Logliney Stuff:
Two brothers. Saving people. Hunting things. They start out with monsters and end up fighting, well, God. It’s a thing.
What’s Up With That:
A procedural! Remember how much I love crime-solving shows? SPN is basically a crime-solving show, except ALL the suspects are serial killers-ish. Plus they play with mythology (though I spent a good amount of time hiding from spooky things before I became inured) and soon enough, cosmology. And they generally had the perfect balance of serial and episodic storylines. These dudes filled in the gap when Buffy and Angel went away.
Metatext-Type Stuff:
So I started watching SPN because Jensen Ackles is, well. Look at the dude, okay? I first saw him as Alex on Dark Angel, the flippant hybridized dude who reluctantly assisted the protag in, uh, freeing their people? Or something. Meanwhile, Jared Padalecki was straight out of Gilmore Girls, playing the ideal first boyfriend and/or the worst ex-boyfriend. Sometimes you just need 40+ minutes staring at handsome dudes being stoic.
Also, I was The WB’s key demographic, guys. I watched everything they had. I followed them to UPN, and then to The CW. Give me all your ridiculously attractive and deliberately diverse groups of young people cracking wise and saving the world.
SPOILERS AHEAD.
Character Natterings:
There are fifteen seasons. I cut so many people from this list, y’all. In my last rewatch I started keeping track of minor characters who get left in the dust and duuuuuuude there is so much story left on the field.
- Dean Winchester
Putting aside my predilection for Jensen Ackles, Dean sort of represents my favorite kind of character: The eldest sibling, begrudgingly holding the world on his shoulders, trying to make peace between his demanding father and his rebellious younger sibling. Plus, COMPETENCE, my friends. Man knows his work.
But then I got older, the series kept going, and I realized Dean is, in fact, a walking, talking example of how toxic masculinity destroys dudes who otherwise would be amazing. (The Extraneous Supernatural podcast once asked what would have happened if John had died and Mary had lived. They landed on “chaotic bisexual Dean” and why can’t we live in that world?) DEAN HAS A LOT OF FEELINGS, OKAY. HE HAS NOWHERE TO PUT THEM.
- Sam Winchester
As the resentful younger sibling, Sam wasn’t really my cup of tea in the beginning. Like, yes, he was on the brink of law school before his girlfriend was killed by a demon and he joined Dean on the road, but did he have to be so whiny about it? But he also had special powers! (Arguably he had powers all the way till the end--he just didn’t acknowledge the trigger.) Who doesn’t dig a Chosen One every once in a while?
As time went on, though, Sam was the guy who brought a stack of books to the bar, coming perilously close to being a song of my heart. Sam is a nerd, Sam is responsible, Sam is strategic, Sam is curious, Sam can get it, y’all.
Once, in a later season, Dean snarked about someone being beat up by a girl. Sam just looked at him and said, “We get beat up by girls all the time.” Dean conceded the point.
- Castiel
“I’m the one that gripped you tight and raised you from perdition.” Castiel bursts upon the scene, literally, exploding a gas stop where newly-risen Dean had stopped. Castiel’s brilliance burned out the eyes of a psychic who sought him. Castiel walked towards Dean and Bobby and didn’t even notice the bullets tearing through him.
Castiel is also a goofball angel who takes most things very literally and occasionally watches porn in order to understand humanity. Castiel took possession of the body he holds and damaged a family forever. Castiel shares a profound bond with Dean.
- Bobby Singer
So I actually love when we get characters who signal the depth of the world they inhabit. Bobby starts out as that: An old friend of John Winchester, a hub for the hunter network, and a reliable source of lore. In the space of a few seasons he becomes the closest thing to a parent that Dean and Sam ever had. It’s really sweet.
I do wonder where Bobby got all the resources, though. Like, how did he manage to get, like a dozen phone lines put in his kitchen? Who paid for all the books?
- Mary Winchester
Mary Winchester died in the first episode of the series. She was pinned to a ceiling and burned to death. Mary Campbell Winchester came from a long line of hunters (subverting the previous implications/assumptions that John was the expert in that arena). Mary Winchester got out of the game and forgot she’d made a deal with a yellow-eyed demon.
