So far, Supernatural’s portrayals of Heaven have been either cliché garden scenes or the much more psychologically complex rendition from Dark Side Of The Moon (one of the best episodes of Supernatural in its decision to present Heaven as a Matrix where you’re stuck in your memories for all eternity – thus managing not to pull any punches while staying on budget). However, the angels and Heaven have gotten so deeply involved in the storylines of Supernatural lately that they barely fit – and it just might be time for Heaven to get its own show. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve enjoyed the aspects of this season dealing with the angels and Heaven, but there just isn’t enough room in one show to deal with all the complex issues Heaven entails while believably maintaining a focus on hunting and good old weekly monsters. Seasons ago, Supernatural was able to meld some of its seasonal story arcs with excellently-written monster of the week episodes, but with the angel storyline as it is, it’s just too big to adequately be adequately addressed that way while leaving room for the day-to-day hunting, geeky references, and human interactions.

So, perhaps instead of trying to squeeze the angel storyline into a hunting show, Heaven could benefit from its own storyline – one that, based on this season, could essentially focus on the issues surrounding creating a new society. How does a race of beings without free will create their own society? How do they make laws, establish a hierarchy, and forge social structures? What does this society of immortal beings live for? How do they solve conflicts of interest about faith and what angels are supposed to do? Angels can pose dozens of interesting philosophical issues of the kind Supernatural’s really good at addressing, and a spin-off would give it the time and space to do that. Of course, that raises the question of where that would leave fan favourite and series regular Misha Collins – but that issue can be dealt with, possibly by having Cas choose Heaven over Earth, as he’s already tended to do over the seasons.

Purgatory

Purgatory is, according to Supernatural lore, the place where monsters go after they die (though, as Castiel pointed out, there’s the nagging question of where monsters go if they die in Purgatory, which would have to be resolved). It’s unclear whether demons are included in that category of monsters that end up in this monster Heaven, but either way, Supernatural has a long string of fascinating and unfortunately dead monsters. A Purgatory spin-off would provide the perfect way to bring them back and endless possibilities to explore the backstories and motivations of characters from Eve, Ruby, Lilith, Abaddon, Alastair, Meg, and Azazel, to Dick Roman and Gordon Walker. According to Biblical lore, Purgatory is also a place of purification, thus opening up potential storylines about monsters struggling with their monstrosity and attempting to change their nature. That direction, in particular, could bring back a number of beloved and not-so-evil “monsters”: Benny, Madison, Amy Pond….

Hell