13 worst moments in Supernatural Season 13
After looking at the 13 best moments in Supernatural Season 13, it’s time to delve into those that just weren’t that great.
Supernatural Season 13 was one of those seasons that had plenty of highs, but it also had plenty of lows. After looking at the best moments from the season yesterday, today is a chance to look at the things that just weren’t that good. There will be some overlap with the good moments, too. That may be surprising at first until you start looking at the reasons why.
Here’s a look at the 13 worst moments from Supernatural Season 13.
#13. Bringing back too many characters
At first, I enjoyed the characters who were brought back from the dead. It looked like a chance to write a few wrongs and bring a few other characters into the limelight. Then it all went a little crazy.
There were just too many characters being brought back and the idea of it lost its special appeal. We’d already had Bobby, but then we got Kevin and Ketch, then Rowena, then Gabriel, then Charlie, and then Naomi. By the end of it, the deaths that the characters did have started to feel a little empty and worthless.
And not all the characters were used in the way they could have been, which moves me onto the next point. You can read this by clicking the button below to go to the next slide.
#12. Bringing characters back to kill them
It’s clear that Supernatural still hasn’t learned from the mistakes of the past. Nor has it learned that hyping up a return means that fans expect the characters to be used well. That just wasn’t the case in the season.
One of the worst moments ever had to be the death of Missouri in Supernatural Season 13, Episode 3. “Patience” was the introduction of Missouri’s granddaughter, called Patience. This teen had the same abilities as Missouri and we hoped there was a chance the two could bond with their gifts. Instead, this formidable and loved woman was killed off (off-screen) in the first act of the episode. Not cool!
And don’t get me started on Kevin! Actually, do…
#11. Kevin’s final lines
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Kevin was brought back to life just to be killed off again. He wouldn’t be the only one, but it was Kevin’s final lines that annoyed the hell out of most of the SPN Family. Those who weren’t annoyed may be once they realize what the Supernatural writers actually did.
Kevin shared that even when the resistance wins, they will lose. It was a direct rip of a line that Mark Sheppard wanted to be used as Crowley’s last line in the Supernatural Season 12 finale, one that was eventually cut. Crowley was supposed to say “even when I lose, I win.” Plenty of fans shared their outrage on Twitter.
It didn’t help that Kevin just hadn’t been used that well in the series, which leads me onto moment #10 quite well.
#10. Asmodeus’ use and death
Did anyone feel anything when Asmodeus was killed off in Supernatural Season 13? Maybe the only thing you could feel was confusion. This was supposed to be one of the big bads of the season, the character that we feared. He set up so many potential storylines and then just became a joke: Evil Colonel Sanders.
By the end of the season, it was clear that his character was around only to really bring Gabriel back. However, clearly when initially developing the character the writers didn’t think this one through that well. I still have a lot of questions about Asmodeus’ earlier storyline surrounding the Shedim: the whole reason he wanted Jack. The Shedim sounded like it was going to be this major plot point that was never touched on again.
Way to make a character seem absolutely useless!
If Asmdoeus’ death wasn’t enough, how about the next one…
#9. Gabriel sacrificing himself
Some fans had fought years to get Gabriel back on Supernatural. The 13th season was finally the chance for that to happen and then he was around for a few episodes.
What didn’t help Gabriel’s storyline was how the writers wanted to focus so much on Gabriel’s torture that they forgot about the Winchesters, but that’s for another moment. A major issue was the way Gabriel’s storyline developed.
Just as he joined Team Free Will 2.0 and tried to do right by the world, he was sacrificed. He fought in a battle that he knew he couldn’t win in an attempt to give the others time to get out of the Apocalypse World. And his sacrifice wasn’t even necessary since there was only him and the Winchesters left! It was just a moment to give Gabriel some type of epic exit that just didn’t translate when the episode came down to it. Instead, fans were angry because once again a character was brought back just to be killed off.
#8. Not going in search for the ingredients of the spell
Think back to Supernatural Season 8 and the focus on the trials. To close the Gates of Hell, someone had to go through three trials and we saw each one of them in full detail. There was hope that we’d get to see something similar in Supernatural Season 13 when Castiel told us there would be four ingredients for the spell.
The episode after we saw the hunt for the first ingredient. As much as I didn’t like the noir focus, it was a good episode and had some beautiful moments for the Winchesters and with the “Most Holy Man.”
But then the other ingredients just came up really easily. There was barely any focus on them and on the steps to find them. We didn’t even get to see Castiel go searching for the fruit. It was in “Scoobynatural” that he got a throwaway moment, mentioning that he might now be married. Seriously, is he married? Can we get a flash of that in Supernatural Season 14?
#7. Wayward Sisters being so good
I know that sounds odd at first, but bear with me. Wayward Sisters worked as a backdoor pilot. It got people tuning into the series that likely wouldn’t have bothered with it otherwise. The idea of the spin-off brought some fans back. And then there were others who just wanted a series focused on Jody and her girls while having the Winchesters and Cass separate.
Yet, The CW passed it over. And it was a stupid decision.
So why does the spin-off get a mention? Well, it’s because it was good. Had it been terrible and just not worked at all, then we could have probably understood The CW’s decision. After all, we completely understood when Bloodlines didn’t get picked up, right? We’d have likely accepted Wayward Sisters a little better if it was bad. But it wasn’t. And that’s a worst moment…purely because it didn’t get picked up.
#6. No follow through on Heaven’s storyline
Suddenly in Episode 9, “The Bad Place,” we learned that angels were going extinct. Then towards the end of the season, Castiel gets a big storyline in Heaven, where he learns that there are only about 11 angels dotted around and Heaven is completely failing.
