Supernatural Episode #15 The French Misconnection
Written by Ben Edlund & Directed by Charles Beeson
Supernatural pulled off what most shows haven’t, couldn’t and shouldn’t; they used an old TV trope and succeeded. The brothers Winchester are forced into an alternate world, the “real world” or our world to be more precise. A world where Sam and Dean are not themselves but their real selves, actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, respectively, on the television show, Supernatural. This story device of an alternate world has a good pedigree behind it as The Twilight Zone was one of the first, if not the first to do it. Supernatural had big shoes to fill and filled it they did.
Sam and Dean are transported into our reality after Balthazar (played by villain actor extraordinaire Sebastian Roché of Fringe and General Hospital fame) asks the brothers to help him. He hands them a key claiming that it is the key to Heaven’s arsenal. Oh but Balthazar forgets (or forgets?) to tell them that Raphael has sent the angel, Virgil, after it and that Castiel has gone underground. A magic ritual is performed and bang, it’s through the looking glass (a nod to Alice) for the boys.
From the time when director Bobby Singer (yes, he named a character after himself), played by Brian Doyle-Murray, yells cut, the show takes its tongue and firmly plants it into its own cheek. Whether it’s the mentioning of low Nielsen tv ratings by Sam or that Eric Kripke, the show’s creator, has moved on to another show, Supernatural knows how to make fun of itself. Sam and Dean discover that Dean/Jensen Ackles is mega rich with toys aplenty and Sam/Jared Padelecki is not only Polish but married to the actress who plays demon Ruby, Genevieve Cortese.
To escape this unreality, Sam and Dean set out to recreate the ritual Balthazar performed. Unfortunately, the two hunters have to act out the rest of the episode they’re starring in. A montage of bad acting proceeds.
To make matters worse, Virgil shows up (with an homage to Terminator) but with no powers yet ends up with the key after a miscontrued fist fight. Misha Collins aka Castiel (in a scene stealing episode) is just a fellow actor who tweets about getting punk’d but winds up being murdered by Virgil in order to call upon Raphael. His wish is granted and Raphael promises Virgil that he will rescue him from this reality. Without powers, Virgil realizes he must stop Sam and Dean like a human, and therefore, attains a gun. He shoots up the set but is stopped by the brothers. The two retrieve the key and return to their reality minus Virgil only to find a female Raphael waiting for them on the other side. Balthazar drops in on the party and confesses that all of it was a ruse to buy him time to find heaven’s weapons. The key he gave Sam and Dean was was just a key; a key for a locker at a bus terminal. Just as a fight between the angels was about to begin, Castiel shows up packing with heaven’s arsenal and sends Raphael flapping her wings.
An utterly fantastic episode all around especially the ending. It was like an apology to Supernatural’s fans for last week’s less than so-so episode and stated that even in its sixth season, Supernatural still knows how to throw the big punches. Hopefully, it will be topped by next week’s episode when the brothers Winchester hunt down the mother-of-all [fill in the blank].
