Supernatural Review: Season 2 Episode 15 "Tall Tales"

By: John Shiban

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet seen this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

         An encounter with the god Loki? SIGN ME UP! Seriously. I've always had a special place in my heart for trickster gods...probably because their stories in the mythologies are always the most entertaining. So it was about time that Supernatural took one on. Oh and what an episode that created! We've got alligators in the sewers, alien abductions, purple nurples, an excess of chocolate, and Sam and Dean fighting like an old married couple. What's not to like?

           Usually this would be the part where I comedically follow up the previous question with a 'We-ell' a la Doctor 10 and a list of complaints. But not here. No. I honestly can't find a single thing to complain about in this episode. (Oh sure, Emily, let the cat out of the bag in the second paragraph!) It's true, though. This is just great fun. It introduces a key player in the SPN universe, presents a kooky and bizarre mystery to befuddle the boys, and will leave you busting your gut laughing THE ENTIRE way through as it never lets up on the gags and laughs for a single solitary moment. Nobody is spared from being the butt of the jokes. Not Dean, not Sam, not Bobby, and not even Baby...all are included.

       And Loki...good ol' Loki...is a riot. Gotta love the guy's sense of humor!

Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- One thing that makes this episode extremely enjoyable is Sam and Dean bickering. No, not the normal bantering they do, but full-on bickering. Seriously. You live with someone and live in each other's pockets 24/7 for a while and see how long your temper lasts. It was bound to catch up with them sooner or later. (Besides...it's good to have a reminder that they are indeed just brothers who annoy each other even whenever they're not trying to save the world.)

- Poor Bobby, though.

- I've thought long and hard about it and I have to say that I think I've figured out what it is that makes this episode work so well. It's the unreliable narrator/alternating story lines. What is that, you may ask? Well not only does it give us a lovely little peek into the psyches of Sam and Dean (without going into angsty territory) as well as providing comedy gold in the form of their VERY DIFFERENT point of views as to what really happened.

- And now, a short montage of funny pictures pulled from this segment. Please note that all quotes are legitimate and no pictures have been doctored.

- Yeah. Comedy GOLD!

- Love the moment when Bobby tells them they're fighting like an old married couple (they are) and Dean protests saying: "No, no...see, married couples can get a divorce. Me and him, we're like Siamese twins or whatever." And Sam immediately cuts in with an irritable: "It's CONJOINED twins!"

- I'm hard-pressed to pick out which is the best moment, though. Is it the alligator in the sewer? Is it the slow-dancing alien? Is it Sam and Dean wrestling over perceived insults to their respective Babies (i.e. Sam's computer and Dean's car)? Is it Bobby's clear disbelief and disgust over the whole affair?

- I really like the way that this episode expanded the mythology of the show as well. We've seen gods before in the form of that creepy-as-anything scarecrow god from Scarecrow, but now we're getting a more universally recognized figure. Even if you're not up on your Norse Mythology or Pantheons of the World Legends, you should be familiar with Loki because even before the success of the recent Marvel films he was probably one of the best known gods (or, here, demigods) of all time. Hey. I'm not the only one with a weakness for tricksters, okay? Sure we all know about Zeus and Aphrodite and all the gods of the Greek/Roman pantheon...but most of us, even if we didn't know Freya from Arwen, had at least heard of the legendary joker, Loki. And what a memorable entrance he was given!

- We first see him whenever the adulterous professor plummets from his doom (And don't think I didn't have a good laugh over the fact that Loki is masquerading as a janitor!) and, at first, we don't think anything of it. He's just a weird custodian with a slightly morbid sense of humor who helps Sam and Dean out. THEN we find out about the chocolate obsession...and the little fact that he is, in fact, a pagan god who has been messing with Sam and Dean ever since they arrived in the town. Too funny!

- I was shocked, on looking this episode up, that it was not written by Ben Edlund...because it just stinks of his trademarks. Witty dialogue? Check. Visual humor? Check. An absurd premise that somehow works? Check. Memorable 'one-off' characters? Check. Guess it just goes to show how in-tune with each other the SPN writing team are.

- By far my favorite part of this episode, though, is right at the ending when they go in to stake the Trickster and all hell breaks loose. Sam is facing off Leatherface, Bobby's getting beat up by God knows what, and Dean is having the royal snot kicked out of him by two scantily-clad women in a one-sided fight that feels somehow like poetic justice...

            In case you haven't noticed, I LOVE THIS EPISODE!!!! It's funny, it's interesting, it's absurd, it's gloriously ridiculous, and it portrays the perfect balance of irreverence and self-awareness that Supernatural has such finesse at. Great stuff, great fun, and definitely a must-see. Tall Tales is a 5/5.

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?