Supernatural Totally Abandoned One Of Its Oldest Stories Halfway Through The Show

Published Aug 16, 2026, 5:00 PM EDT

The Winchester brothers were committing crimes and evading the law as early as the pilot, which aired back in 2005. Admittedly, the running joke of Sam and Dean using the names of rock stars as their aliases wasn't exactly egregious enough for the boys to end up on the FBI's Most Wanted list for fraud, and Sam breaking Dean out of a local lockup was a minor offense at best. Even in the eyes of authorities, they weren't all that bad early on.

That changed for the first time during a season 1 episode when a shapeshifter took on Dean's guise to commit crimes. The problem grew even more serious with an excellent arc that started in season 2, once again involving shapeshifters. Even after that arc was resolved, they encountered the issue again when their Leviathan doppelgängers were caught on camera murdering innocent people in season 7.

They were being hunted by the authorities for very serious crimes, and the problem was big enough for them that it should have lasted longer than it did each time.

Supernatural Gradually Started Forgetting Sam & Dean Were Fugitives

Dean first got in major trouble with the law in season 1 when a shapeshifter took on his appearance, but he was saved from having to go on the run when the shifter died at the end of the same episode. Just over a year later, the brothers were genuinely guilty of participating in the bank heist that put them on the FBI's radar in the "Nightshifter" episode of season 2, although not because they were attempting to rob it.

They voluntarily ended up behind bars later that season while trying to hunt a ghost, and technically remained fugitives from the FBI until a season 3 episode, called "Jus In Bello," allowed them to fake their deaths.

Then, they popped up among the living again in season 7, when Leviathan used their guises to commit crimes. Their identities were broadcast as killers on the FBI's Most Wanted list, and they even had to abandon the Impala for a time. Once again, faking their deaths was their only way out, and season 7 was the last time the Winchesters really faced the problem of evading the authorities.

Faking their deaths became an increasingly flimsy way of getting Sam and Dean out of trouble with the law, but they continued to mostly avoid the authorities for the rest of the show beyond season 7. They spent the remaining eight seasons growing more infamous, in ways that ranged from involvement in crime scenes to a musical theater production about their exploits. They were less cautious with their identities over the years. They should have been recognized by somebody, at some point, over the eight years that followed their decision to fake their deaths in the seventh season.

Supernatural Outlasted Sam & Dean Being Wanted Men

There is one valid explanation for why Supernatural abandoned the storyline of the Winchesters as hunted men halfway through the series. The show was originally intended to end after the fifth season finale, fittingly titled "Swan Song." Original creator and showrunner Eric Kripke even left Supernatural after season 5, and the continuation meant that the show had to undo some of its biggest twists from "Swan Song" to keep the story going into seasons 6 and 7.

Sam's resurrection had to be justified, which led to the prolonged arc of needing his soul to be restored. Castiel's return after being exploded by Lucifer had to be explained. Adam still being stuck in the cage with Lucifer and Michael should have been addressed, although that would ultimately go down in Supernatural history as another storyline that was abandoned for years. The show needed to move forward rather than revisit the fugitive arc from seasons 2 and 3.

Moving on did ultimately lead to the Leviathan storyline of season 7, and the brothers once again getting in trouble with the law. That wasn't an issue for too long, however, and it was overshadowed by the end of the seventh season when Dean and Castiel were pulled into Purgatory. Supernatural just kept piling new stories on the Winchesters as The CW continued to renew it for more seasons beyond what had originally been planned as the end.

It didn't really make sense, in the grand scheme of the Winchester saga, that they weren't wanted men in the latter half of the series, but a lot about Supernatural didn't really make sense by the end. Any fans who were still tuning in, as the total number of seasons crept into double digits, had to be willing to suspend their disbelief to enjoy the ride. If viewers could accept Sam and Dean being resurrected time and time again, believing that they could fly under the radar of the authorities wasn't much more of a stretch.