Supernatural (TV series)/Tropes F-O

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


F

Dean[after hunters shot Sam]: You go ahead and kill me. But when I get back...I'm gonna be pissed.

  • "Failure to Save" Murder: Sam feels like he's done this throughout the seasons.
  • Fan Service: The first episode had a ghost with more cleavage than you could shake a stick at. The trend continued. Even the brothers themselves are Fanservice. Heck, in sex scenes the camera looks at them more than their partners, as a rule.
  • The Fair Folk: as of season 6, officially fairies exist. Considering that the gods of all the major religions have already been shown to exist, this isn't so much a surprise, but it does confirm that there are different kinds of magic, particularly Wild Magic, which plays differently into the whole angels and demons power struggle.
  • Faking Amnesia: Dean fakes a case of Death Amnesia after being pulled out of hell by Castiel. It's possible it's actually true at first, but by an episode or two later he's blatantly lying.
  • Fantastic Aesop: "After School Special" brings us this: Don't assume that just because somebody acts like a jerk, they don't have problems of their own. And besides, if you do lash out at them, they might get so angry they'll come Back from the Dead for revenge.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: In Hell, you're basically tortured, daily, in unimaginable ways, for decades on end, unless you agree to do the same to others. Dean held out for thirty years.
    • The end of season five had Sam stuck in hell's solitary confinement with vengeful archangels Fallen Angel Lucifer and Michael torturing him creatively for a hundred and eighty years or so.
  • Feud Episode: One Rashomon Style episode deals with the brothers fighting, which, as Sam pointed out, is understandable for two guys who spend all their time cooped up in a car together. Bobby is not amused.
  • Fighting From the Inside: Considering the show uses demonic possession a lot, this trope crops up now and then.
    • In the season one finale "Devil's Trap", John resists possession and gives his son a chance to kill YED.
    • In season five, Bobby successfully fights off possession by one of Meg's henchmen long enough to stab and cripple himself with a demon-killing knife so he didn't kill Dean.
    • Deliberately invoking this trope is how Sam takes down Lucifer at the end of season five.
  • Final First Hug: Sam and Dean would die for each other, have killed for each other, would sell their soul for each other, but the first time they hug is at the end of season two, when Sam's just been stabbed in the back and dies in Dean's arms.
  • Fire and Brimstone Hell: Played with. To sum it up, a demon describes Dante's take on Hell as "a bit of an understatement."
  • First Law of Tragicomedies: This show brings Mood Whiplash to a new level
  • Follow in My Footsteps
  • Food Chain of Evil: It turns out that Sam gains power by feeding on demons.
  • Force Feeding:
    • Dean tortures Alastair in "On the Head of a Pin" by pouring a whole bag of salt in his mouth.
    • Inverted in a previous episode when the forced feeding wasn't the torture, but the cure to torture: Dean is writhing in agony on the floor coughing up blood due to a hex when Ruby busts down the door and bodily hurls him onto the bed before forcing a potion down his throat, breaking the hex and saving his life.
    • Just being in Famine's presence push peoples to consume the thing they crave the most for until they die, either it's Twinkies, alcohol or another human being. Hope your stomach is strong enough.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Dean's guilt in "Faith" being ramped up to 1000 when John dies for him in Season Two, Dean wanting to make a Deal with the Devil to get his father back in "Crossroad Blues" and actually doing so (except for his brother this time) in "All Hell Breaks Loose", all of Dean's onscreen deaths (7 in total?) leading up to the big one in "No Rest For The Wicked" and Dean's "All things considered" comment about their childhood in "Nightmare" turning out to be unbelievably loaded.
    • Sam and Dean's relationship to their father in Season 1 is incredibly similar to Lucifer and Michael's to God. This is, ah, occasionally noted, by them and others.
    • Several episodes have Sam and Dean fighting each other (well, kind of, thanks to demonic possession, hallucination, shapeshifter...). In the fifth season, we learn that as the vessels of Lucifer and Michael, they are destined to fight each other.
    • The following conversation in "Point of No Return":

Sam: There's another way.
Adam: Great. What is it?
Dean: (sarcastically) Well, we're working on the Power of Love.
Adam: How's that going?
Dean: Not good.

Zachariah: We didn't lie, we just avoided certain truths to manipulate you.

  • Future Badass: The Dean we know and love may be already be quite Badass, but his future self in "The End" takes it to a whole new level. He's also a total douchebag.
  • Future Me Scares Me: In "The End," Dean is disturbed by his future self's propensity for violence, torture and willing sacrifice of innocents.

G

  • Genre Blindness: Played for Laughs. One of the boys, usually Dean, constantly speculates that the events have a mundane explanation in spite of events almost never going that route.
  • Genre Roulette: Pick a week, load in a bullet, and spin to see where the Mood Whiplash lands. Some serious Out Of Genre Experiences occur, however they're all done very well, so the emotional and psychological continuity is generally preserved in the long run. Every variation on the horror genre is done, of course. Also plenty action-adventure genre. Comedy and parody feature heavily. You can also throw in slice-of-life, surrealistic Mind Screw, and philosophical debate on the nature of life, death and the human soul, a dash of romantic tragedy, and your occasional fantasy adventure-land and/or alternate dimension.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar:
    • In "The Devil You Know", Crowley asks "fancy a fag and a chat?". Crowley's British (specifically, from Scotland (despite his more English-sounding accent), as Bobby discovers when digging up dirt on his life before he became a demon), so he "means" a cigarette, but he's a in-canon Ho Yay figure in an American show devilishly sliding in a hidden reference.
    • In "Yellow Fever," there's a brief mention of a pair of softball teams, the Gamecocks and Cornjerkers.
  • Ghostly Chill: Cold spots indicate past or impending ghostly hijinx.
  • Ghostly Goals
  • Gilligan Cut: From 6.07 "Family Matters", as Dean wants to get involved in the hunt on the Alpha Vampire:

Dean: [to Samuel]: Big Daddy bloodsucker? I ain't gonna miss that. But this is your deal, I get it. I'll follow your lead. I trust you.
Dean: [outside] I don't trust him.

