Supernatural Writer Profile: Jeremy Carver
He returns to straight mythology in season 4’s “In the Beginning,” when he sends Dean back to 1973 to figure out what Azazel’s end game was. It is an earth shattering episode for the elder Winchester as he learns the truth of his family’s hunting history. It hadn’t started with the death of Mary Winchester. It went much farther back than that. It started with Mary’s family, the Campbells.
Carver has Castiel send Dean back, and he’s thrust not just back in time, but to Lawrence, Kansas—where it all began. He is on a bench and is chased off by a cop into a diner—where he meets a younger version of his father. He is stunned by this, and when he realizes what year it is, he starts to tail his father to find out what he knows. He follows him to a car dealership—where he convinces John Winchester not to buy the VW van, but instead the Impala. He sells him on it by saying, “It’ll be badass when it’s 40.” Young John nods his head and takes it, much to his young fiance’s chagrin when he pulls up in it.
Carver knows just how to make the story metafictional when he has mother mirror son. Mary expresses to a freaked out Dean, “This job. I hate it. I want a family. I want to be safe. You know the worst thing I can think of, the very worst thing? Is for my children to be raised into this like I was. I won’t let it happen.” She desires the same thing Sam desired at the beginning: normalcy. She had no desire for John to turn her sons into warriors—and yet that is exactly what happens. Carver knows how to tug on the strings that hold the story together and make past and present fluid and seamless with one another. While Dean is in the past, he is facing an issue that is waiting for him when he gets back home.
He also knows how to refer back to his first episode by having Dean refer to Samuel as “Father Cheney,” when they introduce themselves to the family that Azazel is targeting. This is a shout out to Casey’s quip that “Dick Cheney has a parking space reserved downstairs” in “Sin City.”
The longer Dean stays back in time, the harder it is for him to keep his secret that he’s from the future. He ends up staying with his mother—and her father—his grandfather. Dean realizes they are hunting a demon—not just any demon. They are hunting the demon. Azazel is in town, and he is setting the groundwork for what will happen in ten short years above Sam’s crib. Dean knows that one weapon will stop this before it ever begins: The Colt.
He goes and gets it, bringing it back to the Campbells so they can be ready for the next strike Azazel will make. Unfortunately, Dean has no idea that Azazel has taken over his grandfather, and is putting his own pieces together about what will become of his “special children.” He taunts Dean about Sam—leaning in close to whisper, “No, not you. Maybe you got a sis, or a bro-,” but will not give up his end game. Dean rushes after he leaves to find his mother—only to find that he is too late. Azazel, while still possessing Samuel, strikes the deal to revive John for the right to visit Sam in the future. Mary accepts the deal, and Dean watches in horror as they seal it with a kiss.
Once Castiel pulls him back to the present, he informs Dean that he now knows everything the angels do. Carver makes certain to twist the knife here, when he has Castiel issue an ultimatum to Dean, “We’re not sure where it leads. So stop it, or we will.”
Carver sets the ground work for Edlund’s episode “On the Head of a Pin,” with “Death Takes a Holiday.” The brothers get wind from Bobby of a town where no one dies. It would seem that the reapers aren’t doing their job, and the brothers go off to investigate, convinced that it must be a Seal.
They decide to summon the last person to die in town, only to run into Alistair. He swiftly attacks and throws Dean against a headstone, knocking him out. He tries to do the same to Sam, who is immune thanks to all the demon blood he’s consumed. He manages to force Alistair out of his current vessel, foreshadowing his killing the demon in “On the Head of a Pin.”
They call in Pamela to help in the case. They can’t get into the place the reapers are being held unless they become spirits themselves. Carver has Dean arrive at the ingenious yet risky concept of astral projection, and Pamela reluctantly agrees. He throws in his brand of black comedy here when the brothers exit into public as spirits for the first time. Dean promptly annoys Sam by sticking his hand straight through his brother, only to have Sam snap, “Get out of me.” Dean quips back, “You’re such a prude.”
