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'Supernatural' Does 'The Fly' And 'Afterlife With Archie' (But Hey, Felicia Day Is Back!)

By Tori Preston | TV | November 16, 2018 |

By Tori Preston | TV | November 16, 2018 |


supernaturalfeliciaday.jpg

This week, Supernatural split the brothers up to tackle two wildly different yet monstrously fun cases — and in the process finally asked the question, “Gee, what WOULD a happy ending for Charlie Bradbury look like?” Charlie, the hacker-turned-hunter played by Felicia Day, came THIIIIIS CLOSE to getting a happy ending back in season 9 when she crossed over into Oz to take a stroll down the Yellow Brick Road with Dorothy. After her adventures in Oz, Charlie made a few more appearances in our world to help the Winchesters, before doing so finally got her killed. And then last season the boys found an alternate version of her alive and (mostly) well, over in Michael’s Apocalypse world. She, like Bobby and all the other survivors, returned to this world and have been helping the Winchesters hunt monsters. Only Alt-Charlie is kind of over it.

Sam meets up with Alt-Charlie in Tennessee, where she’s on the trail of a Muska — some sort of creepy man/fly hybrid. It seems they are very rare and mostly keep to themselves, thought every once in awhile one will fail to find a mate… and instead, it will leave its community and head into town to start building weird, gooey nests out of human bodies. Which I think makes him the human/fly monster version of an Incel? I love this damn show so much, y’all.

Their “hunt” mostly consists of Alt-Charlie and Sam researching the texts and looking bored in a truck (nerds gonna nerd!) while they wait for a lead — and in the meantime, they have a chance to catch up. What’s new with Charlie? Oh, not much. Just her desire to quit hunting and move to a mountain top with no people (but good wifi, natch). Turns out that Alt-Charlie’s life in the other world was pretty similar to our Charlie’s, with one difference: She found love. And in the early days of Michael and Lucifer’s war, when society started to break down, her girlfriend was killed. So now she’s sorta over society, angels, demons, and hunting. Sam wants to talk her out of it, but then they spot an OBVIOUSLY NO-GOOD dude wearing a black beekeeper hat. Gee, what do you think he’s trying to hide? If you guessed “A Giant Fly Face,” you are absolutely correct.

Beating the Muska turns out to be a surprisingly easy (albeit gooey) affair, but that’s OK — really, this entire case is just a way for Sam to compare Alt-Charlie to the Muska, and point out that sometimes leaving your community behind really isn’t the best plan (human body nests notwithstanding). Besides, hunting matters — and saving lives means other people don’t lose their loved ones the way she did. Sammy’s really getting good at pep talks (even if Charlie was less than impressed by being compared to a human fly). Now we just have to see if Alt-Charlie can survive her association with the Winchesters better than her counterpart did — and maybe even find a bit of happiness in the process?

I’ll admit, I thought the Alt-Charlie/Fly case would take up the majority of the episode, considering how much play it got in the promos. But really, it played second fiddle to Dean’s adventures with Jack. Those two take up a case in Nebraska, where a lonely, romance-novel obsessed librarian named Harper seems to have really bad luck finding love. In that all her suitors wind up bitten to death by… something. Is Harper a demon? A monster? Is she cursed? Well, that’s what they need to find out. And along the way, Jack may learn a thing or two about love. Or at least sex.

The exchanges between Jack and Dean in this episode are priceless. First, Dean has a plan to get closer to Harper by playing on her romance novel obsession — only to have Jack jump in and call him an “old man,” thus becoming Harper’s knight in shining armor himself. And I don’t know what’s funnier: The show finally acknowledging that their central heartthrobs are getting a bit long in the tooth, or Dean’s face when he realizes that people think he’s old.

Don’t worry, Dean. You’re aging JUST FINE, BOO. Anyway, Harper takes Jack back to her apartment (IT’S JUST TO GET A BOOK, GAWD, GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER), and after Jack confirms she’s not a monster, she asks him if he believes in love at first sight. And then he asks to use her bathroom.

Which leads to second best conversation between Jack and Dean, as they compare notes over the phone. Dean tries to convince Jack that she’s not really in love with him — but just in case she is, Jack really needs Dean to explain sex to him, alright? But before things can get any more awkward, Dean gets attacked — and winds up bursting into Harper’s apartment with her zombie high school boyfriend in hot pursuit.

Turns out that Harper really didn’t want to leave town after graduation, and since she couldn’t convince her first love to stay with her… she killed him. Then resurrected him, because she’s a necromancer. Duh. So now she’s making out with a dead teenager in a varsity jacket, which I think is mostly just an over-involved set up for a bit of corporate synergy… because Dean definitely calls him “Archie” while trying to fend him off. I dunno if Riverdale will ever go full “Afterlife With Archie” but at least Supernatural’s got them covered!

Basically, Harper and her zombie boyfriend have a pretty effed-up game they play, wherein she hits on guys and then he eats them. For fun! And also sustenance, because he’s a flesh-eating undead dude. But Jack continues to try and play with Harper’s emotions, offering her the one thing dating a dead guy can’t: the hope for a happy future, with a husband and kids. You know, an actual romance. And it seems to have worked, because even though Dean and Jack manage to destroy the zombie, Harper escapes… and seems intent on stalking Jack. In order to kill him, and then resurrect him. It’s like this chick doesn’t even UNDERSTAND love or something.

So it was a super fun episode! Charlie probably isn’t quitting, and Dean is going to tell Sam how good Jack is out in the field. We got flies and goo and some bad romance, and everything worked out just fine. Until the very end, when Jack coughs up blood and passes out in front of Dean. UH OHHHHHH…



Header Image Source: CW