Month: December 2022

Supernatural Phoenix 2022!

Supernatural Phoenix 2022!

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The Supernatural Phoenix con was special this year – a lot of my friends were there, which always makes it extra wonderful. A bunch of us talked one of our friends into coming to this con, and then surprised her with friends coming in from all over since this would be her last con – yes, she’s over 80, but honestly she’s 80 plus years young! It was so wonderful to see how surprised she (and half of our other group of friends) was to see the other half, and to make sure that the guest of honor enjoyed every second of what will probably be her last SPN con (not that she’s going anywhere, but this is the local one for her!) It got me thinking that someday I’ll have my own “last Supernatural convention” and that made me need tissues. But it was also so much of what cons and fandom are about, making friends from all over who support each other all year long.

In fact, there are only a few “Official Supernatural conventions” left, including this weekend’s Nashville one and the long-postponed San Francisco con in 2023. It feels weird that the rest of the 2023 cons are not called Supernatural conventions, even if we’ll have Jared, Jensen and Misha at all of them and many of the ‘regular’ guests that we know and love. Change is inevitable, I know, but I don’t have to like it – or at least I get to be ambivalent about it! I am excited to meet the casts of Walker and Windy and The Winchesters and The Boys and Big Sky of course, I just want everyone who I know and love to stick around too. Good thing I’m not in charge of conventions, they’d have about a million guests…

Friday was a short day for me because I spent most of it either flying or having lunch with my friends. The hotel had an outdoor patio with trees and water and cornhole and it was absolutely lovely, so we grabbed a big table out there and just caught up. I made it into the convention center in time to catch some of Adam Fergus’ panel and hear his story about being scared of everything as a kid, including the werewolf he was sure he saw at night that turned out to be a hat and coat on the bannister.

Adam talked about how on Supernatural, Jared was surprised to find out he was Irish. He also said that recently he had to do a Texas accent for a role and wanted it to be believable – so he called Jensen! (Actually that was a joke – he said he always has a voice coach when he has to do an American accent)

Someone asked about his favorite episodes and he said that one of the reasons that Supernatural was on for so long was the great writing and the way they took risks, like Baby and Scoobynatural. So agreed!

Speaking of writing, Adam wrote a chapter in There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done all about his time on Supernatural and his appreciation of fandom that’s really interesting, if you haven’t checked it out yet.

Jason Manns was busy as the Friday emcee, and it was nice to see his smiling face.

Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster also did a panel, which started out with Briana channeling her inner Stephen Norton… Shhhh, don’t tell him!

Kim and Briana always have something inspirational to say, and this panel was no exception.

Kim: I am fucking allowed to feel good about myself!

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‘The Winchesters’ Mid Season Finale Brings Back a Familiar Face

‘The Winchesters’ Mid Season Finale Brings Back a Familiar Face

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The mid season finale was aptly titled ‘Reflections’ and that’s what it asked some of its main characters to do. Supernatural (the Mothership for this prequel series) has always been about family relationships, so I was eager to watch this episode, which promised not one but TWO missing fathers returning. The episode was also directed by Supernatural’s Richard Speight, Jr. so that was an extra incentive to be excited. It also had me reflecting on my long history with this universe, since Speight has been so much a part of all things Supernatural and the return of Henry Winchester also meant the return of Supernatural’s Gil McKinney. That meant that this episode was, for me, the most emotional one so far.

We get Dean Winchester right away with his introductory monologue: Comes a time in every hunt when the fightin’ starts. And the difference between winning and losing isn’t whether you have the holy water, the wooden stake or the silver bullet. It’s whether you’ve got the grit to get the job done.

Certainly something that Sam and Dean had, no matter what got thrown at them, and not something that the John and Mary we know in the future were lacking. In this timeline, John and Mary stalk the radio station tower that’s calling all the monsters to the Akrida in a beautifully filmed scene in an overgrown field and then inside a dark abandoned radio tower.

Speight always gives us some shots that strike me as beautiful in their composition, and I enjoy looking for them in each episode he directs – this one didn’t disappoint.

Unexpectedly, Mary finds her father’s bag covered in blood (he apparently puts his initials on everything – someone must have sent him to camp a lot as a kid).

Mary freaks out, feeling guilty about the way they left things. She told him that she wanted to leave hunting and then Samuel went out on his own, and now she fears that maybe he’s not coming back. It’s such a common struggle for people who have lost someone and their last interaction was less than positive, and it can cause painful feelings of guilt and regret that are hard to get past. I felt for Mary there, as she confessed how much it was bothering her. I wondered if John too had felt some guilt – we don’t know what he had said to his father on the night Henry disappeared. Were there regrets there too?