  • Girl of the Week: Now, come on, are we ever going to see Cassie and Sarah again? Not likely. It seems every three episodes Dean or Sam meet a girl who they kiss and promise to visit again soon. Nope.
  • "Glad to Be Alive" Sex: Turns out Dean, Sam and Bobby all have been in "foxholes" with fellow hunter, Annie Hawkins.
  • Glamour Failure: Mainly the true reflection variant (sirens, changelings, wraiths), but also physical defect variant (the "flip-to-silver" eyes for the shapeshifters, a retractable layer of fangs for vampires), being burnt by holy water...
  • God Is Dead: Or so it seems (and a couple different characters claim) until half-way through season five. See next several points below.
  • God Is Evil: Because this series has All Myths Are True we see several different gods. All the pagan ones encountered have been irredeemably evil and very fond of human sacrifices. The Judeo-Christian God, on the other hand, well...see God Was My Co-Pilot below.
  • The Gods Must Be Lazy: God's aware of the apocalypse, but just won't help in direct ways that might breach free will.
  • Gods Need Prayer Badly: Both Mordecai the Tulpa in season 1 and the pagan gods throughout the series. While some of the pagan gods have more than millions of followers, the Abrahamic one and his angels don't seem to get their power according to this.
  • God Was My Co-Pilot: When God is confirmed to exist half-way through season 5, it's explained that He is apathetic and unwilling to help. However, the finale of Season 5 reveals that God is Chuck. Sort of. He certainly does care, but was only able to help in such a way as to leave everyone's free will intact. He gave the Winchesters what they needed to succeed, if they decided to be Determinators.
  • Godzilla Threshold: Several characters think this point has been reached at various times.
    • In season five, after seeing a bleak future in which Lucifer won in Sam's body seemingly because Dean didn't say yes to Michael and losing all faith in Sam, Dean's ready to let Michael have him even though it will mean most of the world is destroyed. Sam convinces him not to.
    • By the end of season five, everything has gone so far to hell that having Sam say 'yes' to Lucifer to prevent the continuation of the Apocalypse and the fight between Michael and Lucifer that will destroy most of the world is the only option. Of course, at the end of season 4, they'd all pretty much realised that they were screwed.
    • In season six, best buddy Castiel decides that the only way to prevent the Apocalypse from being restarted by Archangel Raphael is to make a Deal with the Devil and take in the power of all the souls in Purgatory.. This turns out to be a bad idea.
  • Going Cosmic: Seasons 4, 5, and (to some extent) 6 focused increasingly on the Apocalypse and there have been a number of angels speechifying about the world as they see it, including Lucifer.
  • Go Into the Light: In the episode "Roadkill," a ghost who had been unaware of her death or the years that had passed since then goes into the light after she's told.
  • Good Guy Bar: The Roadhouse, though that's more of a Scrappy Guy Bar.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Lets put it this way: Angels are considered the step above Demons on the Villain Pedigree of the show.
  • Good People Have Good Sex:
    • Played straight, once Fridge Brilliance sets in: Dean, on the rare occasion he has a sex scene, is shown to be very much a "lover," with deep and romantic engagements. Sam (who may or may not be The Antichrist), on the other hand, fucks, to put it bluntly.
    • Played even more straight with the Robo!Sam's bathroom scene versus Dean's dream about Lisa comparison.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Might as well be renamed the Supernatural Extra Death Shot, because almost every episode involves a victim of the week biting it with a spray of blood or teddy bear stuffing on something else.
  • Gotta Catch Em All: The Horsemen's rings. Good thing they already got 2 when they learn that.
  • Grand Theft Me: In the episode "Swap Meat", a teenaged boy changes bodies with Sam.
  • The Grim Reaper: featured a few episodes with a black-haired reaper, who guides the deceased to their afterlives.
    • Lucifer summons Death himself in Season 5's 'Abandon All Hope'. He is one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the boss of all reapers. He also claims to be at least as old and as powerful as God, and that in the end, he'll reap Him too.
  • Guttural Growler: Dean has become increasingly gruff over the seasons (seriously, listen to season one compared to season six). Castiel too is fairly growly, although this is on purpose; actor Misha Collins felt that as Castiel's natural voice shatters windows and makes people's ears bleed, his voice in his human vessel should be rather tough-sounding. (He has also confirmed that he and Jensen Ackles 'compete' during their scenes together to see who can sound growlier, although this may not be literally true.) Bobby could also be considered an offender, as could Crowley...it's pretty much just a cast full of BatVoice.
    • Dean's growly voice was awesomely lampshaded at least twice: once in "The Real Ghostbusters" when a fan was pretending to be Dean, and once in "The French Mistake" when Jensen was playing Dean playing Jensen playing Dean. ("That's how he does it.")

H

  • Half-Human Hybrid: Jesse is half-demon, having been given birth to by a possessed woman. He looks no different from a normal human, but is described by Castiel as being more powerful than either a human or demon (In fact, that is putting it mildly. He was so powerful that he made even Lucifer, the supposed Big Bad, look like a joke by comparison). Two And A Half Men implies that regular shifters are all the half-human offspring of the alpha shifter.
  • Hannibal Lecture: As he seems to have a neon sign on his forehead saying "self-loathing woobie with Daddy Issues", Dean tends to get this done to him a lot. The Crossroads Demon (twice), The Yellow-Eyed Demon (twice), Sam whenever he's under the influence... The list goes on.
    • Perhaps the best example of a Hannibal Lecture is the torture/interrogation scene with Dean and Alistair. Supposedly, Dean is extracting information on "who is killing the angels," but not only does Alistair have no idea, he strings Dean along and gives him a thorough mindfuck in between bouts of being eviscerated. The power dynamic in this scene goes back and forth like no other, between Dean relishing Alistair's pain and Alistair breaking Dean down.
    • The scene in My Bloody Valentine when he corners Famine in a diner is one of the most painful examples on the show:

Famine: Have you wondered why that is? How you can even walk in my presence?
Dean: I like to think it's because of my strength of character.
Famine: I disagree. Yes. I see. That's one deep, dark nothing you've got there, Dean. You can't fill it, can you? Not with food, nor drink; not even with sex. Oh, you can smirk and joke and lie to your brother, lie to yourself, but not to me. I can see inside you, Dean. I can see how broken you are, how defeated; you can't win and you know it, but you just keep trying, just keep going through the motions. You're not hungry, Dean, because inside you're already dead.

