Episode 3.05 Bedtime Stories

This little MotW episode weirdly encapsulates the entire overarching metanarrative of Supernatural in miniature, and isn’t that incredible? A little girl’s spirit using fairy tales that bleed over into reality, manipulating people-- sometimes directly, but the Winchesters specifically because of who they are and can’t abide the suffering of others when they are able to step in and fix things-- through the retelling of those stories for her own reasons.

Does this make Chuck’s involvement and meddling in reality a desperate cry for help? Because it kinda looks that way. When paralleled to Callie in this episode, using the only stories she has to tell her own story, to speak her own truth and hope that someone will understand her, it’s hard not to see it that way. Only Chuck’s story he constantly sought validation over was built of his own history and actions, and not (as Chuck complained a lot in deflection of responsibility for the consequences of his actions) something that was done *to* him.

Still, an interesting thought exercise that really does encompass my personal understanding of Chuck’s narrative.

Oh, plus direct parallels through fairy tales to Sam and Dean’s current character situations, too. And a cute lil frog.

Things referenced in this week’s episode:

The Superwiki Page for this episode

My tag for this episode

Including these specific posts:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/186338460140/i-think-its-really-interesting-how-in-3x05-dean (kissing frogs as metaphor)
https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185523476045/305-bedtime-stories-the-dark-side-of-fairy (the hand of Chuck in this episode)
https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/164973039730/trisscar368-spn-3x05-bedtime-stories-is-a (a kindly cabbage breaks down the frog prince fairy tale for us)

Casting Sides for Dr. Garrison

Casting Sides for the crossroads demon

Storyboard drawings for the cold open scene (if you check out nothing else, please take two minutes to enjoy this fascinating look behind the scenes of crafting an episode!)

Bonus: In this episode we also learn Sam is not a skilled artiste (with thanks to shirtlesssammy for this incredibly accurate screencap... also go read all their episode summaries, they’re all posted now and going up on ao3 as well!):

And as mentioned at the very end of the episode, Saturday is A More Profound Con! It will be a series of zoom panels with fic writers, fan artists, and meta writers (including lil ol’ me!). Registration is free and open right here, where you can also see the schedule and panelists. You can also follow the con on Twitter for more info. We hope to see you there!

---

Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spngeorg/support