Previously: Cas’ boss stole the boys’ memories and made them hunt a ghost.
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The Monster at the End of This Book
Kirsti: We open in a messy house, with a scruffy looking guy asleep in his underwear on the sofa. The shot flickers and he twitches in his sleep, then we’re thrown into a montage of shots of various things, including Sam and the Bromobile in a weird grey-scale. Then we get a close up of a guy reaching for a comic book and the colour resolves. The boys walk in and introduce themselves as Agents DeYoung and Shaw, both of whom are in Styx. WOO, FAKE NAMES.
They ask the owner if there’ve been any flickering lights or weird noises in the walls recently. He’s confused. Sam asks about cold spots and he suddenly looks like everything makes sense and asks if they’re LARPing. Dean’s all “Whut”. The guy says they’re doing a pretty good job at playing “those guys from the books“. He thinks for a minute, then announces that the series is called Supernatural. The boys are all “the fuck is happening right now???”. He tells them that the books have an underground cult following, and grabs the first one for them from the bargain bin. The cover is fucking hilarious:
Marines: I love it so much. Do we know which one is which because I want Sam to be the broody one with the long hair.
K: Sam is OBVIOUSLY the one with the long hair. Dude hasn’t had a haircut since college.
Dean reads the blurb aloud, and it’s the plot of the pilot. Sam stares in disbelief, then grabs the book to check for himself. He demands that the guy give them every Supernatural book he’s got. That throws us to the Not Credits, only this time it’s a montage of Supernatural book covers, and they’re all hilariously awful.
After the Not Credits, Dean’s lying on the bed at the Motel of the Week, surrounded by Supernatural books. He’s reading the one for Route 666, and demands to know how the author, Carver Edland, knows everything from the racist truck to Dean having sex. “I’m full frontal in this one, dude!” Dean says. Sam looks disgusted. Dean wants to know why they’ve never heard of them before. Sam’s on the official website, and says they had a really small circulation, and then Edland went bankrupt. The last book – No Rest for the Wicked – ended with Dean going to Hell.
Dean scrolls through a message board, then nopes his way out of there when he discovers that Wincest is a thing.
K: That’s what we’re all saying.
He says they have to find Carver Edland. Sam says there are literally no records on him, and that it’s clearly a pen name. They head to the publisher’s house, and I’m not entirely sure how a late 20s woman had the money to publish like 36 books, but whatever. She has total Cruella deVille hair, so who knows what the fuck is going on. Also, she’s been on the show before as a totally different character. (M: I was going to say that I didn’t recognize her, but that was before my time.) She’s sceptical at first, but perks up when they claim they’re writing an article to “shine a light on an under-appreciated series“.
Cruella gushes that good press might let them start publishing again. Dean’s all “FUCK NO” and then has to cover it up by claiming that it’s “such a complete series“. She starts fangirl flailing about how Dean going to Hell was one of her favourites because Dean was so strong and brave and it gave her all the feels and “the best parts are when they cry“. The boys are all “EXCUSE YOU”.
Mari: Just last recap, Snazzy O brought up in the comments that a good deal of the Supernatural fandom are all about the man-pain and guilt porn. Here’s a little nod to that, then.
K: This episode is like 10% plot, 90% nods to fandom.
She tears up as she says she wishes real men were that in touch with their feelings. Dean says he’s crying on the inside. She demands to know how she can tell if they’re legit, not just smartasses making fun of her favourite thing ever. Sam says they’re big fans, and she quizzes them about a bunch of things including Sam and Dean’s birthdays, Dean’s favourite song, and Sam’s LSAT score. Sam stutters his way uncertainly through the last one, but they pass her test and she agrees to answer their questions.
Sam wants to know what Carver Edland’s real name is, but she refuses because he’s suuuuuuuper secretive. Like Salinger. Sam cringes a little, then unbuttons his shirt and shows off his anti-possession tattoo as a sign of how big a fan he is. Dean bitchfaces and pulls down the neck of his shirt too.
Cruella jumps up excitedly and shows them that she’s got one on her arse. Then she scribbles down an address and tells the boys that Edland – real name Chuck Shurley – is a total genius and they’re not allowed to upset him.
