The Supernatural Cliffhanger That Took 14 Years To Pay Off (I Wish They’d Left It)

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Over its impressive 15-season run, Supernatural was known for ending many seasons and even individual episodes on cliffhangers. Big moments like angels falling to Earth or the introduction of Jack always left viewers eager to see what would happen next. For example, the season one episode “Home” ended with a surprising scene of John Winchester appearing at Missouri Moseley’s house, setting up a storyline for future episodes.

The show Supernatural often hinted at future developments, but some took a long time to come to fruition. For instance, there were clues throughout the series that Chuck Shurley was actually God, but that secret wasn’t fully revealed until much later. Some storylines, like the one involving Jesse the Antichrist, were never resolved. However, it was very unusual for the show to introduce an idea and then not revisit it for a full 14 years.

Jenny Didn’t Return To Supernatural For 14 Years

I remember watching “Dead Man’s Blood” from the first season of Supernatural and being pretty hooked, even though it was a fairly classic vampire story for the time. It centered around a young woman named Jenny, played by Christine Chatelain, who unfortunately got captured and turned into a vampire. Sam and Dean, with a little help from their dad, managed to take out the leader of the vampire group, but they made the tough call to let Jenny and another vampire get away. It felt like a classic monster-of-the-week episode, but it definitely set the stage for things to come!

The episode “Dead Man’s Blood” suggested that the two vampire survivors might come back for revenge in a later season. However, by the middle of Supernatural‘s second season, with no sign of their return, most fans had likely forgotten about Jenny and her transformation into a vampire.

However, the character Jenny wasn’t ignored by Supernatural. Even if she was initially forgotten, she eventually reappeared in the show’s final episode as the head of a vampire group. Notably, one of her vampires was responsible for Dean Winchester’s death, impaling him on a nail.

For over 14 years, from April 2006 to November 2020, the TV show Supernatural slowly revealed the consequences of Sam and Dean letting Jenny escape after she became a vampire. This long-term storyline was similar to the character Constance Welch, who first appeared in the show’s very first episode and then returned as a villain in the final episode of season 14, though she was played by a different actress.

Supernatural Bringing Jenny Back Was A Mistake

Jenny’s return in the Supernatural finale nicely connects the show’s beginning to its end, bringing things full circle. However, since her appearance happened relatively late in the series—around episode 20—it doesn’t quite feel like a return to the very beginning, more like a slightly stretched circle.

The real issue with Jenny appearing in Supernatural season 15 is that she was a relatively unimportant character suddenly given a prominent role. Jenny was memorable in the episode “Dead Man’s Blood,” and Christine Chatelain did a fantastic job playing her. She even deserved a follow-up story exploring her life as a vampire and potentially having another showdown with Sam and Dean. However, by around season 4, the show had waited too long to revisit that idea. Bringing Jenny back in season 15 – or even season 5 – felt like too little, too late.

Had Supernatural brought back Jenny as a vampire leader in a random episode during the final season – not as part of the finale – it might have seemed a little strange, but could still have been an enjoyable standalone story. However, making Jenny central to the finale and giving her the role of Sam and Dean’s last hunt feels like a disappointing and confusing ending.

If Azazel had been the final villain, most fans probably wouldn’t have minded. He’s a powerful and significant character who deserves a prominent role, and it would have felt fitting considering he was the first major antagonist in Supernatural. Instead, Jenny’s appearance felt unexpected and jarring, like bringing back a villain from an earlier Marvel movie to defeat a hero after a much bigger threat had already been dealt with.

To make matters even worse, Jenny is the one who ultimately kills Dean Winchester – and not even directly, but through one of her unnamed followers. Fans of Supernatural likely envisioned many ways for Dean to die, but being impaled by a random spike wielded by a lackey of a mostly forgotten season one villain wasn’t one of them.

The pandemic definitely disrupted the original plans for Supernatural‘s ending, restricting which actors could appear. Honestly, even a surprising return of Azazel with a simple costume change would have been better than the way the finale, “Carry On,” played out. At this point, the only way to truly satisfy fans would be to bring the show back for one last season.

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2025-12-14 18:09