Supernatural. No can do, hair model.

When an episode of SPN kicks off with a specially themed title card, I get excited.  This one might be my favorite one yet – it’s so pretty! (I have a thing for rainbows due to my 80’s childhood, and so as you can imagine, there was a lot that I loved about this episode).  And any time you put Sam Winchester in a room with some clowns, you know it’s going to be a good time.  Add to that a ball pit shark attack, a killer unicorn and a vampire octopus, and you’ve got yourself a party, Supernatural-style.  There was next to nothing in this ep in terms of mythology, but who cares because it was SO MUCH FUN.

You know that the writers must have had a ball figuring out different ways to kill people using the weird and illogical fears of young kids (I used to think that Jaws lived under my bed, so I totally get the ball pit thing).  Probably (okay, for sure) my favorite was the killer unicorn that also farted rainbows.  I mean, my inner child loves rainbows and unicorns, and my outer adult plays Robot Unicorn on my iPhone all the time (because rainbows + unicorns + Eurasure = WIN).  This scene was perfect. And let’s reiterate, because it should be said twice – this unicorn FARTED A TRAIL OF RAINBOWS. Amazing.

I knew that the creepy dude running the prize counter was behind everything, because he was WAY too into his job, plus, you know, super creepy.  But the fun of this episode wasn’t in unwinding a big complicated mystery – it was in seeing how creative the writers could be with the deaths, given that they had the ultimate playground to pull inspiration from – the childhood imagination.  I’d say that they were up to the task, even though I was kind of hoping we’d get a glimpse of that giant laser-eyed robot before the bad guy was put out of his misery.  Aw well, the unicorn and the ball pit more than made up for it.

The kids in this episode were really creative with their fears though – when I was a kid, pretty much every major fear that I had was related to a movie I had seen.  Specifically, they were as follows:

1) Previously mentioned Jaws-under-the-bed
2) Jaws in any body of water I was in, including lakes and swimming pools (did I mention that when my brother and I were like 8 and 10, our parents took us to see Jaws 3-D while on vacation, IN CAPE COD?  Insanity).
3) Dracula, just his existence in general for some reason (this was my one recurring nightmare)
4) The Blob seeping into my room from under the walls and then hiding under my bed. (My parents loved old horror movies)
5) Jason Voorhies after seeing Friday the 13th Pt. 3 WAY too young.
6) Clowns. Like all sane people, I find them highly unsettling, and can trace this directly back to the miniseries of Stephen King’s It, and Tim Curry’s portrayal of Pennywise.

As you can see, every one of those is tied to pop culture in some way.  I was definitely not sitting at home dreaming up vampire octupuses, I can tell you that much.  Also, I’m realizing that my parents were probably a little lax with shielding us from things that would cause us nightmares (my brother had a subscription to Fangoria magazine when he was like 7, and my first memory of renting a movie is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre).  But you know what? I hardly get scared at all while watching movies now, so maybe it was a little bit of tough love.

Anyway, the story wrapped up nicely with Sam facing his clown phobia and ended with a glitterbomb, so what’s to complain about?  Did I mention it was hilarious?  Because the entire thing was just really, really funny on top of being super creative. At first I wondered what the point was of the 24-style countdown to the present that was happening throughout, but then it totally paid off with this moment:

I mean, nice use of that trope.  If you’re going to do it, do it in a way that’s unexpected.

I loved the little side story of Dean’s obsession with getting his hands on a giant rainbow slinky (I loved my slinky back in the day, but it was just the boring, regular-sized metal one), and Sam’s mention of his hatred of grainy ice cream had me cracking up, like you do when someone else acknowledges a pet peeve of yours that you think must be too specific and crazy for anyone else to think about.  But seriously – grainy ice cream (ESPECIALLY when you shell out the big premium ice cream bucks only to discover that it’s freezer burned when you get home) is such a bummer.

There was no real movement in the leviathan mythology, except for an update that Fred Savage is now a Big Mouth – does that mean I should stop following him on Twitter?  That joke was funny and all, but all it really did was create a desperation on my part to see Fred Savage guest on SPN as a leviathan version of himself.  I mean, this is possible, right?  He still acts on occasion when he’s not being a big fancy tv director, so, let’s do this.

Then there was that ending.  I mean, GOD. For a non-regular viewer, it would have seemed like nothing – just a casual, happy way to wrap up the hour and get in a couple more jokes.  But to those of us who have been watching the show for years, it was so emotional.  First of all, Dean seemed to realize how much he had ignored Sam when they were younger – when he would drop him off at Plucky Pennywhistle’s to kill time while he went out and went out trolling for ass, most likely.  And then he apologized for it, in a sincere, unprompted way – a big step for Dean.  Then, THEN, it was the laughter.  We’ve been reminded over and over again this season that Dean is falling into a black hole of depression – he’s been drinking excessively (he’s definitely got Alcoholaric beat in terms of quantity at this point) and he’s been miserable.  Then we saw Frank Devereaux advising him to ‘just smile’, followed by that heartbreaking moment of Dean trying to fake it ’till he makes it in the car a few weeks ago.  Last night was the first time in a LOOOONNNNNGGGG time that we’ve seen him genuinely laugh.  And it was pretty moving.  Sam noticed it, we noticed it…does this mean we’re at a bit of a turning point for Dean as a character?

Shockingly, I didn't see a gif of this moment, but I'm sure @hockeybychoice will be all over it later.

Some more of my favorite quotes (there were a million, so definitely add to the list in the comments!)

• What’s the lowdown from Trauma Town?
• ‘They think the ball washer did it.’ ‘The what?’ ‘The ball washer.’ ‘The what?’
• LOVED that they said that the maintenance guy got ‘Bruced’ – nice reference to the name of the fake shark from Jaws.
• We don’t care that you, uh, broke bad or whatever. (It makes me happy that Dean watches my favorite show.)
• If it bleeds, you can kill it.
• ‘I’m sorry for psychologically scarring you.’ ‘Which time?’

So, that’s it for me.  What did you think of the episode?  Hopefully you got your fill of funny and lighthearted, because next week looks like a potential Angstfest (in the best possible way).  The promo is below, so check it out if you’re so inclined, and then be sure to hit the comments with all of your thoughts/favorite moments/best quotes from Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie!