Supernatural: An Overview
Happy New Year, everyone!
Supernatural is the new baby of The WB, its sole success this season. It stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who hunt monsters and other evil creatures in the hope of finding the one who killed their mother and Sam's girlfriend.
The Premise
On the night of November's 2nd, 1983, in a little town named Lawrence, Kansas, Mary Winchester, wife of John Winchester and mother of then young Dean and baby Sam, was pinned on the ceiling above Sam's bed by an unseen entity -- her stomach slashed open. When he came into the nursery after hearing her scream, John discovered her, still alive and bleeding on Sam but, before he could try to get her down, a big ball of fire engulfed her.
John grabbed Sam and handed him to Dean, who'd awakened from the noise, telling him those immortal words you'll often find in fics: "Take your brother outside and don't look back," thus handing him the responsibility of taking care of his brother (the way he does that depends in a major way on which kind of fics you'll be reading -- more on that later).
Long story short: Mary died, but John and the boys got out of the destroyed house alive. John discovered that supernatural creatures hunt this world and decided to avenge Mary while destroying everything evil he found in the meantime (Mary's killer still hasn't been found to this day, nor do any of the boys know what kind of creature it is). He raised his sons as soldiers, training them to hunt with him until, one day, Sam left to study law at Standford, tired of this life.
Dean stayed behind and kept hunting with his father for years, until John disappeared a few days before Halloween 2005. Not wanting to look for him alone, Dean went to Sam and convinced him to help for the week-end, secretly hoping he'd stay longer. At the end of the week-end, though, John was still missing and Sam went back to Standford -- where he found his girlfriend pinned on the ceiling above their bed, her stomach slashed open. Like their mother before, fire engulfed her before he could get to her, and Dean fortunately barged in and got him out of the house before he could be burned alive.
Needless to say, this gave Sam a new need for revenge. He left Standford and his "normal life" behind and joined Dean to look for their mother's and Jessica's killer, try to find John and, in the meantime, hunt.
Why should I watch it?
Because, unlike most WB shows, this one is actually good. Because it doesn't take itself too seriously that it ends up being laughable, but just enough that it manages to be scary and funny and intriguing. Because the Monsters of the Week are Urban Legends that the writers actually get and don't screw up. Because the lead actors are Jensen Ackles:
And Jared Padalecki:
Because there's a long story arc, but it doesn't screw up with continuity and, most of the time, it takes the back seat to the one-episode storylines, meaning it doesn't simply tease you week after week with non-coming answers (*cough*Lost*cough*), and you can easily catch up. Because the soundtrack is mostly made of Metallica and other such groups. Because there are no "chick flick" moments. Because Dean is the master of snark, and Sam gives as good as he gets. Because there is no Triangle of Doom, and the issues between the characters aren't due to various romantic reasons. Because you can't help but love Sam and Dean. Because it's about high time Jensen Ackles got a major role on a successful show.
Where and when is it on?
The WB, Tuesdays at 9/8c. Yes, yes - it airs opposite House and several thrilling shows, but if you can't Tivo/DVD-R/tape it, you get a second chance to catch it on Sundays (check your TV Guide for the time).
The Characters
Sam
The younger of the two brothers, he's the one who wished for a normal life and couldn't forgive his father for raising them "as soldiers". He got a full scholarship when he was 18 and left for Standford after he fought yet another time with his father, and John told him never to come back -- this is Sam's version of the events, though, and things may have actually happened a bit differently.
He got near perfect grades and met Jessica, leading the life he had always dreamt to have for years. Though we know he never contacted John, it's unclear whether he had contact with Dean or not; it seems they still talked for the first two years Sam was away, but we don't know if they saw each other or if it was simply on the phone, nor who initiated contact. Still, we do know that they hadn't talked for two years before John disappeared, Dean not calling and Sam not picking up the phone.
He agreed to get back on the road with Dean after Jessica was killed, but presumably only to find her killer (and possibly John), fully intending to go back to his "normal life" afterwards. No-one knows for sure what his plans are now, but we do know he still has issues with this life and his family (his anger at Dean almost leading him to kill him while he was "possessed" in Asylum).