    • The best came from Lucifer in the late season 5 episode "Hammer of the Gods" in a speech to Mercury.

Lucifer You know, I never understood you pagans, you're such petty little things. Always fighting, always happy to sell out your own kind. You, are worse than humans. You're worse than demons. And yet you claim to be gods. No wonder you forfeited this planet to us. And they call me prideful.

    • Done by several Leviathans in 7.06 "Slash Fiction". Bobby mostly shrugs off his double's taunts, but Sam gets hit hard by Leviathan!Dean's revelation.
  • Have You Seen My God?: Only four angels have, and we have to take their word for it.
  • Hate Plague: The blood-borne Croatoan virus, which makes people violent and crazy.
  • Heel Realization: There's an odd version in season five when Dean realizes where his current path leads after he's sent into the future and meets himself.
    • The moment at the end of season four after Sam has killed Lilith and Ruby revealed that Lilith was the final seal, not the one who was going to break the final seal, is Sam's moment when he realizes he's just an Unwitting Pawn who screwed up big time and brought about the apocalypse. His face conveys complete devastation and he's barely even paying attention when he and Dean kill Ruby.
    • In season seven, after getting Drunk on the Dark Side and Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, Castiel finally realizes he's out of his depth after his Disproportionate Revenge turns into an unintended massacre when the Leviathans inside him take over.
  • Heroic Dimples: Sam.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • In "Abandon All Hope", Ellen and Jo (who was already dying from being slashed by a hellhound) lure the hellhounds into their hideout and blow up the building, allowing Dean and Sam to escape and try to kill Lucifer.
    • John exchanges his life and soul for Dean.
    • Deconstructed with Dean's Deal with the Devil to sell his soul for Sam's life, which is portrayed as more of a product of Dean's abandonment issues and lack of self-worth than heroism.
    • Sam with his whole in season five finale Swan Song: He throws himself (and more to the point, Satan, who's possessing him) into hell's solitary confinement in order to prevent the planet from being razed, with certain knowledge that Lucifer's going to spend eternity torturing him.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation:
    • Dean suffers from a pretty crippling inferiority complex.
    • In the season 5 ep "The Song Remains the Same", Dean sums up Team Free Will (Sam, himself, and Castiel) as "one ex blood junkie, one dropout with six bucks to his name, and Mr. Comatose over there."
  • Heroic Willpower:
    • Shown by John in "Devil's Trap" when he is able to resist and trap the possessing Azazel for a moment, and by Dean in "The Magnificent Seven" when he resists Lust's charms. Averted in "Sex and Violence" when Dean and Sam are helpless against the siren's spell and need Bobby to bail them out.
    • Dean, who apparently resisted Alastair's offer to escape torture in Hell by torturing other souls. He refused the offer every day for thirty years. However, this pales in comparison to John Winchester, who refused the same offer for one hundred years, and then escaped Hell.
    • Displayed by a demon-possessed Bobby in "Sympathy for the Devil" when he breaks the demon's hold just before it can kill Dean, and instead, stabs himself with Ruby's "kill-all" knife.
    • Sam in season five finale Swan Song took control of his body while the devil was riding it just so he could throw himself and the devil into hell's solitary confinement.
    • Sam in season 6 finale. He manages to overcome his "inner demons" and drag himself to assist Dean and Bobby in the battle against Castiel and Crowley despite obviously suffering under the strain of his "hell memories".
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Sam and Dean are the clingy, brotherly kind while their Real Life actors are the fun, touchy-feely and cuddly kind.
  • He Who Fights Monsters:
    • Gordon Walker is the purest example, literally becoming worse than the monsters he hunts taking them out.
    • John was this way about everything related to Mary's death, hence the obsession with YED.
    • Dean whenever he's lost family. Such as when he encounters Gordon in season two after his father dies; when he so loses faith in his brother that he agrees to the angels' plan in season five even though it will destroy most of the world; and in season seven when he kills Amy Pond (not that one) because he can't trust a monster not to kill again, complete with a Beatrix Kiddo moment with the woman's son afterward.
    • Sam was this after Dean died in Mystery Spot and the season three finale. While he thinks killing Lilith is the only way to prevent the Apocalypse and feeding demon-blood-fueled powers also lets him save the hosts when exorcising demons, his obsession with killing Lilith leads him to break the final seal, releasing Lucifer from Hell.
    • Future Dean in "The End" (5x04). After losing his brother to the devil and failing to stop the apocalypse, he becomes heartless and unsympathetic, willing to sacrifice all of his loyal friends for a chance to kill Lucifer.
    • In seasons six and seven, re-angelified Castiel has taken a particularly nasty route to this, starting with a Deal with the Devil, moving on to murder and betrayal, and then Jumping Off the Slippery Slope with murder and Mind Rape of friends even before diving into With Great Power Comes Great Insanity.
  • Hidden Depths:
  • Hiding Behind Religion: Castiel eventually decides to go on a rampage against these sorts of people. Among other things, a gay homophobic reverend is killed in front of his flock, a corrupt right-wing senator is slaughtered along with her campaigners, and racists take such a sound beating that the Kuu Klux Klan is forced to disband.
  • Hollywood Nerd: Somewhat averted by Felicia Day's character in "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo." She is, well, Felicia Day. She's never really shown to be socially awkward (Adorkable situations aside), and not treated as such, and her devotion to her nerdy pursuits is certainly not in question.
  • Hollywood Psych: Averted. If it gives them a chance to increase the depression some more, then they're usually very good with psychology.
  • Homage: In Season 5, the pair get captured by The Archangel Gabriel, who puts them through a series of Homages to Grey's Anatomy, CSI: Miami, and Knight Rider
  • Honor Before Reason: Both brothers:
    • Dean, in regards to Sam, in "Born Under A Bad Sign." But of course, this show being what it is, they do their best to try and break him because of it.
    • Sam, with several human enemies and a few monstrous ones. Not killing human Gordon leads to being hunted by him yet again, but not killing vampire Lenore turns out to be useful. Yet still horribly sad.
  • Hookers and Blow: Dean is flung a few years into the future to see the outcome of his choice of action. They lost. Future!Castiel is seen arranging orgies and doing drugs like there's no tomorrow. Because there might not be. He's also been turned mortal.
  • Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War shows up in "Good God, Y'All!" driving a red Mustang. "Abandon All Hope" ends with Lucifer greeting the newly-summoned Death, though we don't see Death until "Two Minutes to Midnight," in which Death informs Dean that Lucifer didn't summon him so much as bind him to his will, which really irritates him. Famine appears as a withered old man in "My Bloody Valentine," and Pestilence shows up at the end of "Hammer of the Gods".
  • Horny Devils:
    • John encounters a town filled with succubi in the Rising Son comic prequel series.
    • Richie mentions killing a succubus in "Sin City".
  • How Dare You Die on Me!: a variation on this trope (crossed over with Don't Make Me Destroy You and a little bit of Tranquil Fury) comes into play when Dean attempts to sacrifice himself and become Michael's vessel. Unfortunately for Dean Castiel catches up to him, resulting in Castiel kicking Dean's ass and shouting the following:

