By Kelly
Want to catch-up on Supernatural before the 13th season starts without having to binge 12 whole seasons? We’ve got your covered. If you follow these lists, you’ll know which episodes are important for the overall story arc, which are funny, which have particularly amazing monsters-of the-week, and which you should flat skip, because they’re bad. Because, as we all know, even in a show this awesome, not all episodes get sprinkles.
Season One
A.k.a: Mostly monster of the week.
Important
1.1 Pilot
1.9 Home
1.14 Nightmare
1.16 Shadow
1.20 Dead Man’s Blood
1.21 Salvation
1.22 Devil’s Trap
Funny
1.17 Hell House: First episode that features the Ghostfacers.
Great monsters-of-the week
1.3 Dead in the Water: Features two things that should never mix: scary ghosts and water. But if you like that kind of thing, have at it. Plus it has Amy Acker (Fred from Angel).
1.5 Bloody Mary: If you’re at all afraid of this urban legend, do not watch.
1.6 Skin: Shapershifters.
1.11 Scarecrow: Makes scarecrows scary.
1.12 Faith: Shows how Reapers work, which is important later.
1.15 The Benders: Makes people scary.
Skip-able
1.8 Bugs: There’s actually a scene that switches between nighttime and daytime in true Ed Wood style because the sun rose in less than a second. The whole episode is about that good.
Season Two
A.k.a: Shit gets real.
Important
2.1 In My Time of Dying
2.2 Everybody Loves a Clown
2.5 Simon Said
2.8 Crossroads Blues
2.10 Hunted
2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be
2.21 All Hell Breaks Loose Part One
2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose Part Two
Funny
2.15 Tall Tales: First episode with the Trickster. Always fun.
2.18 Hollywood Babylon: Solves the murders of those making a bad horror movie.
Great monsters-of-the week
2.9: Croatoan: Has a town with a demonic virus that makes you want to kill.
2.11 Playthings: Dollhouses and imaginary friends can be scary.
2.12 Nightshifter: Has a shapeshifter as a bank robber.
2.16 Roadkill: Features a haunted highway and a twist.
2.17 Heart: Werewolves and love.
Skip-able
2.3 Bloodlust: It has Amber Benson (Tara) from Buffy and it does introduce a reoccurring character, but if you’re not a Buffy fan, you should skip this and almost all vampire episodes of Supernatural. In my opinion, vamps are the only monster Supernatural doesn’t do well. Every time I see one of these eps, I think, “Well that’s already been done to death.” I think it’s because of shows like Buffy covering so much ground, since it’s completely focused on vampires. But let me know what you think in your comments.
2.7 The Usual Suspect: Okay but not necessary.
Season Three
A.k.a: The season that happened during the writers’ strike… .
Important
3.1 The Magnificent Seven
3.2 The Kids Are Alright
3.4 Sin City
3.9 Malleus Maleficarum
3.12 Jus in Bello
3.15 Time is on my Side
3.16 No Rest for the Wicked
Funny
3.3 Bad Day at Black Rock: Features a rabbit’s foot that brings good luck…until you lose it. Leads to many funny situations.
3.7 Fresh Blood: This one is ironically funny because Mercedes McNab, who plays a hilarious vampire on Buffy (Harmony), plays a not-so-funny, realistic version of vampire.
3.8 A Very Supernatural Christmas: Both funny and important. And it’s got Christmas.
3.11 Mystery Spot: The Trickster resurfaces to trap Sam in a Groundhog Day that always ends with Dean dying. That doesn’t sound funny, but it is. It really really is.
3.13 Ghostfacers: Yes. They return.
Great monsters-of-the week
3.6 Red Sky at Morning: I like this one because it’s weird: A Ghost Ship that drowns people on land somehow? And it introduces Bella (Lauren Cohan), best known as Maggie on The Walking Dead.
Skip-able
3.7 Fresh Blood: Skip if you’re not a Buffy fan.
Season Four
A.k.a: The angels arrive…finally. And things get real interesting.
