They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot / Supernatural

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• Dean's transformation into Demon!Dean was a completely unforeseen plot twist, and every single second of him on-screen was exciting, tense and unpredictable. And in true Supernatural fashion, in three episodes he's cured and back to his old angsty self. Rather than have him remain a Demon and struggle with the inner humanity he still has, we get a quick and easy fix and move onto the next plot-strand. It gets even worse when looking back to Season 6, when there were demons who essentially were acting as hunters, and they were shown to be tremendously good at it. Being stronger, faster, and tougher than his human self (not to mention the new demon-telekinesis and such) would be a gas for someone like Dean, but he'd also be saddled with the same weaknesses he and Sam had been exploiting against demons for years, on top of the natural tension that being a demon would create in any angelic interactions.
  • Several fans suspect that it was intended to last longer, but then they decided they should do something completely light and fun for the 200th episode just five episodes into the season, forcing the Deanmon story to be wrapped up by then.
• Sam's problems with Dean after learning he killed Amy literally lasted less than one episode. And to many fans, Dean decisively winning the argument was not the way it should have gone at all. Granted there are also plenty of fans who are glad it ended so quickly (with drawn out emotional bickering storylines of the next two seasons being unpopular), and who felt that Dean was perfectly justified in his decision (as although sympathetic Amy had murdered several people) and that Sam was unfairly playing favorites just cause they met briefly several years earlier. So more of Base Breaking.
• Dean becoming a family man after "Swan Song" had lots of potential, in particular his relationship with surrogate son Ben who wanted to be a hunter. While fans were mixed on Lisa, most of them enjoyed Dean's relationship with Ben. Hunters having families had been established with Samuel and Deanna Campbell, and Dean could have continued to work with Sam in most episodes and have Ben and Lisa show up for certain storylines. Instead, Dean regressed into being a manchild with perpetually rehashed daddy issues even as he turned into a surrogate father for Jack. It would have been interesting to see Dean come to terms with how he was raised through his relationship with Ben, who would have been in his early twenties by the end of the series. Also, instead of a rehash of the trust issues between the brothers, having them have to navigate Dean's new priorities would have led to character growth for both. As for Lisa, it wasn't like Dean was ever seriously paired with another woman onscreen and him having a wife at home wouldn't have been that different from procedurals with married characters. In short, it would have been interesting for the writers to let Dean grow up.
• It seems that between Seasons 6 and 7, the crew realized they couldn't possibly do a war between Heaven and Hell on their budget, so that story is hastily wrapped up before it even gets going in favor of the Leviathans.
• The Leviathans themselves. Initially introduced as God's first attempt at creating life, they were supposed to be some of the strongest and scariest beings in existence. In-universe, they were even the inspiration for H. P. Lovecraft's work, and God himself had to lock them away in Purgatory because he was afraid they'd destroy everything else if left untouched. Sounds like a great start to a Cosmic Horror Story, right? Instead, we got glorified shapeshifters who were regularly trounced by other creatures (even by human witches) despite supposedly being far stronger, who had to rely on ordinary things like technology and politics to achieve their goals despite being the main villains on a show called Supernatural, and whose big plan was to make humans fat and stupid in one of the most painful Author Filibusters ever written.
• The reveal that closing the gates of Heaven in Season 9, also means that now none of the dead can go to Heaven, and are trapped in the Veil destined to become ghosts, is certainly an interesting story idea with a lot of far reaching consequences and provided some much needed emphasis as to why Heaven's gates had to be reopened. With the added concern that its only a matter of time before all these spirits turn hostile, and its now impossible to stop them. The subject gets attention for one episode and then writers seem to forget it ever happened with none of the consequences explored or even a single line that it had been resolved.
• The fans came up with several theories about what Sam's flashbacks in Season 8 could be leading to, perhaps the most popular being that Amelia didn't actually exist and he had a psychotic break in the despair of losing everyone he cared about. But no, there was no twist at all and it ended up being just as dull and pointless as it always appeared.
• In relation to the above, Amelia's husband Don reappearing when he was supposed to be dead hinted that this subplot had a point after all. So is Don a ghost, a demon, was he brought back from the dead, or is he something else entirely? The army wouldn't pronounce someone dead for no clear reason, right? Well apparently they do, because no one questions his sudden reappearance, and he just serves as a reason for Sam to leave Amelia for good.
• Uriel's group of angels who secretly support Lucifer and hope to release him from Hell. The idea that some angels would've supported Lucifer over Michael would've been an interesting plot point in Season 5.
• Some people felt like the psychic children plot was a lot more interesting when they were meant to be leaders in the demon army rather than having only one of them meant to survive. Some fans also have mixed feelings about the winner being meant to be Lucifer's vessel, especially when it's revealed that only Sam could contain his powers. Apparently their role was originally going to be different and was supposed to last to the end of the third season at least.
