Plot

Dean and Sam are thrown into an alternate universe by the Trickster where they are characters in different TV series.

Sam and Dean catch up with the Trickster, who sends them through a dizzying montage of TV show parodies, inviting them to play along with their "roles" or be stuck in "TV Land" forever. But once Castiel shows up, the boys get an idea as to what the Trickster might be hiding and eventually come up with a surprising answer.—sudokode

Dean and Sam come to Ohio and out of the blue, they find that they are trapped in TV land by the Trickster. The powerful being explains to them that they need to participate in the TV show parodies; otherwise they will be stranded in TV Land for the rest of their lives. When Castiel comes to the show, the Winchester's brothers believe that the Trickster might not be who they think he is.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

If you're reading this, odds are you know what happened THEN. So let's jump right into the NOW and give the blow-by-blow on what could be the funniest episode of the season.

Open on a bright, sunny shot of the Sun 'N Sands, this week's motel of choice. Cheeseball, '80s sitcom music greets us along with a voice which says, "'Supernatural' is filmed in front of a live studio audience."

The "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" scenario gets weirder. The interior shows us a hap-hap-happy color palette of white, lime green and blue, as Dean (Jensen Ackles) puts something back in the fridge and turns around to face a towering Dagwood Bumstead-style sandwich on the table. The "studio audience" applauds and hoots, then pauses to allow Dean to quip, "I'm gonna need a bigger mouth!" Cue the laughter again.

Sam (Jared Padalecki) enters the room. More applause and woo-girl hooting. Dean asks Sam what's going on, and he cornily replies. "Oh nothing, just the end of the world!" HAHAHAHA! Seeing the sandwich: "You're going to need a bigger mouth." HAHAHAHA. He asks Dean if he's done any research, and Dean says, yes, all kinds, all night. The door opens and a hot girl in a bikini emerges. Woo-woo-woo! She tells Dean they have more research to do. Sam chides, "Dean..." Dean utters his catchphrase: "Sonuvabitch!"

Then the "Full House"-style theme song: "Town to town, two lane roads/ Family biz, two hunting bros/Living the life, just to get by-ay-ay/As long as we're moving forward/ There's nothing we can't do!/ Together, we'll face the day..." And so it goes. This plays over scenes of Dean and Sam hilariously backing into each other, finding ghosts in cabinets, riding a tandem bike, mopeds, etc. It's a comically hideous homage to the Hardy Boys, Scooby Doo, and ABC's "TGIF" block of bad late '80s sitcoms.

Dateline: Wellington, Ohio. Two Days Earlier

As sensitive guitar music plays, a male doctor gets on an elevator with a female doctor in scrubs. An ethereal, wispy voice begins to sing as the doors close, and the pair make out. The shot pulls back to reveal we're watching the show Dean, dressed in his FBI get-up, is watching on his motel room television: "Dr. Sexy M.D." Sam catches him gazing at it intently and asks Dean when he got menopause. "It's called channel surfing," Dean growls. They gear up and move out, to...

The local police station to ask about the death of an area man whose head was ripped off. The officer doesn't understand why the FBI is interested in a bear attack. Dean replies he's curious as to how often bears chase men through the woods, smash through their front doors, follow them upstairs and kill them in their bedrooms. Sam asks to talk to the wife.

In a back room, Dean and Sam ask the wife, Kathy Rudolph (Sarah-Jane Redmond), what happened. She says she saw a bear. When the boys press her on the issue, she says, "Well, it's impossible, but...I could have sworn I saw...the Incredible Hulk."

Dean gently asks, "Bana or Norton?"

"Oh no, those movies were terrible," she tells them. "The TV Hulk." Lou Ferrigno.

Dean asks if there would be any reason Lou Ferrigno would have a grudge against Mr. Randolph. She says no.

Later, after Sam checks out the house (he found a Hulk-sized hole) Dean tells Sam he discovered Mr. Randolph had quite the temper and was rather abusive.

