Ranking the Supernatural Season 13 episodes from worst to best
After grading the Supernatural Season 13 episodes, it’s time to rank them from worst to best.
Supernatural Season 13 had a good mixture of episodes. On a directorial point of view, there were risks taken and while they didn’t all work for me, they did work for many others. There were good meta episodes (particularly “Scoobynatural”) and a chance to delve into the more lore and look back at some of the best moments from previous seasons.
Now that I’ve graded the episodes, it’s time to rank them. I’ve already ranked the first half of the season, but this ranking won’t consider that as part of it. This Supernatural Season 13 ranking is based on the episode grades set yesterday, so many of the reasoning in that article will stand in this. The ranking also takes into account that I’m no longer doing this just on a first-look of a strong first-half of the season.
I’m not going to go into a lot of details in this ranking, as I’ve already detailed my reasoning for the episode grades.
Just as a reminder, the overall season was graded a B, with the weakest, “Unfinished Business,” getting a D- and the strongest, “Scoobynatural,” getting an A+. What I will do is explain why some of the episodes that got the same grade come out slightly on top of the others with that grade.
The bottom five
Starting with the bottom five, we have:
23. Unfinished Business (Episode 20)
22. The Scorpion and the Frog (Episode 8)
21. Beat the Devil (Episode 21)
20. Exodus (Episode 22)
19. The Thing (Episode 17)
None of these really need an explanation, except maybe why “The Thing” is ranking lower than “War of the Worlds,” both of which received a C grade.
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“War of the Worlds” slightly comes out on top for the main reason that it’s more memorable than “The Thing.” Also, it was a plot-heavy episode. While “The Thing” did have the plot of getting the ingredients for the spell to open the rift, it wasn’t one that was overly important. At least the Thanksgiving-aired episode gave us Ketch and Kevin back, setting up storylines for both—albeit one was severely underused and disappointing in the end.
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I also didn’t feel guilty about not watching Episode 17 live that week. If I don’t feel guilty about waiting for a rerun, it generally means that I didn’t find it as entertaining as others when watching it back.
The other four episodes are easy to rank. They all received the lowest grades out of the whole of Supernatural Season 13. And each one got a different grade, working from D- up to the C that “The Thing” received.
The rest of the bottom half
There are seven episodes to fill up the bottom half of the list. They are:
18. War of the Worlds (Episode 7)
17. Patience (Episode 3)
16. Good Intentions (Episode 14)
15. Bring ‘em Back Alive (Episode 18)
14. A Most Holy Man (Episode 15)
13. Funeralia (Episode 19)
12. Various and Sundry Villains (Episode 12)
While both “War of the Worlds” and “Patience” were graded with a C, “Patience” comes out slightly on top. This is linked to the fact that apart from Missouri’s death, it was an enjoyable episode. We got a lot of positive focus on Patience’s character, seeing her as a conscientious young woman and focusing a lot on how smart and kind she is. We also had Jody give her the option to call her should she decide she doesn’t want to stay out of the supernatural life.
“Bring ‘em Back Alive” gets past “Good Intentions” only slightly. I was disappointed in the lack of focus on Michael and Zachariah in Episode 14. Had we seen more of that, I think I would have preferred the episode. One thing I liked about Episode 18 was seeing more about the angels and how they reacted around the humans.
And then we have Episodes 15 and 19, which both scored B-. “Funeralia” won it for me because of Ruth Connell in those final scenes with Billie. We got to see this grieving mother and it helped give us some closure about the loss of Crowley.
The next six episodes
The first six in the top half of Supernatural Season 13 are:
11. Tombstone (Episode 6)
10. Devil’s Bargain (Episode 13)
9. The Bad Place (Episode 9)
8. Let the Good Times Roll (Episode 23)
7. Advanced Thanatology (Episode 5)
6. The Big Empty (Episode 4)
“Tombstone” beat “Various and Sundry Villains” mostly due to the humor. As much as I dislike that we only got one episode of Team Free Will 2.0, I did really love the moments that we did get. Seeing Castiel and Jack bond and Jack’s certainty that it was a zombie consistently put a smile on my face in the episode.
Meanwhile, the rest of the episodes all scored B+. This was a little harder to order, but it all came down to the way I felt when watching the episodes the first time and my thoughts about rewatching the episodes. Out of all, I look forward to catching “The Big Empty” and “Advanced Thanatology” again the most. The former for the Cosmic Entity and the latter for the creepiness in the episode. I really got a sense of the original episodes of Supernatural in these episodes, while seeing some excellent and necessary character development.
The top five episodes
Finally, it’s the top five episodes of the season:
5. Wayward Sisters (Episode 10)
4. Lost and Found (Episode 1)
3. The Rising Son (Episode 2)
2. Breakdown (Episode 11)
1. Scoobynatural (Episode 16)
I don’t think I need to give an explanation for the top two episodes. They were ranked A and A+ respectively. It’s those in places 3-5 that need a little explanation on why I’ve ranked them this way. All received an A- grading.
Out of all, I did find “Wayward Sisters” the weakest, partially because Claire and Kaia didn’t really spend enough time in the Bad Place. I get that this was likely because of the ideas for the spin-off, but I would have loved to see them in there just a little bit longer, even working with Sam and Dean against whatever the monster was.
“The Rising Son” comes out on top because of Michael’s introduction. While I expected a strong warrior, I didn’t quite expect everything Christian Keyes brought. He instantly became an actor for me to watch out for and I look forward to more of the shows he’s in.
So, the ranking in full to make it easier is:
- Unfinished Business (Episode 20)
- The Scorpion and the Frog (Episode 8)
- Beat the Devil (Episode 21)
- Exodus (Episode 22)
- The Thing (Episode 17)
- War of the Worlds (Episode 7)
- Patience (Episode 3)
- Good Intensions (Episode 14)
- Bring ‘em Back Alive (Episode 18)
- A Most Holy Man (Episode 15)
- Funeralia (Episode 19)
- Various and Sundry Villains (Episode 12)
- Tombstone (Episode 6)
- Devil’s Bargain (Episode 13)
- The Bad Place (Episode 9)
- Let the Good Times Roll (Episode 23)
- Advanced Thanatology (Episode 5)
- The Big Empty (Episode 4)
- Wayward Sisters (Episode 10)
- Lost and Found (Episode 1)
- The Rising Son (Episode 2)
- Breakdown (Episode 11)
- Scoobynatural (Episode 16)
Next: Supernatural Season 13: Grading the episodes
Do you agree with this list? How do you rank the Supernatural Season 13 episodes? Let us know in the comments below.
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