10 Essential 'Supernatural' Episodes, Ranked

Image via The CW Published Oct 13, 2026, 11:37 PM EDT Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wonderful wife and precious daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, interviews, and breaking news on select occasion. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own, from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" in 2025 from the Western Writers of America, of which he is a member. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family. Sign in to your Collider account When a show runs on television for as long as Supernatural did, it can be difficult to wonder where to start — and if all 327 episodes are actually worth the momentous binge. Whether you're already a die-hard fan of Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) or looking to climb into the Impala for the first time, we've put together a list of essential episodes you simply cannot miss. Of course, personal opinion is a factor here, but there's no doubt that most of these installments are vital to the Winchesters' journey. Supernatural ran for 15 seasons, but the truth is that much of the main story was wrapped up after the first five. Indeed, the core of Supernatural is Sam and Dean, their bond and how that relates to their family. So, we've pulled together some of the most important episodes from a handful of seasons that put the Winchesters front-and-center. Gear up, because we're about to hit the road. 10 "Carry On" Season 15, Episode 20 Image via The CW Despite how controversial the series finale is with many, "Carry On" remains one of Jared Padalecki's favorite episodes because of the way it concludes Sam and Dean's story. While not the most essential installment on this list, it's a sobering reminder that although the brothers stood by each other's side throughout 15 seasons of television, they were always on different paths long-term. If you plan on seeing the Winchesters' story through, you can't forget about the ending. "Carry On" may leave some to be desired, but Supernatural ended on its own terms, and you can't argue with that. Ackles and Padalecki deliver bitter-sweet performances that feel like true send-offs to their most famous on-screen roles, and as routine as their final hunt together feels, there is something truly poetic about their final moments together. Just don't expect some big cosmic finale with tons of cameos — this one is a bit bare bones. 9 "Mystery Spot" Season 3, Episode 11 Image via The CW Easily one of the funniest episodes of Supernatural, "Mystery Spot" works because it's basically Sam Winchester stuck in Groundhog Day – but that's not all it is. After Sam catches himself in a time-warp where Dean dies every day, he is offered a glimpse at what life will look like without his brother. No matter how much he desires to save his brother from his impending doom (more on that later), Sam is faced with the sorry revelation that sometimes there just isn't a way. "Mystery Spot" is hilarious, sure, but it's also a profound character study of Sam and who he might become without his brother. It offers some serious foreshadowing for the next season and pushes the younger Winchester to deal with his own savior complex. Plus, it's always fun to see Richard Speight Jr. as The Trickster. 8 "Lebanon" Season 14, Episode 13 Image via the CW When Supernatural began, it was all about Sam and Dean's desire to find their father, John (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who had lost himself in seeking revenge on a particular demon for killing his wife, Mary (Samantha Smith). "Lebanon" emotionally pays off the show's initial premise by reuniting all four members of the Winchester family — and it's a beautiful scene. At this point on the show, Mary had been resurrected for a few years, and a wish Dean haphazardly makes pulls their father forward in time for a brief reunion. "Lebanon" offers arguably Morgan's finest performance on Supernatural, and seeing these four all unite on-screen for the first time was a long time coming. For Sam and Dean, it was more than a dream come true. While Mary would be killed off again at the end of Season 14, at least we got to see what a true Winchester family dinner would look like. 7 "Faith" Season 1, Episode 12 Image via The CW The first season of Supernatural is full of memorable monster-of-the-week gems that set the tone for the entire series. "Faith" is one of them, to be sure, but it's also Dean's first real encounter with death (though certainly not his only) — one that rattles him more than most. After Dean is given little time to live, Sam takes him to a rural faith healer who can supposedly control who lives and who dies — of course, what they don't realize is that there is a literal reaper involved. "Faith" is one of the Eric Kripke-era episodes of the show that's simply perfect. With a killer premise that really gets the viewer invested, deep spiritual and philosophical themes, and a soundtrack that simply rocks, this is one episode that reminds us just how good we had it back when it was just the two boys out on the open road. It may not be everyone's first Season 1 mystery pick, but it's arguably the best non-mythology episode of the season. 6 "The French Mistake" Season 6, Episode 15 Image via The CW While Jared Padalecki's favorite Supernatural episode has to do with the conclusion of Sam's long-term character arc, creator Eric Kripke's has more to do with the making of the series itself. "The French Mistake" tosses Sam and Dean into the "real-world" where Supernatural is a Vancouver-based television show starring Padalecki and Ackles — actors they now have to pretend to be. It's perhaps the most meta Supernatural ever got, but it's more than earned its place here. "The French Mistake" has long been considered a fan-favorite. Although it may not be essential in terms of the overarching plot or character arcs, this Season 6 classic is essential viewing for all true fans of the show. It's not only a love-letter to those who spent nearly two decades of their lives making it, but to those of us who stuck with it through thick and thin. