9.18 Meta Fiction

Title	Meta Fiction
Episode #	Season 9, Episode 18
First aired	April 15, 2014
Directed by	Thomas J. Wright
Written by	Robbie Thompson
On IMDB	Meta Fiction
Outline
Monster	Metatron Gadreel
Timeline
Location(s)
[[{{{prevep}}}|« Previous Episode]] | [[{{{nextep}}}|Next Episode »]]

Characters

• Sam Winchester
• Dean Winchester
• Castiel
• Metatron
• Gadreel
• Gabriel
• Ian
• Hannah

Definitions

• Angel Lore
• Angel Sword
• Angel Trap
• Angel Tablet
• Angelic Weapon
• Archangels
• Binding Link
• The Bunker
• Casa Erotica
• Castiel's Pimpmobile
• Devil's Trap
• The Horn of Gabriel
• Grace
• Holy Oil
• Mark of Cain
• Meta Episodes
• Spells
• The Supernatural Books
• Title Card

Music

• "Fanfare-Rondeau" by Jean-Joseph Mouret

(plays while Metatron is talking about writing stories)

• "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" by Frankie Valli

(plays over the closing montage)

Quotes

Metatron: What makes a story work? It is the plot, the characters, the text? The subtext? And who gives a story meaning? Is it the writer? Or you? Tonight, I thought I would tell you a little story and let you decide.

Castiel: What's honorable about a miniature bar in a motel room?
Dean: Everything.

Gabriel: I used most of my juice to get back into porn. That came out wrong. So did that!

Castiel: I'm just a soldier.

Gabriel: Bitch, please. You've been God more often than dad has.

Castiel: Look how that turned out.

Gadreel: I have been you Sam Winchester. Your insides reek of shame and weakness.

Dean: Word around the campfire is you let the snake into the Garden. Ruined it for all of humanity.

Gadreel: I set them free. I loved humanity!

Dean: Well, you sure got a funny way of showing it, asshat.

Sam: Dean! Dean -- hey, are you okay?
Dean: Yeah, you gotta stop asking me that.

[after being trapped in a ring of holy fire]
Metatron: Either of you bring s'mores? Holy fire always gives them a delightful minty aftertaste.

Gadreel: How did your play turn out?
Metatron: It didn't quite turn out as I planned, but that is why we rewrite. That was God's problem, you know. He published the first draft. You gotta... keep at it 'til you get all your ducks in a row.

Metatron: What writer doesn’t love a good twist? My job is to set up interesting characters and see where they lead me. The byproduct of having well-drawn characters is they may surprise you. But I know something they don't know - the ending. How I get there doesn't matter as long as everybody plays their part.

Trivia & References

Metafiction in a TV show (or book or other text) occurs when the show, or a character, demonstrates they are aware of their own fictional nature. See our entry on Meta Episodes for the use of this device in other Supernatural episodes.

Live tweets from writer Robbie Thompson during the east coast feed. Live tweets from writer Robbie Thompson, the cast and crew during the west coast feed.

Ian: We've got some off the menu items, but this ain't Diagon Alley, man.

Diagon Alley is a wizarding alley in the Harry Potter 'verse where students go to buy their supplies for Hogwarts.

Ian: Griffin feathers, huh? Not exactly looking to trip the light fantastic are we?

"To trip the light fantastic" is to dance nimbly or lightly.

Castiel: So you faked your own death?

Gabriel: And I assume you weren't let into Mensa while I was gone?

Mensa is a society for people with high IQs.

Gabriel: Look, I dropped. I hid. I finally watched Downton Abbey.

Downton Abbey is a popular British period drama that airs as part of Masterpiece Classic on PBS in the United States.

Gabriel later admits to never having seen Downton Abbey, saying he only said he did to fit in.

Castiel: What do you want from me?

Gabriel: Your help, Columbo. I'm getting the band back together. We're going on the "Kill Metatron" tour, and your looking at the new frontman.

Columbo was a fictional detective in the eponymous TV series, renowned for his investigative skills and rumpled trenchcoat. I'm getting the band back together is a quote by from "Joliet" Jake Blues in the movie The Blues Brothers.

Castiel: So you've been back for months? What have you seen out there?

Gabriel: After it was raining winged men, hallelujah?

"It's raining men, hallelujah" is the chorus line from the 1982 song "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls.

Metatron: Yes. This is the curious incident, eh Inspector Gregory?

Castiel: Who?
Metatron: Inspector Gregory? Sherlock Holmes? Silver Blaze? You have been around since scaly things crawled out of the muck, would it have killed you to pick up a book? Watch a movie?

Inspector Gregory refers to Inspector G. Lestrade, though his first name is never revealed in the short stories, the BBC series Sherlock has given him the first name Greg. "Silver Blaze" is a short story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and collected in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

Metatron: Here, I know it's a bit of a retcon, but it's going to make this whole conversation a lot easier.

Retcon stands for retroactive continuity, and is used to reframe previously established facts or events in works of fiction. An example in Supernatural is the revelation of the Trickster as Gabriel in season 5.

Metatron: I just gave you every book, movie and TV show I have consumed in the last couple of millennia. Now do you understand that the universe is made up of stories, not atoms.

Castiel: I understand that that's a quote by Muriel Rukeyser

Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist. She was best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. The above quote comes from the poem The Speed of Darkness, first published in 1968. The actual quote is "The universe is made of stories, not of atoms."

Castiel: What are you talking about?

Metatron: Hannah and her sisters? I set all that up.

Hannah and Her Sisters is a 1986 film by Woody Allen. Writer Robbie Thomspon admitted he named the angel Hannah just so he could make this joke.

Dean: All right, what if there is a stairway to Heaven? We find it and get a drop on the guy.

"Stairway to Heaven" is a song by Led Zeppelin, appearing on their untitled fourth album, known as Led Zeppelin IV.

Sam: You wanna sneak up on the Death Star and take out the Emperor.

The Death Star is a space station and superweapon appearing in Star Wars and Return of the Jedi. The Emperor refers to Emperor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Empire in the Star Wars film series.

Minutiae

The three week break between this episode and the last one was been dubbed #ShowerHellatus by fans on Twitter because of the images of Dean in the shower in the promo for the episode. Watch it here.

Metatron gave Castiel all of his knowledge of books, movies, and television shows from the last two millennia. Thus Cas now understands pop culture references.

The two copies of the Supernatural books/Winchester Gospels on Metatron's desk were A Very Supernatural Christmas and Tall Tales, with Tall Tales being the book he tosses into the fire. 2.15 Tall Tales is also the episode where the Trickster makes his first appearance.

The statue on the table next to Castiel in Metatron's study appears to be of an impala.

Erica Carroll who played Hannah, previously appeared as a nurse in 1.12 Faith and a young mother in 1.18 Something Wicked.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

• 9.18 Meta Fiction (transcript)

Promotion

• Synopsis
• Promo
• Sneak peek
• Promo pics at ksitetv