Supernatural Seacon 2018!

 

Seattle con has always been one of my favorites. It’s just a short drive from Vancouver, so the cast is usually well rested and in a great mood – and it’s where some of my close friends live, so it means I get to visit them and hang out too. Add in the fact that some of my favorite fangirl buds were also here this year and that just makes it better. I had a vendor table with plenty of copies of Family Don’t End With Blood and our other books on Supernatural and fandom, right next to the lovely Kayla and Louden Swain, which was extra fun.

My friend Alana King of Youtube fame was also at the con, which meant time to hang out and some bonding time for the two of us whenever I accompanied Alana to anything that had to do with one Mr. Jared Padalecki. Alana had just completed a fundraiser for To Write Love On Her Arms and had a bound book of messages for Jared from all the contributors, which she had carefully handwritten. Needless to say, she was beyond nervous to give that to him, so I promised to come with her to tell him about the project and the awesome people who contributed. Alana had also agreed to get a photo op done for a fellow fan who couldn’t make it to the con, which involved Jared writing a message to her on a whiteboard – that was a lovely moment during which Jared said nice things to Alana and gave her a kiss on the forehead, which of course made Alana burst into tears. In the video blog on Alana’s channel, I’m the one doing all the reassuring smiling, but really I get all emotional too – I just hide it better!

I got to catch up with Megan Padalecki at this con too, who I haven’t chatted with in a little while and missed a lot. And of course the rest of the awesome people of the vendor squad, who are like a traveling group of artists bonded together around Supernatural – Jodi, Shelley, Scout, etc etc etc. I’m always in awe of your talents and proud to call you my friends.

Friday kicked off with Rob Benedict and Louden Swain holding down the fort while Richard Speight Jr. filmed, Rob wearing his “Frobday” shirt designed by Scout like 24 hours before and miraculously ready in shirt form for the con kickoff. Rob was rockin’ it.

And then there was the latest rendition of the Borja Borja series of shirts, this one featuring a swimming …naked…Borja. Though he insists that’s the body of a naked baby…

Rachel Miner was first up, and came onstage by means of the newly installed ramp, which thrilled her and all of us. It’s easy to forget how much of a difference it makes to be able to come and go on your own, and Rachel reminded us all, thanking Creation for making sure she could do just that.

Rachel: Every time I have to try to walk I get nervous, convinced I’m gonna go splat, so this is such a gift.

She also talked about the importance of representation of disabilities in media.

Rachel: I’m figuring this out every day, but there’s no representation out there of me to show me how.

Rachel also talked about loving her work with Random Acts and how rewarding it is to work with others who are trying to do good in the world. She loves her character, Meg, too, saying that she had a lot of good qualities like her loyalty, and that she appreciates that Supernatural isn’t afraid to play with the grey areas instead of making everything black and white.

I also love how much Rachel gets fandom, and that she identifies as a nerd herself.

Rachel: It’s so amazing to have something that makes your heart go pitter pat.

Yes, yes it is.

Jason Manns came onstage and sang a beautiful rendition of Wagon Wheel with Louden Swain. To the people in the audience who weren’t sure who he is, Jason explained.

Jason: So far on Supernatural I’ve played ‘voice on the radio’ and ‘absentee truck stop owner’. Actually that could be the same guy…. Lol

If he ever had a role where he actually appeared on the show, he’d either be a long lost Winchester cousin in a very cool car who’d save the day…. Or Cop #2 who gets eaten by a chupacabra in the first ten seconds…

Me (in my best Ketch voice): Chupacabra…

He’s in the process of working on the new Covers With Friends CD, and says that some of the guest singers might also co-write songs this time, which is exciting! Jason said that Jensen wanted to do something a little more “edgy” this time and stretch a little outside his comfort zone. I still remember the very first time Jensen dared to play a little ‘private’ concert at a con, just him and Jason and their guitars in a room with 20 people. He was so nervous, and afterwards he asked me how he did – it will surprise no one that he was AMAZING. But endearing that he didn’t know that. Now look at him, wanting to stretch and get edgy!

Next up was the British Men of Letters panel with Adam Fergus and David Haydn-Jones. Adam took the stage alone because David wasn’t there yet, joking about why he wasn’t onstage.

