Supernatural: Scoobynatural (13x16)

I can't believe how good this was.

Cons:

So... the Dean and Daphne thing. I know a lot of people were really grossed out because apparently Daphne is supposed to be sixteen. For my money, I'll tell you that as someone who never watched any of the cartoon, I had no idea what age they were all supposed to be. They're sort of... ageless. Stuck forever in the same animated stage of their lives. But, hey, if she's sixteen, then she's sixteen, whether I was aware of it or not. So. Yeah. That's creepy. But even beyond that aspect of it, I just didn't find Dean's constant flirting to be all that compelling. I really liked the stuff where he was in competition with Fred, but I didn't think that competition had to be so centered on wanting to get the girl. It just didn't lead to any laughs for me, and was a bit cringe-y.

Pros:

Literally I was so scared for this episode. I was terrified it was going to be an awkward, cringe-worthy flop. But from the very first moments, even before they become animated, I could tell this was going to be one of the instant comedy classics of Supernatural's long reign. I loved the opening scenes, with the seemingly possessed giant stuffed dinosaur. What an absurd image. There was this great moment when Dean said something kind of stupid and Sam gave him the patented bitch face and I thought... ah yes. Here were are.

The animation was excellent. The detail, the motion, all of the meta jokes (the newspaper has no words, the books are all painted into the background except for the one that Dean needs to pull out), the way Sam, Dean, and Cas are all animated not only to look like their live-action selves, but also to move like them? Excellent.

As I said, I've never really watched the cartoon, but I know enough through osmosis to pick up on a lot of the references being made. I loved the part where they all did the classic running-around bit, with the theme song playing, and everybody popping out of different doors. So great. And Fred's plans never working, and Velma being the pragmatic one, and Scooby and Shaggy always hiding from danger. The real brilliance of the episode comes in the way it breaks down slowly over time. The Scooby gang stays pure for a good chunk of the episode, but when real people start showing up actually dead, and when they start getting actually injured, Sam, Dean, and Cas are forced to tell them the truth. I loved the fact that Shaggy actually broke his arm and was just totally flabbergasted by that, because he just fell out of a window. He's done so many outrageous things and never suffered any actual physical consequences before! Watching the Scooby gang have a nervous breakdown was everything I never knew I needed, but of course the Winchesters are there to buck up their spirits.

Sam and Dean had such interesting reactions to being transported into this cartoon world. Dean is obviously elated, and as often happens when Dean shows unrestrained enthusiasm for something, Sam is there to be a bit of a downer about it. I love the fact that when it gets down to it, Sam reveals that he remembers details from episodes of Scooby-Doo as well, and he's able to help Dean bolster everybody's spirits so they can win the day. Suddenly, the gang is adapting their tried and true methods to catch a real ghost instead of just a guy wearing a mask, and it's a glorious fusion of these two worlds. I love the fact that while Sam can be a bit jaded, he's actually mostly on board with the plan of not corrupting the Scooby gang. He knows this is important to Dean, and by the end he's willing to join in on the fun.

Another great element of this episode is the resolution - I always love it when we can see the Winchesters helping the "monsters" as much as they help the humans. In this case, the ghost is a scared little kid who has been forced to hurt people by an evil real estate developer back in the real world. Sam and Dean enlist the ghost's help to trick the Scooby gang into thinking that the whole thing was just a guy in a mask, so their innocence won't be ruined, and then the ghost sends them back to their live-action world. They are able to set the ghost free, and get rid of the evil real estate developer by catching him on tax evasion. I love the fact that the throw-away line from Velma about it always being shady real estate developers ends up being true, and how much delight Dean gets from that fact.

We should also talk about Cas. He was wholly unnecessary to this episode, but absolutely delightful in it. I'm so glad. Apparently, he was off getting fruit from the tree of life (the one hint we got of A-plot in this episode) when he returned to the bunker to find Sam and Dean animated on the TV. He gets sucked in as well, and from there he adds so much comic relief. While Dean is paired up mostly with Fred and Daphne, and Sam is paired with Velma, Cas ends up with Scooby and Shaggy, and it delights me to no end. I loved his delivery on: "Sam, Dean, this dog is talking," and the way that by the end of the episode he has really grown fond of them. I'm just really pleased that they decided to include Cas in a concept episode like this. Most of the time, these types of C-plot comedy episodes are a brothers-only affair, but Misha Collins is hilarious, and he deserves to be a part of something like this.

So... there you have it! This episode was, against all odds, actually quite the success! I wasn't sure what I thought was going to happen, but what I got was absolutely delightful.

9/10