Salute to Supernatural Nashville – It’s Sunday!

Another pretty pretty guest post from Kim Prior!
-Lynn.

My Sunday morning began with the Gold Panel with Jared and Jensen. I think they were still full of giggles from their distillery tour the day before as most of the panel was full of shenanigans and laughs. I’ll talk more about that tour later.

Jared began the panel by telling us that his daughter will be born very soon, and he’s a little nervous about having a girl… Jensen immediately laughed at him.

The boys took turns playing the keyboards. Jared played while Jensen answered a question and vice versa. At one point, Jensen played and Jared moved across the stage, resting his foot on the thing and sang a little “la la la” thing.

Jensen turned off Jared’s mic while he was playing the keyboards, and Jared feigned annoyance.
Jensen: “Every day of my life”
Jared: “For twelve years.”

When asked how they want the show to end, Jared said he wants to watch the series finale in Lawrence, Kansas with fans. Ok, just take my money right now. I am so there for that!

The panel ended with a sweet moment between Jared and a fan. She asked for tips on how to be happy. Jared sat down at the edge of the stage as he talked about being away from his family, and that is a hard thing sometimes, but he also thinks being at the cons is good for his mental health too, so he believes it’s a balancing act. As Jared spoke, Jensen listened quietly, but then he walked over to Jared and put a supportive hand on his head, then ruffled his hair, because, ya know, big brothers never resist the chance to mess up little brother’s hair.

The Gold Panel ended with the boys blowing us kisses, and then I was off to photo ops.

The next panel was Samantha Smith. Ok, to be honest, I really wanted to go to her panel, I really wanted to hear what she had to say about Mary… but at the same time, I was hesitant to go in. I’m not a fan of Mary. I mean, I don’t hate Mary. But c’mon folks, I’m a Mom. And I’m just having a very hard time understanding most of Mary’s choices this season.

I’m a Mom, yes, but I’m also an adult. So I took a deep breath and walked into the theater because that was the only way to hear her words, to hear her speak about Mary. And I’m so glad I was mature enough to listen.

Samantha said so many things about Mary. She knows that Mary shouldn’t have lied, but she wants us to understand that Mary really is doing her best. Mary has had a tough time relating to adult Sam and Dean. She’s had a tough time figuring out where she fits in this new world, so she’s trying to find herself, and she’s doing that so she can take care of her family. Samantha said Mary is single minded about ridding the world of monsters, and she can see the BMoL have a plan to do just that, whereas the boys don’t have an actual plan. Yes, the woman from the BMoL tortured her son, but she was a rogue. Mary is trying to see the BMoL as a useful tool, something that can help her sons, something that can make a better, safer world for them. Samantha said, “Sam and Dean have earned your trust. I don’t think Mary has yet. But you will like her again.”

Okay, that’s fair. As a mom, I understand Mary a little better now. My opinion, but perhaps Mary hasn’t been portrayed in that way so far; perhaps Mary is being shown as a little too badass, a little too disconnected. But I do understand Mary’s line of thinking now – ultimately, she’s just trying to protect her boys. And while I may not agree with her choices, her decisions, I absolutely agree that the boys should be protected. And hugged. Can we get a really honest hug, please?

A simply adorable little girl approached the stage to give Samantha a flower. Samantha then helped the little girl onto the stage, and they proceeded to just chat as if they had known each other forever. It was just precious. Yeah, so can we write a scene like that for Mary and Sam and Dean. Just sayin.

Jared and Jensen were running late for their afternoon panel, so Rob and Richard took a few questions from the audience.

Question for the band: Inspiration for songs?
Mike: “A good breakfast”
Billy: “Same”
Norton: “Wagner”

Rob found the little girl who gave the flower to Samantha. Lemme tell ya, watching Rob knelt down as he talked with the little girl, yeah, my heart just melted.

