Supernatural (TV series)/Tropes P-Z

"Dean: They do realize we're brothers, right?"
 * Parental Abandonment: John, honey, don't you think it would have been a better plan to tell your son what's going on and order him not to come instead of just taking off, leaving him to think he did something wrong or that something bad happened to you?
 * God vanished, leaving the soldierly angels without a father or direct orders.
 * Parents as People: Whether you think he's a useless bastard of a so-called father or a good guy just trying to raise two pretty difficult kids (if "Tall Tales" and "Hell House" were anything to go by) on his own under horrible circumstances, you have to admit that John is just as multi-layered and complex as Sam and Dean.
 * Parental Issues: Forget "Supernatural: Scary Just Got Sexy", the show's real tagline should be "Supernatural: Where Even The Angels Have Daddy Issues." (But only because God's just another dead beat dad with a bunch of excuses.)
 * The Password Is Always Swordfish: Subverted, played straight, and both times lampshaded in "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo".
 * While trying to hack into Frank's encrypted hard drive, Charlie thinks she found the password in the remarkably simple "War Games" when this yields results. Then Frank's hard drive opens a program revealing that it's a false lead and taunts her.
 * Played straight while she's hacking into Dick Roman personal computer, which is locked by the password "W1nn1ng".
 * Perma-Stubble: Dean and Castiel.
 * Phony Psychic: Sam and Dean run into an entire town of these in "The Mentalists". Lampshaded to no end, but particularly when Dean mentions that Pamela was one of the few genuine psychics they have encountered. There are actually some real ones as well, including.
 * Physical God: The Trickster and a handful of Pagan gods. Already majorly superpowered to begin with,.
 * A Plague on Both Your Houses: In "Death Takes A Holiday", the boys talk Pamela into helping them into the spirit realm, despite her objections that it is a stupidly dangerous endeavor..
 * Plot Coupon: The 66 Seals.
 * Post Modernism:
 * In "The Monster at the End of This Book," the Winchesters discover they are the lead characters in a series of horror novels with a small but fervent fandom. Online research turns up fan criticism, Samgirls, Deangirls...and slash fiction. When the boys track down the author (who at first believes they are his fictional characters brought to life), he apologizes for all the emotional torment and bad writing they've been subjected to.
 * When they meet a fangirl who writes Sam/Dean slash fics...well, you can imagine. The boys are understandably squicked.

"Sam: There's another way. Dean: (sarcastically) Well, we're working on the Power of Love. Dean: Not good."
 * There's an episode where they end up at a Supernatural convention.
 * The episode where Sam and Dean end up in an alternate dimension where their life is a TV show called "Supernatural". They have to act. It isn't pretty.
 * The Power of Love: Discussed in "Point of No Return."
 * Great. What is it?
 * How's that going?

"Death: You have an inflated sense of your importance. To a thing like me, a thing like you, well...Think how you'd feel if a bacterium sat at your table and started to get snarky. This is one little planet in one tiny solar system in a galaxy that's barely out of its diapers. I'm old, Dean. Very old. So I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you."
 * And in the end? The Power of Love is pretty much what does the trick. Which makes the above conversation foreshadowing.
 * Power of Trust: In season five, Sam's (basically misplaced) trust in him is all that keeps Dean from going through with it after saying yes to Michael.
 * Power Trio: Sam, Dean, and Castiel (circa Season 5). They even have the in-canon team name "Team Free Will", when including Bobby.
 * The Problem with Fighting Death: Discussed. To stop Lucifer, Dean tries to kill Death, unaware that he could've gotten what he wanted without killing him, as they both had a common interest in stopping the "bratty child". Dean assumes that Death would be angry at this, but it turns out the problem with a human fighting Death is that the human just doesn't matter.


 * He later gambles with him and buys him a hotdog, but continues to impress upon him the depths of his insignificance at every opportunity. It's here that Death also clarifies that he himself cannot, in fact, die.

""You stupid stupid son of a bitch! Well boo-hoo. I am so sorry your feelings are hurt... princess! Are you under the impression that family's supposed to make you feel good? Make you an apple pie, maybe? They're supposed to make you miserable! That's why they're family.""
 * Promotion to Parent:
 * Bobby for the boys, although considering Dean's daddy issues, fans would have preferred him to remain a friend-type. Explicitly stated in "It's a Terrible Life" and most of Season 4.
 * Deconstructed with Dean for Sam: it left him with a whole ton of issues--not the least of which is his lack of a spine when it comes to family--and an unhealthy need to keep Sam alive and safe.
 * Michael also claims that he was this to his younger brother Lucifer.
 * Properly Paranoid: Frank.
 * Proscenium Reveal: "Hollywood Babylon" opens with two terrified 20-somethings, Wendy and Brody, in the woods. Brody runs away; Wendy calls for her friends, hears a noise, turns toward the camera and screams — unconvincingly, at a tennis ball stuck on top of a movie camera. "Cut!" calls the director. "Wendy" is actually Tara Benchley, the lead actress of Hell Hazers 2.
 * Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Averted averted averted. Sam's psychic powers begin as harmless visions that help them save people in peril, but still cause all main characters to completely freak out because they must be evil. Turns out, they are.
 * Psychic Nosebleed: Sam, when he uses his psychic exorcism powers against particularly difficult demons.
 * Psychic Powers: Sam and the Special Children. Pamela Barnes and Missouri Mosely are more garden variety clairvoyants.
 * Pstandard Psychic Pstance: See above.
 * Puppy Dog Eyes: Mostly Sam and Castiel, although Dean can also manage to look like a stomped-on puppy at times.
 * Pyrrhic Victory: The end of season five: Sam and Dean manage to defeat
 * Season six ends with preventing Archangel Raphael from restarting the Apocalypse. To do so,
 * And season seven opens with.
 * Quit Your Whining:
 * Bobby, to Sam and especially Dean, at various points.