Cut to the scruffy guy from the teaser, still in his underwear and bathrobe. He grabs his latest chapter from the printer, and starts editing. He reads aloud as he does, and it turns into a voiceover as we see the boys approaching his house as he reads about them approaching his house. It’s all very meta and melodramatic. Chuck finishes a sentence about Dean ringing the doorbell, then groans in disgust. Obviously, the doorbell rings.
He answers it, and the boys introduce themselves. He thinks they’re deranged fans and tells them to get a life. He goes to close the door, and Dean’s all “yeah, we have a life and you keep writing about it”. Chuck insists that Sam and Dean are fictional characters. Cut to them showing him the weapons stash in the boot of the Bromobile. He’s suddenly nervous and tries to scurry off.
Mari: I like that they thought showing him a trunk full of weapons is a thing that would’ve calmed him down. “Oh, weapons? Why didn’t you say so…!”
K: Clearly, introducing themselves to people is not their strong suit…
Sam asks how much he knows about the angels and the seals breaking, and Chuck’s all “The fuck? Those books were never published”. Because obviously, he kept writing after the publisher went broke. He asks if this is a joke, and Dean offers up a FORMAL introduction, complete with surname. Chuck pales and says he never gave Sam and Dean a surname in the books, and he never even wrote down the name Winchester. No one could know it but him. A few drinks later, he decides that this makes him a god, and he apologises for all the horrors he put them through, from parent murder to shitty writing.
Mari: Preach.
K: I just pictured this scenario but with Fifty Shades, and then threw up in my mouth.
Dean shouts that he’s not a god, and Sam says they think he’s psychic and super focused on their lives for some reason. Dean asks if Chuck’s working on anything at the moment, and Chuck looks startled. Then he admits that the latest book is weird as fuck and is basically self-insert fic. The most interesting thing to come out of this conversation is that Dean’s read Vonnegut. Sam’s shocked.
Mari: He continues to be shocked. At some point, Sam, you are just going to have to accept that Dean reads.
K: NEVER.
Later, the boys are at a laundromat. Dean’s flipping through Chuck’s manuscript. “I’m sitting in a laundromat, reading about myself sitting in a laundromat reading about myself. My head hurts,” he gripes. Sam’s starting to have doubts about Chuck, and we know everything he’s thinking because Dean’s reading it from the manuscript. It’s kind of fabulous.
After the Not Commercial Break, Chuck fills the boys in on his dream. Dean’s all “Ew” and Sam just cracks up because it’s so ridiculous. He insists it’s never going to happen. Dean asks how Chuck’s writing process works. Chuck says he gets a killer headache, drinks until he falls asleep, has a dream, and then everything just flows. Dean suggests that they read his latest chapter, just to be safe.
In the Bromobile, Sam reads passages aloud and poo-poos them. It’s about Dean getting in an accident and having pink flower bandaids on his face. Which is the least Dean-like thing ever, so it can’t possibly be right. It also mentions Dean driving the Bromobile with a tarp across the back window. Dean says that the details might be wrong but it doesn’t mean the end result is. And they’re totally not ready for a showdown with Lilith.
They’re stopped by a police roadblock, and informed that the bridge is out. There’s literally no way out of town. At a diner in town, they peruse the menu and Dean says this is a good thing. All they have to do is the opposite of what Chuck’s manuscript says and they’ll stay away from Lilith. Sam points out that this means he can’t have a bacon cheeseburger, despite the waitress saying it’s the best in the country. Dean reluctantly orders “the veggie tofu burger” and Sam smirks. (M: I literally just had to get up and get a snack. Mmm, burgers.)
As they wait for their food, Sam says this is the first time they’ve known where Lilith’s going to be before she’s going to be there. He wants to use it to their advantage. Dean thinks it’s the worst idea of ever. They’re both restraining themselves because Chuck’s manuscript says they get into a fight, and Dean ends up says “It frustrates me when you say such reckless things“, and basically it reminds me of that time the Scoobies threw an intervention for Buffy.