Castiel: I rebelled for this?! So that you could surrender to them? I gave everything for you! And this is what you give to me!

  • Humans Are Flawed: This is what Gabriel actually believes. His speech to Lucifer in "Hammer of the Gods" contains exactly that trope.
  • Humanity Is Infectious: Both Gabriel and Castiel believe this.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Nearly all of the stronger adversaries qualify for this trope, since nearly all of them either use human forms or hijack human bodies. Demons fit this even more since all of them used to be human themselves.
    • "In heaven I have six wings and four faces, one of which is a lion!" Yeah. The Angels live and breathe A Form You Are Comfortable With.
    • As do The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The oldest and most powerful one, Death the Pale Rider appears as a middle-aged man driving a Cadillac. Being Death he can kill anyone on a whim and claims to be as old as, if not older, than God and that he will be the one to reap God when the universe ends. The others also look more or less like ordinary humans. More or less.
    • Eve likewise possesses a human body to traverse the Earth, as do the Leviathans.
  • Human Resources: The Leviathans's endplan.
  • Human Sacrifice: The Winchesters encounter numerous pagan gods imported to America from Europe that survive on human sacrifice. One god grants the community it lives in the traditional benefits of its presence and appeasement, including bountiful harvests and mild weather. On some occasions the Winchesters arive to thwart the sacrifice, on some occasions they are the sacrifice. Every other god is portrayed as man-eaters, implications abound.
  • The Hunter: natch.

I

  • I Cannot Self-Terminate: Subverted twice for Sam. In season two episode "Born Under A Bad Sign" Sam pleads with Dean (who obviously can't) to kill him after he kills another hunter while possessed. At the end of season four in "When the Levee Breaks", while suffering withdrawal from demon blood, Sam tells Bobby to shoot him if he wants to help.
    • Played straight in "Heart." Sam's one night stand was a werewolf, but they cured her... except not. There's no cure and she'd already killed a few people, so she asks Sam to shoot her instead. Ouch.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal:
    • Sam ran away to college, where his girlfriend was killed, and spent the first season wanting to go back after they defeated the Big Bad. Then he found out he had demonic powers and after getting a taste of The Dark Side, decided he was too much of a freak to ever have a normal life.
    • Dean has wanted out of the life since Dad told him he might have to kill his brother. Losing his brother, first to death and then to demon blood-addiction, made Dean want to settle down to a life with a normal family by season six.
    • Runs in the family. Their hunter mother desperately wanted to get out, raise a family and live a normal life.
    • Jimmy Novak, Castiel's vessel. He really thought it was over.
    • Subverted humorously on one occasion where Sam is forced to switch bodies with a teenager via witchcraft. Sam lies to the kid that he'd give anything for his life, then tells Dean, "that kid's life sucked" (which was basically true).
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Despite Sam's attempts, this completely fails on Dean in "Sex and Violence," and on Jack in "Metamorphosis." Also fails on Sam despite Dean's attempts in "Asylum." Other than Lenore in "Bloodlust," the only two to manage it are John Winchester and Bobby Singer.
    • Also seen in "Swan Song, though it's more of a "I Know You're In There Somewhere" beating, since Dean's not actually fighting...
  • I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Sam's girlfriend died the same way Sam and Dean's mother did. This gives Sam the incentive to leave his old life behind and hunt demons with Dean. Sam feels responsible for her death because he wasn't there to save her and he saw her die in prescient visions but didn't believe them.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Lots of monsters and most gods.
  • Impersonating an Officer: The brothers impersonate police and FBI agents a lot, to get close to witnesses.
  • Implausible Deniability: "Swan Song". In plain view of everyone, Castiel hits Michael with flaming sacred oil.

Lucifer: [incredulous, rhetorical] Did you just molotov my brother with holy fire?

Castiel: [knows perfectly well Lucifer saw the whole thing] Um... no.

