Supernatural's Back To The Future Allusions

                                          
Supernatural is one of those shows that have everything covered, no matter if it's ghosts, demons, angels, or heartbreaking stories of brotherly love and angst.  Yet there's tonnes of pop culture references involved too.  So every now and again we get references to movies, TV shows and one such allusion was to'Back To The Future.

In 4.3 In The Beginning. when Dean (Jensen Ackles) was sent back home and met his 'future' parents and grandparents, there were numerous scenes which were similar to the movie.  On top of that he remarks to Cas (Misha Collins) about whether angels have DeLoreans?  The scene in the bar where he's with Dad and someone shouts out, "hey Winchester!"  Leading both Dean and John to turn around.

5.13 Song Remains The Same  the title was to be Back To The Future II but had to be changed cos there was no approval given for the use.  None the less it was left to Dean to come up with another reference to the movie and once again a DeLorean reference to Cas saying he's like  DeLorean without plutonium.

6.18 Frontierland is riddled with Back To The Future III references when Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean travel back to the Wild West.  With Dean calling himself Clint Eastwood, (Marshall Eastwood) as Marty (Michael J Fox) did too.  Even the letter at the end.  The link below references the movie in my review of the ep, in the penultimate paragraph.

http://mila255.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=supernatural+frontierland

Season 7.12 Time After Time has Back To The Future II references with Biff and Dean says he's "using the Chronos strategy" to bet on races when he already knows the winners.  In the movie Biff Tannen from 2015 gives the younger version of himself in 1955, a sports almanac, knowing the outcomes of the sporting events he becomes filthy rich.
Jim Michaels also worked on this movie.

Dean also resorts to needing some paper as in Back To The Future III.  When Doc Brown is in 1885 he lets Marty knows what's happening by writing a letter and ensuring it's delivered 70 years later. This takes place at the end of the second film, but the letter's contents are revealed until the third.   This is what Samuel Colt did to make sure Sam and Dean get the Phoenix's ashes in Frontierland. Dean's letter is from 5th November 1944 and Marty's letter was dated 5th November 1955.

Supernatural - 6.18: "Frontierland" Review

Supernatural does Westerns as Sam and Dean are transported back to the West to find some Phoenix ash which can be used on Eve. It's a dream come true for Dean.

Sunrise, Wyoming March 5 1861  Two men engage in a showdown and one is Dean (Jensen Ackles) in cowboy attire.   The clock strikes high noon.   The Supernatural opening is similar to Bonanza.

48 Hours earlier  Sam (Jared Padalecki) searches the cellar for books etc for anything to help them with Eve.   Bobby (Jim Beaver) mentions Phoenix and Dean asks, "Is that River, Joaquin or the flaming bird."  "Ashes of the mother can burn the mother."  "...killed a phoenix today and left a pile of flaming ash."  That's from Samuel Colt's journal.   Dean doesn't share the journal and he actually found what they needed too.   So much for Sam being the geek, ha.  "Star Trek IV the bitch," is Dean's suggestion.  "Save the whales, go back in time and hunt the Phoenix."

Obviously no one knows the plot of the film.   Dean knows someone who can do it.   Cas - "I dream of Jeannie your ass down here pronto."  Rachel (Sonya Salomaa) comes instead as Cas (Misha Collins) is busy.  Dean adds they get stuck with Miss Moneypenny.   Yet he didn't fancy her, huh, what's happening with Dean and chicks this season?   She thinks they all only call on Cas when they need him.   Cas arrives and stops her from ranting.  She's his lieutenant.

Cas can only give them 24 hours.   The further back he sends them - the harder it is to bring them back.   Dean went shopping, ha for the whole kitten caboodle.   Dean has a fetish and recites all Clint Eastwood movies.   Bobby asks even the monkey ones.  Sam: "Especially the monkey one."  That's orangutan.   His name's Clyde.   Cas didn't know they wear blankets.   They can use the gold Dean stole form the dragon's lair.    Sam calls Dean "Sundance."  Dean wants to hit on the saloon chicks.   Sam steps in poop.

March 4 1861.   Elias Finch (Matthew John Armstrong) is being hanged.   He declares they will all burn for this.   A man notices Dean's blanket and he becomes self conscious and removes it.   Dean names himself Marshall Eastwood and Sam is Walker, Texas Ranger.   Elkins is meant to be a barkeep at the saloon, as in an ancestor of Daniel? Dean is shocked at the appearance of the saloon chicks!  "This is not awesome."  Sam has sarsaparilla.   Samuel Colt is building a railroad.   Dean: "It's so much more germier than I pictured." Darla makes a move on him and he's saved by the judge (Scott Hylands).   Dean says there's a Phoenix walking around in the form of Finch.   Sam is sent to get the colt.   Dean will put together a posse, he's "a posse magnet."  Sam has to ride a horse.   Dean's into westerns, well we'd never have guessed.   Just like the movies.   Finch returns for the sheriff (Dean Wray).