They break off when the food arrives. Once the waitress has gone, Dean says he’s not hiding, he’s picking his battles and they’re not ready for this one. Sam bitchfaces and Dean bites into his burger, which is delicious.
The waitress returns and apologetically informs him that she gave him the bacon cheeseburger by mistake. She whisks it away and Dean sad pandas.
Mari: I’d sad panda too because it’s real rude to just grab food out of someone’s hand, whether they ordered it or not.
K: Very true.
Motel of the Week. It’s called the Toreador. Sam’s grossed out because it’s a charge-by-the-hour place. Dean points out that the manuscript says Lilith finds him at the Red Motel, so this is what they’re going with. Personally, I’d have been like “Hey Chuck, can we crash on your floor?” but maybe that’s just me. In the room, Dean places a bunch of hex bags, then takes Sam’s laptop to prevent him from doing research and tells him to spend the day watching porn. Sam bitchfaces as Dean leaves. As he drives past the motel sign, half the neon burns out, leaving the letters RE D. Womp.
Dean parks by the side of the road and hesitantly leaves his car. He crosses the street, then looks back to see some guys jimmying the doors of the Bromobile. He rushes back towards his baby, and gets hit by a minivan. And ends up unconscious, because of course he does. I would quote Cordelia Chase and say that one day he’ll “wake up in a coma”, but he’s already done that.
Back at the RE D motel, there’s a knock on the door. It’s Chuck. Sam invites him in and asks how much he knows about what he’s been doing “when I’m not with Dean“. Chuck says he knows about the demon blood, but he hasn’t told Dean and he didn’t even write it into the books because it makes Sam look unsympathetic. Plus, it’s clearly wrong. (M: Beautiful and true.)
Sam sighs and says he wants to stop, but he doesn’t have a choice. He needs to kill Lilith and stop the Apocalypse. Chuck’s confused because the angels said that’s Dean’s job. Sam says Dean hasn’t been himself since he got out of Hell and he has to carry the weight for once. Chuck tells Sam that he’s sorry, and Sam tears up a little. He asks if he’s strong enough to defeat Lilith, and Chuck has no idea.
Dean comes to in the street and sees a hazy figure standing over him wearing star earrings. STARS, see. She’s very apologetic and says she didn’t see him. She tells him that her daughter’s going through “a doctor phase” and the camera pans around to show us that he’s got pink flower bandaids on his face. Okay, but like WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T YOU PHONE AN AMBULANCE WHEN YOU HIT A PEDESTRIAN INSTEAD OF LETTING YOUR SIX YEAR OLD BE THE MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL?!?!?!
Mari: Look, it’s one thing to let your child, like, run across the grocery store or be rowdy in a restaurant. Probably control the kid after you’ve hit someone with your car, though.
K: SERIOUSLY.
Dean looks over at the Bromobile to see that the back window’s been smashed.
He studies his reflection in one of the remaining windows and peels off a bandaid with a “well FUCK” expression. Cut to him driving down the road, tarp flapping over the smashed window. Chuck comes home to find Dean waiting for him. Dean demands to know how Chuck knows what’s going to happen before it happens, and Chuck gets nervous which is legit because Dean’s like six inches taller than him. Dean slams Chuck up against a wall and demands answers. A voice off screen shouts “Dean, let him go!“. It’s Cas. He tells Dean that Chuck’s to be protected because “He’s a prophet of the Lord“. The zoomy cameraman zooms in on Dean and we fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, Cas says he’s a huge fan of Chuck’s work. Dean’s all “This is the most ridiculous shit yet”, and Chuck admits that he knew but didn’t say anything because it was way too arrogant and crazy. “That’s like M. Night level douchey-ness,” he says. Dean eyerolls and says he can’t believe Chuck is deciding their fate. Cas informs Dean that Chuck doesn’t decide squat. He just passes on the word of God.
Dean’s all “……….whut” and Cas says “One day these books – they’ll be known as the Winchester Gospel“. I laugh so hard I have to pause the episode to get control of myself. (M: Legit. I wonder if they keep the Fabio covers when they become Gospel…) (K: I really REALLY hope so) Both Dean and Chuck are all “WHAT THE FUCK”. Chuck excuses himself and takes a bottle of booze with him. Dean asks how the hell Chuck ended up as a prophet, and Cas replies “You should have seen Luke…” Dean asks how they get around the Sam/Lilith thing, and Cas says they can’t. What a prophet writes will come to pass. Dean looks horrified.
