RECAP

Synopsis

When Raphael launches an attack, Balthazar transports Sam and Dean to a parallel world where they are mistaken for two actors named Jared and Jensen, who star in a TV series called Supernatural, which is about two brothers who hunt monsters for a living. The Winchesters must cope with some familiar faces in different roles when they discover that “Jared” is married to an actress who looks like the demon Ruby, and Castiel resembles a tweet-happy actor named Misha Collins.

Full Recap

Dean and Sam are at Bobby’s auto yard, taking refuge in the house as Bobby goes into town to get more alcohol. Balthazar teleports in and explains that Raphael has declared a mass purge of his enemies. The rogue angel tries to put together a potion, using ingredients from Bobby’s collection. As he works, he explains that Castiel has gone deep underground, and Raphael has put out a hit list on all of his allies, including the three of them. Raphael starts making an inscription on the window and the lights flicker. He gives Sam a room key and then is telekinetically hurtled away. Raphael’s killer angel, Virgil, arrives and Balthazar shoves the brothers through the windows. They discover that they’re on a TV set.

As the brothers try to figure out what’s going on, the crew discusses how to wrap up the episode. Make-up artists lead the brothers off to their separate tables, and Dean is surprised to discover that he’s wearing make-up. Meanwhile, a news reporter interviews Sam, referring to him as Jared, and asks him how the new season will play out. Sam gets to Dean and explains that they’re in an alternate dimension where they’re actors in a TV show about their lives. They go outside and find the Impala… and then another Impala, and another Impala. They try to figure out what to do next and Dean prays to Castiel to summon him. They notice him nearby and run over, and “Castiel” explains that they’re in an alternate dimension. He asks for the key that Sam has, and explains that it opens a room with all of the mystic weapons that Balthazar has stolen. However, when the brothers go off script, the actor playing Castiel, Misha Collins, wonders what they’re rehearsing new lines. He tweets to his fans about how Jared and Jensen pranked him.

The brothers find Jensen Ackles’ trailer and go inside, and find a fish tank and a RC helicopter. Sam checks the Internet and discovers that Jensen Ackles is from Texas and used to star on a soap opera. Dean insists that they need to get out of this universe, but they realize their prayers aren’t reaching Castiel. They try to recreate Balthazar’s spell and go back to the set to find the ingredients. Unfortunately, the ingredients are all fake props. The crew are surprised to see them talking to each other.

The brothers go to one of the Impalas and try to drive away, only to discover that there’s no gas in it because it’s a prop. They have a chauffeur pick them up, and he’s surprised to see them talking. They drive through Vancouver and go to Jared’s home. It’s a manor, and Sam figures that Jared is the star of the show. There’s a tanning bed in the front hallway and plenty of booze. As Dean pours himself a drink, they realize there’s an alpaca in the backyard. Ruby comes down the stairs and kisses Sam. They realize that the actress is Jared’s wife, Genevieve, and she points out that Jensen has never been there before. She leaves for the international otter adoption charity dinner, and Dean figures that Sam’s counterpart has done all right.

The Winchesters use the Internet to look up the ingredients, and Sam figures that they can buy them using Jared’s black card. Dean tries to do the same thing, but quickly realizes that Jensen’s card is maxed out. Once they get all the ingredients shipped to them, Dean settles in for the night. Sam greets Genevieve as she comes in, and then tries to find out if the Apocalypse disasters in his world happened in their world. She plays along, figuring he’s reviewing events from the show, and tells him that he’s been playing Sam Winchester way too long, and takes him up to the bedroom.

The next morning, Clif the chauffeur takes the brothers to the airport to get their ingredients. The brothers go to the set and the crew is surprised to see them there before anyone else. Dean asks the series’ executive producer, Bobby Singer, to clear the set so they can rehearse, but he says they can do it once they get the first few pages filmed. The brothers have no choice but to play along and run a scene with Misha. They have no idea what they’re doing and the filming goes on… and on… and on. When there’s a break, they get out the ingredients. Meanwhile, Singer calls another of the producers, Sera, and explains that his actors are having trouble. Meanwhile, the brothers recreate the angelic sigil and leap through the window, but nothing happens. Sam explains that he’s checked the Internet and there are no hunters and no supernatural, which means there may be no magic to take them back.

A window on the set glows with the angelic sigil, and Virgil leaps through.