A hothead getting killed by TV's greatest hothead...makes sense, Sam says. He pulls a wad of candy wrappers out of his pocket.

Just desserts, a sweet tooth, screwing with people before killing them..."We're dealing with The Trickster, aren't we?" says Dean. "Good. Been wanting to gank that mother since Mystery Spot." Sam asks if Dean's sure he wants to kill him, wondering if they can't talk to him, see if they can't get him on their side.

Sam reasons Trickster (Richard Speight Jr.) is a grade-A Hugh Hefner style hedonist who likes wine, women, and song...maybe he doesn't want the party to end. Perhaps he'll help.

Dean says, "You're serious? Ally with the Trickster? A bloody, violent monster, and you want to be Facebook friends with him? Nice, Sam."

Sam reminds Dean it's the end of the world, and the time for a moral stand is over.

Dean sits and whittles a stake as they listen to the police band on the radio. A call comes in for a possible murder by an old paper mill. The officer on the scene says he can't even begin to describe what he's seeing. Sounds weird enough to investigate.

Sam and Dean roll up on the paper mill, oddly devoid of activity, law-enforcement or otherwise. They smell a trap, and pull stakes and flashlights out of the Impala's trunk. Properly cowboyed up, they open the door to the warehouse and dart in to find...

The hallway of a very familiar looking hospital. Sensitive guitar music plays, and attractive nurses mill around. Weirder still, they're both wearing lab coats. An especially attractive woman in scrubs walks up to Sam and greets him with, "Doctor..." Then she slaps him. "Seriously? Seriously? You're brilliant, you know that? And a coward. You're a brilliant coward."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asks, and she slaps him again. "As if you don't know!" she says with a wavering voice, and storms off.

Dean can't believe it. That was Dr. Ellen Piccolo (Christine Chatelain) the sexy yet earnest doctor at -- Dean looks at the logo on the wall -- Seattle Mercy Hospital. Dean smiles. They're in "Dr. Sexy, M.D.!"

Dean: "Dude. What the hell. No, seriously...what the hell." He asks Sam for a theory, and all Sam can come up with is Trickster trapped them in TV Land.

Except there would be crew members and actors and craft service. This feels real. He remarks upon the sighting of the sexy arrogant heart surgeon Dr. Wang, as well as Johnny Drake, a ghost who's only alive in the mind of another sexy doctor. Sam teases Dean for betraying his absolute fandom for this very girlie tearjerker soap.

Then Dean becomes flustered because walking up the hall toward them is none other than...Dr. Sexy (Steve Bacic) himself! Dr. Sexy comes over to the two of them. They exchange the appropriate greetings. "Doctor?" "Doctor." "Doctor?" "Doctor."

As dark piano music swells in the background, Dr. Sexy tersely asks Dean why he defied his direct order to give a patient an experimental face transplant. Dean stalls for a moment, looking down, then forces Dr. Sexy up against the wall, holding him by the throat. "You're not Dr. Sexy," Dean whispers accusingly, citing the fact Dr. Sexy always wears cowboy boots, not tennis shoes.

"Yeah..." Sam says. "You're not a fan."

"It's a guilty pleasure," Dean admits. Oh Dean. Dean, Dean, Dean. Get a hold of your bonbons.

But wait...turns out he's right. The scene suddenly freezes, except for Sam, Dean, and Sexy...or should we say, the Trickster. Tricky pushes Dean away from him without much of a problem, and celebrates the fact he's created his own personal idiot box. Sam asks him if they can talk. The Trickster isn't very interested, but agrees to hear them out if they survive the next 24 hours of the game.

What game? Oh, the one they're currently playing. Dean asks what the rules are, and the Trickster smiles and disappears in a blink of static. Seattle Mercy comes back to life around them. Dean congratulates Sam on his spectacular plan to reason with the Trickster, and they head down the hall, trying to figure a way out. Before that happens, however, Dr. Ellen Piccolo, comes up to Sam and pulls the brilliant coward routine on him again. Sam tells her he's not actually a doctor, and Ellen Piccolo gasps.

