You weren't feeling Lilith? Was she in this ep? Oh yea…she was. I guess I dismissed her as a whole, she's a secondary character and I don't care what happens to her. She won't survive the apocalypse, so…I was concentrating on Sam and my fannish hopes that clothes would soon be coming off. Oh, the weight of being such a shallow fangirl!!!

I think Dean wasn't helping in the laundry room because it wasn't his turn. I feel pretty comfortable saying that if anything wasn't fair, Sam would have spoken up about it. Maybe Dean had already done his part, and now Sam was doing his part while Dean nattered on about fan fiction. Such a strange little twisty thought that brings to my head: while Dean nattered on about Fan Fiction!!! Since when does Dean ever know about something like that? Why only recently he thought MySpace was a porn site. I'm going to write this off as an anomaly because there's no way that Show is going to be able to pick up this story thread and do anything with it. Like my hair on a Monday morning, it will sit there, an untractable mess with no potential for development. Show won't ever mention it again, either the books or the slash or Deangirls or Samgirls. We've had enough, Show will decide, and the Prophet Chuck will linger in obscurity. Or, if he does come back (which would be fun), the books will be a side reference only. The Book of Winchester. C'mon, it's too huge, and besides, the apocalypse will be averted and so the books won't matter.

I personally think that Dean reads a lot more than he lets on, especially on boring stakeouts…and I think that for a while, he got left alone a lot, when Sam went off to Stanford and The Dad went off hunting alone, leaving Dean to hunt on HIS own, hence the reading.

I really didn't write enough about how good Padalecki and Ackles were in this ep, I think my time got taken up defending fan fiction, which probably could stand on its own, right. But they were good, and made scenes like the non-argument scene hysterical and totally fun. they really got into it there!

The scene where Sam is talking about his blood addiction took me totally by surprise; I could hardly believe Sam got that kind of opportunity to talk and fans to get to understand what was going on. The scene didn't feel tacked on to me, though, like some of Dean's have been in the past, the whole thing felt true and real.

You are more than welcome for the review!

Best Regards,

Sylvia

I hope you don't mind if I offer a little more on the subject.

Yes, I do think the SPN crowd are okay with it, or at least not condemning of it. Slash has been around for a long time, and it has to be an open secret in the entertainment industry, and not even confined to genre shows. With the Net, they know it's out there. If they disapproved, they would ignore it, but they don't. They play to it.

Maybe it's more obvious to me because I spent years in anime fandom. That's where the term "fanservice" originated, but nothing stays confined to one genre, there is cross pollination and cultural and media "incest" throughout the industry. Creative people borrow from each other.

From Wiktionary.org: "The inclusion in a work of fiction of any material, especially racy or sexual material, which has no relevance to the storyline, but is designed merely to excite the viewer."

Using Playthings as the example, what purpose does it serve in the story for Sam & Dean to wrestle around on the bed, besides making slash fans happy?

Using Death Takes a Holiday as the example, what purpose does it serve in the story to have Dean put his hand in Sam's stomach while they are ghosts? And then have Sam say "Get out of me." And call Sam a prude?

Fanservice.

The show is riddled with it.

The laundry scene in The Monster at the End of This Book was fanservice.

The discussion about slash, and fans pairing the brothers, was fanservice! It serves no purpose in the context of the plot. It was a shout out.

There's fanservice in all kinds of shows, and genre shows are particularly likely to have it because they know the fans are more likely to recognize and appreciate it.

Not all of the fanservice in the show is for slash fans, not all of it is even for female fans. But SPN has definitely acknowledged us. If they were disapproving or ashamed of us, those moments would never have been included.

If they know this and I'm sure they do. Then they also know there will be a multitude of Wincest first time tags written based on that scene. If that isn't a positive shoutout to the slashers, I don't know what is.

And they also get another plus with the non-slash fans. The anti-Wincest fangirl can now say it's canon that Wincest doesn't exist. A win-win situation where both the Wincest slash fan and the anti-slash or perhaps only anti-Wincest fan can each take the scene the way they want.

I realize I didn't word my first post very well… Mea Cupla, which as we all know id Latin for "I'm an idiot".

Lately, this season, the tension between the brothers, and the ep with the siren was bringing the issue more to the fore, but never, I thought, with approval. It always seemed to come across as a bad thing. Which is because, you say, that if they didn't, there would be hate groups and such. I can see that…but I just can't see that the "slash" shoutout was all positive. Maybe it wasn't as negative as I'm thinking, but do you really think they're all okay with this?