The brothers are trying to leave the set when they run into Virgil. However, he discovers that his abilities don’t work. Unfortunately, he’s still strong enough to take the two of them on. The stunt team realizes that there’s a fight going on and break it up, and Virgil grabs the key and leaves.

Singer gets on the phone and explains to Sera that his actors were beating up on an extra, and he figures that Jared and Jensen are on drugs. They suggest that the series creator, Eric Kripke, come in to talk to the actors, but Sera admits that he’s off writing a pilot for Octacobra.

Misha gets into his car and Virgil captures him.

Sam and Dean return to the set and find Singer waiting for them. He asks if a pay raise will help, and tells them that they can’t come to work on poppers. As he talks, Sam realizes that Virgil took the key. Dean and Sam finally have enough and tell Singer that they’re the Winchesters, and they’ve saved their world a few times. Dean asks Singer what it all means, and Singer is impressed with his line reading. Sam and Dean tell him that they quit and go to find Virgil.

Virgil forces Misha into an alleyway and wonders how he can survive in a world without magic, or even want to live there. He cuts Misha’s throat to make a call using his blood, unaware that a homeless man is watching from the end of the alleyway.

The Winchesters return to Jared’s manor and Genevieve informs them that Misha has been stabbed to death. They go to the crime scene and overhear the homeless man saying that the killer called upon Raphael, and he got a response. The brothers talk to him and the man explains that the voice said for Virgil to return tomorrow at the place where the crossing occurred, and he would be brought home with the key. Dean pays the man off, and they figure out they have to take on Virgil.

Virgil goes to a gun shop and buys a number of weapons. Once he’s alone with the owner, he knocks the man out and shoots a customer when he comes in.

As they wait for Virgil to arrive, Dean wonders if they’ll ever be able to get back. He notes that Sam won’t be broken up if they’re stuck, given the life he has. However, Sam figures that they’re better off in a world where they’re brothers.

Eric Kripke arrives on set and commiserates with Singer about Misha’s death, but notes that at least they got good coverage for the show. Virgil walks down the street and Eric goes to greet him, and is shot down for his efforts. The angel then shoots down Singer and marches onto the set. Dean and Sam tackle him and try to get the key, while the sigil appears on the window. They realize that Raphael has arrived and try to run, but are telekinetically slammed through a window. They find Raphael waiting for them, wearing a female body. She takes the key, but Balthazar arrives and explains that he set the key up as a decoy. He tells her that she’s too late and he used the Winchesters to buy time so he could find the weapons. Castiel arrives and explains that he has the weapons, and their power is with him. Raphael leaves and Balthazar tells Castiel not to get himself killed. Castiel then grabs Dean and Sam and teleports them back to their world.

Back at Bobby’s house, Castiel says that the plan was Balthazar’s, but he would have done the same thing. The brothers are not happy, but Castiel says that if he loses against Raphael, they all lose. He apologizes and says that he’ll explain when he can, and then teleports away. After confirming they’re in a real house rather than a set, Dean and Sam are relieved that they’re home, no matter who is out to kill them, and that at least they’re talking.

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GUEST STARS

	Misha Collins	…	Castiel / Himself
	Brian Doyle-Murray	…	Robert Singer
	Genevieve Padalecki	…	Herself
	Sebastian Roché	…	Balthazar
	Carlos Sanz	…	Virgil
	Micah Hauptman	…	Eric Kripke
	Jason Bryden	…	Kevin Parks
	Garwin Sanford	…	Jim Michaels
	Lanette Ware	…	Raphael
	Philip Maurice Hayes	…	Clif Kosterman
	Art Kitching	…	Serge Ladouceur
	Hilary Jardine	…	Sera Gamble (voice)
	Lou Bollo	…	Lou Bollo

IMAGE GALLERY

Episode Stills

Episode Screen Captures

TRAILER/CLIPS

Promo – Clip 01

MUSIC

“Ancient Celtic Lands” by Biddy Blyth & Mike John Trim
(plays in Jensen Ackles’ trailer)

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QUOTES

Dean: I said ‘hey.’
Balthazar: You did. Twice. Good for you. Blood of lamb. Blood of lamb. Beer, cold pizza. Blood of lamb. Yes! Blood of lamb!