  • Impostor-Exposing Test:
    • When Sam comes Back from the Dead in season six, he ties Dean up so that he won't attack him, then cuts himself with a silver knife and swigs a mouthful of salty holy water to prove he's really himself. Dean had the same set of tests run on him when he got back from Hell.
    • In another episode, a parasite has infected one of the characters, but they can't be sure who. They had earlier figured out that electricity was so effective on the parasite that it would be forced to leave the host, so the characters had to take turns shocking themselves to prove they didn't have it.
  • Informed Ability:
    • Sometimes their "great" hunting skills, especially in Season One. John Winchester sticks out: touted as pretty much the best hunter ever, yet literally all of his appearances see him screwing up and needing to be rescued by Sam and Dean.
    • The Jefferson Starships are so named because they're "horrible and hard to kill." This is after the group slew an entire police station of them with relatively little effort.
  • Insistent Terminology: Sam asks that Dean not call him "Sammy" in the first episode, saying that it's a kid's name. It doesn't stick.
  • The Insomniac: Sam starts staying up all night in the first season when he's having nightmares about Jessica. In a much creepier example, he also stops sleeping entirely in season six, when he's lost his soul. And for several days in season seven, to the point where he nearly dies, after the hallucination of Lucifer left over from his time in hell becomes unbearable.
  • Instant Expert: The psychics in the show are able to develop their powers quickly if they give in to the demon's will; regular practice doesn't have as sudden and extreme results.
  • Internal Reveal: The fact that Sam was drinking demonic blood to power his psychic exorcism powers was revealed to the audience in 4x16, "On the Head of a Pin." Dean didn't find out until 4x20, "The Rapture." He wasn't happy.
  • Interplay of Sex and Violence: Most female demons, especially Ruby, Meg, and Dental Hygienist!Lilith, love macking on the boys while smacking them around.
  • In the Blood: Dean, John, and Mary all make deals. Sam's powers are the result of one such deal letting a demon feed him its blood, and he actually takes a demon as a mentor and drinks her blood to fuel his powers.
    • Destiny also grabbed the Winchesters by the veins in that they are apparently descended on both sides from a line of archangel vessels, and were born to house Lucifer and Michael for their final apocalyptic battle on earth.
    • Lampshaded in "It's a Terrible Life" where Zachariah's lesson was meant to teach Dean;

Zachariah: The path you're on is truly in your blood. You're a Hunter. Not because your dad made you, not because God called you back from hell, but because it is what you are. And you love it, you'll find your way back to it in the dark every single time and you're miserable without it.

  • Invisible Monsters: Hellhounds.
  • Ironic Episode Title:
    • "Everybody Loves a Clown" and "The Kids Are Alright." LIES!
    • "Jump the Shark" seems like this at first. That it was the least viewed episode of the season in America isn't exactly a big surprise.
  • It Got Worse: Pretty much the only thing that has ever gotten better is Sam's guilt over Jess dying. And that's just because he has had much more pressing issues to deal with lately.
    • "Meet the New Boss" could have been called "How Can the Situation Get Worse." OK, Castiel is now a God. Not too bad at first; he's not going to kill the Winchesters and Bobby. OK, killing hypocrites and leaders of other religions is a bit much, but he does get rid of the Ku Klux Klan. After 200 deaths, he seems to become an Omnicidal Maniac, killing people for the fun of it (if his Slasher Smile is anything to go by). Finally, he gets possessed by the Leviathans, who proceed to go "This is going to be so... much... fun..."
  • It's All My Fault: Done four times to Dean: in "Faith" when he's dying, Sam takes him to a faith healer and he's healed, except someone else died for him; the entirety of Season 2 over his dad dying to save him; when Sam dies in "All Hell Breaks Loose"; and starting the Apocalypse. Of course, Sam tries to claim the same for his role in breaking the last seal, and though neither were entirely at fault, it still doesn't stop them from blaming themselves. He blames himself for Jo and Ellen's deaths as well. Face it - Dean's just got issues with this. There's a bit early in season 7 where Dean, only half-joking, says, "Unemployment? That's on me."

Dean: There's always something eating at me. That's who I am. Something happens, I feel responsible, all right? The Lindbergh baby—that's on me. Unemployment—my bad.

J

Sam: We've seen that wreath before, Dean.
Dean: Where?
Sam: The Walshes'. Yesterday.
Dean: ...I know...I was just testing you.

K

  • Keeping Secrets Sucks: the few times Sam keeps a secret from Dean that isn't too personal. And every single time Dean has to keep a secret from his brother (granted, that's mostly because he only keeps secrets about his brother's fate or things he's done that Sam wouldn't like).
  • The Kid with the Remote Control: In a more literal sense, there is Jesse, who didn't even know that he had it.
  • Karma Houdini: The witch in "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester". He's still alive at the end of the episode, and there's no sign that he's going to stop what he's doing anytime soon.
  • Killed Off for Real: In the pilot, the boys' mother and Sam's girlfriend; later their father.
  • Kill It with Fire: The only way to kill off a Wendigo or a Rugaru ("Wendigo" and "Metamorphosis"). Also, salting and burning remains is standard operating procedure of Dean and Sam.
  • Knight Errant: Sam and Dean, but primarily Sam. While they may have other goals during the series - finding their father in Season One, trying to negate Dean's contract in Season Three - they always stop by in whatever wayward towns are being haunted even if they don't have personal reasons to, and deal with the supernatural threats there.
  • Knight Templar: Gordon Walker of Supernatural is a hunter who tries to kill Sam Winchester and other psychic kids because he firmly believes that they'll turn against humanity and that Sam is the Anti Christ. He considers his position unassailable enough that he won't let morality stand in the way of stopping Sam.
    • Nearly all the angels qualify, considering they believe that they're following the will of God. And most don't want to let free will get in the way of that.
    • And since the end of season six, also Castiel--well, until he became much worse...
    • Lucifer himself viewed humans as murderous apes who ruined planet Earth, which he referred to as God's last perfect masterpiece. His Humans Are the Real Monsters belief as well as his self-centered, self-righteous personality caused him to rebel against God.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: Dean loses it when Sam's in danger. They each go overboard when they lose their brother.
  • Kryptonite Factor: Many monsters have these, and the Colt acts as an almost universal Kryptonite Factor.