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Fantasy World Do You Belong To? Middle-earth · Grand Line · The Continent · Camp Half-Blood Pick your magic, your crew, where you want to wake up and who you would rather be fighting, and we will tell you which world you actually belong in. Four are open to you: an ancient kingdom living through its last good age, an endless sea full of pirates, a continent that pays people to kill monsters, and a summer camp where the Greek gods are extremely real and mostly a nuisance. 💍Middle-earth(Rings of Power) 👒Grand Line(One Piece) 🐺The Continent(The Witcher) 🔱Camp Half-Blood(Percy Jackson) FIND YOUR WORLD → 01 What kind of power do you want? Every one of these worlds runs on a completely different sort of magic. ASomething ancient and half forgotten that came down through my family. BSomething completely ridiculous that works in a fight and gets a laugh. CNo magic at all, just training, potions and a very sharp sword. DSomething I inherited from a parent I have barely met. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Who is travelling with you? Nobody gets through any of these stories entirely on their own. AA fellowship drawn from every corner of the world who barely trust each other. BA crew I picked up one at a time, all of whom would die for me. CTwo or three people I would never describe out loud as friends. DTwo mates from school who are exactly as out of their depth as I am. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Where do you want to wake up tomorrow? The best fantasy is usually just somewhere you would genuinely like to live. AA high city of white stone with the sea somewhere far below. BA ship under sail, with an island ahead that nobody has mapped. CA rented room over a tavern, in a town I am leaving in the morning. DA cabin at a summer camp with everybody else already awake outside. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How are you making a living out there? Even in fantasy somebody has to pay for the horse. AI am not, because somebody far older than me decided this was my duty. BTreasure, and I am not always careful about whose it used to be. CI take contracts, since people will pay well for what they will not touch. DI am fifteen and this is all technically a school trip. NEXT QUESTION → 05 There is something in the woods. What do you do about it? All four of these worlds keep something unpleasant out there in the dark. ASend word to somebody who has seen this before, then hold the line. BWalk straight in, because it is interesting and possibly edible. CAsk what it has been eating and what the village is willing to pay. DWork out which myth it escaped from, then improvise very badly. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Who is the villain of your story? The enemy tells you far more about a world than the hero ever does. AAn ancient evil that has been patient for several thousand years. BA government that has spent a long time calling itself the good guys. CA man who turns out to be far worse than anything I hunt for money. DA god, or possibly my own family, and quite likely both at once. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What do you actually believe in out there? Every world hands its heroes one rule and asks them to hold onto it. ASome things are worth defending even when the odds are hopeless. BNobody gets to tell me where I can go or what I am allowed to want. CPick the lesser evil, and never pretend afterwards that it was not evil. DMy friends come before anything a prophecy has to say about it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 A thousand years from now, how are you remembered? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your world. AIn a song, in a language hardly anybody still speaks. BAs the one who got there first and proved the whole thing was possible. CBarely, and mostly wrongly, in ballads I would absolutely hate. DOn a plaque at a camp, read by kids about to do the same thing. REVEAL MY WORLD → The Map Is Drawn Your World Is…Four worlds and four completely different ideas of what a good life looks like. This is where you belong, what it would ask of you, and what you would get back in return. Middle-earthYou belong somewhere old enough that the mountains have names and somebody can still tell you who gave them. Middle-earth is for people who think the right thing is worth doing even when it will not be finished in their lifetime. This is the only world on the list where doing good is understood as a very long defeat, fought anyway, by people who will never see how it ends. You are drawn to grandeur, to white cities and deep forges and the sense that almost everything you touch is older than your entire family line. The Rings of Power is set in the last good age before it all goes wrong, which gives every quiet scene in it a slightly unbearable weight. You would take the hard road, and you would take it on foot. The Grand LineYou want the sea, a crew, and absolutely nobody telling you where you are allowed to go. The Grand Line is the world for people whose main ambition in life is finding out what is over there. One Piece has run for decades on one very simple engine, which is a group of people who each want something impossible and have decided to go and get it together. You collect people. Your ideal crew is a set of misfits who were each written off somewhere else before you turned up and offered them a better idea. The world is enormous and deliberately ridiculous, and the emotional gut punches land harder because of that rather than in spite of it. You would set sail knowing the map runs out, which is more or less the entire point of it. The ContinentYou would rather be feared and useful than liked and useless. The Continent is a world where the monsters are the straightforward part of the job and the people are where it all gets complicated. Witchers get paid to do what nobody else will and resented for existing at all, which is a trade most people would refuse and you would probably accept. You have no real illusions about which side is the good one, largely because on the Continent that question tends to have a disappointing answer. The best of these stories are not about the fighting. They are about somebody with a rigid code being repeatedly cornered into caring about people. You would take the coin, finish the job properly, and be out of town before the story got told wrong. Camp Half-BloodYou want the myths to be real and loose in the actual world, and you want to find out at about thirteen that you were never anywhere near as ordinary as everybody kept telling you. Percy Jackson takes the oldest stories we have and drops them into car parks and diners, which makes the gods considerably funnier and a great deal worse. You would be the kid every school gave up on, who turns out to have been built for something nobody thought to test for. The series is genuinely about friendship rather than destiny, and it says so out loud every time a prophecy tries to get in the way. Camp Half-Blood is the real fantasy here: a place where the thing that made you difficult everywhere else is the thing that makes you belong. