TV Recap: ‘Supernatural,’ “Changing Channels”

Image courtesy of FanPop and the CW

“Changing Channels” is exhibit A as to why Supernatural is my favorite show on television, period. I love Lost and it’s clearly better and have a special place in my heart for so many other programs, but nothing compares to this one. Well, ask me after Lost season six debuts.

Why you ask? Just watch this:

Genius.

Just in case that didn’t give you the gist of the ep, this one saw the brothers get stuck into various television shows by their old friend the Trickster. Aside from the generic sitcom, Sam and Dean found themselves trapped in a Grey’s Anatomy rip-off called Dr. Sexy, MD, a Japanese game show called Nutcracker, CSI: and Knight Rider. Oh, and let’s not forget the genital herpes commercial. And though the Dr. Sexy spoof ran a little long (especially the surgery sequence), everything thing else (including that spoof) was spot-on. You have to love the cheesy folk-pop music in the Dr. Sexy riff, the “brilliant coward” comment and Dean’s weird fascination with the program.

Of them all, the Knight Rider stuff was best, with Sam being stuck in the car and Dean having to drive him — and get stuff out of his trunk. Obviously the CSI: stuff was hilarious too, especially Jared/Sam’s spot-on Caruso impression. Makes you realize how awful that guy is in reality.

But what makes the program so good — and I mentioned this last week, but it’s even more true in this effort — is that amid all the silliness were some beats that furthered the mythology forward. I appreciated Sam’s idea of asking the Trickster for help, especially since he’s always taken such an interest in the two, but for the writers to take the Trickster character where they did was blindsidingly fantastic.

And surely Eric Kripke and co. didn’t have the idea that the Trickster would actually be the archangel Gabriel planned out from when he was introduced or even in season’s three’s awesome “Mystery Spot,” watching this episode you would be hard pressed to argue that they didn’t. His actions in “Mystery Spot” and this one — pushing Sam to forget Dean, forcing them to become vessels for their respective powerful archangels — make complete sense now. Just as he said, he’s tired of all the fighting between his family and he just wants the apocalypse to be over.

The supplemental reveal that Dean and Sam were always going to be the vessels of Michael and Lucifer — just look at the similarities in their personalities and relationships with their father — no matter what happened, dating all the way back to the beginning of humanity is one hell of weighty thing to pull off as well. However, that does the raise the question of how in well, God’s name, are they going to get out of it. I guess Cas’ search for God is the only way, but usually if the writers tell us something is going to happen repeatedly throughout, it happens (see Dean’s deal and Sam’s turn to the dark side).