He was deeply affected by Jess' death and had nightmares about it for weeks, until it was finally revealed that it wasn't only because of grief, but also guilt: he had dreams for several days before Jess died in which he saw her die, and never warned her of the danger she was in. After he faced his lie in Bloody Mary, he saw what could either be Jessica's ghost or an hallucination of her, and he doesn't seem to have had any nightmares about her since then (though he still can't bring himself to kiss another girl, months after her death). He finally told Dean about the dreams in Home, after he had several nightmares of a woman calling for help in their old house in Lawrence. We don't know how long he's had them for, nor how often he gets them now or why he has them. Hopefully more will be revealed with time.
Dean
There are four things you need to know about Dean:
- he loves his family;
- he loves hunting;
- he loves his car;
- he loves flirting (always with girls in the show, not so much always in fiction).
Dean is the only one of the two brothers who remembers their mom and life before she was killed, and that fact is often played upon in fics. He feels the same need for revenge that John does, but he also loves handling guns and destroying baddies. In fact, he loves everything about hunting -- except research.
It's often theorized in fiction that he was the one to raise Sam, at least emotionally, and suffered from that lack of emotional care himself. While at least some of that is probably true, he'd rather die than talk about his feelings so we have no way of knowing for sure what's on his mind.
Most of everything he says is layered with snark, but thanks to the little trip the shapeshifter took into his mind (see below), we know he thinks and feels that everyone abandons him: his mother, Sam, and even John. Family is what matters the most to him, and it's a constant source of fights with Sam who doesn't think his parents -- or at least John -- are so wonderful, and who won't believe Dean when he tries to convince him that John isn't as horrible as Sam makes him out to be.
Jessica
Sam's girlfriend, who died on November 2nd 2005, murdered in the same way and by the same entity that killed Mary exactly 22 years earlier. She loved the Smurfs and apparently loved Sam, but knew nothing about his past or the danger she was in.
The poltergeist in Phantom Traveller told Sam she was burning in Hell, but it's possible he was just taunting him. Sam saw her ghost, or had an hallucination of it, in Bloody Mary, but she/it was gone too quickly for us and him to know why she was really there, if she actually was.
Mary
John's wife, and Sam and Dean's mother. Her stomach was slashed open by something or someone who then pinned her on the ceiling and burned her alive 22 years ago. Her spirit then remained into the destroyed house, and she haunted the new owners years later, appearing surrounded by fire and unrecognizable.
Sam recognized her when a poltergeist locked him into the house in Home, eventually stopping Dean who hadn't yet recognized her and was going to "kill" her. She then miraculously regained her true self and went on to apologize to Sam for a reason unknown; she disappeared before he could ask her, destroying the poltergeist that was after her sons, and destroying herself in the process.
John
An ex Marine who served in Vietnam, John owned a garage and led a perfectly normal and happy life until he saw Mary die and became obsessed with revenge. He met Missouri who told him about the supernatural entities, and he decided to start hunting them, taking his sons along with him for the ride and training them so that they, too, could hunt.
According to Sam, Dean is his favorite son, the one with whom he could share what he loved (Mary and hunting) and who always obeyed him. But according to Dean, John loves Sam as well and, after Sam left for Standford and stopped talking to him, John frequently went over there to check up on him.
He disappeared on a hunt a few days before Jessica was killed, leaving a scrambled message on Dean's cell before he went missing in which he indicated the place of his hunt and that he was in danger. The boys spent the first eight episodes looking for him, at one point learning that he'd changed his cell's message to direct people who needed him to Dean, which meant he probably wasn't dead. We - but not Sam and Dean - got the confirmation that he effectively wasn't in Home when we found out that he was staying at Missouri's place and hiding from his sons until he "found out the truth".