Now, let’s overlook the plothole in the Heaven storyline for now. The big issue is that there was absolutely no follow through at all. This whole storyline looked like it was being set up for the cliffhanger finale. It could have even been our storyline for Gabriel to really redeem himself. But then we got nothing.
Absolutely nothing in the Supernatural Season 13 finale.
Now the storyline just feels wasted. Almost like it was something to quickly add in for Castiel rather than a genuine storyline for him and that just doesn’t sit right at all.
It’s not the only case for forgotten storylines, either. We seem to have completely ignored Rowena’s leveling up in Episode 12—while it was sort of shown, there was nothing major that could have happened with such a bit power boost. Then there was the Shedim, Ketch working both Asmodeus and the Winchesters (super anticlimactic ending), and the Apocalypse World. There were a lot of stories with potential that had no follow through at all.
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#5. Forgetting both brothers’ times in Hell
There were two major moments that this came up in Supernatural Season 13. The first was in “The Scorpion and the Frog” and could have been fixed with a throwaway line about needing the blood of someone who had died and went to Hell, instead of throwing himself into Lucifer’s cage.
The second instance was not something many could get over. In “Unfinished Business,” Gabriel talked about how he had been through seven years of torture at Asmodeus’ hands and he wanted revenge on those who sold him out. It was clearly meant to make the Winchesters and us feel sorry for him.
But quite honestly, forgetting that both brothers had been tortured for decades completely meant the sympathy for the archangel wasn’t quite there. Just a mention of torture in Hell from Dean (since Sam was so adamant to think the best of Gabriel) would have likely been enough to make it clear the writers haven’t forgotten what the Winchesters had been through. This could be an issue with new writers who don’t know enough of the earlier stories, though.
#4. Apocalypse Michael being underused
This is another example of a storyline with no follow through. Apocalypse Michael was set up to be the big bad of the season from the start. And he was an exciting character with a powerful introduction. In fact, the introduction was one of the 13 best moments of Supernatural Season 13.
And then what did we get? Barely anything!
There was a lot of talk about how dangerous and powerful Michael was, but very little of him on screen. When he was on screen, he had others do the dirty work so we didn’t see him.
Finally, in the season finale we thought there was a chance. But again there was barely any follow through and it was Jensen Ackles (the actor spoiling the finale nearly made this list, but just missed it) who gave Michael the big finish against Lucifer. Considering how much we’d got to know Christian Keyes in the role, it would have been nice to see more of him against Mark Pellegrino’s Lucifer.
#3. Mary choosing the other world over her boys
I was one of Mary’s defenders in Supernatural Season 12. I could totally accept her going off on her own to find her place in the world. After 30+ years, everything had changed for her. The boys she knew were grown men and she just couldn’t quite find her place in the world.
At the end of Season 12, she finally accepted that her boys needed her and she was sorry for her mistakes and actions. She fought off Lucifer but was pulled into the Apocalypse World. One thing we hoped was that the Winchester brothers would find her and they’d be a family again. And then the penultimate episode happened. Mary shared that she didn’t want to go back and leave the Apocalypse World people behind.
This just didn’t make sense. And Dean had some of the perfect lines in this. It may have been a little selfish of him, but Dean and Sam did need her. Fortunately, Sam found a compromise, but the whole thing felt disingenuous and purely set up for people to continue to hate Mary Winchester. This storyline could have been handled better—like maybe Mary just outright suggesting that they talk to the Apocalypse World people to come back to their world.
#2. Dean getting over his dark place with a win
As we get into the top two, I’ll point out that they’re both about the Winchester brothers: one moment for each brother. This first one is all about Dean.
Supernatural Season 13 started dark. Dean was in a state of depression, teetering on the edge of being suicidal. He wasn’t making the best decisions, willing to risk his own life for ghosts. At no point did he think of how Sam felt. And this is very normal for depression on the level that Dean had. I actually had no problems with Dean’s character portrayal in these moments, because I understood what was really going on.
It was the aftermath that was a problem for me. In fact, it was one of the worst moments and, again, links to unfinished storylines. The minute Castiel was brought back from the dead, Dean was his normal self again. He was happy and excited about the hunts. It was a completely unrealistic portrayal, considering just how deep he was in a dark place.
This whole storyline proved that the writers wouldn’t be able to write the realities of depression. Maybe we should have expected the next moment…
#1. Everyone ignoring Sam’s fears about Lucifer
Sam got a little more follow through with his storyline, but not quite as much as he should. However, it was the way everyone else reacted to him that made him part of the very worst moment of Supernatural Season 13.
Every time Sam brought up his fears or being against the idea of working with Lucifer, everyone else brushed him off. Castiel was understandable in a way—he came back as a soldier. Dean was off. It was like he just didn’t care about his brother’s mindset at all and it felt wrong and weird.
The only person who seemed to listen about the fear was Rowena. They had shared an experience that they could relate to each other about. While that gave him someone, it didn’t give him the person he needed the most. It didn’t give him his brother, who should have been there to look out for him. Even with Rowena, she wasn’t there much. In fact, she quickly got over her fear because she knew Sam would kill her, which still wasn’t that realistic.
Supernatural has always struggled with Sam’s storylines. When there have been Sam-heavy storylines, they’ve mostly been focused on Dean’s development at the same time. The last follow through was back in Season 8. Since then, he’s been more of a damsel in distress and that needs to stop now!
Next: 13 best moments in Supernatural Season 13
Do you agree with this list? What were your worst moments of Supernatural Season 13? Let me know in the comments below.