Cue the sensitive guitar.

"Don't say that! You are the finest cerebro-vascular-neurosurgeon I have ever met. And I have met plenty. So that girl died on your table. It wasn't your fault! It wasn't anybody's fault! Sometimes people just die."

"I have no idea what you're saying to me," Sam replies.

"You're afraid," Ellen Piccolo gasps. "You're afraid to operate again...and you're afraid to love!" She runs off weeping. Dean rolls his eyes.

"...Yeah. We're getting out of here," Sam finishes.

They walk past a man who tells Dean his wife needs the experimental face transplant, and Dean tells him, in so many words, to shove it. As they're walking away, the man produces a pistol and shoots Dean in the back. The bullet's real, and Dean hits the floor. Sam calls for a doctor...and the scene cuts to the O.R., with Dean face down on an operating table, staring at the floor. Sam is standing over him in O.R. scrubs, sponging at the wound with gauze. A nurse is handing him a blade, and the rest of the attendings are waiting for his orders. Dean tells Sam to do something. Sam points out, he has no idea how to work with any of the tools.

Dean commands him to figure it out.

"OK, um...I need a pen knife, some dental floss, a sewing needle...and a fifth of whiskey. Stat!" A drum roll cues up a montage, and sexy music begins. Sam sews up Dean with his field surgery tools and a few ounces of liquid courage. The operation is a success! From outside the O.R. a teary Ellen Piccolo waves at him and mouths, "I love you." Both the boys are confused...but it gets even more bizarre when Dean shuts his eyes and opens them to find himself, and Sam, on the set of a Japanese game show!

A host (Hiro Kanagawa) in a shiny silver suit emerges from a pair of sliding doors and informs them, in an enthusiastic blast of Japanese, it's time to play (he says this part in English): Nutcracker!!!!

Sam and Dean are each on their own podiums with a red buzzer at arm's length, their feet strapped into ski boots, and what seems to be a ball on a stick nestled into the floor.

The host continues to speak in excited Japanese, then asks Sam his first question, which we see in subtitles. "What was the name of the demon you chose over your own brother?"

Sam tells the guy he doesn't understand what he's saying. The host repeats the question. A clock counts down, then a buzzer. The host gives the answer: Ruby.

He says in English, "I'm sorry, Sam Winchester." "Sorry for what?" Sam asks. Then he host covers his mouth impishly as the ball on a stick swings up to hit Sam in his package. They show it again and again in super slo-mo. Now we know why the show is called Nutcracker. Sam can barely speak.

The host strolls over to one of his lovely assistants, who asks him to discuss the nutritious shrimp chips she's holding.

Suddenly the sliding door behind them opens to reveal -- Castiel (Misha Collins)? He tells the guys they've been missing for days. Dean begs him to get them out of there. Cas moves to teleport both of them, but before he can touch Sam and Dean he, too, disappears in a blink of static. Strange.

The host tells Sam and Dean that Mr. Trickster does not like pretty boy angels, and continues with the game. He asks Dean this time, "Would your Mother and Father still be alive if your brother was never born?" The clock counts. Dean begins freaking out until Sam realizes what they're supposed to do: Play their roles. Dean can't believe it, since he can't speak Japanese, but he buzzes in anyway. The host is surprised. Dean says, in more or less perfect Japanese, "The answer is...yes?" He cringes at what he thinks will be a blinding mechanical nut-punch...but, no! He's Nutcracker Champion.

Apparently all they have to do is play their roles to survive. But for how long? Let's contemplate that over a commercial break...

There's a scene of a woman doing yoga by a serene lake. She freezes in an odd pose and tells the camera, "I've got genital herpes."

Cut to an elderly man on a couch. "I've got genital herpes."

Cut to a bunch of guys playing basketball on a sunny day. A young man -- wait, it's Sam! -- walks up to the camera and says, wincing "...Seriously?"