Adam: I shot him…

Lol

Turns out David spent five minutes stuck in a stairwell and couldn’t get to the ballroom.

Lol

David and Adam always have great chemistry together, so their joint panels are always fun.

They even got serious for a little while, answering a fan’s question about their favorite thing about the other.

David: Watching Adam enter a room and making everyone his friend in about 30 seconds. It’s inspirational.

Adam: We’ve hit it off so well, and I admire him. Touring together with David, I’ve found my acting reinvigorated, he’s inspired my acting.

Awwww

David shared some stories of being a Goth teen with skateboard and piercings and lots of leave-in mouse colour on his checkerboard dyed hair! Eagerly awaiting photos.

They both talked about the SPNFamily and the fandom and how special it is.

Adam: No one else really gets this, it’s everything that makes this special.

David: I have friends who have done Comic Con, but the compassion and inclusivity of this fandom is an amazing ride.

He also gave a shout out to Family Don’t End With Blood and our other books that talk about how special this fandom and this family is, both from the fan side and the actor side. Thanks, David!

David also teased an upcoming episode (next week in fact) in which Dean and Ketch have some comedic moments.

David: They’re bickering like an old married couple!

Both of them had props for Jensen’s comedic talents.

Adam: I had a serious scene with Jensen and then ad libbed “Do you have any vodka?”

Jensen loved it and told him to keep it in.

They’ve both had fun with the boys’ efforts to make them laugh too – David said he had to try hard not to crack up in a scene where he was stirring a cauldron and Jared added two ‘very large balls’ to something that already had a phallic shaped muddle. Lol

There was so much anticipation for Lisa Berry’s very first Creation panel, the room burst into applause as soon as she walked onstage – and she looked equally overcome. I’ve loved Lisa ever since I interviewed her about her role as Billie on Supernatural, and I was so damn happy to see her finally join the party. Let’s hope this is the first of many appearances!

Lisa did her panel with Kim Rhodes, and they brought a stuffed donut as Briana’s stand in since we were all missing her. (But psyched for the play she’s currently performing in).

A fan asked how Lisa found out she was going to be playing Death – actually Kim told her!

She said that Billie’s perspective on Sam and Dean is different now that she’s Death – she understands that they’re important in the scheme of things. For more from Lisa, check out our interviews with her here on Fangasm!

As Lisa told me when we chatted the first time several seasons ago, she was a big fan of Supernatural before she got cast.

Lisa: They asked if I wanted to do one scene on Supernatural, and I was like YES! I mean, would you want to work with Jared and Jensen??

Rhetorical question obviously.

Kim talked about being directed by Jensen and how helpful it was, and how it felt to get a “good” from him. The second scene she shot with him directing, she wasn’t sure what to do so she just talked really fast to get it done. He stopped her and asked about it, and helped her figure it out.

Kim: This show is in its thirteenth season because it comes from the top down.

We also got to hear Kim’s “mom voice” that one time she said “Young man!” to Jared and he was like “Oh my god  you have a real mom voice!”

Kim never fails to make me cry during her panel, she’s so damn inspiring. The chapter she wrote for Family Don’t End With Blood does the same, every single time.

Friday night karaoke was a good one, though I didn’t quite make it through the entire thing. Flying all the way across the country is tiring! Lisa Berry looked like she was once again having a blast, and it was awesome having her there.

Saturday saw the return of Richard Speight to hosting duties – he immediately christened Thursdays “Throbday” in honor of Rob.

Rich and Rob introduced Mark Pellegrino by saying that they used to be scared of “the devil” until you see him place his ridiculous complicated Starbucks order, and then you just can’t be intimidated by him anymore.

Mark: That will be the title of my autobiography, Ridiculous Starbucks Order.

A fan asked what happened to Nick, Lucifer’s original vessel, in the AU.

Mark: Poor Nick, in the AU he probably was killed in the apocalypse because he’d try to save his wife and kids.

Fan: Okay, now I’m sad…

Mark is happy to have Lucifer stay in this vessel for….oh, 16 seasons…

There were a lot of questions about Lucifer and Jack, and how he feels about having a son.