Mary Winchester was brought back to life by God’s sister (I know) and got to know her two adult, screwed-up sons. Mary Winchester refused to stay in the martyred mother box and set some hella strong boundaries. Mary Winchester is the hero of this story--we just never got to see all her chapters.
- John Winchester
Oh, John. You pent-up, emotionally withdrawn mess. After Mary died, John went all in on the hunting thing (did Mary keep a stash? Did he ever know about her?) and trained his boys up to do the same. John Winchester stopped expressing emotions when Mary died and ended up being a shitty father.
John Winchester is the shadow that looms in every corner. John Winchester embraced death so that Dean wouldn’t have to.
- Ellen & Jo Harvelle & Ash
The Roadhouse! The hunter network! We got glimpses of this with Bobby, but with him, there was a friend-of-a-friend sort of deal. When the Harvelles and Ash join Our Heroes, though, we start to see what keeps this scrappy band of, let’s face it, wanted felons on the move and on the hunt.
Ellen knows a lot about hunting, but she’s also pretty bitter about her husband dying when he went on a hunt with John Winchester. Jo, Ellen’s daughter, wants to be a hunter and gets shot down a lot. (Ellen is, like, the anti-John.) Ash is their mulleted buddy who also is a genius that can track demon activity through meteorological reports. They all died stupid and too early and I’m still mad about it.
- Jody Mills & Donna Hanscum
The most remarkable thing about these women is that they don’t die. WTF, SPN? I thought you were ruthless about all the secondary characters that have potential and are well-liked. But you let these two Midwestern sheriffs make it through meeting monsters!
They are the cheeriest part of the hunter network. Jody cooks the boys meals when they stop by. Jody seems to be running a halfway house for teenage hunters. (A straight-up hunter, a vampire foundling, a psychic, and a world-walker.) They back up the boys a lot.
- Claire Novak
Claire is the straight-up hunter as discussed above. She is also the daughter of Jimmy Novak, who happened to cede control of his body to Castiel...eventually, permanently. Claire, quite reasonably, reacts badly to this.
Then her mom disappears (kidnapped by an angel) and Claire is all on her own. Castiel, slowly starting to understand guilt, checks on her as he can. Claire, like Jo, does her darndest to hunt even when her mother figure tries to stop her.
- Kevin Tran
Kevin Tran had a good life. He was super-smart, he was on his way to college, he had an equally smart girlfriend, and his mom was actually a badass. Then one day Kevin became a Prophet of the Lord and spent the rest of his life translating angelic and demonic artifacts. Kevin deserved better.
- Rowena MacLeod
Rowena, through oft-premeditated attrition, became the strongest witch in the world. Strong enough to fight God, in fact. While she started out pretty evil--well, we find out, lawful neutral in some murderous circumstances--she eventually becomes the magical force behind the Winchesters. Oh, and her son ended up becoming the King of Hell.
- Crowley
Crowley used to run the crossroads, coordinating the deals people make with the devil. After a few shake-ups and maybe a couple of coups, Crowley becomes King of Hell. He also develops an extremely strong affection for Dean. Like his mother, Crowley somehow becomes the demonic backup to the Winchesters.
- Lucifer
Yeah, that Lucifer. In any and every room, he is the most extra. Turns out, in addition to being the third most powerful being in the universe, he’s also a narcissist with daddy issues. He’s chaotic evil.
- Ruby
Ruby is a demon who appeared, for the most part, in two different bodies. She started out as a witch, went to hell, and became a pretty knowledgeable demonic agent. She introduces the boys to the demon-killing knife. In her second incarnation, she gets Sam hooked on blood and occasionally sex. Ruby is awesome. (Lawful evil.)
- Charlie Bradbury
Charlie is pure sunshine. She is the little sister the Winchesters didn’t know they wanted. She found out she was working for some Leviathans and began to use her hacking powers for good. While she starts out pretty frail, she ends up saving Oz. There are a lot of ways to hunt, it turns out.
- Death
I needed a reason to put Death’s introduction in. It is the best scene ever, possibly, and sets the tone for a character whose power remains uncanny and outside the realm of everything else. He really likes fried junk food, though, and Dean Winchester seems to amuse him. (What is up with Dean and otherworldly beings?)