Just one episode later, though, he sent a text message to Dean to tell him where to make his next hunt and then, after the boys took care of the haunted Asylum there and almost killed each other in the process, he called them. We have no idea whether or not he knew what would happen in the asylum, or what he said to them during the phone call - or even if it was *really* him - as the episode ended on Sam answering the phone. Tune in tonight at 9 to find out!
Missouri
A medium who lives in Lawrence, Missouri can sense things but not read minds. She's the one John went to after Mary died and who told him about the supernatural world. They apparently became close, as John choose to hide in her house after he disappeared to "find out the truth" (which Missouri doesn't approve of, but puts up with anyway).
She met Sam and Dean in Home when they went back to their hometown, and helped them get rid of the poltergeist that was in their old house. She 'knew' them before, though, either because of her gift or because John had talked about them.
Baddies and various other things
Super Baddy
The one who killed Mary and Jessica. We know next to nothing about him/her/it or his/her/its reasons for killing them. He appeared the night of Mary's death in Sam's nursery and Mary mistook him, from behind, for John, until she saw her husband in the living room and went back running to the bedroom, going in and screaming before we saw her die.
There's a multitude of theories out there, the most popular one being that Supper Baddy is actually Sam's real father which could explain Sam's dreams and Mary's apology, but no-one knows for sure. Hopefully we won't have to wait another 22 years to learn the truth.
The shapeshifter
Called "shapeshifter" by default because she/he/it has the ability to change into other people, we and the boys found out about him in Skin. You can recognize a shapeshifter by the way he sometimes blinks golden eyes, or the way he regularly sheds his skin. He also has a tendency to brutally torture and kill women, and is now presumably dead (while wearing Dean's face). There may very well be others out there, though.
Contrary to "usual" shapeshifters, the one/s in Supernatural has/have the added bonus of not simply morphing their body into someone else's, but to actually *become* them, the memories of the body's real owner downloading into the shapeshifter's brain if he stays in their skin long enough. It's a neat trick, especially when used to mentally torture the body's owner or his family/friends.
Bloody Mary
There are apparently several of them; Sam and Dean killed one in the episode originally titled Bloody Mary. She was "born" in a mirror after being killed and never avenged, and appeared in mirrors or reflective surfaces when her name was called three times, after which she proceeded to kill people near her by making their eyes bleed out -- not always the ones who called her name, though, but the ones who were responsible for the death of someone and kept it a secret ('responsible' is used loosely, here, as it is with most ghost who just really want to kill people).
She was finally stopped by Sam who thought he was responsible for Jessica's death because of his dreams (until then a secret); he called her name in front of her original mirror, then smashed it. It didn't stop her, though: she crawled out of it and almost killed the brothers, until Dean held up a mirror and her reflection killed herself.
It's theorized by some that Dean also has a secret, since his eyes bled out when she got out of the mirror; some just think the fact that she was out was enough to make anyone present bleed.
The Woman in White
There are several of them; the one we saw had drowned her children then killed herself after finding out her husband had cheated on her, and was having a lot of fun killing men who had cheated/were going to cheat on their SOs. She was the one John was hunting when he disappeared, and Sam destroyed her by driving her into her house, where the spirits of her angry children sent her to Hell.
Various Poltergeists
They usually stick around because their death wasn't avenged, but there can be other causes. There are four ways to 'kill' them: burn their bones, do an exorcism, get another spirit to take care of them, or avenge them.
Metallicar
Dean's beloved car; he lets no-one else drive her, calls her 'she' and would kill anyone who hurt her. Called Metallicar by various folks because Dean loves Metallica almost as much as he loves her.
John's journal
Used at the beginning to write his thoughts after Mary's death, he then wrote in it everything he learned about evil entities of all kinds and what to do to dispose of them. He used to always keep it with him until the day he disappeared, leaving it behind in a motel with coordinates written next to Dean's name on the last page (the place of their next hunt: a Wendigo). It's now in Dean's possession.
The Fandom
It's still relatively new but growing quickly, and though the gap between the slashers and the non-slashers is becoming bigger and bigger, they aren't (yet) openly fighting each other. Mostly, like baby fandoms in general, it's still a fresh and fun place to be, filled with nice and talented people.
Since the show only has two main characters and few recurring ones, there are only a few types of stories you can find:
- Gen: from stand-alone stories that use the show's format, to fics that explore the characters' psyches or stand-alone vignettes, there are certainly a lot of them, more than in most fandoms (thanks to the brotherly relationship that stops many people from writing and reading slash).
- Sam/Jess and John/Mary: the only canon relationships. There aren't many stories about them around, mostly because Jess and Mary are both dead. Still, you can find a few here and there or some scenes in flashbacks.
- Sam/Dean: the relationship of the fandom; many people are too squicked by the fact that they're brothers to read or write it, and there isn't a week that goes by without the issue being raised discussed to death. I don't mind it myself when it's well written, and thus will rec you several in the coming days. Once you get past the incest issue, it's a great relationship to read, write and discuss, full of angst and issues and love, and guaranteed to make you melt from the prettiness alone.
Places of interest
There's an awfully large number of communities around for various needs (icons, challenges, etc.), so I'll just list you the main ones and you can find others by doing a rapid search:
- sn_daily: for all your eye-candy needs
- supernatural_tv: the main Supernatural community, for various announcements, episodes discussions posts, etc.
- superspoiler: for spoilers and discussion about them.
- supernaturalfic, sn_fic, sn_slash, wincest: the main communities for fiction.
- supernaturalvid: for vids.
Screencaps and pictures can be found on various sites, including Supernatural.com.
The official site is a great place to go if you have the Flash Plugin (use IE) and a few hours to lose.
If you feel like reading some Mary-Sues, ff.net is the place to go. I've heard rumors that some good fics can be found there if you dig in deep enough, but I'm not sure I believe them.
And the show is recapped at TWoP; the first recap, written by Demian, is great, but I haven't yet read any of the new ones written by Drunken Bee.
I apologize for posting this so late: I was having problems with Internet; the first recs will be posted in a few hours. Let me know if you notice a glaringly obvious (or not) mistake, or if I forgot something important.
Supernatural is the new baby of The WB, its sole success this season. It stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who hunt monsters and other evil creatures in the hope of finding the one who killed their mother and Sam's girlfriend.
The Premise
On the night of November's 2nd, 1983, in a little town named Lawrence, Kansas, Mary Winchester, wife of John Winchester and mother of then young Dean and baby Sam, was pinned on the ceiling above Sam's bed by an unseen entity -- her stomach slashed open. When he came into the nursery after hearing her scream, John discovered her, still alive and bleeding on Sam but, before he could try to get her down, a big ball of fire engulfed her.
John grabbed Sam and handed him to Dean, who'd awakened from the noise, telling him those immortal words you'll often find in fics: "Take your brother outside and don't look back," thus handing him the responsibility of taking care of his brother (the way he does that depends in a major way on which kind of fics you'll be reading -- more on that later).
Long story short: Mary died, but John and the boys got out of the destroyed house alive. John discovered that supernatural creatures hunt this world and decided to avenge Mary while destroying everything evil he found in the meantime (Mary's killer still hasn't been found to this day, nor do any of the boys know what kind of creature it is). He raised his sons as soldiers, training them to hunt with him until, one day, Sam left to study law at Standford, tired of this life.
Dean stayed behind and kept hunting with his father for years, until John disappeared a few days before Halloween 2005. Not wanting to look for him alone, Dean went to Sam and convinced him to help for the week-end, secretly hoping he'd stay longer. At the end of the week-end, though, John was still missing and Sam went back to Standford -- where he found his girlfriend pinned on the ceiling above their bed, her stomach slashed open. Like their mother before, fire engulfed her before he could get to her, and Dean fortunately barged in and got him out of the house before he could be burned alive.
Needless to say, this gave Sam a new need for revenge. He left Standford and his "normal life" behind and joined Dean to look for their mother's and Jessica's killer, try to find John and, in the meantime, hunt.
Why should I watch it?
