Supernatural: Season Four (2009) Created by Erick Kripke

Sam and Dean Winchester are on a mission to uncover, track down, and kill the ghoulies, and ghosties, and long legged beasties, and things that go bump in the night.  The boys are beyond tight; they have literally faced death, and died, for one another.  Sam died, and Dean made a deal at the crossroads to bring him back.  In exchange, he had one year left to live.  That ended three months ago.  The party was over, the bill came due, and Dean had to settle up, dragged to Perdition by the Hellhounds.  Now Sam is all alone, trying to find the tools to fight, even though his heart is no longer in it.

Episode 1: Lazarus Rising.

Dean Winchester: [Pamela bends over to get something out of a cabinet, revealing a tattoo on her lower back reading 'Jesse Forever.'] Who's Jesse?
Pamela: Well, it wasn't forever.
Dean Winchester: His loss.
Pamela: Might be your gain.
Dean Winchester: [quietly, to Sam] I'm *so* in.
Sam Winchester: Yeah, she'll eat you alive.
Dean Winchester: Hey, I just got outta jail. Bring it.
Pamela: [to Sam] You're invited too, Grumpy.
Dean Winchester: You are *NOT* invited.

Dean is dead, his deal with the crossroads demon complete, and Sam is trying to find a way to cope.  Pamela, their psychic friend tries to get a line on Dean, with interesting consequences.

Soundtrack:  Shook me all night long.  AC/DC/


Episode 2: Are You There, G*d? It's Me...Dean Winchester.

Bobby Singer: Solid iron, with salt in between. Completely ghost proof.
Sam Winchester: You made a panic room?
Bobby Singer: I had a weekend off.

Every hero has one or two that they fail to save...or more.  The Winchester boys and Bobby Singer have to face the angry spirits of those for whom they were just a little too late.

Soundtrack: Lonely is the Night.

Episode 3: In the Beginning.

Dean to Castiel:  Oh, come on! What, are you allergic to straight answers, you son of a b*tch!

Dean is sent back in time to 1973 where he meets his parents, and finds out about his families long tradition of hunting.  Grandpa Sam Campbell holds a secret he needs.

Episode 4: In the Beginning

Dean Winchester: Sam loves research. He does. He keeps it under his mattress, right next to his KY. It's a sickness, it is.

The Brothers are searching for a creature called a Rugaru; the problem; it is a normal suburban dad who has not killed...yet.  And Dean faces Sam about his...exploration of his powers.

Episode 5: Monster Movie.

Dean Winchester: We still got to see the new "Raiders" movies.
Sam Winchester: I saw it.
Dean Winchester: Without me?
Sam Winchester: You were in *Hell*!
Dean Winchester: That's no excuse.

Ah, Halloween on Supernatural.  Filmed entirely in black and white, this episode pits the Winchester boys against Dracula, the Wolfman and the Mummy!

Soundtrack: The Monster Mash.

Episode 6: Yellow Fever.

Sam Winchester: Dude, you're going 20.
Dean Winchester: And?
Sam Winchester: That's the speed limit.
Dean Winchester: What? Safety's a crime now?

The Boys are in Colorado where fear is infectious, and Dean has caught a case!  The Ghost Sickness causes nervousness, paranoia, and ultimately, a fatal heart attack.  For something so deadly, it sure is funny.

Soundtrack: Eye of the Tiger by Survivor.

Episode 7: It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester!

Dean Winchester:  A zombie/ghost orgy, huh? Well, that's it. I'm torching everyone.

Witches and Samhain, they go together like eye of newt and toe of frog.  But when one witch starts sacrificing people to bring the spirit of Samhain into the world, it is up to the Brothers to stop her.

Episode 8: Wishful Thinking.

Dean Winchester: I gotta tell you, I'm pretty disappointed.
Sam Winchester: Well, [snorts] you wanted to save naked women.
Dean Winchester: Damn right I wanted to save some naked women!

Can you imagine anything more chaotic than a wishing well that actually grants wishes?  Neither can the Winchesters.  You will love the deeply depressed teddy bear!

Episode 9: I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Dean Winchester: Sam!
Sam Winchester: Yeah?
Dean Winchester: Too much information!
Sam Winchester: Hey, I told you I was coming clean.
Dean Winchester: Yeah, but now I feel dirty.

The Brothers encounter a prophet named Anna Milton.  She doesn't actually see the future; what she does is eavesdrop on the conversations of Angels.  And the Demon Alistair wants that power at all costs....

Episode 10: Heaven and Hell.

Dean Winchester: It wasn't four months you know.
Sam Winchester: What?
Dean Winchester: It was four months up here, but down there, I don't know, time was different. It was more like forty years.

Hell wants Anna Milton, who can hear Angels.  And it appears that Uriel, the Angel of Death, and Heaven's surliest angel, wants her dead.  Pamela Barnes, the now blind soothsayer, lends them a hand and find out the truth about Anna that Heaven does not want them to know.

Episode 11: Family Remains.

The Winchesters try to stop a family from moving into a house haunted by past evils done within its walls.

Episode 12: Criss Angel is a Douche Bag.

Who needs a quote with a title like that?  Sam and Dean investigate a trio of magicians whose acts are just a little bit too good.  A wonderful villain proves that even though you might be damned, you can still be a good friend.  A pretty good episode.

Episode 13:  After School Special

"The whistle makes me their god."  Dean, and every other Jr. High Coach....

Another blast from the past episode, the boys are haunting the halls of one of their many, many alma maters, and Sam is being haunted back.  We get a good look at the boys, back in the day, and address the problems of growing up different.


Episode 14:  Sex and Violence.

