Supernatural - "Slumber Party" - Review

Intro

Well I was gone longer than I'd planned. *Shrug* Not much I can do about that really. I had to work on Halloween and then yesterday and also had a friend over to hang out after work. It was my birthday so I figured I'd do something more fun than sit around the house by myself/with my nephew.

I'm currently planning to crank out another three reviews today, all from this week, incidentally. However, I might not get all three due to babysitting and... ya know, stuff.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Supernatural, Season 9, Episode 4: "Slumber Party." If you haven't seen it, I recommend doing so before you read my review. There will be spoilers.

Supernatural - "Slumber Party" - Review

Characters:

• Sam Winchester/Ezekiel - Played by Jared Padalecki. Younger Winchester with an Angel healing him from the inside.
• Dean Winchester - Played by Jensen Ackles. Older Winchester.
• Charlie Bradbury - Played by Felicia Day. The first "Woman" of Letters/Hunter.
• James Haggerty - Played by Gildart Jackson. Man of Letters from the 1930s.
• Peter Jenkins - Played by Andrew Jenkins. Man of Letters from the 1930s.
• Dorothy Baum - Played by Kaniehtiio Horn. Daughter of L. Frank Baum. Hunter.
• Crowley - Played by Mark Sheppard. King of Hell.
• The Wicked Witch of the West - Played by Maya Massar. Yup, that one.

Review:

In a show peppered with extremely strange episodes, "Slumber Party" fits right in with the strangest. I've had a good half a week to attempt to wrap my head around it, but my brain insists on saying "What the hell did I just watch" over and over again. That said, I rather enjoyed this romp of an episode.

The first thing I'd like to talk about/address is the concept of Oz as a real place. This is by no means a new concept. Years ago I checked out an annotated version of The Wizard of Oz from my library. (I highly recommend reading annotated versions of things, it's quite fun.) It contained a massive section at the beginning detailing the history and legacy of the book. I don't remember actually reading the story itself, but I paid a lot of attention to the annotations and such. One of the concepts touched upon was one of inter-dimensional travel via tornadoes and whatnot, like Dorothy mentioned in the episode. I'm not sure exactly where I read up on the concept, but there's more information out there on it than you'd think. Anyway, what I'm trying to say here is that I don't have a problem with the concept of Oz existing alongside the Supernatural universe. I was certainly surprised that it did, but it didn't bug me in the slightest.

I loved the concept of Dorothy as a Hunter. No one could go into Oz, do what she did, and come out on the other side a normal/stable person. She was kind of awesome, though I wish she'd stuck around longer. It would have been fun to see her interacting with the boys and the people of today.

I was extremely excited to see Charlie. What I don't understand, though, is the boys treating her like a piece of glass. Sure she's new and everything, but that's not excuse to be constantly trying to bench her. I like that she saved Dean's life, even if she did die in the process. I don't think it crossed my mind that she was actually dead or would stay dead so the fact that she died was kind of... surreal, I guess. I was not impressed that Dean then had to cover up Ezekiel's existence from everyone afterward. That secret's getting to be annoying, especially since it keeps coming up every episode.

Crowley sort of teaming up with the Wicked Witch was fun. I like that the Witch was stronger than your average baddie and that she had designs on world domination. She made an interesting one-off baddie who gave the boys an excuse to further explore their new home. Speaking of which, I loved the look at the Men of Letters bunker. It was awesome. Kind of reminds me of the underground X-Men complex. I'm not sure I buy into the whole "Same doesn't feel at home in the bunker because he's never really had a home" thing. Sure, he had a point that he's been on the road his entire life, but that seemed kind of forced to me. The bunker's gotta be at least as much home as Bobby's or the cabin was.

Anyway, I'm still reeling from this episode. I know I liked it. I appreciated the references. I enjoyed the characters. I thought the music was strangely upbeat and pulled me out of the episode a couple times. The entire thing together, though, was just weird.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Awwwww... no Cas.
• Dean broke the computer and let loose the witch goo. Good job, idiot.
• Charlie has Supernatural on her tablet, lol.
• Becky reference!
• Me thinks Dorothy has a crush on Charlie.
• Love it when Dean gets all domestic.
• Heaven is your dream life.

Favorite Lines:

"Now heel." - Charlie

"Ding dong, bitches." - Charlie

Housekeeping

Next up, an Arrow review... after a break of doing some daily stuff I didn't do this morning.

Love ya, Jessie