Scoobynatural is the 16th episode of season 13 of Supernatural and originally aired on March 29, 2018. In this episode, the real world of Supernatural collides with the cartoon world of Scooby-Doo as the Winchester Brothers are sucked into a haunted television set.
Initially, Dean Winchester is amused living in the Scooby-Doo world, but soon realizes there are dire consequences as the merging of two universes allows cartoon characters (including himself) to be killed off or seriously injured. What begins as an innocent episode of A Night of Fright is No Delight, turns into a race against time for Dean and Sam Winchester to catch a real ghost before they, or Mystery Inc are murdered.
While this is a fun episode, it is not for small kids, as it does feature graphic scenes of stabbings and decapitation (which I won\’t be positing in this blog). To contrast and compare the episode I will be describing some graphic scenes, thus viewer discretion is advised.
As this is a Scooby-Doo website, I will be focusing more on the Scooby aspects of this story, leaving out many of the Supernatural series elements.
The episode begins with the Winchester Brothers stopping a giant stuffed dinosaur from ruining a pawn shop. As their reward, the pawnshop owner gifts the brothers a television set. Bringing the set home, the two brothers are mysteriously sucked into the television, where they are now animated and in the world of Scooby-Doo. Fortunately, since Dean\’s car keys were in his pocket, his trusty 1967 Chevy Impala is in the animated universe as well.
Recognizing the Mystery Machine outside the Malt Shop, Dean immediately clues into where they are. Excited to eat massive amounts of food, and potentially pick-up Daphne, Dean marches inside to talk to the gang. Sam, on the other hand, isn’t as excited. He knows that the Scooby gang only deals with small potato bad guys in masks, while in his world, he deals with real vampires, werewolves, ghosts and demons.
Storming up to their booth, Dean introduces himself and his brother Sam to Mystery Inc and asks to join them. Fred agrees and introduces Velma, Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne. There is a funny scene where Dean tries to explain to the gang just how famous they are, however, he’s dismissed quickly by Scooby and Shaggy, who feel they are more famous for the food eating contests they have won.
Velma explains that they are at the Malt Shop to celebrate Scooby inheriting a fortune. It’s at this point in the episode where we begin to tie into a Night of Fright is No Delight, as Velma explains that Scooby had saved a Colonel. Meanwhile, Daphne pipes in that the Colonel was saved from drowning in a fish pond. In a moment of absolute dark humour, Sam implies that while Scooby did save the Colonel, the man is now dead. Freddy lowers his head and replies that yes, the Colonel did die of cancer.
Dean pulls Sam aside and tells him to have a bit of fun and go along with everything. Sam, always the realist, explains that it’s a little challenging to do, especially when the newspaper doesn’t even have text.
Dean offers his and Sam\’s help as mystery solvers, and Fred accepts. After enjoying a mile-high sandwich, the gang head out to the Mystery Machine, while Dean and Sam hop in their Impala. A short drag race occurs, where Fred beats Dean, aggravating Dean even further, as he feels Freddy is a \’wad\’ with his perfect hair, stupid ascot, and can-do attitude.
In a Night of Fright is No Delight, the gang took a speedboat to a cliffside mansion, yet in Scoobynatural, they reach the mansion by their respective cars. Regardless, upon seeing the mansion, Dean recognizes that they are in the Night of Fright episode.
Inside, it\’s business as usual, and the reading of the will via a record, which we saw in the original Scooby-Doo, goes off without a hitch. Sam, who has experience with the paranormal, is rather upset that a crazy kook would want his relatives to spend an evening in a haunted house. Velma, who has taken a liking to Sam, insists that there is no such thing as ghosts.
Dean pulls Sam aside once more and tells Sam that he has to be careful what he says around the gang. The gang are in a completely different world, and trying to get them to believe in ghosts could shatter their pure and innocent outlook on life. Dean feels they should just go with the flow, mostly so he can make out with Daphne. However, Dean makes the point that they have to see the story though in order to get pulled out and back to reality.
Cosgood Creeps, the lawyer, wraps up the reading and finishes with the line that he will return to the island tomorrow to see who remains, if any, followed by a creepy laugh. Dean tells Sam that Cosgood is the bad guy, and Sam sarcastically remarks that it figures.