Rachel doesn't believe what she's hearing and asks if Cas's dirty secret is true.   Cas must defeat Raphael and has no choice.  She attacks him with a knife.   Did she think she could kill Cas?   Cas is wounded and heads for Bobby's, everyone bastion of refuge.   Dean comments on his new hat. "I look good."  There's no posse and Dean's the new sheriff now.   Sam finds Samuel Colt (Sam Hennings) after two demons have paid him a visit wanting the Devil's Gate to be opened.   Dean: "Howdy pilgrim."  The deputy (Gordon Michael Woolvett) is the bait.   Sam tells Samuel to throw holy water on him, he's not a demon and shows Samuel his phone.  He's going to shoot a demon in three hours and shows him the journal.   Sam tells him there's no such thing as a retired hunter.   Samuel's a hero in Sam's time.   Yes but not everyone knows about him.  He calls the colt a curse.   Sam wants it.

Cas can't bring Sam and Dean back cos he's weak.   He needs to touch Bobby's soul for energy.   Cas using the word 'gingerly,'  he needs to do it carefully or Bobby will explode.   Finch is exacting revenge for his wife's killing and wants the deputy.   Dean mentions the iron shackles and bars.   Dean's a hunter/sheriff.   Dean must kill Finch cos he knows what he is.   Finch shoots the deputy but Dean didn't see that coming.

Sam returns with the Colt and they head for the showdown.    Dean manages to dispatch Finch but they stand around and don't bother going for the ashes as Cas brings them back and Dean left the colt behind too.   Cas can't send them back.   Dean: "screwed the pooch."  Sam gets a package from Samuel with the ashes.   It was lying in the post office and it had to be delivered today.   Samuel got Bobby's address from Sam's phone, what would Sam be doing with Bobby's address in his phone.   He'd have his number that's more common since he knows where Bobby lives and why would he want to advertize it.   Dean says they can now take the fight to Eve.   Where was the colt?

A fun filled episode of the show - even if it was meant to be serious in their objective of heading back to the Old West, in the hopes of finding a weapon to use on Eve.   It was also something Dean was excited about, with his love of the West, thus the chick shopping trip for mostly wrong accessories, but he felt satisfied.    Shame then that Dean failed at the end considering he did everything else right: handled the supernatural element of the Phoenix; took him down in the showdown and yet managed to not retrieve any ashes.   Could say the same for Sam - hey he's meant to be more on the ball than Dean, you know, keep his head when Dean was sort of losing his over the thrill of where he was.

Jim Beaver got a line about Deadwood as he was in that.   Perhaps Supernatural took a note out of Deadwood's saloon chick appearance, but not as grotesque.   Cas kills again - this time an old friend and lieutenant of his.   He appears to be hiding plenty and doing an awful lot of killing and other sneaky stuff you wouldn't normally expect to Cas to do.   Granted he's fighting a war and war is dirty and hell, but sometimes wonder why he's really fighting for and why.   Rachel was a friend and he turned on her; so would he do the same as far as Sam and Dean go?   (Just thought I'd mention Anna while I'm at it too. He killed her to stop her from going back and killing Sam and Dean's parents.)  So the outlook for our Winchesters does not bode well with the path Cas is on.   Believe that to Cas, the ends justify the means.

Finally got to meet Samuel Colt and he didn't do much, aside from sussing out Sam's phone and mailing the parcel.   Considering Dean was coveting his journal at the beginning, thought he would've wanted to meet him - okay his love for the West overtook everything, playing sheriff and he fitted into that role - a shame they only had 24 hours to do all this.   Otherwise pretty sure Dean may have accompanied Sam, then again Samuel Colt wasn't really a big hero of his or anything.   Or no one thought of that angle.

Also in the previous episode Cas mentions he can bend time occasionally it's fluid.   Here that's what he does.   However in 4.3 In The Beginning, when he sends Dean home, it's said angels can 'bend' time but not change destinies.   See this in conjunction with the previous episode and the entire continuing argument over determining your own destinies later.

Lots of Back to the Future references and allusions here.   Cas was used to send them back instead of a Delorean and then Back to the Future III when the parcel arrived with the ashes.    However this allusion wasn't a new concept as it was alluded to in the 4.3 In the Beginning episode when Dean went back in time to meet their parents.   The Colt was also left behind in this episode as it was here, and back then it turned out to be in the possession of Daniel Elkins in 1.20 Dead Man's Blood.   Also here Samuel is building the Devil's Gate, located in Wyoming and in the season 2 finale, All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2, they have already been to the gate and had to stop it from opening.

