project supernatural rewrite
Dec. 2nd, 2012 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kasihyaInspired by this post.
I am going to keep Mary dead, only because if she did live, then this would be a totally different story, and we probably wouldn't get to meet any of the other characters anyway. So. Going off of that assumption, here is my outline for how Supernatural would go if it didn't kill offevery woman every black character everyone, starting with Jess, and also trying to make the pacing of the arc plot more consistent because jesus mother of fuck that was awful the first five seasons. Format:
[episode in the rewrite] -- [canon episode referenced]
Summary of the things that would change about that episode as a result of people not dying.
SEASON ONE:
The arc plot is that they're looking for John, and Sam is developing weird premonitory powers that aren't fully explored yet. Meg is introduced as an antagonist. A few episodes before the end, they find their father. As a trio, they track down the Yellow-Eyed demon, only to be thrown off by Meg, who is attacking people they care about. They get her and exorcise her, and Meg leads them to Yellow Eyes. He possesses John, and Sam cannot kill him, and the demon escapes. They get hit by a truck on the way to the hospital.
s01e01 -- Pilot
At the beginning of the present day, Sam wakes up from what is clearly a nightmare of epic proportions, and looks at the ceiling, then at Jess next to him. He's going downstairs to get a glass of water when Dean breaks in.
Sam manages to save Jess at the end. The closing scene is of him running her to the hospital, with all of the dramatic hospital apparatus and shouting that goes on in television
s01e02 -- no reference
This episode is entirely centered around the hospital where Jess is recovering. The monster-of-the-week plot is a ghost in the hospital; it's not particularly malevolent, because it's the fairly new ghost of a child who just died, and is confused, but hasn't reached rage-stage yet.
Jess is in the hospital. She's got burns all over the place, and her stomach needs stitches. Sam refuses to answer questions -- he can say, quite honestly, that he came home and the house was on fire, so he went in to save her. As Sam leaves for the night, he sees the ghost out of the corner of his eye, but he dismisses it as being tired and stressed.
Sam has called Dean back. He postpones his interview. Dean stays with him in a motel while they're waiting for Jess to recover. Dean agrees to wait for a few days. They visit Jess, who wants to know what the hell happened. Sam has to tell Jess about the fact that he's been leading a double life, and has in fact lied to her about nearly everything.
She is upset and asks him to leave the room. He and Dean see the ghost on the way out, and decide to do some investigations. They do investigations while Sam is waiting for Jess to let him back into the room. They figure out who the ghost is and what the problem is fairly quickly. Over the course of the episode, we find out a bit more about their relationship, and Sam's relationship with Jess, how he really does like her, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that she makes him feel normal.
At the end of the episode, they lay the ghost to rest. Jess' parents have arrived to be with her. Jess tells Sam that she doesn't want to see him right now -- like, for an extended period of time. He and Dean leave to go hunting. He's probably horribly guilty about her, and has impetus to want revenge on the demon for invading his life, nearly killing Jess, exposing his life ... it's supremely selfish, don't get me wrong, and that's what's going to be explored, but those are still his reasons.
s01e03 -- Wendigo
Sam goes on a hunt with Dean, following the plot of that episode pretty well.
Sam is moping about Jess, and haunted by his visions or whatever the crap that was. I see no reason to keep it a secret from the audience for as long as possible. He does not tell Dean about it. Dean attempts to cheer him up with a spot of murder, and to keep him from checking his phone and calling Jess and trying to explain some more. Dean is not doing this for altruistic reasons, either -- he wants Sam to come with him, and prove his loyalty to his family instead of this chick he's only known for three years.
The only thing Sam been doing so far is keeping in contact with her parents so that they can update him on her condition. It's improving, but she'll need skin grafts and her face is mostly intact, but her hair and scalp are a mess, too.
s01eo4 -- Dead in the Water
Another nearly-true-to-canon episode. This one takes place three weeks after the last one. Sam's angst continues. Dean cannot wheedle it out of him. At the end of the episode, Jess calls. Sam just about cries with relief. She says that she wants to talk to him.
s01e05 -- Scarecrow
I'm using this episode here because (a) it is one of my favorites, and (b) because it has the two separate and argue. Instead of separating over whether to obey their father or not, they are fighting over Sam's decision to return to Jess, when Dean thinks he should cut and run. That way, it can still be about family - Sam is trying to get back to Miss Normal, after all - but it's under the surface. Very, very thinly, but still.