  • Didn't Azazel mention other generations of psychic children? We briefly met one towards the end of Season 1, but what exactly was the point of them? We never find out.
• After the failure of "Bloodlines," a lot of fans noted that if the crew wanted to do a spinoff, they already had a ready-made setup with the group from "Freaks and Geeks," rather than creating a whole new one that no one liked.
  • Charlie had become one of the most popular characters in the franchise and could have carried her own show if given the chance. Sadly, we know what came of her.
• After the unpopularity of the Possessed Sam arc from Season 9, many fans said it would have been better if he really did die, followed by him going to Heaven and forming a resistance movement against Metatron, possibly allowing for the return of some of the many popular characters to have been killed off.
• The Darkness got a quite epic introduction at the end of Season 10, so that even with the Ass Pull of its existence, fans were excited to see what would happen with it. Then it turns out to be a generic Pretty White Lady with incomprehensible motivations and an extremely vaguely defined set of powers that don't even take one episode to start contradicting themselves. The lack of follow-up regarding Dean killing Death is another big sticking point.
• It's a bit disappointing that Rowena never met Gavin or even learned about his existence as she's his grandmother Then she finally does, and he's offed in a morally questionable way by the Winchesters.
  • It's the common problem of the series. It introduced a concept that could have been interesting, then it gets disregarded by the next episode.
• Running with this, Nazis. Supernatural Nazis. Those Wacky Nazis get about four episodes across the entire series, and never really get more mention. Sure, those are awesome episodes, but there is much more to be done. For a big example, the fact they have beef with the Men of Letters holds the potential for the Winchesters to be caught up in a Secret War between the two factions, with all sorts of supernatural battles and morally questionable things to go down.
• Although there was an attempt to make Claire Novak a fleshed out character, even trying to make her part of a potential spinoff, little was made of the fact that she, not Jimmy, was supposed to be Castiel's permanent vessel. She was spared only because of Jimmy's Heroic Sacrifice in "The Rapture." If Claire shares Jimmy's bloodline, wouldn't both the angels and demons be very interested in getting their hands on her?
• Gabriel's Long Bus Trip after his appearance in 9x18 (where he's heavily implied to still be alive) is a frustrating example. Seasons 9 through 11 were ripe for his return plot-wise, and he would've been a fun re-addition to the cast, due to being an interesting, dynamic, and previously well-established character. However, Castiel presumably never tells the Winchesters that his brother might be Back from the Dead, and never looks into it further himself. Even when they explicitly need an archangel ally in Season 11, they go straight to Lucifer instead of trying Gabriel. Then, finally, Chuck/God claims that bringing Gabriel back would be too complicated, both confirming that he was Killed Off for Real and squashing any hope for a return to that subplot. Season 13 reveals that Gabriel is in fact alive, but it is somewhat mitigated by the fact that he was being held prisoner by Asmodeus for his Archangel Grace.
• Castiel revealing that he's in love with Dean and then immediately being swallowed up by the Empty two episodes before the series finale is never acknowledged at any point, despite the significance of the scene and the fact that he's one of the main characters. That he's later mentioned as having been revived offscreen with no elaboration as to how, although potentially made possible by Jack having omnipotent powers is itself also criticized as another lost opportunity.
• Crowley and Metatron being two major Big Bads throughout seasons 8 to 11, but not once having a scene together or ever interacting.
• Dean ended up in Purgatory between Seasons 7 and 8, where the souls of monsters go when they die, but apparently didn't encounter his Amazon daughter Emma who was conceived and killed in the Season 7 episode "The Slice Girls".
• After the Apocalypse in Season 5 and the mess in Heaven in the following Season, some fans believe any remaining Pagan Gods attempting to take over Heaven would have been an interesting plotline to do. However, Pagan Gods were used only as episodic villains even in the later Seasons.
• The Alternate Timeline created by the Titanic not sinking in "My Heart Will Go On" has no shortage of fans who wish it hadn’t been Ret-Gone at the end without a resurrected Jo ever being seen in person. Bobby and Ellen, as a couple, deserved more screen time. It would have been a convenient way to bring back more recurring and guest characters who were unjustly killed off, the effect all those souls have on the war in Heaven is barely mentioned, and there being thousands of new people in the world due to their ancestors having not died in the ship could have been a source of recurring Close-Enough Timeline jokes and provided more justification for Remember the New Guy? scenarios.
• Some angels liking being exiled to Earth in season 9 and wanting to remain there after having the option to go back to Heaven had interesting potential to develop various unusually interesting and sympathetic angels, but all of those angels are quickly killed off and/or portrayed as Dangerous Deserters.
• The reveal of the Empty (and Jack being able to resurrect angels from there) had the potential for him to bring back more angels than Castiel. It would have been interesting seeing the new God judging the various angels from across the show to decide which ones were worthy of a second chance at life and/or were able to help restore the universe, but this never happens.

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