Supernatural is in a normal winter hiatus right now, but is facing a longer hiatus due to the writer's strike. Before that happens, the series has four new episodes coming up. Those will start airing January 31. Here's what you can expect (spoiler alert!):

1/31/2008, 2x09: Malleus Maleficarum
Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) go to Sturbridge, MA to investigate a coven of witches, and discover the origin of Ruby, the demon who may be an ally or an enemy for the Winchesters. "We reveal something pretty surprising about her backstory," show creator Eric Kripke told TV Guide in an interview back in December. "She's a demon, and we learn a lot about demons and how they came to be demons."

2/7/2008, 2x10: Dream a Little Dream of Me
A demon puts hunter Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver) into a coma and Sam and Dean have to save him. The episode reveals how Bobby got into hunting, and takes a peek into Dean's head, how he feels about going to hell. "Right now he's accepting that he's going to Hell and he's unwilling to do anything to stop it. That changes 180 percent in Episode 10," says Eric Kripke. "Something big happens to him that makes him realize he desperately wants to live and he desperately doesn't want to go to Hell." Producer/writer Sera Gamble told Fandom Rocks that the episode also looks at Dean's "issues and his past with his father, and the stuff that his father told him all the time when he was growing up."

2/14/2008, 2x11: Jus in Bello
The return of Agent Henrikson (Charles Malik Whitfield), who manages to actually capture Sam and Dean this time around. Sera Gamble hints that "the best way to classify the episode is to say that it’s kind of like SPN/Assault on Precinct 13." The definition of the title phrase makes for interesting speculation. The episode also features Ruby, who needs the heart of an innocent human to do a spell.


2/21/2008, 2x12: Mystery Spot
Sooner or later, every genre show does a its take on Groundhog Day. "Dean dies maybe 10 different ways on camera, and off camera, maybe he dies 200 different ways," Kripke reveals. "Sam doesn't go through just three or four Tuesdays, he goes through something like 150 Tuesdays." Trust Supernatural to take a genre trope and find a way to push it farther than it's been pushed before.

Eric Kripke also gave a hint about one of the written, but not yet produced, episodes of season three: "There's a fun one where we bring back the Hellhounds, the bumbling ghost hunters back from Season 1. The whole show is an episode of their reality show. So we're shooting an entire show on hand-held video Blair Witch-style. Like when X-Files did their episode of Cops. It's our loving tribute to Ghosthunters on Sci Fi."

On February 28, as previously reported, Reaper will move into Supernatural's Thursday time-slot and Supernatural will go off the schedule, as far as we know now, without reruns. This shuffle from The CW has caused some anxiety among the show's loyal viewers. However, with the writer's strike affecting the production of new pilots, The CW will have to rely on its stable of already existing shows, and Supernatural is one of their strongest. So, here's hoping for a season four.


Sources:
About.com
TV Guide
Fandom Rocks
Buddy TV