Because, unlike most WB shows, this one is actually good. Because it doesn't take itself too seriously that it ends up being laughable, but just enough that it manages to be scary and funny and intriguing. Because the Monsters of the Week are Urban Legends that the writers actually get and don't screw up. Because the lead actors are Jensen Ackles:
And Jared Padalecki:
Because there's a long story arc, but it doesn't screw up with continuity and, most of the time, it takes the back seat to the one-episode storylines, meaning it doesn't simply tease you week after week with non-coming answers (*cough*Lost*cough*), and you can easily catch up. Because the soundtrack is mostly made of Metallica and other such groups. Because there are no "chick flick" moments. Because Dean is the master of snark, and Sam gives as good as he gets. Because there is no Triangle of Doom, and the issues between the characters aren't due to various romantic reasons. Because you can't help but love Sam and Dean. Because it's about high time Jensen Ackles got a major role on a successful show.
Where and when is it on?
The WB, Tuesdays at 9/8c. Yes, yes - it airs opposite House and several thrilling shows, but if you can't Tivo/DVD-R/tape it, you get a second chance to catch it on Sundays (check your TV Guide for the time).
The Characters
Sam
The younger of the two brothers, he's the one who wished for a normal life and couldn't forgive his father for raising them "as soldiers". He got a full scholarship when he was 18 and left for Standford after he fought yet another time with his father, and John told him never to come back -- this is Sam's version of the events, though, and things may have actually happened a bit differently.
He got near perfect grades and met Jessica, leading the life he had always dreamt to have for years. Though we know he never contacted John, it's unclear whether he had contact with Dean or not; it seems they still talked for the first two years Sam was away, but we don't know if they saw each other or if it was simply on the phone, nor who initiated contact. Still, we do know that they hadn't talked for two years before John disappeared, Dean not calling and Sam not picking up the phone.
He agreed to get back on the road with Dean after Jessica was killed, but presumably only to find her killer (and possibly John), fully intending to go back to his "normal life" afterwards. No-one knows for sure what his plans are now, but we do know he still has issues with this life and his family (his anger at Dean almost leading him to kill him while he was "possessed" in Asylum).
He was deeply affected by Jess' death and had nightmares about it for weeks, until it was finally revealed that it wasn't only because of grief, but also guilt: he had dreams for several days before Jess died in which he saw her die, and never warned her of the danger she was in. After he faced his lie in Bloody Mary, he saw what could either be Jessica's ghost or an hallucination of her, and he doesn't seem to have had any nightmares about her since then (though he still can't bring himself to kiss another girl, months after her death). He finally told Dean about the dreams in Home, after he had several nightmares of a woman calling for help in their old house in Lawrence. We don't know how long he's had them for, nor how often he gets them now or why he has them. Hopefully more will be revealed with time.
Dean
There are four things you need to know about Dean:
- he loves his family;
- he loves hunting;
- he loves his car;
- he loves flirting (always with girls in the show, not so much always in fiction).
Dean is the only one of the two brothers who remembers their mom and life before she was killed, and that fact is often played upon in fics. He feels the same need for revenge that John does, but he also loves handling guns and destroying baddies. In fact, he loves everything about hunting -- except research.
It's often theorized in fiction that he was the one to raise Sam, at least emotionally, and suffered from that lack of emotional care himself. While at least some of that is probably true, he'd rather die than talk about his feelings so we have no way of knowing for sure what's on his mind.
Most of everything he says is layered with snark, but thanks to the little trip the shapeshifter took into his mind (see below), we know he thinks and feels that everyone abandons him: his mother, Sam, and even John. Family is what matters the most to him, and it's a constant source of fights with Sam who doesn't think his parents -- or at least John -- are so wonderful, and who won't believe Dean when he tries to convince him that John isn't as horrible as Sam makes him out to be.
Jessica
Sam's girlfriend, who died on November 2nd 2005, murdered in the same way and by the same entity that killed Mary exactly 22 years earlier. She loved the Smurfs and apparently loved Sam, but knew nothing about his past or the danger she was in.