He heads back to the RE D motel, and notices the sign with horror. He heads inside and tells Sam they’re leaving town, even if they have to swim. He looks around for the hex bags, but LOL NOPE because Sam burned them. Dean fills him in on the prophet situation, and Sam’s all “huh”. But he refuses to leave. The only way they can work out if he’s stronger than Lilith is to let him face Lilith. Dean admits that he’s terrified Sam will turn evil, what with how he tore Alastair apart like it was nothing.
Sam looks hurt but also very slightly relieved that Dean doesn’t know about the demon blood. Dean grabs his stuff and heads for the door. Sam refuses to go with him. Dean drops his bag and storms out. He stands by a soda machine outside, and announces that he’s out of options, so he’s turning to prayer. Cas appears and says prayer is a sign of faith, so it’s a good thing.
Dean asks him to drag Sam out of the motel before Lilith turns up. Cas awkwards and says he can’t get involved in breaking a prophecy. Dean gets pissy and says that if Cas doesn’t help him now, he’s not going to fight for the angels ever again. He turns to go, but Cas calls him back. He says he can’t get involved because prophets are special. Protected. And if anything ever threatens a prophet, an archangel – “Heaven’s most terrifying weapon” – will appear to intervene. Look, Cas, that’s great. But it clearly didn’t do shit for Mark the Evangelist.
Dean joins some dots and asks what would happen if a prophet and a demon were in the same room. “Then the most fearsome wrath of Heaven would rain down upon that demon,” Cas says. He gives a little smirk as he says he’s just explaining to Dean why he can’t help.
K: Probably. But also, like, he’s rebelling against everything he’s ever known, which is bound to bring the feels. Still, Dean IS awfully pretty.
Dean thanks him, and Cas wishes him luck. Cut to the Bromobile speeding through the night.
Dean turns up at Chuck’s and Chuck’s all “WTF I DIDN’T WRITE THIS”. Dean says he has to come to the motel because if he turns up then an archangel turns up and Lilith goes bye bye. Chuck refuses because that’s insane, and Dean begs because Chuck’s his only hope.
Chuck insists that he’s just a writer, and Dean says it’s more than a story now and it’s time for him to step up and fight. The music swells heroically, then Chuck says “No frigging way“. Sensible chap. Dean threatens him, and says it’ll be interesting to see if Dean or an archangel is a quicker draw. Chuck looks worried. Back at the motel, there’s a knock on the door. Sam opens it but there’s no one there. He turns and finds Lilith behind him. Her eyes turn white and we fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, Lilith asks where the knife is. Sam says it’s by the bed. She starts to walk over there, then stops by a rug and flips it back to reveal a Devil’s Trap. She breaks it with a touch, and scoffs that he’ll have to try harder. Sam sticks his arm out and tries to use his powers, but nothing happens. He’s not strong enough yet. But he’s also immune to Lilith’s throw-people-around-the-room powers, so…there’s that.
Lilith says she’s there to talk. She’s willing to stand down and stop breaking seals if Sam agrees to her terms. He scoffs, and demands to know why she’d back down so close to the end. She says it’s because she doesn’t survive, and she’d kinda sorta like to. She wants things to go back to the way it was before the angels turned up, and all the boys have to do is kill themselves. “Self-sacrifice is the Winchester way, isn’t it?” she says. TRUE.
Mari: Though if she truly knew the Winchester way, she’d probably know that they’d find some way to come back from self-sacrifice.
K: YUP.
Sam’s all “bitch, please” because mama didn’t raise no fool. Lilith points out that demons have to follow through on deals. She asks if he’s really arrogant enough to put his life in front of the lives of six billion others, and suggests maybe it’s the demon blood in his veins. He insists that he’s nothing like her, and she smirks and tells him to prove it. He snaps his agreement.
