10 Supernatural Episodes Which Totally Broke The Mold
Scooby Doo, pagan gods and a shattered Fourth Wall? There's far more than these in Supernatural!
Any fan of Supernatural can’t hear the song “Carry On, Wayward Son,” by Kansas, without picturing the two brothers who built a life out of “saving people and hunting things.” Over the course of its fifteen-year run, the series has pitted the duo against everything from demons and ghosts to werewolves, mad scientists, pagan gods and even God’s sister (yes, you heard that right).
While the show often took a somewhat formulaic approach to the episodes – someone dies, the brothers investigate, they discover the monster and put it down – the show occasionally took a giant step in its creativity, resulting in unforgettable episodes. These snippets of true creativity demonstrate both the abilities of the cast and crew and the absolute daring of the writers.
With that in mind, the following are ten of the most memorable adventures faced by Sam and Dean before they finally faced the music in the show’s finale, “Carry On.”
11. Honorable Mention: “A Very Supernatural Christmas” (Season 3, Episode 8)
This episode of Supernatural appears on the surface to be mostly unremarkable: Sam and Dean discover a pair of monsters kidnapping people while dressed as Santa and bringing them home to eat. The brothers track them down, get captured, escape and kill them. It’s noteworthy that the monsters were pagan gods, but that becomes important only in regard to what one of them utters about their past.
One of them laments that “people used to line up to sacrifice themselves to us. But then this carpenter comes along and suddenly we’re left all alone, catching scraps.” Who is that carpenter, you might be asking?
As is the answer to every Sunday school question, it is Jesus. This is the only overt reference to Jesus Christ made in the entire Supernatural series. Sure, the Hindu goddess Kali mentions the “Judeo-Christian apocalypse” (more on that later) and angels feature prominently, but Jesus himself is never otherwise even brought up. But the fact that these gods mention him as if he really existed in the Supernatural universe should raise some very deep questions given his identity as God incarnate. A “carpenter” would not be believed into existence (more on this later), nor would he be just another pagan god.
His existence in the world of Sam and Dean should pose some serious fundamental questions. So why would he never be mentioned again? My guess would be that the writers didn’t want to alienate Christian fans of the show – season 15 notwithstanding.