Supernatural – The Monster at the End of the Book

Larp Along With Me, The Best Is Yet To Be
by Sylvia Bond
Supernatural Episode Review – Season 4, Episode 18
“The Monster At the End of the Book”

This week’s ep was beyond clever and good and was the furthest thing away from craptastic that I have ever seen. I mean, except for all of Season One and all of Season Two, which set the bar pretty high for Show. Yes, even including Bugs, which was a pretty rockin’ ep especially in comparison with Malleus Maleficarum, Long Distance Call, and other eps of that ilk. Show brought it together in a big way in one of those self-referential eps that every TV show feels the need to do, playing it close to the edge in a way that could have gone horribly wrong at any moment. But it didn’t. It stayed true to itself all the way down the line, stayed in character, never jumped the shark, not even close. Plus, I got a laundry room scene, which made me feel like I was going to loose my mind with pleasure, but I’ll get to that later.

Here’s the basic premise. Sam and Dean discover that there’s this guy, Chuck, who has written a series of books that tell the story of Sam and Dean, and describes their lives as they lived it. Each book depicts an episode, starting from the Pilot and through the end of Season Three, where Dean goes to hell. The boys hook up with Chuck, there are many clever conversations where the boys discuss destiny and fate and try not to argue so much, and then the Soap Angel comes along and tells them that the writer is not so much a writer as he is a prophet. There’s a side story where Sam confronts Lilith, there is a stalemate, and Mr. Z enters the scene to tell the writer to keep on writing. Doesn’t that sound clever? It was.

Sam and Dean quickly learn that as Chuck writes, so shall it be. They learn to abide, or at least to attempt to abide, by his stories. They get hold of a story that’s never been published, and read parts aloud to each other. It’s clever, because as they’re reading, the story they’re reading unfolds before them. The story tells them not to argue, so they exchange glances agreeing to this and then end up arguing anyway. Dean isn’t supposed to order a bacon cheeseburger, which is especially difficult since it comes so highly recommended, so he orders a tofu veggie burger. Which is misdelivered to his table as the aforementioned bacon cheeseburger.

All of their attempts to avoid their destinies, be it a plastic sheet over the back window of Dean’s beloved Impala to the pink flower bandages all over Dean’s face, there’s nothing they can do. Watching Sam and Dean read their own story aloud was funny though uncomfortable, as Sam, in particular tended to read in an overly dramatic way, making phrases like “Dean’s beloved Impala,” come across as stilted and purple. This was probably done on purpose to mock, though most fan fiction, I assure you, is much, much more sophisticated than that. (And Dean does love the Impala, so don’t make fun of that, okay, or you’ll hurt his feelings.) There were so many clever, well-written and acted scenes, if I tried to cover them all, I’d be here all day and all next week. But I’ll talk about a few because I want to and because I can.

First up: Interior motel room, day. Dean is spread out artfully on the bed reading the books while Sam does research on his laptop. It’s a pretty basic scene, nothing we’ve not seen before, except Dean is complaining about being naked and having sex all the time in the books, and has anyone bothered to tell him how provocative it is when he poses like that? Then Sam shows Dean the fansite about the books, which, when Dean looks at, he remarks that fans sure do complain a lot. Hey! I resemble that remark and I’d like to lodge a complaint! Of course we complain, we wouldn’t complain if we didn’t care, you know? I also wanted to jump up and defend my status as a Samgirl, too, which is just silly, because why on earth would I need to defend my choices to a fictional character? Such is the power of an ep like this that comes very close to breaking through the fourth wall, and manages to make a running commentary about both itself and its devoted audience.