"Bobby: Sam. Dean. I love you like my own. I do. But sometimes... sometimes, you two are the most whiniest, most self-absorbed sons of bitches that I've ever met! I'm selfish? ME? I do everything for you! EVERYTHING! You need some lore scrounged up, you need your asses pulled out of the fire, you need someone to bitch to about each other. You call me, and I come through. EVERY. DAMN. TIME! And what do I get for it? Jack with a side of squat! Dean: Bobby... Bobby: Do I sound like I'm DONE?! Now look. I know you got issues. God knows, I know. But I've got newsflash for ya. You AIN'T the centre of the universe!"
 * At the end of Season 5, Castiel has been stripped of his angelic powers. When he starts to angst about the loss, Bobby basically shames him out of it--Castiel might be only human now, but hey, so are the rest of them, and Bobby, who's in a wheelchair, has a lot more reason to feel useless.
 * Zachariah delivers one of these speeches to Dean, mainly to show what utter dicks the angels are, as Dean's Heroic BSOD at the time was well deserved -
 * Rage Against the Heavens: Seasons 4 and 5, in a nutshell.
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The entire subculture of hunters, who have no budget and receive no pay for what they do. They do, however, earn a bunch of psychological issues along the way.
 * Reality Subtext: The Ghostfacers episode references the writers' strike that had caused season 3 to be shortened to sixteen episodes.
 * Reality Warper: The Trickster is a milder version of this. He can't rewrite the laws of reality but can still create matter out of thin air, albeit inextricably linked to him (as in if he's killed all his creations will vanish). It can be reasonably assumed that all archangels have similar powers, but they're never shown using it. Lucifer even trivializes it by deriding this ability as "amateur hocus-pocus".
 * Also, Jesse, who before even being aware of his abilities caused reality to change around him according to his beliefs about it (see The Antichrist).
 * Reality Writing Book: Chuck the Prophet writes books about two characters he thinks he made up named Sam & Dean Winchester, who have lives identical to the real Sam & Dean. At some points what he writes lines up with what's happening to Sam & Dean at that exact time.
 * Real Song Theme Tune: Obvious subverted as the show has no real theme song, but the unofficial theme that is used for recaps and such is "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas.
 * "Carry On Wayward Son" used to be the opening theme, but it has since been solely used for the Season Finale recap. However, the whole song has never been used as of yet as they usually omit the second verse, one round of the chorus, the guitar solo, and usually ends before the outro/ending guitar solo.
 * Real Trailer, Fake Movie: "Hollywood Babylon" had a trailer for "Hell Hazers II: The Reckoning."
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Death. Not that he's there to in anyway help the Winchesters, or anyone for that matter, but he values order, and is in charge of keeping the cycle of life and death continuing so the chaos doesn't destroy the universe. He is incredibly fair-handed in doing this, allows completely for the events of free will to be followed to their natural conclusion, and doesn't use "destiny" as an excuse to fuck people around. This means that all the Angels and Demons out there who play havoc with the natural order, arrogantly declaring that they can do whatever they want REALLY pisses him off (particularly considering how insignificant they are in comparison to him). As a result, if the Winchesters' aims coincide with his own, he will help them out. He is also the only entity in the whole of existence who Dean actually respects. And considering his exposure to both God and the Devil, that is saying something.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Bobby gives an EPIC one to Sam and Dean in "Weekend at Bobby's".

""It's a new, kinder administration." "Well, change you can believe in." "War on terror.""
 * Redemption Equals Death: Unusual example in that He was a bit of a jerk about it though.
 * "Swan Song".
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Particularly in season 1, with Dean being red and Sam being blue. Through the magic of Character Development, they have, at times, switched places.
 * Reference Overdosed: Dean often slips Person as Verb references into his conversation, and so does Bobby to a lesser extent.
 * The guest star of "The Girl With the Dungeons and Dragons" tattoo is Felicia Day, playing a rather hardcore nerd/geek. When chatting with her co-worker, it's rare a sentence passes between them or issues from her mouth that isn't some sort of reference. This is true of many socially isolated geeks. The episode as a whole has an inordinate number of references.
 * Relative Error: "Of course the most troubling question is, why do people keep assuming we're gay?"
 * Religious Horror: Though it starts out more All Myths Are True, the show inclines towards this increasingly as it goes on.
 * The Renfield:
 * Dean. He just has to think their father sent a cryptic message, and he'll jump. He makes Lugnut look like an independent thinker. Later in the series, he comes to resent his dad. Oh, the magic of Character Development.
 * Meg becomes this to Lucifer in season five.
 * Remember the New Guy?: Throughout the series, the Winchesters keep running into Hunters and old friends of their father that they knew growing up. These friends were usually never mentioned before their initial appearance, and are frequently never mentioned again onscreen afterwards, despite the brothers talking about all the adventures they had together and the time spent with their father. Given that most Hunters die horribly instead of retiring, it's a Justified Trope; you try not to get attached to people who usually end up eviscerated or worse.
 * Retired Badass: When Bobby and Rufus are first introduced, they seem to be more or less retired from hunting, though they quickly become more involved with the plot. Sam takes a Ten-Minute Retirement early in season five, and Dean retires from hunting from the end of season five until a couple of episodes into season six. Oh, and a season six episode involving time travel showed that Samuel Colt ended up like this in his later years (though Sam was quick to point out that there's "no such thing" as fully retiring from the hunter lifestyle).
 * Revenge: Daddy Winchester ruined his kids' childhood in efforts to find and kill Azazel to avenge his wife's death, and now Sam is ruining his own life trying to kill Lilith to avenge Dean, even now that Dean has returned from the pit.
 * A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside An Enigma: When Sam takes a Ten-Minute Retirement and tries to live a "normal" life in the episode "Free To Be You And Me," a girl curious to learn about Sam's past but at a loss of words to describe his peculiarity gives Sam the opportunity to quip that he's "a riddle wrapped inside an enigma wrapped inside a taco."
 * Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: The first season finale. Or the last fifty seconds of it, anyway.
 * Rousing Speech: Subverted in "Sympathy for the Devil." Dean makes one of these for Bobby's benefit, but later admits to Sam that he just was trying to keep Bobby's spirits up, and they have no hope of winning.
 * Rule of Funny:
 * Most of it has to do with what makes the characters afraid, notably "Yellow Fever."
 * Dean's multiple deaths in "Mystery Spot."
 * And the soap opera version of "Supernatural" in "Changing Channels."
 * Running Gag:
 * Dean and the magic fingers. Heh. And eww. And heh.
 * "Lucky guess."
 * Busty Asian Beauties. Dot com.
 * Casa Erotica.
 * All the Mistaken for Gay jokes.
 * Sam calling Dean's bluffs about competence. "Name three children that you even know", "Name the last book you read."
 * Dr. Sexy, M.D.
 * The boys' aliases being singers. According to "Weekend at Bobby's", Rufus Turner, at least, does something similar, though he uses the much less believable "Luther Vandross" and "Reuben Studdard".
 * Classic rock in general, both Dean's love for it, and Sam's distaste.
 * And Dean's "guilty pleasures".
 * Sam and Dean playing Rock, Paper, Scissors (and Dean losing because he always picks Scissors) to determine who will carry out unpleasant tasks. Dean eventually wins in season 6. With Scissors.
 * Funny enough, the number of times both of the Winchesters die could also be seen as this. Mentioned by Bobby at the start of "Dark Side of the Moon" in season 5.
 * Someone will question Sam and Dean's credentials, especially if they're posing as some kind of federal agents. "I didn't think the feds would have any interest in [this case]" is the standard line. They'll usually reply with something about the current administration.

