A perfectly blended brew of pop culture parody, metaphysics and existential anxiety anchored by bravura acting by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, “Changing Channels” was one fulfilling hour of television.

The game is on from the opening. It’s the Winchester Brothers sitcom, complete with the cutesy opening credits, saccharine theme song, the notice that “Supernatural is filmed in front of a live audience,” the hot bikini girl, broad humor and the two bantering but lovin’ bros sharing a tandem bike.

But before we know what’s going on, we find the boys doing their faux FBI shtick in the latest small town, trying to find out what really killed the husband of a hysterical woman. A bear or the Incredible Hulk? The Lou Ferrigno Hulk to be specific. Through a trail of candy wrappers, they deduce it’s actually the sweets-loving, malevolent demon, the Trickster (Richard Speight Jr.). (Aside: Is it just me or is Kripke spoofing his own show here with just a little too much of their trademark banter and a case that’s just a little too ridiculous?) They determine to get the Trickster’s help against the demons and angels.

Thinking they’re tracking a killer, they enter a warehouse to find that they’re inexplicably trapped in Dean’s fave medical drama, Dr. Sexy, M.D., a nail-on-the-head spoof of Grey’s Anatomy, with the likes of a “arrogant but sexy heart surgeon,” Dr. Wang. And yeah, there’s a resident ghost, a dig at the dead guy lover played on Grey's by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, better known to Supernatural fans as Sam and Dean’s dad. Through his fanboy obsession with the show, Dean realizes that this Dr. Sexy is played by none other than the Trickster.

The tricky one tells them he’ll think about “cleaning up [their] mess,” if they can survive the next 24 hours trapped in TV shows playing a game they don’t know the rules to. So back in Sexy land, Dean gets shot and Sam has to play surgeon to save him. “I need a pen knife, some dental floss, a sewing needle and a fifth of whiskey. Stat!”

Next it’s off to a Japanese game show in which they’re supposed to correctly answer questions—in Japanese—about their life. When Sam fails, he’s punched in the privates by some Rube Goldberg contraption. I think I’ve seen that Japanese show. Castiel wanders through at some point, but since the Trickster doesn’t like angels, he’s quickly whisked away. Dean gets out of this one by suddenly speaking Japanese. Don’t ask.

Then after a quick commercial with a strikingly uncomfortable and hilarious Sam shilling for a genital herpes medication, they’re on that sitcom. But it’s not really a laughing matter. The Trickster says they also have to play their roles “out there. Sam starring as Lucifer, Dean starring as Michael, in a celebrity death match." And if they don’t play the roles? They’re stuck in TV land forever.

So it’s on to the inevitable crime procedural spoof. In matching sunglasses the wised-up guys ad lib their own action and stake two different CSI's, thinking they’re the Trickster. Not only does that move fail, now it’s Sam starring as My Brother, The Car. Yep, he’s stuck in the Chevy.

Finally freed by their nemesis, Sam and Dean unravel the biggest trick of all. The Trickster is really an archangel, Gabriel, whom they trap in holy oil. His anger against his heavenly siblings gave him away. Gabriel fled heaven because he couldn’t stand his family’s quarrels. Talk about Brothers and Sisters! The Apocalypse can’t be stopped, he says. “I don’t care who wins. I just want it over.” He tells the brothers that they can’t escape their fraternal destiny being the human vessels in the final fight between two other brothers (Lucifer and archangel Michael) over Daddy. This is no TV show tied up in a bow, Gabriel tells them.

They make him bring back Castiel and Gabriel says, “Hello brother. How’s the search for Daddy going. Let me guess. Awful.” After Dean shouts out to Gabriel, “This is about you being too afraid to stand up to your family,” they free him from the oil and leave.

And at the end, they say the they only thing they really can. Dean: “I wish I was back in a TV show.” Sam: “Me too.” And they don’t mean Celebrity Death Match.

Was this the quintessential Supernatural episode? Which TV parody was your favorite? Any ideas on how the boys can avoid their celebrity death match?