Then, oh, yeah. As Dean peruses the websites, he asks “What’s slash again?” As Sam explains that it is a story where Sam and Dean are together (as in sexually), the boys make disgusted faces. Then Dean asks, “They do know we’re brothers, right?” Sam answers, “That doesn’t seem to matter.” Dean finishes up with, “That’s disgusting!” as he slams Sam’s laptop closed. I was completely astonished and made somewhat giggly that Show would actually go there, however, the issue of slash has been raised, and it would be disingenuous of me not to take up the baton. Heretofore now, I have been very circumspect in not talking about it, seeing as there are fans of Show and indeed of Pink Raygun who were neither interested nor wanted their noses rubbed in it. Now, however, the doors have been opened, and in spite of any reticence on my part, I must, I must!

First, you have to know what slash fan fiction is all about. Fan fiction is a story that takes the characters from a TV show and uses the setting and the characters to tell a story, either in keeping with the original premise of the show, or that alters that universe in some way. There is plenty of fan fiction that doesn’t involve two same-sex characters having a sexual relationship, there’s gen, and het, and hurt/comfort, there are death fics, there are wingfics, and other subgenres I’m sure haven’t been invented yet. The second aspect, the slash aspect, is harder to understand at first, and I’ve heard lots of people ask why would someone write about two guys having sex? Well there are lots of good reasons, any fan fiction writer of slash can tell you hers (and we mostly are women), so these are my answers.

To begin with, fan fiction is like porn, but it’s not like regular Hugh Hefner porn. It’s more a type of writing that presses our buttons and rocks our world. It’s like saying cheese fries are porn, or some guys’ necks are like porn. There’s also feet porn and hair porn and nose porn. There’s freckle porn and dimple porn and forearm porn and eyelash porn. There’s mouth porn and whumpage porn and angst porn and emo porn and glower porn, and so on. You see? Via fan fiction, we get our pleasure where we want to, not where we are told to.

And then there’s slash, which is porn on top of porn, because in addition to having really good writing about what we want it to be about, we have guys boffing like rabbits, but in an emotionally satisfying way. There is PWP, which is Plot, What Plot, in that the whole of the story is geared to the porn. And then there are those long, drawn out stories, thousands and thousands of words long, full of satisfying emo and angst and hotty hot sex. The most important aspect is the emotional payoff. I won’t give you any links to said stories; the onus is on you to find them for yourself.

As far as Show goes, there are many fans of Show who write slash fan fiction about the boys, and it’s called wincest, which is a blend word of the words Winchester and incest. I know the concept is a little strange the first time you encounter it, but I assure you that Show is not unique in inspiring such a genre. For starters, slash fan fiction has been around since at least the mid-seventies, and perhaps even before, starting with stories that paired Kirk and Spock in a sexual relationship and quickly moving through every male-male (and some female-female) pairings that could be found. (Some fans will slash anything that moves, you know.) As each story was written, boundaries would appear between what had been done, what was accepted, and stuff that had never been tried before, the first boundary being getting two non-gay guys realistically into bed. After that? The subject matter was wide, wide open, with everything behind the boundary seeming tame in comparison to what lay beyond the pale.

When Show came around, rumor has it that Show decided to make the characters brothers so that they could be close and intimate and know each other’s history without sex being the issue. That was a boundary, because to put these characters together in a sexual relationship would require crossing a huge social taboo, not to mention several laws that aren’t going to change anytime soon. Fans blew through that like tissue paper. It didn’t even slow them down; they merely re-inked their pens and kept on going. As to why writers crossed the taboo, I don’t know. There are lots of theories, my pet one is that breaking this taboo allowed writers and readers to experience an even higher high. Like adrenaline junkies, fan fiction that just having two men going at it got to be a little tame, and no longer was a little bedroom drama enough. Hence, the incest. I’m neither condoning nor condemning here, my goal is merely to clarify for your viewing pleasure. (And because I feel like quite the daring thing doing it.)

But like I said, this isn’t an isolated phenomenon; Show is not unique. Several other shows that are on prime time right now have brother pairings that have inspired more than one ream of incest-slash fan fiction. I’ll name a few for you, shall I? There is Numb3rs, with Charlie and Don, which is called Eppescest; Heroes with Nathan and Peter, which is called Petrellicest; and Prison Break with Michael and Lincoln, which doesn’t have a snappy name that I know of. You think I’m kidding? Just google it; put Charlie/Don in any search engine and see what you come up with. It’s all over the place.

