Top Five Supernatural Season 9 Moments

The CW's long-running series Supernatural is about to enter Season 10, a mark few television series in today's landscape ever reach. The journey of Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) has captivated fans for nearly a decade.

Padalecki probably best described the show's devoted fan base when he (along with Ackles, Misha Collins and Mark Sheppard) had their Conversation with NerdHQ last month. In the last television season, only 10 shows grew their viewership from the previous season. Of those 10 shows, nine were in their second season. The 10^th show was Supernatural.

So it's no surprise, then, that the show is still around and is still finding ways to create compelling storylines for its characters. But before we get to Season 10, let's stop and take a look back at Season 9 and relive some of the best scenes from last year with the Top Five Supernatural Season 9 Moments.

5) Sam ejects Gadreel 

This was an awesome scene because it was such a long time coming. After half a season of this mysterious angel inhabiting Sam's body, the younger Winchester brother finally learned what was happening and booted Gadreel out of his body. The inclusion of Crowley in this scene made it even cooler, as he had to use the boys' secret code word, Poughkeepsie, to convince Sam he was telling the truth.

Of course, this led to the season-long tension between Sam and Dean that the two resolved in the finale.

4) Sam's inner journey

The Season 9 premiere featured a voyage inside Sam's mind as he struggled for life and finally decided he was ready to die. As he clung to life, Sam met incarnations of Dean, who wanted him to fight to stay alive, and Bobby (Jim Beaver), who told him it was okay to go. It's always a joy to see Bobby back on screen with the boys, and this was no different.

But that wasn't all, as Sam also encountered Death (Julian Richings), possibly the most powerful entity in the entire Supernatural universe. Sam told Death he was ready to die but wanted to ensure that no spell or deal could ever bring him back. But just as he was about to pass on, Gadreel showed up as Dean and convinced Sam to live. The angel then possessed him, and we already covered how that turned out.

3) Kevin's death 

Many characters have died on Supernatural, but few hit harder than Kevin Tran's demise. The plucky youngster had been around since the tail end of Season 7 and had helped Sam and Dean in their wars against Crowley and Metatron. But ultimately, Dean's actions in putting Gadreel into Sam's body led to Kevin's death, a decision that wrecked the elder Winchester brother for much of the rest of the season. Kevin came back briefly to let the Winchesters know that Metatron's actions had stopped souls from getting into heaven, so it's possible he could come back in Season 10.

2) Dean's death 

Dean and Sam have each died multiple times on Supernatural, but this one resonated because of the knockdown, drag-out fight he had with Metatron earlier in the episode, as well as his season-long conflict with Sam. Just when the two had seemingly reconciled, Metatron killed Dean and left Sam to grieve.

Dean's line, "I'm proud of us," encapsulated everything the Winchesters had done up to the point. They saved the world a few times and helped countless people in the process.

This moment was heart-wrenching, but it was only overshadowed by...

1) Open your eyes, Dean.

I'd be hard-pressed to believe anybody saw this coming. Death has practically become a joke on this show. And we mean dying, not Death the character, because that dude still sends chills down our spines. But death is such an impermanent state on Supernatural that it's almost hard to get emotionally invested when someone bites the dust. But not this time.

Dean's not just dead. His soul is twisted into the very thing he hates. When he opened that pair of black eyes, fans' jaws hit the floor. It was inconceivable that the show would turn one of its two main characters into a monster, but they went there. Now we get to see how it plays out in Season 10.