L

  • Lack of Empathy: In season six, Sam without his soul.
  • Lampshade Hanging:
    • In "Changing Channels," when the boys catch The Trickster/Gabriel, he asks where they got the item necessary for the trap. Dean's response? "Well, you might say we pulled it out of Sam's ass".
    • In "Jump The Shark," Sam and Dean get a phone call from someone who claims to be their long-lost brother. The very next shot is "Cousin Oliver's Diner."
    • As Chuck hilariously points out;

Chuck: Its not jumping the shark if you never come down.

  • The Lancer: Joshua is apparently this for God.
  • La Résistance: Future!Dean in "The End" is the "fearless leader" of some of the few remaining humans.
  • The Legions of Hell: Whole bunch of demons get out of hell in "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part II." In "The Magnificent Seven," Envy (yes, that Envy) says "We are legion." And there's a horde of attacking demons in "Jus in Bello."
  • Leitmotif: "Dean's Family Dedication Theme." Upsetting when it's being played at moments where his family love gets a little too obsessive, heartbreaking when it's being played at angsty moments (Sam and John's deaths, for example) and fucking unbelievably painful when Sam is crying over Dean's dead body in "No Rest For The Wicked," where it's being played as a funeral dirge.
  • Let's Split Up, Gang!: Happens a few times, but most notably in "Skin", when the brothers are hunting a shapeshifter. See where this is going?
  • Liberty Over Prosperity: This is Sam and Dean's motive for rejecting the angels' plan to destroy the earth and rebuild it as a heaven.

Castiel: You chose freedom over paradise.

  • Light Is Not Good: All but two of the angels seen so far are manipulative dicks who despise humanity just as much as the demons do. One of them tries to stop Sam and Dean from being born, in an attempt to stop the Apocalypse. To be fair though, that's implied to be a result of Brainwashed and Crazy and Being Tortured Makes You Evil. The other eventually goes nuts, and declares himself the new God.
  • Literal Split Personality: In the season 6 finale of Supernatural, Sam is stuck in a Mental World where his identity has split into three personalities: Sam, Soulless Sam, and the Sam who's been tortured in the Cage. Finding his way out of there requires the other two to merge back into him.
  • Little Miss Badass: In "The Rapture," Jimmy's (Castiel's vessel's) daughter is possessed by Castiel and proceeds to kick major demon ass.
  • Long-Lost Relative: Adam, Gwen, Christian, Mark and Johnny Campbell.
  • Look Both Ways: Dean gets hit by a car in "Mystery Spot" and dies.
  • Losing the Team Spirit: After finding out that God refuses to help them with the apocalypse, both Dean and Castiel aren't quite as dedicated to Team Free Will as they were before.
  • Lost Aesop:
    • What happened to "No Chick-Flick Moments" again?
    • Sam seems to have gotten over the get over Dean's death lesson pretty quickly. Even Dean calls him on it. Of course, since the lesson never stuck in the first hundred times the trickster/Gabriel tried it, he didn't exactly get over it.
  • The Lost Lenore: Sam and Dean's mother for them and their father, Jess for Sam, Bobby's wife.
  • Loveable Sex Maniac: Dean, natch. Future!Castiel may also qualify, considering his casual attitude towards group sex.
  • Love Goddess: Angels of love are called "Cupids", who manifest as nude men rather than diapered babies.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: When it comes to the Winchesters, love doesn't just make you crazy, it makes you co-dependent, depressed, self-destructive, and suicidal.
  • Love Makes You Evil: In "Sex and Violence," a Siren imitated their victims' ideal lover/friend, driving the deluded saps to kill for the Siren's love.
  • Love Martyr: Poor Dean. Poor, deluded Dean.
  • Lucky Rabbit's Foot: One of the episodes centers on a cursed rabbit's foot. If you touch it, as long as you had it in your possession, you have phenomenally good luck. As soon as you lost it, your luck would turn and soon you would die through sheer bad luck.

M

  • Machine Empathy: Dean seems to have this in regards to his Impala. This concept becomes very important as the show goes on.
  • Made of Iron: Justified for demons, angels, et al. Sam and Dean, however, have sustained more head injuries between them than Muhammad Ali.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Lucifer, after being shot in the head by the Colt, the series until-then kill-everything weapon, crumples to the ground...before taking a deep breath and staring back up at Dean.

Lucifer: Ooooowwwwwww!

  • Male Gaze/Female Gaze: An odd one, this. There's a hot girl every episode and lots of attention gets paid to her cleavage, of course, but there's been slow, lingering shots panning up the boys' long legs and arses, half of their promo shots for Season 2 consisted of hooker poses and you just can't deny that they're not wearing a bit of lip gloss and eyeliner in Season 1 episodes. When there's a sex scene, the camera generally spends more time looking at Sam or Dean than his partner.
  • A Man Is Not a Virgin: Dean, although it's portrayed as not always a good thing. Hilariously, he concludes in Season 4's "Monster Movie" that, thanks to full body regeneration after being pulled out of Hell, he is a virgin again. (By the end of that episode he's not.)
  • Manly Tears: You have to admit, they cry a hell of a lot for two, supposedly manly, blue-collar soldiers/warriors.
  • Man of Wealth and Taste:
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Anna Milton, a fallen angel.
    • Arguably, the Winchester name itself, given the Winchester Mystery House.
    • In one episode, a girl called Lily is revealed to have the power to kill someone by touching them. The lily flower is often a symbol of death.
  • Mental World: Sam is stuck in one in the season 6 finale of Supernatural after Castiel destroys the mental barrier that is keeping his traumatic memories from potentially turning him into a vegetable.
    • Dean and Sam also enter Bobby's nightmare world in another episode.
  • Martyr Without a Cause: All three Winchesters.
  • McLeaned: Many of the characters who were killed off because their actors got regular roles on other shows.
  • Milky White Eyes: Upper level demons.
  • Mind Screw:
    • "What Is And What Should Never Be" and "Mystery Spot"
    • "Dark Side of the Moon." At least until it was explained that Sam and Dean are actually in Heaven, reliving their fondest memories.
  • Minion Shipping: The two demons from "Sin City", Casey and the priest.
  • Missing Mom: She's killed by deomns when Sam turns six months old, in the pilot.
  • Mistaken for Gay:
    • Being Heterosexual Life Partners who always travel and work together, the brothers are sometimes mistaken for a gay couple. Luckily for them, all they have to do is quickly mention they're brothers and not be bothered with any further questions (or delve into a Not That There's Anything Wrong with That discussion).
    • In "The French Mistake", this continues with Sam and Dean transported into the bodies of their actors Jared and Jensen. This despite the fact that both actors are married--wait a minute.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • In "Mystery Spot", Dean keeps dying, we laugh hysterically because they're showing the funny ones, and then Dean dies for real, which breaks Sam completely, and we feel guilty for ever laughing at all.
    • Notable in "Swan Song."

