Supernatural Review: Season 3 Episode 8 "A Very Supernatural Christmas"

By: Jeremy Carver

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet seen this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

            This is, by far, the strangest Christmas episode of any television show I have ever seen. It was bizarre, twisted, and dished out laughs and tears with whiplash-inducing intensity. So, naturally, I love it. This episode is a breath of fresh air...a refreshing, different delight midst the sappiness and toothache-inducing sweetsy sentimentality that I've been plugging through in Doctor Who Christmas Specials recently. (Seriously. Evil snow melted by random tears? What the what?!) Yes. Killer Santas are just the medicine I needed, apparently. 

         Oh this episode is a joy to watch. It is so dark and so strange that you can't help but be sucked in...and yet it manages to have a lot of emotional beats too. This is accomplished by two things: (1) this is going to be Dean's last Christmas before Hell and Sam's last Christmas with the last remaining member of his family, his big brother. That in and of itself is pretty worthy of a tear-jerker, but (2) add in some more Weechesters flashbacks detailing where Dean got his amulet from and how Sam found out about hunting? Yeah! You'd better have a couple of tissues on hand! With so many emotional things going on here we really NEED that dark humor to help balance it all out and keep it from being a downer.

Favourite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- The episode opens one year before the actual events of the week with some very lovely carol music and one poor in-need-of-future-counselling child watching his grandfather (dressed as Santa) being dragged up the chimney, leaving only a bloodstained boot behind. Ew!

- We get a customized title card for this episode. Specials always do and they're a lot of fun.

- "No way a man fits up that chimney. It's too narrow." What I really want to know is how Sam fit up the chimney to find and dislodge that tooth without getting stuck or sullying his suit.

- I laughed so hard at the revelation that Dean has never seen Mary Poppins. Sam's disbelief and disappointment was palpable. It's almost as funny as the revelation that they think they're hunting Santa's shady brother.

- Santa's Village is creeping me out more than a clown festival ever managed to do. Too much tinsel and ho-ho-ing and cheery music like you'd hear in the shops around Halloween. Brings back bad memories...

- The fact that Dean is so enthusiastic over Christmas is making me want to laugh and cry at the same time. I went with laughter, though, whenever the camera angle shifted to a shot of Sam beautifully framed by a couple of very moose-like reindeer antlers. Hmmm. So is this the start of the infamous 'Moose' moniker?

-  I think the thing that really makes this episode is the flashbacks to Sam and Dean's childhood. We hadn't seen their younger counterparts since Something Wicked in Season 1, so this was a nice surprise. There's a LOT going on in these flashbacks. 

1. Younger versions of Sam and Dean (duh!). The kids that they got to play the part, in addition to be absolutely adorable, do a spot-on job of making us believe that these are the same people. Clearly they spent quite a bit of time working with Jensen and Jared. Sam is as sarcastic and inquisitive as ever while Dean is playing the annoying big brother and also trying to keep Sam from the worst of things.
2. We learn that Bobby originally gave the amulet to Sam as a gift for John. But, whenever John broke his promise and wasn't home for Christmas, Sam gave it to Dean instead. And Dean wears it to this day.
3. Bobby is now called 'Uncle Bobby'. Hmmm. Interesting.
4. This is the year that Sam learns about hunting. Up until this point, it would seem, John and Dean tried to keep the truth from him because he - unlike Dean - wouldn't remember the fire that killed Mary. He doesn't even remember the Shtriga. This Christmas, though, Sam finds John's journal and reads it. So we can pinpoint this as the start of his training as a hunter.
5. Sam probably doesn't actually know a whole lot about Mary, even now. It's obvious that John didn't talk about her and, going by Dean's reaction in this, he probably didn't either. No WONDER Sam didn't take to hunting the same way his brother and father did!
6. Dean's probably the coolest big brother in the world. But we already knew that.

- That creepy old grouch Sam and Dean see at the Village makes me laugh. Especially whenever Dean uses him to get Sam into embarrassing trouble. And then they think they have to go kill Santa. That is HILARIOUS.

- "What's up with St. Nicotine?" 

- Gotta love this little gem I found on the wiki whenever looking up the exact music list for this episode: '"Silent Night" The...interpretive...version Sam and Dean sing when they pretend to be carolers.' Hahahaha! That's putting it mildly!

*screams with laughter*

- Dean getting all nostalgic for holidays makes me sad. And doesn't Sam get it that telling Dean to have Christmas without him kind of defeats the purpose?

Poor Sammy's getting strangled...again.

- The boys call up Bobby who tells them they're idjits and jackasses for wasting their time on hunting evil!Fred Clause.

- Pagan gods. Again. Shame it wasn't Loki...

- There were a LOT of kids that would need therapy after the events of THIS episode! Also...it cracks me up that evil Santa took the time to chow down on the cookies and milk.

- I had the Carrigans pegged as suspicious from the moment they opened up their doors. Anyone who is THAT cheerful and THAT Martha Stewart deserves a couple of side-ways looks (and maybe a thorough investigation). In this type of stories, they're usually involved somehow. It's like a law of nature. Lois Lane gets captured, blonds always die first, and nice sweet neighbors are never what they seem.

- Mr. & Mrs. God. HAHAHA!

- "Suddenly this Jesus character is the new big thing in town." I wonder why. Maybe because he doesn't require human sacrifice?

- Sam and Dean are a treasure in the kitchen scene.

- This episode is not for the faint of heart when it comes to dark humor and downright disgusting things, though. If the literally bloody basement with the stocked god pantry doesn't get to you, the 'prepare Sam and Dean for dinner' scene will. The fingernail moment still gets to me. I'm a violinist! Fingers are precious!

- I think the fact that this happens in a gingerbread-festooned kitchen (and that Mrs. God is wearing the cheesiest Christmas jumper EVER) only makes it funnier. The fact that she and Mr. AntiClaus are acting like a doting yet no-nonsense aunt and uncle duo helps too.

- Dean now owes a nickel to Mrs. God's swear jar. Excuse me while I go snort my drink over that...

- By far the funniest moment, though, is whenever they're about to remove one of Dean's teeth and the doorbell rings. Dean, mouth pried wide open and full of pliers, still manages to say: "Are you going to get that? I think you should get that."

- And then the climax of the episode is Sam and Dean staking Mr. & Mrs. EvilSanta with their own Christmas tree. Just let that one sink in for a moment...

- I wonder if Agent Hendriksen ever heard of this case?

- Sam relents and, given that this is Dean's last Christmas before Hell, determines to make it a great one for his brother. So he pulls up an evergreen tree (a small one...probably landscaping from their hotel) and decorates it with bottle caps and stolen lights and air fresheners. Their motel must have smelled interesting after that...

- This is in direct parallelism to the flashbacks we saw. Dean would always decorate up the rooms whenever they were younger to make sure it was nice for Sam. Here it is reversed with Sam finding some grungy tinsel and bows and making the best of it.

- He also makes some eggnog that looks like it just about took Dean's hair off. In fact, I dug up an interesting fact about that eggnog:

*snort*

          The episode closes out with them giving each other dollar-store gifts and sitting down to watch a football game together, managing to be both the sweetest and strangest Christmas episode I have ever watched. It was glorious. It's bizarre and twisted and weird and dark...but this episode also gets the sentimental part over extremely well without falling into either OOCitis or sappiness. And all the Christmas lore was a nice touch. All in all A Very Supernatural Christmas is a 5/5

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?