Hello! This time I thought I’d review the milestone 200th episode of Supernatural season 10 — written so it makes sense even if you’ve never seen the show!
The defining feature of American TV is how long a show can run. This one is currently up to season 13. American series get cancelled the moment the ratings dip, so reaching season 13 really is remarkable.
Two hundred episodes is a serious achievement, and you can feel the production team rising to it. It’s wonderful.
“There are too many seasons, I’ll never catch up” — I know that’s what some of you are thinking! You’re wrong!
Watch the first episode of season 1, and if it doesn’t grab you, fine, no harm done. And if it does grab you, then you’ve just found something you can enjoy for a very long time!
So please don’t write off long-running series before you’ve tried them.
This is a monster-of-the-week show about hunting down evil spirits. Demons, angels, ghosts, monsters — anything goes.
The two leads are as follows.
In season 10 the Mark of Cain — inherited from the Cain of the Bible — causes no end of friction between him and his brother.
In season 10 he fights with Dean precisely because he’s worried about him, with the Mark of Cain changing who Dean is.
Important
Because Supernatural will basically do anything, in the world of Supernatural there is a published book series called Supernatural — and the story of those books is this show.
Why does that happen? The author of the books is a character called Chuck, introduced around season 4. Chuck has apparently been given the role of prophet by God, and the conceit is that he’s been writing Supernatural without ever realising what it was. He’s a prophet, not a fortune teller. So he isn’t writing the future — he’s turning what has already happened into novels.
Inside the show, the Supernatural books are apparently not very popular, and they have a cult following, complete with fujoshi who enjoy shipping the brothers together. The fun of it is how meta that is — it’s exactly the position Supernatural occupies in the real world lol
But the thing that matters for episode 200 is this: both brothers are mentally worn down.
Keep that in mind as we go!
Season 1, episode 1 is here.
Right, let’s get into it.
At a girls’ high school, the drama club is rehearsing.
Marie, who runs the club, is a bit of a tyrant. The teacher supervising, who doesn’t think much of this musical, walks out.
On her way home, that teacher is carried off by a scarecrow.
Sam and Dean arrive to investigate the teacher’s disappearance.
Asking the drama club around, it turns out their musical is — of all things — the Supernatural novels! To these girls Supernatural is fiction, so there’s no malice in it, but the brothers are speechless.
And the musical has some distinctly slashy scenes, which leaves the pair thoroughly put off.
They conclude the abduction isn’t a monster’s doing — and then another club member is taken.
Reconsidering it as a monster after all, they investigate again, and find it’s the work of a goddess: Calliope.
Calliope possesses writers — novelists, playwrights — and clears away anything standing between the work and the world. But once the work is out there, she kills the person she possessed. This time she has attached herself to Marie. The scarecrow was Calliope’s creation too, taking away anyone who was in Marie’s way.
Learning that her own life is at stake, Marie reins in her tyrant streak and ends up stepping into the lead role at the last minute, which is its own ordeal — but the brothers manage to put Calliope down mid-performance. And the musical goes over rather well with the audience.
With that dealt with, the brothers settle in to watch the show. In it, the series’ theme song, “Carry On Wayward Son,” is sung.
When the musical ends, Marie tells the brothers about the Sam and Dean she carries in her head. And then the brothers set off for the next town…
A goddess as the antagonist this time. Given this show has given us Zeus and Lucifer, I wasn’t especially surprised lol
What makes episode 200 so good is the ending. As you can see in the video above, the whole journey so far is laid out against “Carry On Wayward Son.” Watching it, the brothers must have been remembering how it all started.
And Dean, allowed to wear a face that serious — wonderful performance. It got me too. The final conversation with Marie, and the brothers taking stock of all the friction between them, was lovely as well.
Episode 200 really is a summation of everything up to that point. It’s a script that gets both the audience and Sam and Dean remembering the beginning — a return to the roots, and a metaphor for a fresh start. Honestly, this show is just good.
If you’re going to start watching American TV, I’d point you at Supernatural first.
This episode is available here.
Season 1, episode 1 is here.
On July 24, 202…
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