Supernatural: Getting What You Need, But You Gotta Ask For It

by Sylvia Bond

Supernatural Season 3 Cutting Room Floor Wish List

You always want what you can’t have, and even when you get what you want, you want more of THAT. It’s just human nature, and I can make no apologies for it, being human myself, having several years of practice. With regards to Supernatural, and although my love for Show knows no bounds, I do know that there are a number of scenes that were either not filmed, or not filmed the way I wanted them to be. And while I don’t have superpowers and can’t retcon the whole thing, I can, as a greedy human, make my wishes known, because if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Recently I was able to practice being greedy at a fan convention called KazCon, based in Lawrence, Kansas, a wonderfully organized, intimate, and totally cool convention (thanks Wolfpup and Black_Wingedbird!) where Supernatural fans met to talk and drink and endlessly discuss Show in all its facets, play a little Guitar Hero, shout some Karaoke, fondle some guns, and then drink some more. During the con, I ran a panel called “Scenes on the Cutting Room Floor,” and being the moderator of said panel, I was able to, with liberty and no compunction whatsoever, make my wishes and demands known, along with a group of like-minded fans, who helped me with my list. So thank you to all the ladies who attended the panel, this one’s for you.

To begin, let’s start with Season 3 (S3), which, as you know, was, uh, S3, and that’s pretty much all that can be said for it, except for the fact that it did spark off a great deal of fan fiction and art that was pleasing to my eye and my palate. But I’m here to tell you, Show had some missed opportunities from un-filmed scenes, so let’s get to it.

The Magnificent Seven

While Sam, Dean, and Bobby deal with the ramifications of the Gate to Hell opening, there’s this scene. It’s about thirty seconds long, and in it Sam and Dean are in a dark room; Dean is backlit golden by full-throated candles and Sam is shadowed in cool moonlight. They are loading their weapons, looking at each other, and not saying a word as they get ready to die.

The scene was so potent and so well-filmed, that I was dying for it to be longer, and I desperately wanted a scene that showed why they were alone in that room. I get that they were loading weapons, but my lord, you don’t light a scene with that much attention to detail unless you’re planning to do something with it. And yet after thirty seconds, it was over, much to my dismay, so I would have liked for that scene to be much, much longer. (P.S., I and the ladies on the panel would also have liked it if we could have seen more scenes with Dean eating and having sex, on account of he was going to die in a year and all.)

The Kids Are Alright

Sam and Dean chase a Changeling who is replacing children with its offspring, and Dean encounters the possibility that Lisa, a woman he once had a fling with, had his child years before.

It would have been cool if some time during this episode we got to see more shared screen time between the boys (always a plus!), along with the scene were Dean explains to Sam who Ben might have been, because I always prefer to see more about the boys, rather than less. And can you imagine Sam’s reaction? He’s all about family, like Dean is, so I think the implications would have been a big deal to him.

Bad Day at Black Rock

This is the bad luck episode, where darkly funny things happen to Sammy on account of he’s got the cursed rabbit’s foot. The rabbit’s foot was stolen from The Dad’s locker, where he kept all kinds of interesting things, some that could kill you, and some, most notably Sam’s soccer trophy from when he was in school (and, yes, Dean’s first sawed-off), that he kept for sentimental reasons.

First off, of course, we would like to have seen more about the locker, perhaps in other episodes, and more about the kind of things The Dad kept in there. But this would have involved flashback scenes needing to be filmed, and whether JDM was too cool for school or truly busy at the time, the world will never know, but you got to hang your wishes high, otherwise, what’s a heaven for? (And surely, the boys would have their own lockers some day, which would be interesting to see.)

And secondly, Sam got shot during the final scene, and the ladies and I would very much liked to have seen the first aid scene where Dean takes the bullet out of Sam’s shoulder and patches him up.

Sin City

Sam and Dean head to Ohio, where some demons have moved in and converted the town to naughty ways. I mentioned to the panel the fact that while we got this really hysterical motel room with gold-draped queen beds and mirrors on the ceiling, yet we never got to see Sam and Dean IN the beds. The ladies voted Yes on wanting that, please, and in addition, more Sam-n-Dean togetherness, rather than less. (But then, you could say that for any episode this season, so we’ll take that as read, shall we?)