By bringing up slash, Show seems to be again administering the usual tsk tsk enjoinder to tell fans that Show does not approve of them putting Dean and Sam in a slash relationship. It also gives Sam and Dean (and thus Padalecki and Ackles) the opportunity to join in the chorus of disapproval and to speak outright against this practice. Frankly I can understand their perspective because if you don’t read or write slash, it’s difficult to understand the attraction, especially when it breaks the incest taboo on a regular basis without so much as a nod to the Westermarck effect, which proves time and again that most kids raised as siblings (whether related or not) develop an aversion to having carnal relations with each other. Go read the research for yourself. It proves that wincest flies in the face of so many well-established conventions it’s not even funny.

That’s not going to stop the fan fiction writers and indeed it shouldn’t; fan fiction is free of any and all constrictions and can do as it pleases. There’s no corporate suits the writers have to answer to, no publisher, no judge or jury, you can write backwards, forwards, you can write from any point of view, you can write in third or first person, you can place your action anywhere, anytime, you can have an alternate reality, you can give the boys wings if you so desire. Anything. Fan fiction is its own form of writing without walls or rules or guidance. And for every story there is an audience waiting.

The worst fan fiction is no worse than anything that’s being published right now. The best fan fiction will blow you away. It’s written for women by women, it tells the stories we want to tell, the way we want them told, without any nods to the male-dominated publishing industry, and flying directly in the face of the male dominated TV industry, which surely never predicted that their collection of cops, FBI agents, professors, astronauts, lawyers, doctors, soldiers, firemen, anthropologists, cowboys, and so on, manly men all, would be conscripted to be used as entertainment for a bunch of women.

Well, nuts to you! You’re all so busy entertaining yourselves and each other, you left us all unattended, and now look! We’re entertaining ourselves better than you ever could, using your characters, and in addition to which, we give it all away. For free! Can you stand it? Can you just hear all those ulcers burning? Oh never mind, you. Just go away and dream up another prime time scoop of pabulum; we’ll be sure to turn it into something more emotionally satisfying quicker than you can pick a corporate sponsor.

Alrighty then. Back to reviewing the ep, which has a totally fun scene where the boys confront the publisher of the books, which are a cult hit only, with not much mainstream interest. The publisher thinks Chuck is a genius, and Sam and Dean are hesitant to prove that they are fans in order to get Chuck’s private information, but they do. They prove it by answering fannish questions that the publisher rattles out like an ex-commando leader. Just sos you know, the questions she asked weren’t very hard, except for Sam’s LSAT scores, which I don’t believe were previously available. Birthdays of Sam and Dean, the year and make of the car?  C’mon. Talk about a cakewalk. What about something hard? Like the military unit that The Dad belonged to? Or how old Sam was when he got his first 45 pistol? Or how Sam likes his coffee? The last thing The Mom ever said to Dean? Still too easy? Well, I guess they’re all easy questions when you’re a True Fan.

The scene is part acknowledgement and part shout out, as well as being part poking fun at the fact that fans are sometimes very intense, rabid, and get far, far too excited about things. The publisher represents all fans, those who love Show, and know the smallest detail, and I had to laugh, because, um, yeah. I recognized myself in there. Especially when she starts talking (and getting worked up about) how cool it is when Dean cries. (Except, you know, Sam cries a lot too!) I loved her remark where she says, “I don’t want any smartass article making fun of my boys.” Because, you know, fans are possessive as well as protective; you mock Sam and Dean at your peril. At your peril. The tattoo reveal was hysterically funny, too, especially Dean’s expression when Sam starts undoing his shirt to show the publisher just how serious a fan he and Dean are. But then, how could you not be a fan of yourself and your own story?

