Now entering its sixth season, Supernatural was a favorite at our house from the beginning. There was something about Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester and their quest to save good people from bad things... The monster of the week format, plus the quest to find the "Yellow Eyed Demon," and the continuing battle against demons big and small all was part of the appeal. But it's really the relationship between the brothers — the dialog dripping with sarcasm and sharp wit — that keeps us tuning in season after season.
When Dean died at the end of season three, we thought that would be it for the show. Instead, the writers managed to pull a new rabbit out of their hats and introduce a new story line. This one involved the angels! And Castiel (Misha Collins) pulls Dean out of Hell to get things started with a bang...
If you missed anything, the Supernatural: The Official Companion, Season 4 book by Nicholas Knight provides detailed synopses of each episode, plus some great additional material on the characters, monsters, and production. Though I'd seen this type of "series companion" in the past, I'd never actually looked at one before, and I have to say that I was impressed. Knight provides an amazing amount of depth.
The book starts with a foreword from producer Ben Edlund that takes us into the dark world of Supernatural with humor. As he says, "the angels are coming" and we shouldn't look at them... "They'll melt your eyes into blind, salty s'mores!" This of course refers to the scene in "Lazarus Rising" where Bobby's (Jim Beaver) psychic friend Pamela (Traci Dinwiddie) gets her eyes burned out by peering into angel business. Definitely one of the more memorable scenes from the season.
From there, we go right into how the angels came into things. Creator Eric Kripke had an epiphany — "angels are the other side of the demon coin." And they were going more for the Christopher Walken in The Prophecy kind of angels, not the Touched by an Angel variety. When you met one of the Supernatural angels, you understood these beings to be God's soldiers. Scary, less than kind folk who mostly think we're about at the same levels of cockroaches.
This concept of "angels as dicks" as Kripke put it made this really work. When the big demons such as Alastair (Mark Rolston) or Lilith (Katherine Boecher) are involved in a story, you know things are going to go poorly for the Winchesters. And as the season progresses, you know that when Castiel, Zachariah (Kurt Fuller), or Anna (Julie McNiven) appear, the boys are in just as much trouble. This give and take between God's army and Satan's minions provides many great chances for Sam and Dean to get into and out of trouble.
Article comments
1 - NancyGail
Nicely done! Castiel doesn't worry me, seeing Zachriah does. Btw, dialog tends to have a "ue" stuck on the end. Just for future thought....