Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Supernatural: Slumber Party

"Wicked witch, a key, a quest? Let's do this."

I kept going from "this is so incredibly cool" to "did Supernatural really just add Oz to its mythology"? After Heaven, Hell, Purgatory and TV Land, why not?

I love Charlie to bits, and every episode with Felicia Day has been a joy to watch. And it's not like Oz doesn't fit in with the Men of Letters, the previously introduced witch and fairy stuff ("Fight the fairies!") and the wonderful meta novels written by Chuck that are now apparently available on Amazon. I bet the writers thought pretty hard about whether it would work or not, or if Supernatural fans would just laugh them out of the room. I was grinning through most of the episode and liked it even more the second time through, so it apparently worked for me.

And the end was perfect. There is something delightful about Charlie in Oz. (Let's hope she has a better experience with adventure than poor Jenkins.) I'd watch a spinoff of Charlie in the Supernatural version of Oz, wouldn't you? I get the feeling that they'd do it better than the current couple of fairy tale series airing over on ABC. And were there romantic vibes between Charlie and Dorothy?

The Wizard of Oz is one of those movies that meant a lot to me as a child. It always seemed magical, no matter how many times I saw it. I enjoyed that final call-back with the other side of the door. (Note how the witch and Dorothy opened the door to different parts of Oz, even though they used the same key.) Dean and Sam even had a look of wonder on their faces, and maybe some sadness because they knew they weren't going along. Whether or not Charlie returns from Oz (and I certainly hope she does), she's a Winchester now. She died and came back, and she even spent some time in Heaven.

Loved the set-up, too. Discovering a 1951 computer in the bunker was a great way to bring Charlie back into the story, and the flashbacks to Jenkins and Haggerty in 1935 were nice, but sort of sad. I also liked that the Oz story was paralleled by the Winchesters and Charlie discovering all sorts of strange and wonderful rooms hidden in the bunker. Really, there ought to be some floorplans somewhere. Or Dean and Sam should take the time to open every single door and figure out where it goes.

We spent the entire episode in the MoL bunker, but I don't think you could call it a bottle show with so many new sets. We finally saw Dean's beloved kitchen, and it was trashed. And the garage! It reminded me of the garage under Wolfram & Hart in the fifth season of Angel. Under the circumstances, it was appropriate that we got a "There's no place like home" as a theme. The bunker really is the only home the Winchesters have ever had. Dean loves the bunker and thinks of it as home, while Sam has refused to settle in – although that might change now.

On the angel front, Sam actually heard Dean calling him "Zeke" this time. What will it take for Sam to realize that he has an uninvited guest? Of course, it's also handy that Sam's submerged angel is around to bring people back from the dead, especially since that seems to be happening a lot lately. If Sam can use the MoL computer to track angels now, will it point to himself?

Not much of Crowley, but what there was was fun – especially his interaction with the Wicked Witch. I know, I know, Mark Sheppard has scheduling issues and they're working around him, but you'd think the minions of Hell would be wondering where he is by now.

Bits and pieces:

L. Frank Baum had four sons, no daughters. But he did write a novel called The Master Key, and it even sort of had something to do with computers.

— It's pretty much a given by this point in the series, but I liked that the "real" Oz was much darker than the books. Dorothy never did explain how she was resurrected, did she?

— Loved the poppy bullets.

— Weren't the ruby slippers silver in the book?

— Kevin's absence was kinda sorta explained. Only not. It's getting difficult to explain Castiel's absence, too. I'm trying to imagine the bunker with everyone in it all the time. Dean and Sam, Castiel, Kevin, Garth visiting, Crowley in the basement…

— I love that all they're giving Crowley is a piece of paper and a crayon.

— We got the cutting-the-hand thing twice. The witch's blood was green. Nice touch. Plus there were the green eyes and smoke.

— What was on Charlie's tee shirt?

— "For Those About to Rock, We Salute You." That was pretty much perfect, too.


Quotes:

Charlie: "I got fired last week."
Sam: "Hey what? What happened?"
Charlie: "Turns out the company I work for was outsourcing child labor. So I took a big Wikileak all over that."

