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Supernatural Fodder

Supernatural: Predictions for the Coming Season

Who are these people, and what are they doing?

It's the night before the season premiere, and I've got some general predictions for you, based on what I think the writers want to do. Nothing specific, nothing spoilery, just taking some things I've talked about in the last few weeks on a logical path.

First:

News and links to spoilers

Spoilerfix has had some info for a couple weeks on new characters and spoilers for the first few episodes. I stopped reading after episode 1. The spoiler for that episode was more detailed than I liked, and confirmed some things I had guessed. If you just can't wait, check it out.

One non-spoilery news item you may have read already is that Linda Blair will be guest-starring on November 9, according to YourTV.com.au. If you don't know who Linda Blair is, I guess you can still eat pea soup.

Now, on to:

The Predictions

Make the battles matter
I've been talking this up nearly every episode. The conflicts don't matter, because you know the brothers won't die.

Well, I think the writers have to ante up this season. There has to be a consequence to the brothers failing (and fail they sometimes do, remember "Dead in the Water"?. And not just killing some random guest star, it has to be something bad, like in "Phantom Traveler", "Something Wicked", and "Skin".

In the past, shows have gotten by without using this technique, but it makes a show much more effective to use it. Think of the scariest horror flicks you've seen. In each, haven't you been rooting for a character that bites the dust? This show will only be more effective with that kind of bond.

One thing I think we'll see are some "red shirts" (a phrase meaning crew members who are killed, leaving the main cast intact). So far, the victims have all been random people, with a few friends of the family thrown in. I think we're going to be introduced to more "hunters", so that there will be some good guys to be cannon fodder. They'll go on hunting trips with the family, but some will likely check out in various horrible ways.

Another reason for using "red shirts" instead of random victims is it serves as a good reminder to the viewer that there truly is some risk to the brothers. Even though you intellectually know the stars are safe, subconsciously there is that seed of doubt if people are dying while doing the same things as the stars, on the same missions as the stars, or when they're physically close to the stars when they die.

That said, it leads me to:

John Winchester is a dead man walking.

I know, he's one of the stars. But he's not the main protagonist. Plus, I read they haven't signed Jeffrey Dean Morgan to a full season, though they are trying to. There are other possible fates, of course, and I'll mention a couple of them below. But the tradition in fiction is that the mature master dies, leaving the heroes on their own to make their own way. John is the master, Sam and Dean are the apprentices. They have to do this on their own, to make their victory more meaningful.

Plus, I think Lost has changed the equation. It used to be a TV show had a few stars, and they didn't die unless they got into a contract dispute, and even then sometimes they were recast. But Lost, because of the sheer number of stars, can write a story line that allows a previously featured character to die. If they want to kill them before their contract is up, they use them in flashbacks.

Hollywood, if anything, believes in the sincerest form of flattery - imitation. The success of Lost isn't lost (pun intended) on the writers here. John is a logical choice to join the choir immortal.

However, there are other options:

New characters introduced.

Love interests. Nothing, other than children, says peril like a lover in danger. That's one reason why the Pilot was so powerful: while you expect the loved ones to be endangered, you don't truly believe they will be actually killed. This time, it happened, and when it did, your subconscious thought was "They killed Jess! If they kill her, no one is safe!" And that's exactly what the writers want; it helps to cover for the knowledge that the brothers are basically hands-off.

Of course, the writers have tried this before, with Sarah from "Provenance" and Cassie from "Route 666". But only Cassie really worked, and that's because they gave her a past with Dean. I wouldn't be surprised to see Cassie return. She already knows about hunting, and she has a reason to hunt herself. Sarah might show up also, for the same reasons.

Or there could be someone new, someone that the writers could use for the cliched love story line. You probably know that one: there seems to be chemistry, but a bad first impression or some event gets in the way of their getting together. The writers play up the sexual tension for most of the season, until they finally consummate the relationship.

There might even be a little brotherly competition for the affections.

Regardless, I predict a love interest makes its way into the show. Heck, it could even be John's love interest! Wouldn't that be interesting? Kathleen, from "The Benders", maybe?

That love interest may start out as a "civilian", but she's eventually going to become a hunter. Why?

Because:

We're going to get more background on the hunters

The hidden world of hunters is a hugely attractive story line. It's got rich potential. One path to explore it is to either have a novice hunter that must be taught - say, Cassie and/or Sarah - or another master hunter with methods different from John, showing a bit of rivalry and allowing them to trade anecdotes, which makes the imagined world deeper and more real.

I think each hunter will have a unique long-term mission, some event in their past that drives them to hunt. I think this for a practical reason. It's difficult to carry a long term story line over multiple seasons. That's one reason there are so many standalone/filler episodes. If each hunter has a different mission, they can intertwine the missions throughout the season, and have fewer filler episodes (really, there are only so many monsters they can come up with). In the end, the writers may decide to have all the intertwining missions lead to the same conclusion - namely, killing the demon that haunts the Winchesters - but it's not necessary. If they decide not to lead all the missions to the same conclusion, it could be that the Winchesters find that their demon is just a smaller part of a larger plot that's tied to one of the missions of the other hunters. Then they can extend the series for another year.

But what about the baddies?

They've done about every ghost and ghoulie you can think of outside of Bigfoot and Chupacabra. What next?

Well, I've been thinking about it, and I'm tapped out also. I think on the urban legend theme we may see one of "the phone calls are coming from inside the house!" episodes.