"Bobby: MacLeod's Scottish, Einstein."
 * Sacrificial Lamb: Mary and Jess die in the first episode.
 * Sacrificial Lion: . And then . Then he gets better, too. THEN
 * Sad Clown: Dean and Gabriel, to an extent.
 * Sadly Mythtaken: Many of the pagan "gods" that appear in season five bear little to no resemblance to their original incarnations; Kali, Ganesh, Baldur, Odin, Mercury and Baron Samedi (Amongst others) are shown feasting on human flesh. While many of the figures did accept living sacrifices, including human sacrifices in some occasions, they all heavily frowned upon actually consuming human flesh, and in Roman tradition (The origin of Mercury) cannibalism is one of the prime sins forbidden by the gods.
 * Or, that's what they wanted you to think. In the Supernatural!Verse, most widely known details about myths are wrong. An Angel even states "Your Bible gets more wrong than it does right."
 * Saving the World: As of Season 5, the stated goal of the Brothers Winchester. Also the plot during the middle of season 6 with them trying to
 * Say My Name: You'd think the boys were in danger a lot or something. Bonus points if Sammy is used.
 * Scotireland: Demons call Crowley "Lucky the Leprechaun" behind his back because his real name is MacLeod.

"Castiel: Boop!"
 * Screw Destiny: Dean usually says something to this effect whenever Sam's dark and evil destiny is brought up. And, as of the end of Season 4, whenever his own destiny is brought up.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: To put it simply, thus far the end of every even-numbered season has involved letting some great evil out of its can. Seasons three, five, and seven have been about dealing with these evils. The Devil's Gate was opened with no warning and a bunch of stuff got out along with the actual new Big Bad Lilith; Lucifer was freed from his cage by Thanatos Gambit; and the Leviathans were the real problem with . According to Death in the Season 7 premiere, Purgatory was created by God to serve as a can for.
 * Seeking Sanctuary: Attempted in "Salvation" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer".
 * Seen It All: To the point where the aversions become important plot points, most notably in the first two episodes of season 4 and the first half of season 6.
 * See You in Hell: The last thing Dean says to Bela before . In a slight variation of this trope, Dean means it literally.
 * Selective Squick: In-Universe. The Pagan gods in "A Very Supernatural Christmas" will happily torture and kill, but are offended by swearing and would prefer you to say "Fudge."
 * Self-Parody:
 * Almost every season, in episodes such as "Hollywood Babylon" and "The Real Ghostbusters".
 * "The French Mistake".
 * Self-Sacrifice Scheme: season five ends with
 * Self-Stitching: It's the Winchester version of health care.
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: hard-drinking and -playing, weapons-happy Dean is more often in a nurturing role than little brother Sam, anger-issues Sam is the one who prefers talking it out, nonviolent solutions, and helping civilians.
 * Shallow Love Interest:
 * An interesting subversion with Jo in the second season. Word of God states that Jo was originally conceived as a love interest for Dean, and that she was phased out of the series due to negative fan reaction, which explains the rapid scrapping of her original Mary Sue characterization.
 * Deconstructed in "Wishful Thinking". In this example a guy uses a magic coin he inherited to create a wishing well, so he can make the girl who he's been in love with since high school, but is oblivious to him, love him over anything else. At first he's happy with the new situation, but eventually gets disheartened from the fact that she literally has no personality other than pleasing and loving him, even killing others for him to maintain their "love".
 * Sheep in Wolf's Clothing: After being turned into a vampire, Dean uses this to his advantage to infiltrate a coven.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: Sam and Dean both are, although the extent to which it applies comes and goes. It is implied that all hunters are as well, or soon will be.
 * Shirtless Scene:
 * Sam shows up in just a towel in "Hell House." It was totally necessary for the advancement of the plot.
 * One for Dean that was completely gratuitous and not gruesome whatsoever was about ten minutes into "What Is And What Should Never Be."
 * Castiel finally gets one in Point of No Return though his wasn't exactly gratuitous...
 * The Third Man. Sam's exercise routine was absolutely necessary for...erm...character development? Yes, that must be why it was in. (We'll be in our bunks.)
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Dean's death and looming eternal torment at the end of the Season 3 finale makes their increasingly unhinged panic and general agony over the course of the season so much worse and makes all their efforts to stop it completely...pointless.
 * Shout-Out: "Slash Fiction" featured a scene where Sam and Dean doppelgangers have a Quentin Tarantino-esque chat and shoot up a diner a la Pulp Fiction. Bobby even calls them "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny".
 * "Live Free or Twihard" has plenty of these to popular vampire fiction. The vampires meet at a bar called the Black Rose
 * In "Reading is Fundamental" there is a rather subtle reference to Alanis Morissette's portayal of God in the movie Dogma, when Castiel eccentrically tweaks Kevin's nose in reply to the question of whether he's an Angel.

