"Makes me wonder what else we blame on the writers that weren't written that way originally" - this is worth being super ccnscious of.

13.21 is an amazing episode that serves a ton of characters well, but this gives even more perspective on what @robertberens intended to land. https://twitter.com/TeamFreeWillBT/status/1199497214575267840

I'm obviously not a TV writer, but I'm friends with a bunch and I've been interviewing writers for various shows for 7 years. And my takeaway about TV production is what you see on screen is rarely the writer's pure creative vision. SO many changes are made beyond their control.

Especially for network, because the time constraints of network are so tight. The 5 act structure to hit ad breaks has a lot of issues for pacing and things get cut for time, but it's also timing or cost of a getting certain shot - like here, seeing Sam getting eaten, probably.

Notes on a production draft will usually tell a writer "this is too hard for us to film and execute." Studio and network notes are - stereotypically - dumb it down, spell it out, streamline it, etc. It's all part of the process but it clips writers wings constantly.

A writer might trust audience to understand a nuance they include & a script review may cut that nuance, demand exposition, leaving the script more heavy handed. A writer may prove they know their shit, with an ironclad explanation for new info, which is cut, deemed unnecessary.

Anyone who blames a writer's laziness or lack of care for things about a TV episode that didn't seem right... they're kidding themselves. Writers care 100000x more than most viewers. Have you ever met any writer? Anxious, second guessing crazy pendants. Love them, but nutters.

Believe me, BELIEVE ME. The writers care the most and their original drafts are packed with the most intense, complex version of an episode, writing out all the intended subtext, all the things they hope to convey, filling in everything they want explained and feel is important.

As an episode goes through script reviews, that all gets whittled down to the simplest, most digestible, most filmable version, based on calls not made by the writer. A conversation scene about a certain emotional state might get cut because the fight scene is extended by 30 secs

From the handful of SPN draft scripts I've seen - I own a few, and I've read others online - there's solid, solid proof that any inconsistency or under served emotional beat fans walk away from an ep questioning is something the writers intended to include or serve.

For ep 6 @Merecuda explained that an explainer for Eileen getting inside the bunker was included, but cut for time - those 30 secs deemed less vital, by someone else, than the other 42 mins, because you can plan an episode out time wise but stuff always runs over.

In s13, I think I heard an explainer for Cas's absence was written in @davyperez 13.17 and cut. I might be mixing that up but I remember ppl complaining about his unexplained absence, because he was so firmly installed in the Bunker at that point & the writers knew to address it.

I've seen Jensen unwittingly reference a scene on stage at a con, one that he remembered one way but the audience saw a different way, because he clearly wasn't aware of what had made the final cut. I've got the script of that ep and totally see how he got there. It happens.

This has probably happened five hundred or more times in the show's history. I doubt there's a single ep of the show that a writer who wrote it is 100% happy with. Network is especially tough because the structure is SO constrictive .

When something unexpected happens, like a great ad lib, it means something else gets cut. It shackles a show from leaning into naturalistic performance with realistic behaviours... because life doesn't happen in five act structures with a rush to get to the table.

Streaming allows shows the freedom to just keep that extra 30 seconds. Or even extra 5 mins. Or have a super long scene without an ad break climax. Variable lengths are okay. Not on network, and that's just o1 reason why a finished ep may not land what the writer wanted to land.

Anyway. "Makes me wonder what else we blame on the writers that weren't written that way originally.." i'm gonna say more than you could ever know. If you're a person who takes creative endeavours in good faith, try to watch TV with these production constraints in mind.

And remember - no one cares more about a story than the people writing it. It's their job to sit there & imagine this is real, to get so deep inside it that they can make it matter. It's their job to know the in-universe offscreen details that allow the story to go from a to b.

No matter how real the show is to you, it's realer to them.