There’s a certain kind of TV moment that feels like it was cooked up for the internet—two familiar faces, a crossover that shouldn’t work, and then suddenly it does. This time, it’s Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki showing up on “The Rookie” to hunt down demons, or at least the story around them.
In the latest documentary-style episode of the ABC procedural, Nolan and his crew dig into a suspicious suicide. Rich, a former LAPD police officer, has stabbed himself in the heart after spiraling into a deep obsession with demons—and the group of demon hunters he believed was behind a string of unsolved murders. It’s dark, but also kind of specific in that way only a mystery can be: the case isn’t just “what happened,” it’s “why did he believe what he believed.”
Showrunner Alexi Hawley appears in the episode as a documentarian, teaming up with Abigail Tierney (Madeleine Coghlan) to interview the LAPD about the bizarre case. And that’s where the real-life-ish chaos kicks in. As experts in demon-hunting, Padalecki and Ackles—who play themselves—are called in by the filmmakers to sit for an interview, sharing their experiences with the supernatural and their impressions of Rich. (In the fictional storyline, they crossed paths years earlier at a fan event called “Monster Con.”)
Ackles and Padalecki then get into the details of Rich, and you can almost hear how fan-event stories would sound when they’re coming from the people at the center of them. “We co-starred on a TV show together for 15 seasons, called ‘Supernatural,’” Padalecki explains to the filmmakers via Zoom—like the show has to be announced, as if we don’t already know. Ackles jumps in, talking about playing Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers who tracked and fought supernatural beings. The interview format keeps everything feeling grounded, even when it’s absolutely not.
Per Ackles, Rich made such an impact at “Monster Con” because he wasn’t like other fans—he was “a different beast.” Padalecki adds that Rich seemed fixated on a specific episode where they fought a particular demon, one Rich recognized. “He seemed to think we knew more about [demon hunting] than we were saying,” Padalecki says. “He kept asking these super pointed questions like he was testing us.” And then Ackles offers the blunt, very acting-real reminder: “We didn’t come up with these stories. We just did what the writers wrote. It’s called acting.”
By the end, Rich’s obsession turns out to be another kind of trap. He’d fallen victim to the very manipulation he once sought to expose. Though he wrongly believed himself to be possessed by a demon, he was right to connect the unsolved murders—just not in the way he thought. The investigation ultimately finds that a direct-to-video movie director was the mastermind of the killings. He spun a web of demonic lies to manipulate those close to him into murdering people who’d wronged him. Luckily, that terrible, no good, very bad director had no affiliation with “Supernatural”—fictional or otherwise.
If you’re the type who loves when TV lets its fandom breathe—when you can practically smell the popcorn and hear the room buzzing—this reunion is probably landing for you. Were you delighted by the unexpected “Supernatural” reunion on “The Rookie”? Misryoum readers are already reacting, and the comments are going to be… loud, I’m guessing.
El mensaje del exmarido de Grecia Colmenares tras su ingreso a Gran Hermano