Occult-wise, there's the Jersey Devil. Ghouls. Zombies. Werewolves. Mothman. Maybe some stuff from other countries. Leprechauns, gnomes or trolls, for example. I'm not sure what else is out there.

One thing I do think will happen is the evils will become more organized, trying to hunt the hunters. So far, the hunters have traveled to find the bad stuff. I think the bad stuff will start trying to find them now. Besides, the Impala's totalled.

I also expect that the writers will try to find ways to tie more of the standalone episodes in with the demon quest. You saw that several times last season, when whatever they were after would mention something about the family past. I expect the evils will drop more clues this year, maybe be a little less cryptic.

What choices will the family face?

Choices make good fiction. Will Luke go to the Dark Side? Will Frodo give up the trek to Mt. Doom? Will the judge award custody to Meryl Streep, or Dustin Hoffman? Did Clint fire six shots, or only five?

Well, you might say that last one isn't a choice, but in a way, it is. If the bad guy decided Harry used all six shots, he might have run for it.

Anyways, the point stands. Choices are good. The trickier, the better. Is that Dean, or the skinwalker? Is that Dad, or the demon?

There are lots of other ways to force choices on the characters. Here are a few.

Ticking time bomb.
Put a time limit on beating the monster. This doesn't just have to be like "Phantom Traveler", where they had to exorcise the demon before the plane crashed.

What if... Dean's heart problem resurfaces, and he only has a few more months to live, for real this time. And he wants to get that dang demon before he dies. Or what if... John sells his soul for his son's life. And Satan decides he can have 7 months to track down that demon. Or maybe if they haven't stopped the demon by the next full moon, he becomes more powerful? Add the element of time in some way, and it gets much more suspenseful.

Moral dilemmas.

A dilemma between saving someone and carrying on with their mission would up the ante. Or having to choose who lives and who dies, like in "Faith".

We may see more identity dilemmas, including more possession. Are we certain none of the family is possessed now? What about a possible supernatural "mole"? A new hunter that turns out to be working for evil. This can be an excellent storyline, especially if they spend some episodes where its known there is a mole, but they don't know who. That creates mystery. Then, the audience learns who it is, but the good guys don't, that creates suspense.

The family being separated. It was hinted at before, in "Scarecrow". Then, a little foreshadowing in "Dead Man's Blood", when John says "We're stronger as a family." One difficult choice the family may face is to separate to track down multiple leads, or to save multiple people that are endangered in different places.

Finally:

More backstory

In general, I think we're going to get to see more about this alternate world that exists side-by-side with the real world, a world where spirits and monsters exist and humans hunt them.

I think we'll see more good or helpful spirits, like in "Home".

I think we'll see more of the family's past, through more flashbacks. And we'll learn more about Jessica. I just have a hunch that there's more to her than we've been told.

Recurring characters will be another possibility. Not just other hunters, like Bobby, who I'm betting makes an appearance, but also people like Ed and Harry from "Hell House," especially if they want comic relief in an episode. The vampire, Kate, from "Dead Man's Blood" will almost certainly have a recurring role. It's also possible, though not likely IMO, that we haven't seen the last of Meg, either.

More hints on the demon's plans for psychic children is something we almost certainly will see. We know he has plans for them, which apparently included killing their mothers, but what did he plan for the rest of the families? And what would he do with the children once he broke their families? Can't wait to see the answer to this.

And, of course, we'll see more episodes in homage to popular or classic horror movies.

So that's it, one loooong post with all my predictions for the coming season!


Posted by Miller on September 27, 2006 9:46 AM
Permalink |






i would like to know when supernatural starts back on the telly in the UK as iv heard its october thye 13th but i sat and waited and it didnt come on. does anyone know? and what channel?
i live in south wales

-- Posted by: danielle at October 17, 2006 3:49 PM

i would like to know when supernatural starts back on the telly in the UK as iv heard its october thye 13th but i sat and waited and it didnt come on. does anyone know? and what channel?
i live in south wales

-- Posted by: danielle at October 17, 2006 3:50 PM

I don't know, but I'll see if I can find out and either post or email it to you. It's a great show, it would be a shame to miss any episodes.

-- Posted by: Miller at October 17, 2006 4:00 PM

If it's on iTV2 in your part of the UK, it looks like it's on Sunday nights at 9 pm.

Here's the link:
http://supernatural.itv.com/home.php

-- Posted by: Miller at October 17, 2006 4:22 PM

Hey do you know when supernaturals coming on ITV not itv2 the second series??

-- Posted by: blue at December 28, 2006 3:04 PM

No, sorry. But I'll see what I can find.

-- Posted by: Miller at December 31, 2006 12:38 PM

Does any one know when Supernatural is back on and what channel it's on as I don't want to miss it.

-- Posted by: Betty at September 17, 2007 2:44 PM

Does any one know when Supernatural is back on and what channel it's on as I don't want to miss it.

-- Posted by: Betty Boop at September 17, 2007 2:45 PM

OMG I think IM going to freak out, I have been waiting for over 2 months now for supernatural to come back on, on the space channel and it still isnt on. Its not on tonight either, grr, anyone no when its coming back on on the space channel. Please tell me.

-- Posted by: Anonymous at April 8, 2008 2:08 PM

hey september 17th girl, it came back on a couple of months ago but its not on now and Im wondering if you know why its not playing on the space channel. Hopefully its only cuz of the writers strike

-- Posted by: Anonymous at April 8, 2008 2:11 PM

So-so. Something was not impressed.

-- Posted by: Jasmine at January 7, 2013 9:33 AM

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