My Synopsis
Season 5 episode 9 of Supernatural is called "The Real Ghostbusters." It starts off with Sam and
Dean showing up worried about Chuck after they get the text about it being a
life or death emergency. It turns out
the Becky texted them from Chuck’s phone to get them to show up to their first
ever Supernatural convention. They
discover that there are vengeful spirits hidden during the staged hunt. In the end Sam and Dean defeat the spirits
with the help of Sam and Dean Cosplayers.
My Review
“The
Real Ghostbusters” is very unique for a Supernatural
episode. For instance it showcases Sam
and Dean with very serious and upset attitudes in a more or less comical
situation. It’s their reaction to meeting
their fan base. While I feel this paints
a realistic picture about how Sam and Dean will react I do disagree with the
way their fans and convention culture is portrayed. Though there are definitely some positive
moments I believe this episode doesn’t do well in this aspect.
First
when Sam and Dean arrive they are more than annoyed at the prospect of people
dressing as them which is understandable.
I did enjoy how when a Scarecrow Cosplayer joked with Sam and Dean about
their “costumes”, this is very typical when it comes to conventions and fans’
interactions with one another. Though
after that the majority of the episode paints fans as completely oblivious, obnoxious,
and ignorant. I suppose when the characters
are written this way it helps the viewer to better understand Sam and Dean’s annoyance
but regardless I also believe the way the fans reacted to Sam and Dean was inaccurate. At conventions if someone sees a really good
cosplayer, which compared to the background cosplayers Sam and Dean were, they
want pictures with them. Great
cosplayers become the center of attention rather than pushed aside and ignored. I think this episode gets convention culture
very wrong.
However,
there were moments where it showed the intelligence of fans and their
perceptiveness. This is evident in Becky’s
noting of who Bella actually gave the colt to.
I believe this is subtle nod by the writers as to how perceptive the
fans of Supernatural actually are. I
also think the speech that Damien gives to Dean about how he should see his
life in a more positive light paints an insightful picture of Supernatural fans
but I believe this line falls a bit flat.
The
speech that Damien gave had the illusion of insightfulness and to an extent it
had a useful message but essentially he just told Dean to stop whining because
he goes on adventures and has a brother who loves him. This is far from an effective pep-talk as
Dean sees the people he cares about die and he also faces the possibility of
death on a daily basis. Dean holds the
weight of the world on his shoulders and if I were him I would tend to agree
that no one should want to be him or pretend to be him. However by this same token I believe Dean and
Damien were comparing apples to oranges.
Dean criticizes them for wanting to be him but when Dean and Sam began
digging up Gore Damien and Barnes wanted to quit. Dean sees them as wanting to do more than
play a character (Dean and Sam), Dean sees them as wanting to live their
life. Damien only wants to play out a
fantasy but knows to return to their day to day life so I believe this episode
jumbled up some signals.
Overall
after re-watching this episode I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first time I
watched it. I found it wildly in
accurate to portraying fans and convention culture, it has a moment of clarity
but the overall message becomes a bit muddled and confused. Though as a bonus consolation I enjoyed Chuck’s
end statement that “It’s really not jumping the shark unless you come back
down.” This is a great comment as it is
the writer’s actually saying that they’ve realized they’ve entered meta
territory however it can’t fail if they continue with bigger and bigger
storylines.
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