Sam: So… No angels?
Dean: No angels, I think.
Bob: But that was great!
Serge: …it’s not a problem with the stunt. It’s a problem with the… signal.
Sam: Should we be killing anybody?

Dean: No, seriously. Why? Why would anybody want to watch our lives?
Sam: Well, I mean, according to that interviewer, not very many people do. Look, I’m not saying it makes sense. I’m just saying, we — we landed in some dimension where you’re Jensen Ackles, and I’m something called a ‘Jared Padalecki.’
Dean: So what, now you’re polish? Is any of this making any sense to you?

Dean: Oh, hey. Least my baby made it. Hey. Hey! What — I feel sick. I’m gonna be sick. I want to go home. I feel like this whole place is bad-touching me.

Dean: Don’t like this universe, Sammy. We need to get out of this universe.
Sam: Yeah. No argument here. But I don’t think our — our prayers are reaching Cas. Or the real Cas.

Dean: You heard my brother. That’s right, I said ‘brother.’ ’cause you know what, Bob? We’re not actors. We’re hunters. We’re the Winchesters. Always have been, and always will be. And where we’re from, people don’t know who we are. But you know what? We mattered in that world. In fact, we even saved a son of a bitch once or twice. And yeah, okay, here, maybe there’s some — some fans who give a crap about this nonsense.

Sam: Solid. It’s real. Nice.
Dean: Yeah. Yeah, real, moldy, termite-eaten home sweet home. Chock full of crap that want to skin you. Oh, and, uh, we’re broke again.
Sam: Yeah. But, hey… at least we’re talking.

TRIVIA

The episode title “The French Mistake” refers to a famous sequence in Mel Brook’s movie Blazing Saddles. At the end of the movie, the action from the movie which is set in the Old West, crashes through a wall (literally breaking the fourth wall) onto the set of a musical on the Warner Bros. lot. The song being performed in the musical is called “The French Mistake.” The term “French Mistake” purportedly refers to a straight guy having a gay sexual encounter he later regrets.

 
Dean: Yeah, man’s a hero. We were officially out of ‘hunter’s helper.’
Balthazar: Hello, boys. You’ve seen The Godfather, right?
Dean: Balthazar…
Balthazar: You know, the end, where Michael Corleone sends his men to kill his enemies in one big, bloody swoop?

A play on the phrase “mother’s little helper,” which originated with the 1966 Rolling Stones song of the same name. It referred to drugs such as Valium that women used to help them cope with life.
Balthazar makes reference to the 1972 movie The Godfather, where the Godfather sends assassins to kill the other Dons. This is then played out in the alternate universe when Virgil shoots the crew on the TV set.

Kevin Parks: Well, we can clean up, reset the window; takes about 95 minutes, basically. So we’d have to blow off the scene where they sit on the Impala and talk about their feelings.
Bob Singer: Ha! Right! You answer the hate mail.

When references are made to events in real life like this it is referred to as lampshade hanging. Other examples are Sam mentioning that not many people watch the show, and of course Misha’s tweeting.

Sam: Yeah. I mean, here — wherever ‘here’ is, this — this Twilight Zone Balthazar zapped us into. For whatever reason, our life is a TV show.

“The Twilight Zone” is an anthology TV series which was created by Rod Serling in 1959. The stories it portrayed often featured bizarre and unexpected twists.

Dean: Like Bizarro Earth? But instead of Bizarro Superman, we get this clown factory?

Bizarro World is a planet from the DC comics universe, where everything is the opposite of how things are on Earth, and it is inhabited by “bizarro” versions of characters including Superman.

When Misha first meets Sam and Dean, thinking they are Jared and Jensen, he recites lines from his script, in the character of Castiel. The lines he recites describe the plot of the meta episode.

 
Misha: You guys! You really punk’d me! I’m totally gonna tweet this one. ‘Hola, mishamigos. J-squared… Got me good.’

Punk’d is an American hidden camera/practical joke television series that first aired on MTV in 2003 and was produced and hosted by Ashton Kutcher. Being “punk’d” referred to being the victim of such a prank.

Dean: I just want to dig my finger in my brain and scratch until we’re back in Kansas.

Reference to The Wizard of Oz, a 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum that has been adapted into several different works, the most famous being the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. In it, a young woman named Dorothy is swept up in a tornado and transplanted in an alternate dimension.