Sam Winchester: You seem pretty cheery.
Dean Winchester: Strippers Sammy, strippers. We are on an actual case involving strippers. Finally!

Sirens turn affections back upon themselves, and twist them into violence.  Love becomes obsession, it's transferred to the Siren, and then, the old beloved becomes the victim.  Sam and Dean face one of the most insidious villains ever in what has been dubbed "The Wincest Episode."

Soundtrack: Thunder Kiss 65 by White Zombie.

Episode 15: Death Takes a Holiday.

Sam Winchester: Look, this isn't going to be easy to hear, but you're dead. You're a spirit. Us too.
Cole Griffiths: Yeah, thanks Haley Joel. I know I'm dead.

Sam and Dean are trying to find out why a small town is plagued by near death experiences.  The reason they are Near Death is because they can't step all the way over.  Something is horribly wrong, and it is to our heroes to fix it.

Episode 16: On the Head of a Pin

[Quoting Bill Murray's character Arthur Denton from Little Shop of Horrors, 1986]
Alastair: "It's your professionalism that I respect."

Castiel and Uriel have the demon Alistair in their power, and in a disquieting déjà vu of the Bush Administration, they are looking for someone to do their dirty work and torture him for information.  Their choice for the job...Dean Winchester.

Episode 17: It's a Terrible Life

Dean Smith: Angel or not, I will stab you in your face.

In a strange alternate reality, Sam and Dean are not brothers, but meet at work.  Dean Smith and Sam Wesson (Smith and Wesson) work at a marketing office, and are forced to work together to solve a mysterious string of suicides.

Soundtrack: Well Respected Man by the Kinks.

Episode 18: The Monster at the End of This Book.

Dean Winchester: [Reading on the computer] There are 'Sam girls' and 'Dean girls' and... what's a slash fan?
Sam Winchester: As in Sam/Dean... together.
Dean Winchester: Like together-together?
Sam Winchester: Yeah.
Dean Winchester: [Horrified] They do know we're brothers, right?
Sam Winchester: Doesn't seem to matter.
Dean Winchester: Oh, come on, that... that's just sick...

An author Carver Edlund, has been writing about Sam and Dean since 2005.  The books are very popular, and exactly mirror the boys' cases.  How can this be?  And what does slash fan mean?  Dean should learn to not ask questions he doesn't want the answers to.

Actually, a very clever episode, and of course, Edlund plays into the whole war between Heaven and Hell that this season has become.  Some great references in this one, including the Toreador Motel, and Carver's Misery reference.

Episode 19: Jump the Shark.

Dean Winchester: That's what family's for.

Sam and Dean are contacted by Adam Milligan, who claims to share something with the brothers; their father.  And he has evidence the boys can't refute.

Seeing the signs of Adam's normal life, and his healthy relationship with John dredges up a lot of feelings in the brothers.  Family life is never easy, and sibling rivalry can ambush anywhere.

The end of this is an M. Night Shyamalan worthy twist.  I loved it.

Episode 20: The Rapture

Sam Winchester: I was getting a Coke!
Dean Winchester: Hm. [sarcastically]  Was it a refreshing Coke?

We know that Demons are spirits who inhabit mortal bodies.  Now, when Castiel is recalled to Heaven, we meet Jimmy, who was his host.  Jimmy tries to put his life back together, but with the armies of Hell gunning for poor Jimmy, not even the Winchesters may be up to the job of keeping him alive.

Episode 21: When the Levee Breaks.

Young Sam: Think Jess would want you to turn into this? She loved you! You think she'd be happy, you using her as an excuse?
Sam Winchester: I'm sorry, I am, but life doesn't turn out the way you thought it would when you were 14 years old. We were never gonna be normal, we were never gonna get away, grow up.
Young Sam: Maybe you're right, maybe there's, no escape. After all, [eyes turn yellow] how can you run from what's inside you?

It is an Interdiction is in the offing: hunter style.  Sam is sealed up in Bobby's ghost proof panic room to overcome his addiction to demon blood.  Castiel is back, but it is difficult to tell whose side he is on.  He warns Dean about his role in the coming apocalypse, but he also frees Sam from his confinement.

Episode 22: Lucifer Rising

Zachariah: Sam... Sam... Sam... Marsha Marsha Marsha!

As the last of the 66 seals are shattering, Sam and Dean prepare in very different ways for the coming war.  Dean receives instruction from Castiel and the angel Zachariah, while Sam and Ruby go on a demon hunt, vampirising the hellspawn to gain the power Sam needs to kill Lilith.  And it all boils down to a cliff hanger designed to make us beg for more.

There are a lot of things to love about this series.  It is a clever mix of action and horror, with the right leavening of humor and spiced with human drama.  The family dynamics of the Winchester Clan are complex and convoluted, and make for good storylines.  That, with the rock and roll soundtrack, the 67 Impala, it all adds up to just to cool.

This season, we see much more direct action by the boys, as they discover the nature of Sam's mysterious powers.  And Dean finds out there is a price tag for his ticket out of Hell.  The powers of light and darkness are gearing up for all out war, and the Winchester boys are caught square in the middle.  And what is the prize that the Demon hordes are after?  The breaking of 66 seals that bind their dark master, first of the fallen, Lucifer.  And at the start of episode 22, we are down 65.

Of course, its not all mythological monsters and pop culture references; there is a heck of a lot of sex appeal as well.  Jensen Ackles plays Dean Winchester, older of the brothers, and Jared Padalecki is Sam, his younger brother.  Together, there is a lot of testosterone laden sex appeal going on.  Throw Ruby, the demon witch who is Sam's mentor into the mix, and the various hotties she inhabits, and there is a little something for everyone. 

So if you want some intelligent entertainment, try this Emmy winning series.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older