Characters of Supernatural

File:Sam and dean winchester.jpg

Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester (left) and Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester (right)

Supernatural is an American television drama/thriller series created by writer and producer Eric Kripke, and was initially broadcast by The WB. After its first season, The WB and UPN merged to form The CW, which is the current broadcaster for the show in the United States.

The show features two main characters, Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, brothers who travel across the country in a black 1967 Chevrolet Impala to hunt demons, supernatural creatures, and other paranormal entities, many of them based on folklore, myths, and American urban legends. In addition, Supernatural chronicles the relationship between the brothers and their father, John Winchester, as they seek to avenge and understand the murder of their mother at the hands of the demon, Azazel.

Supernatural has featured many other recurring guests that take part in story arcs that span a portion of a season. Occasionally, the recurring guest storylines will span multiple seasons. After the death of their father in the second season, the hunter Bobby Singer becomes a father figure to Sam and Dean. As the series progresses, recurring guests appear at various times to help move the overall storyline of the show such as the demon Ruby, or the angel Castiel portrayed by Misha Collins. The series also features recurring appearances from other demons, angels, and hunters.

Cast

Main

Actor	Character	Count	Seasons
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Jared Padalecki	Sam Winchester	220	Main
Jensen Ackles	Dean Winchester	220	Main
Misha Collins	Castiel	80	Absent			Recurring	Main		Recurring		Main
Mark A. Sheppard	Crowley	46	Absent				Guest	Recurring				Main
Katie Cassidy	Ruby	17	Absent		Main	Absent
Genevieve Cortese			Absent			Recurring	Absent
Lauren Cohan	Bela Talbot	6	Absent		Main	Absent

1. Although the character appears in Season 4, her actress (Genevieve Cortese, replacing Katie Cassidy) is not credited as a series regular in it.

Recurring

Actor	Character	Count	Seasons
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Jim Beaver	Bobby Singer	58	Guest	Recurring						Guest
Osric Chau	Kevin Tran	15	Absent						Guest	Recurring	Guest	Absent
Jeffrey Dean Morgan*	John Winchester	15	Recurring	Guest	Absent	Guest		Absent					Guest
Kim Rhodes	Jody Mills	13	Absent				Guest
Tahmoh Penikett*	Gadreel	12	Absent								Recurring	Absent
Cindy Sampson	Lisa Braeden	11	Absent		Guest	Absent	Guest	Recurring	Absent
Genevieve Cortese*	Ruby	10	Absent			Recurring	Absent
Samantha Ferris	Ellen Harvelle	9	Absent	Recurring	Absent		Guest		Absent
Ty Olsson	Benny Lafitte	8	Absent							Recurring	Absent	Guest	Absent
Erica Carroll*	Hannah	9	Absent								Guest	Recurring	Guest
Samantha Smith*	Mary Winchester	8	Guest		Absent	Guest		Absent
Mitch Pileggi	Samuel Campbell	8	Absent			Guest	Absent	Recurring	Absent
Rob Benedict	Chuck Shurley	7	Absent			Guest	Recurring	Absent				Guest	Absent
Felicia Day	Charlie Bradbury	7	Absent						Guest				Absent
Liane Balaban	Amelia Richardson	7	Absent							Recurring	Absent
Alona Tal	Jo Harvelle	7	Absent	Guest	Absent		Guest	Absent	Guest	Absent
Steven Williams	Rufus Turner	6	Absent		Guest	Absent	Guest			Absent			Guest
Nicholas Elia	Ben Braeden	6	Absent		Guest	Absent		Recurring	Absent
Julie McNiven	Anna Milton	6	Absent			Recurring	Guest	Absent
Sebastian Roche	Balthazar	6	Absent					Recurring	Absent
Chad Lindberg	Ash	5	Absent	Recurring	Absent		Guest	Absent
Julian Richings	Death	5	Absent				Guest			Absent	Guest		Absent
Lauren Tom*	Linda Tran	5	Absent						Guest			Absent
A.J. Buckley	Ed Zeddmore	5	Guest	Absent	Guest			Absent			Guest	Absent
Travis Wester	Harry Spangler	5	Guest	Absent	Guest			Absent			Guest	Absent
DJ Qualls	Garth Fitzgerald IV	4	Absent						Guest			Absent
Kathryn Newton*	Claire Novak	4	Absent			Guest	Absent					Guest	Absent
Briana Buckmaster	Donna Hanscum	3	Absent								Guest

*Character has been portrayed by multiple actors with the listed actor being the primary.

Antagonists

Actor	Character	Count	Seasons
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Ruth Connell	Rowena	14	Absent									Recurring
Curtis Armstrong	Metatron	13	Absent							Guest	Recurring	Guest
Rachel Miner*	Meg Masters	12	Guest		Absent		Guest				Absent
Mark Pellegrino*	Lucifer	11	Absent				Recurring	Absent	Guest	Absent			Guest
Alaina Huffman*	Abaddon	10	Absent							Guest	Recurring	Absent
Kurt Fuller	Zachariah	7	Absent			Guest	Recurring	Absent
Frederic Lehne*	Azazel	7	Guest		Absent	Guest	Absent	Guest	Absent
Amanda Tapping	Naomi	7	Absent							Recurring	Absent
James Patrick Stuart	Dick Roman	6	Absent						Recurring	Absent
Emily Swallow*	The Darkness	6	Absent										Recurring
Demore Barnes*	Raphael	5	Absent				Guest		Absent
Katherine Boecher*	Lilith	5	Absent		Guest		Absent
Christopher Heyerdahl*	Alastair	5	Absent			Recurring	Absent
Richard Speight Jr.	Gabriel	5	Absent	Guest		Absent	Guest	Absent			Guest	Absent
Robert Wisdom*	Uriel	5	Absent			Guest		Absent
Benito Martinez	Edgar	5	Absent						Recurring	Absent
Sterling K. Brown	Gordon Walker	4	Absent	Guest		Absent
Julia Maxwell*	Eve	3	Absent					Guest	Absent

*Character has been portrayed by multiple actors with the listed actor being the primary.

Angels

The following characters are angels of God, making them extremely powerful spiritual beings. Merely perceiving their true form - even psychically - typically results in blindness, as the appearance of their natural "visage" is overwhelming; it is capable of burning an individual's eyes from their sockets, although certain "special people" are able to withstand their true appearances and voices (which sounds like a high-pitched ringing). An angel's wings can be seen through their shadows. Angels are immortal and can heal from any wound they receive as well as being unaffected by disease, but they can be harmed by more powerful beings (e.g. Castiel was harmed by the demon Alastair). However, they can be killed by archangels and certain weapons that can be used by anyone, including the blade/sword of an angel, the First Blade, and the Death's Scythe, which is so powerful that even Death himself is susceptible to it. Upon an angel's death, an enormous release of energy ensues and light which seemingly burns the mark of the angel's wings into the ground.

Enochian sigils and symbols written in blood can be used to repel or banish them from a place temporarily. Enochian magic can also be used to render humans invisible to angelic senses requiring them to use only their vessel's dull human senses to locate their target. There is also at least one incantation which can banish an angel back to Heaven which even demons can use.

Because their true appearances cannot be safely perceived by humans and because they are spirits with no physical being, they often take on humans as vessels in order to exist in and interact with the physical world, though only with the hosts' consent. Angels require a particular vessel to reach their full potential, people being "chosen" to be their hosts or "true vessels". Vessels run in blood lines, and although only one person can be a "true" vessel, others in a particular bloodline have potential to be temporary vessels without suffering any ill affects. With archangels, the vessel suffers debilitating consequences for holding such a powerful being, leaving them brain dead or worse. The only exception to this is Michael, who in "The Song Remains the Same" tells Dean his father John will be "better than new" when he leaves his body and that Dean would receive no damage when he was done "wearing" him. If an archangel possesses someone who is not a "true" vessel or a blood-relative of one, the vessel will slowly decompose and eventually burst into flames, as shown with Lucifer. This process can be slowed by consuming large quantities of demon blood. A vessel has the ability to expel an angel if they are aware of their presence and don't want them there, but they have to be both aware and strong-willed enough to do it.

While in possession of human hosts, angels have shown a wide range of powers. In addition to telekinesis and superhuman strength superior to that of most monsters and lesser demons, they possess the ability to kill or exorcise most demons and monsters simply by touching their palm to their targets' foreheads, and can cause instant unconsciousness in humans through a similar action. They can heal humans or their wounds just by touching them. In addition to being able to vanish and materialize from thin air, they can also bend time and transport themselves and others through time. However, although they can change events of time, said changed events will have the same results as the original timeline, as they cannot change destiny. More powerful angels have been shown to even be able to raise the dead, manipulate physical reality, and create solid things out of thin air. Angels who are cut off from Heaven gradually lose most of their abilities, although the archangels Gabriel and Lucifer appeared to remain unaffected. This may be true of all high-ranking angels as Castiel retained all of his powers the second time he was cut off, even in Purgatory, though the experience weakened him for a time.