""Before you slip into unconsciousness, I’d like to have another kiss...""
 * The Show Goes Hollywood: "Hollywood Babylon" and "The French Mistake".
 * Show Within a Show: Dean's a big (though secret) fan of the House-esque Dr. Sexy, MD.
 * Shown Their Work: Castiel is the Angel of Thursday. The character was introduced during season 4, when the show aired on Thursday. More significantly, Castiel on September 18, 2008. Which was a Thursday.
 * Crowley even calls him this in one episode, in a nifty example of Shown Their Work and Lampshade Hanging at the same time.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: Told to various villains by Sam and Dean.
 * Sibling Team
 * Sibling Yin-Yang:
 * Dean is loud, boorish, slutty and is a Big Eater in a nutshell. But he goes quiet (and even mute in Fanon) when hurting, turns all his angst in on himself and his whole life is wrapped in Sam and his family.
 * Sam is mostly celibate (because of that pesky Cartwright Curse), is never shown to be eating and tends to be the quiet one while Dean takes control. But he gets louder and more dangerous when he's upset and his main Fatal Flaws are Pride and self-absorption. And he's far more independent than Dean, showing signs of wanting to flee the nest through the entire show's run, and, unlike Dean, would probably be able to go on permanently with his life if deprived of his family and hunting.
 * The sex scenes (Dean in "Route 666" and "Heaven and Hell," and Sam in "Heart," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," and "Sex and Violence") show a difference between them too. Sex is fun for Dean; he doesn't mind being pushed down on the bed and letting the woman have her way with him. But for Sam, it's violent, kinky and it's clear he has to be the one in control and dominating.
 * Also, Castiel and Gabriel. Or Castiel and Balthazar.
 * Single Tear: Dean sheds them constantly. It's made its way into a drinking game!
 * Sixth Ranger Traitor:
 * Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: It's not clear whether fate truly exists or if it it just appears to because powerful beings have exerted significant effort to maneuver their game pieces into position, but the show ultimately comes down in favor of free will - against all odds the Winchesters manage to Screw Destiny in the end.
 * Until season 6, when.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Way, way over on the cynical side.
 * Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: Flip-flops between the two so often that you start to think the show is manic-depressive.
 * Small Towns Are Evil: All of them!
 * Smart People Play Chess: Jared Padalecki tends to come off as rather silly at times yet in one DVD episode's commentary, the director mentions his complete and utter destruction of chess opponents.
 * Social Services Does Not Exist: So they're telling us that nobody got worried about two young boys usually on their own, moving from state to state, with a usually absent father and a dead mother? Good to know.
 * It doesn't say nobody got worried; it says nobody managed to do anything about it. Given John's ability to fly under the radar, that's not terribly surprising.
 * Someone Has to Die
 * Soundtrack Dissonance:
 * At the end of Season 1,
 * In the Season 3 finale, Dean starts belting out some classic rock to distract himself from his impending doom. Sam joins in, and it's a fun brotherly moment for the thirty seconds before they realize they're singing "Wanted Dead Or Alive."
 * In "Swan Song," to interrupt a tense moment (possibly the last moment before ), Dean pops in a cassette and drives the Metallicar into the middle of   blaring the music. The song of choice? Def Leppard's "Rock of Ages," complete with German/jibberish intro.
 * In "Born Under a Bad Sign", while Sam is questioning Jo, a record player can be heard playing "The Crystal Ship" by The Doors.

"Sam: "Does this look like swimming-pool weather to you Dean? It's practically Canadian!""
 * Star-Crossed Lovers:
 * Mary and John. Literally a match made in heaven,, but destined for doom, thanks to Azazel.
 * Sam and
 * The Ophelia  both deconstruct very prettily in season 7. Although it's possible to interpret  ' behaviour in terms of Zen attitude and his characteristic lack of people skills.
 * The Starscream:  is all too willing to stab Lucifer in the back, however he is a slight subversion in that he never agreed to help him in the first place (what with Lucifer trapping him and all), and could arguably count as an inversion in that he's far far more powerful and important than Lucifer, who he regards as a spoilt child. Pestilence has shades of this, as he's more interested in taking revenge for his brothers than leaving Sam alive which is what Lucifer wants.
 * Stargate City:
 * Usually, Vancouver does a good job. but these Winchester boys supposedly travel the entire U.S. For one, Richardson, Texas looks and feels nothing like that., and neither does Pittsburgh, PA. And not every city has snow. Especially not in the middle of summer.
 * On the flip side, they were in MICHIGAN for the Christmas episode. They didn't appear especially cold, and there was no snow. That was actually because of the Monsters of the Week.
 * In the episode "Hollywood Babylon" when they're walking through a studio grounds, Dean comments how he wanted to come to Los Angeles for vacation, movie stars, swimming pools, etc.

