Supernatural Station

A Very Supernatural Christmas

Supernatural Season 3, episode #8.
Airdate: Thursday Dec 13, 2007.
Written by Jeremy Carver.
Directed By J. Miller Tobin.

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• Synopsis: Click here to read the episode summary

  It's an unusually warm Christmas season in Michigan and men are being kidnapped, stuffed in a sack and dragged up their chimney by a man in a red suit. While the Winchesters are looking into the case, Dean tells Sam that they ought to celebrate Christmas this year, but Sam is reluctant. He recalls another Christmas from his childhood when he learned from Dean that monsters are real, Santa is not, and his dad was away so much because it was his job to kill monsters. In the present, the investigation leads the brothers to the home of Madge Carrigan, a seemingly innocuous homemaker and her husband Ed. The Winchesters are captured by these two pagan gods disguised as ordinary people and are almost made into a sacrificial meal. When the brothers escape, they use pine stakes made from Madge’s own Christmas tree to kill the gods. Later, Sam recalls how Dean stole presents so that he could have a Christmas in 1991 and that his gift to Dean was the bull amulet that Dean still wears today. In a surprise turnabout on Christmas day, Sam puts up decorations and makes egg nog. The brothers exchange newspaper wrapped gifts and spend Christmas watching the game while snow falls on the impala parked just outside their motel room window.

• Praises: Who would have thunk it? Supernatural had an actual feel-good Christmas episode. Except for the killer Santa, the body parts in the basement, the skin cutting, nail pulling, and stake through the heart thing, that this. Almost every scene in this episode had something Christmassy in it. Even the show's title started off with an exploding Christmas tree ornament and colorful neon letters instead of the usual pentagram and ghostly-white letters. I really liked that this episode had childhood flashbacks, the first flashbacks we've seen since season one when we got our first glimpse of the boys stark childhood. The same talented young actor who played young Dean in season one revisited his role and gave the flashbacks an authentic feel. There were some subtle stabs at the hypocrisy of Christmas that made Supernatural's Christmas episode a lot more interesting than your average Christmas show: when Sam told Dean that Christmas began as a pagan celebration and was not the true date of Jesus' birth, and the Carrigans, who went all out in decorating their home for Christmas, but who did not believe or practise any Christianity at all. There was also the sentimental, Christmassy part where the brothers exchanged gifts and an ending family scene of the two brothers that was widened to include the impala parked right outside their window. Just like it is one of the family. Awwww.

• Nags: In terms of Christmas episodes, this was one of the best I've seen this season. In terms of Supernatural episodes, this was a good one, but not exceptional. There were a couple big letdowns that ruined my enjoyment somewhat. One, the long awaited story behind Dean's talisman necklace, was sweetly sentimental and very suited to the Christmas theme, but the fact that the talisman was only a Christmas gift and not a powerful amulet that Dean had to wear to protect himself from some big bad that was gunning for him, was just too blah. Fanfic stories written about the necklace have been a lot more interesting. The second was the flashbacks. I loved seeing the brothers as children again, but that led me to hope that Jeffrey Dean Morgan would make a cameo appearance as Papa Winchester. When he didn’t, I felt cheated. Even a tiny splice of old film with JDM in it would have satisfied me. If the flashbacks had ended with a final scene of the boys' daddy showing up on Christmas day, I would have been ecstatic. That would have been a great Christmas present for us fans who miss seeing John Winchester on the show.

• My Rating: Very, very good episode. 4.0 out of 5 stars.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.