Angels can become essentially human, but doing so is the most serious crime of Heaven. By removing his or her 'Grace', the celestial energy that allows them to use their powers in human form, which is a very painful process akin to "cutting one's own kidney out with a butter knife," the angel and its grace falls to Earth from Heaven in the form of a meteorite and is then born to human parents. All abilities and memories of his or her angelic life are suppressed, although small amounts can be recalled instinctively in times of need, with full memory recovery requiring methods such as hypnosis. In Anna Milton's case, her Grace caused the formation of a giant oak tree. If the fallen angel retrieves his or her Grace, he or she will be restored to angelic form. Angels can also steal another's Grace which will turn them back into an angel if human, but it is unknown if it grants them the other angel's powers or their own back.

Most angels are portrayed as emotionless, arrogant, jealous, authoritarian beings with a complete disdain and contempt for humanity whom, they believe, are flawed and inferior creations unworthy of God's special favor and unfit to rule the Earth. However, while fallen angels (such as Lucifer) openly refused to kneel before humans, the remainder obeyed God's will, though apparently grudgingly. All angels, fallen or not, consider themselves family, each being brothers and sisters and refer to God as their Father. However, most angels have not actually met God. The angels do not act with God's permission, as He is said to have disappeared and left the angels to protect humanity in His place. Indeed, only four angels have seen God; the keeper of 'The Garden' Joshua speaks with God, or mostly He speaks to him, but has never actually seen Him in person. Joshua claims God is on Earth, hiding from others and is indifferent to the actions of His angels or the Apocalypse.

In the Supernatural universe, as in demons, angels are classified into several subsets, most of whom based on their hierarchy, but also according to what job they are assigned in. The lowest of the hierarchy are the cherubim, who are tasked with matchmaking between humans. Next are the normal angels, who are below the seraphim, a type of angels that work under the archangels, the highest of all and the only ones who have actually met with God. Even some normal angels are tasked with a specific job: Metatron, despite being a normal angel, is the Scribe of God and thus responsible for writing the Word of God tablets, while Gadreel was once tasked to guard the Garden of Eden before his imprisonment. There is also a special subset of angels called the reapers, who are tasked to reap humans upon their deaths and assign them to whatever afterlife they are worthy in, such as Heaven or Hell. Unlike other angels who work under God, the reapers are subordinate to the horseman Death. All angels, with the exception of cherubim and reapers, carry angel blades/swords (or archangel blades for archangels); cherubim carry bows (symbolized as a tattoo) used for their matchmaking, while reapers do not carry anything, their power of reaping seemingly manifesting just by making physical contact.

Angels who are in possession of a human host are able to mate with humans to conceive the nephilim. However, most of the nephilim have died out a long time ago, the last one being a woman named Jane who works as a waitress and wants to live peacefully with humans. Nephilim only has faint blue light in their eyes instead of shining white light like the angels, but they are powerful enough to overpower two angels with ease. Nevertheless, the Nephilim race goes extinct when Jane is killed as part of the ritual to expel angels from Heaven.

Creator Eric Kripke originally did not want angels to be featured in the series, believing God worked through hunters rather than angels. However, with so many demonic villains, he and the writers changed their minds when they realized that the show needed angels to create a "cosmic battle". As Kripke put it, "We had the empire, but we didn't really have the rebellion." They had always wanted to have a storyline with a few central characters but having massive battles in the background, comparable to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and the addition of angels allowed for this. Kripke has found that it has opened up many new storylines.

Anna Milton

Main article: Anna Milton

Balthazar

Balthazar, portrayed by Sebastian Roché, is an angel who had fought alongside Castiel during the last angelic war. Believed dead, this was merely a cover as he left Heaven, taking a number of the weapons with him. Since faking his own death, he has been on Earth enjoying a rather hedonistic lifestyle. In "The Third Man", the Winchesters discover that three corrupt cops were murdered by the young brother of one of their victims in possession of The Staff of Moses. Balthazar is revealed to have sold it to the boy in return for his soul. During a conflict with Raphael and his henchmen, Balthazar destroys the archangel's vessel with Lot's Salt. Dean then traps Balthazar in a ring of Holy Fire and forces him to give up the boy's soul. They want to get more from him, but Castiel releases him because he owes him his life. Sam uses an Enochian ritual to summon Balthazar, in "Appointment in Samarra". Sam asks him if there is any way to keep a soul out of its body. Balthazar informs him of a ritual that involves him defiling his vessel, his reason for helping Sam being that he would find it useful to have Sam in his debt. He tells Sam that he would need the blood of his father (that needn't come from the "father of your blood"), prompting Sam to try to kill Bobby before he is subdued, Dean and Death managing to recover Sam's soul. Balthazar transports Sam and Dean to an alternate universe, in "The French Mistake", to evade the angelic hit man Virgil and gives them a key which he claims opens where the weapons he stole from Heaven are stored. This is revealed to have been a ploy by Balthazar and Castiel to allow the latter to retrieve the weapons from their true location while Raphael was distracted. A suspicious alias used by Bathazar in 1912 leads to the brothers summoning Balthazar in "My Heart Will Go On". Balthazar claims he had saved the Titanic simply because he detested the movie and subsequent eponymous song. However, upon confrontation with Fate, Atropos reveals she knows Balthazar is working for Castiel; the saving of the Titanic was to provide additional souls to fund their side in the civil war. Castiel pulls out of the plan to kill Atropos once she threatens the Winchesters, stopping Balthazar from killing her. When the Winchesters reveal that Castiel is in league with Crowley, in "Let It Bleed", Balthazar agrees to assist the brothers and act as a double agent. He then transports Sam and Dean to where Lisa and Ben are being held captive. In "The Man Who Knew too Much", Balthazar begins to have second thoughts about betraying Castiel, but ultimately continues to assist the brothers. He informs Dean and Bobby of where the ritual to open the gate to Purgatory will take place. Castiel summons Balthazar and reveals that he is aware of his actions, Balthazar is then killed by Castiel.

Bartholomew

An angel portrayed by Adam J. Harrington who after the fall of the angels began gathering other angels into a faction to retake and rule Heaven. Bartholomew is described as being a protege of Naomi and in I'm No Angel, uses Internet preacher Reverend Buddy Boyle to find vessels for other angels. Wanting revenge for the expulsion of the angels, Bartholomew sends his followers after Castiel and when he wards himself against angelic detection, rogue Reapers. In Holy Terror, Bartholomew has shifted to using Buddy Boyle to target select groups rather than the whole world so he can control who will become a vessel, wanting only his followers to gain vessels. After some of Bartholomew's angels are slaughtered by angels under the command of anarchist Malachi, Bartholomew refuses a meeting with him and starts an angelic civil war between his and Malachi's factions. In Captives, Bartholomew has begun destroying all other factions, including peaceful ones as he sees them threats to his power and his men capture Castiel. Bartholomew is pleased by this, having apparently put aside his previous resentment as he is an old friend and ally of Castiel. Bartholomew invites Castiel to join him, having turned all of his human followers into vessels and using their resources to track Metatron when he appears on Earth. Bartholomew believes with Castiel on his side he can unite all of the angels under his command and retake Heaven, but Castiel refuses to help when he tortures an innocent angel. When Castiel refuses to kill the angel, Bartholomew attacks him, but Castiel overpowers him. Though Castiel has Bartholomew at his mercy, he refuses to kill him as he wants no more angel deaths and lets him go. Bartholomew refuses to stop however and draws a second angel sword and attacks Castiel while his back is turned. With no other choice, Castiel kills Bartholomew in self-defense with his own sword. Afterwards, several of his followers decide to follow Castiel, having seen a different way in Castiel's refusal to kill him and desire for no more bloodshed.

Castiel

Main article: Castiel (Supernatural)

Gabriel

Gabriel (also referred to as The Trickster and Loki) is an archangel portrayed by Richard Speight, Jr. Having grown tired of watching his brothers fight each other in Heaven, he fled to Earth thousands of years prior to the series, assuming the role of a Pagan trickster. For his first appearance in the second season episode "Tall Tales", the writers decided not to put their own spin on trickster lore—as is usually done with other villains—keeping the "deadly sense of humor" and decision to go after the "high and mighty to bring them down a notch", with Gabriel causing several violent urban legends to come to life on a college campus and punish those residing there. Sam and Dean Winchester investigate and eventually figure out his identity, though the Trickster is waiting for them and offers a peaceful resolution so long as they let him leave to terrorize another town. Sam and Dean refuse and attack him with the help of fellow hunter Bobby Singer, and the Trickster fakes his own death.

He later reappears in "Mystery Spot", trapping Sam in a time loop, where Dean continually dies in various ways. After over a hundred repeats, Sam eventually realizes a trickster must be at work, and manages to locate the culprit. He threatens their tormentor with a blood covered stake, causing the Trickster to reveal himself and to agree to break the loop. When Sam considers killing him regardless, the Trickster starts sending him and Dean to the next day. Dean once again dies, however, and there is no loop to revive him this time. Throughout the next several months, Sam becomes a far colder and more calculated person as he attempts to track down the Trickster, killing whatever threat he can along the way. Eventually, it is the Trickster who calls the younger Winchester to him, where he tries to drive in a point: the two brothers continually sacrificing themselves for one another would bring no good, and when people die, they just have to learn to accept it and live with it. However the Trickster gives Sam what he wants, lamenting the whole situation had become boring months ago for him anyway.