Important
4.1 Lazarus Rising
4.2 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester
4.3 In the Beginning
4.9 I Know What You Did Last Summer
4.10 Heaven and Hell
4.15 Death Takes a Holiday
4.16 On the Head of a Pin
4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book
4.20 The Rapture
4.21 When the Levee Breaks
4.22 Lucifer Rising
Funny
4.6 Yellow Fever: A virus makes you so afraid of something you can actually die. So Dean gets chased by a Yorkie with a pink bow in her hair, and runs…screaming.
4.8 Wishful Thinking. A magic coin thrown into a regular wishing well has hilarious consequences. Like the girl who regrets wishing her teddy bear to life, since he’d rather blow his stuffings out than play tea party with her.
Great monsters-of-the week
4.5 Monster Movie: A shapeshifter who loves horror movie monsters.
4.12: Criss Angel is a Douchebag: The monster? Competitive magicians, but really fun.
4.17 It’s a Terrible Life: Day jobs in a bizarre world where Dean and Sam got ’em. Shiver.
Skip-able
4.19 Jump the Shark: Unless you want to watch just for the title.
Season Five
A.k.a: Not many skip-able episodes.
Important
5.1 Sympathy for the Devil
5.2 Good God, Y’All
5.3 Free to Be You and Me
5.10 Abandon All Hope…
5.13 The Song Remains the Same
5.14 My Bloody Valentine
5.16 Dark Side of the Moon
5.18 Point of No Return
5.19 Hammer of the Gods
5.20 The Devil You Know
5.21 Two Minutes to Midnight
5.22 Swan Song
Funny
5.7 The Curious Case of Dean Winchester: Dean becomes magically old and gets to be played by Chad Everett.
5.8 Changing Channels: The Trickster traps the boys inside TV shows. Yes, it’s as funny as it sounds.
5.9 The Real Ghostbusters: Sam and Dean go to a Supernatural convention, based on the novels by “Chuck.” This could be my favorite episode ever.
5.11 Sam, Interrupted: Sam and Dean plays crazies to find who is eating patients at an institution.
5.12 Swap Meat: Sam gets to Freaky Friday with a teenage boy. That sounds weird, but you know what I mean.
Great monsters-of-the week
5.5 Fallen Idols: There’s a wax museum and Paris Hilton gets her head chopped off. Do you really need to know anything else?
Skip-able
5.12 Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid: Introduces Sheriff Jody Mills. She’s likable enough, but I’ve noticed every episode she’s in is bland filler. You’re safe to skip any with her name in the description. She’s boring.
Season Six
A.k.a: Not many skip-able episodes, part 2.
Important
6.1 Exile on Main St.
6.3 The Third Man
6.7 Family Matters
6.10 Caged Heat
6.11 Appointment in Samarra
6.19 Mommy Dearest
6.20 The Man Who Would Be King
6.21 Let It Bleed
6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much
Funny
6.4 Weekend at Bobby’s: This is a rare episode where we get to see things from Bobby’s perspective, and it kinda blew my mind.
6.9 Clap Your Hands If You Believe…: Is it alien abduction or fairies? It’s fun either way.
6.15 The French Mistake: (a.k.a: The best Supernatural episode of all time): Sam and Dean are suddenly in an alternate reality where they are the actors who play Sam and Dean, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. And the ways that they (and Misha) decide to play themselves…. . You just have to watch it. You have to.
6.18 Frontierland: Sam and Dean go back in time to the Old West to met the creator of the Colt gun.
Great monsters-of-the week
6.6: You Can’t Handle the Truth: The Monster? Cruel and sometimes funny, honesty.
Skip-able
6.5 Live Free or Twi-hard: Makes fun of Twilight really well for part 1. But by part 2, you really wish it were more like Twilight. Again, Supernatural “sucks” at vampires.
6.17 My Heart Will Go On: An angel unsinks the Titanic causing an alternate reality. It seems like they really just wanted to make Titanic-movie jokes. I will say they were funny.