They take lessons on how to be a ghost from Cole, the spirit they tried to summon earlier. Cole delights in running circles around the brothers as he shows them how to manipulate the world around them. It is what they’ll need when they get inside the funeral home Alistair is holding the reapers. As they wander Cole’s house, a reaper does emerge. Carver also knows how to make this episode connect to “In My Time of Dying,” by having one of the reapers familiar. It is none other than Tessa, and she has come to claim Cole. Before she can, black smoke claims her and it is a race against time before the sacrifice and seal is broken. Both reapers in the episode are metafictional. The old man version that Alistair manages to kill is not unlike the reaper that chased Dean in “Faith.”
Both brothers take what Cole has taught them to stop Alistair. Once they are successful and as they try to get back to their bodies, Dean is waylaid by Alistair. As he’s about to be attacked by the demon, Castiel steps behind him and takes him into custody. Dean is then sent back to his body and he wakes up to find Sam already back and Pamela hurt. Since Tessa convinced Cole to come with her, it is too late for Pamela as she is bleeding out. She warns Sam “I can feel what’s inside of you. If you think you have good intentions, think again,” and dies.
Carver pulls out all the stops and dives headfirst into metafiction with “Changing Channels.” The Trickster has returned to teach both brothers a lesson this time. He wants them to accept their roles in the Apocalypse—and his method is to thrust them into as many television shows as he can. The episode has its own mini-sitcom complete with theme song and laugh track. The set for it is colorful with its lime green wall paper. Carver has the Trickster zap Sam and Dean into a hospital with soft pop music playing over the story and doctors swirling around the brothers.
It is Dean that figures out where they are. They have been sent to the set of “Dr. Sexy, M.D.” Too bad for the Winchesters, it is no mere set. It is real, and Dean finds out how real when he is shot. They realize this is due to the Trickster, when again, Dean notices that Dr. Sexy is wearing tennis shoes and not his patent boots. The brothers are then sent into a Japanese game show where Sam guesses wrong and is punished brutally with the “Nut Cracker.” He is then turned into the Impala much like KITT from Knight Rider. Both brothers experience a police procedural like CSI Miami, each quipping like Horatio from that show. Sam says about the finding of quarters in the victim’s throat, “Well I say, jack pot,” and Dean about the victim’s belly being slashed, “Well I say no guts, no glory.” Sam is then thrust into a pharmaceutical ad for a herpes treatment. Dean is in the background, but encourages him “to play his role” in which he must admit to having herpes and using the drug “Herpexia.”
The few times Castiel can break through, he informs them that he thinks this can’t possibly be a Trickster. He’s right, and as they arrive with Sam as the car, they trap the Trickster in a ring of holy fire. Carver doesn’t hold back when he reveals the Trickster’s identity as none other than Gabriel. He has been invested in the brothers all this time because he knows their destiny and wants it over with. He informs the brothers, “You sorry sons of bitches. Why do you think you two are the vessels? Think about it. Michael, the big brother, loyal to an absent father. And Lucifer, the little brother, rebellious of daddy’s plan. You were born to this, boys. It’s your destiny. It was always you. As it is in heaven, so it must be on Earth. One brother has to kill the other.”
Carver wields a rapier wit in his dialogue and that is no more apparent in these 15 lines:
15 “Of course I peed myself. Man gets hit by a car, you think he has full control over his bladder? Come on!” Dean in protest to Sam upon hearing about being hit by a car in “Mystery Spot.”
14 “Well, it won’t kill demons by then, but I can promise you it’ll kill you.” Bobby to Dean in “Sin City”
13 “Why are you the boy that hates Christmas?” Dean to Sam in “A Very Supernatural Christmas”
12 “Nothing. It’s just that, uh, well, you know, Mr. Gung Ho Christmas might have to blow away Santa.” Sam to Dean in “A Very Supernatural Christmas”
11 “Right, you’re a mind reader. Cut it out, Sam… Sam! You think you’re funny but you’re being really, really childish! – Sam Winchester wears makeup. Sam Winchester cries his way through sex. Sam Winchester keeps a ruler by the bed and every morning when he wakes up….. Okay, enough!” Sam and Dean together in “Mystery Spot.”
