Supernatural was a hit horror television series from the moment it debuted, but the fact that it lasted 15 seasons speaks wonders about its quality. The urban fantasy series opened as a Monster of the Week series, with Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) reuniting with his brother Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) to kill monsters and save innocent people. There was an underlying mythology surrounding their missing father, John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). However, that mythology morphed to feature a war between angels and demons, neither of which was good, and a God who no longer cared, and that carried the series to an incredible 327 episodes.
Videos by ComicBook.com
With so many great episodes throughout the show’s run, here is the best episode from each season of Supernatural.
15) Season 1 – Faith
The first season had a ton of great Supernatural episodes, and almost every one of them was a Monster of the Week episode, as the only mythology storylines surrounded the demon who killed Sam and Dean’s mother and their father’s disappearance. The best of the Monster of the Week episodes was easily “Faith.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Julie Benz appears in this episode about a small-town revival preacher who claims he can heal, but he is actually keeping control of a Reaper. The entire episode has a man attempting to do good while being manipulated by someone else. It also has a downer ending, but one that works for this story.
14) Season 2 – All Hell Breaks Loose
The second Supernatural season goes a little more in-depth into the demon mythology, although there was still another season to go before the angels arrived. The best Supernatural episode this season was “All Hell Breaks Loose,” the double-sized season finale. This sees Azazel (Fredric Lehne) send Sam to a small town to fight other “psychic children” to the death to increase his own demonic powers. This really showed the brothers’ connection, and it ended with a moment that changed the series, as countless demons were released into the world, launching the series into its most exciting era.
13) Season 3 – Mystery Spot
“Mystery Spot” was a wild Supernatural episode because it featured more deaths than any other in the series. What really makes this stand out is that almost every death was of Dean Winchester. In a time loop story, Dead died over 100 times in this episode alone, a different death in each repeated day. It is up to Sam to stop Dean’s deaths since he is the only one to remember them. This is an episode that highlights the Trickster, who turned out later to be the archangel Gabriel. He wanted to teach Dean a lesson in this hilarious and unique story.
12) Season 4 – Lazarus Rising
“Lazarus Rising” is the Supernatural Season 4 premiere episode, and it introduces one of the series’s most popular characters, Castiel (Misha Collins). Dead died in the third season, but ended up resurrected, and he has to find out if Sam made a deal with a demon, or if something else caused his return. This episode goes into detail about how Sam’s new psychic powers allow him to fight demons on his own, while also bringing Castiel into the group, as he tells Dean that he has work to do for God.
11) Season 5 – Swan Song
What makes “Swan Song” such a great Supernatural episode is that it could have been the series finale, and it would have been a perfect series finale after five seasons. Sam and Dean needed to stop the apocalypse, and they agreed for Sam to become Lucifer’s host body so they could end the threat once and for all. This was a fantastic finale, with Sam sacrificing himself to overpower Lucifer and also trap the evil archangel Michael with him in Lucifer’s cage in Hell. Castiel heals Dean, resurrects Bobby, and explains that they won the battle, but with a great sacrifice. This was a masterful conclusion, but The CW brought the show back a year later.
10) Season 6 – The French Mistake
When The CW brought back Supernatural for a sixth season after the masterful Season 5 finale, showrunner Eric Kripke left the series he created, and it moved on without him. The best episode of this season was the 15th one, “The French Mistake.” This episode was a hilarious one where the angel Balthazar sent Sam and Dean into an alternate universe where they found two men named Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki playing them on a TV show called Supernatural. This was the first genuine meta-episode of the series, and it allowed Ackles and Padalecki to play over-the-top versions of themselves, while also poking fun at their celebrity and careers.
9) Season 7 – Death’s Door
The tenth Supernatural episode of Season 7 was “Death’s Door,” and it was one of the most emotional Supernatural episodes of the entire series. While past seasons saw everyone from John Winchester to both Dean and Sam die, this episode had a death that actually stuck, and was the one person no one wanted to see dead. This is where Bobby Singer died, and just making this the farewell show for Jim Beaver made it one of the saddest in the show’s 15 seasons. While Bobby returned as a ghost, this was where the extremely popular supporting character said goodbye, while fighting to complete one last mission before the Reaper took him to the afterlife.
