Bardic’s Descant: 6:15 – The French Mistake: We Matter To That World
Production Notes
Truth in advertising, here: I LOVED this episode! And being the production junkie I am, I ate up every behind-the-scenes moment that let us glimpse how the show is made, despite those moments being layered with joke details setting them apart from our real world as well as from the canon world of the Winchester brothers. Writer Ben Edlund and director Charles Beeson, aided and abetted by the entire crew and all the performers, delivered 42 minutes of absolute joy.
I had two, and only two, little criticisms of the show, and I’ll dispense with them up front, as always. The only thing I didn’t get from the script was a logical reason why, having finally acquired the missing weapons of Heaven and thus the potential upper hand over Raphael and his faction, Castiel chose deliberately to let Raphael escape rather than taking him down when he had the chance. With the stakes being so high and winning the Heavenly civil war so important, Castiel deliberately letting the commander of his opposition escape made no logical sense. I could only think of three reasons Castiel might have done what he did: first, that he and Balthazar were bluffing and Cass didn’t actually have full control of the weapons and their power; second, that Castiel, even having gotten the weapons, either wasn’t sure of his ability to take on Raphael at that particular moment, or believed taking out Raphael wouldn’t have made a dent in the opposition; or third, that Castiel still entertained the hope of being able to convince Raphael to end the conflict without more bloodshed and simply come over to Cass’s side. I hope we learn one or more of those options might have been in play, because otherwise, Castiel letting Raphael escape was nothing more than a tool to keep the civil war storyline running a little longer without much logic behind it. I really don’t think the writers’ room would have made that choice.
The second point that bothered me was it made no sense that Virgil’s “blood phone” would have worked to get a message out to Raphael, given that the whole nature of the alternate world was that it was a place where nothing magical or supernatural worked. I hand-waved that a bit by rationalizing that straight magic didn’t work – witness the failure of Dean’s carefully drawn exit symbol utilizing all the proper spell components – but perhaps human blood and human death could have provided a sufficient power boost to crack even that barrier against magical resonance to carry a message across worlds to Raphael. After all, we’ve been told there’s power in souls beyond what we know, so maybe poor alternate-world Misha’s death was the necessary catalyst for cross-world communication.
And that’s it for the criticism! The rest of this blog rhapsodizes, because this episode was a love letter to all of us fans and made me very happy.
I can’t separate the script from the willingness of all parties concerned, from Eric Kripke and Sera Gamble through all the actors and down to the crew, to enter fully into the joke and parody themselves mercilessly. I loved Kripke being portrayed as an avid writer of schlock horror (Octocobra cracked me up!) and an executive producer more thrilled than appalled that the murder of one of his actors got the show onto the front page of Variety. Kripke has poked fun at himself before – who could forget Kripke in the first Paley Festival panel giving full credit for the brothers’ psychological complexity to Robert Singer, noting that, left to himself, he’d come up with Boogeyman, or approving having Boogeyman dissed as an awful script in Hollywood Babylon? His slow motion, uncomprehending, over-the-top death was a hilarious homage to any number of Western, gangster, and horror films. Showrunner Sera Gamble’s security in letting herself be portrayed as an impotently faceless new entity the actors wouldn’t even recognize was delightful. Similarly, executive producer/director/writer Bob Singer, producer Jim Michaels, director of photography Serge Ladouceur, and first assistant director Kevin Parks (go here to support his upcoming charity ride for the fight against cancer in memory of the great Kim Manners!) all sent themselves up through having the actors portraying them echo resignation with being on season six, dealing with the vagaries of their lead actors, and proposing coping techniques they would never accept in real life. Along those lines, the show’s actual use of a freeze-frame to end a scene (something so cheesy they would NEVER do it!) positively broke me up, and Ladouceur’s Matrix-like ability to dodge bullets just reinforced his reputation as a wizard who could accomplish anything. We did get to see three of the real crew playing themselves: Lou Bollo, the show’s stunt director, even had lines, and according to Guy Norman Bee, the two guys rehearsing the fight beside the Impala on the green screen stage, who then broke up the combat between Sam, Dean, and Virgil, were Mike Carpenter and Todd Scott, the stunt doubles for Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, respectively.
Most of all, the principal actors themselves cracked me up. Misha Collins nearly stole the show with his depiction of alt-universe Twitter-addicted, “attractive crying man” Misha, and playing that Misha playing character Castiel just added layers of hilarity. Genevieve Padalecki, ne Cortese, was a great sport about sending up not only her real-life marriage to Jared, but their well known common interest in animal welfare and environmental causes. Finally, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, playing Sam and Dean discovering that their alt-universe actor personas fit every Hollywood stereotype of artificial, antagonistic, egotistical, self-absorbed, narcissistic prima donnas, also sent up both their own lives and fan perceptions and misperceptions of those lives, including their relative status on the show (Sam: Wow: I must be the star of this thing! Dean, dismissively: Yeah, right…), their permanent fake tans, and the year Jensen spent living in Jared’s Vancouver house. Watching them being extremely bad actors was actually hard for me to do, because I got embarrassed! Sebastian Roche’s Balthazar remains a complex treat, an angel whose loyalty is to himself but who is nonetheless compelled by his own choices and his friendship with Castiel to fight in a war he wanted no part of. I look forward to seeing Raphael in the guise of Lanette Ware again.
