Supernatural Review: Season 5 Episode 8 "Changing Channels"

By: Jeremy Carver

**Spoilers**

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

        I am convinced that this show is on drugs. Some kind of super-happy, super-psychedelic drugs. That's the only explanation I can come up with for why we have episodes like this.

     But, hey, I've never been one to sit quietly by in boring normality...so I'm loving every minute of it. This episode, though, is one of the more mad things the show has pulled off over the years. So Loki takes Sam and Dean and traps them in TVLand. Literally. Sam and Dean have to play their way through everything from a Grey's Anatomy knock-off parody to a herpes commercial. This is one of those episodes that is really, really funny but also gut-wrenchingly sad whenever you think about it for a while. Take Sam and Dean, for instance. At one point they get stuck in a show that is what Supernatural would be like if it were a sitcom. They laugh and joke around and hug each other and crack jokes about Dean's recreational hobbies...but they're just playing their assigned roles in an attempt to survive. They play football and ride a tandem bike and just basically have a 'great time' together as brothers, but it's just an act. And it kinda hurts whenever you realize that the happiest we've seen them in a long time is whenever they're forced to play a part in a show.

         But the biggest tearjerker comes at the end whenever we get the revelation of just who the Trickster has been all the time. In reality he is the archangel, Gabriel, who ran from Heaven because he couldn't stand the fighting and inter-angel warring that was going on. At last we learn why he's taken such a shine to Sam and Dean. We learn why he killed Dean again and again in Mystery Spot. We learn why now he's making Sam and Dean play a role. He's tired of the war, tired of being an exile, and tired of waiting for the inevitable apocalypse. So he teaches them a lesson...albeit in his own quirky, twisted way.


Favourite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- I have never been more confused or more delighted than when this episode began with: "Supernatural is filmed before a live studio audience." and a laugh-track. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn't really care. With some episodes of this show you have to just hang on for the ride.

- About the time the 'theme song' started playing, though, I was in hysterics.

- We can add Dr. Sexy, M.D. (the blatantly transparent Grey's Anatomy stand in) to the list of embarrassing, chick-flick-y, soap opera crap Dean secretly watches on TV.

- It probably shouldn't be as funny as it was, but Dean getting distracted from a case by the report of the assailant possibly being The Incredible Hulk never fails to get a chuckle out of me. It's not the fact that it's the big green guy, no, it's the fact that Dean goes off on a bunny trail about which Hulk it was. And he says Sam is the geek?!

- "You think I'm crazy." "No. Uh, no, it's just...is there, uh, would there be any reason that Lou Ferrigno, the Incredible Hulk, would have a grudge against your husband?" 

- So Dean says he's been wanting to ice the Trickster since Mystery Spot. Does that mean he knows about that one terrible Wednesday (Did Sam actually tell him?) or that he just is annoyed that he was killed over a thousand times?

- Then Sam gets slapped by a female doctor (presumably one of his character's past hook-ups) and Dean finds the Trickster (who is playing Dr. Sexy himself, naturally) because Loki made the move of wearing trainers instead of cowboy boots. The fact that Dean knows the show and character enough to notice that is kind of freaking me out.

- Dean going through the personality tropes and names of all the doctors like it's Christmas come early is just one of the nice touches this episode puts in. But for me the funniest moment is whenever Dean is shot in the back and Sam has to play his role as a surgeon and operate. Now they've done this sort of thing for each other before, we know they have, what with stitching wounds and putting joints back into place and digging out bullets...but it's always been motel room triage. Sam looks rather lost in the hospital operating room. So he asks for "Okay. Um. I need a penknife, some dental floss, a sewing needle, and a fifth of whiskey...STAT!" while Dean is laying on the operating table making faces.

- After that we get the game show and...oh gosh. Teehee. *giggling* Oh dear...how best to describe that?

- As soon as I heard the game was called 'Nutcracker' I flinched and said to myself "Surely they aren't going THERE!" And then they went there.

- Dean, rather queasy and desperate not to meet the same fate as his unfortunate brother, takes a wild stab at answering the next question "Would your mother and father still be alive if your brother had never been born?" thus discovering that they have to play their roles in appearance at least if they want to survive. 

- The questions are just one example of the feels that lurk under the surface of this fluffy and funny episode.

- Castiel also shows up for the party (and promptly has his mouth duct-taped shut before being zapped away numerous times...after he is called a 'pretty-boy angel') and his look of amazement, shock, and rage at seeing the Trickster (who we later learn is his big brother) is simply priceless. "Ga-gabriel? NOOO! You jerk! I didn't like your pranks as a fledgling and I don't like them now! Stahp it! Let Sam and Dean go!"

- I think that summed it up properly...

- We also find that Sam and Dean have been trapped for days in this nightmare. Wow, Gabriel, overkill much? Nah. That's nothing. This is the guy responsible for all those Tuesdays, remember?

