Every weekday through September 12 BuddyTV is counting down the 10 best Supernatural episodes of all time.  Come back every day as we unveil the list, and see if your favorite episode made the cut!

Original Air Date:  October 18, 2007

Written By:  Ben Edlund

Summary:  Sam and Dean discover that a mysterious rabbit's foot has been stolen from their father's storage facility outside of Buffalo.  The cursed object brings great luck to whoever possesses it, but that luck turns bad the instant the owner loses the foot.  The Winchesters think it's their lucky day once Sam gets the rabbit's foot back from some thieves, but after Bela (Lauren Cohan) steals it, Dean realizes he'll have to track her down before his brother meets a grisly end.

Why It's On The List:  Episodes nine and ten on our list prove that Supernatural knows how to pull off tragedy.  Both "No Rest for the Wicked" and the pilot end with horrible deaths that leave Sam Winchester emotionally destroyed.  As powerful as these episodes are, the thing that makes Supernatural such an amazing show is its ability to jump from genre to genre.  Depending on the episode or specific scene, the series can be classified as a straight up horror show, a touching character drama, a depressing tragedy, or a laugh-out-loud comedy.  "Bad Day at Black Rock" is a perfect example of the latter.  It's Supernatural at its comedic best.

Jensen Ackles gets a chance to shine in many of our top 10 episodes, but while he's great here it's really Jared Padalecki who steals the show.  In fact, this episode may contain Padalecki's best performance to date.  Whether he's falling over a lamp, spilling coffee on himself, pouting over a lost shoe, defiantly scratching his nose, or catching his arm on fire, Jared is simply brilliant.  Sam usually has to be the somewhat mopey, responsible character, so seeing him completely out of control and uncoordinated is a real treat.

As great as Padalecki is, Ben Edlund's wonderful script gives the other characters awesome moments as well.  Dean's "I'm Batman" declaration after he expertly dispatches Gordon's minions is hilarious, as are his attempts to win bundles of cash through scratch-off tickets.  Gordon gets a few chilling moments while he's stuck behind bars that help to set up his eventual face-off with the Winchesters.  Even Bela, who most fans would grow to loathe, makes an effective, funny entrance into the series.  The way she nonchalantly shoots Sam in the shoulder at the end of the episode is not only amusing, but it also says a lot about her character.

There are two other fantastic moments in "Bad Day at Black Rock" that I have to mention.  The first comes at the beginning of the episode, when Sam and Dean go to their father's storage facility and find some items that John had kept from their childhoods.  Sam finds his old soccer trophy, and Dean finds his first sawed-off shotgun.  It's a short scene, but it's undeniably sweet and touching.  The other moment that I love, simply for the how'd-they-get-this-past-the-network-censors factor, is when one of the thieves slips and lands neck first on a giant barbecue fork.  It's quite possibly one of the nastiest deaths ever featured on Supernatural, and that's including the entirety of "Mystery Spot."

There may be some Supernatural fans who protest the inclusion of "Bad Day at Black Rock" on our all-time top 10 list, either for the Bela factor or the fact that it's a light, comedic episode.  I think it's worthy of inclusion for being a perfectly structured hour of hilarious television that gives each character a chance to shine.   Supernatural is a great drama series that knows how to blindside us with tragic twists, but it can also be pretty damn funny at times.  "Bad Day at Black Rock" proves it.

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- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)