Supernatural - 5x8 "Changing Channels" Rewatch
Added 2024-08-02 10:29:50 +0000 UTC
Comments
Just like in Mystery Spot, Gabriel/Trickster is really picking on Sam more than Dean. Sure Dean dies but the emotional toll it took on Sam is insane! Here he gets slapped many times, the Nutcracker game show questions are all jabs at Sam with an actual physical jab followed up by the Herpexia character commercial. Before they trap him in holy fire, Sam gets some sexual innuendo as KITT from Gabe so I wonder if this the beginning of their enemies to lovers bromance? It's great how they try to film Speight in many of the scenes here since he barely fits the frame with those two. Once you hear those convention stories, it's really something I pay attention to now on rewatches. We know it takes a lot of those Scully boxes since his debut in s2 but they use a lot of crane/floor angles here.
CrystalDeth
2024-10-04 15:15:58 +0000 UTCthis is all so well put and analysed! I hadn't thought of any of the different shows that deeply before beyond them being satire of different genres
Kit
2024-08-07 21:57:21 +0000 UTCThere is just so much Lou Ferrigno jr on my tumblr dash these days, that I'm always thinking of 9-1-1 now even whenever I hear Lou Ferrigno XD
BexFangirl
2024-08-04 13:01:50 +0000 UTCIt's interesting that you dig into what actually happens in the TV episodes within Changing Channels - there's so many layers in there, even though it's all played as fun. Sam is told by Dr Piccolo that it's not his fault the woman died, people die all time - a reference to his guilt over killing the nurse in Lucifer Rising. Dean is shot for dismissing doing a face transplant ("none of this is real") and what happens at the end of the season is that Michael gets a new face - that of Adam, after Dean has refused to let him use his. Sam becomes the Impala, a vehicle, just as he's supposed to become the vehicle or vessel of Lucifer (Gabriel even alludes to that being no different). The gameshow questions refer to issues Sam and Dean have pushed out of their minds (Sam had sex with and worked with a demon! Dean's mom and dad would still be alive if Sam hadn't been born!), hence they're asked in a language they don't understand. Sam is punished for his sexual transgression with Ruby by whacking him with the nutcracker and then by giving him herpes (Pestilence will add syphilis later in the season). The sitcom reduces them to their shallowest stereotypes and it's so painful for them to play those, especially Dean (he seems literally tortured by having to perform this role of a womanising, food-loving comedy character, which is so poignant). I'm not sure if there's any more to the copshow scene than a dig at CSI, which was on another channel at the same time as Supernatural. But Gabriel's talk is more devastating information about just how far Sam and Dean's lives were never their own, and a reminder of just how much s5 is an unfolding nightmare.
Jay
2024-08-03 12:04:51 +0000 UTCAnd Patrick Dempsey, the original Dr McDreamy, played opposite Jensen in Blonde - as a character called Cass
Jay
2024-08-03 11:23:29 +0000 UTCThe end of the warehouse scene always has been a nitpick of mine because putting water on an oil fire should make it significantly worse, not extinguish it! Though I suppose maybe holy oil is Special and can in fact be extinguished by some sprinklers.
Laurel
2024-08-03 01:52:09 +0000 UTCChanging Channels is my favorite meta episode, aside from maybe Fan Fiction. I like both equally
AdoptDontShopPets
2024-08-02 18:49:54 +0000 UTCChad Everett played “old Dean” in 5x7. Jensen told us that Chad came to the set to watch him and catch his mannerisms. Jensen said it felt weird just having someone watching you all day.
AdoptDontShopPets
2024-08-02 18:48:38 +0000 UTCEvery time I watch this episode I see her and go 'Jenny...' and shake my fist at her lol.
Sharon Owen
2024-08-02 16:48:54 +0000 UTCThis is the second appearance of the actress who played the character Dr. Ellen Piccolo, Christine Chatelain. She will appear for the third time in the series, reprising the same character that she originally played in S1 Dead Man's Blood in the series finale - as Jenny - who is part of the vampire group that killed Dean Winchester.
rose mnor
2024-08-02 14:02:08 +0000 UTCJust to further expand the GA connection, Jensen is just about to start working with Dr Steamy in Countdown!
Kim Rigg
2024-08-02 12:46:04 +0000 UTC