"Dean: Cas, we've talked about this--personal space!"
 * Then "The French Mistake" had Sam and Dean swapping places with their actors. Cue Dean complaining that if they can't get out of Bizarro-world, they can at least get out of "the Canadian part of it."
 * Stealth Hi Bye: Castiel being the primary offender and Dean the primary victim.

"Dean: Wow, you win a trophy in Stockholm Syndrome!"
 * Stealth Pun:
 * When Dean is marked as a target of The Fair Folk, he's stalked and eventually attacked by someone who looks like a hobo. He never speaks, and no mention is made of what kind of creature he is, even though he looks nothing like the fairy, elves, and leprechaun that we see. He wears a red wool hat, looks like he hasn't shaved in a few days, and stares silently at his victim...
 * In "The End," the camp in which the resistance is based is called Camp Chitaqua, implying that the remaining humans have found themselves up a certain creek...
 * Stepford Smiler:
 * The two Pagan Gods in "A Very Supernatural Christmas."
 * Dean becomes a slightly manic version of this when he likes to pretend that everything is perfect. Case in point: The beginning of "Bloodlust", the middle half of Season Two during that nasty case of Survivor Guilt and the first handful of episodes in Season Three where he was a lot jerkier than some people liked.
 * Stockholm Syndrome: In "There Will Be Blood" there's Emily, who has come to see the Alpha Vampire as her "daddy".

"You really believe you can handle that kind of horsepower? You're delusional! They'll both mash us like peas."
 * Stock Subtitle: Supernatural Origins.
 * Stuffed in A Fridge:
 * The horrific deaths of minor characters Jess and Mary serve to spur Sam and John, respectively, on their quests for revenge.
 * . Great! . Not so great.
 * Subbing for Santa: Dean became Death in a sixth season episode.
 * This trope sums up Castiel perfectly.
 * Supernatural Angst: Practically the Trope Namer.
 * Supernatural Soap Opera
 * Super Weight:
 * Type 0: Most normal people
 * Type 1: Dean Winchester, Hunters in general
 * Type 2: Sam Winchester, Demons (black-eyed), Ghosts, Monsters in general, Prophets of the Lord
 * Type 3: Castiel, other Angels, Demons (white-eyed), Leviathans, The Four Horsemen (except Death), Pagan Gods, Alpha monsters
 * Type 4: Jesse Turner, Eve, the Fates, the Archangels (including Lucifer)
 * Type 5:
 * Type 6: Death, God
 * Summon Bigger Fish: In the Season 7 premiere, the Winchesters and Bobby summon Death to deal with . Subverted, though, in that  . The potential danger of doing this is beautifully lampshaded by Crowley:

"Dean: I'm wearing sunglasses at night. You know who wears sunglasses at night? No-talent douchebags. Chuck: It's too preposterous, not to mention arrogant. I mean, writing yourself into the story's one thing, but as a prophet? That's like M. Night level douchey-ness."
 * Supernatural Elite: The alphas, who are also the first of their kinds.
 * Survivor Guilt: There's plenty, most of it Dean's.
 * Suspiciously Apropos Music: Along with Soundtrack Dissonance, the primary use of Dean's "greatest hits of mullet rock." Songs like "Don't Fear The Reaper" more than once, "Ramblin' Man" by the Allman Brothers Band in the pilot, and "Carry On My Wayward Son", which plays over the Story So Far Recap for each season finale.
 * Take That:
 * Rather depressingly, you could see "What Is And What Should Never Be" as Dean's Take That against himself.
 * In "Free to Be You and Me": Dean slaughters a vampire and shouts "Eat it, Twilight!"
 * Only one person dies in "The Real Ghostbusters"... an overly critical "fan".
 * In "Changing Channels", the David Caruso impressions, as well as Dean's hatred of procedural shows.

"Jamie (GOTW): So you two are like Mulder and Scully and The X-Files are real? Dean: No, The X-Files is a TV show. This is real."
 * Sam and Dean also have a brief exchange about how the fans of the book do nothing but complain.
 * The episode "Criss Angel Is a Douche Bag" is one big Take That to more modern magicians. The title alone speaks for itself.
 * An episode of season 6 is titled "Live Free or Twi-Hard", mixes with a little of Your Vampires Suck.
 * One second season episode has Dean mention that a cult has kidnapped a woman named Katie Holmes.
 * In "Mommy Dearest" Dean names a new form of demon "Jefferson Starships" because "they are horrible and hard to kill."
 * The show is fond of mocking Sam/Dean shippers.
 * In Season 7, the writers fill a lot of space by inserting political Take Thats, usually whenever an episode features Dick Roman or references him in some way
 * Taking You with Me:
 * In "Abandon All Hope," blow themselves up along with the Hellhounds chasing Sam and Dean.
 * In "Point of No Return",
 * This was the plan to defeat Lucifer.
 * Talking to the Dead
 * Temporary Love Interest: Sam's girlfriend dies tragically in the pilot, after only being on screen for two scenes. The brothers amass quite a collection of broken hearts as the series progresses.
 * Thanatos Gambit: The plan to free Lucifer involved
 * Theme Naming: Unsurprisingly, the angels' names all have an element that means "God". Well, fittingly, not Lucifer.
 * Themed Aliases: Sam and Dean tend to use Rock Star aliases when going undercover, like Catholic priests Father Simmons and Father Frehley. Sometimes they use other famous-names-with-connections-to-each-other aliases as well, like Agents Ford & Hamill from the US Forestry Service. They've only been called on this once or twice.
 * There Are No Therapists: Justified for most of the hunters, since they can't exactly talk about what they do without getting committed (which happens in "Sam, Interrupted").
 * They Were Holding You Back: Azazel states that this is the reason Sam's fiancee had to die.
 * Thicker Than Water: The Winchesters, to a particularly disturbed level in the main characters.
 * This Is Reality: Happens at least twice:
 * This exchange with the Girl of the Week in the episode "Monster Movie":

"Guys, I wish this were a TV show. Easy answers, endings wrapped up in a bow. But this is real. And it's gonna end bloody for all of us. That's just how it's gotta be."
 * Said by the Trickster/ in 5.08 "Changing Channels":

"Dean: I'm never watching that movie again."
 * 7.12, "Time After Time" has this as a Running Gag. Dean goes back in time and meets Eliot Ness, and keeps making references to The Untouchables, to everyone's confusion.

