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SpnTitles508ChangingChannelscopy

<place lat="41.166667" lon="-82.223056" width="300" height="200" zoom="6"></place>Changing Channels is the 8th episode of Season 5. It aired on November 5th, 2009.

Synopsis

Sam and Dean are thrown into an alternate universe where they become characters in various TV shows, including a medical series, a Japanese game show, a forensics procedural and a sitcom. Castiel warns them that if they don't find a way out soon, they will become trapped inside forever.

Plot

Sam and Dean investigate a death where a woman swears her husband was killed by the Incredible Hulk. They soon work out that they are dealing with the Trickster, but he manages to lure them into a trap and plant them into a series of TV shows including Dr. Sexy, MD, a hospital drama of which Dean is a fan, a Japanese game show, an ad for Herpexia, and a sitcom.

Castiel manages to appear at one point but is banished. When he reappears, bloodied and bruised, he reveals that he thinks it may be something more powerful than the Trickster - who appears and again banishes him. The Trickster says he is trying to drive home the lesson that they must play their roles as Michael and Lucifer's vessels and finish the apocalypse even though it will destroy the Earth. Dean tries to find out which side the Trickster is on, but he denies he is allied with either Heaven or Hell.

Sam and Dean continue in TV until, during a procedural cop show, they think they spot the Trickster, and they stab him with a stake dipped in blood. But, while it momentarily appears things are back to normal, when Sam appears to have been transformed into the Impala, it is obvious they aren't out. They've merely changed channels again. Finally, acting on a hunch, Dean sets a ring of Holy Oil and entraps the Trickster, who reveals himself to be the Archangel Gabriel. Gabriel reveals he left Heaven and took on his disguise as the Trickster because he couldn't bear his father - God - and his brothers - Lucifer, Michael, and the other angels - fighting. He says that Sam and Dean are destined to be the vessels, because they mirror the relationship between Michael and Lucifer. Dean is like Michael - the loyal son obeying the absent father - and Sam is like Lucifer - the rebellious son. He says it has always been predestined.

Dean gets Gabriel to bring Castiel back, and then they leave after setting off fire sprinklers so that Gabriel will be released.

Major Characters

Featured Supernatural Being

Featured Music

  • "Move You" - Anya Marina
  • "Not A Through Street" - Anya Marina
  • "Something Real" - Renee Stahl
  • "Love To See You Happy (Livin' my Life)" - Robbi Spencer (during Dr Sexy show)
  • "Supernatural Sitcom Theme Song"

Continuity

Notes

  • Antagonist: The Trickster/Gabriel
  • Steve Bacic (Stargate SG-1, Andromeda, Flash Gordon) plays Dr. Sexy in the medical drama.
  • Hiro Kanagawa (Smallville and Caprica) plays the host in the Japanese game show.
  • The medical drama is a parody of Grey's Anatomy, which also shows Thursdays at 9pm on ABC.
  • The Winchester Brothers' sunglasses-fiddling antics and successive one-liners in the crime investigative drama segment parody CSI: Miami's Horatio Caine character to hilarious effect.
  • The last TV show they parodied was the 1982 version of Knight Rider.
  • The repeated use of the word "Doctor" in the Dr. Sexy segment references the 1985 movie Spies Like Us where in one scene, a group of doctors refer to each other as "Doctor."
  • Dean reveal that he hates procedural cop shows because they are all and always the same. 
  • The "ghost character" Dean was referring to in Dr. Sexy, MD was parody of the "ghost character," Denny Duquette in Grey's Anatomy who was portrayed by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the actor who plays the boys' father, John Winchester.

Quotes

[At the start of the episode]
Dean (voice over): "Supernatural is filmed before a live studio audience."
Dean: "I'm gonna need a bigger mouth."
Sitcom Opening Lyrics:
Town to town, two-lane roads
Family biz, two hunting bros -
Living the lie, just to get byyyyyy
As long as we're movin' forward
There's nothing we can't do
Together, we'll face the day
You and I won't run awaaaaay
When the demons come out to plaaaay
Together, we'll face the day!
Sam: "Okay, um, I need a... penknife, some dental floss, a sewing needle, and a fifth of whiskey!" [notices nurses are staring at each other in confusion] "Stat!"
Sam: "So what one are you, Grumpy, Sneezy, or Douchey?"
Gabriel: "Gabriel. They call me Gabriel."
Gabriel: "You do not know my family. What you guys call the Apocalypse, I used to call Sunday dinner!"
Dean: [notices doctor's footwear, slams him against the wall] "You're not Dr. Sexy!"
Dr. Sexy: "You're crazy."
Dean: "Really? Because I swore a part of what makes Dr. Sexy sexy is the fact that he wears cowboy boots. Not tennis shoes!"
Sam: "Yeah, you're not a fan..."
Dean: "It's guilty pleasure!"
Gabriel: [after sending Castiel away] "Relax, he'll live ... Maybe."
Dean: "Calm down? I'm wearing sunglasses at night! You know who does that? No-talent douchebags! I hate this game! I hate that we're in a procedural cop show, and you want to know why? Because I hate procedural cop shows! There's like three hundred of them on television, they're all the freakin' same. It's like, 'ohh, plane crashed here' -- oh SHUT UP!"
[During the CSI spoof]
Dean: "What do we got?"
Forensics guy: "Well, aside from the ligature marks around his neck, he has what appears to be a roll of quarters jammed down his throat."
[Sam and Dean take their sunglasses off]
Sam: "Well I say... 'Jackpot.'"
Forensics guy: [laughs] "Also, there is a stab wound to the lower abdomen."
Dean: [puts his sunglasses back on] "Well I say... 'No Guts, No Glory.'"
[Forensics guy laughs again]
Sam: [also puts sunglasses back on] "Get that guy a... Tums."
Dean: "Gutter ball..."
Sam: "...I have genital herpes."
Castiel: "Hello, Gabriel."
Gabriel: "Hey, bro. How's the search for daddy going? Let me guess: Awful."

External links

IMDB page for this episode

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