Season Seven
A.k.a: Half skip-able.
Important
7.1 Meet the New Boss
7.2 Hello, Cruel World
7.9 How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters
7.10 Death’s Door
7.21 Reading Is Fundamental
7.22 There Will Be Blood
7.23 Survival of the Fittest
Funny
7.5 Shup Up, Dr. Phil: This one is fun because Charisma Carpenter and James Marsters (Cordelia and Spike from Buffy) play a pair of married witches, who are in desperate need of counseling.
7.8 Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!: Funny hunter Garth is introduced and Sam marries a fan girl because…magic.
7.14 Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie: Once again Sam is afraid of clowns and it’s funny.
7.18 Party On, Garth: Garth helps them fight a monster that can only be seen when drunk.
7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo: Felicia Day enters as Charlie, a hot, fan girl, hacker. You really don’t need anything else to watch this, do you?
Great monsters-of-the week
7.7 The Mentalists: Fake psychics and vengeful spirits.
Skip-able
7.3 The Girl Next Door: You get to see Jewel Staite (Kaylee from Firefly) play a likable monster, but there’s little else going on in this episode. It basically gives Sam and Dean a reason to argue around the Impala a few episodes later.
7.4 Defending Your Life: This one is fun but really not necessary, unless you’re a Joe fan.
7.12 Time After Time: There’s really nothing special here, and I’m a time travel junkie who loves the ’40s.
7.13 The Slice Girls: This one is just weird, and it’s not important. I don’t enjoy any episode where babies grow up overnight….and are actually Amazons.
7.15 Repo Man: This has no impact on the overall story, and the bad guy’s motivation is completely unbelievable. People don’t want to be possessed by demons to help get their lives together. Sorry.
Season Eight
A.k.a: Who cares if Dean wants to befriend a vampire or Sam wants a normal life? And hang in there, it gets better.
Important
8.1 We Need to Talk about Kevin
8.2 What’s Up, Tiger Mommy?
8.7 A Little Slice of Kevin
8.10 Torn and Frayed
8.12 As Time Goes By
8.14 Trail and Error
8.17 Goodbye Stranger
8.19 Taxi Driver
8.21 The Great Escapist
8.22 Clip Show
8.23 Sacrifice
Funny
8.6 Southern Comfort: Garth is always entertaining.
8.8 Hunteri Heroici: Psychic with Alzheimer’s unknowingly causes cartoonish events. Cass tries to be a hunter and…interrogates a cat.
8.11 LARP and the Real Girl: Felicia Day returns as Charlie and there’s LARPing and lots of nerd humor.
8.13 Everybody Hates Hitler: Funny but not crucial.
Skip-able
8.3 Heartache: Some guy is a sports guru who never ages but tries different sports? And he has haunted organs? It’s…not important.
8.4 Bitten: I don’t agree that this is the worst Supernatural episode ever. It has some charms. But if you’re not a fan of The Blair Witch Project or Chronicle (but with werewolves), it’s probably not for you.
8.16 Remember the Titans: A man who can’t die turns out to be the Greek god Prometheus because…Supernatural hoped to pull in Greek mythology, but failed.
8.15 Man’s Best Friends with Benefits: Some guy’s dog is also a shapeshifter who is his lover? I didn’t even follow it.
8.20 Pac-Man Fever: This one bored me, even though it had Charlie in it.
Season Nine
A.k.a: Awesome-sauce mixed with way too much Sheriff Jody Mills.
Important
9.1 I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here
9.2 Devil May Care
9.3 I’m No Angel
9.6 Heaven Can’t Wait
9.9 Holy Terror
9.10 Road Trip
9.11 First Born
9.16 Blade Runners
9.17 Mother’s Little Helper
9.18 Meta Fiction
9.21 King Of the Damned
9.22 Stairway To Heaven
9.23 Do You Believe In Miracles?
Funny
9.5 Dog Dean Afternoon: Dean can hear dogs. Who wouldn’t want this power?
9.15 #thinman: The Ghostfacers return again!