In the episode "Changing Channels", Dean and Sam become trapped in a TV world, where they are a part of variations of real TV shows. Eventually, Dean (with help from Castiel) realizes the Trickster is in fact a much more powerful creature than they thought, and they trap him in a burning circle of holy oil. The Trickster applauds them, reveals that he is in fact the archangel Gabriel and tells them the reason he trapped them is because he wanted both of them to say yes to becoming Michael's and Lucifer's vessels so the Apocalypse can finally end, as he cannot handle seeing the fighting between his brothers anymore. Gabriel tells them they were always meant to fight each other because the lives of the brothers mirror the lives of Michael and Lucifer. Dean and Sam still refuse, but before they leave, Dean frees Gabriel from his trap and accuses him of giving up because he's simply too afraid to stand up to his own family. Gabriel is left behind, wondering what to do next.

Gabriel returns in "Hammer of the Gods", attending the summit of pagan gods under the guise of Loki; however, he intends to rescue the brothers as their plan to lure Lucifer would easily fail, and Lucifer would slaughter them all. As he intends to prevent Kali, an old flame, from suffering a bloody fate, he tries to get them out; but he tells them he cannot rescue the pagan's hostages as it would be too difficult. However, later he is forced to comply; the rescue attempt results in the brothers' capture once again. Kali (who is keeping the brothers from leaving as their spilled blood binds them to her) reveals she, along with the other gods, knew of his identity for a while. Kali takes his sword and stabs him with it apparently killing him, but Gabriel appears to Dean and reveals the sword was a fake and suggests Dean should seduce Kali so they can escape. Lucifer shows up at the hotel, slaughtering most of the gods. Gabriel is then forced to step in, allowing Kali and the brothers to leave. Gabriel confronts his brother about loyalties and their past, but ultimately fails and is killed by his own blade. He later reveals, through a modified porn movie, Lucifer can be recaptured in his previous prison, with the four rings of the Horsemen.

Gabriel returns in "Meta Fiction" where he reveals to Castiel that he has been in Heaven since he 'died'. However, when Heaven kicked all the angels out, Gabriel was forced to go on the run from Metatron. He tells Castiel that Metatron was using the Horn of Gabriel to trap and kill the angels and that he needs Castiel to help him fight. When the two are running, they stop at a gas station where they realize that some of Metatron's loyal subjects were following them. Gabriel offers to fight them off because he still has some of his Archangel mojo left but then Castiel realizes that the whole situation was an illusion. Castiel then asks if Gabriel is really still alive, but all Gabriel does for an answer is raise his eyebrows before disappearing. Metatron says later that Gabriel played out his part well. It is rumored that Gabriel will be returning in season 11, and that he will be involved with Sam Winchester.

Gadreel

An angel portrayed by Tahmoh Penikett and Jared Padalecki, Gadreel was assigned to guard the Garden of Eden but was disgraced when Lucifer got in, which God and angels regarded as his fault. Gadreel was locked up in Heaven's deepest dungeon and heavily tortured for his failure, but was released when Metatron's spell made all angels fall to Earth. Wanting to make up for his past, Gadreel answers Dean's prayers for help, taking on the identity of an angel named Ezekiel, who died in the Fall. When Gadreel's powers cannot heal Sam. he proposes a solution: if he possesses Sam, he could heal him from the inside while recuperating from his own injuries from falling. Dean ultimately agrees and Gadreel invades Sam's mind, assuming Dean's form to manipulate Sam into saying "yes," which Gadreel takes as the permission he needs to possess Sam. Gadreel tells Dean that he will let Sam keep control of his body while he himself works in the background, but that it's best that Sam not know he is there. If Sam doesn't allow Gadreel to remain in his body, Sam could eject him and would die as a result. In the following episodes, Gadreel occasionally takes control of Sam's body in order to kill enemies when they get the better of Sam, to resurrect slain allies of Sam and Dean, and to heal the injuries Sam gets on hunts. He regularly erases Sam's memory of these moments in attempt to keep Sam from getting suspicious. Gadreel is wary of Castiel's presence as he fears being found by the angels looking for Castiel to the point that he would have vacated Sam's body—and in doing so, consigned Sam to die—to flee if Dean hadn't agreed to make Castiel leave the bunker in "I'm No Angel".

When Castiel turns up on a case in mid-season finale "Holy Terror," Gadreel once more forces Dean to send him away. In the same episode, he crosses paths with Metatron, who reveals his true identity and backstory and offers him a chance to "redeem" himself by becoming his lieutenant and helping him usher in a new, better Heaven. After discerning that Dean has learned new information from Castiel that he is not Ezekiel and has turned against him, now attempting to tell Sam the truth and get him to expel him, Gadreel murders Kevin and steals the tablets on Metatron's orders in a show of allegiance to the latter. The following episode, "Road Trip", Metatron sends Gadreel to kill his former guard and torturer to please his new follower; when he finds out that Gadreel didn't kill Dean as well as Kevin, however, Gadreel is punished by being forced to kill again, this time his old friend Abner. He is then captured by Dean, Castiel, and Crowley, who learn his true identity when Crowley drives spikes through Gadreel's brain to revert him to his trance-like "factory settings" and an enraged Castiel reveals the cause of Gadreel's infamy to Dean. Gadreel then reverts to normal and tells them that he will not leave Sam's body, nor can they reach Sam, whom he has placed in a fantasy world unaware of what is really happening. With Crowley revealing the truth to Sam by possessing him to communicate with him, Gadreel and Sam fight briefly before Sam finally expels him. Gadreel continues working for Metatron, recruiting angels for their side in "Meta Fiction" and killing the ones who refuse. Gadreel is captured and interrogated by Sam and Dean, but refuses to give up any information and instead tries to push Dean into killing him, which fails as Dean knows they need Gadreel. Gadreel is saved when Metatron has them trade him Gadreel for Castiel, whom he has captured.

In "King of the Damned", Gadreel meets with Castiel, who tries to persuade Gadreel that he is being used by Metatron and should be working against him, as Castiel's spy. Gadreel declines as he believes that betraying a cause he has dedicated himself to would infringe on his honor; Castiel is sympathetic and leaves his offer open. The next episode, Gadreel discovers that Metatron is having his own angels—ones Gadreel himself had recruited—kill themselves as part of a ploy to discredit Castiel, which proves to be the incentive he needed to turn on the cause. Gadreel offers his assistance to Castiel and the Winchesters; although Dean attacks him, Gadreel is saved by Sam and Castiel, who agree to accept his help. In the finale, "Do You Believe in Miracles?", Gadreel and Castiel plot to sneak into Heaven and break Metatron's connection to the angel tablet, so that Metatron will revert to the powers and weaknesses of a normal angel again and Dean can kill him with the First Blade. However, their scheme is already known to Metatron's angels, who trick them into Heaven's dungeon and imprison them. They cannot convince the angels to help them against Metatron, due to Gadreel's negative reputation. Hoping that he will be remembered as an angel who helped saved Heaven instead of the angel who let Lucifer into the Garden, Gadreel sacrifices himself by using the suicide bombers's spell to destroy himself and the dungeon, thus freeing Castiel and in the process convincing one of Metatron's angels (Hannah) of his good intentions.

Hannah

Hannah, portrayed by Erica Carroll and Lee Majdoub in her female and male vessels, respectively, is one of the countless number of angels who fell from Heaven due to Metatron's incantation of the angel banishing spell at the end of Sacrifice. She possesses a married woman named Caroline Johnson as her vessel on Earth. In the episode Meta Fiction, Hannah and several other angels are lured by the Horn of Gabriel Sigil enchanted by Gadreel. She attempts to sneak and kill Castiel, who is also lured by the sigil, but fails and begs for her life. Joining Castiel, the two arrive at the sigil and meet Gadreel, who offers the two and other angels a chance to join Metatron. When Hannah and her friends refuse, Gadreel proceeds to kill nearly all angels in the area, but spares Hannah, who is healed by Castiel; it is later revealed that Metatron deliberately tells Gadreel to spare Hannah so she could inform Castiel about what happened. Hannah then becomes Castiel's second-in-command from then on, helping him building an angel army in the war against Metatron. In Stairway To Heaven, Hannah convinces Dean to approach civilly with Tessa, who has been used by Metatron as a suicide bomber; she becomes furious when Dean apparently killed Tessa with the First Blade (though the latter actually committed suicide), and is further infuriated when she learns from Metatron's broadcast that Castiel had lied about his dwindling grace. Hannah and Castiel's other angel allies join Metatron's army upon Castiel's refusal to kill Dean in retribution for Tessa's death. During Castiel and Gadreel's arrival at Heaven to destroy Metatron's angel tablet in Do You Believe In Miracles?, Hannah catches and locks them up in the Heaven's prison. She refuses to believe that killing Metatron would restore the order, accusing Castiel and Gadreel of their lie and selfishness, respectively. However, she becomes convinced when Gadreel kills himself to prove his fidelity to humans, and joins Castiel in his insurgency against Metatron. Eventually, the two manage to topple Metatron, who is imprisoned, though Hannah warns Castiel at the end that his dwindling grace would result in his death.

