My Favorite Episodes of Season Six

This might change after I've watched the whole season over again (which I can't do until I get the DVDs, THANKS A LOT, stupid DVR), but for now, these were my favorite episodes of this season.

"Weekend at Bobby's"
Dean's edge aside, I loved getting insight into Bobby's life. There was so much humor, and pathos, too, because my god, he must be lonely.

"Clap Your Hands if You Believe"
The story-of-the-week was delightful, with evil fairies and alien abduction and "crazy" people who knew what they were talking about. But really, the best part was seeing Sam freed of the constraints of hiding himself from everyone. It was a step beyond knowing why he was acting so strange, and I loved watching him acting at a whole new level.

"Appointment in Samarra"
Death is just an awesome character, and Dean's courage in seeking him was fantastic. It was great to see Tessa again, especially with her attitude toward Dean. She was a little tired of his defiance of the natural order of things.

From episode 15 on, things just got really good. "The French Mistake," because I love the meta. "My Heart Will Go On," because of the way they changed everything. I had to laugh that they were driving a Mustang, because of Kripke planning to have them drive that, and being told by his neighbor that it's a good car for pussies. "Frontierland" and "Mommy Dearest," finding ways to bring back old threads and old guests. Samantha Smith just rocks every time she's on.

"Let it Bleed" killed me, with Dean making that big sacrifice, and I will forever be impressed with Jared Padalecki playing FOUR different versions of Sam in "The Man Who Knew Too Much."

So that's my list of favorites. What's yours?

Supernatural News

Director Guy Norman Bee set to direct three episodes next season.

More meta in store for Season 7.

Season 6 DVDs to release Sept. 13. One featurette to focus on Jensen's directorial debut.

Anyone else heard any other news?

How Far Do YOU Go?

I started watching Supernatural the summer between the first and second seasons. My cable package didn't have the WB for season 1, and though my best friend (*waves at Megan*) gave me the pilot, I didn't bother watching because it was too much effort for her to have to do that for me every week. But by season two, I had DirecTV, so I watched the first season on DVD via Netflix and was instantly hooked.

By the summer after season two, Megan and I had hooked other friends, and we missed the show so much, we started Supernatural Summer. Every week, some or all of us got together and watched a few episodes. Of course, back then, it was easy. Even after season 3, when we repeated Supernatural Summer, we could get through all three seasons by doing four episodes every week and maybe skipping "Bugs."

It got harder after that. Our lives were busier, and we couldn't meet every week. And, of course, with more seasons, we didn't have time to watch all the episodes. So I did it myself, season 1 through season 4.


can tell you the names of every episode in those first three seasons, and most of the ones in season 4. But of course, I've watched those first three a lot more than the last three, and I'm embarrassingly unfamiliar with episode titles in 5 and 6.

I wasn't sure I was going to bother watching this year. As we've discussed, that level of passion is hard to sustain past six seasons. But already, I'm missing the boys. I decided to start with season 4, the episodes I can't quote word-for-word. But then, the other night, I couldn't access the DVDs and I was worried about file degradation on my old DVR, so I started watching season 6 again. As soon as I log off here, I'm going to go watch episode 3. Probably some time in July, I'll dig out the DVDs and go back to season 4.
 

Mainly, I love rewatching because every story arc gives a new perspective to what came before. That makes watching a completely new experience. Yeah, some of it is marveling yet again how small Jared was in the beginning compared to now. But some of it is bittersweet relationship stuff flavored by what I know is coming for them.

Great. Now I want to start with the pilot again. I just LOVE that first fight scene between them!

I know my obsession goes far beyond most of my friends. How many times have YOU watched each season? Do you plan to rewatch any of season 6 this summer?

Meta Madness

On Michael Ausiello's TVLine he was asked if there would be any more meta episodes of Supernatural. Sera Gamble responded by saying, "We have not put the kibosh on meta. It’s completely about somebody pitching a story that would work for us.” Sera said the French Mistake would be hard to top but adds, "I thought we were never going to be able to do meta again long before ‘The French Mistake.’ And then that got pitched, and we had to do it, of course. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point in Season 7 or beyond, someone pitches something that enables us to do a fun episode like that again.”

Okay, so what kind of meta episode would you like to see? How would you break down the fourth wall?

