The Boys are back! Beware there are spoilers in my recaps and reviews.

Recap

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Balthazar appears at Bobby’s house while Sam and Dean are working on some research. He frantically gathers up a few things (including a bone of a saint and some lamb’s blood… which Bobby just so happened to have on hand) and puts the mixture on the window, explaining that Raphael is hot on his tail and trying to wipe out all of Castiel’s allies. Giving the boys the key which unlocks Angel Weapons ‘R’ Us, he ships them off to an alternate reality – as angels tend to do – where Sam and Dean are two actors named Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles on some TV show called Supernatural.

On the set, they run into Castiel… only to find out that it’s some actor named Misha who is very fond of tweeting. They hide out in Jensen’s super fancy trailer to figure out what the hell is going on and find out who they’re supposed to be in this reality. Sam finds a YouTube video of Jensen’s earlier work on Days of Our Lives which horrifies both of them. Dean thinks that if they do the same spell as Balthazar, they can return to their own reality; unfortunately, everything on set is fake. They’re taken back to Jared’s swanky mansion where they find an alpaca in the backyard and that Jared is married to who they think is Ruby, but in reality is actually Genevieve Cortese. While she’s out, the boys take advantage of their new found wealth and order what they need off of the internet which they pick up at the airport the next morning.

Much like in “Changing Channels”, the boys have to just play their parts until they can make a break for it… and play their parts they do, albeit very badly. Sam and Dean may be good liars, but they aren’t good actors. They attempt the spell without any luck and come to the conclusion that in this alternate reality – everything is fake, including angel powers and spells. In the meantime, the assassin Raphael sent after them makes it through and tracks down the boys. Without his powers, they’re able to attack him until the crew intervenes. Virgil, said angelic assassin, manages to snake the key from Sam’s pocket in the fight. The commotion and “Jared and Jensen’s” strange behavior causes rumors on set of the boys being involved in a drug ring or possibly worse. The producers put in a call to this season’s show runner, Sera Gamble, and they decide to bring the creator, Eric Kripke back to the set to get this all sorted. Misha is kidnapped and killed by Virgil when he contacts Raphael.

Some good comes out of “the attractive crying man’s” death, the homeless guy who overheard Raphael and Virgil’s conversation is able to tell Sam and Dean that Virgil is trying to get back to their dimension. When Virgil returns to set, he takes out a good number of the crew, including Kripke (who was just in fact, Kripke’d on his own show). Sam and Dean catch up with him, knocking him out and taking they key before getting yanked back to reality by Raphael (who is now in the body of a woman). Balthazar arrives shortly after and reveals that the key he had given the boys was a fake and the entire reality switch was just a diversion. Angry at being tricked, Raphael threatens to kill Balthazar and the boys, but n dramatic, BAMFy Castiel fashion, he arrives and tells Raphael that he has Heaven’s arsenal now. After Raphael vanishes, Castiel tells the boys that he will fill them in on what’s going on Upstairs.
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Review

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SO MUCH META! I loved it. I’m a big fan of the previous alternate-reality episodes, like “Changing Channels” and “It’s a Terrible Life”, as well as the regular universe episode when the boys found out about the Supernatural books and fanfic. A lot of people were squicked out at the idea of this episode for various reasons, some even being pissed off that Genevieve was making an appearance as herself, and while I can see why, I never was weirded out in the least. I was excited, especially after seeing the trailer, and the episode did deliver lots of cracky meta awesomeness. As for the whole Genevieve thing – the reason she was on there was not because she was Jared’s actual wife, not entirely, but because she was on the show as Ruby and we all remember what Ruby did, right? Obviously Sam and Dean seeing her again would make for a funny scene and it did. And I thought she was really funny in the episode. Misha was fantastic with his ugly sweater, tweeting (which did appear on his Twitter account last night) and crying. Though I was surprised we didn’t catch him doing yoga or something, perhaps it will be in the outtakes. Ben Edlund basically took all the rumors about the show and ran with them in this episode and pulled it off in a very hilarious way. Even the title, which was a song in Blazing Saddles, was most likely a bit of a wink to the gay rumors about the actors. Also that whole clip from Days of Our Lives and Jared’s cowboy picture? PRICELESS.

The angels were completely fantastic in this episode as well and I’m quite fond of Raphael’s new vessel. Balthazar was his usual awesome self and geeking out over The Godfather (so many pop culture references this season, I love it!) and Castiel showing up with his wings was BAD.ASS. I’m curious to see what has been going on in Heaven. I’d like to see an episode that features it first hand, but I’m not too sure it will happen. I loved the Terminator!Virgil scene in the gun store and the subsequent slow motion, dramatic death scene on set. Of course, the boys choosing their reality over the alternate one where Heaven nor Hell existed and they weren’t even talking to each other had me aww-ing with my hands clasped over my heart. That’s pretty much what these AU episodes do – reinforce the fact that the boys, despite all the bullshit they go through, will always choose their lives over any reality angels or djinn can toss them into.

Check back in again next week for another recap and review :)

“The French Mistake” is available now on iTunes and Amazon.
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Image Credit: Kaidi @ Fanpop.