Through the Looking Glass. SPN 6.15 The French Mistake. Part 1
Guess, this has to be official: running a student research contest alongside an academic
council counterproductive to timely SPN overviewing is. Alas.
This episode effectively ate my brain and my time. I'm not sure I've managed to put to print
everything I derived by way of interpretation in the process, but I had to halt at certain
points, seeng as there is yet a latest episode pending to be watched and overviewed now.
Despite having got a hands down full week to ponder this ep before carving out time to
actually piece and put the impressions and ensuing deductions together, however, I'm still
not sure if I'm overwhelmed or underwhelmed with what I saw (and keep seeing) in it. Guess,
it's a bit of both, which, oddly enough, tantamounts to an overall surprizingly pleasant
gratification.
There's alway a catch with reviewing comedic episodes with a straight face, however. Never a
good thing to tune down on one's sense of humor or ironic appreciation (which is a big deal
whenever tackling SPN episodes in general - the show is infallibly tongue-in-cheek on a
good day).
That said, on to the overview proper without much ado. SPN 6.15 The French Mistake.
The episode as is.
Given it was supposed to be a super-duper meta ep, a comedic relief one and a mythology and
characterization transient, to my mind the episode managed to work on all the levels
intended, just to different and somewhat uneven extends. At least, as far as I'm concerned.
To explain my standing, guess, I have a personal confession to make:
I'm a horrible fangirl. That is, even invested wholeheartedly into the trials and
tribulations of a fictional character(s) or fictional universe (as the case is with SPN), I
tend to know or get interested into next to nothing concerning the show- and/or
actors-related outside discourse (though I am genuinely into the fandom realm and what makes
it tick, seeing as it's immediately show-'verse ajacent). Basically, that's my quirky way of
appreciating the job well done by the cast and production crew - the story and characters
are so compelling I tend to overlook the real-life people behind them.
Sure enough, SPN has never shied away from going all postmodernistic and breaking the forth
wall time and again, and then some (Chuck's Gospels, Becky-the-rabid-Samgirl, Damian and
Barnes are still out there somewhere, for all I know *g*).
I think the show did a fair job back in s4 to appropriate the outward fandom discourse and
build it into the very structure of the universe. And of course, the Author as an avatar of
God within a narrative, effectively ranking reality as text and text as reality - is *the*
metaphor made of win, if you ask me. As far as I'm concerned, the episode under discussion
went back to tapping into it too. To an unexpected end.
Besides, exposure to on-line fandom community leaves nary a chance *not* to learn of Sera
vs. Kripke showrunning discrepancies as viewd by the fans, or of Misha Collins' tweetter.
And yeah, I've always believed Jared Padalecki having married 'Ruby' was somehow
disturbingly meta-ish in and of itself (though I do wish those two lovely people buckets of
real-life, SPN unrelated happiness).
And I do think the episode managed to tug quite cunningly on many of the show-discourse
loose strings akin to those listed above (I'll go back to the ones I managed to glean a bit
later), avaliable to create a functional (and no doubt - fun!) interactive-cum-ludic
perceptive puzzle for those viewers in the know. Effectively bringing those far less savvy
(like yours truly) to delve into some frantic post-factum Wiki-browsing, wondering if maybe
some juicy layers of hidden meaning or hefty inside jokes fell flat or got lost altogether.
An enlightning passtime, I can give it that, but somewhat redundant, to my mind, in terms of
narrative deduction. I like my texts (literary, TV or otherwise) causa sui-ish, thank you
very much, postmodernism or not. Then again, I'm perfectly fine with plunging into extra
research on Judeo-Christian or Greek, or whatever else mythology, if need be to catch up
with the span of the show messages. Just as long as it's not figuring out whether,
perchance, the real!Padaleckies are in possession of a real!alpaca. Yeah I know, I'm choosy
like that.