Dean: Assbutt?
Castiel: He'll be back, and upset, but you got your five minutes.
Lucifer: Castiel...did you just Molotov my brother with holy fire?

    • The sixth season episode "Live Free or Twi-Hard" starts with a dead-on Twilight parody but switches to angsty after the first act.
    • Ghostfacers has a lot as well. Between the incompetence of the Ghostfacers crew, the depressing ghost's story, Corbitt's death and Ed's tearjerker farewell and the Ghostfacers bumps before every commercial break, the episode is all over the mood map.
  • Moral Dissonance:
    • The Winchesters seem to care less and less about killing the demons' human hosts as the show goes on, though this may be a result of the sheer number of demons they encounter. And Dean's Moral Myopia means he'd rather kill them all than risk Sam using his powers to save the hosts, especially once he finds out demon blood fuels them.
  • Moral Myopia: Dean's attitude towards the possibility of Sam turning into a monster or otherwise being abnormal; he's perfectly willing to kill strangers who might go darkside, but simply refuses to do so with his brother even when presented with clear indications of this happening, because he couldn't bear to live without him.
  • More Than Mind Control: This is basically what Ruby did to Sam with the help of demon blood.
    • Lucifer used this to successfully gain permission to possess Nick
  • Monster Lord: Azazel, Crowley and Lilith are powerful, high-ranking demons. Bobby refers to Death as the "Big Daddy Reaper". The Alphas and Mother of All also count.
  • Monster Progenitor: Season 6 introduces the concept of Alphas, the progenitors of various monster types such as shifters, vampires and skinwalkers, and then the Mother of All Monsters.
  • Monster of the Week
  • Most Important Person: Sam and Dean are this to each other. Though some fans will always insist differently.
  • Mother of a Thousand Young: The Mother of All, the Big Bad of the second half of season 6.
  • The Multiverse: As of season 6 we have Earth, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, an alternate future, the Trickster's alternate realities, and of course, Fairy World. The Masquerade for normal humans has gone beyond just covering up for things that go bump in the night (oh, and the apocalypse). And, of course, heaven itself is a mess of alternate realities strung together.
  • Mundane Solution: Decapitation is only a minor setback to a Leviathan, but they can be burned by Borax, which can be found in common household cleaners. They regenerate even from that, of course.
  • Must Make Amends: Season five is this for Sam after accidentally starting the Apocalypse and freeing Lucifer and in response to his behavior in season four. The second half of season six starts like this for him after he finds out what he did while soulless.
  • My Horse Is a Motorbike: The Horsemen don't ride horses. They ride in style, baby. Except Pestilence, naturally.

N

Nick's "wife": I'm an angel. My name is Lucifer.

  • Nay Theist: Sam and Dean, after a certain point in season 5. You would be too if the angels were, on the whole, dicks and it looked like God didn't care about stopping the Apocalypse.
  • Near-Death Clairvoyance: "In My Time of Dying"
  • Neurodiversity Is Supernatural: Sam's body living without a soul is treated like sociopathy.
  • Never Sleep Again: The M.O. of a Monster of the Week
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: at the end of season four, Sam spends most of the season getting the power to kill Lilith so he can stop her from breaking the final seal and freeing Lucifer. In actuality, Lilith was the final seal, and by killing her he causes the release of Lucifer and kick-starts the Apocalypse. Oops.
    • At the end of Season six, Castiel absorbs the monster souls of Purgatory to get the power to defeat Archangel Raphael, who wanted to restart the Apocalypse. But in doing so, he unleashes the Leviathans, creatures that God locked away to stop them from eating everything else.
    • To an extent, Dean as well, not only for breaking the first seal between seasons three and four, but also for revealing to Azazel beforehand that his plans were going to work.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Lucifer thinks raising Time Abyss Death and keeping him on a leash will help him. Mistake.
    • Zachariah sends Dean into a bleak future to convince him he must say yes to Michael. The trip also convinces Dean he has to stick with his brother, which lets Sam talk Dean out of the Michael thing and lets Dean give Sam the strength to take control of his body from Lucifer long enough to throw him back into the Cage.
  • Nigh Invulnerability: A number of types of this trope appear in the show:
    • God: Pagan gods can be killed by mere mortals, but the trope does apply to the Big G, since it seems like Death is the only entity that could kill him.
    • Divine protection mixed with Resurrection: In season 5 Sam and Dean are functionally incapable of staying dead. If they do die then the Angels (and in Sam's case, also Satan) will just resurrect them because they can't be used as Angelic vessels if they're dead.
    • External Repair: Dr. Benton is a scientist who somehow gained immortality, but his body kept on decaying. In order to continue functioning he regularly harvests new organs.
    • Extreme Luck: Whoever acquires the rabbit's foot, at least as long as they have it in their possession.
    • Regeneration: The Leviathans recover from almost anything. The only known means of immobilizing them so far is to chop off the head, and then keeping it absolutely out of reach of the body so it can’t just reattach itself.
  • No Dead Body Poops: Averted in the Groundhog Day Loop episode.
    • Subverted in "Free to Be You and Me" when Dean prevents the angel Castiel from insta-transporting him somewhere: "The last time you did that I didn't poop for a week!"
  • Noble Demon: Possibly played straight with Casey in Sin City.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: The "douchebag" magician, Jeb Dexter, is pretty much a dead ringer for Criss Angel. In fact, the episode's title is "Criss Angel is a Douche Bag."
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Castiel delivered one of these to Dean Winchester, when Castiel caught him attempting to surrender, which the angel considered a betrayal.
    • In 4x16, when Alastair unexpectedly freed himself from the devils-trap. And having been tortured by Dean for a few hours, he was quite pissed to put it mildly.
    • In the season 5 finale, Dean puts himself on the receiving end of such a beatdown when he refuses to leave his brother while Lucifer is possessing Sam.
    • In 6x13, a soulless-Sam gives one to a cop who's grown suspicious of his cover.
  • Nostalgia Heaven: Except that, because you become distracted by the projections of your friends/family, instead of actually getting to meet up with your loved ones, the characters who find out are decidedly unhappy.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • From "Yellow Fever": ""

