SUPERNATURAL Recap: Guess Who God is?

Season 11, Episode 20 “Don’t Call Me Shurley”
Directed By Robert Singer
Written By Robbie Thompson

And the first two guesses don’t count. I’ll bet the “I told ya so’s” from the fandom can be heard all the way to Heaven.

He’s wearing a Chuck (Rob Benedict) suit, of course, but presumably it’s been God all along. There are two storylines going on here: the first is the encounter between God and, of all angels, Metatron (Curtis Armstrong), and the second is Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) caught in a Stephen King/John Carpenter movie. Depends on which one you’ve seen, but they are definitely being threatened by the fog.

Metatron has sunk to the lowest point of his short life as a human. He is dumpster diving for food. He finds a bit of pastrami, but the Toto-like dog with him begs for it, and he gives him the meat out of it. I don’t know why he didn’t give him the bread; the dog would have loved that, too. He can’t find any more food in the dumpster and throw his hands up in despair, saying he gives up! Instantly he, and the dog, are transported to a bar. He meets Chuck, who convinces him he is God. He sees his true form. He asks about the amulet that is supposed to glow in the presence of God, but did not glow in the presence of Chuck. Chuck/God produces it, says you’d never believe where it’s been all this time, and says he turned it off. He turns it on and it glows.

Meanwhile, in the bunker, Dean is ironing a shirt and sprinkles the beer that he is drinking on it. This is a dreadful idea and will make the shirt stink to high Heaven. It’s of course not his shirt, but Sam’s, who yells at him about it. Dean and Sam go to a random killing in Idaho, in the hopes that it is a demon possession or a person without a soul.

The episode long encounter between Metatron and God at the bar serves several purposes. It lets us get to know God as God, instead of as Chuck. It shows the redemption of Metatron. And it shows the conflict between whether humanity should handle things on its own or with divine intervention.

Metatron does several things in this episode to redeem himself. He gives the only food he finds to the dog. He admits he’s been an ass, when he asks God if he’s going to destroy him. He gives God good honest feedback as an editor, when he could have been a flattering sycophant. God is writing his memoirs and asks his opinion. He gives it even after God says he was chosen for scribe because he was closest to the door, and not at all special. After all, he’s spent a good deal of time learning his business. He admits that the reason he took over as God was as a plea for attention, because he has been lonely without God’s presence. He keeps asking God for information about Amara at every opportunity. But mostly, he pleads for humanity, and says that they are better than God.

God is one of those people who has all the drive and desire to create but none of the talent. He also doesn’t have the ability to look at what he is writing objectively. Metatron makes him face up to his creative dishonesty. He’s inclined to let Amara wipe out the world and start over. He said that’s what nature does. (No creative design here, folks. You start nature going and it takes care of itself.) He says that he has helped Sam and Dean. He has saved them, and put Castiel together more times than he can count. He also says that music is our highest achievement. I’m not sure I agree. I’m very fond of other kinds of art. But he’s a god that didn’t learn guitar or French, just gave himself the skill. He also has family problems. He locked Amara (Emily Swallow) away because she kept destroying his creations. I think a lot of people can sympathize with the pesky little sister that knocks down their castle made of LEGOs/Lincoln Logs/blocks.

Sam and Dean find out that the guy who went postal had black veins. The sheriff is glad to have some help. One of the police officers, Deputy Harris (Sonja Bennett) is anxious to get home to her husband because they are newlyweds. Unfortunately the fog gets her and she shoots her husband. She then finds Sam and Dean and gives them a message from Amara. This is the end. She says her brother, God, won’t save them. The sheriff shoots the deputy. The town is engulfed by fog, and they run into the police station. Sam is adorable, by the way, getting a baby out of a car. I know boarding the place up isn’t going to work. Buildings need ventilation. Dean wields a mean duct tape, but the fog gets in through the air conditioner and gets Sam and his veins go black. Rage zombies are at the door. The rest of the refugees go to another room but Dean won’t leave Sam. The fog doesn’t affect Dean but Sam is still a danger to him.

At this point Metatron’s pleading has moved God. He says humans never give up, like God does. This is not true. Some of us do. But we have the wonderful example of Sam and Dean to represent us. God sings a song, “Fare Thee Well”.  Metatron reads the memoirs, which are moving. Dean finds the talisman, which Sam once gave to him, in Sam’s pocket. It glows. The fog lifts. Sam’s veins are normal. People rise from the street, including the dead cop and her husband. Everybody lives. They walk out onto the street with the glowing Talisman and see Chuck. “We need to talk”, he tells them.

Whew. We find out a lot in this episode. Who God is, where he’s been, why he hasn’t helped. That humans have surpassed their creator in many ways. After all, we have souls. Amara appears to be planning to destroy everything but Dean. What a terrible fate for him.

My only real complaint with the episode is that they found out that holy oil helped the evil vein virus in an earlier episode. I’m not sure they had a good chance to try it here, but it should have been tried and shown not to work this time. Maybe it was and I missed it during an overly long bathroom break? This is definitely divine intervention. They weren’t getting out of this one themselves. And as a divine intervention, it was full of warm fuzzies. It was about time.

Also, was God was really swayed by Metatron? Did he need him as editor? Maybe their discussion was all for Metatron’s benefit. He has been on quite the journey of power lost and regained, and of spiritual redemption.

I’m sure that there will be some discomfort from people of various religious persuasions at Supernatural’s less than divine portrayal of God. It’s not possible to satisfy everyone’s idea of God, which is why it’s best not to portray him at all. However, there are other actors who have done it well, such as Morgan Freeman and George Burns. Rob Benedict does a good job too. I’m not sure I’m happy myself  that Chuck is God. I liked him better as Chuck.

Next week Dean is trying to talk God into helping them. I think they plan to rescue Castifer.

Supernatural airs on Wednesdays on the CW at 9pm/8c.