Dean runs up and whispers, "You're the one who said play our roles, so..." he points at the camera. Sam sighs and haltingly coughs up, "I've...got...genital herpes."

Yoga woman in lotus pose: "I tried to be responsible."

Old man, gazing at his wife: "Boy, did I try."

Sam, cringing: "But now, I take twice-daily Herpexia to reduce my chances of passing it on."

Dean's voiceover lists the possible side effects: Headache, diarrhea, permanent erectile dysfunction, thoughts of suicide, and nausea.

Sam gets the finale: "I'm doing all I can to slightly lessen the spread of...of...uh, genital herpes. And that's a good thing." He tightly grins. Then comes the real commercial break.

"We now return to 'Supernatural.'" And we now return to the bad sitcom. Sam leads the girl out of the room to inappropriate hooting and applause. Dean asks how long they have to keep doing this. "Maybe forever?" Sam says, and the audience laughs. "We might die in here." The audience laughs harder.

Suddenly Castiel bursts through the door (OOOOOH! goes the studio audience) sporting a bloody nose. The guys ask where he was zapped to, but there isn't time. He informs the Winchesters they may not be dealing with the Trickster, since it seems to have powers far beyond what it should.

Then something flings Cas against the wall, and into the room comes the Trickster, accompanied by a burst of applause. Cas stands up and is gagged with duct tape. The Trickster waves his hand. Cas disappears again. Dean tells him they get it, the game is playing their roles. The Trickster replies that's only half the game They need to play their roles in the real world. Dean needs to become Michael, and Sam needs to say yes to Lucifer. "Your celebrity death match! Play your roles...let's light this candle!"

Sam reminds him if they do that, the world will end, and the Trickster smacks back by reminding him of whose fault that was. His take is if it's all going to end, let's just get it over with.

Dean asks which side he's on, Heaven or Hell. The Trickster smiles and says he's on nobody's side. "Yeah, right," Dean says. "You're grabbing ankle for Michael or Lucifer. Which one is it?"

The Trickster appears slightly irritated but insists he doesn't work for either of those S.O.B.s.

"Aw, you're somebody's bitch," Dean insists. Trickster become enraged and shoves Dean against the wall. "Don't you ever...EVER presume to know what I am."

The Trickster informs them their only choice is to play the roles destiny has chosen for them, or they'll stay in TV land forever.

"Three hundred channels, and there's nothing on," The Trickster says with a smile. With a snap of his fingers, Dean and Sam are wearing black blazers and blue shirts, wearing sunglasses at night. They've been zapped into a "CSI:Miami" clone. Dean almost loses it, because he hates cop procedurals. Then Sam notices one of the no-name officers standing around a body is sucking on a lollipop. He formulates a plan.

They slide on their sunglasses, bad electric guitar riffs rumbling behind them, and head over to the body. The man on the scene explains the victim had a roll of quarters shoved down his throat, "Well," Sam says, imitating David Caruso, by removing his shades, "I say...jackpot." He puts them back on. The officer then points to a stab wound in the guy's stomach, "And I say, no guts, no glory!" Dean pipes in. The lollipop guy giggles. Dean and Sam keep on spouting idiotic one-liners, and the guy keeps laughing, so much he doesn't notice Dean sneaking up behind him with a stake. He runs the guy through -- we even get the "CSI-style" internal shot of the wood piercing the heart -- and the poor idiot drops his lolly, spits up blood and dies. Nearby, a beat cop starts laughing and transforms into the Trickster.

"You got the wrong guy!" he boasts.

"Did we?" Dean asks. Because...Sam gets the drop on the Trickster, running him though with a stake. The "CSI" world disappears, and they're back in the warehouse.

Back at the motel -- their real, dingy one -- Dean brushes his teeth and voices his worry about what the Trickster did to Cas. But he says it to an empty room. Sam has mysteriously disappeared. As he's walking out to the Impala, he tries to get Sam on his cell, but it goes to voicemail. Dean gets into the driver's seat, and suddenly Sam calls to him. From inside the car. Because...Sam is the car.

