Television October 28, 2015
All About 'Baby': How 'Supernatural' Pulled Off the Impala Episode
“Supernatural” took fans on a wild ride tonight in an all-new episode starring Baby the Impala!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! Stop reading if you haven't seen “Supernatural” Season 11 episode 4.
Every scene took place in or around Dean Winchester's (Jensen Ackles) beloved 1967 Chevy as he and brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) hit the road headed for Oregon.
ExtraTV.com stopped by the set in Vancouver to find out how they pulled off such a unique episode, but first a little recap…
In the episode, aptly titled “Baby,” the boys hear about a killing in Eugene and set off to find what they believe is a werewolf-vampire hybrid, which Dean refers to as a “werepire.”
The Winchesters name a new monster next week! Catch up on the new season of #Supernatural: https://t.co/DwQjoryWfU https://t.co/xVjehmPV1G
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Fans couldn't get enough of Dean and Sam on the road, sleeping in the car, having heart-to-heart talks about relationships, and singing Bob Seger's “Night Moves,” not to mention the car wash scene, valet joy ride and Castiel's phone calls about “Orange Is the New Black.”
Of course, Matt Cohen returning as Papa Winchester in Sam's vision was especially memorable, as he offered advice on battling the darkness.
In the end, they defeat what turned out to be a pack of Ghoulpires with the help of copper pennies.
So how did they pull off such an ambitious episode?
Director Thomas J. Wright rigged the cameras up in the cars – they used eight Babies for the episode – and the sound guy rode in the trunk.
Jared gushed, “It was the first ever in 200-something episodes that we shot like that. It was a brand new style.”
Jensen added, “It came to attaching the cameras to the car and rigging them so they wouldn't move and then they would be like, 'Okay, see you later' and [Jared] and I would take off with no crew and no nothing.” Due to the unusual nature of the shoot, Ackles admitted there is probably a ton of b-roll of the guys just “shooting the s**t.”
It wasn't all smooth sailing. Apparently, having a full camera rig in place of a windshield makes it hard to see. Ackles said, “I'm driving on an actual road and I'm driving a real car and I have real live passengers and my focus, my focal, is completely gone so I'm using my peripheral vision to drive the car.”
Then there was Padalecki's touching scene with Cohen, which the production wanted to keep a secret. “What's funny is that on the call sheet his name – they didn't want to put Matt Cohen so they put Leonard Cohen in case anyone picked it up. Like, oh, that's not going to be suspicious… Leonard Cohen is doing an episode of 'Supernatural.'”
Jared described the dream sequence, saying, “Sam is not often caught off guard like that. He has been through a lot. He's been to hell and to heaven and to purgatory and he's died and killed, so Sam's not often caught totally off guard so that was a fun kind of direction for me to go with him.”
Padalecki continued, “It was a really neat thing to use him instead of using Jeffrey Dean Morgan because it put Sam in an even more awkward position because this wasn't the dad he knew… it was just such a well thought out script and well-executed script. The guest cast was phenomenal, and I had a great time.”
Padalecki loved the scene where Sam wakes up to find Dean's pulled the car over to sleep and they have a heart to heart about his vision, while Jensen thought it was a “cool glimpse into the Winchesters and how they travel. We aren't getting a hotel every night don't want to waste the money, [they] crash in the car and then head out.”
Watch the Winchester brothers battle the darkness on Wednesdays at 9 PM on the CW.