On Thursday, Oct. 12, The CW network aired the 13th season premiere of the longest running sci-fi show in the country with 2.10 million viewers. “Supernatural” is about two brothers, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester, who drive around the country hunting monsters and defeat general world-ending situations. The show has had its ups and downs through the years, with plotlines starting with finding their father, then escalating to more biblical plots like stopping the apocalypse, defeating God’s sister and dealing with Lucifer’s son. As the series progresses, the overarching plotline gets significantly more intense, and season 13 does not break that pattern.
Season 12 ended with Lucifer’s ( Mark Pellegrino) mistress, Kelly Kline (played by Courtney Ford), giving birth to Lucifer’s son Jack (Alexander Calvert). The part-time villain and part-time ally of the Winchesters, Crowley (Mark Sheppard), killed himself in hopes to trap Lucifer in an alternate universe. Lucifer kills Sam and Dean’s best friend and angel Castiel (Misha Collins) before getting trapped with Sam and Dean’s mom, Mary (Samantha Smith), in the alternate universe. The finale was a big explosion in itself that left fan and sophomore criminal justice major Zach Mathes “wondering what the hell is going on with Lucifer’s kid.” Everyone is either dead or gone, and Sam and Dean were just left with Jack, who immediately grew up into a teenager seconds after his birth. Another fan, freshman Athena Mata did not think it was that great. She said, “It ended horribly and I hope things turn out better in season 13.” Don’t we all.
Previous season promotional pictures of Supernatural
Season 13 picks up with a debate as to how the brothers deal with Jack. Sam wants to show him a better way and doesn’t believe that he is truly evil, but Dean wants to just kill him. The premiere was full of suspense, confusion and a lot of pain. Both leads stay true to their character go-to behaviors with Sam trying to see the best in the situation, hoping that Jack is good and Mary is still alive and fighting. Dean, as usual, is assuming the worst and avoiding the loss of his best friend and mom by taking out his emotions with violence and needing a target to kill. He doesn’t know the extent of Jack’s powers but realizes that he could do real damage to this world if he is really evil, and is not willing to take the chance.
Throughout the episode, the writers ripped out my heart and spat on it in the ways they dealt with the prominent deaths from the previous season’s finale. Dean even mourns Crowley, who always had a love-hate relationship with the brothers. His death, although painful, is what makes audiences keep watching the show because they have to see if their favorite characters survive or not. Another reason to keep watching is to see which characters will get brought back to life. The brothers and even Jack mourn Castiel’s death, but Castiel has died a number of times in past seasons and the only way to know if this is really good-bye is to continue on through the rest of the season.
Finding solutions to world-endings predicaments is what Sam and Dean do best. With the show going on for as long as it has, however, good overarching plot lines are running out. After putting God in the show in season 11, season 12 tried to go back to the main concept of family and make it simpler, because how can you top God and his sister? The average ratings, according to the Nielsen Ratings, for season one of “Supernatural” were 4.52 million viewers per episode and have since decreased to an average of 2.8 million viewers per episode in season 11. With the show dragging on as long as it has, the storylines are further stretched, requiring a lot more dedication from the fans. So far the writers have been able to pull it off, and hopefully, they will succeed with season 13. Supernatural airs on The CW every Thursday night at 8 p.m.
Supernatural and its cast reach out to their fan base through their various T-shirts they sell