Top Ten Supernatural Standalone Episodes, Part One
9. Hollywood Babylon
Season: Two
Why it’s on the list: This one almost got eliminated from the “standalone”ย criteria, because it’s so thick with inside jokes. Once I looked at the inside jokes though, a lot of them were making fun of Hollywood and pop culture in general. For example, it’s possible anyone seeing this show for the first time would crack up over Sam Winchester being bothered by the prospect of seeing Gilmore Girls cast members. That was a very popular show and many would know Jared. They probably also knew McG too and his stellar contributions of the Charlie’s Angels movie series (ha!). Ditto with the shallow demands from the studio suits who don’t like that a horror movie is so dark and depressing, the writer who needed to add some “jazz”ย to the page, and that Dean Winchester really does make one hell of a PA. I remember many critics adoring this episode even if they didn’t get the stuff like why salt deters ghosts or why the weather was “practically Canadian.”ย The bottom line, the references and slams against the shallowness of Hollywood and the people there were so plentiful and so freaking funny it all sticks with you forever.
Favorite scene: This is really hard for this episode, because every scene had a hidden reference or line that made it a must see. I’ll go though with the end, starting with Sam watching shooting of the newly written scene copying everything he and Dean did during their ghost encounter, Dean stumbling out of Tara Benchley’s trailer very smitten while she declares he’s “one hell of a PA”ย, and Sam and Dean walking off together with the fake sunset as their backdrop.
Alice,
I love all the episodes you have listed here. They are my go to episodes when I don’t want to worry about overall storyline but want to enjoy my boys. I especially love Hollywood Babylon and the Usual Suspects.
Gonna revisit these episodes tonight now….
Oh man, you’ve listed two of my all time favorite episodes. BDABR is, of course, on almost everybody’s list, but Usual Suspects has always been close to the top. It highlighted how totally in sinc they were and I loved how they knew exactly what the other was doing even though they had no contact. It’s what I really, really missed about later seasons.
The others are good too, and I particularly liked Curious Case of Dean Winchester. Chad Everett was stellar and Jared’s poker game is a continued re-watch for me.
So far, you’ve listed a few of my favorites.
Ghosfacers and Hollywood Babylon are both hilarious and a joy on any rewatch. And both seem to always have another hidden layer to find.
My favorite moment of BDABR has to be when Sam takes out the lamp and Dean asks if he’s okay without even turning around. It’s just a riot.
I look forward to seeing your next picks.
Great!!!! You have a lot of my favorites!!!!! Including the best scenes of each episode!
And you have one of my all time favorite episode, the one that introduced my to this crazy unforgettable show, the one that started all , and sent me on this amazing ride . I still remember changing channels on one really boring day (7/28/07) and stopping, I wasn’t sure why, on a scene that had this hot, tall guy talking with Linda Blair, asking her: “You want me to turn against my own brother?”. I immediately fell in love with Sam, and just a couple of minutes later I fell in love with this Dean guy. And, what do you know?. By the end of the episode I had fallen in love with Supernatural. Since that moment on I haven’t miss anything SPN related and I have supported Show on every moment, as I will until the end!. Thanks, Alice for remembering me of that wonderful day!
Canรยดt wait for the rest!!!!
Great choices and some of my all time favourites. “Usual Suspects” is by far the one that I watch over and over again. Like you said, they are separate for much of the episode, but are still very much in synch. I think that’s one of the reasons I love “Time After Time” so much, it has that same brotherly vibe. I’m all giddy waiting for your next installment.
Great choices that I agree with, though I have many of my own favourites from season 1. As I’ve said ad nauseum in my posts I LOVE LOVE seasons 1 -3 and so could never leave the first season off my list. (love Hell House myself more than Ghostfacers). In my round robin re-viewings I am always delighted when I am back to season 1 again. Since most of season 1 are stand alones, my list would need to be my top 30. ๐
Loved the “Curious Case of Dean Winchester” for all your reasons and would have really loved a spinoff called “Grumpy Old Hunters” with Jim Beaver and Chad Everett.
Loved dear old Dean! (lots of “love” in this post, but then when it comes to this show that is what I feel most). ๐
Gotta agree with you there, Bevie, when you mentioned ‘lots of love’. I was watching Lazarus Rising the other day, and every other word out of my mouth was ‘love’. I loved that expression, I loved that scene, I loved that one-liner, I loved that effects shot. Lots of love.
I guess I never thought about The Usual Suspects as being a stand-alone episode before, just because of the tie-in to St. Louis. But that’s really such a minor detail after all, the episode does work very well as a stand-alone. Thank you for giving me a different way of looking at it. The boys working in tandem was perfection, and a great expansion from earlier episodes. I’m reminded of Bloodlust when they first encounter Gordon. He leaves the bar first, and hides, and then the boys leave and go around the side of the building, and Gordon follows. There’s never any indication that they’re ever even aware of Gordon’s presence, but they still have a plan every step of the way. It’s great that The Usual Suspects seems to have expanded on that. I can’t really picture them sitting in their motel room going over every detail to make sure their stories match. It’s much more fun to think that they’re just that psychologically linked, that it’s effortless.
All these picks were great. Thank you. Looking forward to the rest.
I got on my treadmill this morning and turned on Netflix so I can get my more than daily dose of SPN. Hollywood Babylon is one of the ones I had seen the most time ago so I rewatched and I was going to come on here and see what was said about that episode. I love that it made your list, but I was thinking the first few times I saw it and I was thinking again this morning, is it ME or is Tara’s voice TOO DARN DEEP?! Eh. I know. She can’t help it but it sure made it hard for me to believe her “real” scream. I really don’t like her voice. Can you tell? ๐ But Dean acting like a fanboy was so adorable and I was wondering if he was using any of his real world experiences being on the other side of that adoration to draw on for that one. Fun stuff.
Anyway, Bad Day is absolutely one of my favorites strictly because I crack up every single time Sam gets to work trying to get that gum off his shoe. “I lost my shoe.” Hilarious! Dang. I’m laughing just thinking about it. And he was so convincingly sad and pouty about it. Hard to watch him trip though. I keep thinking he’s going to knock himself out, it’s so loud!
Time for me to go read your part 2!
Oh! And yes, Ghostfacers over Hell House any day. I would love for them to do another episode, maybe purposely trailing Same and Dean this time but managing not to be seen.
I personally love Mystery Spot. It has it all to me, humor, grief, and a sexy brooding Sam.