Supernatural: The Complete Seventh Season starts off with Castiel (Misha Collins) claiming all of the souls from Purgatory and gaining enough power to claim the mantle of God. He quickly deals with the Winchesters and gets them out of his way before beginning what he believes to be a purge of the wicked and unrighteous. Too bad for him, his angel-body wasn't meant to hold onto that much power and he has to turn to Sam and Dean to try and put all of the souls back to where they belong.
This event kicks off the season's real plot. Not everything goes back, and what remains is a race of monsters that predate both angels and demons, Leviathans. Released into the wild, these creatures can shape shift and have started taking over key people all over the world. To make matters worse, the wall that kept Sam's soul safe from his memories of Hell has come down and he finds himself constantly tortured by a hallucination of Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino, Dexter, Lost).
There are a few one-off episodes that aren't all about Leviathans or Sam's new internal struggles. These include an episode where the brothers get in the middle of a marital dispute between two witches, played by James Marsters and Charisma Carpenter (both of Buffy the Vampire Slayer note) and another where the Winchesters investigate some strange going-ons at Lily Dale, the most "psychic" town in the USA.
Another fun one-off episode brings back Sam's number one fan, Becky Rosen (Emily Perkins), who, much to Dean's surprise, has just married the younger Winchester brother. Dean quickly begins to suspect something strange, especially when others in the town seem to get their heart's desire and die soon afterwards.
Another episode guest stars Jewel Staite (Firefly, Stargate: Atlantis) as a childhood friend of Sam's who seems to be connected to a series of deaths that look very similar to some murders that occurred back when Sam first knew the girl.
While the one-off episodes are a lot of fun, a majority of the season is all about the new bad guys and, quite frankly, not all of the main characters make it out of this season alive. Of course, death in Supernatural isn't always a permanent thing, so one of the questions that is left up in the air for most of this season is about whether or not the Winchesters are getting help from a ghost.
Unlike past seasons of Supernatural, Season Seven contains 23 episodes, one more than usual. One of the featurettes talks about one unexpected result of this fact. Normally, the series' music is split between Jay Gruska and Christopher Lennertz, each composer gets 11 episodes. Well, this time, the two work together in a very unusual episode where Dean is sent back to 1944 and works alongside famed lawman and apparent hunter, Eliot Ness (Nicholas Lea). Given the setting of the episode, the two musicians went for a very specific jazz sound and you can watch all about it in the featurette called "Scoring Washboards & Tommy Guns."
Other special features include two outtake reels, one that is the standard reel and another of Ackles singing in the car. There is also a featurette that interviews the series' various directors and four featurettes arranged in a Drive-In movie theater styled menu. One focuses on the writing of the show, another about how many of the visual effects are done, another on the history of Lily Dale and one death and near-death experiences.
Supernatural has taken some interesting turns over the past few years and this season takes the characters even further off the beaten path. If you've liked what the show has done so far, then it should be no surprise that you will enjoy Supernatural: The Complete Seventh Season as well.