Sam: Huh. All right, here we go. Let’s see who this guy is.
Dean: Well, he’s not a hunter, but he plays one on TV. Oh, come on. Look at these male-modelin’ sons of bitches. Nice ‘Blue Steel,’ Sam.

Dean is holding up a copy of the Supernatural: Official Magazine – Issue #11 from August 2009. Blue Steel is a signature modeling pose of Derek Zoolander, first referenced by Dean in 2.19 Folsom Prison Blues, and demonstrated by Jared and Jensen on every gag reel, and at numerous conventions.

Sam finds a clip of Jensen when he played Eric Brady in Days of Our Lives. The clip used in this episode starts at 6:33 in this clip.

Bob Singer: Well, at least they’re talking to each other.

A running gag during the episode is the fact that in this universe, Jared and Jensen are not on speaking terms. In real life, they are good friends as evidenced by the fact that they were groomsman at each other’s weddings in 2010.

The studio in the episode is called “KM Motion Picture Studios.” At the Salute to Supernatural San Francisco 2011 in January 2011, Clif Kosterman reported that the Supernatural Studios in Burnaby Vancouver had officially been named in honor of late director and producer Kim Manners.

 
Dean: Where the hell are we, anyway? Dude, we’re not even in America.

Supernatural is filmed in Vancouver, Canada. (Except for the Pilot which was filmed in Los Angeles.)

Dean: Nice modest digs, Jay-Z.

Jay-Z is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America.

Sam: What am I? Dracula?
Dean: George Hamilton Dracula!

Actor George Hamilton is renowned for having a very deep, and obviously fake, tan. Jared has been known to appear rather tan on occasion, most famously at the 2008 Scream Awards.

Jared and Genevieve married in real life on February 27, 2010, in Sun Valley, Idaho. The photo on the mantle (next to the alpaca) is an actual wedding photo taken by Kirsten Schultz and featured in an article in Sun Valley magazine.

 
Mashing up fact and fiction: Jared is an animal lover who had two dogs Harley and Sadie. He has given support to the animal rights group PETA, and A Dog’s Life rescue. Jared and Genevieve support the charity 5GYRES which combats ocean pollution, and money raised from auctions at Salute to Supernatural San Francisco 2011 went to it.

 
Bob Singer: Jensen, we’re thrilled to see you collaborating so creatively. And your enthusiasm is refreshing. Dean Cain was like that on ‘Lois,’ And that man’s a real actor. And we will clear this set exactly when we shoot the 2 3/8 pages we are scheduled to shoot on this set. So you do your ‘actor stuff’ and we’ll do our ‘camera stuff’ and, uh…

The real Bob Singer was a producer on the ’90s TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman which starred Dean Cain as Clark Kent / Superman. Other Supernatural crew who worked on the series include Phil Sgriccia, Jim Michaels, Brad Buckner, Eugenie Ross-Leming and composer Jay Gruska.

The blue sweater Misha is wearing is also one he wore in his Rhino Puzzle missive here.

 
Misha also wore the shirt with the word NAMASTE – which is an Indian greeting. The symbol on the shirt is a Maha Yantra.
In Bob Singer’s office, a magazine called TV Weekly featuring Jared and Jensen on the cover is on display — a reference to the fan voted Supernatural TV Guide Cover.

 
The two guys rehearsing a fight scene beside the Impala on the green screen stage, who then broke up the fight between Dean, Sam, and Virgil, were Jared and Jensen’s real stunt doubles, Mike Carpenter and Todd Scott.

 
Sera Gamble: Eric’s supposed to be off in a cabin somewhere writing his next pilot.
Bob Singer: He sold Octocobra? Mother of God they’ll buy anything.

A reference to the Syfy TV movies that feature monster mash-ups like Sharktopus and Dinocroc.

Bob Singer: I’d like to think that over these years we’ve grown closer, that you don’t think of me as ‘director Bob’ or executive producer ‘Bob Singer,’ but as Uncle Bob.
Sam: You’re kidding? So the character in the show – Bobby Singer…
Dean: What kind of a douchebag names a character after himself?
Sam: Oh that’s not right!

The character of Bobby was named after producer Bob Singer, although the culprit was Kripke. You can see Bob Singer talk about it here.

Dean: Well, I’m just saying. No hell below us, above us only sky.

Dean is quoting the John Lennon song “Imagine.”

