thing. He's after everyone if you think about it, but let's not. Oh oops, he says that too. Cas (Misha Collins) is underground and wants to draw Cas out into the open. Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean go hurtling through the window into an alternate reality, of sorts.
Balthazar manages to give Sam a key before they leave, as Virgil (Carlos Sanz) comes after Balthazar. Surprise, surprise Sam and Dean end up on a TV show, the filming of Supernatural. Bobby singer (Brian Doyle Murphy) thinks the window part was good and Kevin (Jason Bryden) wants to freeze frame them. Sam asks the all important question of who Jared and Jensen are. Jensen/Dean gets his make-up removed. Dean: "I'm a painted whore." Jared/Sam is interviewed as the TV show is mentioned he thinks of the Twilight Zone. Their lives are a TV show. Not many watch the show. Sam tells Dean, "You're a Jensen Ackles and I'm something called a Jared Padalecki." Dean: "Polish." Dean's relieved to see his baby made it here. Yeah all of them!
Dean: "This whole place is bad touching me." Always come up with such a line for Dean, last time it was having to take rape shower. Dean prays for Cas and he turns up. Cas comments on the alternate reality. A bit like Bizarro Superman Dean says and Cas asks for the key. It's for the room where Balthazar keeps his weapons stash. Dean: "Amen Padaleski." Sam: "Lecki." Cas reads from the script. His name is Misha. Dean: "Misha, Jensen, what's with the names around here." Don't forget, Padaleski. Sam and Dean walk away and Cas/Misha Tweets he's just been pranked and he feels like one of them now.
They head to fake Dean's trailer and Sam asks who has a fish tank in a trailer. Dean: "apparently Jensen Ackles." Yeah it's easier to feed the fish! He also has a helicopter. Dean "Look at these male modelling SOBs - that's a great Blue Steel Sam." Jensen poking fun at his modelling days of long ago, ha. Then he mentions Blue Steel again as he did in season 2.7 The Usual Suspects episode when he got his mugshot taken, picking up a copy of the official magazine. Okay product placement, no need to rub it in. Hey I never got my book in!! Sam and Dean feature on the TV set.
Sam reads Jensen's from Texas and was on a soap opera, there's a clip on the Internet. Again Jensen will always get a mention wherever he ends up of his time on Days of Our Lives. The phone's out of soul range. Sam and Dean on the TV in the background was funny and Sam winks on screen. Dean thinks if they can get to a window and draw the symbols they can return home. He says everything's fake.
Bobby Singer, the producer is astonished Jared and Jensen are talking to each other (yeah as if they really don't!) Dean drives a prop car and their driver, Cliff, drops them off at Jared's house. "We're not even in America." Cue mansion. Sam: "I must be the star of this thing." Dean: "What am I Dracula?...George Hamilton Dracula." Meaning Dracula with a tan, cos George Hamilton always has a tan! Dean wonders what a camel is doing in the back. Genevieve (Genevieve Padalecki) calls it an alpaca. It's Ruby and she and Jared are married. Looking at the photo of Jared and Genevieve. Dean: "You married fake Ruby." Jensen's never been there and she's glad they're talking. Dean comments he did all right. Sam thinks he should work out her name. Funny Sam didn't Google himself but he did Jensen. Yet Sam had no qualms about spending the night with another man's wife and he has his soul back too!!
They order the things they need from the Internet and Jared has a poker table, seeing as he's into poker, Texas Hold Em. So is Jensen. Sam asks about disasters and earthquake spike. Genevieve recalls those from season 5 of the show. Sam and Dean pick up the package before it clears customs. Dean wants the set to be cleared but Bobby refuses. Commenting Dean Cain used to collaborate on Lois and Clark and he was a real actor. Meaning Jared and Jensen are just fads. Sam bought part of a dead person. Dean knows they'll have to do some 'acting' - on the same scene over and over. What on earth was Sam doing with his arms in that scene? He looked so darn hilarious. That's called emoting. Dean suggests Sam doesn't look at the camera. Dean's line about the gun in his mouth was rather insensitive.
