Episode Details

Supernatural Season 8, Episode 20, Pac-Man Fever recap 👾 Charlie’s back with a case, Sam can’t hit the target, and Dean’s green eyes are the real special effect on Denim-wrapped Nightmares, a Supernatural rewatch podcast.

The second trial hit Sam harder than anyone expected, so Dean benches him at the bunker. Then Charlie (Felicia Day) shows up in Kansas with a case about victims liquefied from the inside out, and she’s been studying. Berly watches solo this time, so she makes her jokes to an empty couch.

Episode Highlights:

• Dean wakes up in a 1951 army uniform in a ransacked hospital, and it’s a great misdirect
• An 18-hour nap, a beer Sam doesn’t even flinch for, and a gun range in the bunker (how deep does this place go?)
• Charlie’s back: she’s read Chuck’s books, and Sam wants her monster app
• Charlie puts two shots in the target’s head, then gets a Walking on Sunshine shopping montage (RIP, black-and-white dress)
• An upside-down FBI badge, and “Castiel seems helpful and dreamy”
• A coroner with Rose McGowan energy who wants her paperwork first
• Sam’s demand avoidance kicks in: he hits the paper, says “close enough,” and leaves
• Two kids poke a very bloated body with a stick (blood splooge #71)
• Dean’s emerald eyes against the neon green elevator, plus a level 256 kill screen
• An ending hug that had Berly crying during the episode and again during the recap

Written by Robbie Thompson and directed by Robert Singer, and with visuals this good, Berly wasn’t surprised to see Singer’s name. Both hosts loved getting Charlie again so soon. The guys look great in their own ways: disheveled Sammy, and Dean Smith cleaned up. Berly loved the scary-movie touches, and the scene with Charlie and Dean in the dream is excellent. The gore award goes to that bloated body, which is grosser than the splooge.

In the lore segment, the hosts revisit the djinn lore from What Is and What Should Never Be. Then Berly reads an Inside Arabia article on jinn in Muslim culture. The Quran has a whole chapter on the jinn: beings made of smokeless fire who form a nation parallel to ours, who can marry, have children, die, and take the shape of animals or people. Berly’s takeaway is that they don’t grant wishes so much as make you hallucinate that your wish came true, which tracks with the show.

“I couldn’t Control-Alt-Delete my way out. Real-life role-playing is hard.” – Charlie

Your turn, hunters: Which Charlie episode is your favorite so far? And do you think Sam is in any shape to finish the trials? Tell us in the Spotify comments, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts (it’s how new hunters find us), or send us fan mail. Bonus points for fandom fun facts we missed.

Sources:

• https://supernatural.fandom.com/wiki/Pac-Man_Fever 
• https://pacman.fandom.com/wiki/Map_256_Glitch 
• https://insidearabia.com/djinn-muslim-culture-truth-superstition/

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