Episode 4.12 Criss Angel Is a Douchebag

SPN Georg

Disclaimer: I have no idea what kind of person the actual Criss Angel is, but the dollar store version of him in this episode is most definitely a douchebag. They don’t let us forget! It’s like this episode was written to test the network censor’s last nerve over how many times they could say “douchebag” in a single episode. :’D

Sometimes when I’m editing an episode, I have to stop and debate whether or not to go back and add a clarification or expand on something I said, and I’m still genuinely turning this one over in my head. I didn’t add anything, but hooboy, I kinda want to. Specifically, pointing out how anvil-heavy some of the conversations between Jay and Charlie are-- not just to Sam’s situation in s4 with Ruby and his guilt in s5 (and even later... think 8.23 and his confession, that he always felt like he was letting Dean down), but to so much of the Brother Drama that drives a large part of the series. His guilt and his own feelings of failure so often drives him to make irrationally terrible decisions.

I’m not letting Dean off the hook on that one. I mean, his feelings of failure over Sam’s death in 2.21 have been driving this plot for the last two seasons. And he will make objectively terrible decisions in the future, like taking on the Mark of Cain, saying yes to Michael, etc. But his choices are so often motivated by his personal feelings of failure, his personal depression and feelings of worthlessness, while Sam’s are motivated almost entirely by his feeling that he has failed DEAN. There’s a difference.

Anyway, I can’t really figure how to add a conversation about all of this without totally derailing the chat about THIS episode specifically, so I just crammed the little notification here and hopefully listeners will be ready to pick up on it between what I did say out loud. :’D

Supplemental material for this week’s episode is kinda light anyway:

The Superwiki page for this episode

My tag for this episode

But mostly these two rewatch notes posts: one and two

The CW promo video for this episode

The Network Arena for this episode (the arena being a short outline of the episode presented to the network for approval before writing even begins. In this case, it’s about a page and a half of text. in the same document is the original idea for 4.14 as well… which we’ll discuss when we get there)

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