Then Sam and Dean go to visit Chuck. The scene was set with the usual detritus around the computer to show you how glamorous a writer’s life is. Then, as Chuck is confronted with what he thinks are rabid fans, he tells them to get a life. Fans do have lives, you know. They have the whole world to choose from, and they choose this; I could go into a deeper discussion here, but I think this was merely a play off of Shatner’s famous quip in the face of his rabid fans, realizing only afterwards that it was the fans that kept his fame alive. Anyway, the part I liked best here was the idea of characters coming to life. Of course in this universe Sam and Dean are real, but Chuck must have just about had a heart attack when they showed up, and what a cool moment for him! Also fun was watching Dean reveal his smarts (which I always knew he had) when he discusses which type of Vonnegut moment Chuck is talking about. (Also the point where Chuck imagines he’s a god, because sometimes, that’s what it feels like. And, as a god, you feel bad about putting your characters through hell. But then, that’s what makes writing fun.)

Next is the fantastic laundry room scene. Long have I read of the laundry room, long have I imagined it. I mean, yeah, I’ve read a truckload of fan fiction where the boys do laundry. Since fans are interested in the details, and there are charts and lists of the boys limited stash of apparel, naturally, laundry would come into the picture. Moreover, the laundry room, at least in fan fiction, is a place where you find Sam and/or Dean kicking back with a soda or a beer, sitting in the warm din, tracing the cracks in the walls with their eyes and the cracks in the linoleum with their toes. In other words, they take advantage of the opportunity that the laundry room affords, a chance to relax in a safe haven. (Except in some cases when a Shapeshifter or other opportunistic monster takes advantage of the boys having their shields down. Then all kinds of bad stuff happens.)

Unlike the First Aid scenes, which I beg for constantly, I never thought to ask for this. But like Santa Claus, who sometimes knew what I wanted without me ever having to tell him (thanks, Dad!), Show gave it to me. This scene was a salve to my heart; I felt a thumping thrill when I realized what I was seeing, and a deep, soul-satisfying squee erupted forth from my lungs. Laundry! The boys are doing laundry! Look!!! Sam is putting stuff in the washer!! It’s a load of darks!! What kind of soap are they using, oh, I can’t see, move, move! The scene was exactly as it should be and definitely not long enough. But my heart felt as warm and as cozy as a clean, well-lit, well run laundry room. Thank you Show, for this.

Another terrific scene was where, when Dean is out following his destiny, Sam invites Chuck over for a quiet chat. Sam, you see, is terribly, terribly worried that in Chuck’s stories he will get outed to Dean about his little habit of drinking demon blood. I could quickly tell how desperate Sam was to talk about this, just about as desperate as Samgirls have been to HEAR Sam talk about this. Chuck, for his part, is very understanding and, it turns out, left the whole demon blood thing out of the books because he didn’t want Sam to come across as unsympathetic. Was this also an attempt on Show’s part to explain their reticence in letting us inside of Sam’s head? We’ve not known what he’s been thinking for ages; this small tidbit will mollify me for a time, I think. As this wears off, I’m sure I will become more demanding.

And then there’s the Soap Angel. I have a habit of expressing my mocking dislike for this character, hence the name I call him by. But since the subject of slash has been introduced into the picture, I will follow where it leads. For a while now, fans who were resistant to slashing Dean and Sam for obvious reasons (and I totally respect their right to do so) totally jumped at the chance to slash Dean and the Soap Angel. (Or, sometimes, though less often, Sam and the Soap Angel.) I personally thought that this was a development of opportunity only, for in spite of being told over and over about the magical connection between these two characters, all the eye-sex and the chemistry, I never saw it. Like I said, some people will slash anything that moves; slash fans who wouldn’t write wincest were getting desperate. Along comes the Soap Angel and their prayers were answered. Why, just last week I was verbosely explaining my lack of getting it. Until, dare I say it, now. I hate eating crow.