Bedtime Stories

This is the episode where Sam and Dean deal with fairy tale scenarios coming to life via Coma Girl. As we discussed this ep, the panel focused on the suits the boys kept dressing themselves in, and how Sam and Dean not only managed to keep the suits wrinkle free (like, do they have a iron in the trunk?), but also the question as to how on earth they manage to assemble so many different suit and tie combinations.

While I don’t think Show should go on and on about it, it would be nice to have some real-life scenes where they have to deal with Suit Rental, like they did in Phantom Traveler. (Because, seriously, the Impala’s trunk just cannot hold that many nice clothes!) Realistically, the boys would each own a single suit and tie combo, in case they find themselves in East Jesus somewhere, where there is no suit rental place. The suits should then be a little wrinkled and a little patched, which would be more in keeping with their on-the-go lifestyles. Although, you know, they look really good no matter what they’re wearing.

Red Sky at Morning

Although the panel didn’t discuss this ep, I did mention to the ladies that it would have been nice and certainly more dramatically interesting if Sam, while he was dancing with Mrs. Old Lady, had treated her with more dignity. Sam isn’t normally an a-hole like that, and I thought it was out of character. Also, at one point, Dean mentions to Sam that one of the bullets is gone, which means that Dean’s been checking on the Colt, keeping tabs. I would like to have seen the scene where he takes the gun out and pets it, smoothing his thumb over the chamber, and then counts the bullets with careful eyes.

Fresh Blood

Sam and Dean are after a vampire, which means that there was blood, blood everywhere, but not a first aid scene in sight. Mostly notably, it would have been nice to see Sam tending to Dean after Dean cut his arm open with a machete, and for Dean to tend to Sam’s hands after Sam ripped his palms open using a piece of wire to cut the vampire’s head off. We would like more first aid scenes and LOTS of them; that’s not so hard to understand, is it?

A Very Supernatural Christmas

This is the flashback episode for S3, where we get Wee Sam and Wee Dean all alone on Christmas Eve, when Sam found out for the first time what his father really did and where we see how Dean got his gold amulet.

In this ep, there’re some pagan gods that were dealt with by Sam and Dean. The panel and I wondered whether the boys just left the bodies of the gods there on the floor, did they disintegrate, or did Sam and Dean dig a hasty hole in the back yard and drag the bodies there? Generally, we like it when Sam and Dean get all sweaty digging graves so that would have been nice to see.

What else would we have liked to have seen? In a word, MORE FLASHBACK PLEASE. More Wee Winchesters in the motel, more Wee Dean cooking for Wee Sam (was there a hot plate or anything to heat up Spaghettios?). More The Dad coming home, and maybe he wouldn’t have had his arms full of presents, but he would least have been there. It kills me, the ladies in the panel, and most fans I have ever talked to, that The Dad wasn’t there.

Okay, I still want more. Sam has swiped The Dad’s journal, which as we know, is never out of his possession. I wanted to see The Dad 500 miles away, too far on his journey to turn back, discovering that the journal is missing, and then the fallout when he gets back to the motel.

Malleus Maleficarum

This is the ep with the neighborhood witches, too many additional characters, and not enough boys. We would liked to have seen more of Sam and Dean in jeans, which they belong in, because watching Sam and walk around in comfortable, old jeans, is like pulling on a pair of…comfortable old jeans. I’m sorry, but there’s no better simile to describe how this feels. The boys belong in jeans, just like a fireman belongs naked in front of a fireplace. (Strategically placed Dalmatian dog optional.)

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Bobby’s in a coma and Sam and Dean are walking through their own nightmares and dreams. At one point they have to stay awake, so they drink tons of coffee. The screen flashes a message: “Two Days Later,” but I would liked to have seen the boys drinking coffee for two days straight, instead of just hearing about it. You know, that whole “show” don’t “tell” rule of good writing? Plus it would have fun to see Sam drinking his fussy with cream and flavorings like mocha, vanilla, and, I suspect, hazelnut. Dean, he likes his black, straight up, as he wraps his fine, fine fingers around the mug instead of using the handle.

Mystery Spot

Sam relives the same day over and over, continually having to deal with Dean’s death, which doesn’t even begin to describe how good this ep was. Even with this excellence, or maybe because of it, the ladies and I are so greedy that we know exactly what we wanted more of.