This is totally new for me, this idea that they're ALL okay with it. Certainly they are aware and have never not been, not since Kim Manners first trundled out the box of fan fiction he'd printed up for Ackles and Padalecki so they could understand what was going on. But accepting? *mumbles to self*

I like your argument, I can follow it and it is sound, but I'm really going to have to sleep on this!

Best Regards,

Sylvia

I have been convinced that Sam was not considering Lilith's deal – I was so shocked by the sight of him getting on the bed with her, shocked and anticipating, that I lost my mind. That's all I can tell you.

The Soap Angel had his moment for this ep, and I was very impressed also!

Best Regards,

Sylvia

As for Sam's confession, I loved the fact that he finally had someone to talk to about how he was feeling, someone who knew everything anyway…and I loved how Chuck was sympathetic, but then, he figures Sam is his character, and he created him and tortured him, how could he not care. But yes, definitely not enough of Sam in that scene!!

Best Regards,

Sylvia

Not complaining! Not me!

I even thought that the Soap Angel winked at Dean, but it turned out my stupid channel whatever the hell was having technical difficulties, so it was a pause in the film. But for a long while there, I thought it was a wink. And yeah, he was a cute, wicked boy at that moment, definitely insubordinate and skirting the issue of being a rogue angel by only "that" much.

Best Regards,

Sylvia

Mr. Collins was a first place for the win this time around, really. I've never enjoyed a scene with him so much.

And…yeah, the laugh was offscreen, what's up with that! Are they trying to deny us YET another Sammish moment??

Ah well. We almost got some nekked nudity there, I'm sure of it.

Best Regards,

Sylvia

I really, really wanted to link to good stories for more examples for readers, but didn't have time to get permission. Besides, it's all out there for the curious, they just have to google it.

This was one daring ep! And fun as heck to watch.

Best Regards,

Sylvia

OMG! I absolutely adored this episode. In fact, I still giggle when I think about some of the scenes and some of the dialogue.

Let’s revel in all of the goodness, shall we!

1). The interaction between Castiel and Dean, by the drink machine. That was a great scene.

2). Sam Girls

3). Dean Girls

4) Slash Fan Fiction *Snort

5). The boys, in a Laundromat (Finally!) Yet another great scene

6). “Don’t they know were brothers?” Double *snort* I almost died! That was so freaking hilarious

7). The cover of the Supernatural book

8). Dean and Sam – showing skin and tattoos. Sigh!

9). Sam in flannel

10). “For fans, they sure do complain a lot”

11). LARPING!

12). Sam’s reaction when he thought Dean knew everything

13). Band-aids on Dean’s face

14). Sam and Dean’s reactions to their life being a series of books

15). The Winchester Gospels

16). The pen name of the author

17). Prophet

18) Arch Angel

19) The boys dithering about the Supernatural Fandom

20). The scene when the boys meet Chuck

21). The scene in the comic book store

22). The scene with Sam and Lilith

23). The scene with Z. and Chuck
24. The scene when the boys are talking to the publisher! Yes, I saw myself in that scene as well.
I could have been her. And, I certainly wouldn’t have complained if I had been that actress! LOL

You know my list could go on for days, but I decided to stop there.

I LOVED this episode. I don’t think any other show, on TV today, makes me feel the way I do about Supernatural. I want to inhabit this show. I want to pick it apart.
I want to celebrate it. I want to revel in the pure joy that this show brings me. I never know what to expect and only a handful of times has SHOW disappointed me. I wish more people knew about this gem. My family likes the show but they don’t understand the depth of my obsession. I am glad I can come here and share with you Sylvia because you understand where I am coming from.

As always, your review is spot-on and awesome. My Tuesday’s aren’t complete without your fabulous reviews and my coffee. They kind of go together, you know. Now, we are back to yet another hiatus. Just when things were getting good and picking up steam again….

Anyway, I wanted to let you know this particular episode garnered its best Adults 18-34 Ratings in 2 ½ Years and matched its best men 18-34 ratings EVER on The CW. The overall number of viewers but about average for our show but I was so excited to see how high our show’s ratings were for the 18-34 range.

I need to run but I wanted to post my brief comments. LOL

Take care, Joan