Brief Info
Supernatural is an American cult television paranormal drama television series, filmed in Vancouver, Canada, that debuted on September 13, 2005 on the WB, and is now part of The CW's lineup. The second season premiered on September 28, 2006, and the third season premiered on October 4, 2007. Supernatural returns on April 24, 2008 after the writers strike. On March 3rd, the CW announced the pickup of the show for a 4th season.
The show follows brothers Sam Winchester and Dean Winchester, played by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles respectively, who travel across the country in a black 1967 Chevy Impala investigating and combating paranormal events and other unexplained occurrences, many of them based on American urban legends and folklore, as well as classic supernatural creatures such as vampires, werewolves, and ghosts.
Plot
Season one
When Sam Winchester was an infant and his brother Dean was only four years old, their mother, Mary, was murdered on November 2, 1983 (All Souls' Day). Her husband, John, saw blood dripping onto Sam's crib, looked up, and found his wife pinned to the ceiling, her midsection sliced open. A moment later, she burst into flames. John told Dean to take baby Sam outside and tried to make a desperate and futile attempt to save his wife while the house was consumed by flames.
After Missouri Moseley, a psychic, told John that something of the supernatural was responsible for Mary's death, he became obsessed with finding and destroying the thing that killed his wife and in the process trained his sons to recognize and defend themselves against paranormal entities. At a young age, both Sam and Dean became resourceful sleuths and experienced fighters assisting their father in his quest to destroy dangerous creatures and find the demon that had killed their mother. However, Sam rebelled against the lifestyle his father chose for him, eventually having a falling out with his father and leaving to live a "normal" life. He attended Stanford University on a full scholarship and lived with his girlfriend, Jessica Moore, in an apartment near campus. Dean, after two years of estrangement, appears one night on Sam's doorstep during the autumn of his senior year, bearing the news that their father has gone missing while on a "hunting trip". Sam reluctantly agrees to help Dean in the search.
The brothers trace John to Jericho, California, where they find more clues about their father's possible location and help solve the ghost murder mystery their father had been working on before he disappeared. Afterwards, however, when John is yet to be found, Sam declines his brother's invitation to continue the search and conduct more hunts, opting instead to return to his life with Jessica.
Shortly after arriving back in his apartment, he finds her pinned to the bedroom ceiling, bleeding from the abdomen. As Sam watches helplessly, she bursts into flames and dies in the same manner as his mother, twenty-two years to the day afterwards. Dean rescues his brother from the burning apartment, and the bereaved Sam decides to join Dean in the search for their father, who may have answers about the demon who killed his mother and his girlfriend. In Dean's 1967 Chevy Impala, the Winchester brothers pick up John's trail, traveling the back roads and small towns of the continental United States in the process.
Eventually the brothers locate their father, and he reveals the extent of his knowledge of the demon that killed Mary, and his intention to kill it. At first he opposes the boys' involvement because he fears losing them, but eventually he yields. Together, the Winchesters search for a special weapon: The Colt, which was created during the Battle of the Alamo and at the time of Halley's Comet passing. Created by the legendary Samuel Colt for a demon hunter, the gun has the ability to destroy any creature with a well-placed shot. All three Winchesters, after recovering the Colt from a band of vampires, band together and start to hunt the demon in earnest. However, due to a series of catastrophic events (beginning with John's capture), they are eventually overpowered by the demon. While possessing John the demon nearly tortures Dean to death before Sam is able to shoot it in the leg with the Colt. Sam tries to rush Dean and John to the hospital, but a demon then possesses a semi truck driver and plows into Dean's Impala, demolishing it and leaving all three Winchesters incapacitated inside the wreckage.
Season two
At the beginning of season two, the trio are rescued via MEDEVAC and taken to the hospital, but due to his extended injures caused by both the demon's torture and the car accident, Dean is comatose. John summons the demon to make a deal and trades the gun and his own life for Dean's. Before dying, he tells Dean something which the audience does not find out about until a few episodes later.
Both Dean and Sam struggle to cope with John's death while trying to continue their job. As they continue to hunt any supernatural spirit they find, they come across many people that share the same story as Sam, a mother who mysteriously dies in their nurseries when the children were 6 months old. These "special children" each discovered recently that they have some sort of psychic power. In the light of these revelations, Dean reveals to Sam that their father (just before giving his life to the demon) had told Dean he had to save Sam or be forced to kill him. Various revelations occur throughout the rest of the season that lead the pair to believe these psychics are being trained to participate in an army that the demon will lead in a coming apocalypse.
Sam and Dean investigate of string of seemingly werewolf-related murders in San Francisco. They meet a young woman named Madison and Sam begins to fall for her. The boys find out that she is the werewolf in question, but does not know it herself. They kill the werewolf who bit her in an attempt to cure her. Sam and Madison sleep together when she appears cured, but she then turns again the next night. In the end, Sam is the one to kill her because she cannot go on living a life of killing people at night.