Mark: I think Lucifer does long for connection with his son, but he also wants power. He’s pretty neurotic so he’s a complex mix of noble and NOT.

Favorite question: Fan: Could Lucifer get a happy ending?

Mark: (smirk) Did your mind just go there too?

Ummm….okay, yes.

Next up we had an amazing ladies of Supernatural panel – Lisa Berry, Kim Rhodes, Ruth Connell and Alaina Huffman! And Briana Buckmaster’s donut.

And then, when you thought it couldn’t get any more awesome, Rachel Miner joined the fun!

When Rachel rolled up the ramp, Kim Rhodes yelled with glee: Now Rachel can be a gate crasher!

Yes!

Ruth: Can I just say how f—king excited I am about this?

Same, Ruth, same.

They pulled the fandom right into the awesomeness too.

Ruth: There wouldn’t be this connection between all of us if it weren’t for you guys.

Ruth also said that she loves that the writers had Rowena save herself, nobody saved her.

Alaina chimed in, talking about how much they love that they all play powerful women who can take care of themselves.

Rachel: They’re not damsels in distress. In fact Meg chose death to save the boys, who were the ones in distress.

Ruth to Kim: And now there’s a whole show all about women saving themselves!

Someone asked about the most exasperating scenes they’d filmed.

Alaina told the story of being hooked into wires for her death scene and worrying so much about that and about trying to keep the wires out of Jensen’s face that she forgot to act!

Lisa said her most difficult set moment was her very first shot because she had to sing on screen, so she had to overcome her own story – Billie just doesn’t care, but Lisa does.

Lisa: I had to push my voice away for a long time, so having to sing on Supernatural was so scary. Billie helped with that.

Ruth said it was this Friday because the guys were f—king around so much that what was a simple scene on paper took nine shots instead of one.

Rachel said that she didn’t tell anyone on set that she had MS and was afraid they might think she was drunk sometimes. Looking back, she wishes she had because they’re the nicest set and were so helpful always.

Kim added that it’s okay to tell your story and that you also don’t have to tell  your story if you don’t want to.

Kim: It’s f—king okay to stay safe in this world.

Damn, I love all of these women.

Rachel: If there’s no fanfic of all the women, it’s your job to make some!

Okay fandom, get on that!

Somewhere in here Louden Swain played their traditional acoustic mini set in the vendor room. Because my vendor table was right next to theirs, that meant I got a ringside seat to watch and listen and try not to sing along because I was taking a video and who wants to hear me when Rob and the band are singing??

Next the boys were up – R2M!

Matt jokingly asked Rob what he’d learned about giving the bus tour of Seattle on Thursday. Apparently his tour consisted of everyone else filling him in on the information he didn’t know. Lol

Rob: I’m the only one who gives a tour and it’s all questions. Like, oh that’s the space needle?

They were asked the infamous prank question (DRINK!), to which Richard quipped “Jared is not a good person.”

Rich: Stealing cell phones. The one time I left my phone in the green room, Jared took terrible photos of him and Jensen and Misha… (And by terrible I can just imagine…)

Jared also texted Richard’s wife with his phone as though he was texting his mistress. Ouch.

Rich: Then Adam Fergus got Jared’s phone and pranked him back by tweeting that he was phallicly challenged. Only Matt Cohen was nice enough to text him and tell him about it.

Rob: Jared messing with your private parts during your coverage.

He then elaborated.

Rob: Once I was doing a very serious scene with the boys and Jared had his foot on my thigh and every time I tried to look away from him Jensen was making weird faces and laughing.

A fan wanted to know if their comedic bits onstage at cons were scripted. They immediately went into a bit. About drugs in Rob’s b-hole.

One of the rare serious moments was a bit of information I didn’t know – Matt wants to direct! He’d love to have a short film on the festival circuit in the near future.

Richard talked about the challenge of both acting in and directing episode 13.20. He said he depends on the crew and Jensen helped a lot since he has done both as well. Jensen said that when he directed and acted, he depended on Jared to be his sounding board to help him focus, so Richard talked to both of them before he did it. They all lean on each other.

And Rob talked about another serious moment, that scene between Chuck and Dean when Jensen started actually crying.

Rob: I just f—king wanted to give him a hug. Me, Rob, personally.

