4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book
From Super-wiki
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| Title | The Monster At The End Of This Book |
| Episode # | Season 4, Episode 18 |
| First aired | April 2, 2009 |
| Directed by | Mike Rohl |
| Written by | teleplay: Julie Siege; story: Julie Siege and Nancy Weiner |
| On IMDB | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1222604/ |
| Outline | Sam and Dean meet a writer who has visions about their lives. |
| Monster | Lilith |
| Timeline | |
| Location(s) | |
| [[{{{prevep}}}|« Previous Episode]] | [[{{{nextep}}}|Next Episode »]] | |
Contents
Synopsis
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- Castiel
- Chuck Shirley aka Carver Edlund
- Zachariah
- Lilith
Definitions
Music
No rock songs this week, but Dean confirms his two favorite songs are "Ramblin' On" and "Traveling Riverside Blues," both tunes performed by Led Zeppelin. (The latter was originally made famous by Robert Johnson.)
Quotes
Dean: There's actually fans. Not many of them, but still. ... For fans, they sure do complain a lot.
Chuck: I'm a god. A cruel, cruel, capricious god. The things I put you through. The physical beatings alone!
Castiel: (to Dean about Chuck) You should have seen Luke.
Dean: Behave yourself, would you? No homework, watch some porn.
Chuck: What am I supposed to do?
Zachariah: What you always do. Write.
Zachariah: What you always do. Write.
Trivia & References
The title of this episode is a reference to the Sesame Street tie-in book The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover. The book features Grover trying to stop the reader from reaching the end of the book, where he knows there is a monster. Finally, the monster at the end of the book is Grover himself.
The boys use the aliases of FBI Agents DeYoung and Shaw. Dennis DeYoung and Tommy Shaw are members of the rock band Styx.
The title sequence for the episode featured a montage of images from covers of the Supernatural books featured in the episode and ended with a title card "Supernatural by Carver Edlund."
Dean: Everything is in here, from the racist truck to me having sex. I'm full frontal in here, dude.
The book Dean is reading relates the events of 1.13 Route 666.
The book Dean is reading relates the events of 1.13 Route 666.
The idea of Supernatural being a fictional construct is an example of breaking the fourth wall. Many of the references here, e.g., the boys crying a lot, the books having a small readership and the references to the fan base, are of course referring to the TV series.
Carver Edlund, the pen name used by Chuck Shirley, is an amalgam of the names of Supernatural writers Jeremy Carver and Ben Edlund. At one point he asks Sam and Dean if "Phil put them up to it," possibly referring to co-executive producer and director Philip Sgriccia.
The list of book titles matches the list of episode titles up to 2.17 Heart and then skips to 3.04 Sin City and follows the titles of the episodes up to the end of season three.
The now-bankrupt publisher of the Supernatural books was "Flying Wiccan Press: Publishers of Quality Science Fiction and Graphic Novels."
The cover of the Supernatural Book features a character strikingly similar to Fabio, who became famous as a model on the cover of romance novels.
Dean: Although Sympatico says the demon storylines are trite, cliched and overall craptastic...
Sympatico is the name of a poster on the Television Without Pity message boards.
Sympatico is the name of a poster on the Television Without Pity message boards.
In Chuck Shirley's house there are framed copies of the covers of the real Supernatural Comics Origins 3 and Origins 4.
Dean: There's Sam Girls and Dean Girls and...What's a slash fan?
Sam: As in Sam slash Dean together.
Dean: Like together, together? They do know we are brothers right?
Sam: Doesn't seem to matter.
Dean: Well that's just sick!
Sam Girls and Dean Girls are fans dedicated to one or other of the brothers.
Slash fanfiction is stories written by fans depicting characters in a same-sex romantic and/or sexual relationship. In the Supernatural fandom, Sam/Dean is known as Wincest.Sam and Dean reveal their anti-possession tattoos to the publisher to demonstrate they are real fans, and she reveals her own. In an interview with Firefox News in March 2008 Sera Gamble said "I'll be convinced we're truly a cult hit when a fan gets the same tattoo." Many fans already had!
Chuck: It's very Vonnegut.
Dean: Slaughterhouse Five-Vonnegut or Cat's Cradle-Vonnegut?
Sam: What?
Chuck: It's Kilgore Trout-Vonnegut. I wrote myself into it. I wrote myself, in my house, confronted by my characters.
Kurt Vonnegut was an American writer. In his book Breakfast of Champions, he wrote himself into the book, as well as a recurring character called Kilgore Trout (a science fiction writer based on the real writer Theodore Sturgeon), who confronts the author character.
When an author writes her/himself into a story, it is known as self-insertion. A particular form of this in fanfction is the Mary Sue.Chuck referred to his book about the "ghost ship" (3.06 Red Sky At Morning) as "simply bad writing." Eric Kripke himself said that the episode in question was one of their weaker episodes of Season 3 in the Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 3.
Lilith is possessing a dental hygienist from Bloomington, Indiana.
Waitress: Well if you like burgers, Oprah's girlfriend says we have the best burgers in the mid-west.
A reference to the controversy when farmers sued Oprah for saying she wouldn't eat beef for fear of getting Mad Cow Disease.
A reference to the controversy when farmers sued Oprah for saying she wouldn't eat beef for fear of getting Mad Cow Disease.
Dean: I don't care what you do. Use the magic fingers or watch Casa Erotica on pay per view.
Casa Erotica was the porn Sam watched in 2.04 Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.
Casa Erotica was the porn Sam watched in 2.04 Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.
Minutiae
Sam's LSAT score was 174.
The comic book store was called Golden Comics.
The diner was called Kripke's Hollow, possibly a reference to Stars Hollow, the fictional town in Gilmore Girls, one of Jared's first big roles.
The actress who played Chuck Shirley's publisher was Keegan Connor Tracy, previous seen on the show as Karen Giles, who was interviewed and murdered in 2.07 The Usual Suspects.