However, the one thing that appeased my initially simmering exasperation was the very fact
that this episode worked to build not so much a dialogue link with *our* reality, where
SPN-the-show is being actually created, to poke fun at the actors, the filming and directing
process per se and it's implied assessment by the more 'production-disenchanted' fans
(though, those aspects of meaning were undeniably there), but to create an alternate reality
altogether (two telescopic alternate realities, for the that matter) as a temporary
operative ambient for our *real* protagonists - Dean and Sam Winchester. And as such - as a
long-running history of alternate universes and wish-verses on the show goes (What Is and
What Should Never Be, Mystery Spot, It's A Terrible Life, Changing Channels, The End) - this
fake!show reality alongside bits and pieces of au!Jensen's and au!Jared's personal lives
supplied an additional characterization and interaction tool to spotlight some of Dean's and
Sam's, respectful and mutual, ongoing, potential or prospective standing.
Moreover, the very concept of AU within this episode, alongside the scattered
characterization tips, works on the metaphoric level far more extensively than on the meta
proper, to my mind. Which is perfectly fine with this individual viewer here. For at the end
of the day, I'd rather the episode told me something about the journeys of Dean and Sam and
the metaphysical mechanics of the unverse, documented in the Winchester Gospels, than about
showrunning grievances or celebrity quirks.
As I believe I've mentioned sometime above, the episode 'reality' consists of three distinct
planes: the real!SPN, the fake!TV!SPN and the au!real where fake!TV!SPN is being filmed.
That effectively supplies two AU dimentions for the brothers to roam - the TV!verse and the
actual AU.
The episode, thus, relies quite heavily on the conceptual opposition of TRUE vs. FAKE
[simulacrum] (specifically due to the fact that one of the dimentions is a make-believe
artificially created TV world), highlighted by Balthazar's ploy with the fake key. Which
supplies some pecualiar interpretative spins on the messages delivered. Especially those
regarding the show-running alleged 'bumps' as underlying call-backs to some of the more
vocal fandom gripes wrt real!season 6.
Grubby, shabby desert
I'd like to dwell briefly on the magic-free reality framework, supplied in this episode.
Wich I do believe works as one of the vaster meta-mataphors.
We're presented with a world devoid not just of the supernatural, but, implicitly, devoid of
a spiritual dimention per se. Angels are cut off from Heaven there, 'cause presumably
there's no Heaven. By extention (exactly the kind Dean and Sam derived) there is no Hell (no
demons, no Lucifer, no Apocalypse). There are no monsters - hence, allegedly, no Purgatory.
Two conclusions are possible in this respect:
a) either the souls of creatures dying in this universe don't go up nor down, contrary to
the 'real' SPN!verse (where do they go then?);
b) there ARE NO souls to go anywhere, ergo - no venues for them to inhabit in the afterlife.
A kind of RoboSam-type reality - perfectly functional, efficient, but having it's ethical
compass skewed somewhat (note that pretty much everyone we encounter at any length in this
AU adheres to some kind of misplaced priorities: au!Misha's tweetting habits, au!Gen's
'green' pets and otter charity, au!Kripke's idea of vanity, etc.).
Given the concept of 'faith' does seem to exist in this world (there are hollows of a saint
attainable, so there is a belief in saints, I gather), presumably this faith is barren.
Unsupported by divine miracles or any other kind of miracles by default. Then again,
according to Layala of 'Faith', it takes true mojo to believe whence miracles don't
happen... Go figure...
My point is that this kind of ultra-metaphoric reading, in view of half a season's worth of
Sam's soullessness, and Balthazar's, and Death's vague claims that it's all about a soul -
brings me to wonder what it is the episode might've spelled on the mystery behind the human
soul (or in general terms - a 'universal' soul), raised through this season. What empowers
Heaven and more importantly - Hell? Would the latter even exist were there no souls to twist
into demons? Why would angels, created a-priory to human cognition (according to the
established show mythology) need to trade human souls? Is real!SPN Heaven loosing power due
to increasing lack of faith, or diminishing qualities of human souls in the XXI century?