- Jack
Jack is actually the second nephilim we meet, but the first one only lasts for, like, half an episode. He’s the son of a human and an angel. Specifically, he’s the son of Lucifer. Once he comes onto the scene, it sort of seems like he’s taken Lucifer’s place as the third most powerful being in the universe. Also, he was born fully grown and is as awkward as Castiel with humany ways.
- Chuck & Amara
God and his sister.
Well, we first meet Chuck as a Prophet of the Lord who mysteriously fictionalized everything about the Winchesters’ lives into a series of novels that gains a small but VERY devoted audience. Things get more complicated from there.
Amara, also known as “the Darkness,” is the yin to Chuck’s yang, essentially. She was imprisoned for a while, then Dean broke her out. She developed--surprise, surprise--a strong attachment to Dean. She and Chuck seem to be relatively equal in power. (Which puts them both as tied for second most powerful in the universe. Death, obvs, is the first.)
The Shipping News:
- Dean/Jo
Dean knee-jerk hits on Jo the first time he meets her. Then Jo develops an intense crush on Dean. Then they seem to be getting to a space where it could be real and then Jo DIED TWO MINUTES LATER. Goddammit, SPN. Anyway, had she survived, she and Dean would have made a pretty good pair of hunters.
- Dean/Bela
Bela, a true chaotic neutral, is SPN’s version of Catwoman, basically. She likes the Winchesters, but she likes her bank account more. She would happily get down with Dean, but not enough to get, like, weird about it. She also dies before her time and I have spent a lot of time imagining ways she could still be alive. (Also, Sam has a weird fantasy about her that makes very little sense, but is fun to watch, I guess?)
- Sam/Eileen
Eileen’s only in a few episodes, but oh man, she becomes everything. She grew up hunting, she's Deaf, and we first realize Sam’s attraction to her when he starts brushing up on his ASL in his spare time. Then she dies. Then Sam resurrects her and then they very clearly fall in love. There is no future that makes sense except one with Sam and Eileen getting married and living the rest of their lives as extremely practical and un-ragey occasional hunters.
- Dean/Castiel
THEY SHARE A PROFOUND BOND, OKAY.
- Mary Campbell/John Winchester
As I mentioned before, the revelation that Mary’s from a hunting family subverts expectations in a thrilling way. John is a veteran, so not very squishy, but he’s also bright-eyed and innocent when he meets Mary. They are the cutest. Mary leaves the life for John.
- Dean/Lisa
If Dean ever stopped hunting, Lisa and her son, Ben, would become his entire life. They do, in fact, for a year or so. Dean has their memories wiped for an extremely stupid reason.
- Sam/Jessica
Poor Jess. Poor pinned-to-the-ceiling-and-set-on-fire Jess. What must she have made of Sam, an extremely tall, studious boy who never talks about his childhood or his family and also has surprisingly keen reflexes?
- Meg/Castiel
Meg is a demon. Castiel is an angel. Meg develops a very real thing for Castiel, her unicorn. Castiel takes some moves from that porn he was watching and puts it to use.
Live for the Memory:
Again: Fifteen seasons! That is many! The episodes I’ve included here are the ones that are remarkably memorable, at least in my mind. And some delightful scenes can be found below.
- Pilot
I can’t leave the pilot out, right?
- Home
The boys return to their hometown and find Ghost Mary. We also meet John for the first time and, not for nothing, Missouri Moseley, local psychic.
- In My Time of Dying
John dies. It’s just as sad as you’d expect.
- Nightshifter
The boys pretend to rob a bank in order to find a shapeshifter. This is mostly unremarkable except for “Renegade.” But “Renegade” is peak SPN music, so.
- Bad Day on Black Rock
Bela’s first episode, BUT ALSO, there’s a magic rabbit’s foot that gives you insanely good luck, but if you lose it, everything slingshots the other way, usually killing you. It has the funniest line of the show, ever: “I lost my shoe.”
- Mystery Spot
The mandatory time loop episode. I love time loop episodes so much.
- Lazarus Rising
“I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition.” Welcome, Castiel! Your first appearance was terrifying!