Jared and Jensen arrived and did the now-standard jump. Almost immediately the crowd began to shush them, and once we finally had their attention, we sang Happy Birthday to Jensen. Cue that same adorable little girl as she went to the stage to give Jensen a rose. Awww.

The panel begins as the boys sit on their chairs, only to realize the chairs swivel. They are now five year olds.

And that pretty much sets the tone for the entire panel.

The big screen behind them kept freezing and making the boys laugh. Jared starts doing things to Jensen, like touching his nose, pinching him, and so on. Jared is not actually touching Jensen, but it looks like he is on the screen. Jensen tried to act annoyed, but he can’t help but to laugh at Jared’s antics.

Speaking of laughing and acting like five year olds… Jared attempted to tell us about their distillery tour they took the day before. He could barely get the words out. Apparently, the term for hole cut out of top of barrel is ‘bung hole.’ And he just started laughing. And laughing. And giggling. And then Jensen explained that once Jared started laughing, then he started laughing, and they were like Beavis and Butthead at the back of the tour. And there they sat, on stage, trying to tell us about it, but they could not stop laughing. So much so that Jensen finally walked off the stage. And then there was kind of a loud noise, and then Jensen came back on stage and he was bleeding. Whatever happened back there, well, he cut his finger. Cue a quick-thinking fan with a bandaid.

That was not the end of the laughter though. Oh no. A fan asked Jared a question, and she had a bit of a strong southern accent. So naturally, Jared replied to her in a strong southern accent. And he continued to talk in a southern accent. And then Jensen began to feed him accents. I was laughing so hard! It became difficult to keep my camera steady because I was laughing so hard, and my shoulders were shaking, and I actually laughed until I had tears, and my cheeks hurt!

There were so many funny moments, too many to retell in this article. They talked about scaring people with their sneezes. Jared said he’s afraid of bears, and then he literally fell out of his chair. At one point, Jensen said “when Jared laughs, he can’t help but laugh too. It just goes on and on, we feed off each other.” Same, Jensen, same.

There were serious moments, too. Jensen said that playing Dean Winchester has given him brothers, friends, a life that he only dreamed of, and he’s very grateful. Jared said yes, they will have separation anxiety when show ends. Jensen said he doesn’t believe there’s an ideal ending for Supernatural, but he would like it to be left open for the movie two years or so later; Jared thinks they need to die in the series finale. Can we not talk about that?

Then one of the worst things that can happen at a convention happened to me.

I had to walk in late to Mark Sheppard’s panel.

I had to walk to the front of the room to my seat, and he was standing right there.

So I held my breath and said a little prayer that he wouldn’t draw attention to it, that he wouldn’t make it a thing.

Mark said to me, “Are you okay?” And he wasn’t sarcastic, ok maybe a little sarcastic, but I’ll take it.

I missed a fair amount of this panel, but trust me, I was there for the most important part. And I wouldn’t dare try to quote Mark word for word, but it went like this:

He talked to us about how proud he is to be an American citizen. He talked about the importance of voting, saying it is a privilege. He urged us to vote, and not just in the big elections, but in all of them, from your local school council, to mayor, to senators, all of them…

He also explained Freedom. It is not the freedom to say get the f*** off my lawn. Freedom is to do, to create, to make change, to make things happen, to support things, to do the right thing…

He talked about that it really, truly does not matter what your politics are – Republican, Democrat, etc – what matters is that you vote, that you hold your representatives accountable, that you do your part to make a change when a change is needed.

Mark closed his panel by reminding everyone, “if you need help, don’t stay silent, if we see someone hurting, we should do what we can to help.”

And Mark’s panel ended. But do you get it?

Do you get it?

Whatever it is, wherever you are, do your part to make a change.
Help one another.
Spread love.

Thanks, Mark, for reminding me. And please, don’t ever stop reminding me.

And that’s the end of the con as we know it. Thanks again to Fangasm for giving me the chance to write these articles!

-Kim Prior
@MamaPrior
just a mom with a camera