Bobby has watched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Jim's late wife, Cecily Adams had a recurring role in this  from 1997-1999.  Jensen always wanted to make a cowboy movie so this is the closest he's come so far.   Jensen and Jared would make great Butch Cassidy and Sundance in a movie.

Supernatural - 6.19: "Mommy Dearest" Review

Sam and Dean finally get the location of Eve from Lenore, but she's already aware of them coming. Crowley is revealed to be alive still, casting doubts on Cas's honesty.

 Eve (Julia Maxwell) touches a man from the bar and when she goes in, one notices the blood on her dress.   She kisses him giving him a gift and infects everyone.   A rabid fight breaks out as they all attack each other and she watches.   Dean (Jensen Ackles) prepares bullets containing ash: enough for 5 shells.   Bobby (Jim Beaver) comments the lore states ash should work and it doesn't do anything to Dean...  trust him to try it, well he's human so it wouldn't affect him.   Dean tells Cas (Misha Collins) to "get out of my ass."  Cas: "I was never in your..."  Eve is hidden from angels.   Sam (Jared Padalecki) believes a vampire could help.   Cas brings Lenore (Amber Benson) to them.   Last seen in season 2, she was just brought in to be finished off like a loose end.

Sam tells her he lopped off Gordon's head when he became a vampire himself.   She has nothing to say about Eve and warns them to stay away form her.   Her voice is in their heads and her nest began to kill and Eve listens to them even now.   Sam knows Lenore still cares.   Eve is at Grant Pass, Oregon.   Eve will know they're coming.   Lenore wants to be killed which Cas obliges without hesitation, justifying it as being dangerous as she fed on humans and will do it again.   Cas is turning into quite the killing machine, not that he wasn't before but lately he seems to relish it.   Cas: "We needed to move this along."  Like a bad movie.

Grants Pass Oregon.     Dean calls it less Pleasantville, Smithy McSmitherton is on their side, i.e.  Cas.   Sam gives Bobby an ipad for research. He wanted a computer with buttons.   Besides, Bobby's into his books.   Cas can't vanish no matter how hard he tries.   Dean: "Now you just look like you're pooping." (Cos he's got that constipated look on his face, ha.)     Cas is powerless.   Dean: "Without your power, you're just a baby in a trenchcoat."  He's just rolling on out the one liners!  Dean hurt his feelings.   He takes Cas to see Dr Silver who called the CDC about the mysterious illness.   Cas tells his assistant he has a "painful, burning sensation."

Cas asks how long it will take Dean to pick the lock but there's no need to since he finds a DB; a "gooey corpse."  There's no stopping Dean now with his descriptions.   The doctor has two sons.   There's no Impala and Ed's (Nathan Witte) in the house when they meet up with Bobby and Sam.   Cas doesn't have any practice using guns.   Dean again comes up with the hilarious comments of only babies whine.   There are lots of Eds inside.   This one's not Ed, he's Todd (Jason Cermak).

Dean tells Sam he's bathing in Purell and there's his use of gooey again.   You'd think it was an ep of CSI.   They find everyone in the bar, all dead.   Dean finds a vampire wraith.   Eve's making hybrids and Dean gets to name it a Jefferson Starship cos they're "horrible and hard to kill."  The sheriff (Roman Podhora) arrests the three of them and Dean ducks out of sight.   At the station, Sam spots their eyes in the TV and calls them Jefferson Starships.   Sam and Dean find the two sons, Ryan (Griffin Parsons) and Joe (Travis Turner) in the jail and suspect them of being the same Starships too.   But being Sam and Dean and recalling their own life and predicament they garner only sympathy from Sam and Dean, even if it was foolish to trust them.   Dean has to ensure they're human, then again Eve isn't exactly a demon so anything she 'produces' or makes will not show on their tests.   If she's making hybrids nothing will affect them.

Cas needs the two here since millions of lives are at stake, not just two.   Dean insists on saving them.   But they should have listened to Cas this time round, even if they reminded them of each other.   Cas believes they'll find more "wayward orphans" along the way.   Cas asks Bobby for five minutes along with the pig, er sheriff since Cas knows torture tactics, which don't involve him using his power.

Eve is in the diner and Dean says she was there the entire time, a waitress which they didn't notice when she served them.   Sam says they're all Starships.   Dean: "dragons - really and Khan worms."  Eve talks of the arrangement they had.   She turned a few of them and they hunted some , but they were all kidnapped and tortured by Crowley when Samuel was taking them to him.   Dean comments she's using the "mother of the year defence." Eve turns into Mom (Samantha Smith).   She died to protect her sons and Eve demands Crowley to be killed as he's alive.   The souls are power and Eve calls Sam a monkey too.