Captioned photo credit: Tim Surettte, TV.com

Supernatural News

Okay, it's not easy to find news during hellatus.

Here's an article talking about Jim Beaver being a series regular and Misha being a special guest star.

Jensen took advantage of being in Nashville last week to go to the Country Music Awards. I like hiatus beard.

Jensen's wife Daneel will be in an NBC sitcom this summer called "Friends with Benefits."

That's all I've got, y'all! Anyone else?

I Heart Richard Speight Jr.

As Trish mentioned in her Wednesday post, she and I just attended the SALUTE TO SUPERNATURAL con in Nashville. Great time! And seeing the actors in person (all of whom were lovely to the fans) solidified my deep admiration for them--especially for my favorite guest star of all time, Richard Speight Jr. (aka The Trickster aka Gabriel). I didn't know this, but Nashville is actually his "hometown." Also, the people who put on this convention have already decided to come back to Nashville next year and Jensen/Jared are on board, so start making plans now!

We actually saw two panels with Richard--one on the first day, alongside Matt Cohen who plays John Winchester (and Michael!) in trips to the past, plus another on the second day, with Brock Kelly (young Dean in "After School Special") and Chad Lindberg (the awesome Ash, aka Dr. Badass.) You can tell Richard by the empty chairs in both sessions--because the man constantly moved, usually through the audience and paying particular attention to the back rows, where it was hardest to hear and see. I tried like crazy to snap pictures, but they're all a blur because the man is a bundle of nonstop energy! So the picture here is from Trish. I'm almost sorry we missed him as master of ceremonies for the Karaoke party the night before the con started!





Richard is a quick thinker, extremely funny, generous (he is soon to jump out of a plane in order to help raise money for a monument but all the guys there are active with different causes--Misha and Matt are about to go to Haiti to help build an orphanage!) Anyway, Richard is very personable and answered questions about everything from the recent Pepsi commercials (in which he got to snap and do some magic which got Pepsi fanmail) to guesting on Justified (he could not say enough good about Walton Goggins). But of course most questions were about Supernatural and he encouraged fans to write letters demanding his comeback :-D His pet theory is that Gabriel trapped an ACTUAL Trickster to model himself after. He wants to play the real Trickster escaped and his first prank should be to shrink Sam and Dean, especially Sam, and chase them around. Richard joked that the reason he doesn't stay on stage is so you can't see how short he is next to co-stars. Unfortunately, Richard is so nice that some fans took radical advantage--and began the nonstop HUG request, even requesting him to get Chad and Brock down off stage for "threesome" hugs. I was cringing like you wouldn't believe.

Chad was very laid-back about the whole thing (he actually DOES remind me of Ash, but without the mullet and he admits to not being very computer-saavy) but Brock seemed a little uncomfortable with the repeated manhandling (although once he'd started accepting hug requests, he never told anyone no. Seriously good sports). Okay, guys, if you've never been to a con, here are my two pieces of advice: Wear comfortable shoes and don't molest the guest celebrities kind enough to appear.

BTW, the guests got asked lots of miscellaneous questions, from the random "what's your favorite color?" "what would be your spirit animal?" to the vaguely inappropriate, which I won't be repeating here. Toward the end, Brock Kelly, looking slightly dazed by things, gave one of my favorite answers. He was asked what he would do if time travel turns out to be possible, and he said he'd like to see the future. "I'd go forward. I'd just go and go and go until there was nothing left. Then I'd back up a little bit."

These panels reminded me of a big reason I love Supernatural. Yes, Jared and Jensen are completely awesome, but they often find just the right guest stars, even for single appearances and supporting roles. It was suggested by one of the fans that sarcastic "party-angel" Balthazar was a replacement for Gabriel, leading to several jokes by Richard including "glad to hear he's dead...I want my damn job back."

So if YOU were going to write an episode where you brought back the Trickster, young John, young Dean or Ash, how would you do it?

Supernatural Conference, Part 1

This past weekend, fellow Supernatural Sister Tanya and I attended a Supernatural fan conference held in Nashville. We found out about this conference last Labor Day weekend while in a line for a panel at Dragon*Con, and when the Silver (second-tier) weekend passes went on sale we nabbed a couple. I was actually nervous waiting for those Silver packages to go on sale, afraid the con would sell out while only the Gold packages were available. We didn't need the Gold package because that included the hotel room, and we didn't need that expense because I only live a few miles from the hotel and planned to drive it each day.

