CW’s ‘Supernatural’ Presents Biblical Ideas in Dark Melodrama

by S.T. Karnick

Conservative critics of U.S. television programming are correct to observe that TV drama and comedy fiction series have seldom had clergy as positive characters during the past couple of decades. However, that does not mean that network series television has treated religion in a uniformly hostile manner. In fact, in recent years the treatment of religion, especially Christianity, has often been quite positive.

One of the most interesting programs in this regard is the CW Network show Supernatural (2005-present). The show follows the work of twenty-something brothers Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, respectively), who wander the nation hunting down supernatural evils that must be destroyed to stop the monsters’ nefarious work of killing humans.

Working from a diary left by their father (who died at the beginning of season 2 (“In My Time of Dying”), the pair use the means described in it to dispatch ghosts, werewolves, and even demons, while seeking the demon that killed their mother while Sam was an infant and killed Sam’s girlfriend in the series’ pilot episode.

Shot in a gritty style reminiscent of film noir, employing a good deal of rather dark humor, and filled with U.S. pop culture references and romantic-adventure symbols–fast cars, ordinary and exotic firearms, cheap motel rooms, seedy bars and diners, fist- and knife-fights, beautiful women, sinister villains, etc.–Supernatural takes its spiritual elements seriously, although they are employed (some will say distorted) in heightened, melodramatic ways, while employing humor to keep the proceeds from becoming ludicrously portentous. The show includes an impressive array of biblical references, names, and symbols, usually in ways that point to a Judeo-Christian understanding of the stories.

To be sure, various episodes of the series include many differences from biblical theology, in particular the characteristics of angels and demons, both of whom can be killed (which is not in accord with Scripture) and who appear to be able to propagate, according to claims in at least one episode. In addition, demons sometimes seem to have bodies and sometimes seem only able to possess human bodies (which is the biblical understanding), an angel of God temporarily borrows the body of a human (which is explained in one episode, though not very convincingly), and angels are shown as doubting God and disobeying him and engaging in self-centered thinking.

These oddities, however, do not undermine the overall effect of the show, which is to portray a vast spiritual war with the earth and the human race as both the main battleground and the prize. That, of course, is consistent with most Christian thinking and in particular with that of the Evangelical denominations. As the show progressed through its second and third seasons, the biblical elements and theology became increasingly prominent, and the extent and nature of the war taking place around Sam and Dean was revealed to be nothing short of the onset of Armageddon.

Reflecting some of the more fevered versions of millenarianism, the series last season revealed that a demon named Lilith is leading an effort by al the demons to open 66 seals that will lead to Armageddon, including the unleashing of all the demons from Hell and the end of the world. (I think that’s about the gist of it.) The show characterizes Lilith as the first demon created by Lucifer after his fall from grace (Lilith is indeed a reference to Old Testament era Judaism, which mentioned her as a wife of Adam; of course the creation of additional demons by Satan is not supported by biblical theology), and she is suitably powerful and deceptive, hiding in seemingly the most innocent of people.

Thus in the past season and a half the show’s religious content has become more and more apparent and based in Evangelical Christian thinking. While operating on a frankly melodramatic, symbolic level, the overall theology is consistent with Evangelicalism. Particularly prominent in the first three seasons of the program was Dean’s religious skepticism, to which he clung despite the copious evidence that there is a good deal more to the world than natural science can account for–including a trip to Hell. Sam appeared much more accepting of traditional Judeo-Christian thinking and frequently upbraided Dean for his skepticism.

This, too, strongly reflects an Evangelical Christian notion, the idea that each individual must make a conscious choice of whether to accept salvation offered freely to all, and that crucial to the process is participation in a good deal of debate about the matter so as to make a fully informed decision.

That all changed this season. At the end of last season (“No Rest for the Wicked”), Dean was killed and sent to Hell (in a decidedly harrowing series of events and a vivid season-ending visual image). At the beginning of this season (“Lazarus Rising”), Dean found himself back in the world, having been rescued from Hell by Castiel (Misha Collins), a powerful angel of God. This was established in a very dramatic and visually arresting scene in which Castiel revealed his angel wings and glowed with heavenly glory.

The angels, however, don’t see things the way we humans do, and Dean frequently argues with them and scolds them for their unfeeling character, etc., suggesting that neither they nor the God they serve makes much sense at all. Over time, however, events make the situation quite clear to Dean, and he begins to see and embrace his role in God’s plan. In a rather moving scene in “The Monster at the End of This Book,” Dean prays to God for help, and is given much comfort (and some very practical demon-killing advice) by a visit from Castiel.

In the immediately subsequent episode, “Jump the Shark,” Dean indicates a belief in Heaven (having previously believed only in Hell, odd as that may seem), and two episodes later, in “When the Levee Breaks,” Castiel reveals that Dean, not Sam, is the one whom God has chosen to end the Apocalypse, if he will accept the task. In another very moving scene, Dean promises Castiel, “I give myself over wholly to serve God and you guys,” and swears “to follow His will . . . swiftly and obediently.” Dean’s colloquial language makes the scene very true to his character and quite persuasive, and the analogy to a Christian conversion is obvious.

Sam, for his part, has found out that he has the power to expel demons, which he strengthens through regular ingestion of “demon blood,” which sees to mean blood from people possessed by demons.

In addition, Sam himself is described as having demon blood in him, apparently fed to him as an infant in his crib by the very demon who killed his mother and later killed his girlfriend. This demon blood gives him the power to expel demons–a very spectacular visual effect that brilliantly evokes the original Greek word for spirit, which literally means ‘breath’. Unfortunately, Sam has become “addicted” to the demon blood and begins acting about as puzzlingly as the angels and demons.

In the same episode in which Dean promises to serve God swiftly and obediently, Sam makes a final decision to rely on his own, supernatural power to defeat Lilith, a decision which is presented as catastrophically wrong and as endangering Sam’s soul, to say the least. Thus the two brothers, allies against evil over the years, are on opposite sides in a joint effort to save humanity from a spiritual mega-disaster. The drama will come to a head in this evening’s episode, “Lucifer Rising.”

The show’s creator and executive producer, Eric Kripke, has said that he consciously brought the religious aspects of the show to the forefront in the current season because he intends to end the show at the end of next year’s season, which would be its fifth. Next season, he says, will constitute a grand struggle between angels and demons for the fate of the world and the human race.

For all its eccentricities, Supernatural has taken religion seriously and presented a highly dramatic, emotionally charged drama of spiritual warfare from a clearly Christian perspective. Season Four will begin repeats next week, for those who are new to the series and would like to watch the current season before seeing tonight’s season-ending episode.

—S. T. Karnick, editor of The American Culture


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Posted May 15th 2009 at 4:56 pm in Religion, Reviews | 39 Comments