After Metatron's downfall, Hannah takes charge to return all the fallen angels back to Heaven. She contacts Castiel to help her in returning two rogue angels, Daniel and Adina, who have become content with their life on Earth. Though Hannah fails to return the two with their death, Castiel decides to accompany her for the time being in her task. Throughout their journey, the two develop a romantic relationship, with Hannah becoming protective enough of Castiel that she suggests to kill a rogue angel and feed its grace to Castiel, though he declines. However, when she encounters her vessel, Caroline's husband searching for his wife, Hannah realizes that Caroline deserves more chance to enjoy her mortal life. Deciding that she has enjoyed her time on Earth, Hannah releases Caroline of her grace, but not before kissing Castiel; inspired by her decision, Castiel contacts his vessel, Jimmy Novak's family.

Since leaving her main vessel, Caroline, Hannah has been taking a man as her new vessel. She blocks Sam and Castiel from entering Heaven to free Metatron, and when the two get around with the plan with Bobby's help, she and several other angels corner Bobby afterwards to punish him for his actions. According to Metatron in Book of the Damned, Hannah has been leading Heaven since his downfall and that it is "the best" it has ever been since the archangels' disappearances/deaths. In Form and Void, Hannah saves Castiel from being tortured by two angels, but he soon realizes that it is a ruse so she can get information about the Winchesters from him. When the two angels follow, they kill Hannah, but in turn are killed by Castiel.

Lucifer

Lucifer, portrayed by Mark Pellegrino and Jared Padalecki, is the second oldest archangel, the first fallen angel, in the fifth season of the series. From his prison in hell, he orchestrated events not only seen in seasons one through four, but decades prior, to eventually lead to his release by breaking the 66 seals. In the episode Sin City, he was described as the 'father' and god of the demons, the one who gave them their form and purpose. Azazel reinforced this by referring to him as "My Father" while possessing a priest before slaughtering a convent of nuns. However, in Abandon All Hope..., it is shown that he views demons with contempt and only sees them as his cannon fodder and will destroy them once he has eliminated humanity.

In the episode The End, he states his fall was the result of refusing God's decree to love humans more than him. As a result, God had Michael cast him into hell. Ruby also reveals in When the Levee Breaks in defiance to God, he turned Lilith into the first demon. Both Death and Gabriel have compared Lucifer's hatred of humans to "one big temper tantrum!" because God favored humans over him, his most beloved angel. Lucifer does not like how humans have changed the planet from its original state, and hopes to purify it. He is also very critical of humans, mostly in how they blame him for their own mistakes, wrongdoings, flaws and failures. Creator Eric Kripke has jokingly compared him to a "raging psychotic" version of environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr., with "unlimited power".

Due to his angelic and spiritual nature, Lucifer needs a human vessel in order to interact directly with the physical world. Lucifer seeks out a man named Nick, whose wife and baby had recently been murdered. Tormenting Nick about the tragedy, he casts illusions such as a baby crying and blood pouring from the crib, eventually appearing to Nick in the form of his late wife Sarah. Openly admitting his identity to Nick, he tries to gain sympathy by telling Nick he was punished for loving God too much. He then convinces Nick to be his vessel by promising to get vengeance against God for allowing his family to be murdered. However, Lucifer later reveals to Sam that he is the true intended vessel. By Abandon All Hope... it is shown Nick's body, being a temporary vessel and not his "true" vessel, is incapable of containing Lucifer's immense power and is beginning to wear down; revealed in Two Minutes to Midnight he has to consume gallons of demon blood to keep his vessel from combusting. He forms a ritual to summon Death and when the Winchesters, Harvelles and Castiel arrive, he traps Castiel in holy oil, and sends Meg after the others. After being ambushed by the brothers he is shot with the Colt but survives; he then reveals his status as one of five things in creation immune to the Colt; while the brothers escape with Castiel's help, he manages to summon Death and bind him under his control.

During a convention of pagan gods in Hammer of the Gods, Lucifer is made aware of the brothers' location by Mercury, who betrays the rest of them. Slaughtering all the gods, he approaches the brothers and is stalled by Kali until Gabriel arrives. Gabriel provides safe passage for Kali and the brothers, and confronts Lucifer about his ultimate reason for rebellion, claiming that he rebelled not because he recognized that humans were flawed, but because he was no longer their father's favorite son. Lucifer questions Gabriel's loyalties, who states through his experiences with humans, despite their flaws, strive to do their best. Ultimately, Lucifer kills Gabriel with his own sword when Gabriel's attempt to catch Lucifer off-guard with a duplicate fails, but he is clearly distraught over this.

Having acquired all four rings of the Horseman (which can trap Lucifer back in his prison), Sam and Dean enter Lucifer's hideout, planning to trap him when Sam agrees to be his vessel; this completely fails, as Lucifer is too powerful to fight. Lucifer brings forward four demons, who had been part of Azazel's surveillance of Sam since his youth and kills them all in a way of "letting off steam" and acquiring Sam's trust. Following that, he confronts Michael in a graveyard, attempting to convince him not to fight, reasoning there was no real purpose; Michael refuses. Dean interrupts, while Castiel dissipates Michael, an act Lucifer took unkindly to, and kills him. He starts to pummel Dean and when Bobby attempts to use the Colt to stop him he is killed as well. However, Sam then sees a toy army man in an ashtray of the Impala, a remnant from his youth, and regains control. Sam reopens the hole, and jumps in, taking Michael with him.

Lucifer returns in season seven as part of Sam's hallucinations, caused by the memories of his time in the cage. Lucifer tells Sam that the world he has been in for the last year is not real and Sam is still in the cage, a new form of torture which Lucifer prides himself on as being his best yet. Sam confronts Lucifer and asks him why he doesn't end this dream world to which Lucifer responds by saying that he will only end it when Sam can't take it anymore. Lucifer later changes into Dean and tricks Sam into leaving Bobby's house. Once at the destination, he reveals himself to prove he can control Sam's "dream", although Lucifer is proven to be a hallucination when Dean tells Sam how to figure out what is real. Despite being proven to be a hallucination, he informs Sam that he's not going anywhere. Lucifer tortures Sam by depriving him of sleep by repeatedly waking him up and later making food look like maggots in an attempt to kill him. Although Sam initially manages to ignore the hallucination, it becomes worse when Sam acknowledges Lucifer's advice when trying to get information about Dean's whereabouts, giving the hallucination additional strength. Castiel, found to be alive, tries to rebuild Sam's mental wall, but fails as it's completely gone. In order to save Sam and atone for what he's done, Castiel transfers the problem to himself, leaving him haunted by Lucifer and stuck in a mental hospital. In "Reading is Fundamental," when Castiel comes out of his catatonic state, Sam asks him about seeing Lucifer. Castiel explains that he did at first, but Lucifer eventually disappeared. Castiel believes that Lucifer was simply a projection of Sam's own torment from his time in Hell and that projection disappeared as the torment was no longer in Sam's mind.

In the season eight episode "Goodbye Stranger," it is revealed that Lucifer had a series of crypts around the United States and possibly the world containing his most precious artifacts. The locations were only known to Lucifer himself and his most trusted followers, such as Azazel. Among the items in his crypts, in an angel-proofed box, was the angel Word of God tablet. Eventually Sam, Dean and Castiel locate the right crypt with the help of Meg who knows from her time with Azazel and get the angel tablet.

In the season 10 episode Brother's Keeper, Death explains that Lucifer and the other archangels once fought a war with an ancient evil called the Darkness, eventually locking it away. Lucifer was given the Mark of Cain, the lock on the Darkness' prison and the Mark corrupted him into his jealousy towards humanity, leading to his fall into evil. The first mention of Lucifer (and Michael)'s activity since their imprisonment in Hell is mentioned in Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire when an aide of Crowley informs him that ever since the Darkness broke free of its prison, the two archangels are screaming, trying to tell others about the danger the Darkness will pose to the world.

A homage to John Milton's Paradise Lost, Lucifer will be portrayed as "gentle, almost sympathetic". Kripke reasoned, "He was essentially betrayed, so in some ways he can be viewed sympathetically ... if we can make the angels dicks, Lucifer can be sympathetic." Kripke further characterized him as a "Devil who has doubt" and "a lot of affection for God and the angels", and who "speaks really tenderly and gently and...doesn't lie".

Pellegrino was the second choice to play the angel Castiel, losing the role to Misha Collins.

Metatron

Metatron (Curtis Armstrong) is the angel who wrote the Word of God tablets. According to the demon tablet, he is an Archangel, but Metatron himself claims to be an angel from the secretarial division who was enlisted by God to write the tablets before he left Heaven. When God left and the Archangels decided to take over everything, Metatron left Heaven and hid on Earth, cutting himself off completely to protect himself and the tablets as he rightly assumed that the Archangels would need him to fulfil their plans. On Earth, Metatron lived among a Native American tribe known as The Two Rivers who he gave immortality in exchange for stories and books. Metatron became enamored by human stories and even though he read as much as an angel is capable of, he hasn't been able to read every story written during the past few millennia he has spent on Earth.