In this respect the reality the Winchesters were thrown into may be perceived as a model of
sorts - a nihilistic world in which Heaven and Hell (or any other brand of afterlife) have
faded away on their own accord.
On the other hand, the episode tackles another brand of 'artificial' reality - a TV show.
Taken at face value - it's a fake. An immitation: plastic, carton, rubber. Acted out cheesy
dialogues, scripted 'truths'. But once commited to film (or hard drive or whatever),
'inspired' by the compiled efforts and creative input of the cast and crew - it becomes
'real'. Animated. But, still not necessarily so (Cf. the suggested 'experimental' collage of
bits and pieces of dialogue the brothers failed to act out). Which brings us back to the
issues i question: a) what defines a soul? b) what is it exactly a soul can do to a complex
system (be it mind, body or the unverse)? c) what difference does a soul make, if any at
all?
I'm pretty sure, provided those questions were even intetionally there within the narrative
fabric, they were to be left open ended for the time being.
Death of the Author
In view of the above voiced suppositions, the final spin the episode put on the fate of
showrunners crew is pretty tell-tale. Hilariously tragic as it is.
I'm not going to elaborate at length on the jibes over au!Sera being 'new' and 'unfamiliar'
to the 'leads', therefore not exactly an authority, whereas they're likely to listen to the
now distant yet Great and Horrible Oz... um... au!Kripke. The show knows it's fandom to a T,
if you ask me, and knows how to stick a tongue out at the more grumbly factions of it, if
need be. Then again, there's always that little twist of the show under ironic scrutiny
being not *quite* OUR SPN.
Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the rest of the showrunners depicted in the episode
to argue how in-character or OCC they were. My guess is - receptive predjudice oriented
sarcasm is the key here too.
But the untimely demise that befell most of the production and creative crew, starting with
au!Kripke managed to hang up some explicit lampshades on several symbollic levels, to my
mind.
Foremost: since we're dealing with a fictional 'verse (real!SPN or fake!TV!SPN) the
*literal* Death of an Author always means one major postmodernistic catch: all
interpretative bets are off. Henceforth, the text (show narrative) on its own accord means
as much as any individual viewer makes an uninhibitied effort to read into it, given the
depths and heights of individual imagination and perceptive limits. Not that the SPN fandom,
to the best of my estimations, ever really needed that damb to fall to indulge in just that,
but still... We're amidst season 6, by far the most ambiguous season... We, the viewers,
might need this kind of an interpretative carte blanche to appreciate it to the utmost
eventually. But on the other hand, it's still not the *real* SPN creative crew left
decapitated leaving the audience to 'know better' - so we might be tipped not to go to town
with wild guess-games or counter-textual readings and look more closely into what the *real*
show is trying to transcribe on the weekly basis.
Moreover, in the au!verse the only showrunner left *alive*, and therefore in charge by
default - is au!Sera. I'm sensing a lofty message to the more nostalgic audience in there
somewhere. A tongue-in-cheek message, at that. The king is dead, long live the king, anyone?
Another level of reading into au!Kripke's downfall is, to my mind, tied closely to the
overall SPN 'divine' concept of the Author and the metaphysical concept of the AU,
presentied in this particular ep.
I guess it's pretty common assumption that Chuck, back in the day, was an avatar of Kripke,
as the show creator. By the end of Swan Song Chuck was presumably promoted to the avatar of
God Himself - the Author and Creator.
To kill au!Kripke on screen in a world, devoid of divine magic would inevitably mean the
nitzschean: 'God is dead'.
It works as a symbolic coda to the very idea of the AU we're exposed to. But I'm not yet
sure what it means to the real!SPN 'verse the Winchester, angels and demons roam? Was
Raphael right back in early s5? Is God not AWOL but truly gone? Swan Song seemingly
denounced that assumption. But now... I dunno...
The whole episode left me feeling, just like Sam (and the script) candidly pointed out, that
we were given a key (or rather, a bunch of keys), but not the lock or locks. At least, not
just yet. My educated guess is - it was meant that way.
Part 2
Part 3