In this short episode Drew and Marie dip their toes into season 6. They discuss some changes to the podcast both on the air and off, and share what they hope to achieve moving forwards. Plus Drew predicts some wild things.

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Season Six!

I feel nervous starting season six.

lie.

Why why?

It almost feels like we're starting a new show.

I mean, to a certain degree. Yeah.

Like I know, listeners know, we've discussed this kind of the end of season five, our like recap of the season, it feels so weird. It feels so fresh and new, it really feels like - not like we're starting over because like, functionally, we're still doing so good. But it feels like we're entering like, it's a new era, but it feels like a new show.

Season Six is definitely significant. Because like you said, like, it's the end of the Kripke era. It also means that we're like a third of the way through the entire 15 season series like, which is like mind blowing in and of itself, I think. But then I think it's also significant to us, or at least like to me like because when we started, we had said to each other like, oh, let's do the first season and then we'll see. And then the next big milestone was like - the conversation turned into like, oh well, let's get to season five, and then we'll see. And so like getting over the hump of like those five first seasons was basically like our very first long term milestone and like, we've done it, right. So it's like, whoa, okay, what else can we do?

In the metaphor of Sisyphus pushing the boulder we've actually broken past that point. And we've actually got the Boulder the top of the hill now. And it's like, do we just push it down the other side? Like, what is the next step here? Yes, the obvious next step is 10 more seasons. It just feels like we're on the back half, even though we're only a third of the way in.

So if we're gonna briefly recap a little bit like what we did last season in season five, like we basically introduced carrying wayward merch.

Yeah, we did.

Yeah. And we started by putting out like this incredibly cool, like glow in the dark Impala pin that like you had gotten done and designed.

I'm so proud of that. And thank you to everyone who was involved in making it happen. Thank you, to you and Rachel for being part of the process of putting it together. Everyone who bought one - every time I see a tweet or a discord post, I just like my eyes just sparkle.

And then the other thing that we also did is that we created like the hunters journal, and we gave a little bit more structure to our Impala talk.

The Impala talk, for those who don't know that's a supporter exclusive thing that only people who support us on Ko-Fi or Patreon have access to. It's basically an extra like 10 to 15 unedited minutes of the podcast where we answer a specific question about the episode that we didn't really get to cover during the main episode. And they are so much fun.

Oh, they really are honestly.

Oh, they really are honestly. And if that sounds interesting to you, you can definitely go have a look at our Ko-Fi or Patreon. And like choose the tier that feels right for you. We honestly really appreciate the support like no matter the tier, it just really helps us to make the podcast so like thank you to everybody who is supporting us, has supported us, will support us, support us when they can - like these things are fluid and we totally get it

For this season, we are making just two small changes to the podcast format. First is that we are going to remove our blooper. Instead, we're going to give you a quick taste of the Impala talk.

At the end of each episode, we're basically going to tack on like 15 to 30 seconds of us like answering the Impala Talk question. The second thing is that we're now going to be adding the original airdate of each episode to Critical Time, just because like we found it to be useful lately, particularly like for contextualizing some of the stuff that happens on the episodes.

You know, it's that thing where we sort of keep saying like, Oh, it's a show from '05 and it's like, yeah, but we've been at this for so long, there's so many seasons, what year is it anymore? It's worth knowing.

What - what is time??

What is time?! But aside from that we're keeping the same format and structure. However, the other big change that we're making has to do with our Etsy store.

You heard that right! Etsy store. We are moving our Impala pin to Etsy and we're also adding a second item which is - I'm so excited about this. Okay, I'm going to try to get through this - a Kansas Lied tote bag. I'm a tote-bag-girly TM, right like gender neutral, all of those things. I have some super high standards when it comes to tote bags. I hate thin, flimsy bags. I really only like really thick canvas bags. So actually, because I am who I am, I definitely have a favorite tote bag. And it's genuinely the best that I've ever owned. So it's from a Montreal restaurant called Vin Papillon and when we decided that like I was going to do a tote bag. I kind of told you and Rachel like I remember doing this like as a joke. I was like oh I wish we could just make the Vin Papillon tote. I mean, I guess the joke is on me because Rachel actually found the Montreal based company that actually printed those bags, and we ended up working with them on this project. So just to be clear, like the tote is made out of super sturdy canvas, it's designed in house at Carrying Wayward and printed in Montreal, I am so proud and excited to finally be able to share it with everybody.

And as of tomorrow if you're listening to this recording on date of release, you can get our pin and our tote on our Etsy store. Just go on over to carryingwayward.com You'll find the link to our shop.

Now, Drew, do you have any predictions for season six?

Okay, this time feels weirder and harder than the past few times. Like I said it feels like a new show like seasons one through five there was always kind of like a "ooh, here's what's coming next season" you know here there really wasn't so I kind of was really left with like three out of nowhere ridiculousness and I thought these were an order and then upon writing them down, I was like, No, this is ridiculous.

Okay, okay, hit me hit me.

Number one. Crowley becomes the new Lucifer. He's like the big bad he takes over hell because there's no one there take control and he's such like a - conniving is the wrong word, but it's also the right word.

I have questions. Can I use follow up questions?

Drew Shulman 6:17

Please, go!

So are you saying that he's like the big bad of the season like the antagonist? The villain? What do you mean?

As I say it, I don't think Big Bad. I Think he's definitely going to be antagonist and will kind of lose the friendship side of things. But I don't think he'll be the next Lucifer in the sense of the villain, but he's going to be the one who takes over hell in the sense of like, well Lucifer is not there someone's got to wrangle all these beasts and take control and it just feels like a very Crowley move to be like -

power grab

power grab but also just the I want things a little more organized I want to - it's not like that mafia mentality of it's easier to rule an organization that rule over chaos.