Sam and Dean first learn of Metatron when they uncover the Leviathan Word of God tablet and Castiel reveals Metatron wrote them. At the time, Dean considers looking for him for help with the Leviathans. Later, Kevin Tran finds a personal note Metatron left on the demon tablet revealing that there is a compendium of tablets. While trying to find the third trial to close Hell, Sam and Dean track down Metatron and confront him. Metatron initially refuses to help, but after they reveal the story of Kevin Tran, Metatron rescues him from Crowley and heals him. Metatron now knows what is going on in Heaven and the world and agrees to help and along with Kevin, reveals the third trial: curing a demon. He also suggests to Dean that closing Hell may not be the best idea, telling him he needs to consider the impact it will have on the world. Metatron later approaches Castiel to seek his help in dealing with the problems in Heaven. Heaven has degenerated into all out war between various factions and Metatron wants to seal it up. As the Scribe of God, he knows the three trials without the angel tablet, but wants Castiel to do them. The two set out to complete the first trial which is to kill a Nephilim and cut out their heart. Though Castiel hesitates, when the Nephilim overpowers both himself and Metatron, he kills her from behind while she is distracted with Metatron. In "Sacrifice," Metatron reveals that the second trial is to get the bow of a Cupid and as he works with Castiel to get it, he is captured by Naomi. Metatron recognizes Naomi as the angel that was supposed to "debrief" him for the Archangels after God left, in reality to get his secrets from his mind. Suspicious of why Metatron has suddenly come out of hiding, Naomi tortures him for information and is shocked to learn that he actually intends to expel all angels from Heaven except himself as revenge for his own expulsion. Naomi rushes off to warn Dean and Castiel, but while she is gone, Metatron breaks free and kills Naomi when she returns. He captures Castiel and takes his Grace as the final component needed for his spell then sends him to Earth to live a human life after asking Castiel to find him and tell him about it when he one day dies. Metatron's plan works and all angels are expelled from Heaven. Sam and Dean learn in "Heaven Can't Wait" that Metatron designed the spell to be irreversible and there is apparently no way to put the angels back in Heaven.

Metatron eventually reappears on Earth in the episode "Holy Terror" during the struggle of the various angel factions to wrest control and decide the best course to retake and re-enter Heaven. In that time, he convinces Gadreel to join him in the refashioning of the angels' purpose in existence, resulting in Kevin Tran's death and Gadreel's taking full control of Sam's body. In "Road Trip," he employs Gadreel as his assassin, sending him to kill angel guard Thaddeus and Gadreel's friend Abner, presumably as a further test of his loyalty. He is also annoyed by Gadreel not killing Dean and questioning his orders. Metatron waits for Gadreel to return from killing Abner in a bar for hours with Gadreel's former vessel and is surprised when Gadreel suddenly appears in his natural form and repossesses his old vessel. Realizing that Sam has expelled Gadreel, an amused Metatron asks if Gadreel had Winchester troubles. After getting the tablets, Metatron connects himself to the angel tablet, granting him God-like power. Continuing his efforts with Gadreel's help, Metatron recruits a following and begins writing his own epic "story" about how things will go. To this end he captures Castiel during "Meta Fiction" and asks him to be the villain in the story in exchange for an unlimited supply of grace as his stolen grace is burning out. Castiel refuses and Metatron is forced to trade Castiel for Gadreel after Sam and Dean capture the latter. With his new powers, Metatron proves immune to their efforts to trap them and lets them go as he doesn't see them as a threat though he is undeterred by this setback. Following this, Castiel gathers his own following to battle Metatron who has Gadreel eliminate other angels who could be a threat to him. As Castiel's following grows stronger than his own, Metatron uses brainwashed suicide bombers in "Stairway to Heaven" to convince the other angels that Castiel is not who they should follow. Metatron offers the angels a return to Heaven through a moving portal he has created in return for their fealty to him. After Castiel refuses to kill Dean for supposedly killing the Reaper Tessa, Castiel's followers abandon him for Metatron. However, it also backfires on Metatron in that his methods cause Gadreel to switch sides too. During "Do You Believe In Miracles?", after broadcasting to all angels over "angel radio", Metatron heads to Earth to convert humanity to following him instead of God by performing various miracles including raising the dead. Dean, armed with the First Blade and powered by the Mark of Cain confronts Metatron as Castiel and Gadreel try to break into Heaven and shatter Metatron's power. With his new power, Metatron proves too powerful for Dean and mortally wounds him. However, before he can finish the job, Gadreel's sacrifice allows Castiel to shatter the angel tablet and Metatron's incredible power, forcing him to flee an attack by Sam. In Heaven, Metatron binds Castiel and taunts him about how the angels are all sheep who will follow him and how he doesn't really care about them. However, Castiel had secretly activated the broadcasting equipment in Metatron's office, causing him to broadcast the truth to all angels. Metatron's own followers turn on and overpower him, but Castiel locks him in Heaven's dungeon rather than kill him. At the same time, his killing of Dean causes him to resurrect as a demon.

In "Reichenbach", Hannah approaches Metatron to see if he has any of Castiel's grace left in hopes of saving him from dying when his stolen grace burns out. Metatron claims there is some left and offers to hand it over in exchange for his freedom, claiming that he will leave the planet if set free. Castiel refuses however and Metatron reveals that he really plans to get revenge once he escapes, though he claims there is some grace left. In "The Hunter Games", hoping that Metatron knows of a cure to the Mark, Castiel has him brought to Earth where he and the Winchesters question him for information. Metatron claims there is a cure to the Mark and that it requires the First Blade, but when Dean demands the rest, he reveals that there is a lot of steps and he wants something for each one. Dean tortures Metatron who continues to taunt him into giving in to the Mark's rage, but he is stopped by Castiel and Sam before he can kill him. Castiel returns Metatron to Heaven for safety with Metatron saying that he will choose death over helping again. However, he leaves a possible clue: "behold, the river shall end at the source." In "Inside Man", desperate to find a cure for Dean's deteriorating condition, Sam, Castiel and Bobby Singer plot to break Metatron out of prison when the angels refuse to release him to their custody for fear of what he will do if released. On Earth, Metatron taunts them with his leverage over them until Castiel removes his grace, leaving Metatron human and mortal. After Sam shoots him in the leg and Castiel threatens his life, Metatron quickly gives in and admits that he knows of no cure for the Mark, stating that it is God-level or Lucifer-level power and he knows nothing and that not even the tablets contain information on the Mark. Castiel is able to tell that Metatron is telling the truth, but before Sam can kill him, Metatron tells them that he was telling the truth about there being some of Castiel's grace left and offers to lead him to it in exchange for his life. Castiel reluctantly agrees and sets off in search of his grace with Metatron. In "Book of the Damned", Metatron and Castiel go on a road trip to find Castiel's grace. Metatron starts to embrace his new humanity, annoying Castiel with his antics and leading to Metatron getting punched. At a diner, they come under attack by an angry Cupid and Metatron kills him to save Castiel, but fails to endear himself to Castiel with his actions. Finally, the two come to a library where Metatron reveals he had another angel hide the grace and leave him clues so no one else could find it or torture the information from him. Searching through the books for one with the title "what's the most insane thing a man can do?", Metatron engages Castiel in a conversation, asking him what he will do once he tracks down the remaining rogue angels as Hannah has restored order to Heaven. While Castiel is distracted, Metatron uses his blood to cast a spell that stuns Castiel and retrieves the demon tablet, what he had really come for. However, he discovers that Castiel has found his grace in a copy of Don Quixote and quickly leaves before he can recover. Castiel gets his grace back and is restored to full power, but he and Sam are left worried by what Metatron can do with the demon tablet despite now being human. They also lie to Dean about how Castiel got his grace back, telling him that Hannah got it out of Metatron and not mentioning his escape. Its later mentioned he got away by stealing Castiel's car.

In Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire and Into the Void, the other angels are searching for Metatron to imprison him again while in The Bad Seed, the Winchesters and Castiel reluctantly search for him hoping he has information on The Darkness. To their surprise, they can find no incidents with Castiel's car that indicate that Metatron got in an accident or even got a ticket, surprising Castiel as he didn't expect a former angel and shut-in to be a good driver. In Our Little World, Castiel spots Metatron's reflection in a camera shot of a murder on the news, revealing that Metatron has become a videographer. Castiel tracks Metatron down at the scene of a shooting where Metatron steals the victim's money and bemoans his lack of power which he wouldn't have used to help the man anyway. After healing the man and breaking Metatron's camera, Castiel drags him to an abandoned warehouse where Metatron tells him he has come to see reality as the new literature and himself as the "author of reality" in his job as a videographer. Metatron tries to lie about the location of the demon tablet, but Castiel has already found it by simply searching Metatron's apartment where he had it hidden under his mattress. Castiel demands information on the Darkness and while Metatron knows something, he refuses to tell Castiel and taunts him into attacking Metatron. Castiel stops when he realizes that Metatron wants to die and Metatron explains that he can't stand being human. He finally tells Castiel that the Darkness is God's sister who He had to give up to form creation. Castiel lets Metatron go, telling Sam and Dean that he is now a human and a pitiable one at that and is no threat anymore. If Metatron draws any sort of attention to himself, the angels will descend on him and destroy him for his actions.

