To God, or not to God, that is the question.

Greetings friends,

I would like to issue a warning. If you have not watched the 20th episode of the 11th season of the TV show Supernatural titled Don’t Call Me Shurley then this post contains spoilers.

In my opinion Don’t Call Me Shurley is the greatest episode of Supernatural since the fifth season. Every season has its high and lows but it seems like since season five there have been more lows than highs. That is not to say that the show hasn’t been enjoyable, it is still one of my favorite shows on television. Some of Supernatural’s worst episodes are still better than the best episodes of some other shows.

This is the episode that a lot of fans have been waiting for. God has been mostly absent from Supernatural. He may have done a few things here and there such as reviving Sam, Dean, and Castiel multiple times but overall he stays out of the limelight. Even then he never revealed himself. Throughout the show it seems like God kept interfering less and less to the point where some people didn’t even think he really existed. However, this season we introduced to God’s sister The Darkness aka Amara. She had been locked up since the dawn of time by God and Lucifer. The only thing that kept her locked away was the mark of Cain. She was released by Sam and Dean in order to save Dean and she wants revenge against her brother. This episode confirmed a longtime fan theory that Chuck Shurley aka Carver Edlund was indeed God hiding out in plain sight. Prior to this confirmation he had only declared that he was prophet. Enter Metatron, the big bad last season. This episode made me not want to punch Metatron in the face. That is saying something because prior to this episode I had dreams about punching the actual actor in the face. Metatron is one of those characters that you love to hate. However, in traditional Supernatural fashion they decide to add another layer of depth to his character and make him a voice of reason in this episode.

The voice of reason…

God decides he is going to write his autobiography and calls upon the help of his old friend and editor Metatron. It is implied that they both worked together on the Bible. Also, it should be noted that Metatron is currently without his power because it was taken from him because he was being an asshole. He asks God if he is going to restore his power and God says it wouldn’t be a good idea because of the whole asshole thing. This episode gets heavy. The fate of the world is at stake which isn’t uncommon for this show but the aspect that makes a different this time is that it is going to take someone with the power of God to save the world this time. God however does not want to get involved for various reasons such as humanity sucks, his sister is a bitch, and he’s God and can do what he wants. Metatron reads the first draft of the autobiography and tells God that he has left out some very big details.

As a writer and as a human this episode struck many chords within me. It also just goes to show what great writers and storytellers that Supernatural has in its arsenal. Every writer does in fact need a great editor. I enjoyed the fact that God himself requested Metatron to edit his work. I can’t help but wonder if it was God’s intent to sacrifice himself all along. It speaks volumes that he wanted to write one last story before he made his decision. I feel that it is a very strong inspiration and motivator when witnessing a story where a writer is able to tell their story. It is a constant existential fear of mine that I may not get to write or tell all of the stories that I want to tell in the time that I have available to me. It is also apparent throughout the episode that God was struggling with the fact that it may be his last story. He didn’t want his story to end. Even if some of his creation rebelled and turned to evil; it didn’t erase all of his creation that was good, beautiful, and lived their life trying to be best that they could. In the end don’t we all strive to be the best that we can be?

Thank you,

Jake Jeffries