- He also threw them into a herpes medication commercial. I have a confession to make. The first time I watched this episode I thought that this was a legitimate commercial...until Sam showed up looking highly uncomfortable. He really took a beating dignity-wise this episode, didn't he?

- Did you know that it's Dean doing all the voice-overs in this episode? That includes this one: "Patients should always consult with a physician before using Herpexia. Possible side effects include headache, diarrhea, permanent erectile dysfunction, thoughts of suicide, and nausea."

- I identify with Dean's rant about procedural cop shows. There's a reason I don't watch them...and it isn't all because of the same-old same-old formula every week.

- "I hate this game. I hate that we're in a procedural cop show and you wanna know why? Because I hate procedural cop shows. There's like three hundred of them on television and they're all the freaking same. It's ooh, plane crashed here—oh shut up."

- Which show were they parodying? Was it CSI? That's one of them, right? Gosh I am so out of my depth with this parody...at first I thought they were doing a Blues Brothers joke.

- Props to the cast and crew of Supernatural for making this all look so effortless. Doing a successful parody is about ten times HARDER than coming up with an original idea. In songs you have to match the tempo, rhythm, and rhyme scheme. But when it comes to films there are things like lighting, costumes, angles, shots, dialogue, inflections, character ticks, and all of the logistical mimicry nightmares you could think up. This kind of stuff may look easy, but it really isn't. It's a testament to how good this show is that they manage to pull it off numerous times throughout the course of their run.

- Of course it helps that they also have Jared and Jensen on board who have a great time with these parodies and just really throw their all into it without ever mugging at the camera or seeming obnoxious.

- I knew whenever Sam and Dean staked the Trickster that it wasn't over. For starters last time they tried that it didn't work and secondly...since when did things start going right for them? I have to say, though, that I was NOT expecting the Nightrider parody. Especially not with Sam and Baby really getting some close and personal bonding time. That was...that was hilarious. I'm not sure which Dean was more horrified of, the desecration of his car or the humiliation of his little brother. Mr. Loki definitely hit below the belt with that one. (And, considering the game show he put them through, that is saying something.)

- They figure out that Loki may not be all he says he is and prepare accordingly. I crack up whenever Dean is screaming 'uncle' at him and SamKitt asks if he should honk.

- One question, though, just one. How exactly do they manage to lure angels directly into the exact circle of holy fire every time? I understand with the devil's traps, because the demon doesn't have to be right in the middle to get caught, but seriously? They have such lousy luck the rest of the time I'm really surprised that this works for them every time. Huh. Maybe it's because they pulled the holy oil (presumably a gift from Cas) out of Sam's trunk this time.

- The episode does an about heel turn emotions-wise, though, once Sam and Dean have the Trickster trapped. He actually looks a bit nonplussed and proud of them for figuring it out. He also looks annoyed, though.

- "This isn't about a war. It's about two brothers that loved each other and betrayed each other. You'd think you'd be able to relate."

- Sometimes I wonder just how much of the Apocalypse back-story really did mirror the Winchesters and how much was just both sides telling the story to manipulate them. We'll probably never know, but it plays interestingly into the themes of free will vs. destiny that the show has going.

- Castiel just looks so betrayed whenever he comes back from wherever he was zapped to and confronts his older brother. You kind of get the impression that Gabriel was the archangel who would head down to the lower ranks of angels just to visit. He certainly seems to be the least stuffy out of all the top dog angels. Probably he was rather well known in lower circles (he was the one to visit Mary in Nazareth, after all...if nothing else that would give him fame) and even well liked. Perhaps he even knew Castiel whenever he was young. And then he just disappeared while Heaven fought on, only now to greet Cas with a weary, "Hey, bro."

- One of the most not-tear-inducing-but-certainly-long-term-depressing scenes EVER is whenever Sam, Dean, and Cas all turn their backs on Gabriel and walk away...leaving him alone in a ring of holy fire. He's actually crying a bit and it gives us a look into what lies underneath the sweets and smirks and pranks. It's dark inside indeed.

           Changing Channels is a prime example of just how good this show is at both parody and drama. Much like Mystery Spot it passes out both laughs and tears in droves...though I have to say that this is funnier than Mystery Spot. Or, at least, it spends more time on the comedy and less time on the feels. In order to get some of the stuff you have to sit and think about it for a while. Or make sure you watch the version of the game show with subtitles so you can understand what the questions are saying. It's a lot more subtle. I find it interesting that they chose to take a one-off novelty character from Season 2 and integrate him into the show as such a key player and big mythological figure. Was that planned? Did they inform Richard from the beginning that he was playing Gabriel masquerading as Loki? Or did they just sort of make it up as they went along? Either way it works beautifully and gives us a fascinating and multi-faceted character who fast became a fan favorite...despite the fact that he only has been in five episodes thus far. Changing Channels is a 5/5.

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