The poltergeist in Phantom Traveller told Sam she was burning in Hell, but it's possible he was just taunting him. Sam saw her ghost, or had an hallucination of it, in Bloody Mary, but she/it was gone too quickly for us and him to know why she was really there, if she actually was.
Mary
John's wife, and Sam and Dean's mother. Her stomach was slashed open by something or someone who then pinned her on the ceiling and burned her alive 22 years ago. Her spirit then remained into the destroyed house, and she haunted the new owners years later, appearing surrounded by fire and unrecognizable.
Sam recognized her when a poltergeist locked him into the house in Home, eventually stopping Dean who hadn't yet recognized her and was going to "kill" her. She then miraculously regained her true self and went on to apologize to Sam for a reason unknown; she disappeared before he could ask her, destroying the poltergeist that was after her sons, and destroying herself in the process.
John
An ex Marine who served in Vietnam, John owned a garage and led a perfectly normal and happy life until he saw Mary die and became obsessed with revenge. He met Missouri who told him about the supernatural entities, and he decided to start hunting them, taking his sons along with him for the ride and training them so that they, too, could hunt.
According to Sam, Dean is his favorite son, the one with whom he could share what he loved (Mary and hunting) and who always obeyed him. But according to Dean, John loves Sam as well and, after Sam left for Standford and stopped talking to him, John frequently went over there to check up on him.
He disappeared on a hunt a few days before Jessica was killed, leaving a scrambled message on Dean's cell before he went missing in which he indicated the place of his hunt and that he was in danger. The boys spent the first eight episodes looking for him, at one point learning that he'd changed his cell's message to direct people who needed him to Dean, which meant he probably wasn't dead. We - but not Sam and Dean - got the confirmation that he effectively wasn't in Home when we found out that he was staying at Missouri's place and hiding from his sons until he "found out the truth".
Just one episode later, though, he sent a text message to Dean to tell him where to make his next hunt and then, after the boys took care of the haunted Asylum there and almost killed each other in the process, he called them. We have no idea whether or not he knew what would happen in the asylum, or what he said to them during the phone call - or even if it was *really* him - as the episode ended on Sam answering the phone. Tune in tonight at 9 to find out!
Missouri
A medium who lives in Lawrence, Missouri can sense things but not read minds. She's the one John went to after Mary died and who told him about the supernatural world. They apparently became close, as John choose to hide in her house after he disappeared to "find out the truth" (which Missouri doesn't approve of, but puts up with anyway).
She met Sam and Dean in Home when they went back to their hometown, and helped them get rid of the poltergeist that was in their old house. She 'knew' them before, though, either because of her gift or because John had talked about them.
Baddies and various other things
Super Baddy
The one who killed Mary and Jessica. We know next to nothing about him/her/it or his/her/its reasons for killing them. He appeared the night of Mary's death in Sam's nursery and Mary mistook him, from behind, for John, until she saw her husband in the living room and went back running to the bedroom, going in and screaming before we saw her die.
There's a multitude of theories out there, the most popular one being that Supper Baddy is actually Sam's real father which could explain Sam's dreams and Mary's apology, but no-one knows for sure. Hopefully we won't have to wait another 22 years to learn the truth.
The shapeshifter
Called "shapeshifter" by default because she/he/it has the ability to change into other people, we and the boys found out about him in Skin. You can recognize a shapeshifter by the way he sometimes blinks golden eyes, or the way he regularly sheds his skin. He also has a tendency to brutally torture and kill women, and is now presumably dead (while wearing Dean's face). There may very well be others out there, though.
Contrary to "usual" shapeshifters, the one/s in Supernatural has/have the added bonus of not simply morphing their body into someone else's, but to actually *become* them, the memories of the body's real owner downloading into the shapeshifter's brain if he stays in their skin long enough. It's a neat trick, especially when used to mentally torture the body's owner or his family/friends.
