07.22 | RAGING ABE SIMPSON AND HIS GRUMBLING GRANDSON IN "THE CURSE OF THE FLYING HELLFISH"

gsr + being the exception to nick’s rule (because they genuinely enjoy working together sfm)

something is very wrong with me and that's okay 👍

if you could have read the 2012 meta about this jacket my god

Finally reading through my Requiem script and i can't stop staring at the phrase "Mulder as Christ"

i'll always have a soft spot for post-requiem fics written in the summer of 2000 when we truly had no idea how things were going to play out after that absolute mic drop of an episode. writers came up with some wild and wonderful scenarios (lots of which were waaaay better than what actually happened.)

One of my faves is Promises to Keep by Prufrock's Love (which is NOT a straightforward MSR story by any stretch of the imagination and is probably not everyone's cup of tea but it is certainly mine).

For something fluffier there's My Favorite Word by Mish (and the sequel, My Favorite Day.)

And there are hundreds more of them on Gossamer here: http://fluky.gossamer.org/html/postep-07x22-1.html

any other favorites from this crazy time? bonus points if they involve mulder wearing scully's cross when he was abducted. never before had the glisten of a zipper sent a fandom so ablaze.

A wife looking at her husband. You expect me to think that they’re not endgame? Betty is clearly the Modesto girl.

BETTY AND ARCHIE ANDREWS - RIVERDALE 07x22

The Problem with Leviathan

So I finally figured out the problem with season seven's Leviathan story. I always disliked the Leviathan as villains and could never quite put my finger on why. Part of it was the wasted potential--the end of season six promised Lovecraftian horrors (which I always thought was the perfect escalation in a literal post-Biblical Apocalypse) and then... didn't. But unfulfilled promises aside, I never understood why what we did end up with (Soylent Green by way of They Live) bothered me so much. But watching the opening of 07x22 (There Will Be Blood) it finally hit me.

See, in the scene, Dick Roman is doing an interview with a reporter discussing his company's move into corn syrup additives for food. As a viewer, we know this is Bad because we are aware of the Leviathans' plan to turn the entire of the human race into delicious dumb cattle for their consumption. But then it clicked that this has exactly zero impact on the main characters of the show. Let me explain:

The entire narrative of Supernatural up until this point is centered squarely on Sam and Dean. Even the end of the world was actually all about Sam and Dean's relationship. This is a fact, even if you don't bring in Chuck's zany meta-ness in the final season. Sam and Dean are the story. What the Leviathan's are up to, though? Nothing to do with Sam and Dean. It doesn't even have anything to do with their world. The boys live off the grid. They don't care about corporate scheming or government conspiracies. If it weren't specifically for the fact that they eat junk food, nothing the Leviathan's did would have affected them at all at this point. Hell, if the Big Mouths hadn't coincidentally attacked Jody at the beginning of the season, I'm not sure they ever would have found out anything about the Leviathan besides the fact they exist (since they witnessed Cas mpregging them before his "death"). In fact, in the latter half of the season, their investment almost solely hangs on the fact they're pissed Roman killed Bobby. Hell, if Roman hadn't dug up the Leviathan tablet (for reasons that are never explained to us, by the way) the Winchesters would have no way of stopping their plans. Almost everything that happens in this season is because of sheer coincidence.

It's not just that the Leviathan are lame and aren't scary (even though they are in fact lame and not scary), it's the fact that as a monster they don't work in the kind of world that Supernatural had built up in the previous six years. Oh no! And evil species of monsters have infiltrated all strata of society to turn us into hamburgers! How will our heroes deal with this? Uh, they bumble into the answer and solve it by stabbing things, like they always do. The horror in the show, even when it has broad-reaching implications, has always been very personal. Werewolves aren't scary because they eat people, it's because they can be normal people who otherwise live and love just like us. Demons aren't scary because they do shitty things, it's because they show the capacity of all people to become their worst selves. The Leviathan don't reflect the human condition in any way, and their commentary on corporate America doesn't work in a story where the protagonists don't work in regular society. The Leviathan are a warning of the dangers of blindly trusting corporations with our health and safety. But the Winchesters never did that. They're outcasts. They run credit card scams and sleep in abandoned warehouses and no-name hotels. They aren't the intended target, so they don't make good narrative foils.

But Dean eats cheeseburgers, so I guess we gotta stop these bastards before they take over the world!!

I think they usually keep Wilson's involvement at the minimum in episodes with other characters angst, because he would always override it. That's why he was completely absent at the end of s07. That's why they didn't let Wilson know anything in the episode with smallpox quarantine.

If they let him there, he would look at House with those brown eyes, worried, angry, disappointed, scared, everything at once, and House would look at him all sad that he again forced Wilson to witness his life threatening behavior, and- you see this right? Everyone else fade in this thick drama, and they just looked at each other! If Wilson was present in those episodes it would be devastating!

(If Wilson was present in 07x22 instead of Cuddy, oh boy, imagine...)

how, indeed, sara?

This takes place during the Criminal Minds episode of the same name (07x22).

As the team assists Rossi with a guest lecture at a University, they're caught off guard by a young man in the audience with striking golden eyes.

A smirk. He knows what I’m doing, Reid realized. What we’re all doing. Because he’s doing it too; he’s profiling us.

I guess I just don't particularly understand how Berens remains so popular (or at least gets way less criticism vs buckleming) when he's responsible for the creation of Kaia's character and brought back Missouri only to kill her off. Both of these happened in twenty seventeen ffs. This wasn't the 00s! Which, to be clear, this would not have been okay in the 00s either but there was a lot more awareness around the treatment of bipoc characters by the late 10s.

Does the confession mean that much to the fandom that we continue to largely gloss this over?

Please note: I'm not letting everyone else in the writers room off the hook (Dabb & Singer in particular as co-showrunners) since jfc someone should have caught it. But I do think Berens had more independence with creating Kaia's character & story since she would have been on Wayward which he was set to be showrunner on. And tbh I think Wayward getting nixed was a blessing in disguise. If it went ahead in its original incarnation I highly doubt we'd be talking about it the same way. Also? Bringing back Missouri in Wayward as some sort of magical spirit guide to Patience? Get all the way fucked, buddy.

Mary's Big Party (07x22) Outfit 2

LEATHER JACKET ALERT

HEY BB