Dean posits her beings are imploding.   They were actually the children, Ryan was a Starship and Cas was right about him.   They slipped by hunters undetected - like I said too.   Eve calls him a "wayward orphan" just like the phrase Cas used.   Eve makes them an offer, if they find Crowley she'll let them live.   Dean refuses.   Bobby and Cas are also held.   Eve is older than Cas and knows how angels work.   Dean wants her to kill them cos they don't work with monsters, unlike Samuel, who worked with the king of hell.   She can turn them.   Dean had the fifth bullet and says, "bite me."  He drank the ash.   Dean: "call you later mom."  Eve carks it.

Cas gets his power back to smite everyone.   They should take him on more hunts and he cures Dean too.   Crowley's alive but Cas burned his bones and since when does Cas get it wrong? H knows better and vanishes.   Bobby asks how he got away since Cas doesn't make mistakes, he's an angel, unless...Dean refuses to believe he's a traitor and Sam has doubts.   Jefferson Starship's 'Miracles' plays on the jukebox.  Crowley arrives to clean up Cas's messes, but for how long?

That was obvious Cas saying he's an angel and he buried his bones and then he wouldn't have got it wrong if he really wanted to kill Crowley.   That line from Cas about millions compared to two, had an ulterior motive sounding to it.   He needs millions of souls in his war in heaven, so it was a loaded comment from him last episode, 6.18 Frontierland.   It was time for Sam and Dean to bring the fight to Eve and move it up a notch or two.   In a rather hurried attempt to move the story 'arc' along.   Eve it seems, wasn't the formidable foe and wasn't mean to last long as a Supernatural monster.   So much for being the Mother of All.   She turned out weak.   Especially when facing off with Dean who was always one step ahead of her and drank the ash beforehand.  He's becoming very methodical in his thinking - planning ahead.   He'd never be mistaken for one to use foresight.

So much for Eve turning into Mom, which just pissed Dean off even more.   In a way it was good the Eve plot didn't linger too long cos it didn't turn out to be all that interesting in the end.   All that hype and build up, just turned out to be anti-climactic.   She wasn't so much a foil in so much as a distraction in bringing the story foreward alerting them to Crowley being alive - ultimately to the realization they may have a traitor in their midst in the form of Cas.   If demons lie, angels can cheat and manipulate just as much. We've seen it all through season 5 in particular how Zach et al all wanted to use the boys for their own ends.   Yet through all that Cas seemed so different, so above all the bickering and deception.  Boy were we fooled.

As for Cas and everything he's fighting for, what he stands for becomes meaningless.   Betrayal came so easily to him, like second nature.   Shown too readily by his quick dispatch of Lenore.   (Her role was too brief) she's another casualty of season 6, as though the show was tying up loose ends in one fell swoop.   Again demonstrating how Cas thinks and acts on his feet.  If someone is a hindrance or of no use to him, then it's curtains for them.   He's clinical and callous when he needs to be and yet he's also selfish.   The souls, helping Sam and Dean was all about winning the war in heaven for himself.   He wasn't lying when it came to that. No, the lies came when he went behind their backs instead of trusting them.

Lots of funny scenes to detract from the serious issues, Dean telling Cas to 'get out of his ass.'  Dean and his baby remark.   That's what it boils down to with Cas.   At heart he's a baby, taking things too simplistically as we'll see in the remaining three episodes.

As for Eve becoming Mom, she was Sam and Dean's mother and losing her was a definitive moment in their lives.   Why would Sam and Dean be intimidated by Eve turning into her? This was not explained or done as well as it could have been.   Though seeing Samantha Smith again was a great blast from the past.   The other defining moments in their lives were the ones involving themselves as brothers.   Their love for each other.   This was highlighted by the two brothers they found in jail.  Their need to see them safely home stemming from childhood.   Also ironically, the younger brother was the infected Starship.   A look back to Sam in early seasons as being Azazel's choice to go darkside, having his blood and Sam - younger brother - being Lucifer's vessel of choice.   The younger brother being easily manipulated.   Not that Sam had any choice in the fate that befell him as a baby.   I won't bring up the whole fate, destiny, etc argument here.

The redeeming force behind this episode was Cas's deception coming undone.   Dean refuses to believe point blank.   Bobby is the voice of reason and Sam has his doubts.   What was also good to see was Dean's staunch loyalty to his friend after the number of times Cas was there for him.   The ultimate betrayal of not only a friendship but of Dean's confirming they don't work with monsters.   Having to work for Crowley was a necessary evil but Cas being in league with Crowley doesn't bare thinking about.   Is Cas a monster, was he one in the making with Dean teaching him about free will.  

Dean drinking the ashes should have seen it coming cos it's in his nature to experiment.   In 1.10 Home, he tasted the poultice they were to place in the walls of their former home.   The title if spelt Mommie Dearest would be an allusion to the film based on the book on the life of actress Joan Crawford, written by her daughter.