The scene where Virgil obtains weapons in a gun store by incapacitating the owner before shooting a customer is a send-up to a similar scene in The Terminator, where the T-800 played by Arnold Schwarzenegger does the same thing, but kills the owner instead.

 
Eric: It’s totally,totally awful. Yeah. It got us the front page of Variety, though. Did you see that?

Variety’ is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine.

When Eric Kripke is killed by Virgil, he is in the same position as Mary Winchester when she died in the “Pilot.”

 
Dean: Raphael? Nice meatsuit. Dude looks like a lady.

A reference to the Aerosmith song of the same name.

Balthazar: Well, Cas… Now that you have your sword, try not to die by it.

This is a reference to the Bible verse Matthew 26:52, which describes a disciple (identified in the Gospel of John as Peter) drawing a sword to defend against the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and then being rebuked by Jesus, who tells him to sheath the weapon. The verse reads: Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

When Sam and Dean arrive back in Bobby’s house in their universe, we see that the window and much of the wall behind them has been obliterated. Like in Blazing Saddles, which this episode gets its name from, they have literally broken the fourth wall. At the end, Sam checks that the “wall” is solid again – perhaps a reassurance to viewers, as well.

In the episode real members of the cast and crew of Supernatural are featured – some played by actors while others play themselves or Bizarro world versions of themselves.

“The almost fictional cast and crew of Supernatural”

Link to see them.

The real Clif Kosterman appears in a cameo as the crew member who is putting mud on the Impala.

 
Misha Collins spent a lot of time on Twitter in the episode, and at one point he tweets “Ola mishamigos! J2 got me good. Really starting to feel like one of the guys.” Just to really mess with our minds, the real Misha actually sent that tweet as the line aired in the U.S. east coast run of the episode (Source). Misha Collins and Misha also both tweeted “IMHO j&j had a late one last night. Rotflmfao!” (Source). After both these tweets, Misha then relates, “My phone was stolen and apparently cast into a parallel universe devoid of magic. I’ve retrieved it. I promise it won’t happen again” (Source). All three tweets were retweeted by over 100 people in a matter of hours and then vanished from Misha’s twitter feed. A few hours later, they were reposted, but the direct links to the original tweets still work.
The words: #Misha, #metamadness and #kripke all made it into the top ten Trending Topics as the episode went to air.

 
At Rising Con Spain 2010, Misha Collins expressed the desire for Castiel to have a long crying scene in season 6 (Source). It’s possible that this was the impetus for Misha’s long crying scene with Virgil.

 
The other major meta episodes in the series have been:

2.18 Hollywood Babylon
4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book
5.09 The Real Ghostbusters
10.05 Fan Fiction

Other episodes set in alternate universes are:

2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be – Under the influence of djinn poison, Dean experiences what life may have been like if Mary, his mother, had never been killed.
4.17 It’s a Terrible Life – The angel Zachariah places Dean into a reality where he and Sam are not brothers, and Dean is a corporate executive, in order to prove to him that hunting is in his blood.
5.04 The End – Zachariah sends Dean to a possible version of 2014, where the Apocalypse has happened, in order to convince him to become Michael’s vessel
5.08 Changing Channels – The Trickster, revealed to be the archangel Gabriel, traps Dean and Sam in an endless series of TV shows and ads, to try and teach them the lesson that they must “play their part” and fulfill the destiny Heaven has laid out for them.

In his spell to send Sam and Dean into the alternate universe, Balthazar uses Dead Sea brine, lamb’s blood and the bones of a lesser saint, which he uses to draw a sigil.

 
Sam: Yeah.Yeah, yeah, the whole earthquake spike. You know, the — the 9.2 in Rome? I mean, the –the 8.5 outside Boston? The whole east/west tsunami chain?
Genevieve: Yes. I remember all of those from last season on your show.

There is a slight discrepancy between this and the reports heard in 5.22 Swan Song, which stated that there was a 7.6 earthquake in Portland, an 8.1 in Boston, and more in Hong Kong, Berlin, and Tehran.

The episode inspired a fan song called “Meta Madness” by stopitsgingertime.

 
The door to the “Supernatural” set has a large number 4 on it. This door also appears in 2.18 Hollywood Babylon as the door to the Hell Hazers II: The Reckoning set and 5.08 Changing Channels as the door to the abandoned warehouse where the Trickster traps Sam and Dean.

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