We did get our Silver packages finally, and last Friday Tanya made the drive up for the weekend. Nothing better than a visit with a good friend while being fangirls. There wasn't much going on con-wise on Friday night, so we just went out to dinner and enjoyed catching up. I had just finished up with some crazy deadlines earlier in the week and was ready for a weekend of pure fun.

On Saturday morning, we headed to the hotel to register. We noticed right off that this conference was much different than what we were used to at Dragon*Con. Not only was the crowd much smaller (well, most every con crowd would be compared to the 40,000-50,000 people who attend Dragon*Con each year), but also there were very few costumes and not all that many Supernatural-themed T-shirts. It seemed that the majority female crowd had opted to dress nicer for their upcoming photos with Jared and Jensen. Yep, you read that right -- Jared and Jensen were in the house. We also had assigned seats, which is so much different than the crazy rush and enormously long lines at Dragon*Con. We were in row K right in the middle of the stage, so nice seats. They called those getting photos made with the stars by row, so we had a bit to wait. But we're never without something to read, so when we weren't talking or having our photo taken next to a huge poster of the Impala (because we knew MJ loves it so) Tanya was reading one of the Game of Thrones books and I was reading my friend T.R. Ragan's new thriller, Abducted.

Finally it was time to get in line for our photos with Jared and Jensen. I've had photos taken with several stars at Dragon*Con, but I'll admit to being a wee bit jittery for this one. When we finally got into the room where the photos were being taken and saw J&J, it was a bit of a surreal moment. Like many TV stars, they were "rocking the hiatus beards" (a term used on Twitter by one of the guys from Castle, not sure which one). Tanya and I, geek girls that we are, actually were wearing Supernatural T-shirts, and I was wearing one I'd gotten off CafePress that said, "Don't fear the Reaper. The Winchesters took care of it." The guys read it as I stepped up for my photo and Jensen said, "Nice." Yes, I'm a goob because that made me smile like a fool, I'm sure. And yes, Jared really is tall (6'5"). I'm used to being around tall guys (hubby is 6'3" and brother-in-law is 6'7"), but it was still notable.

After lunch, we headed back to the ballroom where all the main sessions were being held. First up was the panel with Jared and Jensen. As you might imagine, much clapping and screaming ensued when they took the stage. They answered audience questions, talked about the show and goofed around about Jared's new Twitter account, which seemed to mightily confuse Jensen. They, as well as some of the other stars, talked about how they had no idea what would happen next season as they haven't yet seen any scripts. So evidently our guesses are as good as anyone's.

Following the panel, Jared and Jensen signed autographs. This took a good long while. One of the conference organizers said that this was the biggest crowd for Jared and Jensen at any of their cons to date. But we finally got our autographs (part of our weekend package), and let me just say that I was both happy and relieved that J&J were both really nice. It's going to be a little odd next season watching the show knowing that I've met them. Sort of like when I watch Castle and realize I've met Nathan Fillion. Tanya and I were talking about how if we could go back and tell our childhood selves that we would someday meet all these stars, we wouldn't have believed it.

So much happened at the conference that Tanya and I will be devoting several posts to it. Check back on Friday to read Tanya's post on another aspect of the weekend.

Breaking News

May I have your attention please.

Jared Padalecki is now on Twitter. (@jarpad)

(Sorry, I had a typo in the link. Is fixed now.)

(It is too breaking news, he only posted his first tweet 15 hours ago!)

According to Zap 2 It, he confirmed to the Nashville Supernatural convention crowd that it's him, and Misha Collins and Jim Beaver both tweeted at him.

jumblejim Jim Beaver
@jarpad You'll be sorry!!!!

mishacollins Misha Collins
RT @jarpad: I changed my pic buy it hasn't shown?... Twitter doesn't like me :( No. They just don't allow u to post photos of testicles.

(Note: "buy" instead of "but" was an original @jarpad typo. I want everyone to know it's not Misha who doesn't care about accuracy. ;) )

In 15 hours, Jared has over 30,000 followers. Let's see how high he climbs, how fast.