Dean: "Where do you even find them?"
Charlie: "A top secret place I call Amazon. And someone uploaded all the unpublished works. I thought it was fanfic at first, but it was clearly Edlund's work."
Sam: "Who uploaded it?"
Charlie: "I don't know. Their screen name was BeckyWinchester176? Ring a bell?"
Sam: "None, the… nobody's. There are no bells, um, no."
Sam and Becky aren't still married, are they? Wasn't it annulled?

Dean: "Wow, that Joffrey's a dick."
Charlie: "Oh, you have no idea."

Charlie: "This will never stop blowing my mind!"
Dean: "Pace yourself, Toto."

Charlie: "Ozma of Oz…"
Dorothy: "Is a total ass."

Dorothy: "A man of letters. Another glorified librarian, if you ask me."
Charlie: "Hey. These guys may have been sexist, but like all librarians, they were wicked smart, too."
And as a librarian, I thank you.

Crowley: "Your new houseguest. So misunderstood. (pause) Neither of you saw Wicked?"
Crowley has seen Wicked?

Charlie: "Now heel!"

I sort of want to give this episode four out of four poppy bullets because they had the chutzpah to do Oz. So I will,

Billie
---
Billie Doux has been reviewing Supernatural for so long that Dean and Sam Winchester feel like old friends. Courageous, adventurous, gorgeous old friends.

15 comments:

  1. I loved this episode and really didn't see the whole Charlie thing at about the half hour mark coming at all. Big "AH!" moment for me. Thank heaven (kind of literally) for Zeke though Dean is definitely going to have to start explaining himself better very soon or being very careful about his "Zeke!" calls. I miss Castiel and hope he's back soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think it's "Somni-451" on Charlie's shirt. Love this episode to bits, though I kept my fingers crossed they don't permanently kill off Charlie. Major female characters just don't live long on this show. :-(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Absolutely delightful episode, everyting was just perfectly balanced in it.
    Funny thing that I just three days ago went and saw an adapted stage-performance of "The wizard of Oz"!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had sort of mixed feelings on this one.
    I love Felicia Day, and I love Charlie and her brother-sister dynamic with the Winchesters. The slumber party with the giant computer and beer and Game of Thrones (even if I don't like the show itself) was a joy to watch, and more than once I ended up squeeing at the great dialogue.
    But I'm not that big a fan of Oz, and adding it to the mythology was a big big stretch (as were the fairies back then, yuck). But then again, I had this yuck feeling when they introduced the Men of Letters for the first time, and they have done wonderful things with it since then. So I'm keeping my final verdict open on this one.

    Some random thoughts:
    - I loved, loved, loved how they acknowledged that to be a hunter you have to die and come back! And on a related note, I love that Charlie is now a real hunter :)
    - I would have loved seeing the "hang in there, kitty" poster on Sam's wall :)
    - I kinda liked seeing Charlie ride into the sunset with Dorothy, but I hope this doesn't mean that we won't get her back. Oh man, please don't let it mean that.
    - I also liked the poppy bullets (fitted great into the Supernatural lore) and the killer heels (not so much lore appropriate, but still kinda cool).
    - And discovering the garage, how cool is that?

    ReplyDelete
  5. This one had lots of entertaining bits. For some reason, my absolute favorite moment was Sam chaining up Crowley again at the end, and giving him the crayon and paper. I actually laughed out loud at that. Sam's annoyed demeanor as he fished it out of his pocket just struck me as really hilarious. Great bit of physical comedy.

    I was kind of disappointed when Charlie went off with Dorothy to Oz at the end. I was hoping the two of them were going to team up and become hunting partners in this world. I get that going to Oz fits better with Charlie's need for an epic quest adventure, but I like the idea of them being part of Sam and Dean's fight better. It's not like the Winchesters don't get the periodic "epic quest." :) Plus, it would be awesome to have two recurring female characters. Ah, well. I'll just have to assume the phone lines are open and they can pop back into this world at any moment.