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Big Sky – Mid Season Finale!

Big Sky – Mid Season Finale!

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I think we all expected the mid season finale of Big Sky to be creepy, scary and shocking – and it was! It was also unexpectedly tender and touching if you’re a Beau Arlen fan (which I am. Obviously.) So let’s recap all things Beau Arlen for this latest episode, as we head into a winter hiatus for the show.

We pick up where we left off (I love that this show does that), with Paige and Sunny uneasily figuring out what each other are up to. Paige says that Walter helped her and that she knows he’s Sunny’s son, and asks for her help finding her bag and her journal.  Sunny says she knows Paige was after a big sum of money and she thinks she knows who took the journal before the cops could. Paige offers to help get Walter out of jail if Sunny helps her find that journal. Who thinks this will go well? Exactly no one.

Beau and Jenny ask Walter more questions, telling him they’ve figured out his secret from the newspaper clippings Cassie found – that he murdered his parents in a house fire.

Walter: They weren’t my parents.

They ask him if he also killed the other child who was in the house, who was never found. Walter insists he was protecting her, that they hurt her even worse than they did him.

Walter: I set her free.

Beau: Meaning you killed her? The same damn thing.

They don’t believe Walter was able to survive on his own, and ask who helped him, mentioning Sunny and Buck.

Walter: Leave Sunny out of this.

Hmmmm.

Beau and Jenny confer with Cassie, who wonder if maybe Buck was his accomplice – and if the other kid (Meredith) is maybe still alive, though they haven’t been able to find any information on her.

Jenny gets a call from Pop. He’s at a friend’s daughter’s wedding, where he meets a pretty lady and has some fancy food, and then immediately it gets turned into a crime scene when the groom-to-be is killed. Poor Pop.

Jenny: There was a murder at the wedding.

Beau: Oh, come on! Hey, does this mean you’re Pop’s plus one for the wedding?

Jenny: Jealous?

Beau: Yeah, I wanna be Pop’s plus one!

So cute.

Jenny goes off to help Pop, and Denise and Emily pitch in to help find Meredith in the system. Denise calls him Bobo.

Emily: Bobo???

Cassie: Yeah, it’s the cringiest of all time.

Beau: It’s a harmless term of endearment. What you got, Denise-ie-poo?

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Get Ready for Big Sky’s Mid Season Finale!

Get Ready for Big Sky’s Mid Season Finale!

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How is it already time for the midseason finale of Big Sky? Tonight is a brand new episode that looks like it will be even more gasp-inducing than most of them are. Meanwhile, the cast and crew are finishing up shooting the season finale this week. We know that Jensen Ackles signed on for one season of the creepy show, so there’s no guarantee we’ll see Sheriff Beau Arlen again after this season – but let’s enjoy him while we have him! Here’s my recap of all things Sheriff Beau from the last episode of Big Sky to catch us up for tonight.

As always, there were lots of twists and turns, both in the plot and, in this episode, emotionally too. Thanks for making me care about this character and showing us his vulnerable side as well as his badass side, Mr. Ackles. Now I’m going to miss him!

bts filming the finale with a Big Sky crew member

Picking up where we left off, Beau and Jenny get to do some more interrogating, this time of the captured Walter, who doesn’t tell them anything and isn’t in the system, so they literally don’t know who he is.  I forgot to mention we also get some Ackles comedic chops in this episode too.

Beau: Mind if I call you Toby?

Sheriff Beau isn’t very happy that the mystery man left them with “a damn murder cluster”. They show him the photos of the people they think he killed, and he doesn’t react to Luke or Mary. When the photo of Paige is put down, however, Walter gets emotional – and Beau definitely notices.

Walter confesses to killing Paige, determined to protect her. Sometimes I really do feel bad for Walter. But only sometimes.

Cassie questions Walter later, asking about the hiker and why he moved the body and left a figurine with him.

Walter: I didn’t kill him. People always think the worst of me.

He says the figurine was meant for protection, for when the person passes over. Cassie asks why there weren’t figurines on Mary or Luke, didn’t they need protection?

Walter: Not from me.

Sometimes Walter tells it like it is also.

Beau gets to spend that time with Emily he’s been craving, and we get to see the soft Dad side of the Sheriff, which awwww. I love his trailer set up, with the beautiful scenic vista behind it and the lights strung up all around. Nicely done, Sheriff Beau, you’ve got a real flair for decorating.

