Inside secrets of two of Supernatural's most pivotal episodes. Excerpts from the S5 companion book regarding "Changing Channels"...

"The clear winner for my favorite episode of Supernatural, period, is ‘Changing Channels'," states creator Eric Kripke. "Of anything we've ever done on Supernatural, it's the closest approximation of my true sense of humor, which is to say, juvenile. I just loved it. On top of that, to have it not just be an exercise in whimsy, but have a solid and unexpected mythology reason for it, really grounded it.

...and "Swan Song."

"The pressure's always on when you're doing a season finale," points out Jensen Ackles, "because they're always the big climactic ending to not only a storyline or whatnot, but to the season itself. After shooting twenty-one episodes it's like running a marathon and then being asked to sprint the last mile. There's a lot of pressure, and I think that raises the level of creativity and raises the bar as far as what people are doing. Like, for the scene with Dean and Sam talking on the hood of the car, I did two takes and I was happy with what I'd done, but being the final episode, I thought, ‘You know what? Let me do one more,' and that ended up being the better of the three. So I think that added effort and that added desire of making this a special episode is definitely something cool."

DCBB: Once, Again, Always has a strange nonsensical time-jumping narrative with random RPS thrown in sporadically.

Everthing That Matters was okay, except it made me long for Thursday's Child.

The Empire of the Lion and the Wolf was an overly wordy and long wall of text. Seriously, paragraph breaks. And for something that long, I expect more plot and action and forward motion. And I hate the trope of accidental bonding.

Haven't yet touched Songs of Love and Hate, because of the pairings and the summary is cracktastic.

I've still got vids on the brain, and am highly pissed that the three times Cas has died, we only saw one, and it was ridiculous. Kripke, think of the vidders! Even the lackies and minions got more visually aesthetic deaths. C'mon!

Three times Cas has died? Am I missing something?

I liked The Empire of the Lion and the Wolf. I liked the world. And Cas was great.

I'm reading Songs of Love and Hate right now because of the art and hummph. Not in love. I despise when authors make Ben Dean's son. Not unless it's canon, folks. I don't like what it says about Lisa. Also, Dean seems to be a douchebag right off the bat. I'm fairly sure that the makeout session that grossed me out the most isn't even a pairing in the headers. I'm scared of the rest.

Speaking of scared, the story with the random RPS--to read or not to read? The summary looked fine, but that last pairing?

Which one was Everything That Matters?

I can see Lisa telling Dean that Ben's not his because it was the right thing to do at the time and then after she realized they were developing a real relationship, feeling like it was too late to tell him the truth. I don't think it's going to turn out that way, but I'm prepared to buy it if it does.

It's a cowardly shitty thing to do, and I think it spoils her character. But nothing she's done in this story makes any sense.

Cas died in Lucifer Rising, I'm assuming he died in The End (this one is a bit of a stretch, yes, and is mostly fanon, but it seems right that no one made it out of the asylum alive), and Swan Song.

Everything That Matters is one where TheEnd!Cas prays for a second chance to do it over as he lays dying and gets sent to the past post-Swan Song and finds Dean. I found myself shouting "Condoms! STDs! Withdrawal!" and hankering for TC.

So far, there's only been one encapsulated chapter with Jensen/Misha. So far I've been bored by the time spent on their childhood (no building up to be in love, they just are) and then a fairly ridiculous breakup, and then both of them being assholes as they go on a date when one of them is involved. I don't know if the RPS will rear it's head again, it was so random, and I don't see a point to it returning. I'll let you know, ita.

I like to think he made it out of The End, and goes clean. It's the only possible positive thing to wring out of that scenario.

I haven't read Everything Matters. It looked enh to me.

RPS = real people sex?

Pretty much, Laga. Real Person Slash.

Damnit, Cas died in The End! Cas surviving everyone in a post-apocalyptic world is Not Happy. It makes Julie sad to think such things. Okay, now I want the fic speculating what happens after.

Oh god, so apparently the RPS is Cas writing a novel. This is the scholarly endeavor this AU Cas has been working on, really?

I'm still annoyed at the idea that this epic romance broke up because they couldn't survive on letters or email, and that despite the cost of college, the families couldn't foot the bill for a plane ticket once or twice a year. What's a couple hundred bucks against a mutli-thousand dollar college tuition, plus the cost of finding housing for the summer, or paying to keep housing for the summer. I need better obstacles, people! Especially if you want me to believe this epic romance got deterred because of them.

Eh, I could have lived without it, the Once, Again, Always fic. The narrative was wonky, and I really wasn't sold on the obstacles. I mean, if the characters are declaring their undying love for each other, you don't just mention the one's insecurity in passing, it's a big fucking issue. And one they should have been dealing with the whole while, not just in passing in a late flashback. Oherwise they just look silly.

And the RPS was just gratuitous. Cas' novel fictionalizing his and Dean's romance could have been handled differently without alienating readers. Another fic worked it with the story being about Donna and Samantha, no need to go the Misha/Jensen route.