Sam meets Meg while he's hitchhiking back to see Jess.
He has to return to save Dean, though -- he gets a premonition that something is horribly wrong there. He calls Jess to tell her this. She is less than pleased; she tries to be accommodating, but it's clear that she's not so impressed with him right now.
Sam saves Dean, and they make a deal: if Dean comes with him to see Jess, then Sam will help him look for their father after they've straightened this out.
s01e06 -- Hook Man
This is a divided episode. Sam and Dean are staying near the hospital. Sam goes to visit Jess. While he's there, Dean, looking for a hunt, discovers the plot of Hook Man.
Jess and Sam talk. Jess is doing a little better -- it's been about a month, and it'll be another month or so before she'll be up and about enough to do physical therapy. Sam struggles with the fact that she's visibly scarred, as a reminder of the fact that his world has come crashing down around him. Jess is struggling to absorb the fact that he is what he is. He's not a bad person, and she knows that, and she knows that he's doing good, but it's the fact of HOW he does it that she can't reconcile. Never mind the fact that he lied to her, and he's doing all of this now, and he dragged her into it. She should be angry with him about that, but she displaces this anger onto Yellow Eyes. She says that she wants to know what he does. She wants to get to know the 'real' him, which leads to an argument about what the "real" him is, and how he *has* shown her the real him, and she's like, 'um, no.'
Meanwhile, Dean is going about doing his research. I honestly don't remember much of this episode, and it's pretty boring. He does most of his work off-screen. Then Sam comes back, and he and Dean do their homework or whatever.
After they're done with that, Sam goes to the hospital, because Jess is supposed to be getting another skin graft today and he wants to be there when she goes in. He looks all gross and unclean, and so he tells her about what happened. His first instinct is to lie to her, and she calls bullshit. She asks if it was a ghost this time, too. He says no, and actually explains to her. It's clear that she's having difficulty with this, but she nods, and says that she'll see him when she gets out or surgery. He, angst-filled, says he'll see her, too.
After he's held her hand enough after surgery, he goes back to sleep, and wakes up in the motel room from another nightmare. The audience gets to see this one, and the way that Sam wakes up is exactly the same as in the beginning of the pilot. Dean demands to know what's going on, and Sam admits that he's having nightmares about Jess. Dramatic end of episode.
I am going to keep Mary dead, only because if she did live, then this would be a totally different story, and we probably wouldn't get to meet any of the other characters anyway. So. Going off of that assumption, here is my outline for how Supernatural would go if it didn't kill off
[episode in the rewrite] -- [canon episode referenced]
Summary of the things that would change about that episode as a result of people not dying.
SEASON ONE:
The arc plot is that they're looking for John, and Sam is developing weird premonitory powers that aren't fully explored yet. Meg is introduced as an antagonist. A few episodes before the end, they find their father. As a trio, they track down the Yellow-Eyed demon, only to be thrown off by Meg, who is attacking people they care about. They get her and exorcise her, and Meg leads them to Yellow Eyes. He possesses John, and Sam cannot kill him, and the demon escapes. They get hit by a truck on the way to the hospital.
s01e01 -- Pilot
At the beginning of the present day, Sam wakes up from what is clearly a nightmare of epic proportions, and looks at the ceiling, then at Jess next to him. He's going downstairs to get a glass of water when Dean breaks in.
Sam manages to save Jess at the end. The closing scene is of him running her to the hospital, with all of the dramatic hospital apparatus and shouting that goes on in television
s01e02 -- no reference
This episode is entirely centered around the hospital where Jess is recovering. The monster-of-the-week plot is a ghost in the hospital; it's not particularly malevolent, because it's the fairly new ghost of a child who just died, and is confused, but hasn't reached rage-stage yet.
Jess is in the hospital. She's got burns all over the place, and her stomach needs stitches. Sam refuses to answer questions -- he can say, quite honestly, that he came home and the house was on fire, so he went in to save her. As Sam leaves for the night, he sees the ghost out of the corner of his eye, but he dismisses it as being tired and stressed.
Sam has called Dean back. He postpones his interview. Dean stays with him in a motel while they're waiting for Jess to recover. Dean agrees to wait for a few days. They visit Jess, who wants to know what the hell happened. Sam has to tell Jess about the fact that he's been leading a double life, and has in fact lied to her about nearly everything.