Bloody Mary
There are apparently several of them; Sam and Dean killed one in the episode originally titled Bloody Mary. She was "born" in a mirror after being killed and never avenged, and appeared in mirrors or reflective surfaces when her name was called three times, after which she proceeded to kill people near her by making their eyes bleed out -- not always the ones who called her name, though, but the ones who were responsible for the death of someone and kept it a secret ('responsible' is used loosely, here, as it is with most ghost who just really want to kill people).
She was finally stopped by Sam who thought he was responsible for Jessica's death because of his dreams (until then a secret); he called her name in front of her original mirror, then smashed it. It didn't stop her, though: she crawled out of it and almost killed the brothers, until Dean held up a mirror and her reflection killed herself.
It's theorized by some that Dean also has a secret, since his eyes bled out when she got out of the mirror; some just think the fact that she was out was enough to make anyone present bleed.
The Woman in White
There are several of them; the one we saw had drowned her children then killed herself after finding out her husband had cheated on her, and was having a lot of fun killing men who had cheated/were going to cheat on their SOs. She was the one John was hunting when he disappeared, and Sam destroyed her by driving her into her house, where the spirits of her angry children sent her to Hell.
Various Poltergeists
They usually stick around because their death wasn't avenged, but there can be other causes. There are four ways to 'kill' them: burn their bones, do an exorcism, get another spirit to take care of them, or avenge them.
Metallicar
Dean's beloved car; he lets no-one else drive her, calls her 'she' and would kill anyone who hurt her. Called Metallicar by various folks because Dean loves Metallica almost as much as he loves her.
John's journal
Used at the beginning to write his thoughts after Mary's death, he then wrote in it everything he learned about evil entities of all kinds and what to do to dispose of them. He used to always keep it with him until the day he disappeared, leaving it behind in a motel with coordinates written next to Dean's name on the last page (the place of their next hunt: a Wendigo). It's now in Dean's possession.
The Fandom
It's still relatively new but growing quickly, and though the gap between the slashers and the non-slashers is becoming bigger and bigger, they aren't (yet) openly fighting each other. Mostly, like baby fandoms in general, it's still a fresh and fun place to be, filled with nice and talented people.
Since the show only has two main characters and few recurring ones, there are only a few types of stories you can find:
- Gen: from stand-alone stories that use the show's format, to fics that explore the characters' psyches or stand-alone vignettes, there are certainly a lot of them, more than in most fandoms (thanks to the brotherly relationship that stops many people from writing and reading slash).
- Sam/Jess and John/Mary: the only canon relationships. There aren't many stories about them around, mostly because Jess and Mary are both dead. Still, you can find a few here and there or some scenes in flashbacks.
- Sam/Dean: the relationship of the fandom; many people are too squicked by the fact that they're brothers to read or write it, and there isn't a week that goes by without the issue being raised discussed to death. I don't mind it myself when it's well written, and thus will rec you several in the coming days. Once you get past the incest issue, it's a great relationship to read, write and discuss, full of angst and issues and love, and guaranteed to make you melt from the prettiness alone.
Places of interest
There's an awfully large number of communities around for various needs (icons, challenges, etc.), so I'll just list you the main ones and you can find others by doing a rapid search:
- sn_daily: for all your eye-candy needs
- supernatural_tv: the main Supernatural community, for various announcements, episodes discussions posts, etc.
- superspoiler: for spoilers and discussion about them.
- supernaturalfic, sn_fic, sn_slash, wincest: the main communities for fiction.
- supernaturalvid: for vids.
Screencaps and pictures can be found on various sites, including Supernatural.com.
The official site is a great place to go if you have the Flash Plugin (use IE) and a few hours to lose.
If you feel like reading some Mary-Sues, ff.net is the place to go. I've heard rumors that some good fics can be found there if you dig in deep enough, but I'm not sure I believe them.
And the show is recapped at TWoP; the first recap, written by Demian, is great, but I haven't yet read any of the new ones written by Drunken Bee.
I apologize for posting this so late: I was having problems with Internet; the first recs will be posted in a few hours. Let me know if you notice a glaringly obvious (or not) mistake, or if I forgot something important.