You can read both Rob’s and Curtis Armstrong’s behind the scenes insights about Season 11 in my interviews with them here on Fangasm – some of my favorite scenes ever!

Eventually they were planning a soap opera where Rich plays Matt’s boyfriend and Rob his ex-boyfriend and Matt would be coming out of the closet trying to decide if he moves forwards or backwards and I think pillow fights were in there somewhere too in order to decide but I was laughing too hard.

The panel ended with lots of appreciation for all the good that Misha Collins does with Random Acts, and a charity auction of the outfit Matt Cohen wore to karaoke one night that left nothing to the imagination – and christened the space in front of the karaoke stage “moose knuckle corridor”.

Matt as Richard talked about it: I feel you all looking at my crotch…

We totally weren’t, Matt… Matt nevertheless modeled to get the bidding going!

Richard and Rob both signed the jumpsuit. Then there was a spirited bidding war that eventually raised $2500 – go fandom!

Next up was the man himself, Misha Collins. He gave Rob extra passionate hugs to make up for grabbing Richard’s ass. Awwww.

Rob’s face is all of us.

Misha brought along his college roommate Eric to join the fun, which meant we got lots of priceless stories from their college days. Including the one where they “upgraded” with furniture discarded from a fleabag hotel – “vomit stained chairs and mattresses that were blinding under black light”. They had 6 mattresses that were disgusting and they’d invite guests to play King of the Mattress on top of the rancid pile. Ewwww.

Also that time Vicky wanted to win the university scavenger hunt so badly that when they needed a “live Hooters waitress” she just got a job as one so she could be her own item. It’s so clear why Misha and Vicky ended up together, isn’t it??

Also I think I got distracted by Misha’s blue blue eyes and took alot of extreme close-ups. Umm, sorry?

Eric remembers  Misha whittling, and building things, including a bed, and that “Misha was always up for everything”. Shocking! And hey, that’s what I love about him.

Misha: It must have been great having a guy in the house making all this noise building a bed…

A fan asked where Misha gets the voices for Castiel.

Misha: Oh you know…what’s it called? My ass…

He said that when Bob Singer and Andrew Dabb heard the voice he was doing for Empty!Cas, they were like ‘what is he doing??’  He also said he’d have the chance to make up a voice in an upcoming episode, so hmmm…

I love Misha most when he’s talking about Random Acts or how he tries to incorporate kindness into his own life and the lives of his children. He talked about how important it is to notice people who are homeless as people, and if you want to help, listen to them and ASK what they need. Misha and Maison spent a day doing that and it was a moving (and illuminating) experience.

Misha: One of the best things about charity work is getting to understand the people you help.

He also confided that they were shooting last night and it got very late and Jared and Jensen just kept f—king around – Misha would start to move into place and they would put a prop in front of the camera, etc. Finally the camera guy was like “don’t they want to go home??!”  Misha eventually got a quick take in while J2 were giggling. Lol

Since Alex Calvert has been around, though, some of the “ribbing and fonding” have been mercifully transferred to him – so much so that Misha got kicked off set with J2 by Nina Lopez Corrado last time she was directing.

Misha: It was a knife to my heart. I had become the enemy…

I also love Misha for his openness, as he pondered the possibilities of a baby Megstiel and conjectured on the state of the fandom as far as subjects that are okay to talk about and how that has evolved, Destiel included. Afterwards, I had a chance to chat with Misha  a bit more about the evolution of fannish norms, and we both were remembering our very first conversation shortly after he’d joined the show – in which he brought up that topic before I could and left me comically open mouthed for a second. I knew right then I would enjoy every single conversation I had with Misha – he’s the only Supernatural actor who has written chapters for TWO of my books, Family Don’t End With Blood and Fan Phenomena Supernatural! (And why that section of Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls where we first meet up with Misha to chat is one of my favorites)

After that, I had time for a lovely dinner with my friend Alana and her parents and my friend Alicia, marred only by the fact that Alana had her heart set on waffles but apparently breakfast all day didn’t include the waffles. Luckily I always have tissues to hand over to Alana…

Then it was time for the Saturday Night Special, invariably one of my favorite parts of the con. This time was particularly special because it was Lisa Berry’s first time performing at the SNS and OMG her rendition of Proud Mary absolutely blew everyone away!!!! I mean, we knew she could sing, but we didn’t know she could sing like THAT! Wow.

