Looking Back at the First Ever Supernatural DenverCon

-by Elizabeth

I am so excited to write this recap for Supernatural DenverCon. I am a born and raised Wyomingite (from Wyoming USA, for our international readers) but all of my family is from Denver, Colorado. I grew up going to Denver frequently and currently live very close. I have always wanted a Supernatural convention in Denver and had asked (maybe begged) for one for years. You can imagine my excitement last September when they announced a convention for Denver! I bought tickets that same day. 14 months later it was FINALLY here!! 

All of the other conventions that I have done are the larger ones that Creation holds. Denver, in comparison, was much smaller and much more intimate. Even Richard and Rob mentioned that the first day. Also, because it was the first time on the convention circuit, Denver had a majority of first-time con attendees. The excitement and anticipation was high and tangible the whole weekend. 

A neat feature at the hotel was that the vendor area sat in the middle of an indoor courtyard that the hotel room balconies looked down into. Creative fans decorated their balconies so that you could see it from the floor.

photo by Elizabeth

FRIDAY

Friday had one of the latest start times I’ve had at a convention. We didn’t kick off until 2pm. It was because there was a smaller guest list so we only had two panels. Rich and Louden Swain kicked the weekend off with their normal intros. This time the two running jokes were the extremely high elevation of Denver which made all of them short of breath. And then Colorado is one of two states in the U.S. who has legalised marijuana and so, of course, that was a very popular running joke. They even did Rules and Regulations in a “high” state of mind, LOL. 

Gil McKinney was the first panel up. It struck me again during this panel how cool it is to see how much this show has impacted the actor’s lives as well as the fans. Gil did 2 episodes of Supernatural (not even an arc) and yet I can’t even imagine what our SPNFamily would be like without him. He rediscovered his love of singing and even moved to New York to try and pursue a career with it. Gil promised us a “PG....13 panel” as he put it. He said he appreciated the SPN crowds at convention because they got his jokes and even took it a step further! He said at other show’s conventions nobody gets his jokes!

Review - Supernatural Episode 11x07 "Plush" - Count on us.

-by sweetondean

Creepy. Creeeeeeeepy. C.R.E.E.P.Y! YIKES! Don’t cha just love it when Supernatural reminds you that it’s a horror show!

“Plush” was an honest to goodness, old school ghost hunt, complete with creeptastic masks and a nice amount of gore…and being Supernatural, an underlying message about the damage lack of trust and crippling fear can do. It was no coincidence the camera lingered a little on Dean during the sister’s speech…and not just for the pretty…though the pretty was OFF THE CHARTS. Really Sam and Dean, do you have to get better looking with EACH episode? Oh, you do? Okay then. I’ll try and cope! The sacrifices I make! 

SUPERNATURAL THINK TANK - Theories and Thinky Thoughts on Supernatural 11x07 "Plush"

-by Anna

When compared to the rest of the season so far, which has been pretty much intense and dare I use the word epic, this episode didn't have that same intensity we've been seeing for the past two months....and I must admit, I was glad. It may not have been exciting, but I found my self to have enjoyed my hour with both the boys and the very refreshing, offbeat Sheriff Donna. I appreciated the lame jokes by both brothers, was in awe of the psychotic rabbit which also amused me in a kind of sick way, and I appreciated the Monster of the Week episode overall for it's original take, daring to touch on a not so pleasant but let's face it, it's out there social/criminal act, with a touch of humour mixed in with a bit of the creepiness. Who could not help but laugh at and feel sympathy at the same time for Sam, stuck in an elevator with a psychotic clown.....Let's just admit folks....clowns are downright creepy...and apparently, clowns kill.

The Light on Spoilers, Heavy on Squee Preview of Supernatural 11x07 "Plush"

-by sweetondean

Hi!

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS GUY FOR SO LONG! Ever since he popped up in that 2 minute trailer the show released! Look how creepy and awesome he his! I loves him! He's all levels of wrong!

Anyhoo...welcome to the preview for episode 7 of season 11....ONLY 2 EPISODES TO THE MID SEASON FINALE! *whelp*

But before I freak myself out, where are we at in this epic season of epicness!

THEN

Dean came face to face with the Darkness again and it did not go well! Will he be able to break the bond thingy? How long before he tells Sam? Could he be a worse liar?! No. Is Dean shitting himself? Yes.

Sam had another vision and it looked like the cage and someone was whispering "Deeeeean"! Was it a Hell memory? Was that Sam's voice. Was it the cage now? Whose fingers were they? Who is sending the visions? Will he tell Dean about this vision? Who knows with these two. Is Sam freaked out? Sure looked that way!

Crowley is over his bromance and is ready to kill Dean whenevs. He also lost the Darkness and now has to listen to boring Hell analysis stats all day. What will be his next move?

Cas got his groove back, found Metatron and beat him senseless. He also got the best ever intel and the Demon tablet. Go Cas!

GOD IS THE DARKNESS' BRO! Oh the issues these two have!

