Supernatural watching episodes guide for all seasons
(season 1 – season 15)

The episode guide below looks like this:

❢	⭐⭐	1×1	Title of Season 1 Episode 1	😈	👻
	x	1×2	Title of Season 1 Episode 2	↩!🌟	❤

And here’s how to read it:

❢ and ❢❢ – The absolute minimum selection of best or crucial episodes:

❢ Must watch
❢❢ Really must watch. If you have given up on the show completely, just watch those. (Episodes 5×22, 8×23, 11×20 and probably the 15×19, i.e. the second to last episode)

Is the episode enjobale?

xx   The worst of the worst. (ep. 9×20, a failed backdoor pilot to another show that was immediately dropped)
x     No. Avoid this.
⭐  Maybe – Watchable
⭐⭐  Yes – Recommended watching
⭐⭐⭐  YES!! GREAT, enjoyable episodes. Serious or funny, main plot or not, simply the GREAT ones.

But when it’s not straightforward you’ll find symbols like such:

⭐(⭐)  This is either ⭐ or ⭐⭐
⭐⭐(⭐)  Either ⭐⭐ or ⭐⭐⭐
⭐⭐⭐(x)  I liked it, but some list/polls hate it.
? I don’t know. The internet too is inconclusive how good or bad it is.

*?, **?, ***?, **(*)?, (*)?, etc. – Suggestions from other sources, but sometimes they don’t make much sense to me. I have many of these for season 13 and 14, where I stopped noting my fresh opinions. So that opportunity of enjoying (or not) the story I don’t know what to expect off is lost. If I rewatch the entire show in the future, I might correct those.

ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE EPISODE TITLE:

MAIN PLOT – is the episode important for the main plot themes?

😈   Plot episode. Important for the main plots, but can be skipped if you’re really, really bored.
😈😈 Key plot episode.
↺   A conclusion. The show makes a full circle and closes many plot threads. (Episodes 5×22, 11×20, and the second to the last ep. 15×19)
↩ (and ↩! )  Watch to understand future plot episodes better. Something from this episode will resurface later on. Knowing this will make watching more enjoyable later on.
🌟  A new recurring character, weapon or place is introduced for the first time. Watching this episode pays off later.
🌎  A Worldbuilding episode (for the main plot). Not much action though.

Sometimes we have less interesting episodes with a few scenes of the main plot. For some the timestamps are given, so you can watch just those.

|⟵    You could watch just the first scene (a resolution to the cliff-hanger from the previous ep.)
⟶|    Watch at least the last scene. The last scene is important for the plot.
⟷     There are scenes related to the main plot throughout the episode (⟷| = including the last scene, |⟷ including the first scene.

👻   Monster of the Week case. The episode contains a “case” not related to the main big evil of the season. It can be combined or interspersed with the main plot (when combined with 😈) or a stand-alone episode.
❤   Relationships. The episode (or season) has some focus on emotional relationships, usually of the brothers to each other or to another key character.

 

SEASONS 1-5 (Kripke era)

Seasons 1-5 = showrunner: Eric KRIPKE.

Initially, Supernatural was designed for 5 seasons with the conclusion in the last ep. of Season 5.

SEASONS 6-7 (Gamble era)

Seasons 6-7 = showrunner: Sera GAMBLE
After Kripke has finished his intended 5 seasons of Supernatural, he leaft the job to Gamble.

“Part of me was super pissed at Eric. I was like, “do we have to do this after the apocalypse? We literally burned the story all the way to the apocalypse. We have to start over and find a whole new classification of villains, so what the hell are we going to do?” But we had several months to ponder that. We had a great writers’ room, and everybody put their heads together”

Seasons 6-7 introduce loosely-related arcs dealing with the eruption of the number of monsters after the averted Apocalypse. Two angels compete for leadership. Similarly 2 characters fight over the throne of Hell. A three-way power struggle between Heaven, Hell and (a new thing) Purgatory.

SEASONS 8-11 (Carver and Singer era)

Seasons 8-10 = showrunners: Jeremy CARVER and Robert SINGER;
Season 11        = showrunner: Jeremy CARVER

Bringing the show back to Heaven versus Hell roots in terms of story arc. The seasons are more self-contained – transitions into new season are suprising, not as a clear continuation like before. The plots involve the Men of Letter (and other secret organizations). These seasons also mix few simultanous arc plot threads. Some episodes touch just one thread, some several

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Seasons 12-14 (Singer and Dabb era)

Seasons 12-14 = showrunners: Robert SINGER and Andrew DABB.
New character: nephilim Jack

Timestamps for many episodes of seasons 2-12 are taken from RiverLee (medium.com/@RiverLee33/supernatural-episode-viewing-guide-2899fe1093d3)