Supernatural: 10 Plot Holes That Aren't Actually Plot Holes
Plot holes like the Winchesters' endless resources and Castiel's powers have confounded Supernatural fans, but the answers have always been there.
When a series has gone as long as The CW’s Supernatural, there are bound to be plot holes. In fact, there are more than several things that have been noted to be illogical right from the beginning. While Sam and Dean Winchester’s adventures did take liberties with suspending disbelief, there were actually answers for some supposed logic flaws provided by the show.
The key to understanding why the plot holes aren’t really nonsensical is to piece together clues and events that show up throughout the fifteen seasons. Some were answered through dialogue while others can be deduced by aligning established plot points together. It’s interesting to see how Supernatural ultimately tackled issues with angels, demons, cosmic entities, and more without fans realizing it.
Castiel started off with cosmic powers, capable of sending people back in time and altering reality. However, he was weaker in later seasons despite the fact that he’d become a Seraph after having been a normal angel beforehand. While many have been stumped over this, the answer is actually part of the overarching plotline.
Castiel’s abilities were weakened because of the fall of the angels in the Season 8 finale. The reason why the likes of Lucifer and Michael appear to still be powerful is due to their status as Archangels. Castiel retained his angelic nature but couldn’t complete feats like teleportation or super strength since Metatron’s spell was permanent.
This is considered to be a major plot hole that Supernatural fans choose to ignore, but its answer was hidden within a Season 15 episode. Sam and Dean learned that Chuck had been providing them with immunity all their lives because watching the duo deal with normal human problems was boring to him.
Chuck ultimately included Sam and Dean’s injuries as part of his immunity, meaning the brothers’ healing was just because God allowed it. The final episode actually played into this aspect, as Dean met his death after Chuck was no longer God, ergo he no longer had any way to survive.
There’s little doubt that Lucifer is around the top in the list of Supernatural's best villains, and he was certainly among the strongest. Still, it didn’t make sense for most how he could kill Death herself, as the Reaper who took up the position should have been more powerful.
The answer to this plothole lies in Lucifer’s dialogue, where he revealed that Chuck had revived him from the Empty. Chuck had actually empowered Lucifer with some of his powers, which enabled the latter to kill Death using the enhanced abilities he was provided with.
The Colt was meant to be the ace up the heroes’ sleeve, as they believed it could kill anything. While the gun certainly lived up to its reputation in early seasons, it couldn’t kill Lucifer; he claimed he was one of five beings the gun was powerless against.
Fans think of this as a plot hole since the Colt was supposed to be unbeatable, but the truth is that Samuel Colt, the creator of the gun, never came across Archangels. As it is, Colt only fashioned the weapon after beings he was aware of, which means the five things immune to the gun weren’t designed to be harmed.
The final battle in the Season 14 finale is among the things that have aged badly with Dean in Supernatural, mainly due to how lackluster it was. Dean allowed Alternate Michael to possess his body, following which he battled against Lucifer.
The flaw should be that the fight between Lucifer and Michael was meant to destroy the world, but nothing really happened. The answer to this is that Michael was never in control of the fight, as Dean was the one in charge. Michael only imbued his abilities into Dean, meaning the battle was against Dean and Lucifer, not Michael.
One of the most glaring logic problems has been how the brothers sustained themselves when neither had jobs. The resolution to this plot hole was actually revealed in passing in the fourteenth season, where Dean tried to use a credit card provided by Charlie that was without any limit. As it turned out, the brothers had had access to unlimited funds because of Charlie’s technical wizardry.
They were also able to live off the Men of Letters bunker, which provided them with free electricity, water, gas, and other amenities. After defeating Chuck and Dean’s demise, Sam walks into his brother’s room and a job application can be seen, which meant that they were now looking to get work to earn money.
The Leviathans were said to be the apex predators in Purgatory, to the point where Castiel was defeated during the year he and Dean were trapped in the realm. And yet, the monsters were easily beaten by Castiel himself in the final season, which didn’t make sense to fans.
This isn’t a plot hole because the Leviathan Castiel attacked claimed their leader was now Eve, not Dick Roman as used to be the case. According to the lore, the presence of the Leviathan leader is what made the species powerful, so Dick’s absence meant all the Leviathans were weakened, which is why Castiel was able to overpower them later on.
The entire sixth season was about Raphael and Castiel’s civil war to find Purgatory, which took a lot of scheming and planning to locate. In Season 15, however, all Michael had to do was snap his fingers to open a portal, which is difficult to understand since Raphael was also an Archangel like Michael.
The resolution to this plot hole was provided in Michael’s dialogue in the penultimate episode of the series, where he let slip that he had carried out God’s plans to impress him and had hidden many things from the angels. It means that Michael had always had the knowledge of Purgatory and had simply not shared it with Raphael to retain God’s favor.
Some viewers think certain aspects of Sam have aged poorly in Supernatural, one of which is his supposed cutting off of college friends that he had claimed were important to him. This issue was resolved all the way back in the fifth season finale, however.
Lucifer had shown Sam people from his past in the episode, the majority of whom were revealed to be demons. Sam’s best friend in college also turned out to be a demon all along, which indicates that Sam wasn’t friends with his college mates anymore because most of them had been planted by Lucifer.
The Empty had claimed in its debut appearance that not even God could control its realm, which clashed with many notable instances where angels and demons had been revived by God. The simple answer here is that the Empty was always wrong and was never more powerful than God.
As seen by the end of the fifteenth season, the Empty had deluded itself to thinking that it was the most powerful entity because it was manipulated by Billie. Even after Chuck lost his powers, Jack was able to revive Castiel, which confirmed that the powers of God were always top-tier and the Empty could never match him.