SUPERNATURAL THINK TANK - Theories and Thinky Thoughts on Supernatural 11x06 "Our Little World"

-by Anna

This has been quite an epic season so far.  In the past, by the time we get to this time of year we've had a few Monster of the Week episodes before we're hit by the big midseason finale.  I have to say, the way this season is going, I'm already in awe of the midseason finale and all we really know about it is that Jared has voted these eps his favourite so far this year. The year we're having so far, I'm utterly peaked with excitement at the mere mention of "mid season" finale.  Thank you Carver for you certainly have been reading the fandom's Holiday wish list.  We fans must have been very good boys and girls this year. 

I really enjoyed this episode.  My twitter response pretty much said it all....WOW.  I will take a minute to salute Beren's and his fantastic script.  I will take this moment to bask in the glory that is Jared and Jensen.  I will hail the director, cast and crew for a beautifully shot episode.  There, done.....now I will ramble on as this ep has indeed filled my head with thinky thoughts.

Review -Supernatural 11x06 "Our Little World"

-by sweetondean

You know, I’m pretty sure a show’s not supposed to get better in its 11th season. Pretty sure. I’m also pretty sure Supernatural doesn’t know this, because the start to season 11 is the strongest start to a season we’ve had for a while. And I know I say that most seasons…but see…it’s getting better! And it’s already AMAZING!

I love every season…and pretty much every episode. But this unrelenting pace, this six episodes in and not one that hasn’t dealt squarely with the season mythology thing is so cool. Even bromantic “Baby” gave us scared monster reveals and visions staring Matt Cohen as who know what. I freakin’ love it. Love it. I’m so excited about every aspect of this season’s mythology. It’s so massively EPIC. I mean…GOD’S SISTER? That’s BIG…like big bang big!

“Our Little World” left me all twitchy and excited and wanting to talk about our show in the best possible way. Everyone was in it. We were jumping from Crowley and Amara, to the Winchesters, to Cas and Metatron and it kept ramping up and up, and the scenes got shorter and shorter, and the pace got more frenetic and that music drone got more foreboding and by the time the episode finished I was sitting, quite literally on the edge of my bed, gobsmacked and feeling, well…incredibly nervous. Yep, I’d say nervous is about how I was feeling.

I love Amara. I love the mystery of her. I love how she’s growing like a weed. I love that she looked at that older girl, Goldie and said she wanted to be like her, sucked her soul and became the same age, taking her clothes and boots. It was almost like she was thinking like a normal girl, when you’re young and you look at someone older and wish you were older just like them, or cool just like them, or had their clothes. Of course how Amara obtains all of that is nasty! But doesn’t come across as evil. She’s not outright, evil, just as she’s not good. She’s neither thing. She’s simply focused on her goal. She actually reminds me of how Supernatural wrote Lucifer. Not your typical Devil. Not all brim and firestone. Lucifer just wanted what he wanted and went about what he had to in order to get it, in a kind of calm way. He had a goal, and pursued it. That’s how Amara is coming across to me, and I like it a lot. She’s a slow burn and that’s helluva interesting.

The Light on Spoilers, Heavy on Squee Preview of Supernatural 11x06 "Our Little World"

-by sweetondean

I feel like Dean Winchester is trying to kill me this season...please see above for evidence of my attempted murder.....

Anyhoo...hello preview! It's episode 6 of the season...IT'S ALL HAPPENING TOO FAST! Oh my gosh, we're only a few episodes away from the mid season finale! Slow down stupid time!

Okie dokie (I like me, I said okie dokie) where we at?

THEN

Sam and Dean discovered what Amara aka The Darkness aka Evil Tween, is growing like a weed...a really nasty weed, and scarfing down souls! Binge soulling you could say. Or not.

NOW

It's pay back time! 

Sam and Dean are ready to take down Amara! (Probably not)

Cas is ready to to take down Metatron! (Probably not)

Crowley is still being a creepy, weird Uncle from Hell! (Most definitely)

Dean will tell Sam about the bond! 

Here's how I think it's going to go down.

Sam's going to be like this....

While this is happening...

Okay...before I do this whole preview in memes...which would be an interesting challenge, and one I may have to attempt some time...here is this week's synopsis!

Review - Supernatural Episode 11x05 "Thin Lizzie"

-by sweetondean

What I’m enjoying a hell of a lot about this season of Supernatural is that we’re never far away from the season arc. Even when we think we’re simply going to get an awesome celebration of the broment and Dean’s Baby, BOOM, throw in a freaky vision and a monster preparing a personal army, complete with the discovery that everything creepy is kinda shitting itself about the whole The Darkness thing!

Give us an old school hunt, with a locked room ghost attack, rockin’ with EMF and BOOM, The Darkness hits the scene; the haunt goes out the window and the episode takes us in a totally different direction. That’s pretty damn cool! “Thin Lizzie” was pretty damn cool, and a whole lot of fun! 