"[to a guy Dean and Sam are interviewing about a case] Sam: You brave little soldier. I acknowledge your pain. Come here. [hugs him] You're too precious for this world!"
 * Title Drop: Sam does this in "The French Mistake".
 * To Absent Friends
 * Together in Death: This was probably what Dean was expecting to happen when he was Driven to Suicide in "Croatoan." Sam would go crazy, kill him and most likely feel so guilty that he would put a bullet in his brain or Sam would go crazy, Dean would shoot him and then eat a bullet. Either way, Dean was a massively hot mess at this point.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: In "Road Kill", the Monster of the Week doesn't know she until the end of the episode.
 * The Monster of the Week in "Heart" has no memory of her transformations into a werewolf, so she doesn't truly realize what she is until Sam traps her in her apartment and she awakens to see how she's torn the place up.
 * Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Poked fun at in the episode "Tall Tales", with Dean exaggerating Sam's empathy in a recollection.

"Alpa Vampire: [bored] Oww. Please stop. That hurts."
 * Took a Level In Badass: Castiel was quite Badass in the beginning, but along with his Character Development, there was a slight bit of Woobiefication. In the Season 5 premiere,
 * Too Kinky to Torture, many characters display this over the course of the show in response to torture, although it's usually just meant to piss off the torturer as they're still in agony when it's actually applied. One of the few who doesn't even display any physical signs of discomfort is the Alpha Vampire when he's captured and interrogated (read: getting electrocuted). This trope is also Crowley's reason for changing Hell from physical torture to an eternal waiting line.


 * Too Dumb to Live: The woman Tricia Helfer played in the haunted road episode, to the point of being a Damsel Scrappy. Also this occurs throughout the series.
 * To Serve Man: Quite a few monsters are prone to snacking on people or specific parts of them, but the Leviathans certainly take the cake, as their entire M.O. seems to be "they eat people".
 * Tragic Hero: Anyone who isn't evil. The two main characters' flaws are different flavors of desperation (Sam's obsession and Dean's devotion). Or maybe the same flavor--desperation for approval from an absent father--given different focuses based on their roles in the family.
 * Tragic Mistake: Can usually be summed up as not listening to Dean.
 * In season four, Dean demands Sam dissolve his alliance with the demon Ruby and give up drinking demon blood to gain the power to defeat Lilith. Since Dean calls him a monster and "closes that door" on him just like their father did, and Sam believes what he's doing is the only way to prevent the Apocalypse, Sam becomes Lilith's/Ruby's Unwitting Pawn and  starts The End of the World as We Know It.
 * In season six, chooses not to seek Dean's help   and instead makes a Deal with the Devil,  to prevent the Apocalypse from being restarted. Then he  In season seven,
 * Transhuman Treachery: Most monsters; most of the Psychic Children, especially Ava and Jake; and Gordon Walker after he was turned into a vampire who thought anything was worth killing Sam.
 * Triang Relations: Loki/Kali/Baldur. Probably a Type 7. Maybe Type 8.
 * True Companions: As brothers who would literally sell their souls for one another, Dean and Sam started out this way and have added Team Free Will to the roster. Bobby's probably more of a father than their real father. Dean tells Castiel he's like a brother to him in later seasons.
 * When Dean meets a version of himself from five years in the future in 5x04, one of the clearest signs that Future!Dean has changed for the worse is that he Present!Dean is understandably horrified by this.
 * Castiel rebelled against Heaven to help Dean and Sam. Bobby considers them like sons to him, and in season seven episode "Death's Door" says

"Dean: Stop, stop! Nobody kill any virgins!"
 * Two Shots From Behind the Bar: Happens several times.
 * Tyke Bomb: Dean and Sam were both trained as hunters from a young age. While this Parental Neglect and training was part of demonic plans to groom generally nice Sam into becoming a powerful Anti Christ, Daddy Winchester seems to have worked Dean harder, having him shooting at the age of 6.
 * Umpteenth Customer: One episode involves a rabbit's foot that grants increasingly good luck until it is lost, at which point it grants increasingly bad luck that ends with death. During the good luck run, Sam wins free meals for life at a restaurant. While eating, he loses the foot to a savvy thief. As Sam's luck turns bad, some people are out to kill him; those who can't find him see the press release of his award and know immediately where he is.
 * The Unfavourite: John Winchester had the remarkable ability to make both of his sons feel like they were this. This is further amplified when a third son gets brought into the picture and also feels that he is this.
 * Unusual Euphemism: Before Castiel sends the Archangel Michael away temporarily with holy fire, he calls him an "ass-butt." Everyone kind of stares at for a second before the end of the world gets back on track.
 * Unwitting Pawn: Just about every main protagonist.
 * The entire demon story arc consists of demons and angels screwing the Winchesters over. Both Sam and Dean have played right into the villains' hands, Grief-stricken Dean's Deal with the Devil leads to him  Similarly screwed in the head, Sam  What neat little bookends, guys.
 * Using You All Along: A freaking epidemic.
 * Viewers Are Geniuses: Admit it, until "What Is And What Should Never Be"/"All Hell Breaks Loose" came around, you completely missed the hints in "Hollywood Babylon"/"Folsom Prison Blues" that there was something very, very wrong with El Deano.
 * Villain Exit Stage Left:
 * Villain Pedigree: Once demons started planning to free Lucifer and bring on Armageddon, ghosts and vampires kinda got taken down a notch. Now angels are taking demons down a notch themselves.
 * Villain Team-Up: Subverted. Crowley tries to pull one with the Boss Leviathan (he even bakes gluten-free baby uvula muffins for the occasion!), but gets shot down.
 * Virgin Sacrifice: Averted in "Jus in Bello." While sacrificing the virgin might save their lives, our intrepid heroes instead choose to fight it out.