Dean: …the truck stop waitress with the bizarre rash…

    • From "And Then There Were None", and possibly "When the Levee Breaks", there's the situation in Omaha between Bobby and Rufus.
    • Sam, Interrupted

Sam: Martin is a great hunter.
Dean: Was... until Albuquerque.

  • Not So Different:
    • Michael and Lucifer lecture Dean and Sam about this, who are their respective vessels. Michael tell Dean that he is dutifully obedient to his father (God), that he cast Lucifer down because he defied him, and that he practically raised his younger brother, taking care of him "in a way most people could never understand". Lucifer tells Sam that he loved and idolized his older brother and begged him to stand alongside him in refusing to bow down to humanity, but that Michael instead called him a "freak" and a "monster", casting him down because he was different and had a mind of his own.
    • Eve gives this speech about herself and their mother in "Mommy Dearest".
  • The Nth Doctor: Demons who come back later on take on new bodies (Ruby and Meg.)

O

  • Odd Couple: Sam and Dean.
  • Offscreen Teleportation:
    • Primary mode of travel for angels. Though it's only offscreen for the audience; there've been a number of instances of Sam or Dean watching as an angel vanishes.
    • Crowley can do this, and quite possibly is better at it than Cas. When Cas does it, you hear wings. When Crowley does it, you hear nothing. Considering that Crowley is a demon, this is quite possibly intentional Paranoia Fuel on his part. It's also a sign of upgraded-Cas' power that he can do it silently now.
    • It also seems that any demon that is summoned will also teleport, and it will also do it offscreen.
    • In Season 6, Eve, like the angels, is capable of doing this while Dean is looking directly at her. She just appears behind him, and still somehow manages to surprise him.
  • Oh Crap:
    • We get a pretty epic one at the end of season 4, because it doesn't get much worse than finding out that you've just accidentally unleashed Lucifer when you were trying to prevent exactly that.
    • Oh Crap reactions all around, at the end of Season 6:

'Castiel: I'm your new God, a better one. So you will bow down, and profess your love, unto me your Lord, or I shall destroy you.

Dean: What's a slash fan?

  • Only the Chosen May Wield: Dean has to pull a sword from a stone in "Like a Virgin". When it doesn't work, he just blows it up.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Inverted; Sam seems to become more and more Southern as the series goes on. While his actor is a Texan, Sam's earlier accent is closer to Jared's.
    • While Jensen Ackles is also a Texan, his accent is nothing like Dean's. Dean's accent has also gotten more Southern, though a lot more overtly.
  • Other Me Annoys Me: In "The End", both Mes are annoyed (or, you know, scared by) their Other; in "The French Mistake", Other Me manages to be annoying without actually being present
  • Our Angels Are Different: As Dean puts it, they're more "dicks with wings" than Roma Downey. Like demons, they posses (albeit willing) people in order to move about on Earth, and they can relinquish their grace and be reborn as humans.
  • Our Demons Are Different: The souls of the damned who've had their humanity tortured out of them in Hell, they appear as black smoke unless they are possessing someone.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: ancient beings from purgatory who resemble "Giant Bats", have heat-hands, can shapeshift into human form and serve a being they only refer to as "Mother" and can only be killed by a weapon forged in their blood. They also have hordes of gold and collect virgins for their rituals.
  • Our Souls Are Different: You can sell 'em to demons (or angels!), string 'em up in Hell, and torture them! And when you need to move 'em around, a briefcase is all you'll need (admittedly, this was a Cosmic Power's means of soul transportation, not a mortal's). Humans can apparently survive without them, and simply lack emotions, empathy, and the need to sleep when lacking one. Monsters have them too, while ghosts and demons are respectively trapped and corrupted souls. Angels don't have them. Nor do Leviathans, being far older than the creation of souls.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: They are. This is lampshaded in Monster Movie, where they encounter an apparently typical Bram Stoker Dracula and are completely baffled. The really funny part is that the witnesses immediately identify it as a vampire, whereas this would probably not be the case with an actual vampire.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: In addition to werewolves (who infect humans with their bites, eat hearts and look like humans with fangs and claws), there are also shifters (Shapeshifting Doppelgangers), rougarou (humans who transform into hideous, cannibalistic monsters), okami (who look like humans with wolf teeth, have superhuman athletic ability and are nigh invulnerable to anything other than a bamboo dagger blessed by a Shinto priest or a woodchipper) and skinwalkers (who can turn into wolves and are vulnerable to silver).
  • Overly Long Scream: In the second-season episode Hollywood Babylon the brothers investigate a possible haunting on a movie set. This trope is one of the signs of how terrible the horror movie being filmed is.
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