Michael

Michael is the oldest and most powerful Archangel, featured in the fifth season of Supernatural. In the premiere of the fifth season Zachariah reveals the angels' plan is for Michael to use Dean as his vessel and kill Lucifer once and for all. However, Dean needs to give his consent to be the vessel. Michael refers to Lucifer as his younger brother and when Lucifer refused God's command to bow before humanity, he turned to Michael for support, but was refused. On God's command, Michael cast Lucifer into Hell. Michael first appears when Sam, Dean and Castiel have traveled back to 1978 to stop Anna from killing John and Mary in order to prevent Sam's birth, and thus his use as Lucifer's vessel. When the angels develop a new plan to lure Dean into consenting in "Point of No Return", the angels bring back Adam, John Winchester's third son, under the pretense that he can be Michael's new vessel, but this is merely a ruse to get Dean to say yes. Zachariah tortures Sam and Adam until Dean consents. Zachariah then summons Michael from Heaven, but Dean changes his mind, kills Zachariah and attempts to escape. Adam is inadvertently locked inside while Michael descends, and the room and Adam disappear. In "Two Minutes to Midnight", Castiel confirmed that now Michael is taking Adam as his vessel. During the episode "Swan Song", Michael appears with Adam as his vessel in order to fight Lucifer, but gets interrupted by Dean, Bobby and Castiel, who delay him by sending him away with holy fire. In a couple of minutes he returns to see Sam, who has taken control over Lucifer, ready to jump in the pit, and tries to stop him, claiming his destiny is to fight his brother. As Sam denies, Michael makes a final desperate effort to hold him, but is swept along by Sam and they fall into the abyss together. Castiel believes that he and Lucifer tortured Sam's soul in the cage until it was removed by Death one of the horsemen. Michael's first mention of activity since his imprisonment in Hell is mentioned in Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire, in which an aide of Crowley informs him that Michael is wailing, trying to tell others about the danger the Darkness, which recently broke free from its prison, will pose to the world.

Naomi

Naomi, portrayed by Amanda Tapping, is a "cool", "mysterious", and "polished" villain affiliated with a previously unknown faction of angels, eventually revealed to be "Heaven's intelligence division," a group tasked with secretly brainwashing angels and altering their memories to keep them both in-line with Heaven's orders and oblivious to the truth of their actions and goals. She knows Crowley from an encounter in Mesopotamia, which he hints involved a romance between them.

Naomi first appears at the end of the episode "A Little Slice of Kevin", where she claims responsibility for Castiel's mysterious return from Purgatory though he cannot remember her, and demonstrates her complete control over his actions by command. Although she tells him off-screen that she is the current ruler of Heaven, Metatron later claims that she is only one of many faction leaders at war with each other. In "Torn and Frayed", Naomi tasks Castiel with rescuing Samandriel after she gets a distress call from the latter when he is under torture from Crowley. Upon learning that Samandriel has revealed the existence of the angel Word of God tablet to Crowley, however, she forces Castiel to kill the other angel, which she justifies by emphasizing the tablet's importance and that any angel would die to protect it, calling Samandriel a traitor for divulging information about it. Prior to his death, Samandriel had been trying to tell Castiel something about Naomi, triggering a memory of Castiel's in which Naomi was approaching his eye with a mysterious instrument resembling a drill while he was restrained and screaming. Noticing Castiel's strange actions and behavior, the Winchesters become suspicious that Castiel is being controlled. "Goodbye Stranger" opens with the revelation that Naomi has been working on fully indoctrinating Castiel to her control, and determines him to be "ready" once he kills thousands of copies of Dean. She then sends him to get the angel tablet before Crowley can. After he finds the tablet and she orders him to kill Dean, Castiel manages to fight her control and eventually breaks it by touching the tablet. He tells Dean about her before going into hiding to protect the tablet. In an encounter with Crowley, Naomi says that Castiel is doing what he is meant to do: protect the tablet, even if it means protecting it from her. She is later shown to be searching for Castiel to find the tablet.

In "Taxi Driver," Naomi meets with Dean to try to convince him that she is on his side, claiming that Castiel had misinformed him about her due to his mental instability, and that she wants to help Castiel; Dean doesn't believe her. Nonetheless, Naomi tips him off to the danger Sam is in and later saves Sam and Dean from Crowley, driving the demon off and helping the Winchesters complete the second trial to seal Hell by enabling a trapped Bobby's soul to ascend to Heaven. She reiterates that Dean can trust her and that they all share the goal of sealing Hell. Naomi and her angels eventually slaughter the patrons of a restaurant they know Castiel is passing through, and leave one alive but traumatized in order to make him stop long enough for them to capture him; Naomi kills the survivor afterward, rejecting Castiel's angry reminder that they (angels) are supposed to guard humans. She interrogates Castiel about the location of the tablet, and reveals that she has been altering and erasing his memories for longer than believed, complaining that he has never functioned as he was supposed to. She flees when Crowley attacks her men and fires at her with a gun loaded with melted-down angel blades. In the eighth season finale, Naomi learns that Metatron is working with Castiel, prompting her to capture the rogue angel and use her drill-like instrument to access his thoughts and learn his plans; when she finds out what they are, she is horrified and immediately warns Dean and Castiel, revealing that Metatron is not trying to close the gates of Heaven, but rather trying to permanently expel all angels in revenge for having himself had to flee to escape her and the archangels, who had ordered her to detain him and take the knowledge he had as the Scribe of God after God left Heaven. Naomi expresses remorse for her actions and that of the other angels, saying that angels are meant to protect humanity and they have lost sight of that somewhere along the way. To begin making amends, she warns Dean that if Sam completes the trials, he will die, and then offers to hear Castiel out if he truly wishes to return to Heaven. As they can't confirm her claims, Castiel refuses to believe her, though Dean does and ultimately stops Sam from completing the trials. Naomi is later found collapsed on her desk in her "office" in Heaven, Metatron having gotten free and stabbed her in the head with her own drill off-screen. Metatron taunts Castiel that she had been telling the truth, and then completes his plan. Naomi is confirmed dead through dialogue in the episode "I'm No Angel" in the ninth season.

When Naomi was being cast, the character was compared to The Good Shepherd's antihero Edward Wilson, Sr. (Matt Damon), in that she is "willing to sacrifice everything for the greater good." In his 2014 revision of The Essential Supernatural: On the Road with Sam and Dean Winchester, Nicholas Knight described her as "a powerful angel...ruthless in her quest to prevent the angel tablet from falling into the wrong hands". Despite her role as an antagonist, Knight noted that Naomi "quickly became one of the most enigmatic and popular new characters of the (eighth) season."

Raphael

Raphael is the archangel assigned to protecting Chuck Shurley. Raphael appears to protect Chuck twice, in "The Monster at the End of the Book", when he is in the presence of Lilith, and in "Lucifer Rising", where he kills Castiel as he and Dean attempt to prevent Lucifer's rise. He is summoned and subsequently trapped by Dean and a resurrected Castiel in the fifth season episode "Free to Be Me and You", but refuses to cooperate when they demand to know the location of God, only saying that he believes that God is dead. Dean and Castiel leave Raphael trapped despite his threat to hunt Castiel down when he escapes. In this episode, Raphael appears for the first time in a bodily vessel and is played by actor Demore Barnes, who reprises the role in "The Third Man" and "The Man Who Would Be King". Following the prevention of the Apocalypse, Raphael and his supporters are at war with Castiel and his followers over Castiel's opposition to Raphael's plan to free Lucifer and Michael to restart the Apocalypse. He makes his second on-screen appearance in the sixth season episode "The Third Man", in which he and his soldiers are in close pursuit of Castiel. Raphael overpowers Castiel and is about to kill him when Balthazar intervenes and irrevocably destroys Raphael's vessel with one of Heaven's weapons, saving Castiel's life. Raphael is forced to search for a new vessel, eventually possessing a woman played by Lanette Ware. In "The French Mistake", he sends the angel hitman Virgil after Castiel's allies, including the Winchesters. Balthazar transports the brothers to an alternate universe with a key to where Heaven's weapons are stored and Virgil follows. This is revealed to have been a ploy by Balthazar and Castiel, allowing the latter time to retrieve the weapons. Now equipped with the weapons, Castiel forces Raphael to flee when the latter is poised to kill a returned Sam and Dean. Flashbacks in "The Man Who Would Be King" depicts the background to Raphael's war with Castiel; Raphael believed that the Apocalypse was destined to happen and informed Castiel of his intention to release Lucifer and Michael from the cage, giving Castiel the ultimatum to submit or die. Having forged a deal with the demon Crowley, Castiel attacked Raphael and declared war in Heaven. In the season six finale, "The Man Who Knew Too Much", Castiel reneges on his deal with Crowley, who turns to Raphael. Crowley agrees to open Purgatory for Raphael in exchange for his safety. However their ritual fails whilst Castiel opens Purgatory for himself. Castiel appears, now more powerful than ever, and obliterates Raphael with a snap of his fingers.

