“You’re so pathetic it actually loops around again to cute.” – Guy
Don’t let the groan-inducing title or the completely unappealing promo fool you: this episode of Supernatural is a good deal better and smarter than it’s been given credit for.
With that said, I still despise the character of Becky Rosen and beg of the writers not to inflict her madness on us again.
For those unfamiliar with Supernatural’s mind-bending meta-ness, the show as we know it exists in-universe as a series of poorly selling fantasy novels penned by a prophet named Chuck who didn’t realize that his story ideas were completely true. Despite the poor sales, the books have quite the dedicated cult following, complete with cosplayer-filled conventions and rabid fangirls on parade.
I’ve always been torn by the “fandom” as presented in the Supernatural universe. On one hand, the books and the fans are clever and fun, but seven seasons in, I still can’t entirely tell if they are meant to be a wink-wink-nudge-nudge from Supernatural to the rest of us, or a passive aggressive way of mocking the chicks who show up at conventions wearing wedding dresses.
Now, I’m all for mocking the fans that tip the scales from “dedicated and passionate” to “psychotic and creepy,” mostly because they give the rest of us a bad rap, but the problem with taking your parody of a crazed fan and giving her a personality and a backstory and a purpose (other than being the butt of everyone’s jokes) is that you run the risk of insulting the well-adjusted fans along the way…
…which is pretty much what Supernatural manages to accomplish in record time during “Season Seven, Time for a Wedding.”
The infamous Becky is back Sam’s Twitter-obsessed, love-potion abusing wife. She drugs Sam, marries him, and drags him off to be the show-and-tell subject at her 10-year high school reunion. When the stuff starts wearing off, she meets up with her Wiccan friend, Guy for more and Guy reveals himself to be a crossroads demon. Those first few hits were on the house, but now it’s time for Becky to pay up.
Sure, in the end, she makes the right decision, but it takes a lot of cringe-worthy exposition to get there. Despite her outgoing personality and generally perky (almost annoyingly so) demeanor, Becky sees herself as a loser. She’s always been a loser, she tells Sam (who, by the way, is tied to the bed in a scene reminiscent of the one in Misery, another tale about a deranged fan). Her nickname in high school was “Yucky Becky” and the only place that people understood her, she says, was the message boards. “She says that she always related to Sam because he thinks of himself as a freak. She only wants someone to love her for her, and she doesn’t understand why that someone can’t be Sam.
Becky’s backstory is sad, no doubt about it, but it’s not exceptional, and it’s not even particularly tragic. Its hits too close to home for a good chunk of the “dedicated and passionate” fans, and not in a good way. I got picked on in high school and found refuge on the Internet. That’s one of the great things about the internet. But you know what? Despite that, I’m a generally functional adult. I interact with other flesh and blood human beings. I don’t stalk Jensen Ackles. I’ve never gone to a Supernatural convention and asked inappropriate personal questions during a Q&A session.
At the conclusion of “Season 7, Time for a Wedding,” the Winchester-Rosen union is annulled and Becky finds herself in the doe-eyed sights of Garth (DJ Qualls as a woefully underused, chilled-out hunter) implying that maybe, just maybe, she has found someone who will love her for her.
That’s a nice, though somewhat condescending message, but the problem is that 99% of Supernatural fans don’t need to hear it and the 1% that does is too busy tracking down Jared Padalecki’s phone number to pay attention to it.
Some stats and info about Supernatural, “Season 7, Time for a Wedding”
TV SHOW – Supernatural
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 7, Episode 8
AIRED ON – November 11th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – CW/Netflix
GENRE – Drama, Teen Dramas, Horror, Fantasy
CREATED BY – Eric Kripke
CAST – Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Mark Sheppard, Jim Beaver, Alexander Calvert, Mark Pellegrino, Samantha Smith, Ruth Connell
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.