6.15 The French Mistake

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French mistake promo.jpg
Title The French Mistake
Episode # Season 6, Episode 14
First aired February 25, 2011
Directed by Charles Beeson
Written by Ben Edlund
On IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1627712/
Outline Sam and Dean find themselves on the set of the TV Show Supernatural, with an angelic hitman after them.
Monster Raphael
Virgil
Timeline
Location(s) Vancouver, BC, Canada
[[{{{prevep}}}|« Previous Episode]] | [[{{{nextep}}}|Next Episode »]]

Synopsis

Dean and Sam are doing research at Bobby's House when Balthazar appears. He says that Raphael is aiming to kill all of Castiel's allies and affiliates so he gives them a key and sends them to an alternate reality to keep them out of harm's way. Supposedly, the key opens a door where he has stored the stolen Angelic Weapons of Heaven, which will help Castiel to retain control in Heaven.

When they appear in the alternate reality, Sam and Dean find themselves on the set of "Supernatural"- a show that appears to be about their lives and where everyone mistakes them for the actors Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. They try to contact Castiel, but instead encounter Misha Collins, who plays Castiel on the TV Show. Taking refuge in Jensen's luxurious trailer, they do some research about Jensen and Jared, and Dean is horrified to learn the Jensen was on Days of Our Lives. Dean suggests they try doing the same spell Balthazar did in order to get them back to their own reality.

Discouraged that there are no 'real' saints' bones or other items they need on the set of Bobby's house, Sam and Dean have the actors' driver, Clif Kosterman, take them to Jared's place, which turns out to be a large ostentatious mansion with a tanning bed in the living room and an alpaca in the backyard. Sam and Dean are shocked when Ruby - or rather the actress who plays her - appears and kisses Sam, who she believes to be her husband, Jared. After Genevieve Padalecki heads out to a charity function for the International Otter Adoption Fund, Sam and Dean go online and purchase some saints' bones for rush delivery using Jared's credit cards (they max out at least one). Dean then spends the night on Jared's couch, while Sam alternates between surfing the internet for signs of the supernatural activity and sleeping with Genevieve.

The next morning, Clif drives them to the airport to pick up the rush delivery before taking them back to the set. They have to try and act in a scene which ends badly after many takes, but in between takes, they try and do the spell. When nothing happens, they come to the conclusion that in this reality there is no real supernatural, no magic.

Back on set, the angel hitman Virgil appears and tries to vanquish Dean with his angel powers. He, too, is devoid of powers in this reality, so Sam and Dean are able to take him in a fight and start pummeling him on the set of the Dragon's hideout from Like a Virgin. The rest of the crew intervenes, however, and during the resulting scuffle Virgil pickpockets the key Balthazar gave Sam before running away.

The crew of the show is now suspicious because "Jared" and "Jensen" are behaving out of character. Normally they don't speak to each other, they came in with a mysterious package (the saint's bones) which the crew believes are either drugs or black market organs, and now they've beaten up what everyone thinks is an extra. Director Bob Singer calls showrunner Sera Gamble and suggests that they get Eric Kripke to come to Vancouver and talk to them. Sera reluctantly agrees, although Kripke is sequestered in a cabin writing the script for "Octocobra." Meanwhile, Virgil takes Misha hostage and kills him so he can use his blood to contact Raphael.

Bob confronts Sam and Dean, and they drop the pretense of being Jared and Jensen and tell him that they quit. Dean says that at least in their world they make a difference. They then go back to Jared's house and learn from Genevieve that Misha is dead, so they go to the scene. A witness states that the killer was speaking to "Raphael," and they learn from the relayed conversation that Virgil is trying to get back to their reality. While they wait for him on the set, Dean suggests to Sam that maybe if they get stuck in this reality, Sam's life would be better. But Sam disagrees because back in their world they do matter, and he doesn't like that in this world they aren't even brothers.

Virgil returns on set just as Kripke arrives to speak to them, and the angel goes on a killing spree, killing Eric Kripke, Bob Singer, Kevin Parks, and Lou Bollo before Sam and Dean manage to knock him out and get the key. Just as Sam has the key in hand, Raphael activates the nearby gate between the worlds, and they land back in their own reality.

Raphael - now in a female vessel -demands the key, but Balthazar arrives and reveals that the key and Sam and Dean's journey was all a ruse to distract Raphael. She threatens them, but Castiel arrives and reveals that he now has all the Angelic Weapons. He threatens to kill Raphael, and she leaves. Castiel then returns Sam and Dean to Bobby's house, promising to reveal more of what is happening in Heaven soon.

Characters

Definitions

Music

Quotes

Sam: Should we be killing anybody?

Dean: I don't think so.
Sam: Running?

Dean: Where?
Kevin: We can clean up, reset the window, takes about 95 minutes basically. So we'd have to blow off the scene where they sit on the Impala and talk about their feelings.
Bob: Ha! Right! You answer the hate mail.
Dean: Oh crap. I'm a painted whore.
Dean: Seriously, why would anyone want to watch a show about our lives?
Sam: Well according to the interviewer not many people do.
Sam: I am just saying we landed in some dimension where you're Jensen Ackles and I'm something called a Jared Padalecki
Dean: So what? Now you're Polish?
Dean: I want to go home. I feel like this whole place is bad touching me.
Dean: Misha? Jensen? What's up with the names around here?
Kevin: Misha's celebrity tweet says it's a black market organ thing. I'm betting drugs.
Dean: Raphael? Nice meat suit. Dude looks like a lady.

