Inspired by Randal’s recent One Night Stands (and yes, I totally went the way of the gutter while preparing to read that…) I decided to write briefly about some of my favorite recurring characters who alas are no more. I’m putting them in my order of favor, least to most, although any ordering is not meant to disparage because the following characters I truly enjoyed each and every time they came to visit.  Be it on the side of the light or the side of the dark, they were all ‘good’ characters who enriched the storyline.

 

 

Ash was the first wacky character that truly was a character: genius, drunk, opportunist, Dr. Bad***, unabashedly comfortable in his birthday suit, keeper of secrets – until pressured by Ellen and then he folds – and loyal.

 

Ash staggered drunkenly into the Winchester’s lives in ELAC and quickly proved himself able to decipher John’s research (the man who writes like Yoda), to be a keeper of Sam’s secret psychic abilities, a helper to Jo who tried to ditch (unsuccessfully) her mother and hunt with the brothers, and very aware of the dangers abounding as he sensed the importance of his discovery and the need to keep it safe (AHBL I&II).

 

Ash came seemingly from nowhere (well, all right, MIT) and for some unknown reason found himself settled in a back room at The Roadhouse. There’s much unknown about Ash, including his death – to this day there are those that hope (against hope) that he somehow escaped the fiery explosion, that somehow the watch that was highlighted during his phone call to Dean and the burnt watch on the charred remains found at the devastation of The Roadhouse was somehow a ruse…I’m thinking Ash is gone.

 

He was fun, funny, outrageous and a mystery; in the end he did not fit anywhere in the landscape and it was best to remove him…before he outstayed his welcome; as it is, I miss him.

 

 

Was Jo a poorly conceived character? A poorly executed character (in writing that is)? Perhaps in Season 2 she was both.  Alona Tal did a fine job with what she was given. Like Bela, Jo was a good idea, on paper; reality was a whole different matter. Thank heavens all involved figured out quickly that having a ‘love interest’ just was not going to work. I suggest that Bela’s character (as clunky as it was since she had no ‘tie’ into the mythos until at the end) shows how those involved learned some things from the Jo character and tried to improve; Bela was dangerous, sarcastic, independent, Jo was none of those.

 

Jo was a great idea, as Ellen’s daughter she had an obvious tie to hunting. She was youthful and somewhat idealistic about hunting but she was readily comprehensible as to why she would appear in an episode. Unfortunately, she was written as naïve and immature, until BUABS which gave her her initial (and decent) send off.

 

Even in GGY Jo was not the complex, experienced woman we met in AAH. Finally, the character was given a complexity that made her extremely appealing and had me truly wishing she was not leaving. The Jo in ELAC is a long way gone from the Jo in AAH, self-assured, fearless, intelligent…and a realist. Goodbye, Jo, I will truly miss you and all that you could have become.

 

 

 

 

Funny, flirty, intelligent, brave, loyal, foolish, overly attracted to Sam’s butt but equally willing to indulge Dean’s fantasy, Pamela burst on the scene in Lazarus Rising, flirted with Bobby – in real life chose to lift Jim Beaver off the ground, not part of the script, or so goes an interview at a Con – startled Dean who was more than willing, after having been sprung from jail (or hell) to indulge in a little carnal pleasure with the faire Pamela but when Pamela invited Sam, that was too much. Fearless Pamela strode a bit too close to the spirit world, got her eyes burned out and yet, despite what should be forever a healthy inclination to stay far, far, far away from all things Winchester, twice came back to assist the brothers.

 

Pamela goes down as a heroic, in a tragic way, character. She was smart enough to figure out how to aid Anna as well as send Dean and Sam into the ghostly plane and loyal and courageous enough to stay by their sides and fight off demons, despite being blind. In the end, those who stray too close to the dark side and stay there to assist Sam and Dean end up dead, and Pamela was no exception. Unlike another on this list, Pamela knew the truth (at least the Supernatural brand of truth) from the first time we met her, still all that knowledge wasn’t enough to save her when death came calling.

 

I miss you, Pam. Thanks for all you did.

 

 

 

Uriel made an immediate impression with his brooding presence dominating the hotel scene in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester. Even with his back to the action and only a couple of spoken words, his power was evident. Uriel, unlike Castiel, had no interest in the ‘humans’ and his contempt for those ‘mud monkeys’ dripped not only from his lips but oozed from his every pore.

