Secrets and Camera Flashes

Chapter 11

While Castiel is having an existential crisis over his crush and inability to communicate with people, Dean and Jo have a more relaxing morning. Dean wakes up first, lying in a hotel bed with Jo by his side. He grabs your phone from the bedside table, and he's pleasantly surprised to see a text from his father. He doesn't hesitate to open it up.

Dad: I'm hearing great things about Jo's new movie

Dean can't help but wonder if that's supposed to be a call out. He didn't invite his father to the world premier, but in his defense, the US premier is only a few days away, and he did ask his father to come to that one. He just didn't want to put Sam and John in the same room together if he didn't have to. He loves them both, but they're not exactly on the best of terms, and he didn't want them to start fighting on Jo's big day.

Of course, that means his dad hasn't gotten to watch the movie, and he's probably a little peeved at that. It's been widely anticipated since it was announced, so he's sure John would have loved the first look.

Dean: Jo will be thrilled to hear that. I think you'll like it, too.

John: You should probably show her this

Dean stares at his phone uncomprehendingly until a screenshot of metacritic appears. He isn't surprised to see that the metacritic score it green; most decent movies get that. The user score is green, too, which shouldn't be a surprise — this movie isn't like the Cats movie, which people had a vendetta against since day one, so most people who voted ejther managed to get to the premier or is already a fan of the stars.

The general public can skew the user score if there's someone in the movie they hate, like the Justin Bieber YouTube docu-series that flopped in every regard. At the same time, though, stars that people love can skew the user score, too, like Taylor Swift's documentary with a user score chilling in the high 9s out of ten. Critics sometimes play into their own personal bias, too, but with two fairly unproblematic stars like Jo and Castiel, the critics were probably really rating it on plot and performance, and neither aspect deserves the lower than 60 required for a yellow score.

But then he looks at the actual scores, and he can safely say he wasn't expecting that part of it.

The metacritic score is a solid 96%, which is easily the highest he's ever seen any of Jo's movies score. It only comes from four critics' reviews, and there are certainly more to come that will probably drop it a bit, but it's off to a great start. The user review is up to 9.8, though right after the movie comes out, that's not surprising. She has a lot of fans that probably spammed it with positive reviews as soon as it came out, despite not having seen it. Still, 9.8 is a pretty impressive feat.

Dean: Is this what it's up to now?

John: As of two minutes ago

Dean: Jo's gonna be thrilled

As if on cue, Jo rolls over in bed with a quiet, "Hmm." Dean looks down just in time to see her eyes flutter open.

"'Morning, sleepyhead," Dean says as if he didn't just want up himself.

"Hi," Jo mumbles, then she closes her eyes again.

"While you're awake, can I tell you the good news?"

"Mm."

"Metacritic's at 96."

Jo's eyes snap open at that. "Seriously?"

"See for yourself," Dean says, holding his phone out to her.

Jo rubs her eyes, then squints at the phone. It takes her a moment to make it out, but he sees the exact moment it registers with her, and she immediately sits up, throwing her arms around him.