With all the “Dick” jokes we get during S7, it is refreshing to get a dose of girl power and with that, a character that isn’t trying to sex up one of our boys. Instead, Charlie Bradbury reflects some of the cooler women of the Supernatural fandom. We’re not all like Becky, Moose! In this episode, we meet Charlie, and with her hacker skills, video game/role playing obsessions, Lord of the Rings references, and a quick wit that keeps even Dean Winchester guessing, I was smitten with her as soon as she started snooping through her boss’ (Dick Roman, king Leviathan) files, after consulting the Hermione Granger bobble head for advice, or course.

Episode:

S07xE20 AKA The Episode With A Girl the Fandom Doesn’t Hate and Want Dead Immediately

Sam’s Best Line:

Sam: Who’s your favorite Harry Potter character?

Charlie: Hermione.

Sam: Hermione, huh? Well, did Hermione run when Sirius Black was in trouble? Or when Voldemort attacked Hogwarts?

Charlie: No. Of course not.

Dean’s Best Line:

You go, Dumbledork.

Synopsis:

This episode is an introduction to the sometimes-character of Charlie Bradbury. She is an expert computer hacker working for Sucro Corp, the corn syrup company the Leviathans are using to poison the fat folks of the USA. That big dick, Dick Roman seemingly murders Frank, the paranoid, not around-long-enough, hacker friend of Bobby’s that has been gathering information on Leviathan for the Winchesters. Dick needs Charlie to break into Frank’s coded files and so the beginning of the episode seems to be a race between Dick’s hacker and the Winchesters. We don’t know Charlie, but she is definitely a part of the Rebel Alliance. Instead of running to Dick with what she finds, Charlie reads the files, sees her boss eat a coworker and decides to leave town instead of working for monsters. Enter the Winchester brothers, who meet up with Charlie, explain the situation and ask for her help. They don’t take long, do they? Luckily, Charlie is brave, smart and down for the greater good. She volunteers to wipe the drive, help the Winchesters and develops a real little sister vibe with Dean and Sam. When Charlie rides off into the sunset, audiences are hoping it’s not for good and it isn’t. Oh, yes, our favorite girl geek will be back in seasons 8 and 9.

What This Episode Reveals About the Winchesters:

The boys need a girl sidekick. There is way too much testosterone on this show at any given moment and I, for one, enjoy seeing Sam and Dean interacting with a female friend who can hold her own with the boys. They seem to admire Charlie and feel understandably protective over her. We also see Sam and Dean ready to kamikaze themselves for the cause. Even though they aren’t prepared to fight the Leviathan, they are willing to go up against the lot because that is just what they do. These two are always ready to die for humanity, but this time they don’t have to. With the help of Charlie, the boys get ahold of an important package that Dick Roman is waiting for–the Demon Tablet. This is when it all changes for the Winchesters.

The Big Picture:

I really don’t know if the producers realized that Felicia Day would be such an instant hit with the fans. She fit right into the Supernatural universe, and because she plays a lesbian, fans don’t have to worry that Sam and/or more likely Dean will try to hit it and quit it. More than that, though, Charlie represents the huge percentage of Supernatural fans who are female, geeky and down for an adventure with the Winchesters. After all, we are not all fan fiction obsessed Wincest shippers like Becky (some of us just really, really want to see Cas and Dean kiss, but that’s another post). Seems that Kripke and the gang are again giving a meta nod to female fans by legitimizing our geekiness in Charlie. The ever present, ever stupid question, “Can girls be geeks?” is answered as soon as audiences meet Charlie Bradbury. She is smart, energetic and takes the whole Leviathan thing in stride, as much as a person can when confronted with the true evils of the Winchester world. The showrunners are smart to bring Charlie back for two episodes in Season 8 and even smarter, because I hear we are definitely going to see her in Season 9.

My Favorite Scene:

Is Dean teaching Charlie to flirt with a dude? Yup. It’s all happening.

xoxo

The Collectiva Diva

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