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 "No Rest For the Wicked" Season 3, Episode 16 Image via The CW Season 3 concluded with tragedy when Dean's demon deal came back to bite him — literally. With his time up and Lilith's forces on the way, the Winchesters make a stand against the white-eyed demon by taking the fight to her. Unfortunately, Sam's fears from "Mystery Spot" come true here in "No Rest for the Wicked," which simultaneously kickstarts both Winchesters' future roles in the complicated cosmology unfolding on-screen. It's certainly one of the saddest Supernatural episodes out there. "No Rest for the Wicked" may not be most fans' first pick for an "essential" viewing, but it sets up not only Dean's coming resurrection but also reminds the viewer of Sam's strange connection to the demonic realm. Yes, you kind of need the context of the entire season in order to make it work, but without this episode in your back pocket, the next chapter on this list won't make any sense at all. 4 "Lazarus Rising" Season 4, Episode 1 Image via The CW The first episode of Season 4 undoes Dean's tragic fate months after the fact while pushing Sam down a darker path. It also marks the introduction of angels and Misha Collins' first appearance as Castiel. "Lazarus Rising" is easily one of the best season premieres Supernatural ever put together, tossing the audience head-first into an Apocalypse plot that wouldn't let up until the Devil was put on ice (at least, for a while). "Lazarus Rising" changed Supernatural forever, and it's the sort of episode that sticks with the audiences years afterward. The Apocalypse arc officially begins here, and the arrival of the angels changes the entire way the Winchesters operate from here on out. Beyond all though, though, it's just an excellent episode, one that's easy to revisit whether you watched "No Rest for the Wicked" before it or not. 3 "Swan Song" Season 5, Episode 22 Image via The CW If the Apocalypse arc officially began with "Lazarus Rising," then it concludes here with Season 5's "Swan Song." The fifth season finale is one of the best Supernatural episodes out there, one that feels more like a series finale in many respects than even "Carry On." This is due to the fact that Eric Kripke had effectively concluded his story with the final showdown between the Winchesters and Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) himself before leaving his position as showrunner. The entire series up until this point had been working to this moment, which pays off masterfully. "Swang Song" is where many wish that Supernatural had ended, but whether you are happy that Sam and Dean reunited for more down the road or not, there's no denying that this was one of the show's finest hours. The brothers' last-ditch effort to prevent the Apocalypse may not have gone exactly as planned, but it proves that Sam and Dean have always been at their best when they're in each other's corner. Not even the Devil could break their unstoppable bond... 2 "All Hell Breaks Loose" Season 2, Episodes 21-22 Image via The CW Admittedly, this is a bit of a cheat, but "All Hell Breaks Loose" was the show's only official two-parter for a reason. As we noted before, Supernatural began with Sam and Dean hitting the road to find their father, and although he had given his life in exhange for his sons prior to this, it's here that this part of their journey comes full circle. After Sam is abducted by the Yellow-Eyed Demon (Fredric Lehne), Dean does everything in his power to locate and save his brother — only he gets there too late. It's here that Dean makes his demon deal to resurrect his brother, leading the Winchesters to their final stand against their mother's killer as the literal gates of Hell open around them. "All Hell Breaks Loose" could have been another ending to the show, but, fortunately, Supernatural had plenty more life left in it. It's all worth it just to see Dean shoot the brothers' nemesis right between the eyes. 1 "Pilot" Season 1, Episode 1 Image via The WB "Dad's on a hunting trip, and he's been gone for a few days." More often than not, the best place to start is at the beginning. Without the pilot, Supernatural makes no real sense. The series begins with a harrowing flashback to the death of Mary Winchester before jumping ahead 22 years later. Sam has left his father and brother behind to forge a new life for himself, but when Dean returns hoping for help in locating their father, they hit the road only to find themselves working the same case their father left behind. "Pilot" sets the stage for the rest of Supernatural, but it's also just a great episode on its own. It's the type of premiere that will encourage you to keep watching even if you have previously been on the fence. The show never topped the horrors it first unveiled in its first episode, and although much of the pilot is a monster-of-the-week style, it's essential viewing for all Supernatural fans. Few television pilots are as strong as this one. Release Date 2005 - 2020-00-00 Network The WB, The CW Showrunner Eric Kripke Cast Jensen Ackles Dean Winchester Two brothers follow their father's footsteps as hunters, fighting evil supernatural beings of many kinds, including monsters, demons, and gods that roam the earth.