The casting on all the guest stars was marvelous! They all resembled their real counterparts enough to be instantly recognizable, even while being caricatures of the real people. Brian Doyle-Murray gave a lovely, weary, put-upon Bob Singer; Micah A. Hauptman positively nailed Eric Kripke’s infectious gleefulness; Garwin Sanford (who previously played Deacon in Folsom Prison Blues) brought the practical humor the real Jim Michaels has displayed at conventions; Jason Bryden looks appropriately lean and trim as real-world first assistant director Kevin Parks; and I laughed at Art Kitching conveying Serge Ladouceur’s bullet-dodging wizardry.
I got a kick out of way too many production details to mention, but one of the first involved the slates – the clapper boards used to mark the beginnings and ends of scenes for the benefit of editors. Every slate bore the name of the episode we were watching, The French Mistake, and all I could think was what fun the real editor, Nicole Baer, must have had, seeing two slates marking every insert take on the “bad acting” scene, one listing Bob Singer as director and the other listing Charles Beeson, and one marking the real take while the other had a fake number! I also laughed over the photos of various show makeup jobs tacked up on the makeup mirror. Christopher Lennertz’s score for the episode laughed at all the jokes right along with us, especially in Kripke’s iconic death scene. The art department outdid themselves with dressing everything in sight, from the exposed sets to “Jensen’s” trailer and the mix of the real – Jared and Genevieve’s wedding photo – to the over-the-top, Andy Warhol-style portraits and the photo-manipulation of cowboy Jared on a galloping horse hanging on the wall.
I’ll freely confess to geeking out over seeing the cameras pull back to reveal much of the expanse of one of the show’s real soundstages, showing the sets consisting of rooms in Bobby’s house, the latest hilarious motel room, and the dead spaces in between that allowed for the movement of cameras, crew, and equipment. Since I doubt I’ll ever get the chance to see the show’s soundstages in person, I relished those glimpses of the overall layout of one of them.
The shot of the brothers exiting the soundstage to come face-to-face with the multiple Impalas – including the hulk of the one totaled by the crash stunt at the end of Devil’s Trap! – gave us our first glimpse of a “KM Studio” sign beside the soundstage back door. Clif Kosterman, the driver and bodyguard for Jared and Jensen (who also played Tiny in Folsom Prison Blues, before being hired for the bodyguard position, but was portrayed by an actor in this episode), tweeted some time ago that the studio had been renamed officially in honor of the late director and producer Kim Manners, and that sign – along with the later gate arch one – immediately brought Kim to mind. I think he’d have been pleased. The bit with them crossing past the Impalas and going through a door onto the backlot was a little bit of deceitful Hollywood North wizardry, because the backlot – the former Watchmen set, now many times redressed – is actually several blocks away from the studio itself.
I have to say, I’m devoutly glad I don’t live in the alt-universe reality of this episode. For one thing, I think alt-world will be missing Supernatural on their television sets, given the cast and crew massacre perpetrated by Virgil! But more importantly, I’m glad I live in this reality, where Jared and Jensen are best friends happily married to lovely wives, the writers, cast and crew of Supernatural are secure and generous enough to mock themselves for our fannish amusement, and real magic – the kind that brings people together from all around the world – happens both in front of and behind the cameras.
That’s my kind of world. And this is my kind of show.
Mary, this review made me so happy as I read it that I want to go watch the show again – for the 6th time! I loved it that much too. It’s definitely up there as one of my all time favourites along with Changing Channels and What Is And What Should Never Be.
I can add nothing more – you said it all and more. Thanks for pointing out the renamed studio to honour Kim Manners. I hadn’t read that. What a lovely honour for Kim.
Thanks for a brilliant review!
Cheers, Rose
Another great review, Mary. I love reading these.
Lovely, Mary. I was of two minds about the episode. I’d been having some difficulty reconciling what I’d perceived as two different shows (the beginning and the end as one, and the middle as another). But your meta really helped to tie it together meaningfully. Thanks very much for your thoughtful analysis and exciting speculations!
Lovely recap.. I was afraid of what this show would be,but am so glad they made it work.. The guys did a great job of ‘not’ being able to act..
Beautiful review!! I totally agree…this is my kind of world and my kind of show 🙂
This ep is definitely one of my favorites! There was so much silliness & fun, but very sincere & serious moments too. I can’t imagine my world without the Winchesters, & all that this show has given me, both in terms of entertainment & in friendship with fellow fans!
Thank you Mary. I love your reviews, especially the behind the scenes information you let us in on. I never cared about that stuff for any other show before.
Loved the episode of course, the crew, the writers (Thank God for Ben Edlund), and the two awesome stars of this show, not to forget Bobby and Misha and all the great guest stars we have seen.
Watching the actors not-acting very badly was a hoot and a holler and I would wish for some outtakes on the next gag reel. 😛
Glad you are here Mary and looking forward to your next review. 🙂 But not to the hateful hiatus. 😥
Perfect. Beautiful. I so agree with everything you’ve written, Mary! I think my favorite part was the attempt at acting. So hilarious and JP with his hand gestures and attempt at dialogue–laugh out loud funny! Also I am so happy to see the partnership relationship the brothers seem to finally have now! Thank you for reviewing!
Mary Wonderful review as usual. I’ve worked on TV and movies here in Toronto. The shots I loved the best were when I got to work on a set as to location. Like you I love anything behind the scenes. When I was on set it was MAGIC. Loved to see how everything worked.One of the best shots was “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues when I was witness to a scene with 3 gunshots and see just how much time is needed to produce a scene (especially with action) so yeah I’m a junkie too. Hilarious episode and grateful to cast and crew for sharing this with us. Have I mentioned I LOVE THIS SHOW!! J and J awesome acting at being god awful actors, too funny & shows just how great they are 😀