Jensen Ackles, who directed this week’s episode of Walker season 2, explained the backstory of the episode’s references to Supernatural. Ackles and his co-star Jared Padalecki both rose to fame on the back of Supernatural, the long-running CW drama in which they starred as monster-hunting brothers Sam and Dean Winchester. After Supernatural ended in 2020, the pair went their separate ways, with Jared Padalecki leading The CW’s reboot of the classic Chuck Norris series Walker, Texas Ranger.
In September 2021, The CW announced that Jensen Ackles would direct an episode of Walker season 2, creating a mini Supernatural reunion. Although fans waited with bated breath, it took several months for that promised episode to come to fruition. The episode, titled “No Such Thing As Fair Play,” is the fourteenth episode of season 2 and is slated to air on April 14, 2022. The episode will be packed with references to Supernatural. Naturally, not all of the references have been revealed just yet. However, it has been confirmed that the episode will feature a performance from the band Kansas, whose song “Carry On Wayward Son” was used in the finale of every season of Supernatural. The series finale, “Carry On,” was even named in homage to the track.
While speaking with EW from the set of the pilot for the Supernatural prequel The Winchesters, Jensen Ackles talked about the Easter eggs he snuck into his episode of Walker. Many of them were already present in the script by Katherine Alyse, a Supernatural fan who couldn’t resist including them while working on the script for their reunion. Some of them he accepted point-blank, but others he took a look at and said, “I can level that up,” peppering in as many little callbacks as possible. Check out the full quote below:
[Were the references already written or collaborative? It was] a little of both, but here’s why: Katherine Alyse, who wrote the episode, knows Supernatural very well and essentially wrote a lot of Easter eggs. I was either like, “Oh, I can absolutely do that” or, “I can level that up.” We definitely tried to pepper in the Easter eggs when we could.
Those hoping for this Walker-style Supernatural reunion to be chock full of in-jokes and references will not be disappointed. Supernatural fans won’t know the full rundown of the Easter eggs in this episode until it airs. However, fans of both series should be prepared to scour every frame for references to Walker’s previous affiliation with the Winchester clan.
Although the Supernatural reunion on this episode of Walker is more of a behind-the-camera affair, it’s still a delight that they saw fit to reference the show that put both stars on the map. Likewise, considering the sheer number of references he was interested in making, it seems unlikely that Ackles could have resisted appearing onscreen in some way, shape, or form. Even if he’s just present in the crowd at the Kansas concert, it seems entirely likely that eagle-eyed fans will be able to spot Ackles somewhere during this episode.