I am certain that Crowley has a favorite tote bag as well.

And I'm sure it's like the most sturdy material it's made of like the most genuine like human skin or something insane like, like this man bathed in oils every day for the church so his skin was pristine. I was waiting for the day he croaked so I can take it ethically.

Designed in house in hell. Printed in Purgatory! Okay, so then Crowley basically like the coalition has ended in order to end Lucifer quote, unquote. And so Crowley is now the king of hell.

Yeah. What like, I don't think that makes him the bad guy per se. Like all these there's gonna be some like discrepancy and maybe a loss of friendship there. But he's not actively like an antagonist to the brothers. Because of course, I know Sam's back, I'm just gonna put that out there, I'm not making a prediction.

Okay, so he's not the antagonist?

No.

Okay.

I'm still not convinced I know who the antagonist is. But we'll go through my other theories. And we'll see if we can get some conversation going. Number two, I kind of predicted this a bit earlier. But I think that the big moving point, like the thing that's gonna move the story forward this season is going to be Chuck revealing, to Dean that he was kind of - this whole thing was for Dean whether that means like, "because I was testing you" for some reason, or "I want you to join me in heaven as the next God" or a replacement God or a new Archangel or whatever the the thing I can give a human to make them better is. And like, we learned this was the whole plan for seasons one through five with Chuck being God was the testing Dean to see if he was worthy. And he or he has achieved it. And he's now giving him whatever the "you now need to leave your family and your friends and your loved ones behind to come join me and heaven" and Dean's like, No!

All of this was just a test for Dean is what I'm understanding.

Like, he allowed Lucifer to do what he did, he allowed Lucifer to take control of Sam, he allowed Lucifer to do all these like putting these demons in place. And the whole demon blood thing like all of this was just to get to a point where Dean had to do something to prove his belief and that his faith, and that was Chuck's way of saying, "Oh, you're good enough to be the next God. 2.0" or some shit. Or Jesus? Dean is Jesus? I don't know.

All of this was basically Chuck's plan. As if Dean was just kind of a plaything for him.

A plaything, yes, but also a plaything that he was banking on.

Like to get to the end of the story.

Yeah, like to put the weirdest comparison I can make here is for anyone who's read or seen the film Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. One of the small jokes in it is that there is a woman on Earth who discovers the meaning of life, right as Earth gets destroyed. Like literally, it's described as her standing up at a coffee shop going, oh my god, like put it all together, and then Earth is blown up. And then we learn later on that Earth was literally just a giant simulation to get to that point where human would solve the meaning of life. So to me, it's like Earth was created in the attempt for Chuck to find someone worthy to succeed him, and that person winds up being Dean. This is kind of - Earth as an entirety, was a like ploy to get to a human, in this case, Dean to be the next righteous one.

All right, what about number three?

Sam and Lucifer are combined, Lucifer is not gone Lucifer is literally the voice in Sam's head now and they learn to live with each other in one body kind of like a split personality thing. And they keep each other in check, but it's kind of like his wild side. So like anytime like Sam is put into kind of like a, a moment of panic Lucifer takes over. Whenever he's like in control, he kind of has that little voice in the back of his head, but it's not in his head. It's literally Lucifer in his head.

Interesting.

Is that weird enough?

Yeah, that's weird enough. All right. I'll take it.

So to recap, I have Crowley takes over hell, but in a organizing kind of cool way -

In an orderly fashion.

In an orderly fashion.

I love him.

"You will go up to Earth and you will kill exactly 100 humans. Any more and I'm docking to your pay!" "Eh? We're paid now?" This is organized evil.

Well, honestly, I can't wait to see how that all turns out, frankly. Before I finish this minisode, do you have any resolutions for season six.

I keep doing this thing where I keep having these resolutions to like improve in some way. And I kind of start them early. So some people may have noticed a - I hope have noticed a slight uptick in quality in our audio of the back half of season five. I am looking into making sure we keep this quality going forward. We're also looking at remastering some old episodes. Again, I can't put any timeframe on that. But it's definitely a project we want to undertake. Because we'd like for people who join us in listening start with great quality and don't have to adapt to it down the road. Because we all grow. We all learn, we all get better. And it makes us realize how some of our older work might need to be polished.

Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh, if I could go back, like there's definitely some stuff that I would do over like in the first - especially I would say like the first two seasons and like my approach to the story. Like I wish I could go back and change some of that. But it is what it is. And we have to honor who we were.

Yeah, I'm sure if we ever went back and redid some old stuff, we would change things drastically. But again, I think it's important to remember those parts of us that we were when we were doing this fresh.

Oh, certainly.

And yourself, dear, what kind of resolutions do you have, if any?

Well, I mean, so in seasons like two, three, four and five, like I talked about the different steps of the hermeneutic wager. And so I talked about like imagination, humility, commitment, and discernment. And so today for season six in general, I think I'd like to be concluding that with hospitality. So as you can imagine, here, the idea is to be open, to be open to change, to bumps in the road, to like reaping the benefits of what we've sowed over the last five seasons. And I think also for me, especially it's to be open to allow all these things to change me, and to like, welcome this new me into my life. I know that that sounds like super esoteric, but just bear with me here. I just feel like my approach to Supernatural and to podcasting in general, like also to interpretive analysis, and even to critical conversations like has really evolved over the last five seasons. Like I was saying earlier, I just want to see what I can do with these new skills.

Well, that sounds like a plan to me. And it sounds like we've got work to do.

Yep, let's get this show on the road.