Bobby calls Sera Gamble. Sam and Dean crash through the window but are still on the set. Sam thinks the spell can't work, there was no sign of the apocalypse. All the creatures are pretend and there aren't any hunters. The set looked like the one from season 5's Changing Channels in this scene and Virgil manages to get through and has no power here either. So Sam and Dean fight him and Virgil takes the key from Sam's pocket. Since season 3 Sam is forever having things stolen from that pocket of his and he never zips it up. In season 3.3 Bad Day at Black Rock it was Bela stealing the rabbit's paw from him and now the key.
Sera suggests she should fly up there, but Jared and Jensen don't know who she is, they need Eric Kripke instead, but she's meant to be running this. Eric has sold his other show, Octocobra. Misha Tweets again when he gets in his car about having the feeling someone is in the back of his car. So why doesn't have his own driver, cos he's not as big a star as Jared and Jensen ha. It's Virgil. Bobby asks if they want more money. Dean: "You already pay those jokers enough as it is." How does he know, he's only seen Jared's pad not his payslip. He then asks who names a character after himself, i.e. Bobby Singer. Sam realizes the key's gone.
Dean posits they're not actors but hunters - Winchesters and where they're from no one knows who they are. He calls Sam his brother. Dean: "We quit." Misha gets knifed in an ally by Virgil and what a sad and lonely way to go. Genevieve breaks the news about Misha. A tramp in the ally tells them about Raphael and he heard a voice answering. They need to return to the time and place of the crossing. Dean pays him with Canadian money (where'd that come from?) Virgil steals some guns. He's the weapons keeper of heaven. They need to get back home, their friends are there. Sam tells him they're not even brothers here.
Eric arrives and is shot as is Bobby. Perhaps someone wanted to make a statement about where the show is heading! Sera perhaps, ha. Oh wait she's meant to be running it, exactly. When Dean is fighting, Sam resorts to using the door. The symbol on the window appears and they get through to see Raphael (Lanette Ware) as a woman. Dean: "Dude looks like a lady." Had to get that in. Balthazar didn't give Sam the real key and he needed time to find the weapons and remove them, so they were distractions. Cas turns up and he has the weapons now. He takes Sam and Dean home. Cas knew of Balthazar's plan and he'd have done the same. Dean says they're broke. Sam: "At least we're talking."
So what did you make of this episode? Supernatural does have its tongue- in-cheek moments and surreal episodes, even, sometimes but this was an interesting meta episode and many fans enjoyed it, but the opinions were divided. Seeing as many of the jokes about Jensen and Jared had been done before.
"If there's a key, then there has to be a lock," could in some ways sum up this episode. If there's a Supernatural, there must be a send-up, jokey episode. There's nothing wrong with acting in one's self parody of oneself. Not much to say in terms of reviewing this episode - maybe I should have Tweeted like Misha. No stone was left unturned by the end of this one and Supernatural fans will know the references verbatim. If anyone was watching for the first time they'd think the show bonkers and never return, unless they're into self-effacing mockery. Sam and Dean talking to each other, well that should be Jared and Jensen talking to each other. Who came up with that one? At least Cas got his weapons and Raphael picked up the body of a chick! Now if that ain't funny.
The alternative world: so boring - everything was perfect, no evil until Virgil got there and proceeded to massacre the production team. It just got to signify how tedious an actor's life is (!) The episode being filmed in the alternate world is entitled Echo for obvious reasons. Misha actually sent a Tweet to his followers, "Hola, Mishamigos. J squared got me good. Really starting to feel like one of the guys." This was also sent by the real Misha.
This title was from Blazing Saddles (1974) where the fight scene in the Western is actually a film set and a choir sings a song entitled, The French Mistake. Still there was an underlying theme here, crucial to the season arc, so they didn't just have Sam and Dean pottering around a film set willy nilly or for the fun of it. Though that was an added bonus. No, it was to scare them into realizing there are worlds; realities out there which really are this frightening and "douche-induced." Oh and the scenes where the dudes have their heart-to-heart scenes on or in the Impala can never be cut!
Note the cowboy pic over Jared's head/ Sam's head for future reference. Also the tramp telling them, "The scary man killed the attractive crying man." A bit of a niggle, there was no supernatural element in this reality and yet Virgil was able to kill Misha and get a message through to Raphael, yet none of their symbols worked when Sam and Dean tried to get back home.
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