Great monsters-of-the week
9.13 The Purge: Fat-eating demons run a health spa to satisfy their hunger without hurting anyone and and help women lose weight without any diet or exercise. If only this were real. I kept shouting, “Just let the nice demon have her health spa!”
Skip-able
9.4 Slumber Party: Another Charlie episode that just doesn’t work, but watch is you’re a big Oz fan.
9.8 Rock and a Hard Place: Sheriff Jody Mills is painfully boring again!
9.19: Alex Annie Alexis Ann: Sheriff Jody Mills and vampires return to bore you to death!
9.20: Bloodlines: The Monster Mafia is also boring, especially when a werewolf we don’t know loves a shapeshifter we don’t know.
Season Ten
A.k.a: Awesome-sauce all the way.
Important
10.1 Black
10.2 Reichenbach
10.3 Soul Survivor
10.7 Girls, Girls, Girls
10.9 The Things We Left Behind
10.10 The Hunter Games
10.14 The Executioner’s Song
10.17 Inside Man
10.18 Book of the Damned
10.21 Dark Dynasty
10.22 The Prisoner
10.23 Brother’s Keeper
Funny
10.5 Fan Fiction: A college decides to perform Supernatural the musical with all the “subtext.” You must watch.
10.11 There’s No Place Like Home: Felicia Day returns from Oz as Dark and Light Charlie and it’s fun.
10.12 About a Boy: Dean becomes a kid again and likes Taylor Swift music. Hilarious.
Great monsters-of-the week
10.15 The Things They Carried: Worms that make you super thirsty attack army men. Weird but worth a watch.
Skip-able
10.4 Paper Moon: I think Supernatural handles werewolves better than vamps, but I still find most of the eps predictable.
10.8: Hibbing 911: Sheriff Jody Mills shows up to bore everyone…again!
10.20 Angel Heart: Sheriff Jody Mills and Castiel’s chip-on-her-shoulder, not-daughter are both boring and depressing.
Season Eleven
A.k.a: They’ll never top the Darkness.
Important
11.1 Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire
11.2 Form and Void
11.3 The Bad Seed
11.9 O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?
11.6 Our Little World
11.10 The Devil in the Details
11.17 Red Meat
11.18 Hell’s Angel
11.20 Don’t Call Me Shurley
11.21 All in the Family
11.22 We Happy Few
11.23 Alpha and Omega
Funny
11.8 Just My Imagination: Imaginary friends are real and some are unicorn men with sparkly blood.
11.15: Beyond the Matt: Dean is a wrestling fan and it’s funny.
11.4 Baby: We finally get to see Supernatural from the car’s perspective…because…of course.
Great monsters-of-the week
11.7: Plush: Costumes turn normal people into killers.
11.11: Into the Mystic: Banshees, and horny old ladies, are always fun.
Skip-able
11.5 Thin Lizzie: Very skip-able and forgettable. There’s a ghost or something?
11.12: Don’t You Forget About Me: Please do! Sheriff Jody Mills and her vamp-helper, adopted daughter and Castiel’s not-daughter return to bore everyone…together!
Season Twelve
A.k.a: Sam and Dean’s mom sucks.
Important
12.1 Keep Calm and Carry On
12.2 Mamma Mia
12.7 Rock Never Dies
12.8 LOTUS
12.12 Stuck in the Middle (With You)
12.9 The Future
12.21 There’s Something About Mary
12.22 Who we Are
12.23 All Along the Watchtower
Funny
12.11 Regarding Dean: Dean goes Memento and it’s funny…and then really not funny, but mostly funny.
Great monsters-of-the week
12.15: Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell: Hellhounds, like you’ve never seen them before.
Skip-able
12.6: Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox: Sheriff Jody Mills returns again to…you guessed it! Be interesting! Kidding. She’s boring. She’s always boring.
Happy bingeing!
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