After several months of "by-the-book" jobs, Sam disappears while ordering food at a diner. He awakens in a ghost town with four other psychics, two of whom he had met in prior episodes (Ava from Hunted and Andy from Simon Said). There, in a dream, the demon reveals to Sam he has brought all of them to the town to compete against one another and the winner (the only one left alive) would become the leader of the demon's army. The two innocent psychics are killed before Ava (who has killed Andy by summoning a murderous demon) is revealed to be a demonic familiar herself. Jake, an Army soldier who claims he was abducted from Afghanistan, kills Ava by snapping her neck after taking her by surprise. Meanwhile, Dean has been frantically trying to locate his brother, discovering the Roadhouse burned to the ground, leaving Ash dead and Ellen missing. With the help of Andy, who can telepathically project information into people's brains, Bobby discerns where Sam and the others are (a haunted ghost town in rural, fictional "Cold Oak, South Dakota"). Upon their arrival, Dean and Bobby watch in horror as Sam is stabbed in the back by the only other survivor, Jake. Sam dies in Dean's arms.
In the season finale, Dean, distraught and unable to cope with the loss of his brother, believes that he has let Sam down. His mind made up, Dean sets off without Bobby, leaving Sam's body behind. He makes a deal with the demon at the crossroads, his soul for Sam's life. The demon agrees and brings Sam back from the dead. However, she tells Dean that she will only give him one more year to live, and if he tries in any way to prevent his death, Sam will drop dead on the spot. When Dean returns, he finds his brother alive and well and unaware of all that has happened. After everything Dean went through, knowing that his father had died for him, he wants to protect Sam and decides not to tell his brother that Jake had killed him.
Ellen, who was away when the roadhouse burned down, finds Bobby, Dean, and Sam and shows them a map that Ash had prepared just before his death. They discover that an elaborate gate was constructed by Samuel Colt to bar an entrance to hell. The demon tells Jake that he must open the gate and that the Colt is the key. The whole group arrives to stop Jake, who is beyond surprised to see Sam and insists that he killed him. Jake gets the gate open but is then shot to death by Sam.
The yellow-eyed demon returns and taunts Dean with the possibility that the Sam whom Dean has had resurrected may not be "one hundred percent pure Sam." He then attempts to kill Dean. However, John Winchester, who has escaped from hell, manages to save his son. Dean shoots and kills the demon with the last remaining bullet in the Colt, and John's soul departs, no longer condemned to hell. Bobby and Ellen are able to close the gate, but not before hundreds of souls and demons escape. Sam is suspicious and wants to know why Jake insisted that he had killed him. Dean is then forced to reveal the deal he had made at the crossroads, and Sam, who is upset over the sacrifice Dean has made, promises to save him.
Season three
Season Three premiered on the CW Network on October 4, 2007. The first episode, "The Magnificent Seven", introduces one new character – a young blonde woman named "Ruby" (played by Katie Cassidy) who uses a demon-killing dagger.
Ruby is a demon that shows particular interest in Sam. At her urgings, Sam discovers that all of his mother's friends and contacts have been steadily killed off over the years by the yellow-eyed demon. Ruby won't discuss what it is she wants, but says that not all demons are the same or have the same motivations. She also says if Sam helps her she can save Dean. In the episode Sin City she describes herself as a "little fallen angel" on Sam's shoulder. She also assisted Bobby in successfully rebuilding and restoring power to the Colt. At the end of "Malleus Maleficarum" Ruby tells Dean that most demons were once human - but they forget what it's like to be human. For some reason she remembers, which is at least one of the reasons that she helps the brothers. Dean and Sam also discover that when Ruby was human, she sold her soul to a demon.
In "Bad Day at Black Rock", it is discovered that John had a secret storage room in Black Rock. Dean and Sam find that an object from the room is missing and set out to find it. The boys track down the burglars and discover that the missing object is a rabbit's foot. This rabbit's foot brings the boys to a series of lucky events until it is stolen by Bela (played by Lauren Cohan), a thief and merchant out to use the supernatural world as a paycheck - and Sam's luck turns really bad.
Described by Bobby Singer as "pretty damn far from a Hunter", Bela is an attractive Englishwoman who acquires magical objects for wealthy clients. Bela is amoral, claiming that she will sell anything to anyone for the right price. She only shows an ability to help Sam and Dean when it benefits her. Dean threatens to kill Bela numerous times, since she continuously tricks and pranks the brothers. It was implied that she once killed one of her own family members.
Sam seems to have developed a sense of no remorse for killing demons since his return to life at the end of Season 2. This includes Jake, Father Gil/Casey, and the crossroads demon. There are multiple discussions throughout the season involving Dean realizing these changes, and confirming them with Bobby, who does believe the yellow eyed demon (whose real name was revealed as Azazel) was telling the truth that what Dean brought back may not be "100% pure Sam".
In the episode "Bedtime Stories", Sam and Dean argue over whether using the newly rebuilt Colt will help give them the upper hand in breaking Dean's deal with the crossroads demon who revived Sam. At the end of the episode, Sam takes the Colt and, while Dean is asleep, visits the demon and threatens her. She tells Sam, however, that killing her will not break the deal since her boss holds the contract. Sam shoots and kills the demon anyway, along with the woman it was possessing.
In the episode "Dream a Little Dream of Me" Bela is able to steal the colt from Sam and Dean. The following episode "Mystery Spot" brought back the trickster who told Sam he has to stop trying to save Dean from dying.
Sam's replacement chosen to apparently lead the army of demons was revealed to be named Lilith, a white -eyed demon who has possessed a little girl, first appearing in the episode "Jus in Bello".