Samandriel

Samandriel, aka "Alfie", portrayed by Tyler Johnston, is an angel who seems to hold humanity in higher regard than most angels and appears to hold Castiel in great regard as well. He appears at Plutus' auction in "What's Up, Tiger Mommy?" to bid for the demon Word of God tablet, taking the vessel of a young man named Alfie. He asks Dean about Castiel and is noticeably saddened that Castiel didn't make it out of Purgatory. Samandriel indicates that he supports Castiel and tells Dean that he thinks Castiel's problem is he has too much heart. Samandriel bids for the Word of God, but loses. After Mrs. Tran wins by bidding her soul, Samandriel approaches her to offer angelic protection to Kevin, but she refuses which he respects. In "A Little Slice of Kevin," Samandriel has been captured by Crowley who tortures him for the names of all future Prophets with an angel sword. Samandriel breaks under the torture and tells him all the names, but Crowley is not satisfied until Samandriel reveals that the next generation of Prophets haven't been born yet and thus there are no more. Crowley stops the torture without urgency and orders Samandriel put "on ice" for future torture, believing he can get more out of him. In "Torn and Frayed," Samandriel manages to push a spike out of his head that is blocking his connection to the other angels and sends a distress signal to Naomi. However, the demon Viggor discovers him and replaces the spike and starts torturing him again using headgear that puts a lot of spikes into Samandriel's head. The spikes cause Samandriel to revert to "factory settings" and he starts speaking in Enochian, in his distress speaking through a bush that catches fire. Viggor summons Crowley who tortures Samandriel personally to see what he can get from him when he's at "factory settings." As Sam, Dean and Castiel launch a rescue, Samandriel starts talking about the Word of God tablets and just before they manage to break into the room, Samandriel reveals that there is an angel tablet. As Sam and Dean kill Viggor and another demon, Castiel removes the headgear from Samandriel, returning him to normal and takes him outside. Fearful of what he has revealed, Samandriel begs Castiel not to take him back to Heaven and warns Castiel that "they" are controlling them both. Before Samandriel can elaborate, Naomi orders Castiel to kill him for being a traitor. With no other choice, Castiel stabs Samandriel with his angel sword, killing him. Naomi has Castiel take Samandriel's body to Heaven so she can determine just how much he broke and explains that he is a traitor as he revealed the existence of the angel tablet which any angel would die to protect as it could cause great harm if it fell into demon hands.

Tessa

Tessa is a reaper who guides the deceased to the afterlife. She is portrayed by Lindsey McKeon. Following the car accident in the first season finale, Dean is critically wounded and his soul leaves his body. Dean attempts to save other souls and defends himself from a reaper. The reaper then returns in the form of Tessa, posing as a coma patient. She attempts to convince Dean to move on but, as he considers this, Azazel intervenes as part of his deal with John Winchester and possesses Tessa to restore Dean to life, although Dean remembers none of this. In the season four episode "Death Takes a Holiday", she continues the work of a local reaper who has gone missing. After restoring Dean's memories of her with a kiss, she assists the brothers and agrees not to reap the souls for the duration. She is kidnapped by Alastair as part of a ritual to unlock a seal, but Dean and Sam rescue her. After getting Dean to help her have a young boy named Cole move on from being a ghost, she warns Dean that the angels are not looking for his best interest and to trust his own instincts. In "Appointment in Samarra", Dean summons Tessa during an out-of-body experience and asks her to call Death. Although she refuses, Death arrives on his own accord. Subsequently, Tessa guides Dean in his role as Death for 24 hours as part of a wager made with the Horseman in order to retrieve Sam's soul. Tessa returns in "Stairway to Heaven" where she is a part of Castiel's faction to retake Heaven. She has grown depressed over the fact that she can no longer ferry souls to Heaven due to it being closed and that she can hear their cries for help and is brainwashed by Metatron into acting as a suicide bomber for him, supposedly under Castiel's instruction in order to unite all the angels under his command. Tessa is found and captured by Dean before she can do this and her "bomb" is defused. Dean questions Tessa who, under her brainwashing, insists she is doing it for Castiel. When Dean pulls the First Blade on her, Tessa commits suicide by impaling herself on the Blade while Dean is holding it, thanking him at the same time. Her method of suicide makes it appear that Dean murdered her and helps turn Castiel's followers against him.

Uriel

Main article: Uriel (Supernatural)

Zachariah

Main article: Zachariah (Supernatural)

Demons

Demons in the series are generally portrayed as cruel and sadistic, often taking pleasure in causing humans pain. They are also, as series creator Eric Kripke deems them, "erudite and sophisticated". While the "tyrant" Azazel commanded the demons in the first two seasons, demons as a whole became the villains of the third season. At times their culture has been compared to normal humans, with the third-season episode "Sin City" introducing their religious side. They believe in their own higher power—Lucifer. Though many demons came to lose faith, they followed the fallen angel upon his release from Hell in the fifth season.

Inspirations for these types of demons have come from numerous sources, such as the devil-on-your-shoulder concept used in the episode "Sin City". The writers often try to base the demons off of actual aspects of history, as is done in "Malleus Maleficarum" by having the demon Tammi turn a group of women into witches. An encyclopedia on demons is used for research, with Binsfield's Classification of Demons inspiring "The Magnificent Seven"'s storyline of seven demons being the physical embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins.

The writers originally intended for demons to not rely on human hosts, but rather exist "halfway between spirits and corporeal creatures". However, the demon featured in "Phantom Traveler" demonstrated the ability to possess people—this quality and its other characteristics were chosen without foresight solely to fit with the episode's storyline—and the writers opted to maintain it as an element of all demons. Kripke feels this added an interesting aspect to the storylines, as the viewers "never quite know who the bad guy is". Another source of debate for the writers stemmed from the demons' eye color, which is based on a demon's place in the hierarchy. The writers prefer to limit unique colors to only the "big, big, bad guys". Writer Sera Gamble noted, "If every time we had a demon that was powerful we gave them a different eye color, pretty soon it'd be like, 'The Chartreuse-Eyed Demon is coming for us!'" During production of the second season, Kripke viewed the horror film I Walked with a Zombie, and found one of the creatures having all-white eyes to be "really disturbing". The writers considered changing the eye color of regular demons to white, but eventually decided against it. However, Kripke later used the idea when Lilith and other high-level demons were introduced.

A demon in the first season episode "Phantom Traveler". The appearance of demons has since evolved throughout the series.

The appearance of demons' true forms have become more complex as the series has progressed. Originally depicted as small, thin streams of black smoke, they now appear as large, thick smoke clouds. When in large groups, the clouds have electricity pulsing throughout them. The visual effects department based the demons' shape off of that of a snake, giving it a "predatorial" and "intelligent" look. Visual effects supervisor Ivan Hayden finds demon smoke to be one of the hardest visual effects in the series.

Unlike angels, demons are more flexible in taking a host. They can possess humans without their consent and there is also no "true host"; demons can possess anyone and retain their full powers. One demon (Azazel) is even shown to be able to possess a non-human being (the reaper Tessa, who is a subset of angels no less), though it is unknown if others can. While demons cannot be killed by normal human means, their human hosts are still mortal; any injuries sustained when the demon possesses them will come back to them after they leave, sometimes fatally.

Demons have a loose form of hierarchy that affect the powers they have. Black-eyed regular demons operate mainly as soldiers or underlings. Crossroad demons, who have red eyes, make deals with humans in exchange for souls. Two demons who have milky white eyes, Alastair and Lilith, are high-ranked: Alastair is the main torturer of human souls in Hell, while Lilith is the first demon to be created by Lucifer and possess the angelic ability to cast catastrophic white light, something that no other demon possesses. Yellow eyes are the prominent mark of Azazel, who figures as a catalyst in causing the Apocalypse by releasing Lilith. Some of the most powerful demons in existence are the black-eyed "Knights of Hell": those who are handpicked by Lucifer himself to lead their brethren. Since they are created after angels, however, all demons are generally inferior to them and even the higher-ranked ones like the Knights of Hell or Lilith flee their heralding.