Everyone heads to bed, and Dean suggests he bunks up with Daphne. She calls him silly and states that boys and girls do not share rooms. Without missing a beat, Freddy tells Dean and Sam that they will be sharing a room with him, Shaggy and Scooby.
In the boy\’s room, Dean is enjoying wearing a sleeping robe, calling it the most comfortable thing ever. Dean tells Sam to just wait, as in a few minutes they\’ll hear the Phantom Shadow go into Cousin Simple\’s where they\’ll find him missing. The gang will think it’s a ghost, but in reality, it will be Cosgood Creeps.
This is where things start to go haywire and deviate from the original episode as we then cut to Cousin Simple brushing his teeth. The lights flicker, and we see the ghost behind him, armed with a knife.
The gang hear Cousin Simple’s screams, so they all run to his room. There, Daphne finds Cousin Simple’s body with a knife in his back and surrounded by a pool of blood. Dean is surprised as the dummies don\’t appear until much later in the episode. Sam inspects the corpse and explains to Dean that it’s no dummy, and Cousin Simple is truly dead.
Sam is annoyed that the gang are taking the death in stride, however, Velma is doing her best to come up with a logical explanation of what is going on.
Castiel, a friend of Dean and Sam (and also happens to be an angel), strolls into the mansion, and we learn that he too has been sucked into the tv. The gang also discover the hacked apart body of Cosgood Creeps. Decapitated and dismembered, Fred looks on and mutters ‘that\’s not good’, while Dean and Sam reel back in horror. We have to remember, though, in the Scooby-Doo world, they feel as if this is a hoax.
The gang then split up with Scooby, Shaggy and Castiel going one way, Velma and Sam going another, and Freddy, Daphne and Dean going in opposite ways to search for clues.
Searching the attic, Velma is charmed by Sam and laughs off his statements that ghosts and the supernatural is real and points out a chest covered in ectoplasm. Ectoplasm, at least until the mid-80s, when Ghostbusters became popular, was never seen in the Scooby-Doo universe. After being chased by some haunted toys in the attic, Velma writes it off as a prank manipulated by Christmas lights and fishing line.
In the library, Dean continues to hit on Daphne, but she continues to show no interest in him. Dean spots a yellow book that stands out on a bookshelf and gives it a tug. A trap door opens, and the gang end up in the basement where they spot the Phantom Shadow.
In a storage room, Shaggy, Scooby and Castiel find themselves being followed by the ghost. Castiel goes to rip the mask off the spirit, but his hand phases right through the Phantom. Scooby and Shaggy drag Castiel away, just at the right time, before any harm can come to Castiel.
This leads to a fun chase scene set to the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! theme song. We have several comical scenes of the gang running through various doors, and we even get a quick shot of Scrappy-Doo. For most of the musical chase scene, Dean spends a significant time admiring Daphne’s figure.
After the Chase scene ends, Freddy rushes the ghost and ends up getting smacked, causing his nose to bleed. Worse yet, Shaggy is thrown off a balcony and is dangling for his life. Sam and Dean scare off the Phantom using an iron candlestick (as in the Supernatural world, Iron can hurt ghosts), while Scooby and Castiel do their best to rescue Shaggy.
Shaggy loses his grip and falls off the balcony, however with some quick thinking, Castiel manages to soften his fall. Still, Shaggy ends up breaking his arm, surprising the heck out of him as ‘he has jumped out of a biplane in a museum before without harm’, – which is a reference to What a Night for a Knight.
Sam and Dean then explain to the gang that the ghost is real, and each member of the gang has their own separate epiphany. Freddy is angered that instead of catching people in masks, he could be out catching Dracula. Even funnier is Daphne, who is finally made aware that heaven and hell are real, and she could be headed to hell. Scooby and Shaggy are upset that the rest of the gang finally believe them that the monsters were real all this time.
Dean and Sam do their best to relax the gang, and Dean asks Freddy to create a trap. We then get a similar trap to the one we saw in A Night of Fright is No Delight, except there is a net of coconuts involved. This makes Sam wonder how the heck Freddy was able to muster up so many coconuts.
