Supernatural’s Season 14 midseason premiere shows exactly how to handle surprise character returns

Supernatural Season 14 had two characters returning, one that hasn’t been seen in a decade. We had no idea about them and it shows that when they want to, the EPs can keep us on our toes.

There’s no doubt that the fandom is miffed about Supernatural spoilers. And these aren’t tiny tidbits that leak out via fans or from accidental images being released. They’re planned spoilers for future episodes.

Whether it’s synopses that give away events in still-to-air episodes or it’s special character returns for Episode 300, some spoilers have been too in-your-face. Those who don’t want to find out information can’t help but come across it.

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Yet, when the show wants to, the EPs can keep character returns under wraps. There were two in the Supernatural Season 14 midseason. One character hasn’t been seen in a decade. I’m not going to say who they were in this post. If you want to find out who they were and haven’t seen the episode yet, check out the recap for “Nihilism.”

This is just about how the showrunners handled the surprises. Sure, names popping up in the “guest starring” credits gave them away, but there’s very little you can do about that. It reminds me of the time Osric Chau’s name popped up in Season 13, Episode 7. We all went nuts finding out that Kevin would somehow return to us in that episode.

But while watching the episode is one thing we can accept. We spend the episode looking out for returns. There are other returns that happen without names popping up first. And that happened in this week’s episode. We opened to a familiar face — and yes, the whole fandom was shocked and happy to find out that this return was kept completely under wraps.

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So, why can’t it happen at other times?

The Supernatural Episode 300 returns kind of make sense. Well, the return of Papa Winchester does since there are special covers for Entertainment Weekly. It would be hard to keep that under wraps when Jeffrey Dean Morgan is there on the cover with Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Sam Smith, although Entertainment Weekly could have done an after-the-episode-aired special.

Yet the angelic return’s name didn’t need to be named in the title of articles. Hey, I don’t think he even needed to be mentioned at all.

The Supernatural fans like these sort of surprises. It’s clear the show can manage them, so can we have them more often?

What did you think of the surprise returns in Season 14, Episode 10? Would you like to see more of these surprises instead of announcements of returns? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Supernatural Season 14 continues on Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW.