Faith

Faith is the 12th episode of Season 1. It aired on January 17, 2006. 

Summary
Faith healer Roy Le Grange cures Dean after an accident leaves him near death. But for every life Le Grange saves, another life must end.

Recap
Dean and Sam pull up to a house and, armed with tasers, go in after a Rawhead (a type of Monster). Going down to the basement, they find two children in a closet and lead them out. They head up the stairs when the creature grabs Sam through the stairs and Dean fires at the creature. Dean sends Sam out with the children while he goes after the demon, managing to taser it. But it’s standing in water along with Dean and the conducted electricity injures him as well.

Sam is at the hospital trying to handle insurance and covering with the police. The doctor reveals Dean suffered a major heart attack and is clearly concerned they can’t continue on. Sam calls their dad’s answering machine and asks for help. Dean checks himself out and they reunite, but Sam’s had no luck finding a way to help him. They do track down a friend of their dad’s, Joshua, in Nebraska and head there. The place is a faith healer belonging to Roy Le Grange, and Dean is skeptical. A woman, Layla, talks with them briefly and then they get an up-front seat.

Dean catches Le Grange’s attention during his sermon and is called up front. Dean reluctantly goes up and everyone prays as Le Grange lays hands upon Dean. After a minute Dean collapses but when he wakes up he sees the image of an old man standing behind Le Grange.

At the hospital the doctor confirms that Dean is healed, but notes that another young man had a heart attack that day and died. Dean is skeptical and feels it wasn’t “right,” and goes to talk to Le Grange and his wife Sue Ann. Le Grange woke up one day blind and with cancer, prayed, and went into a coma. When he awoke he was cured and could heal people. Le Grange says he picked Dean because he saw he had a purpose and a future. Sam checks out the dead man, Marshall, and notices a clock that stopped at the exact time Dean was healed…and Marshall died.

Dean runs into Layla and her mother coming to visit Le Grange and it becomes clear Layla needs healing from a brain tumor and she has six months to live. Layla is resolved but her mother is upset and angry at Dean for being chosen. Sam checks and determines that every time Le Grange has healed someone, another person has died of exactly the same symptoms. As they speak, Le Grange is healing another person…and a jogger in the woods is attacked by the same old man and dies of the same symptoms when it touches her – which Dean recognizes from the description as a Reaper.

Dean determines the Reaper can only be seen when they come after someone, and Sam remembers the cross at the revival show – a clock he recognizes from the Death card of the Tarot. Dean resolves to kill Le Grange but Sam proposes they break the spell. Sam looks for the spell book while Dean tries to stall him before his next healing. Sam finds newspaper clippings mentioning those who have died, which Le Grange apparently believed were “immoral.” They believe his next victim will be a protestor in the parking lot that they’ve met. Meanwhile, Le Grange calls up…Layla. Dean tries to stop her without success, while in the parking lot Sam hears the protestor cry out and tries to get him away from the Reaper that he can’t see. Dean calls out a fire before Le Grange can finish the healing, but the protestor collapses.

Sam is puzzled, but Dean sees Sue Ann using a Coptic cross and interrupts her. The Reaper withdraws as the police take Dean away. Sue Ann denies everything but doesn’t press charges. Dean tries to explain to Layla but can’t, while Le Grange and Sue Ann promise Layla will get a private session that night. It becomes clear Le Grange doesn’t know what his wife is up to, and Sam finds a book from Le Grange’s library identifying how to bind the Reaper with a dark altar and keep it away from her husband then take out immoral people. They need to destroy the altar and the Coptic cross, while Dean wonders if they should wait until Layla is healed. Sam points out they can’t play God and Sam tries to find Sue Ann while Dean draws the police off. Sam breaks into the Le Grange basement and finds the black shrine, complete with a marked picture of Dean. Sue Ann confronts him and then locks him in the cellar, warning that Dean as one of the wicked is to be killed. Le Grange begins his healing of Layla, while near Dean the lights go out and the Reaper appears before him. Sue Ann prays over her Coptic cross while the Reaper grabs Dean. Both Layla and Dean collapse but Sam manages to break out and destroy the cross. The healing fails as the Reaper, freed, goes after Sue Ann and kills her through a stroke. Sam and Dean go back to their hotel where Dean wonders if they did the right thing. Layla visits and tells Dean of how she wasn't healed, and that you have to have faith even with the miracles don't happen. Dean promises he'll pray for her.

Characters

 * Dean Winchester
 * Sam Winchester
 * Sue Ann Le Grange
 * Roy Le Grange
 * Layla Rourke
 * Mrs. Rourke

Featured Music
Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Ӧyster Cult (plays when the reaper kills the girl in the woods)

Death in the valley - Death riders (plays when the reaper kills the girl in the woods 'netflix version')

Featured Supernatural Being

 * Reaper
 * Rawhead (cameo)

Continuity

 * This episode marks the very first appearance of an angel on the series, which is the reaper, since season 9 retconned reapers as a class of angels. Furthermore, this episode is also the first appearance of a reaper.

Trivia and References
Dean: Have you ever actually watched daytime TV? It's terrible. Dean: That fabric softener teddy bear. Oh, I wanna hunt that little bitch down. Roy Le's Grange's name may be a reference to the ZZ Top song "La Grange".
 * This line is particularly amusing, seeing as Jensen Ackles' first major gig was in the role of Eric Brady on the daytime soap Days of Our Lives from 1997-2000.
 * Snuggle Fabric Softener uses a disgustingly cute and possibly possessed Teddy Bear puppet in its commercials. 

Dean: Look, no disrespect, but I'm not exactly a believer.

Reverend Roy: You will be, son. You will be. Luke: I'm not afraid.
 * A clear play on the scene between Yoda and Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. 

Yoda: You will be. You will be.

Erica Carroll plays the receptionist at the hospital Dean is admitted to. She later comes back to play a new role as the angel Hannah in later seasons.

The Netflix description of this episode states that Dean is injured battling a demon, when in actuality it is a Rawhead.

Dean says, "you can't kill death" but later at the end of season 10, Dean does in fact kill Death.

On the bookshelf that Sam takes from the shelf as he looking for evidence of La Grange's spell is a book titled Encyclopedia of Christian History - Old & New Testatment for Students & Clergy by "A. Hrytzak." Adrian Hrytzak was an art department co-ordinator for Supernatural from 2005 to 2010.

The "Ford City Tribune" article clipping that Sam finds in the spell book about the athletic young man who died of a sudden heart attack is credited to Leanne Elaschuk. Lee Anne Elaschuk was a graphic designer on Supernatural from 2005 to 2013.

In this episode,when the reaper takes the life of the young jogger and gives it to the old man,the song "Don't fear the Reaper",is playing.

Quotes
Sam: "What the hell are you doin' here?"

Dean: "Checked myself out."

Sam: "Are you crazy?"

Dean: "Well, I'm not gonna die in a hospital where the nurses aren't even hot."

Dean: "That fabric softener teddy bear? Oh, I’m gonna hunt that little bitch down."

Dean: "You better take care of that car or I swear I'll haunt your ass!"

International Titles

 * Finnish: Ihmeparantaja (Faith Healer)


 * French: Magie noire (Black Magic)


 * German: Der Wunderheiler (Faith Healer)
 * Italian: Il guaritore (The Healer)
 * Polish: Wiara (Faith)
 * Portuguese: Fé (Faith)
 * Romanian: Credință (Faith)
 * Hungarian: Sötét erők markában (In the Grasps of Evil)