"Garth: Awesome!"
 * The Virus: "Croatoan", "The End" and some episodes before the end of the fifth season.
 * Walking the Earth
 * We Help the Helpless
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: in the Season One Finale, his dad telling Dean how proud he is that Dean saved Sam's life using one of the Colt’s bullets tips him off that his dad’s possessed by the Big Bad, since his dad would be furious.
 * Even when Dean gets an attaboy and sign of trust from his father, it comes with a Dark Secret that endangers his relationship with his brother, and his dad dies for him.
 * Sam feels like he can't earn his father's approval because his flaw is what he is, so he acts out.
 * Castiel's devotion to his father (who is, by the way, God) leads him to start rebelling against his fellow angels and siding with humans, whom he thinks of as his father's "works of art". Come Season 6, Castiel's still trying to carry out his father's wishes by leading one faction of Heaven against the archangel Raphael.
 * And that's since Gone Horribly Right...
 * All the angels suffer this, more or less, because God is a crappy parent.
 * The demon Azazel, original nemesis of the Winchesters, evidently had this with Lucifer, and his whole program was geared toward
 * He in turn encouraged this from his own 'children,' such as the demon known as Meg. It is safe to say that the entire Supernatural universe has daddy issues.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Vampire hunter Gordon Walker can be considered this: he kills monsters but generally does not care if innocents get caught in the crossfire.
 * Sam Winchester had a few shades of it too in seasons 3 and 4 where he was reluctantly willing to sacrifice one for the good of the many.
 * In season 6, the Big Bad of the season is revealed to be  to keep the Apocalypse from being restarted, he has decided anything is acceptable - in this case, allying with Crowley and opening Purgatory, the afterlife From Whence Monsters Come. The Winchester boys do their best to stop their Face Heel Turned ally, until he.
 * Wham! Episode: Often. Namely, every season finale, most season openers, and what feels like every other episode after season 4.
 * "What?" Cliffhanger: The end of "Croatoan" is... disorienting, to say the least.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: In "Party on, Garth", the titular character's reaction to a ghost you can only see when drunk.

"Chuck:Come on, Sam -- sucking blood? You gotta know that's wrong."
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: At the very end of "No Rest For The Wicked," Dean is chained in a St. Andrew pose, whose "Martyr" status fits Dean like a well-fitting glove. Sam and the Crucifixion in Season Three.
 * "What the Hell?" Dad John Winchester trained his sons from an early age to kill the demon that murdered their mother, and didn't really do much else in the way of parenting. He left that to oldest son Dean, treating Dean more like a grown hunter than a child.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Sam gets a lot of these after he fails to keep his brother from being dragged off to hell.
 * Sam starts using his demon-blood-born powers to exorcise demons between seasons three and four, and in season four, the prophet Chuck is the first to call him on the way he fuels those powers:

"Michael: You are a monster, Lucifer. And I have to kill you."
 * Dean finds out when Sam, jonesing for a fix, cuts a demon's throat to drink her blood so he can pull the demon out of Castiel's vessel's wife without killing her. Dean locks Sam up so he can detox from the demon blood. This is followed by Sam leaving to kill Lilith, thinking that's the only way to stop the Apocalypse after they fight when Dean calls him a monster.
 * The whole point of the addiction makes the title all the more fitting...
 * In season 6, Sam gets plenty of these. In Live Free or Twihard, Sam,
 * Dean almost says it verbatim ("Sam" instead of "hero") in "Clap Your Hands if You Believe" when he finds Sam having sex instead of
 * In season six, gets one in "My Heart Will Go On" from Fate, over how Balthazar altered history by stopping the Titanic from sinking,
 * More recently, Dean, Sam, and Bobby confront
 * A particularly awesome example in season seven episode 1:.
 * White Sheep: Sam just wants to live a normal life rather than kill monsters.
 * Who Would Want to Watch Us?:
 * Fourth season episode The Monster at the End of This Book.
 * Season 6 episode The French Mistake. But, apparently, not very many people do.
 * Who Writes This Crap?: The prophet Chuck says something to this effect in The Monster at the End of This Book. He writes this crap, and when Chuck believed that Dean and Sam were at his doorstep because his writing had come true, he apologized to the brothers for making them live through "bad writing" like the "racist truck".
 * Whole-Plot Reference: Monster Movie, shot in black and white and was a wonderful parody of the classic Universal monster movies from the 30's and 40's.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes??: Dean is terrified of flying and ends up screaming his head off while the plane is about to crash in "Phantom Traveler" and Sam, scared to death of clowns, still busts out crying when he sees Ronald McDonald on TV (or so Dean claims). It's telling that in "Weekend at Bobby's" Dean was willng to endure an all night flight to Scotland so they could locate Crowley's bones and thus gain leverage to break the hold Crowley had on Bobby's soul.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity:
 * Most of the people who are shown to have developed Psychic Powers like Sam go off the deep end. Doesn't help that they're designed with this in mind:
 * At the end of season six, after Jumping Off the Slippery Slope,
 * Wolverine Publicity: Castiel's role in Season 6 seems to consist mostly of this. He gets his own solo TV bumper (the Winchesters have to share one), is one of the three characters featured in the publicity stills, and his actor is usually given top billing at conventions. He's even credited on IMDB for episodes he hasn't appeared in at all.
 * Word of God: A literal version appears near the end of Season 7. Dick was searching for it, and a new prophet - Kevin - was created specifically to read it.
 * Worst Aid:
 * Sam scooping Dean up and cradling him after he'd been hit with enormous force by a car (he got better), with blithe disregard for his spinal column. We can probably assume he was so shocked he lost it.
 * Dean loosely wrapping Sam's recently slit wrists in 4x19 "Jump The Shark" was another example of how this should perhaps not be done.
 * Not to mention a few episodes where they find people who have recently drowned and instead of trying to save them using CPR, wait for them to cough up water or just sigh and walk away.
 * Write Back to the Future: Done by Samuel Colt in "Frontierland".
 * Dean does this in "Time After Time".
 * Written in Infirmity: Actor Jared Padalecki injured his wrist in a stunt in the fourth episode of Season 2; because later scenes for the episode had already been filmed, they couldn't put him in a cast until after filming was over. The line "I think she broke my wrist" was added in after they discovered his wrist was in fact broken, not sprained, and explains the cast he wears in the next several episodes.
 * Wrongly Accused:
 * Much of the reason the FBI is after Sam and Dean, though it certainly doesn't help that they've genuinely committed a host of comparatively minor crimes in the process of hunting demons. They still would've gotten at least a few years for the credit card fraud, the FBI impersonation, and the grave desecrations and all the rest, even if they'd been able to clear their names of the murders.
 * Several full episodes have been built on the legal repercussions of the brothers' activities. In "The Usual Suspects", Dean is arrested for the murders committed by the shapeshifter in "Skin" and Sam for aiding and abetting same. In "Jus in Bello", the brothers are set up for arrest by the season's antagonist, which brings in Agent Henrickson to witness what the Winchesters have actually been doing. He survives the subsequent Hilarity Ensues, but not the end of the episode. Henrickson is also after the brothers in "Nightshifter" and "Folsom Prison Blues."
 * Xanatos Gambit: The Horseman Pestilence planned an impressive gambit in which he had infected his victims with swine flu. This results in a nationwide demand for the flu vaccine, which is successfully created by Niveus Pharmaceuticals and ready to be distributed across the country. However, this vaccine . He has nothing to lose by people dying of swine flu and a lot to gain by making them take the vaccine. (Which is a reference to the original 1976 swine flu vaccine with nasty side effects that left a whole generation wary of flu shots.)
 * Xanatos Speed Chess:
 * part in a certain gambit only comes into play because the last survivor of Azazel's kids was Sam, who wouldn't knowingly have, or anything else that would have been asked of Jake had Sam stayed dead, instead of Jake or Ava, who were better at taking Azazel's orders. Lampshaded when Azazel mentions that he was worried when , but Dean fixed that. Besides, he had a backup plan.
 * Yandere:
 * Angela, the crazy dead girl from "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things."
 * Hope ("I love you more than anything") from "Wishful Thinking."
 * As of "Season Seven, Time For a Wedding!," Becky. Becky. Becky.
 * Yank the Dog's Chain: everyone knew all too well that as soon as Dean decided he didn't want to go to Hell in "Dream a Little Dream of Me", his fate as Hell's eventual bitch was sealed.
 * Shooting in "Abandon All Hope". For a few moments it looks like it worked and ... And then he gets up. The expressions on Sam and Dean's faces because they thought they'd managed to win.
 * Yaoi Fangirls: In real life, there are quite a few in the fanbase, and considering this is Supernatural, this is brought up in the show, when the boys find a series of books that seem to be based on their adventures.
 * In universe, there's Becky.
 * You Are Better Than You Think You Are: In the second part of the season two finale, when Dean reveals to Bobby that he, Bobby asks how could he possibly have such a low opinion of himself in order to stoop to such a decision.
 * You Are Not Alone: In the season five finale, when Sam, Dean tells him it's okay, he's there. Dean's presence enables Sam to.
 * You Cannot Grasp the True Form: An angel's real voice will make your ears bleed and their real visage will burn your eyes out. Cass claims that his true form is the size of the Chrysler Building, but there's no telling whether that's true for all angels.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: And yet they do. Figuratively throughout the series, and literally in "My Heart Will Go On".
 * You Got Spunk: In "In The Beginning", The Yellow Eyed Demon says this to a young Mary Campbell as she's attacking him.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Crowley enters an Enemy Mine with the Winchesters in Season 5 because he believed Lucifer would pull this trope on the demons if he won the apocalypse. And it's strongly implied that he was right.
 * You Monster!: In 5.22 "Swan Song", Michael has this retort to Lucifer when his younger brother tries to persuade him to join him one last time.

"Christian: Ah. Samuel's locked office. Pretty private. Who you calling? Dean: Your wife. Let her know I'm not gonna make it over tonight."
 * Your Days Are Numbered: Dean, throughout Season 3.
 * Your Mind Makes It Real: Appeared in "Hell House" when some kids accidentally summon a tulpa, a monster that only exists if you believe in it. Another form of this trope shows up in "Dream a Little Dream of Me" where dying in a dream leads to actual death.
 * Your Mom: In 6.07 "Family Matters", Christian Campbell catches Dean snooping around Samuel's office. As Dean comes up with a weak excuse about needing to call someone in privacy:

"Sam: Vampires? Dean: These aren't vampires; these are douchebags."
 * Your Vampires Suck: The sixth season episode "Live Free or Twihard" has this exchange when Sam and Dean enter a teenage girl's room heavily decorated with Twilight-esque vampires:


 * Zombie Apocalypse: the episode "The End". It was more or less a Shout-Out to 28 Days Later.