Let’s go back to November 5, 2020.
Two days ago, Joe Biden and incumbent President Donald Trump battled it out on the national stage. The country waited with bated breath to see who would be the next president of the United States.
Meanwhile, on the nearly-defunct blogging website Tumblr, an altogether different battle raged. The third-to-last episode of fan-favorite show “Supernatural,” which followed two demon hunting brothers and their various exploits with the, ahem, supernatural, was airing. Dedicated fans watched along, while most others kept their eyes on the polls.
No one could have expected what came next.
I can’t say I did either. I was a junior in high school that night. I had been Googling “election results” so many times over the last 48 hours that Google was making me do reCAPTCHAs. I had solidly grown out of my middle school Superwholock phase. I still genuinely believed I was cisgender.
And I was on Tumblr that night to witness it all.
For the unintiated –– Tumblr is a blogging website catering mostly to fanbase activity. Users who run “blogs” on the site can post text, photo, video and more. Though user growth has mostly stagnated since the mid-2010s, it still maintains an insular, niche community. Once you get in –– like me –– you never get out.
First, there was “Supernatural.”
For over a decade now – the show was on its fifteenth season at this point – “Supernatural” had reigned supreme on Tumblr. As one third of the Superwholock supergroup, consisting of “Supernatural,” “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock,” it had enjoyed endless fans. Though its light had faded significantly, “Supernatural” blogs still filled the dashboards of every even half-dedicated Tumblr user.
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Particularly popular was “Destiel,” a romantic pairing of Dean, a moody demon hunter, and Castiel, an angel. Though the two had experienced their ups and downs over the last fifteen seasons, they still remained unparalleled in their fame – over 100,000 fanfictions are tagged with their relationship on Archive Of Our Own.
Importantly, Destiel wasn’t confirmed by the show. It was purely fan theory – sometimes hinted at by the show, but mostly denied by the characters’ consistent heterosexual relationships.
Until Nov. 5.
That night, Castiel did what fans could only imagine in their wildest dreams – he confessed his love to Dean.
And then promptly got sent to hell.
Fans were in an uproar. Some were elated their favorite ship had finally been confirmed. Some were enraged the show had engaged in the most flagrant display of “bury your gays” ever put to video. Most were just soaking in the disbelief, playfully referring to the low depths of the underworld Castiel had gone to as “superhell.”
Meanwhile, another story was breaking. Georgia had flipped to the Democrats for the first time since 1992, providing 16 much needed electoral votes to Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign. The race was now almost certainly going to fall in Biden’s favor.
These two insane twists collided on the dashboards of Tumblr users. In between disbelieving rant posts and hastily photoshopped memes, users shared election news. People were hitting the post limit left and right. It was almost surreal – two incredibly unlikely things hitting the site at the same time.
To make things worse, British tabloid “The Sun” reported that Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, was set to resign due to poor health. Though the claims ended up being false, it added another level of insanity to the already deranged night. One post was Misha Collins, who played Castiel, sobbing; the next was someone celebrating Joe Biden’s imminent victory; the next was a group of crabs dancing at Putin’s resignation.
Simply put: it was wild. As I scrolled through my dashboard that night and the morning after, I felt like a member of an exclusive club. No one outside of the site could understand the one-two-three punch Tumblr users felt that night.
Weeks later, the storm had calmed. “Supernatural” had aired its final episode, where Dean is killed by a rusty nail and goes to heaven to tool around in his car forever. His brother, Sam, ages and dies on Earth. Castiel is never seen again.
Joe Biden was confirmed as president-elect of the country. Whether or not that has been successful is up to the reader.
And, of course, Putin’s still with us.
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Looking back on Nov. 5, three years later, I find myself strangely nostalgic. 2020 was not a good year for anyone on the planet except medical mask suppliers. But for one fleeting evening on one website, everything felt fun again. I felt like a member of a community – one I hadn’t had a chance to experience during a pandemic.
Tumblr still remembers Nov. 5 fondly. In 2021, on the one-year anniversary, one user wrote, “Happy anniversary to the strangest day of my silly little life.” On the two-year anniversary, another wrote, “Honestly November 5th feels like just yesterday.”
Will there ever be another night like the night of Nov. 5? Maybe. Maybe not. The stars will have to align just right.
But sometimes, they do.
And sometimes they send you to superhell.
Danny William (they/them) is a sophomore studying cinematic arts.