Dean is getting a soft drink at the machine. He prays for help. Enter the Soap Angel, and the first thing I did was reach for the clicker, desperate to change the channel before sitting through YET ANOTHER exchange which would be squeed over by Soap Angel fans and that, YET AGAIN, I would find boring and unhelpful as hell. Can’t you just see me rolling my eyes in dismay at this? Dean demands assistance in Sam’s rescue from Lilith, saying that if the Soap Angel doesn’t help him, the next time he wants Dean’s help? He is SOL. Off Dean marches. The Soap Angel calls out his name. Dean turns. He is glowering.

The Soap Angel says he can’t interfere, which has been his lame excuse all along. Then he starts explaining about Chuck, who has an archangel attached to him, and if anything, anything at all, should impinge upon Chuck’s safety? Like say, a demon being in the same room? Then the archangel will come down and kick some demon ass. Then the Soap Angel says, with a little, wicked smile, “Just so you know.” And then, by golly, his eyes sparkle like those of a naughty ten-year-old boy with whom you cannot stay mad for long. And in that moment, for that one moment, I could see it, this thing between them. This fondness that the Soap Angel has for Dean, and, yes, the hotty hotness of one Misha Collins. For tonight, I dub thee Castiel. (But take a picture, it probably won’t last long.)

Then there’s the sidestory with Sam and Lilith. Chuck’s visions show Sam sleeping with the demon, and as it is written, so shall it be. Lilith comes by, and a deal is struck between she and Sam: she gets Sam and Dean’s heads on pikes, and she’ll end the apocalypse. Only trouble is, that to seal the deal, Sam must sleep with her. Shocked I was, shocked, shocked, and uncomfortably all lit up inside at the prospect. Yes, sure I should be dismayed at the prospect of Sam and Lilith rolling in the hay. But I wasn’t. If I had my hands over my eyes, I was peeking through my fingers the entire time. Maybe there would be more nekked nudity. Maybe Sam’s shirt would come off. Maybe there’d be a terrific close-up of a Samhair moment, where those dark locks would lay across his manly brow before he sweeps them aside with his fingers. Oh, hush. A fangirl can dream, can’t she?

Dean arrives with Chuck to save the day with Chuck announcing that he is CHUCK…the PROPHET! I about choked I laughed so hard, but was satisfied to see Dean protecting his Sammy. All is well, they are able to defeat Lilith, and Sam and Dean drive off in their beloved Impala, of all things, not arguing, but dithering! How right and how proper, even though again Sam lies to Dean; he says he never considered doing that deal with Lilith, which of course he was. Why not tell Dean? I don’t know.

And who cares, it was a terrific ep with Sam and Dean, stomping around in their world, which they discover has been spied upon lo these many years, beautiful and manly and worth of many, many reams of paper for fan fiction. Both boys have their moments and their scenes, and it’s just a lovely, lovely thing all the way around. I even got some meaning out of the last scene, where Mr. Z tells Chuck that he cannot reveal to Sam and Dean what their futures hold for them. That indeed, all he can do, is keep doing what he does, which is write. But as any writer, and Chuck, can tell you, writing is hard! Sometimes just living is hard, but it’s made much easier when there are fun eps like this one.

Sylvia Bond is a ten-year technical writing veteran with too many degrees under her belt to count. She lives in Colorado, but does not ski, preferring instead to spend her money and time at the annual Great American Beer Festival, taking road trips across the United States, and reading historical fiction from the comfort of her fluffy green arm chair. She has been involved in fandom since 1993 and been writing fanfic since approximately 1993. What she finds most amazing about fandom (besides the open heartedness of fans and the sheer amount of creativity) is how visible fandom has become. “In my day,” she says, “we had to hide behind P.O. boxes to get fanfic. But nowadays, people wear t-shirts that shout their affiliation and share their shiny toys on the internet.” It’s a wonderful world.

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