Everyone brought their A game to the SNS, with Louden Swain anchoring a fabulous concert. Mark Pellegrino and Adam Fergus did introductions.

I never get as many good photos as I wish I did, because either a) I’m too busy singing along or dancing at my seat, or b) they are too busy dancing or laughing or singing their hearts out to stay still for very long. Nevertheless, they really all do look (and sound) like rockstars.

The entire room was on their feet and rocking out by the time they played Mama’s Jam with Matt Cohen and the rest of the cast dancing through the ballroom to cheer Rob and Louden Swain on.

They finished with Let Love Rule, everyone pouring their hearts into it and the fandom singing along.

 

Sunday was J2 day, as it always is, which meant I ran around like a crazy person between manning the vendor table, watching panels, doing a few photo ops and meet and greets, and trying to find time to eat something (anything) at some point (and mostly failing at that one).

Jared and Jensen were well rested and in very good moods, since they didn’t have far to travel from Vancouver.

Jensen: We’re close by – look at me, no coffee!

They had a lot to say about how awesome Scoobynatural is, and how they were excited to sneak into the Paley Fest screening of the episode to watch it with the fans.

Now that they’ve done that successful crossover, they’re ready for more. The Simpsons? Paw Patrol?

Jensen told an amusing story of how they’re reluctant to let Jared drive the Impala, while Jared giggled. I love that they can tease each other and enjoy every minute of it.

Both of them talked about being on the treadmill and having Supernatural playing on the screens.

Jared: I’m there like trying to pretend I’m not watching myself on TV every time someone comes by.

Jensen: I on the other hand am like, hey can you come look at this, I think it needs to be fixed…oh hey hello, I’m Jensen…

lol

They also said that Sam and Dean’s fight in front of the Impala when Dean was under the love spell was not choreographed.

Jensen: They said wrestle, and we did. I caught an elbow at one point…

Jensen made fun of his own driving skills too, though – or at least his mountain bike riding skills. In one of his early interviews when he started Supernatural, they were both asked what they did for fun and for some reason Jensen said he did downhill mountain biking (which he didn’t) and so they set it up for a media shoot and he ran into a giant boulder on the way down. Lol. I remember being brand new to the fandom and seeing that ‘interview’ clip, with Jensen all suited up like Robo Cop and now it’s even funnier.

Maybe my favorite funny moment was courtesy of a witty fan.

Jensen was in the middle of an answer, and said “well, I tend to be pretty…” and then paused for a second.

Fan from the audience: Yeah you do!

I laughed so hard it took a minute for me to go back to taking photos and live tweeting.

There were some serious moments too.

Jared talked about how rewarding it is to work on a show with a great core group of people, including the cast and crew and also the guest actors who they’ve come to know so well.

They also talked about their mutual support of one another and how much it helps that they know each other so well.

Jensen: I do tend to know when something is going on with him, and he does the same for me.

And that is part of the reason we’re headed into Season 14!

 

After that it was photo ops and meet and greets. I was having such a busy day that when I arrived for Jensen’s meet and greet, I could not for the life of me remember what the last episode was or what I wanted to ask about it. A comical Q and A ensued where all the lovely other people at the meet and greet kept trying to jog my memory with bits and pieces of the last episode. There was a cat…there was a priest…Dean got upset thinking about the Impala being stolen…

Me: OH RIGHT!

That was the thing that made me remember. At that moment, Jensen came in while we were still laughing and called on me to ask a question. I confided that we were laughing because I literally could not remember the last episode, to which he gave me an affronted and incredulous look.

Me: I finally remembered the Dean upset about the Impala part (mostly because Jensen had told me at some point that he had ad libbed the ‘torture’ etc.)

Jensen: Oh great, so the only part of it you finally remember is the fluff??

He’s so attractive when he’s busting me, it’s hard to protest. But I asked him about singing with Corey Taylor anyway, since I had just done an in-depth interview with Corey about it and knew what a huge fan he is – a fact I shared with Jensen.