    On a side note: I'm starting to get really tired of the magical Zeke fix every week. I'm glad he told Dean he can't keep doing it all the time, or he'll have to stay in Sam longer than anyone wants. Hopefully that will cut down on the weekly fix. It diminishes the stakes a good bit when your secret angel personality can just bring everyone back from the dead. I didn't even bother getting worked up about Charlie's death because I knew it wouldn't stick.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dean is going to have to fess up or forget it with Sam very soon. Hopefully, when he reveals Zeke's hand in saving and Charlie, Sam won't be too furious, but he will be very angry with Dean for lying. I loved this ep, but hope we still see Charlie again. I also believe that for Sam, home will be wherever Dean is. Awwwww! Love, Robin

    ReplyDelete
  7. Felicia and Jared live-tweeted running commentary during this episode.

    Here are some things from Felicia:

    There was actual porn in that box and I was like "WHOAH THIS IS PORNY 70S PORN!"

    The shirt is a reference to Cloud Atlas. All of you get brownies (she asked if anyone knew what the t-shirt meant). Also: Librarian shoutout WHAT!?

    There were a lot of jokes on set about the suggestive opening of that ball-sac like pod.

    There was a big controversy on set about what the "Hang in there Kitty" poster was. Lots of googling.

    In the original script it was BeckyWinchester69

    Jared:

    There was a reference to why Dean had the key (it had something to do with the 70's porn). But it didn't fit the gravitas of the scene. (Anybody figure out what the key might have had to do with porn?)

    Zeke is gradually becoming more comfortable as a human.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I couldn't sleep last night and had a sudden, random thought. When she died, Charlie went to heaven, which means heaven isn't closed to human souls. Does this mean Castiel was right when he said he was the key to re-opening heaven? Will he have to die to do it?

    These are the things I think about when I can't get to sleep.

    KAM

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yes, the shoes DEFINITELY should've been silver. Really, guys?

    And were there romantic vibes between Charlie and Dorothy?
    I'm actually shocked Charlie refrained from hitting on her for the entire episode. If they don't come back from Oz a couple, I will be shocked.

    By the way, I seem to remember the Supernatural writers promising that they wouldn't kill Charlie. Liars. Like Jess, I'm glad we're putting limitations on Zeke's power. It's just too convenient to have him always there capable of saving the day. It diminishes the stakes considerably.

    Charlie wore girly plaid! (Okay, *technically* it was girly buffalo check, but still.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. When the episode started with the MoL flashback, I was not super excited, but by the end, I was thoroughly entertained. I loved almost everything about it. I loved Crowley's references to Wicked (Defying gravity), but what I loved most of all was Charlie's "Ding-Dong Bitches!" and Felicia Day's delivery. It had me howling in laughter and I watched it again several times, it was just perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Although I am not a huge fan of Oz, I loved this one. The writing was a step up from the norm and all the one-liners were hilarious.

    Felicia Day is an asset to this show. I do hope we see her again, but I love the idea of Charlie on a quest.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Despite the fact that I love Charlie, I was a little "meh" on this one. (The ruby/silver slippers was a BIG goof, not withstanding the weaponry of the stiletto.) I guess I wasn't crazy about mixing the OZ universe into this one. However, I suppose they pulled it off fairly well. I did like Dorothy saying she was going to get her dog back. I loved the wicked witch, too. She was seriously creepy, and of course, Crowley was delightful. (These brief tastes of Crowley only serve to whet the appetite for more... but I'm sure that he knows that.) I have faith that the angel fix is going to seriously backfire soon... the writers on this series are too good to keep up the deus ex machina thing... I would suggest a two silver slippers and a Dr. Scholl's pad out of four slippers for this one.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm a long-time Wizard of Oz fan, so this episode made me very happy! I didn't even care about the ruby/silver-slipper goof.

    I'm wondering if Dean could have saved Charlie with an AED rather than having to resort to Zeke again. They should probably have several of those scattered around the Batcave (that's what I'm calling it, there's a super computer and everything) and in the Impala.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The part where they ask Crowley " what did the witch say to you" Crowley "oh something along the lines of ,Hisses, had me laughing alot

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.