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‘The Winchesters’ Art of Dying

‘The Winchesters’ Art of Dying

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The last episode of The Winchesters was special in an unexpected way – the entire cast and EPs Jensen and Danneel Ackles took to Instagram to do a live reaction video every time there was a commercial break in the episode’s airing. It was frankly insane and chaotic and thoroughly enjoyable as I went back and forth between watching the show, watching the cast and grumpy “old man” Jensen commentate, and trying to tweet a little myself.

 

I wish the Supernatural cast had done more of that back in the day!

At one point an ad for Walker Independence (from EP Jared Padalecki) came on and the whole cast of The Winchesters started cheering and saying what a great show it is.

Jensen: All in the family!

Awww.

The cast also complained about Drake Rodger’s smelly farts, prompting Ackles to reminisce about Supernatural.

Jensen: It’s like Jared 2.0…

Okay, back to the episode – which had a great opener. A woman runs through the woods, falling, frightened, limping in the dark forest. She takes refuge in an old barn, starting to draw some protection sigils on the door, but the lights begin to flicker and then – in true horror movie fashion – she thinks the sound she heard was just a bird and shrugs, relieved.

Of course that is when she gets suddenly pulled up to the ceiling and turned into a bloody mess. That was a scary opening though – in the dark like it should be!

Cut to Lata, chanting ‘I am at peace’ as though she’s trying to convince herself of that, which is what happens to me sometimes when I try to meditate so I can relate.

Interrupted by Dean Winchester: Hunting has a way of changing a person. After a while right, wrong, good, evil, they all start to look the same. And then it makes you start to wonder, who’s really the monster here, them or me?

You’ve certainly personified that question from time to time, Dean Winchester.

Lata as her friends argue in the next room: I am at peace….I am deeply annoyed!

Me: lol

John wants to keep searching for the Akrida, Carlos doesn’t, accusing John of being obsessed.

Carlos: Mellow out, amor.

John: The fate of the world is literally at stake!

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Walker Heads Into Midseason Hiatus with ‘Just Desserts’

Walker Heads Into Midseason Hiatus with ‘Just Desserts’

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All too soon, Walker is headed into its mid season hiatus – but boy, did it go out with a bang! Last week’s episode was an emotional roller coaster, which we should have expected since it’s titled “Just Desserts.” That doesn’t just apply to what comes at the end of Thanksgiving dinner either. The opening scene sets up the episode as one that deals with loss and family strife. Abby leaves a message for her brother William, saying she’s here if he wants to talk. Molly Hagan can make me feel so much with just a short little scene.

Cordi and Liam try to cope with everything they’ve been through by starting a new tradition – ranch to table turkey, complete with turkey imitation gobbles (which we also got some behind the scenes iterations of on Instagram thanks to Keegan Allen, lucky fandom that we are).

From Keegan’s IG

Jared does do a pretty authentic turkey imitation…

Stella always said she wanted to “mix things up” and Cordell is really missing his daughter, so he’s also planning Stella’s favorite dessert. Abeline and Bonham point out that Cordell is making grand gestures instead of talking to her instead of avoiding some awkward conversations. He clearly is upset that she’s been “radio silent” for a few weeks – and I find it hard to believe that Abeline hasn’t made sure Cordell realizes he got it wrong about what happened at the SideStep yet. What the hell??

The brothers tell their mom she’s not lifting a finger, assuring her they’ll have everything ready in time for the traditional Circle of Thanks, because they know this is a tough day for her.

They also do some hilarious imitations of their dad, which I’m sure Jared Padalecki and Keegan Allen thoroughly enjoyed regaling Mitch Pileggi with.

They also clearly enjoyed roaring around on ATVs wearing hunting camo gear and trying to outpace their dad – both the characters onscreen and definitely the actors.  The whole kill the turkey on Thanksgiving Day and get all dressed up in camo gear and oh we also need to race ATVs didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I don’t think that was the point – it was some indulgent fun that everyone could roll their eyes at a little.

They had just as much fun behind the scenes too…

They find some turkeys just hanging around gobbling and take a shot – which misses.

Liam: I was kinda hoping a Texas Ranger would be a better marksman.

BOYS.

They oddly give up on hunting fairly quickly, perhaps because they ran out of time riding around on their big toys like little boys. Cordell rationalizes.

Cordell: These gobblers are crafty.

Me: lol

Defeated by the wild turkeys.

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