A Single Supernatural Episode Changed The Entire Focus Of The Long-Running Show

Eric Kripke's "Supernatural" started out as a different show than it ultimately became. As longtime fans know, one of the series' main themes is family — especially the bond between Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki), but that connection takes a while to establish itself. For much of the first season, the two brothers struggle to even be on the same page, courtesy of their conflicting personalities and motivations. At this point in the story, while Dean has happily stayed in the monster-hunting game their father John (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) taught them, Sam actively loathes that life, but circumstances force him into it.

Many TV shows like "Supernatural" have their share of the kind of "monster of the week" episodes Sam and Dean dealt with, but the brothers only truly came to life when their relationship came into focus. In Variety's oral history of "Supernatural," Padalecki revealed that one particular Season 1 episode inspired this change. "It was right around the episode 'Faith' where the writers realized this show isn't just about what kind of monsters we can kill but what the brothers can go through together," Padalecki said.

The actor went on to explain that the events of "Faith" allowed the show to tie into John Winchester's reemergence later in the season. "And we get some sense of what the father is willing to do for the sons and what the sons are willing to do for each other," he said. "And so it became this story about sacrifice and loyalty and family and friendship [within] this medium of the supernatural and ghosts and ghouls."

"Supernatural" Season 1, Episode 12 (titled "Faith"), is the only episode Allan Kroeker ("Star Trek: Enterprise," "Chuck") ever directed for the show. It was written by "Supernatural" veterans Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker, who indeed crafted a crucial point in Sam and Dean's early relationship. As Gamble told Variety, the makers of the show had already started understanding that the family aspects should be an important part of "Supernatural," and "Faith" just happened to become the first episode that captured the lightning. "From that point forward," she recalled, "everyone was hungry to do more stories that had an aspect of the personal and the metaphysical."

"Faith" begins with a monster-hunting mission gone wrong, and Dean gets an electric shock that leads to a massive heart attack. After finding out that his wounded brother has mere months to live and ordinary medicine can't save him, Sam embarks on a quest to find a paranormal cure. Unfortunately, the man who gets the deed done is faith healer Roy Le Grange (Kevin McNulty). He's secretly powered by a reaper (Alex Diakun) that his wife, Sue Ann (Rebecca Jenkins) is magically controlling ... and the creature takes one life for every person Roy's "abilities" save.

After Dean is healed and the brothers figure out the reality behind the situation, the episode focuses on their attempts to stop the reaper. However, while "Supernatural" would go on to have many other game-changing episodes, Sam's desperate attempts to save his big brother — and the episode's moral dilemma of healing one person at the cost of another — marked the crucial moment that the makers of the show feel changed the focus of the series.