The seventh season of '' Supernatural'', an American dark fantasy

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

created by

Eric Kripke Eric Kripke (born 1974) is an American writer and television producer. He came to prominence as the creator of the fantasy drama series ''Supernatural'' (2005–2020) which aired on The CW. He served as the showrunner during the first five seasons ...

, premiered September 23, 2011, and concluded May 18, 2012, airing 23 episodes. The season focuses on protagonists Sam (

Jared Padalecki Jared Tristan Padalecki (born July 19, 1982) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the role of Sam Winchester in the TV series ''Supernatural''. He grew up in Texas and rose to fame in the early 2000s after appearing on the televi ...

) and

Dean Winchester Dean Winchester is one of the two protagonists from the American drama television series '' Supernatural'', along with his younger brother Sam. He is portrayed primarily by Jensen Ackles. Other versions of the character having been portrayed b ...

(

Jensen Ackles Jensen Ross Ackles (born March 1, 1978) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Dean Winchester in The WB/ CW dark fantasy drama series ''Supernatural'' (2005–2020) and appearing in television series such as NBC's ''Days o ...

) facing a new enemy called Leviathans, stronger than anything they have encountered so far as well as rendering their usual weapons useless. On January 12, 2012, the season won two

People's Choice Awards The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls until ...

including Best Network TV Drama. This is the second and final season of

Sera Gamble Sera may refer to: People * Ryu Sera (born 1987), South Korean singer * Sera Cahoone (born 1975), Seattle-based singer and musician Places * Sera, Hiroshima, a town in Japan * Sera District, Hiroshima * Sera Monastery, Lhasa, Tibet ...

as showrunner, with

Jeremy Carver Jeremy Carver is an American television writer and producer. He developed the series '' Being Human'' (2011–2014), ''Frequency'' (2016–2017), and '' Doom Patrol'' (2019–present). Carver was also a writer and producer on the series '' Supe ...

taking over the role for season eight.

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

released the season on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

in Region 1 on September 18, 2012, in region 2 on November 5, 2012, and in Region 4 on October 31, 2012. The seventh season had an average viewership of 1.73 million U.S. viewers.

Cast

Starring

Sam Winchester Samuel "Sam" Winchester is a fictional character and one of the two protagonists of the American drama television series ''Supernatural'' along with his older brother, Dean. He is portrayed primarily by Jared Padalecki. Other versions of the char ...

Special guest stars

Misha Collins Dmitri "Misha" Collins "My mom went to Russia when she was in college, and ��she had a boyfriend whose name was Mitya, which she thought was the same as Misha, which it's not. And his real name was Dmitri, so my real name, actually—my birth c ...

as Castiel / Emanuel * James Marsters as Don Stark *

Charisma Carpenter Charisma Carpenter (born July 23, 1970) is an American actress. She played Cordelia Chase in the supernatural drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–1999) and its spin-off series ''Angel'' (1999–2004). She also starred as Kyra in ...

as Maggie Stark *

DJ Qualls Donald Joseph Qualls (born June 10, 1978) is an American actor. He is best known for his work in films including ''Road Trip'' (2000), ''The New Guy'' (2002) and '' The Core'' (2003), and for several appearances on television series such as ''B ...

as Garth Fitzgerald IV

Guest stars

Episodes

In this table, the number in the first column refers to the episode's number within the entire series, whereas the number in the second column indicates the episode's number within this particular season. "U.S. viewers in millions" refers to how many Americans watched the episode live or on the day of broadcast.

Production

The series was renewed for a seventh season on April 26, 2011, and remained on Fridays at 9:00 pm (ET).

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

announced on August 20, 2011, that the season would be increased to 23 episodes, up one episode from the 22-episode pickup the series had previously received. On January 11, 2012, it was announced by the executive producer of the show, Robert Singer, that there was another cliffhanger ending planned for season seven.

Reception

Critical reception to the season was generally positive. The

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.83/10 based on 5 reviews. One criticism from reviewers was of the lack of an emotional link between the Leviathans as a whole and the Winchester brothers, an element which had been present in previous seasons. The lack of threat from the monsters was also noted as a downside to the season, though the portrayal of

James Patrick Stuart James Patrick Stuart is an American actor, currently portraying Valentin Cassadine on the daytime soap opera ''General Hospital'', for which he received three consecutive Daytime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Dram ...

as Dick Roman, using corporate mannerisms and charm mixed with his own self-confidence, was pointed to as a high point of the story arc. The overturn of

Mark Sheppard Mark Andreas Sheppard (born 30 May 1964) is an English actor and musician. He is often credited as Mark A. Sheppard. Sheppard is known for playing the demon/King of Hell Crowley on ''Supernatural'' and for his recurring roles as lawyer Romo La ...

's character

Crowley Crowley may refer to: Places * Crowley, Mendocino County, California, an unincorporated community *Crowley County, Colorado * Crowley, Colorado, a town in Crowley County *Crowley, Louisiana, a city * Crowley, Oregon (disambiguation) * Crowley, Te ...

at the final moments of the season, was very surprising for the critics. Many argued that Crowley's successful separation of the Winchester brothers by taking advantage of

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

's imprisonment in

Purgatory Purgatory (, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French) is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations (mostly Catholic), an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory ...

and the kidnap of both Kevin and Meg was a good cliffhanger going into the next season, and that it opened up many possibilities and questions. Another well-received point was the return of the Impala at the end of season, much to the appreciation of the fans, and

' portrayal of the resurrected and traumatized Castiel, which brought a new element to the chemistry between the brothers.

References

External links

* * * {{Supernaturalnav Supernatural 07 2011 American television seasons 2012 American television seasons