You know, I have this friend, who isn’t a fan (I know. What? Right?!) I drive to work with her every day; we’ve known each other for ages…like a really long time. We worked together many moons ago, but have only recently reconnected because she’s freelancing where I work now. And she lives not far from me. And when my ankle was busted at the beginning of the year, she drove me to work, and we’ve been carpooling ever since! Anyway, she’s spent the best part of this year listening to me talk about the show, learning all about the cast, getting excited with me about conventions. She now knows about fanfic, and fanart, and shipping, and pretty much everything about the Js. (She thinks the Js are adorable. She’s become a Sam/Jared girl, but thinks Jensen is crazy handsome, especially when he sings, and totally gets the Dean thing…she thinks he’s “cute”!) When season 11 started up, she said, “I’m going to watch it!” She’d watched about 3 episodes of season 1 on Netflix, and had caught the 200th episode – which I had to explain to her…a lot. But she’d thought it was fun and she wanted to see why I was so in to this show. 

SUPERNATURAL THINK TANK - Theories and Thinky Thoughts on Supernatural 11x05 "Thin Lizzie"

-by Anna

I do so enjoy the creepy eps and this episode had that creepy feel to it.  I really enjoyed Nancy Won's first episode and I look forward to more from her.  Brother banter, creepy kid, psycho babysitter, it pretty much had it all.  I must say, the boys are looking more and more handsome with each episode. I think the original format agrees with them both. As dark as these eps have been, they seem to be glowing...I wonder if this is intentional.....the boys representing the light.

As far as monster of the week eps go, it's always the most discomforting when the monster turns out to be a human.  The Benders, Thinman....just your basic crazy homicidal maniacs and yet I find that scarier than any ghost or werewolf or changeling or even the darkness for that matter.  This episode calls back to Dean's quip "Demons I get, people are crazy." Sometimes it's actually the people themselves. It's a truth in life that some people are just born bad. In this case though, it's different...this time the crazy is brought on by Amara.

The Light on Spoilers, Heavy on Squee Preview of Supernatural 11x05 "Thin Lizzie"

-by sweetondean

Sooooo have we all come down off our "Baby" high? NO! NEVER! EVER! Yeah. Pretty much that.

But we've got to get ready, because it's already time for another episode! Don't you love it when we're at the beginning of the season and we have lovely new episodes every week? Weeeeee! It's the best!

Ok...so let's kick off the preview!

THEN

They sang

They talked family

They hunted things

They ate burritos

They Jerk/Bitched each other (which sounds vaguley dirty when said like that)

*sigh*

Oh yeah, and they found out the monsters are scared of The Darkness and that it's most definitely coming! Thanks for the intel, Matt Cohen!

NOW

Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.

Ooooooooo it looks like a good old ghost hunt...maybe. Probably not.

Let's check out the synopsis!

SUPERNATURAL THINK TANK - Theories and Thinky Thoughts on Supernatural 11x04 "Baby"

-by Anna

I've never used or referred to an episode of Supernatural as "filler".  Whether or not an episode was related to the mythology or the MOTW, each moment the boys share I see as a day in their lives.  It's their story.  It's their journey and if any episode epitomised that notion more it's Baby.  I don't have to go into how wonderful this episode was as that has been done by nearly every reviewer out there. I don't have to go into how brilliant a concept it was both technically or from a story point of view; again it's already been done.  I can go on and on about the sheer awesomeness of Jared and Jensen, of the brilliance of the directors, cast and most especially Robbie Thompson, but there's no need as it's been done and will likely continue.  So I decided to take a different angle this week. 

Review - Supernatural Episode 11x04 "Baby". Or Why I Loved Everything About Baby…And Other Obvious Statements.

-by sweetondean

Supernatural is epic. It’s damn epic. It’s all caps, EPIC. It’s save the world, life and death, angels and demons, God and Lucifer, Heaven and Hell level epic. But Supernatural is more than that. It’s more than this grandiose battle between good and evil. Because at its heart, is heart. At its heart Supernatural is a story about two boys and their struggle to hold on to each other and the most important lesson their long since passed away dad taught them; family is everything. As big as the story can be, it can also be that small, that intimate. And as spectacular as those big moments are, it’s the small moments that take our collective breaths away. “Baby” was a celebration of those small moments. A love letter to the one thing that has anchored these boys’ lives since their first memories; the place they grew up, learning the family business. She’s seen all the good times, and so many bad. And this week, we saw our boys, her boys, through her eyes. The moments only she is usually privy to. Those small moments that make Sam and Dean, Sam and Dean. This week, we celebrated the Winchester’s mighty 1967, Chevy Impala…known to Dean, simply as Baby. And it was beautiful. Cry buckets of happy tears, clap your hands, yell excitedly at your TV, crush a cushion to your chest, have hearts in your eyes for days to come level beautiful. “Baby” was all the things I knew I wanted, but never dared to hope to see. It was pretty much my head canon. Brothers laughing, poking fun at each other, feeling their feelings. Oh gosh. “Baby” was pretty much… everything.

I loved starting the episode with a reminder of Chuck’s words about how the Impala came about. “Swan Song” is one of my top five episodes. The narration was one of my favourite elements of that episode, so hearing Chuck’s familiar voice already had my heart swelling in those first moments. The tease was spectacular. Showing us all the things that make the Impala her – the blemishes that make her beautiful – but there’s blood in the carved initials behind the back seat, and then, there’s Dean, face down and unconscious on her black leather. Oh shit. That’s not at all what I was expecting.