Abandoned ‘Supernatural’ Storyline Making Jared Padalecki’s Sam Look Like a Terrible Brother Highlights Eric Kripke’s 1 Colossal Failure With the Show

With its blend of horror, fantasy, and heartfelt storytelling, Supernatural is one of the most popular fantasy TV shows. Although the show premiered almost two decades ago and ended in 2020, it still enjoys a dedicated fanbase.

The series saw Sam and Dean Winchester fighting ghosts, demons, ghouls, and everything in between and even featured themes of family, friendship, perseverance, love, and responsibility. To this day, fans are hoping for a reboot or spinoff of the show to see the Winchester brothers back in action.

However, at one point, Sam comes across as a bad brother when he chooses to give more priority to his love interest instead of his brother, Dean who is fighting for his life. It also highlights the one area in which Eric Kripke failed to do justice.

Sam Winchester appeared to be a bad brother when he completely turned his focus to a love interest

Part of the reason why Supernatural worked so well was the more profound themes and the bond between Sam and Dean. However, in the eighth season, Sam’s flashbacks give a glimpse into his life away from hunting while Dean (Jensen Ackles) was trapped in Purgatory. From those flashbacks, the viewers learn that Sam was in a relationship with Amelia Richards (Liane Babalan) during that year.

Sam and Dean put their lives at risk multiple times throughout the show to save the other one, but the eighth season turned out to be a departure from this. When Dean got trapped in Purgatory, Sam made no attempts to bring him back or find him. Instead, he quit hunting altogether and settled into a domestic life with Amelia, a veterinarian dealing with her own grief, which mirrored Sam’s emotional struggles.

Now, this could have been justified at least a little bit if Amelia was a kind-hearted and adorable woman. As it turned out from the flashbacks, she was anything but. A Redditor posted about this claiming that Amelia was “annoying”, and a lot of other people seem to agree with that opinion.

No wonder the relationship was not well received by fans and eventually, that storyline was abandoned altogether in the second half of the season. This was also not the first time an undercooked romantic plotline was thrust into the show.

When Dean learned about Sam not trying to look for him, it hurt him a lot as he felt that he was abandoned by his own brother. In fact, Sam even gave up their shared responsibility of helping people by saving them from the otherworldly beings. This created a rift between the two brothers.

Despite Eric Kripke’s supervision, Supernatural did not do too well when it came to romantic relationships

For a show that thrived on its core themes of brotherhood, family, and the supernatural, romantic relationships often felt underdeveloped or poorly executed. Several love interests like Jessica Moore and Lisa Braeden were killed off just to further the Winchester brothers’ emotional arcs. This caused a lot of frustration among fans.

Some relationships also felt rushed or lacked chemistry. The biggest instance is Amelia’s relationship with Sam because that female character is unrelatable and disconnected from the main plot. Another such relationship is between Cassie Robinson and Dean in Season 1. It had potential and could have been taken further instead of condensing it into one episode and never visiting it again. Overall, the writing was sloppy when it came to romance as pointed out by another Redditor.

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Showrunner Eric Kripke did an amazing job when it came to the action and the bond between the brothers, but seemed to have shown little interest in giving them a romantic life. This is a little disappointing because fans would have loved to see Sam and Dean in long-term relationships where their love interests were not killed off or cast off to the side.

Supernatural is available for streaming on Netflix.