10 “No we were uh, we were actually talking about our feelings. And then our favorite boy bands. Yeah, we were talking a case.” Dean to Sam in “Long Distance Call.”
9 “Sammy, wherever you are – Mom is a babe! I’m going to hell. Again.” Dean, “In the Beginning.”
8 “I enjoyed it, Sam. they took me off the rack, and I tortured souls, and I liked it. All those years; all that pain. Finally getting to deal some out yourself…I didn’t care who they put in front of me, because that pain I felt, that just slipped away. No matter how many people I save, I can’t change that. I can’t fill this hole. Not ever.” Dean to Sam in “Family Remains.”
7 “Boy, three bedrooms, two baths, and one homicide. This place is going to sell like hotcakes.” Dean in “Family Remains”
6 “You can’t run, not from me. I’m inside that angsty little noggin of yours.” Alistair to Dean in “Death Takes a Holiday.”
5 “Yeah, bits and pieces. I mean, angel inside of you, it’s kinda like being chained to a comet.” Jimmy to Sam and Dean in “The Rapture.”
4 “Last time you zapped me someplace, I didn’t poop for a week. We’re driving.” Dean to Castiel in “Free to Be You And Me.”
3 “There are two things I know for certain. One: Bert and Ernie are gay; two: you are not gonna die a virgin, not on my watch.” Dean to Castiel in “Free to Be You and Me.”
2 “Awesome. Another Horseman. Must be Thursday.” Dean in “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.”
1 “That’s the round I mean to put through my skull. Every morning, I look at it. I think, “Maybe today is the day I’ll flip the lights out.” But I don’t do it. I never do it. You know why? Because I promised you I wouldn’t give up!” Bobby to Dean in “Point of No Return.”
Carver manages to blend dark comedy with heartbreak well. His wit and smart dialogue cut to the heart of the show. His grasp of the characters showed through the emotionally impact-full writing in episodes such as “Mystery Spot,” “A Very Supernatural Christmas,” and “Point of No Return.” Carver demonstrated his hand at metafictional writing in “Changing Channels” with skill and humor befitting the episode’s tone—complete with his black comedy flair. Most of all, Carver knows just how to tell a human story with haunting beauty.
Now that Jeremy Carver has returned Supernatural as showrunner, fans can be sure to expect more of his fantastic story telling.
I would be hard pressed to pick my favorite one of his. Mystery Spot, Supernatural Christmas, Free To be You and Me, Point of No Return. Rank as some of my favorites for the entire SERIES. When I first saw Mystery Spot I was afraid it going be cliche reuse of Groundhog Day. But it took was should have been a tired idea and blew it up. I never get tired of watching it. The same goes for the rest of these. Great profile and SO TIMELY.
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it.
I chose Carver for my second profile before the news blew up. He’s my second fave to Edlund. It just happened to be timely. I had it written almost two weeks prior.
I really love his episodes because of his ability to make old new again.
If anything, we’ll at least get to see what he does in new episodes!
I agree with most of your choices except for ITB . Mystery Spot ranks as one of my favourites because Sam was actually treated with sympathy.Pity there was never a genuine follow up to that and the impact to Sam.
I’m glad you liked my take.
Mystery Spot is certainly one of my favorites, too. I think the reason I like it so much is, while it is Sam-centric, it also focuses on the brothers and their relationship.
As for In the Beginning, I think it’s a nice mythological episode that fills in some gaps and gives us the chance to see how they arrived at where they were in that point and time in the story. It is Dean-centric, but much like Mystery Spot, what I love about Carver is he seems to be capable of dividing his attentions between each and not laser focusing in on one or the other.
