LARPing the SUPERNATURAL Way

Episode 811 “LARP and the Real Girl”

As per usual, I have mixed feelings about this episode. Fortunately, the good far outweighed the bad this week as the Winchesters hit their old stride and comedic pacing that originally made the show a success.

Things I liked:

• Felicia Day is always totes adorbs and very likable, and her return to the show as Charlie Bradbury but yet kind of not Charlie Bradbury was a lot of fun in a lot of ways.
• Some of the LARP costumes, props and tents were very nice.
• Dean totally getting into the whole LARPing thing. You would think that with all the real world crazy stuff he sees on a daily basis, he wouldn’t need an escapist fantasy, he would need things to be very normal and plain as an escape. To the contrary, the whole scenario seems to be perfect for his personality type.
• Dean pulling a real gun and firing off a real shot to prove he means business. Badass.
• The real world repercussions of Dean pulling a real gun and pointing it at real people. Oops.

Things I didn’t like:

• How incredibly lame/stupid they made LARP/SCA people look. Anyone who has participated in LARPs was just spit on. Anyone who hasn’t been in them comes away with the idea that it’s nothing but a bunch of maladaptive halfwits running around in the woods in giant Spock ears saying ridiculous things in bad British accents. Except that one hot girl at the computer.
• Charlie being VERY lesbian LOOK EVERYONE how very LESBIAN she is being every five minutes, including making a pass at that one hot girl at the computer. Give it a rest, writers, geez.
• The very lightweight overall storyline that was pretty predictable.

Considering that Supernatural has also lampooned fan conventions in the past, it’s not as if this episode hits uncharted waters by making fun of LARPers, but still. It seems to spit in the faces of a large portion of their fanbase, which is a strange thing considering it was unnecessary to further the storyline.

Ignoring this issue, the episode was fun, humorous, full of eye candy, and relatively interesting. It was a huge breath of fresh air to see Sam and Dean actually having fun together as brothers and taking Castiel’s advice to “stow their crap.” Maybe, just maybe, they’ve moved past some of their issues and grown as people?

There was a little moment where Dean thanked Sam (!) for what he gave up, acknowledging the sacrifice and being a real human being about it (!!) instead of stabbing his brother in the heart with more smartassed jabs and snarky comments. Is it possible that they’ve both finally calmed the hell down and turned into three-dimensional people?

This is the kind of growth I’ve been waiting for since hearing how this season was supposed to be about their relationship as brothers. I hope it continues and that they can truly work together as partners instead of always being at each others throats.

>>>>>

[Official Show Site at CW]    [Previous Episode: “Torn and Frayed”]