The trap fails as expected, but Dean has a plan B. Yelling over to Scooby, Scooby pulls the yellow book, sending the ghost down a trap door where he is stuck within a circle of salt. In the Supernatural world, ghosts can not cross a line of salt, so the ghost is secured.
Only Castiel, Dean, and Sam are in the room, and it is revealed that the ghost is a vengeful spirit of a young boy. The boy explains that a bad man had trapped him and was making him do bad things. Sam and Dean strike a deal with the spirit boy and vow to help the boy leave the afterlife, as long as they do them one big favour.
Pretending to have caught the Phantom Shadow, Sam and Dean lead the boy disguised as the Phantom Shadow out into the hall. There they find Scooby and the gang still in their breakdown mode after learning that ghosts are real. Dean and Sam admit that they were wrong and that the ghost they just caught is a man in a mask.
Velma reaches up and pulls the mask off the Phantom Shadow, and we see that it is Cosgood Creeps. Sam and Dean continue to assure the gang that it was a stunt pulled off by wires, a projector, and dummies filled with corn syrup. Fred then pipes in and figures out that Cosgood was trying to scare everyone out of the mansion so he could claim the million dollars for himself.
The plot is finally back on track and Dean reveals that the million dollars is worthless as it is confederate money. With Shaggy distracted, Castiel uses his angel powers to heal Shaggy’s arm, leading him to believe that his arm was never broken.
Now that the case is solved, the gang head back to the Malt Shop to celebrate another victory. The last several minutes of the episode is dedicated to Sam and Dean helping the spirit boy and returning to their Supernatural reality.
My Thoughts
I give this episode a 10 out of 10. This tribute to Scooby-Doo was an absolute joy to watch, and I feel they nailed every last detail perfectly. Every member of the gang is given their own special time to shine as they interact with the Supernatural cast. I particularly enjoyed the jealousy Dean had for Fred, and Dean’s failed attempts to seduce Daphne. Velma\’s crush on Sam was also hilarious. Castiel’s interaction with Scooby and Shaggy was top notch as well. On top of this, you have hundreds of other jokes that shine through as the two universes clash.
Not only are the jokes clever and amusing, the spooky factor is turned up to eleven for this episode. While the Phantasm bears a moderate resemblance to the Phantom Shadow, his updated look, to match modern animation styles, is sinister. Watching him slash at walls with his jagged claws and knowing Scooby could be next is frightening.
Seeing the murder victims is also shocking as we\’ve never seen this in the Scooby-Doo universe. It led to some hilarious black humour moments as Scoobynatural went the extra distance by making these murders over the top in terms of excessive gore.
Even though Sam and Dean are pulled into the Scooby universe, I like how the Supernatural rules apply and the twist it made on the Scooby-Doo universe. In the past we always knew the bad guys were fake, but with this story, Sam and Dean had to connect with a spooky ghost kid in order to end the violence.
I also enjoyed how the writers never let the Scooby gang break character, everyone stayed true to their 1970’s personas.
The juxtapositioning of the 1970s innocence of Scooby-Doo, combined with the evil realities of the Supernatural universe made for dozens of laugh out moments for me.
While I doubt we’ll ever see a follow up to this episode on Supernatural, I would love to see a take on it on Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? where Sam and Dean make a guest appearance. It would be interesting to see a reverse spin, where Sam and Dean discover all the ghosts they\’ve been fighting for the past 15 years have just been shady real estate agents in masks.
Voices
Frank Welker: Scooby-Doo, Fred Jones
Matthew Lillard: Shaggy Rogers
Grey Griffin: Daphne Blake
Kate Micucci: Velma Dinkley
Jared Padalecki: Sam Winchester
Jensen Ackles: Dean Winchester
Misha Collins: Castiel
Kegan Frith: Ghost Boy
Dee Bradley Baker: Phantasm
Eric Bauza: Cousin Simple (IMDB says he’s Cousin Slicker, but Cousin Slicker does not speak in this episode)
Stephen Stanton: Cosgood Creeps
Fred Tatasciore: Beauregard Sanders, Phantasm