- Yellow Fever
There’s a fun running gag where Dean is scared of a lot of things, but the music is again the most memorable thing about it. For reasons unknown, the episode ends with a clip of Jensen Ackles lip-syncing to “Eye of the Tiger.” That set must have been so fun.
- Wishful Thinking
A town gets a wishing well. A tiny girl wishes for her teddy bear to come to life. The teddy bear does not take it well.
- Changing Channels
When you get a few seasons in and you know just how devoted your fanbase is, you start doing meta episodes. Here, Dean and Sam get trapped in a bunch of different TV shows and ye gods, it’s amazing.
- The French Mistake
The most meta of episodes. Dean and Sam are transported to a reality where SPN is a TV show. They have to pretend to be Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. They have to act! There’s nothing so fun as to see good actors acting like bad actors.
- LARP and the Real Girl
There is Charlie. There is cosplay. We once again get a glimpse of a world where Dean Winchester is the geekiest of geeks.
- Sacrifice
The end of this episode is the most beautiful and haunting and the best season finale I’ve ever seen? Like, I think about it on the regular. “Angels. They’re falling.”
- Fan Fiction
Episode 200! It turns out that a high school drama club took Chuck’s Supernatural novels and made them into a musical. It’s AMAZING. And the songs are actually really good.
- Baby
The entire episode is filmed from the perspective of the Impala. It’s kind of gimmicky, but also I love it? That car is the heart of this show, I think.
- Don’t Call Me Shurley
Also kind of gimmicky, but a nice piece. Chuck and Metatron hang out and delve into Chuck’s compulsion to control the Winchesters.
- Alpha and Omega
Chuck and Amara make peace and scram for a while, but Amara gives Dean one last gift. HIS MOM. This came close to beating the falling angels as the best season finale. SO CLOSE.
- Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox
This is the first time we see the hunter network in a social setting. It’s at a wake for one of their own. This has Mary and Jody in it, and the hunting twins, who I love eternally.
- All Along the Watchtower
OMG, okay, this is up there as an excellent season finale moment, too. This show, man. This one ends on the revelation of Jack, newly born, fully grown.
- Wayward Sisters
This was a backdoor pilot and I will never be at peace with the fact that it didn’t get picked up. This is Jody’s halfway house for teenage hunters! Jody and a frequently visiting Donna. Claire Novak, the orphaned hunter. Alex Jones, a vampire foundling. Patience Turner, a new psychic. And two different versions of Kaia Nieves, who can travel between dimensions. Even now, I’m like, They could still do it. Everybody would be down, surely?
- Scoobynatural
The boys get pulled into an episode of Scooby Doo. Guys. GUYS. How did this even?
- Lebanon
Episode 300. A fluke artifact brings John Winchester into the future where Mary Winchester is alive again. They have a family dinner! All our hearts break!
- Absence
Mary dies, but goes to heaven. “Mary Winchester is complete.” *sob*
- Moriah
Zombies! They end this season with a zombie uprising!
- The Rupture
We’re tripping into the last season here, and this is Rowena’s farewell episode (kind of). It’s a beautiful sequence.
Golden Time
Sam brings Eileen back from the dead. BECAUSE THEY ARE IN LOVE.
- The Heroes’ Journey
Having fallen out of favor with God, the boys suddenly experience life as the rest of us regular mortals do. They trip on stuff. They burn dinner. They struggle with picking locks. They have food allergies! Also, there’s a weird sequence where Dean does some dancing in black and white.
- Despair
Castiel’s farewell episode. There are only two episodes after this. News of Destiel dominated Twitter so much that it almost overwhelmed election stuff, which is still kind of wondrous.
- Inherit the Earth
The penultimate episode, which is a proper season finale. The final showdown with God.
- Carry On
The final episode, a definitive series finale. It ends the way we always knew it would end. I still cried a lot SHUT UP.
World-building Obsessions:
There is a TON of mythology I am skipping over here. Included in this section are just the things I think are the crunchiest.
- Sam the Psychic and the Special Kids
Sam and these other kids were fed demon blood in the cradle (yikes). They develop special powers. They would have been the most grumbly, homicidal version of X-men ever.
- Ghostfacers
These dudes. They have a web/TV show. It is about the supernatural. They seem to think the Winchesters are, like, competition? They’re silly, but it’s a pretty believable offshoot in a world where the monsters are real.