 

At first Uriel is under Castiel’s direction but that quickly changes as he strikes out on his own in Heaven and Hell and contacts Dean through a dream and threatens the life of Sam if Dean doesn’t hand over Anna; this truly is no ministering angel seeking to comfort or support. I’ll admit, I never saw his true traitorous ways coming in On The Head of a Pin and I didn’t mourn his death at Anna’s hands…although he was a wonderfully nasty villain. Good thing we still have Zachariah to dislike this season.

 

Uriel made a brief four appearances but in those short times we learned that heaven’s angelic host are not all under the same belief that humans are to be cared for or that God’s plans are to be followed. It’s quite fitting that a formerly fallen angel, intent on her own wishes, was the one to slay the murderous Uriel.

 

 

 

 

Gotta love a bad guy who calls Sam Sammy – and Sam takes him to task for it – gets Dean to open up about his grief over John’s death, hunts Sam and tries to blow him up, kidnaps Dean and beats him up and finally becomes that which he hated the most and still tries to maintain his sense of morality – as in, when I’ve killed Sam Winchester I’m going to kill myself – not bad, Gordon.

 

Gordon blasted on the scene early in Season 2 and by his actions challenged Dean – along with Sam’s persistence – to assess what being a hunter meant: Does a hunter just kill all things supernatural or is there something deeper that needs to be examined? Dean’s been examining it, in one form or another, ever since.

 

While it appeared that Gordon and Dean were be set up to have grudge matches from Blood Lust on it was Sam who was Gordon’s focus. I’m of the mind that Gordon would have let Dean live after the events of Hunted, provided Gordon killed Sam in the first place, but that he would have no compunction about killing Dean if Dean decided to come after him; self-defense is a proper, ethically acceptable way to kill, at least to Gordon’s way of thinking.

 

Gordon’s demise came deliciously and gruesomely at, of all people, Sam’s hands – uh, literally – and marked an important signpost along Sam’s journey from idealistic young man to cold, calculating hunter. While Sam has always had the ability to kill when his or anyone else’s lives were threatened, the brutal, personal way of strangling Gordon with wire until his head was cut off was particularly stunning, and Sam seemed to barely blink. 

 

Gordon was a worthy foe, evil, cunning, intelligent, equally capable of ‘beating’ the Winchesters as he was of being beaten. He showed the Winchesters the true dangers they faced with Sam’s ‘abilities’; they would be hunted not only by demons, not only by the FBI, but they would also be hunted by hunters…there truly was no safe place.

 

 

 

Along came a fabulous demon who enjoyed taunting the Winchesters about as much as Meg in Season 1. Alistair taught us much about Dean’s experience in hell, orally and visually as the forever brilliant OTHOAP demonstrated. Amid all the demons in Season 4 who were part of ‘the plan’ or at least eager to see it succeed, Alistair wanted only to remain in hell where he was the master of torture. He was intriguing in that he seemed to utterly enjoy hell, whereas we learned from Meg that hell was hell to demons and not a place to enjoy. Of course, as Alistair was the head torturer perhaps his enjoyment came from the fact that he got to dish out the pain and torment and not receive it.

 

Alistair came along and gave us a big baddie right up front whilst Lilith continued to lurk in the background. While two actors – well, actually three – brought Alistair to life, the character remained the same, sarcastic, sadist…he was purely evil; his chief pleasure was to cause pain and he loved being in hell, likely the only resident of hell to hold such an opinion. The fangirl in my loved that it was Sam who killed him – take that you evil SOB for torturing my brother for 30 years and then turning him into a torturer for another decade (*yes, there is a fangirl in here). Alistair, like Azazel, lit up the screen and turned up the angst with each scene. 

 

“Yes, I know about Sam; Bonnie to your Clyde.” Henrickson 

 

Season 2 brought us quite a few ‘dearly departed’ as this list will show. Victor Henrickson was a good guy out in the world, badge, credentials, law enforcement – he got into the career with the hopes of making the world a better place – too bad he was looking in the wrong direction.

 

Henrickson was someone I would have loved to see continue, but as is the norm for those who cross paths with the Winchesters on more than one occasion, they meet a sad end. The Winchesters have made several friends in law enforcement over the years, (The Benders, The Usual Suspects, Folsom Prison Blues) but Henrickson’s turn from antagonist to ally was one I cheered for and then grieved when Lilith ended him. Victor would have been an excellent hunter had he been given the chance and I believe he would have found returning to his life as an FBI agent unsatisfying to say the least once he ‘knew’ what was really going on out there.

 

Victor, you were a good guy yet a bad guy as you relentlessly pursued Sam and Dean but once you understood and recognized what the Winchesters were doing, you wiped their slate clean by ‘killing’ them – does that count as a death? – and then you yourself were killed, hardly seems fair.

  

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