Jared’s meet and greet was just as much fun, and I managed not to incur any busting from him. I wasn’t able to catch all the Sunday panels thanks to it being such a crazy day, but I did get to Ruth Connell’s thankfully.

Ruth as she looks out into the Sunday crowd: There’s so many of you here, you’d think J and J were here or something…

Ruth was wearing butterfly wings in support of her charity of choice, My Hope Chest, which does important work helping women who want breast reconstruction be able to get it.

Apparently Ruth, Richard, Misha and Mark had a wild and crazy road trip down to Seattle from Vancouver. Ruth kept professing her love for Misha and saying that Mark was “cute” and that she has some priceless video of him dancing which she’ll share at the appropriate time to prove it.

Ruth is also all of us because she’s so thrilled about Lisa Berry finally being at a con!

Alaina Huffman joined Ruth for part of her panel, and they both reminisced about the time they got tons of Misha calendars and plastered Misha’s face all over Mark Sheppard’s trailer. Good times.

Alaina: They were everywhere, on his toilet…

Ruth: And Mark loved it, because he’s also a squishy bun.

Ruth is very excited about Rowena being back on Supernatural this season and can’t wait for us all to see what’s up with her powers. Ooooh.

If Rowena took over the Grand Coven, she’d have everyone wear sparkly gowns and purple eye shadow. Even the boys.

Ruth: I’d glamourize everyone – men, women, everyone.

Petition for Rowena to take over the Grand Coven?

Ruth has had her own struggles with J2’s penchant for joking around on set.

Ruth: Once the boys get in comedy mode, you just can’t stop them.

The one time Ruth tried to be funny too she’s afraid she didn’t quite pull it off. Something about bringing a bottle of lube (which is what they use for holy water) into a scene, and Misha picking her up and carrying her off set to save her from not being funny. lol

At Jensen and Jared’s afternoon panel, the first thing they asked was who’s excited for Scoobynatural?

Jared: raises hand

They said it was an awesome experience to watch the episode at Paley Fest with a room full of fans.

Also I am a BIG fan of Jared’s awesome socks. Just sayin’.

A fan asked whether Jeffrey Dean Morgan knew about Lucille appearing on Supernatural.

Fan: When you had Lucille, Dean…..oops I mean Jensen…

Jared: Wait, there’s a Lucille Dean??

Jensen: (deadpans) We haven’t seen that one yet. It’s….flavorful…

Lol

And no, JDM didn’t know about that, but they thought his reaction would be “cool”.

Which it was.

 

They got the inevitable prank question (DRINK!)

Jensen: It’s not pranking, it’s a way of life. We are full of shenanigans.

Understatement. Thankfully.

Jensen looked absolutely gleeful about pranking Richard by changing his lines to “something inappropriate”.

Boy, I’ll bet!

An unusual question was what bad habits would their wives say they have. Jensen confessed that for some reason he apparently is very loud while going through his nighttime getting ready for bed ritual, to the point of doing things very mechanically, hitting the faucet, spinning and slamming the toothpaste – like he’s working in a bar or something, full on Tom Cruise cocktail moments. Until finally Danneel was like ‘what are you doing, you’re so loud!’

Jensen: Apparently I go all Tom Cruise when I’m brushing my teeth.

Jared said that when he goes to the gym and gets all sweaty, he showers with his clothes on to clean them and then hangs his wet clothes all over the bathroom to dry, and Gen gets so mad.

 

Then Jensen had to share his own pet peeve about Jared always taking out his chewed gum when he comes into Jensen’s trailer and leaving it on the counter. So he can pick it up on the way out and resume chewing it.

Jared: Taking your gum out of your mouth is like taking off your shoes before entering! Also it tastes better after oxygenating…

Jensen and everyone: NOOOOO.

I laughed so hard at this, NGL.

They said they rarely get embarrassed by anything that happens on set anymore.

Jensen: Jared ripped his pants and he laughed louder than all of us. At himself.

Jensen did get a little embarrassed when he fell down doing his ‘motivational speech’ in LARP And The Real Girl though – and then of course it was repeated in the gag reel like four times!

They did say it was kinda weird when they have to do sex scenes or take their clothes off on set.