8) Season 8 – We Need to Talk About Kevin
“We Need to Talk About Kevin” was another great episode, but it was yet another reboot for the series following Dean’s disappearance the previous season after defeating the Leviathans. The episode opens with Dean escaping from Purgatory and teaming with a vampire named Benny, who returned from Purgatory with him. While Dean was gone, Sam stopped demon hunting, and he now has a happy life. However, when Dean realizes Sam was ignoring a call for help from Kevin Tran, it pulls both back into the game, and costs Sam his happy life again.
7) Season 9 – First Born
The 11th episode of Supernatural Season 9 introduced an important character and an even more important weapon. This was the episode that showed that Cain was still alive and walking the Earth, and that he was a retired demon who had trained all the other Knights of Hell, except for Abaddon, who killed his wife, but of whom he could not get revenge since he could no longer kill anyone. This episode allows Sam and Dean to grow closer, thanks to a brother-to-brother talk, but it also gives Dean the Mark of Cain and possession of the First Blade, which can kill just about anything.
6) Season 10- Fan Fiction
The 10th Supernatural season had a meta-episode that was even better than the one where Sam and Dean met actors Jenson Ackles and Jared Padalecki. The fifth episode of the season was called “Fan Fiction,” and it featured them coming across a school musical based on the books about them written by Chuck Shurley (who later turned out to be God). However, when Dean and Sam realize the goddess Calliope is behind this and plans to eat the musical’s writer, they set out to stop the goddess. Seeing the young cast singing the show’s Kansas theme song was just surreal.
5) Season 11 – Baby
Supernatural Season 11 saw a new unstoppable villain arrive, as Sam and Dean killed the Horseman Death, and that opened the door for the Darkness to enter the world. That storyline played out in the season, as God’s past actions came back to change everything that had happened on the show to this point. However, the best episode of the season was the fourth, “Baby.” As the episode’s title indicates, this is about Dean’s car (nicknamed Baby) and the entire episode is from the car’s point of view. By the end, with the Impala severely damaged, it was a fun change to only see action when the car was in the scene.
4) Season 12 – Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox
“Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox” is a fun mystery episode from Supernatural Season 12, as Sam and Dean join their resurrected mother, Mary, and Sheriff Jody Mills to investigate the murder of two hunters. This is a Monster of the Week episode, with a demon wanting revenge for an exorcism from decades in the past. What made this episode so great was that it was a rare case where the demon was innocent, flipping the script on its head for a fantastic story.
3) Season 13 – ScoobyNatural
Supernatural Season 13 had another meta-episode that completely stole the show and remains not only the best of the season, but one of the best of the show’s entire run. The 16th episode is called “Scoobynatural,” and as the title suggests, it is a Scooby-Doo crossover. Not only that, but it is a crossover with the cartoon Scooby-Doo, with Dean, Sam, and Castiel turned into animated characters and sent into a Scooby-Doo mystery. This was fantastically entertaining, especially with Dean fan-boying over the cartoon, while also paying respectful homage to an actual 1970 Scooby-Doo episode.
2) Season 14 – Lebanon
Supernatural Season 14 is where the urban fantasy series eclipsed the 300-episode mark, putting it into elite company. This season sees Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Jack trying to stop Michael, the evil archangel who wants to end the world. The best episode of the season was the 300th episode, “Lebanon.” One of the best things about this episode was bringing back John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and itis the first time Dean and Sam can have a family dinner with their mom and dad together. However, this is John from 2003, and his time travel caused the world to change for the worse, and after the family gets one moment of happiness, they have to give it all up in a devastating moment.
1) Season 15 – Our Father, Who Aren’t in Heaven
The last Supernatural season sees Dean and Sam in an ultimate confrontation with God himself, who is the Big Bad at the end. This leads to massive moments, with Jack showing his full powers, and a finale that wraps up Dean and Sam’s stories. While the last moments remain highly polarizing for fans, the best episode was the eighth, “Our Father, Who Aren’t in Heaven.” This was the episode where Sam and Dean sought God’s weakness and had to find Michael to get the information. Having God as an all-out villain was shocking, but this episode started the road to fighting him, and it was a race to the end from here.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
