Supernatural Mythology Episodes

[BoxWhatBox]

Okay, so my wife and I just started watching Supernatural. We're not interested in the monster-of-the-week (motw) episodes, only the mythology episodes. Can anyone a) recommend a good resource on the web for determining the mythology episodes vs the motw episodes, or b) provide us with a list of the mythology episodes? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Skywalker]

As a fan of the show, I would of course advise against skipping even the MotW eps and watch every episode, but if I were a newcomer to a show that's currently on its eighth season, I'd probably understand where you and your wife are coming from.

I would recommend you visit the Supernatural Wiki, which features detailed summaries for every episode. Just do a search for "Season One," "Season Two," etc., and you'll be taken to pages with each season's episodes.

It's a little late tonight, so I don't have time for it now, but if you're having problems I can try to put together a list of the "mythology episodes" later. Although as the show ages the divide between standalone MotW eps and eps that contribute to the overall arc narrows. This is especially the case in the fourth and fifth seasons.

[lvsxy808]

I'm not really sure you can make such a cut-and-dried distinction. With Supernatural, even the episodes which might be termed MotW usually have an important ongoing-character-arc aspect to them, and the nature of the monster often relates to whatever emotional issues the boys are dealing with at the moment. In fact, with them both being such Men, who tend to keep their emotions bottled up anyway (Dean more than Sam), the monster is often the only way of getting to that emotional core at all. So what I'm saying is that even if an episode is not mythology-plot-arc heavy, it might still be important-character-arc heavy, and indeed sometimes the two are indistinguishable.

Having said all that, here are what I think are the most important episodes you would need to see:

Season 1
101 - Pilot (aka "Woman in White")
104 - "Phantom Traveller"
109 - "Home"
111 - "Scarecrow"
112 - "Faith"
114 - "Nightmare"
116 - "Shadow"
118 - "Something Wicked"
120 - "Dean Man's Blood"
121 - "Salvation"
122 - "Devil's Trap"

Season 2
201 - "In My Time of Dying"
203 - "Bloodlust"
205 - "Simon Said"
208 - "Crossroad Blues"
209 - "Croatoan"
210 - "Hunted"
214 - "Born Under a Bad Sign"
217 - "Heart"
219 - "Folsom Prison Blues"
221 - "All Hell Breaks Loose" pt 1
222 - "All Hell Breaks Loose" pt 2

Season 3
302 - "The Kids Are Alright"
303 - "Bad Day at Black Rock"
307 - "Fresh Blood"
308 - "A Very Supernatural Christmas"
310 - "Dream a Little Dream of Me"
311 - "Mystery Spot"
312 - "Jus in Bello"
315 - "Time Is On My Side"
316 - "No Rest for the Wicked"

Season 4
401 - "Lazarus Rising"
403 - "In the Beginning"
407 - "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester"
409 - "I Know What You Did Last Summer"
410 - "Heaven and Hell"
415 - "Death Takes a Holiday"
416 - "On the Head of a Pin"
418 - "The Monster at the End of This Book"
419 - "Jump the Shark"
421 - "When the Levee Breaks"
422 - "Lucifer Rising"

Season 5
501 - "Sympathy for the Devil"
502 - "Good God, Y'All"
504 - "The End"
508 - "Changing Channels"
510 - "Abandon All Hope"
513 - "The Song Remains the Same"
514 - "My Bloody Valentine"
516 - "Dark Side of the Moon"
518 - "Point of No Return"
519 - "Hammer of the Gods"
521 - "Two Minutes to Midnight"
522 - "Swansong"

Season 6
601 - "Exile on Main Street"
603 - "The Third Man"
605 - "Live Free or Twi-Hard"
607 - "Family Matters"
610 - "Caged Heat"
611 - "Appointment in Samarra"
612 - "Like a Virgin"
616 - "And Then There Were None"
619 - "Mommie Dearest"
620 - "The Man Who Would Be King"
621 - "Let It Bleed"
622 - "The Man Who Knew Too Much"

Season 7
701 - "Meet the New Boss"
702 - "Hello Cruel World"
706 - "Slash Fiction"
709 - "How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters"
710 - "Death's Door"
715 - "Repo Man"
716 - "Out With the Old"
717 - "The Born Again Identity"
720 - "The Girl With the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo"
721 - "Reading Is Fundamental"
722 - "There Will Be Blood"
723 - "Survival of the Fittest"

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[Servo]

Every episode has something in it that advances the arc or the characters. I wouldn't recommend skipping any episodes at all.

[The Mirrorball Man]

I always enjoyed the "Monsters of the Week" episodes far more than the "Demons are so mean they make me cry" episodes.

[RoJoHen]

I'm in the middle of Season 5, myself, and I have to agree that there really aren't too many skippable episodes. Even the monster-of-the-week episodes are usually relevant to the characters' story arcs, and skipping them would probably just create confusion.

[Skywalker]

The first season is probably the only one where you can safely skip a lot of the MotW episodes, particularly in the first half of the season. Except for "Phantom Traveler," "Home," and "Scarecrow" as mentioned by lvsxy808.

But still, I don't recommend skipping any at all.

[Mr Light]

Personally I'd recommend skipping the vast majority of S1, it only had a few episodes important to the larger story...

[The Mirrorball Man]

Mr Light wrote:

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Personally I'd recommend skipping the vast majority of S1, it only had a few episodes important to the larger story...

Yeah, but the larger story sucks, so I'd watch all of Season 1 because it's consistenly good.

[Harvey]

Season one has a lot of clunkers. The truncated list suggested by lvsxy808 for that year looks about right. I would suggest against skipping episodes after that point, though. In seasons 2-4 (as much as I've seen, so far) even most of the clunkers are important, or have moments that make them worthwhile.

[lvsxy808]

If you do start watching, either every episode or just the truncated list I offered above, I think we'd all enjoy reading your thoughts as you go. We get Buffy/Farscape/Babylon 5 rewatch threads all the time, but I'm not sure we've ever had a Supernatural rewatch thread.

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[BoxWhatBox]

Thanks everyone for the information. We watched the pilot and then skipped to Episode 10. We're going to go episode to episode most likely, but appreciate having a road-map in case we get a little bored.

[BoxWhatBox]

lvsxy808 wrote:

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If you do start watching, either every episode or just the truncated list I offered above, I think we'd all enjoy reading your thoughts as you go. We get Buffy/Farscape/Babylon 5 rewatch threads all the time, but I'm not sure we've ever had a Supernatural rewatch thread.

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I might just do that. Thanks for the suggestion. Of course, then you will see just how fast my wife and I burn through a season of shows.

[hyzmarca]

BoxWhatBox wrote:

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Thanks everyone for the information. We watched the pilot and then skipped to Episode 10. We're going to go episode to episode most likely, but appreciate having a road-map in case we get a little bored.

Every episode starts with a recap, which helps. But, honestly, skipping straight to 10 skips a rather major portion of the plot arc. Scarecrow is a MOTW episode, but it has a payoff a the end which is extremely important later.

[lvsxy808]

hyzmarca wrote:

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Every episode starts with a recap, which helps.

Ordinarily I hate those recaps, because IMO they only serve to spoil you for the upoming episode by specifically reminding you of which parts of the back story you need to know for this episode, as if we don't have memories of our own.

But in your case, if you're determined to skip some episodes out, I would actually pay quite close attention to those recaps, because they would actually help you make up the shortfall.

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