Given that there were around 100 Tuesdays, and we got to see plenty of Dean dying, we wanted more of that, more examples of Sam’s grief as Dean dies. (There is no 12-step program for this!) We also wanted more of The Wednesday, where Dean actually dies. We wanted to see Sam having to bury Dean, and we wanted more of Sam on his own, suffering some more in his Dean-less world, but in real time and not in flashback. Then we wanted to see the aftermath, where Dean recognizes the changes in Sam. In short, we wanted this episode to be about five hours longer than it was.

Jus in Bello

Sam and Dean are arrested by Agent Hendrickson and thrown into a jail cell in Colorado just as an army of demons makes their first move under a new leader who wants Sam dead.

While we did get a smattering of first aid by Sam when Dean got shot in the shoulder, it was not long enough. And then later, Nancy tends to Dean’s wounds, but as all the ladies in the panel agreed, we would rather have had Sam doing that, because who the heck is Nancy to Dean? (Also, I would have liked to have seen where Sam and Dean get processed for entry upon their arrival at the jail. Thank you.)

And, most importantly, Sam and Dean reveal that they have anti-possession tattoos, but we never, ever, ever get to see them a) designing the tattoos, b) going into a tattoo parlor and getting said tattoos, or c) dealing with the necessary skin care while the tattoos healed. The ladies and I would very much like to have seen ALL of this. (Yes, even at the expense of the episode itself!)

Ghostfacers

Sam and Dean run into the Ghostfacers from S1. There’s tons of good outsider POV, but we would like to have seen (rather than only hear about) the conversation where Sam and Dean decide that the Morton House would be “their” Grand Canyon. Instead of a nice, brotherly vacation, they decide to go to the Morton House to deal with a ghost problem that The Dad had messed up years before

We also would have liked to see Sam in The Towel, much as we did the last time we met up with the Ghostfacers. There Sam was mostly nekked. It’s a GREAT scene. To be fair, I think maybe Dean should have worn just a towel in this ep. He’s got a great body and a nice gleam in his eyes. I think he could have pulled it off VERY well. And it would have given these two companion eps about the Ghostfacers a nice bookend feeling. Plus, to be honest, I just want to see Dean not so covered. That’s a nice, Victorian way of putting it. Not so covered. In the altogether. El buffo. I’m just saying.

Long-Distance Call

Sam and Dean are on the trail of the Crocotta, an entity that secures its victims by communicating as a loved one via phone and computer. We would have liked more of the boys being themselves, please, and less of them standing around with their hands in their pockets.

Time Is on My Side

Sam and Dean deal with an immortal whacko who keeps himself alive by sewing on other people’s body parts. That’s pretty cool, but reminds me that I would like to see more of the boys dealing with urban legends like this one, and much less apocalypse-based eps, because it is so much easier to the tale of Mrs. Wurtz bringing back a cactus from Mexico that explodes into tiny spiders that eat out her eyeballs. You know what I’m saying?

Other things we would have liked? A flashback scene of The Dad (and yes, we can’t get enough of that) trying to deal with the immortal whacko. Also, Sam and Dean set a trap for Bella by placing blowup dolls dressed in appropriately colored underwear and wigs, that is, red undies and dark hair for Sam and blue undies and blonde hair for Dean, and I would very much enjoyed seeing them coming up with the plan, picking out the underwear and wigs at the store, and then setting the trap. They would have giggled themselves into hysteria at each phase, and it would have been very fun to watch. And lastly, we see that the boys dug a grave for the immortal whacko, but we rather would have seen them actually doing this, all sweaty and muscled.

No Rest for the Wicked

Dean gets taken away by the hellhounds when his deal comes up. Maybe it would have been nice to see more of Dean’s Last Day, but then, it might have been too much. We would have liked to see, however, in all its glory, the first aid scene where Dean tends to Sam after he’s cut his hand open for the demon-rising ritual. And this is such a sad episode already, but it would have been nice to see Sam burying Dean, including the part where he digs the grave (all sweaty and stuff), then takes Dean’s amulet and puts it around his own neck, and then dresses Dean in unripped clothes, and then puts a lighter in Dean’s pocket before Sam places Dean in the coffin. And then cries as he fills in the grave, as only Sam can cry.

So there’s the panel’s wish list for S3. If I’ve left anything out, please feel free to add to this list because as you know, if you don’t ask, you don’t get! Tune in soon for the Supernatural Season 4 Cutting Room Floor Wish List.

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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