Points to the geniuses who decided that a Supernatural/Scooby-Doo crossover was a good idea, and even more points to whomever green lit this thing. It was all the goodness of both shows, tied up in a lovely, CW/Warner Bros. bow.

I grew up watching Scooby-Doo, and I guess it was full of shady real estate developers! And until I watched this episode of Supernatural, I didn’t see how similar the two shows really are.

It’s a perfect fit!!

Fans of Supernatural have come to expect the show to do out-of-the-box, unconventional episodes, at least once a year. And while some shows might do a bottle episode, or try to crack the code of a musical episode to try and jazz things up from time to time, the great minds who run Supernatural have made an art out of shaking things up, and doing it well. This wasn’t just some stunt, it was a genuine, honest-to-goodness episode of a show that has pushed the boundaries over and over, and refuses to just phone it in.

It’s times like these that make the SPN Family proud.

With no pretense, or the usual THEN or NOW title cards, the show opens in the middle of a fight to the death between the beautiful Winchesters, and a giant, green, stuffed dinosaur, in the middle of a grungy pawn shop. Once the beast is set on fire with a little holy oil, the shop owner offers anything they want as a reward. Dean is all about snagging a TV, while Sam is not convinced that what they just killed was the end of that.

Back in the bunker, Sam is researching, and Dean is nesting, setting up a swingin’ Dean Cave, including matching recliners, an all vinyl jukebox, and a spot set aside for a Kegerator to come! Dean is ready to finally turn on his prize of a TV, with his brother at his side, and in a purple flash, Sam and Dean Winchester are animated!

They get in Baby – also animated!, and find themselves in front of a Malt Shop, where the Mystery Machine is parked. Dean realizes that they are in a Scooby Doo cartoon and once Dean sees the Scooby gang, the shenanigans ensue. Dean gets to eat a sandwich twice the size his head; he gets to make a move on Daphne (who is deft at sidestepping his every lame-ass move); Baby gets to race the Mystery Machine; and the Winchester version of a talking dog, Castiel, gets sucked in too.

Let’s take a moment to enjoy Castiel’s story as he enters the bunker with an armload of fruit from the Tree of Life. He is clearly happy to have helped the boys, yet again, and is fairly sure he is now married to the Queen of the Jinn. Oh my god, that is hilarious. Then he gets sucked into the TV, because what would “Scoobynatural” be without Castiel?

So, Cas has been following the boys in this strange land, and manages to catch up with them just as the Scooby mystery gets started. And when everyone splits up to search the haunted house, Castiel ends up with Scooby and Shaggy, Dean calls Daphne, which means Fred is coming too, and Sam and Velma head to the attic.

LOTS OF SHENANIGANS

(It has been a crazy week for me. I’d love to recap every single piece of joy that this episode brought us, but I just don’t have the time.)

After finding a couple of actual bodies (not dummies full of corn syrup), Sam and Dean realize that this is an actual haunting, with real death and real ghosts. Dean is insistent that they shield the Scooby’s from the real awful of the world, including the fact that he would take a bullet for that talking dog.

But the show being the show, the truth eventually comes out, and it sends the Scooby gang into a spiral of doom and nervous breakdowns heretofore unseen on a Scooby Doo cartoon. Fred, who only wants to spend his days doing good, is the most distraught at his wasted life, pounding his head against a tree while wailing about vampires and the like.

I totally guffawed.

Dean rallies the troops, and even gets Fred to set up one of his patented traps that never work. Well, it trapped Cas, Shaggy and Scooby, but not the phantom that they are chasing. But Dean has a plan B, which works like a charm, trapping the phantom in a huge salt circle in the basement of the mansion.

Once the Winchesters suss out what’s really going on (creepy ghost kid!), they come up with a plan to get back to the real world, and to let the Scoobies go back to living in world full of psychopathic real estate developers in masks, but not real monsters.

Once our boys get back to the bunker, they free the ghost kid, and head right on back to that pawn shop, and nab the bad guy, who happens to be a shady real estate developer!!!

That, my friends, is literary symmetry working for ya, right there.

Stray thoughts:

• The Scooby running montage with the cartoon theme song was perfection, and even included a cameo of Scrappy Doo, the infuriatingly awful nephew that my generation hated, but I have come to learn that the generations after me weren’t nearly as hateful of the tiny pup.

• When finding out about Colonel Sanders at the Malt Shop, Fred mentions that the Colonel died from cancer. It is the first thing in the show that gives us a heads up that this won’t be your usual episode of Scooby Doo. No one on Scooby Doo talks about cancer!
• Everybody gets to say their signature line after they find the first body, including “Jinkies!”, “Zoinks!”, “Ruh-roh!”, and Dean’s “Son of a bitch!”.
• The book in the bookcase that is a different color/animation than the rest of the books! When we were kids, we would always get excited when we noticed the odd book in the bookcases! Nice touch.
• Dean waxing about watching Scooby-Doo as a child was sweet, as was his insistence that the Scooby gang stay pure. (Even though he did everything he could to not be pure with Daphne.)
• Velma’s obsession with Sam’s broad shoulders.
• Sam saying that the Trickster is dead, and Dean responding with a “Or is he?” We know that answer to that, don’t we?
• Castiel’s tie is the blue and white striped one from last season. They got a lot right, but that was one, albeit tiny, mistake, as Castiel’s tie this season is a solid blue. THAT’S FINE. 🙂

All in all, an excellent episode of Supernatural, AND, along with all the fun, had the wherewithal to include Cas getting one of the ingredients the boys need to cast their spell to rescue Mary and Jack!

NEXT!

Asmodeus, Mr. Ketch, and the Winchesters opening locks, or something!