Trivia & References

The episode title The French Mistake refers to a famous sequence in Mel Brook’s movie Blazing Saddles. At the end of the movie, the action from the movie which is set in the Old West, crashes through a wall (literally breaking the Fourth Wall) onto the set of a musical on the Warner Brothers lot. The song being performed in the musical is called The French Mistake. The term "French Mistake" purportedly refers to a straight guy having a gay sexual encounter he later regrets Source.
The other major meta episodes in the series have been: See Meta Episodes for a discussion of metafiction in Supernatural, and a list of meta references.
Other episodes set in alternate universes are:
Balthazar makes reference to the 1972 movie The Godfather, where the Godfather sends assassins to kill the other Dons. This is played out in the Alternate Universe when Virgil shoots the crew on the TV set.
In the episode real members of the cast and crew of Supernatural are featured – some played by actors while others play themselves (or Bizarro world versions of themeselves)


In his spell to send Sam and Dean into the alternate universe, Balthazar uses Dead Sea brine, lamb's blood and the bones of a lesser saint, which he uses to draw a sigil.
Kevin: We can clean up, reset the window, takes about 95 minutes basically. So we'd have to blow off the scene where they sit on the Impala and talk about their feelings.

Bob: Ha! Right! You answer the hate mail.

When references are made to events in real life like this it is referred to as Lampshade Hanging. Another example is Sam mentioning that not many people watch the show, and of course Misha's tweeting.
Dean: Like bizarro Earth? But instead of bizarro Superman, we get this clown factory?
Bizarro World is a planet from the DC comics universe, where everything is the opposite of how things are on Earth, and it is inhabited by "bizarro" versions of characters including Superman.
When Misha first meets Sam and Dean, thinking they are Jared and Jensen, he recites lines from his script, in the character of Castiel. The lines he recites describe the plot of the meta episode.
Sumag11-217x300.jpg
Dean: Look at these male modelling sons of bitches - nice Blue Steel Sam! Dean is holding up a copy of the Supernatural: Official Magazine - Issue #11 from August 2009. Blue Steel is a signature modeling pose of Derek Zoolander, first referenced by Dean in 2.19 Folsom Prison Blues, and demonstrated by Jared and Jensen on every gag reel, and at numerous conventions.
Sam finds a clip of Jensen when he played Eric Brady in Days Of Our Lives. The clip used in this episode starts at 6.33 in this clip
The studio in the episode is called "KM Motion Picture Studios". At the Salute to Supernatural San Francisco 2011 in January 2011, Clif Kosterman reported that the Supernatural Studios in Burnaby Vancouver had officially been named in honour of late director and producer Kim Manners. Source.
Dean: Dude, we're not even in America.
Supernatural is filmed in Vancouver, Canada. (Except for the Pilot which was filmed in L.A.)
Jared and Genevieve married in real life on February 27, 2010, in Sun Valley, Idaho. The photo on the mantle (next to the alpaca) is an actual wedding photo taken by Kirsten Schultz and featured in an article in Sun Valley magazine.
Mashing up fact and fiction: Jared is an animal lover who has two dogs Harley and Sadie. He has given support to the animal rights group PETA, and A Dog's Life rescue. Jared and Genevieve support the charity 5GYRES which combats ocean pollution, and money raised from auctions at Salute to Supernatural San Francisco 2011 went to it. It is not known whether they have adopted any otters or own an alpaca.
The blue sweater Misha is wearing is also one he wore in his Rhino Puzzle missive here.
The two guys rehearsing a fight scene beside the Impala on the green screen stage, who then broke up the fight between Dean, Sam, and Virgil, were Jared and Jensen's real stunt doubles, Mike and Todd.
Dean: No hell below us, above us only sky.
Dean is quoting the John Lennon song "Imagine."
Dean: Dude looks like a lady.
A reference to the Aerosmith song of the same name.
Misha Collins spent a lot of time on Twitter in the episode, and at one point he tweets "Ola mishamigos! J2 got me good. Really starting to feel like one of the guys." Just to really mess with our mind, the real Misha actually sent that tweet as the line aired in the US east coast run of the episode (Source). Misha Collins and Misha also both tweeted "IMHO j&j had a late one last night. Rotflmfao!" (Source). After both these tweets, Misha then relates, "My phone was stolen and apparently cast into a parallel universe devoid of magic. I've retrieved it. I promise it won't happen again" (Source). All three tweets were retweeted by over 100 people in a matter of hours and then vanished from Misha's twitter feed. A few hours later, they were reposted, but the direct links to the original tweets still work.
The words: #Misha, #metamadness and #kripke all made it into the top ten Trending Topics as the episode went to air.
At Rising Con Spain 2010, Misha Collins expressed the desire for Castiel to have a long crying scene in Season 6 (Source). It's possible that this was the impetuous for Misha's long crying scene with Virgil.
Sera: Eric's supposed to be off in a cabin somewhere writing his next pilot.

Bob: He sold Octocobra? Mother of God they'll buy anything

A shoutout to the SYFY Channel TV movies that feature monster mashups like Sharktopus and Dinocroc.
Bob Singer: I'd like to think that over these years we've grown closer, that you don't think of me as "director Bob" or executive producer "Bob Singer", but as Uncle Bob.

Sam: You're kidding? So the character in the show - Bobby Singer...
Dean: What kind of a douchebag names a character after himself?
Sam: Oh that's not right!

The character of Bobby was named after producer Bob Singer, although the culprit was Kripke. You can see Bob Singer talk about it here.
When Sam and Dean arrive back in Bobby's house in their universe, we see that the window and much of the wall behind them has been obliterated. Like in Blazing Saddles, which this episode gets its name from, they have literally broken the Fourth Wall. At the end Sam checks that the "wall"is solid again - a reassurance to viewers perhaps as well.

Minutiae

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

Promotion

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