They're now in their version of "Knight Rider."

After the cheesy theme song runs its course, Dean asks Sam why the stake didn't work. Sam concludes, based on what Cas mentioned before he was zapped out, they're not dealing with a Trickster. He also points out the Trickster became angry at the mention of Michael and Lucifer. Dean suddenly realizes what they're dealing with.

He parks Sam -- er, the car, and rifles for something in the trunk (which Sam finds uncomfortable). Then he steps in front of the car and yells, apparently to no one, they give up. "Uncle!" Dean screams. "We'll do it." "Should I honk?" Sam says.

But the Trickster appears. He asks the boys if they're ready to go quietly, but Dean insists he change Sam back before they go. With a snap of his fingers, Sam returns to his form. Dean asks why the stake didn't kill him. "I am the Trickster," the guy answers.

Or, Dean theorizes, maybe he's not. Sam lights his zippo and throws it on the ground, where it ignites a circle of fire. The Trickster, laughing, insists they're wrong. Dean calls his bluff, informing him if they are, he can just jump out of the circle of holy fire. The Trickster grins, snaps his fingers. The facade fades again, bringing them back to the warehouse once more. This time for real.

He congratulates Sam and Dean and asks what he got wrong. Dean replies he didn't but based on how he got the jump on Castiel, and how he talked about Armageddon, Michael and Lucifer, they acted on a hunch. "Call it personal experience, but nobody gets that angry unless they're talking about their own family," Dean says.

Sam asks which one he is. The Trickster reveals he's actually Gabriel.

Sam asks how he became a Trickster, and Gabriel explains it was his own private Witness Protection Program. Dean asks about what God had to say about his son hanging out with pagans, and Gabriel replies coldly, "Daddy doesn't say anything about anything."

Sam presses him, asking why he ditched. Dean pipes in he understands, since his family is full of douche-nozzles...which enrages Gabriel.

Gabriel explains he loved his family and his Father, but he couldn't stand watching them tear at each other. So he left. And now it's happening all over again.

Sam asks him to help them stop it. Gabriel tells them he doesn't want it to be stopped. He just wants it all to be over.

"What you guys call the Apocalypse, I used to call Sunday dinner!" Gabriel yells. "That's why there's no stopping this, because this isn't about a war. This is about two brothers who loved each other and betrayed each other." He adds they should be able to relate.

"Why do you think you two are the vessels? Think about it," Gabriel says. "Michael, the big brother, loyal to an absent father. Lucifer, the younger brother. Rebellious of daddy's plan. You were born to this, boys. It's your destiny. It was always you. As it is in Heaven, so must it be on Earth. One brother has to kill the other. Why do you think I've always taken such an interest in you? Because from the moment dad flipped on lights around here, we knew it was all going to end with you. Always."

Dean considers this for a moment, then tells him that's not going to happen. "I'm sorry," Gabriel says, "but it is."

He says he wishes this were a TV show, with easy answers and ending wrapped in a bow, but it's real and it's going to end bloody for everyone.

Dean commands Gabriel to bring back Castiel or they'll burn him with holy oil. Gabriel snaps his fingers and Cas returns. Gabriel asks how the search for daddy's going, then adds..."Let me guess: Awful."

They turn to leave. Gabriel anxiously asks if they're going to leave him in the circle forever. Dean tells him no, because they don't screw with people.

"And for the record," Dean adds. "This isn't about some prize fight between your brothers or some destiny that can't be stopped. This is about you being too afraid to stand up to your family." Dean hits a switch, and the warehouse's overhead sprinkler turns on, dousing the flames. Gabriel has a curious expression on his face.

"Don't say I never did anything for you," Dean yells, and he walks out the door.

As they head out to the car, Dean tells Sam that right about now, he wishes they were back on a TV show. "Yeah, me too," Sam says.The three of them jump into the Impala.