Jared: People on set want to avoid looking at you….

Jensen: But there are some people who are like (goes backstage and then creepily peeks through the curtain lol)

It was a very lighthearted panel and  there was again some nostalgic talk of the early days of Supernatural, which I remember so well. Someone asked about the writers’ strike back in Season 3, which prompted Jensen to talk about the fact that he shaved his head – so of course as soon as I got home I had to try to find those old photos.

In contrast, when asked about their favorite SPN memes, Jared immediately said his L’Oreal commercial.

Jared: I was mesmerized.

He also likes the nine hairstyles of Sam and Dean, in which Sam’s is every changing and Dean’s keep looking almost exactly the same.

Jensen admits he likes to use gifs of himself in text messages to friends, which thoroughly annoys them.

We also got the continuation of J2’s running joke about Jensen always getting a ba dum dum from Norton and Jared never managing to inspire one, no matter how many Dad jokes he tells.

Jensen teased Jared about watching The Bachelorette for all the pretty dudes.

Jared quipped back: That’s why I took this job, next to you. There’s only one pretty boy in my world.

Awww.

They both said that in the early days of the show, they would get very emotional when a character died and that actor left. Jared said he took Bobby’s death pretty hard. Now they assume they might see them again after all.

Jared: The great thing about Supernatural is that we don’t get all emotional when a character dies, because they might come back!

Seattle was before we knew that Season 14 was a go, although I think most of us assumed that it was, but that made this comment a nice thing to hear.

Jensen: We don’t know where the finish line is. We haven’t seen it yet.

He also said that even when the Show does end, it won’t be the end of “this”.

Jensen: What he and I know is that what we’ve built here with this show and this fandom won’t dissolve when the show ends.

And I don’t want to!

In some of the more serious moments, they talked about how much the cast and crew has become a family, and how the conventions have extended that family.

Jensen: There’s certainly a family that exists with this cast and crew, and it’s great that we get to reconnect with each other here too.

Jared: This is an awesome group to be a part of and it’s awesome that it just keeps growing.

All too soon it was time for the last question.

They ended their panel by auctioning off the LOVE hoodie that Jared had been wearing all day. He first rubbed it on Jensen’s face too, and then when Jared took it off, Jensen put it on, strutting around the stage like he was returning to his early days of modeling and generally inspiring fandom to bid their wallets off.

Eventually Jared “helped” Jensen take the hoodie off.

Jared was clearly overwhelmed with the bidding and the amount of money raised for TWLOHA, which was just very touching to see.

 

The hoodie went for $8,000 to a lucky fan who came onstage to have Jared and Jensen sign it for her too. Jared gave her his beanie too – he seemed genuinely overwhelmed by the generosity of the SPN Family to benefit I Am Alive.

It was a beautiful way to end a panel.

We got a Kings of Con panel to end the con, during which Rich and Rob once again made me laugh a lot and miss Kings of Con a lot too.

On a more serious note, Rich and Rob talked about how special this is, the bond they have with other and with the whole cast and crew, and how lucky they feel.

Richard: What I’ve gotten from this show is the same thing that you, the fans, have gotten – my friend group.

Rob: These guys literally saved my life. More than anything, I feel lucky.

If you haven’t read the chapter Rob wrote in Family Don’t End With Blood that tells the whole story of the stroke he had at a convention in Toronto and how the SPN Family and actors saved his life, it’s amazing. Check it out!

As for their characters, Rob would like Chuck to be able to sit down with Castiel and tell him he loves him. Richard is glad to be back finally.

Rob: Okay, so it was my idea for Gabriel to come back….with his mouth sewn shut…

Neither of them knew who their characters ultimately were when they were first cast – Rob as a writer/prophet and Richard as a janitor!

All too soon it was time for the traditional rendition of ‘It’s the end of the con as we know it’ and the band and Richard waved goodbye.

I love Seattle con and am really sad that this is the last one, at least for the time being. But this was a wonderful experience, full of great friends and lots of emotion. Before I left the west coast, I was fortunate enough to visit the set to watch some filming, so stay tuned for some of those details once that episode airs!

— Lynn

To read all the chapters written by the

Supernatural cast, check out our books

At the links on the home page!