Lilith walks over to the bed, and says making a contract with her requires more than a kiss. But it’s totally fine – the dental hygienist she’s possessing totally wants it. I throw up in my mouth a little. That’s not consent, yo. Sam hesitantly follows her, and she feels him up before pulling him down onto the bed. He leans in, like he’s going to kiss her, then grabs Ruby’s knife from the nightstand. Lilith grabs it from him, and rolls over, knife raised over his chest.
Chuck and Dean burst in, and Chuck yells “I AM THE PROPHET CHUCK!” which may be the most ridiculous sentence uttered so far on this show.
Mari: He delivers it well, though. Like he can’t even believe he’s saying it either.
K: Lilith’s all “Are you fucking kidding me?”. The room starts to shake as Dean yells that an archangel is about to turn up and Lilith has ten seconds to get the fuck out before she gets fried. White light pours in the windows and Lilith looks furious and nopes her way out of the dental hygienist. The room stills and the light fades. The boys stare at each other. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, the Bromobile speeds through the night, and Sam fills Dean in on the deal situation. Dean asks if he thought about taking it, and Sam’s all “ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?”. He says it would have cost them their lives and Lilith would have found a loophole. The point, he says, is that she’s scared. She’s on the run. And he’s going to make damned sure she doesn’t survive. Dean looks worried.
Cut to Chuck’s. He’s having another prophecy dream. He wakes with a start, and a voice asks “Did you see it?“. He sits bolt upright, which is a correct response to finding Zachariah in your living room. Zachariah introduces himself, and asks again if Chuck saw “it”. Chuck nods and asks if it’s really going to happen. Zachariah smirks and asks if Chuck’s been wrong yet. Chuck rushes for the door, saying he has to warn the Winchesters. Zachariah’s all “LOL NOPE”. Chuck threatens to kill himself. Zachariah says they’d just bring him back, and orders him to write. Fade to black.
I have a love/hate relationship with this episode. I love how meta it is, how many sneaky little digs they threw in about the fandom. And I love Chuck’s uncertainty and refusal to believe that he’s anyone important. But at the same time? It’s taking the religious element they introduced this season and just going “Eh, what the fuck. In for a penny, in for a pound. Let’s jump the shark.” The Lilith plot was kind of dumb, archangels in this sense of protect-prophets-and-destroy-demons-just-by-appearing aren’t really mentioned again (that I remember, anyway), and the whole premise becomes kind of ridiculous when you realise that they could basically just phone Chuck every day and ask how to defeat their latest beastie. But, you know, it’s fun. So…there’s that.
Mari: I’m with you. I like the episode in isolation but don’t really like what it adds to the show as a whole…? I want to say, “I’ll have to see where this goes,” but Kirsti’s comments don’t give me much confidence. I thought the first half of the episode was really funny and meta and great and I think they did a really good job picking at themselves and the fandom. The second half takes a more serious turn and truly introduces some big things like a Winchester prophet and arch-angels and suddenly Lillith willing to cut a deal. I especially don’t like that last thing because Lilith has been the big bad all season and suddenly it’s like, “JOKES. I’m scared too.” MEH.
While I liked the way that Dean wanted to run from the future and Sam wanted to confront it, K’s right about this being a really weird well of information to have hanging on the peripherals of your story. Sam’s willingness to confront the thing, though, did remind me of another time, back when I really, really liked Sam. I still do, I guess, but this whole storyline does make him look unsympathetic. A nice little consequence of that meta-moment was to see him justify himself. He just came off as so very stuck. He’s one part junkie and one part really convinced he’s doing the best thing because Dean can’t. Because Dean spent the episode trying to run from destiny.
Destiny is one of those brain-hurt-y subjects too, like souls. This whole episode basically proved that the brothers have no agency. Whatever is going to be is apparently going to be and I don’t like that. It makes things like Dean starting the apocalypse seem a little cheap in the grand scheme of things, you know? Or even his rescue from hell. I know it technically shouldn’t, but something about this concept that Dean couldn’t escape these series of events, even if he tried, is depressing.
Next time on Supernatural: The boys discover that maybe they’re not the only Winchesters in S04 E19 – Jump the Shark.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