What I like best about Carver is his efficient use of dialogue while keeping Sam and Dean completely in character. I hope as showrunner, he insists on that (or edits scripts to reflect that) from the other writers.
Not much is said about Sin City, but I loved that episode and thinks it stands right up there with the best of them. The Dean and Casey scenes were terrific and, unlike Garth, I liked quirky Richie and Dean’s concern for the challenged hunter.
You really captured what makes Carver so good at what he does, and I think as showrunner over at Being Human, he kept the story moving forward with each episode. I can’t wait to see him ‘make the old new again’ in S8.
I’m glad you liked my take on Carver.
I think he will bring his smart writing back to the show, and I am looking forward to what direction he’ll take it in once he gets going on it.
I was struck, after rewatching Sin City, how much of that episode is still having impact all these seasons later. He wrote such a snappy and efficient script that we were told what was to come right there—and yet it was cloaked well enough to keep us guessing. I love that.
I do think he’ll be an excellent show runner. I haven’t watched Being Human, but I do hear good things about it.
Sin City! Smart and competent Sam and Dean! Dean knew Casey was a demon before he impregnated her, and Sam wasn’t going to let a little thing like a gun slow him down. Bobby was there to lend an assist, but he wasn’t running the show. And the guest hunter was semi-competent and funny, even if he was outmatched.
Maybe Jeremy Carver will bring back Dean’s amulet..one can hope!!! :))
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Yes it was a great article! Thanks for putting this up! I’m on all it for everything! But I think you missed “The Rapture” , it’s one of my favorites, the part that Jimmy talks about his experience as a vessel of an angel is just heart breaking and I really like the script!
I didn’t k ow so much about carver ans which episodes he wrote, but I’ve got to say he is a genius! Like you said he can mix dark comedy with drama very well , like in changing channels , the first 30 minutes is just fun but at the ending everything just gets damn serious! And about thus episode I really liked the scene where Sam was trapped into impala! That was just funny when he said ” should I honk!?”
I hope be writes more episodes like these in upcoming future because we really need some great and strong scripts.
Thanks. I’m glad you enjoyed my take on our new Show Runner.
I wanted to touch on each season. He did write the Rapture, so he has skill with each character on the show, which is great. I think it’s a fantastic episode, too.
I look forward to anything he might write for the show and the direction he’ll take it in as show runner especially. I think he is so snappy and writes such strong scripts.
I just hope people are enjoying learning about the writers as much as I am.
Well, I don’t keep a close watch on who wrote what episodes, but Jeremy’s hand is in most of my favs so I guess that makes him a fav too. (I can’t watch Mystery Spot, Changing Channels or the Christmas ep too many times.) I had no problem with Sera, but I am really excited to have him taking over for the new season just for the possible change of pace. I suspect it will be a monumental job to turn this steamship in the direction it should go to get to a satisfactory conclusion for at least most people, if not all.
Maybe I should have myself a little viewing party of every ep he ever did then finally run on over to check out Being Human, which I’ve always wanted to watch – but who has time for all these shows, even with Netflix and HuluPlus! 😀
I’m glad you liked my look at Carver.
I’m excited to see just what direction he’ll take the show into, too. I think he’s bright and will have a fresh look after stepping away for a bit.
I also wanna watch Being Human, too. Learning about these writers makes me want to delve into their non SPN work, too. So much stuff, so little time!
I thoughroughly enjoyed that. It just brought back to me all the reasons I love Jeremy Carver. It’s amazing that he was only around for three seasons, considering he wrote some of my favourite episodes. Let’s hope he writes some when he becomes showrunner next season.
Here is my all time favourite quip of his (and yes it’s juvenile, but I always enjoyed a good scatological joke!) : Last time you zapped me someplace, I didn’t poop for a week. We’re driving. I’m laughing even now as I read it!