- Anna, Naomi, Gadreel, Metatron, Joshua
I mentioned cosmology earlier, right? These folks are special angels. Not, like, capital-S Special, but they have unique functions. Anna seems kind of parallel to Castiel--a division leader and also occasionally fallen. Naomi is, like, the manager in Heaven for a while. Gadreel is the angel who let the serpent into the Garden and everyone’s still salty about it. Metatron is the Voice of God. Joshua is Heaven’s gardener.
- Archangels, Grigori, Cupids
They also have different classes of angels. Archangels are the superpowered ones: Lucifer, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Grigori are angels specifically posted on Earth and they did not adapt well at all. Cupids are exactly what you think.
- Princes of Hell
These dudes are the demon equivalents of the archangels--superpowered and without fear. Here we have Azazel, the yellow-eyed demon who drove the Winchesters for the first couple of seasons. There are also Ramiel, Dagon, and Asmodeus, all of whom are powerful but largely unremarkable.
- Lilith, Abaddon, Cain
Lilith was the first human turned into a demon, by Lucifer’s hand, even. Abaddon is also one of the early fallen. Cain, the Father of Murder, used to train, or was perhaps one of, the Knights of Hell.
- Crossroads Demons & Hellhounds
You do a ritual at a crossroads. The demon comes and seals your agreement with a kiss. You have ten years of everything you ever wanted. Then the hellhounds come.
- Amara and Chuck
These two are so tiring, guys. It’s weird to see them in these little human forms--it makes them seem kind of petty a lot of the time, and then they get, like, angered by something and destroy a galaxy out of spite. What happened in the beginning? Why did they fight in the first place?
- Multiple Heavens
This is a neat bit--each person has their own personalized heaven. Sometimes it intersects with others--we see/hear that a lot with families--but some are their own little pocket universes. But also, they all have doors, so people escape once in a while.
- Purgatory, the Empty, and Hell
This is where things get way trippy. Purgatory isn’t a middle ground for Medium Place people--it’s the place where monsters go when they die. But it seems like it’s just another world, except more lethal. The Empty is where angels and demons go to die. It’s supposed to be oblivion, but sometimes it wakes up and gets mad about that. Hell usually seems to be a drafty stone mansion, but also in the bottom there is a cage where Lucifer lives a lot of the time, and I guess you can apprentice in torture. When humans are in hell long enough, they can become demons.
- Pagan Gods
They’re real, too! But more along the lines of, “our power comes from worship,” sort of gods. They are not cool with the state of things. They’re a comedic version of American Gods.
- Time Travel
Seriously, this happens a lot. The boys go back in time to meet young Mary and John. They go back to the Old West. They go back to the time of Eliot Ness. They bring their Winchester grandfather to the future. Angels can move through time, but they also can run into their younger or older selves. One time the Titanic got saved and everything got very Final Destination.
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- Men of Letters
The anti-hunters network. It’s more like a secret society, except it’s particularly into supernatural occurrences (mostly extermination thereof). They make this the thing the Winchester side of the family does (as opposed to the Campbell side, all hunters), in a needless obsession with Yes, You Are Special for our protags. (Can’t people just be competent? Sigh.) The best thing about them is that the boys find an underground bunker filled with books and artifacts and a demon cage and a kitchen and maps and bedrooms! The boys, for the first time EVER, have an actual home! Hooray!
The American version kind of died out (time traveling demons), but the British branch got extremely organized and efficient. They’re more like the Initiative from Buffy season, uh, the college season.
- The Hunter Network
At first, it just seems like a bunch of folks good at killing things who exchange phone numbers when they cross paths. Then there are nodes like The Roadhouse and Bobby’s place. Bobby, in fact, has a dozen phones set up so hunters can have suspicious officials call the FBI/CIA/etc/etc to verify a story. Everything gets bigger from there. Everybody knows everybody and backup will show up as needed. (Unless they find you suspicious. Then they’ll just kill you, too.) Also, apparently there are little symbols that shops catering to hunters can flag, kinda like the hobo code in days of yore. Hunter funerals are very poignant and dramatic, but how do they never draw attention?