She is upset and asks him to leave the room. He and Dean see the ghost on the way out, and decide to do some investigations. They do investigations while Sam is waiting for Jess to let him back into the room. They figure out who the ghost is and what the problem is fairly quickly. Over the course of the episode, we find out a bit more about their relationship, and Sam's relationship with Jess, how he really does like her, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that she makes him feel normal.
At the end of the episode, they lay the ghost to rest. Jess' parents have arrived to be with her. Jess tells Sam that she doesn't want to see him right now -- like, for an extended period of time. He and Dean leave to go hunting. He's probably horribly guilty about her, and has impetus to want revenge on the demon for invading his life, nearly killing Jess, exposing his life ... it's supremely selfish, don't get me wrong, and that's what's going to be explored, but those are still his reasons.
s01e03 -- Wendigo
Sam goes on a hunt with Dean, following the plot of that episode pretty well.
Sam is moping about Jess, and haunted by his visions or whatever the crap that was. I see no reason to keep it a secret from the audience for as long as possible. He does not tell Dean about it. Dean attempts to cheer him up with a spot of murder, and to keep him from checking his phone and calling Jess and trying to explain some more. Dean is not doing this for altruistic reasons, either -- he wants Sam to come with him, and prove his loyalty to his family instead of this chick he's only known for three years.
The only thing Sam been doing so far is keeping in contact with her parents so that they can update him on her condition. It's improving, but she'll need skin grafts and her face is mostly intact, but her hair and scalp are a mess, too.
s01eo4 -- Dead in the Water
Another nearly-true-to-canon episode. This one takes place three weeks after the last one. Sam's angst continues. Dean cannot wheedle it out of him. At the end of the episode, Jess calls. Sam just about cries with relief. She says that she wants to talk to him.
s01e05 -- Scarecrow
I'm using this episode here because (a) it is one of my favorites, and (b) because it has the two separate and argue. Instead of separating over whether to obey their father or not, they are fighting over Sam's decision to return to Jess, when Dean thinks he should cut and run. That way, it can still be about family - Sam is trying to get back to Miss Normal, after all - but it's under the surface. Very, very thinly, but still.
Sam meets Meg while he's hitchhiking back to see Jess.
He has to return to save Dean, though -- he gets a premonition that something is horribly wrong there. He calls Jess to tell her this. She is less than pleased; she tries to be accommodating, but it's clear that she's not so impressed with him right now.
Sam saves Dean, and they make a deal: if Dean comes with him to see Jess, then Sam will help him look for their father after they've straightened this out.
s01e06 -- Hook Man
This is a divided episode. Sam and Dean are staying near the hospital. Sam goes to visit Jess. While he's there, Dean, looking for a hunt, discovers the plot of Hook Man.
Jess and Sam talk. Jess is doing a little better -- it's been about a month, and it'll be another month or so before she'll be up and about enough to do physical therapy. Sam struggles with the fact that she's visibly scarred, as a reminder of the fact that his world has come crashing down around him. Jess is struggling to absorb the fact that he is what he is. He's not a bad person, and she knows that, and she knows that he's doing good, but it's the fact of HOW he does it that she can't reconcile. Never mind the fact that he lied to her, and he's doing all of this now, and he dragged her into it. She should be angry with him about that, but she displaces this anger onto Yellow Eyes. She says that she wants to know what he does. She wants to get to know the 'real' him, which leads to an argument about what the "real" him is, and how he *has* shown her the real him, and she's like, 'um, no.'
Meanwhile, Dean is going about doing his research. I honestly don't remember much of this episode, and it's pretty boring. He does most of his work off-screen. Then Sam comes back, and he and Dean do their homework or whatever.
After they're done with that, Sam goes to the hospital, because Jess is supposed to be getting another skin graft today and he wants to be there when she goes in. He looks all gross and unclean, and so he tells her about what happened. His first instinct is to lie to her, and she calls bullshit. She asks if it was a ghost this time, too. He says no, and actually explains to her. It's clear that she's having difficulty with this, but she nods, and says that she'll see him when she gets out or surgery. He, angst-filled, says he'll see her, too.
After he's held her hand enough after surgery, he goes back to sleep, and wakes up in the motel room from another nightmare. The audience gets to see this one, and the way that Sam wakes up is exactly the same as in the beginning of the pilot. Dean demands to know what's going on, and Sam admits that he's having nightmares about Jess. Dramatic end of episode.
