Sam and Dean investigate a normal-sounding missing persons case at an all-girls school and, lo and behold, the theater kids are putting on a production of Supernatural. With an all girl cast. The camera corkscrews around to see Sam and Dean’s stunned faces, while we eagerly await more. From the first 10 minutes we could tell the writers had fun with this episode. Self-deprecating humor on their own show and tons of meta moments. This one must have been a blast in the writer’s room. Unlike the know-it-all director of Supernatural: The Musical, I like the occasional meta storyline. Chuck and the Supernatural novels were a fun diversion from the usual mythology of the show. “Fan Fiction” brought it all back. They also brought back ideas and themes I’d been dying to see again. For example: the Tulpa. I have been wondering forever when the Tulpa might come into play again. A monster that exists simply because you believe in it hard enough? The implications were staggering, but the creature hadn’t been brought up again for years. This baddie in Fan Fiction actually didn’t turn out to be a Tulpa (As Sam said, “It’s not a Tulpa”—but now say it in Ah-nold’s accent like in Kindergarten Cop.), but it was nice to have the nod and the red herring to keep things interesting. We got to laugh at the girl’s well-meaning but flawed interpretation of Supernatural, and not just the Winchesters got the good lines. Stage Manager/ Understudy-to-Jody-Mills has the flattest form of humor that just killed me. Oh theater techies—may you never lose your sense of wonder at how stupid people sound when they ask about “strange noises.” Say what you will of meta episodes, but this was a win for me. Funny, homage-y, and introducing a new kind of monster, “Fan Fiction” was a little ray of humorous light in what will likely be an extra dark season of Supernatural.