- Alternate Universes:
A lot of these AUs are usually different versions of The Winchesters Are Demons Now. Very grim, very post-apocalyptic. The lighting is awful. But there’s also weird juxtapositions like Oz. Yes, that Oz! The Bad Place universe has dinosaurs, I can’t even. And then apparently there’s a universe where the Winchester hunters got all incorporated.
What the Hell, Show?:
- Listen, this show has an abysmal track record in regards to race. Like, alllmost Friends-level bad. Or...are all serial killing monsters white or, occasionally, Asian? Hm.
- Provenance
This one, with the serial killing ghost girl living in a portrait, still reliably creeps me the hell out.
- Heart
Sam hooks up with a girl who’s been turned into a werewolf. Instead of doing logical things like, I don’t know, setting up a secure room for full moon transformations, Sam shoots her in the head. WTF?
- Bela
I will never forgive them for killing Bela.
- Death Takes a Holiday
They killed Pam the psychic for NO REASON. I mean, even within the show: She gets stabbed in the gut and decides to just...bleed to death? Even though that is a wound we have seen COUNTLESS people survive.
- How many times can you break up, kids?
Dean and Sam have FEELINGS. And they keep SECRETS. They have different PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWPOINTS. This inevitably leads to a dramatic, tear-filled scene where one of them decides he can’t keep on going like this and then goes off on his own for a few days or something.
- What is with the souls?
Seriously, what’s with the souls? Sometimes, if you happen to lose track of yours, you just turn into a sociopathic version of yourself.
- Leviathans:
Whatever, dudes. They are scary and eat things.
- Dean the Remorseless Killer (except that one time)
Dean is pretty reliably “kill it” about everything they run across. (This is how Sam shoots a werewolf in the head after they have a one-night stand.) He kills so-called-monsters who are trying to live a non-human-killing life. Except once, two witches (or if you’d rather, Spike and Cordelia) go on a killing spree just to one-up each other and Dean just...walks away? With not even a warning? Dude.
- Castiel is a Bad Husband
First, there’s of course Jimmy Novak’s wife. Then one time, Castiel lost his memory and married a woman who helped him become a faith healer. Then he regains his memory while on a case with the boys and he just goes with them. Like, he was married to that lady! It wasn’t an alternate personality or anything--he just couldn’t remember some stuff! What the hell?!
- Crowley’s Death
Crowley was a major figure for most of the series, it feels like? And then he stabs himself without much fanfare and then nobody speaks of him again. Except one episode with Rowena, but that’s about it.
Capacity to Fic:
- What Is and Never Should Be (Dean and Domesticity)
There is a version of Dean that really, really just wants a life where he mows the lawn and has beers with his brother once in a while. He’s indescribably happy in these times, that he has a place that’s for him. That should be explored.
- Research Sam + Sam/Eileen
Sam went to college and brings books to bars, and somehow that translates into being able to hack most databases. But he loves doing it--he gets very Daniel Jackson once in a while and it’s adorable. He’d study this stuff even if he didn’t have to hunt, I think. Eileen isn’t so much for the not hunting, but she makes a good study buddy for Sam. They are at their cutest when they are looking at books and pretending not to like each other. (I am fully aware I have included the Sam/Eileen kiss gif twice.)
- Mary Campbell of the Hunting Campbells
SONG OF MY HEART. Everyone you love is an asshole.
- Youngster Sam & Dean
What a crappy childhood these two had. They learned how to defend and fend for themselves, but they lacked any sort of parental affection or sense of stability. We get flashbacks for both of them when they’re just, like, at peace when they have a chance to live outside of the hunting life for a while. Oof.
- Jet Black Hearts
I’ve started to keep track of one-shot characters who get killed, maimed, or left behind. For some episodes, I end up returning to major female characters, since there aren’t any non-major ones on screen. In a few episodes, there are multiple women. In a handful of episodes, there are no women. (In one episode, there’s a only a woman that’s merely mentioned once, like, geez, SPN.)
Does This Suffice?:
Two full watch-throughs--the Extraneous Supernatural podcast is a delightful companion in this, FYI. I legit want to start another rewatch, but I wept through all of the last season and it’s possible my heart cannot take another wrenching so soon.
My love for this show is neverending.
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