Supernatural has a long tradition of taking the ordinary and making it terrifying. In "A Very Supernatural Christmas," even holiday cookies and wreaths cause a shudder of horror. Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) look into a series of weird disappearances where the victims were apparently yanked up the chimney, days before Christmas. This episode has it all: laughs, gross-outs, another glimpse of the Winchesters' childhoods, and some heart-searing brother moments. Without ever becoming maudlin, it both subverted Christmas tradition and also showed the emotional meaning of the holiday.

Dean is gung-ho for Christmas, although Sam says Dean hasn't mentioned Christmas in years. Dean eventually confesses to Sam why he wants Christmas this year: because of the crossroads deal, it's Dean's last. And that's the very reason Sam, ironically the believer who prays every day, as we learned in last season's "Houses of the Holy," can't celebrate. He tell Dean he can't pretend to be festive knowing that next year at this time, Dean will be dead. Sam also knows an awful lot about pagan traditions and how Christianity co-opted the solstice celebrations. It would be better if the episode had done this without forgetting that Dean, an expert hunter, should also know plenty about pagan rituals and traditions.

Interwoven with the boys investigating the "anti-Claus" and dealing with their present-day holiday malaise, the episode gracefully gives us flashbacks to Christmas 1991, Winchester style. The boys are alone in a motel room that gives new meaning to the word bleak. Papa Winchester is absent, off fighting evil, only as we discover, eight-year-old Sam doesn't know about monsters yet. John Winchester filled Dean in on the family business, no doubt so he could better serve as sidekick and protector to Sam, but didn't tell his youngest son.

In the present day, the boys discover that the disappearances are the work of two pagan gods, hilariously played by Spencer Garrett and Merrilyn Gann as an Ozzie and Harriet type couple, jovial as can be while they tie Sam and Dean to chairs and then torture them for their ritual. They rationalize what they're doing, saying they used to kill hundreds, but now take only a few each year. "What was that word, dear?" "We assimilated." The exploration on the pagan traditions behind Christmas is intriguing, but it would be refreshing if for once paganism could turn out to be a magical force for good. Paganism on Supernatural always seems to be associated with pissed-off evil. Balancing that, however, is the fact that in the Supernatural 'verse, the Christian God isn't exactly making things at all easy for the Winchesters. Show creator Eric Kripke recently told TV Guide's Ask Ausiello, "if God is out there, he isn't sending angels to fight the battles; he's working through a very human, sweaty, outgunned and overwhelmed group of hunters."

A lot of this episode was about faith, but unlike last season's "Houses of the Holy", it wasn't about the existence of God and angels, but about the Winchesters' faith in each other. In the flashback portions, young Sam confronts Dean about what their father really does. "Are monsters real?" he asks. Dean, who believes in his father's mission, the family business of "saving people, hunting things," tells Sam the truth. "We have the coolest dad in the world...he's a superhero. Monsters are real. Dad fights 'em." This is little comfort to Sam, who only wants his father home for the holidays. John Winchester may have been a heroic figure in many ways, but heroes don't always make the best parents. Dean, being in on the secret, and believing so hard in his father's mission, seems to be able to handle John's absence better (and maybe can't emotionally afford to doubt), but Sam is heartbroken.

Luckily for Sam, he has Dean for a big brother, who goes out and steals Christmas for Sam. Dean lies and tries to maintain his little brother's faith in their father, claiming John brought the tree and gifts, but Sam quickly sees through it. It's worth noting that present-day Dean mentions John Winchester stealing a Christmas wreath for them; the show is never absolute in its portrayals (and in the Winchesters' world, stealing Christmas isn't larceny, it's love). As a result of his disappointment, young Sam gives the gift he was going to give to John to Dean instead -- turns out it's the amulet we've seen Dean wearing almost constantly for three seasons. We still don't know much about the amulet, only that Bobby gave it to Sam to give to John and said it was "pretty special." But it hardly seems to matter what the amulet does, specifically. It's precious to Dean because Sam gave it to him, and it represents Sam turning from his father as protector and parent, to Dean.

The rest, as they, say, is history.

The emotion of the final scene, where Sam pulls it together and overcomes his dread of what's to come in order to give Dean Christmas, and Dean's rare acceptance of a chick flick moment, comes across as genuine and restrained. Supernatural is a show more workmanlike than genius, yet that is also its strength. With only a few silences, a handful of inexpensive presents from the local gas mart, and a simple question, "feel like watching the game?" the show again delivers a quietly devastating emotional punch. This episode truly is a gift to the show's fans.


Supernatural 3x08: A Very Supernatural Christmas
writer: Jeremy Carver
director: J. Miller Tobin
Guest stars: Ridge Canipe, Colin Ford, Spencer Garrett, Merrilyn Gann