Abaddon

Primarily portrayed by actress Alaina Huffman, Abaddon is described as the last remaining Knight of Hell, a class of incredibly powerful demons who were among the first of their kind. As such, Abaddon is too strong to be affected by exorcisms or to be killed by Ruby's knife. Over the years, she has acquired a reputation of being a "hired gun." She is introduced in the eighth season episode "As Time Goes By", in which she is sent to destroy the Men of Letters organization in 1958 and sets off in dogged pursuit of Sam and Dean's grandfather, Henry, who has escaped with the key to the Men of Letters' bunker. Wanting to break into the bunker to gain access to the powerful supernatural spells and artifacts inside for her own use, Abaddon follows Henry through time to the present, where she hunts him and his grandsons throughout the episode. Eventually, she takes Sam hostage to force Dean to turn over Henry and the key, but reneges on her deal to let Sam and Dean go after Dean trades her Henry and the key. In the confrontation that follows, Abaddon mortally wounds Henry, but not before he shoots her in the head with a bullet engraved with a devil's trap that binds her powers and also binds her to her now-paralyzed host body. Sam and Dean then cut her up and bury her in cement to forever entomb her. In "Clip Show", needing a demon to cure to do the third trial to close the gates of Hell, Sam and Dean sew Abaddon back together to use her, but do not reattach her hands nor remove the bullet. Abaddon reveals that she had been sent to kill the priest who found a way to cure demons and had found out about the Men of Letters and her host, Josie Sands, from him when torturing him, which ultimately resulted in her possessing Josie and attacking the Men of Letters. While Sam and Dean take a phone call from Crowley outside, Abaddon frees herself and escapes by controlling one of her severed hands and using it to reach into her mouth and pull the bullet out of her skull. She returns in the following episode, the season finale "Sacrifice", arriving in response to Crowley's distress call. However, furious that Crowley is now the King of Hell, she attacks him rather than help him, and declares her intention of taking over herself, only to be driven away when Sam sets her ablaze in holy fire.

Abaddon returns in the ninth season, her objectives now to find and kill Crowley in order to become the Queen of Hell, with further ambitions of "[turning] all of humankind into her demon army." She briefly succeeds in tracking Crowley down in "Road Trip", but her minions hesitate to attack him when she orders them to. She is about to attack him herself when he announces that rather than fight each other, they will be fighting for the loyalty of demons, and vanishes. With Crowley being largely absent from Hell and having been deeply affected by the incomplete demon cure forced on him by the Winchesters, the intimidating Abaddon ends up winning the nearly unanimous support of other demons. In "First Born", Crowley and Dean go to her maker, teacher, and former lover, Cain, to get his Mark and the First Blade from him—the Blade, when wielded by someone bearing the Mark of Cain, is stated to be the only weapon capable of killing Abaddon—and Cain reveals that Abaddon, after failing to persuade him to rejoin her, had tricked him into murdering his beloved human wife Colette; as he is unable to seek revenge directly due to a promise he had made to Colette, he gives Dean the Mark so that Dean can kill Abaddon once Crowley finds the Blade. "Mother's Little Helper" reveals that Abaddon's history with the Men of Letters goes back further than previously thought, as Abaddon had been confronted by Henry and Josie when stealing people's souls at a convent sometime before her slaughter of the Men of Letters. She intended to possess Henry to spy on the Men of Letters before destroying them, but accepted Josie's offer and possessed her instead, all without Henry's knowledge. In the present, Abaddon has given the order for her minions to begin stealing souls again in order to build an army of demons loyal only to her, a revelation which strengthens the Winchesters' determination to stop her as soon as possible. In attempt to eliminate all threats posed to her and her rule, Abaddon concocts a plan to kill Crowley and the Winchesters and to destroy the First Blade, by first bringing Crowley's human son Gavin forward in time and tortures him until Crowley finally agrees to help her set up a trap for Sam and Dean. She has him send the Winchesters to retrieve the First Blade and then lead them to her so that she can destroy them all at once, though Crowley manages to subtly warn Dean of the trap. Although unaware of the double-cross, Abaddon incapacitates Crowley by shooting him with a devil's trap bullet in order to keep him from interfering in the upcoming fight, planning to kill him and his son once she has killed the Winchesters. She is slain by Dean wielding the First Blade when the Mark grants Dean new powers that enable him to overcome her attacks. Following Abaddon's death, all demons go back to following Crowley. Despite this, some demons remain loyal to her and outraged at Dean killing her, try to ambush him in "Black" only to be easily killed themselves.

Executive producer and series writer Adam Glass revealed on Twitter that his inspiration for Abaddon was Lauren Bacall, an actress whom he admires. Showrunner Jeremy Carver went into the character's motivation, explaining that Abaddon was "appalled" to find that Crowley ruled over Hell because she "loves Hell and what it represents." He believed that the contrasts in the two characters's views incited "a nice conflict to our demon world."

Alastair

Main article: Alastair (Supernatural)

Azazel

Main article: Azazel (Supernatural)

Cain

Cain, (portrayed by Timothy Omundson) was the First Son of Adam and Eve who killed his brother Abel. While everyone believed that Cain had killed Abel because he was talking to God, Cain actually killed him because he was talking to Lucifer. Loving his brother, Cain made a deal with Lucifer: Abel's soul in Heaven in exchange for Cain becoming the first Knight of Hell while wielding the Mark of Cain. However, as part of the deal, Cain had to kill Abel personally. Afterwards, feeling remorse for his actions Cain took his own life, but the Mark resurrected him as a very powerful demon. For thousands of years, Cain was the worst of the worst, gaining the title Father of Murder and training the rest of the Knights of Hell. Eventually, Cain fell in love with a human woman, Colette and gave up his evil ways for her, suppressing the Mark's influence on him to slaughter people. In 1863, the other Knights kidnapped Colette to force Cain back to his old ways. Cain slaughtered all of the Knights, but when he got to Abaddon, she possessed Colette and tricked Cain into killing his wife. Due to Colette's dying request, Cain didn't go after Abaddon for revenge and threw the First Blade to the bottom of the Marianas Trench as it couldn't be destroyed, eventually settling in Missouri. In First Born, while looking for the First Blade to kill Abaddon, Dean and Crowley tracked down Cain and asked for the First Blade. Cain was uninterested in helping them, wanting to keep his promise to Colette, but watched as Dean fought and killed three demons single-handedly. Impressed, Cain told Dean and Crowley his story, but still refused to help at first. Eventually, after speaking to Colette's grave, Cain chose to help by giving Dean the Mark of Cain so that he could wield the First Blade himself and kill Abaddon. In return, he asked Dean to kill him afterwards before sending Dean and Crowley away and taking on Abaddon's army single-handedly. In The Executioner's Song, its revealed that killing Abaddon's demons caused Cain to fall back under the influence of the Mark of Cain. Giving into its rage, Cain decided that as so many of his descendants were killers and other sorts of criminals, he'd wipe out his bloodline, despite it being "legion." Cain killed many people, eventually being discovered by Sam and Dean when he kidnapped serial killer Tommy Tolliver. Cain confronted Castiel at the site of his victims graves, but let him go so that Castiel would tell Dean who would bring the First Blade to kill him. Going after Tommy's son, Austin, Cain was lured into a devil's trap by Dean, Sam, Castiel and Crowley after which, Dean confronted him alone. Cain claimed to Dean that there was no cure for the Mark of Cain and it was better to give into its rage. Dean and Cain fought, but Cain proved more powerful and easily beat Dean, eventually getting the First Blade for himself. Before he could kill Dean, Dean managed to get Cain's knife and cut off his hand. Cain refused to give up killing, forcing Dean to kill him. While Dean retained his humanity, Cain's descent into madness left both him and Sam deeply worried.

Christian Campbell

Christian Campbell, portrayed by Corin Nemec, is a hunter, and a third cousin related to Sam and Dean's mother's side of the family. He is introduced to Dean along with the other Campbells in "Exile on Main Street" and helps Samuel trap the female Djinn. He is present in the compound in "Two and a Half Men", and it is agreed that he and his wife will raise the baby Shapeshifter despite Dean's objections. However, the Alpha Shapeshifter arrives, overpowers the hunters and takes back the baby. In "Family Matters", Christian discovers Dean investigating Samuel and the two exchange threats. Later, his neck is snapped by the Alpha Vampire. It is then revealed that he has been possessed by a demon for some time and he and others overpower and remove the Alpha. Christian is working at Crowley's prison in "Caged Heat" and tortures the Lucifer loyalist Meg for information. However, she refuses to divulge and Christian is killed from behind by Dean using Ruby's knife.

The Crossroads Demon

A specific crossroads demon recurred throughout the second and third seasons of the series, possessing only young, beautiful women as her host. Actresses Christie Laing and Jeannette Sousa first portray her in "Crossroad Blues". Laing plays the demon in flashbacks depicting musician Robert Johnson selling his soul to learn to play the guitar, while Sousa portrays the demon in the present. The latter is summoned by Dean in an attempt to rescue a man from a demonic pact previously made. She rejects Dean's plea, instead taunting him about his father's suffering in Hell. Dean tricks her into walking into a Devil's Trap, and frees her in exchange for releasing the man from his contract. The demon returns again in the second season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2", now in possession of a woman portrayed by Ona Grauer. She resurrects Sam in exchange for collecting Dean's soul in one year.

She makes her final appearance in "Bedtime Stories", now portrayed by Sandra McCoy. At the end of the episode, Sam summons her and demands she break her deal with Dean in exchange for her life. She claims to not hold the contract, being just an employee with a boss to answer to. A frustrated Sam kills the demon with the mystical Colt gun. McCoy was dating lead actor Jared Padalecki at that time after having worked with him on the 2005 film Cry Wolf. She previously auditioned for several love interests of the brothers, but believed that production had waited until the "perfect role" arrived before casting her due to their relationship.

Crowley

Main article: Crowley (Supernatural)

You're right, I am a monster. And I've done bad. I've done things you can't even imagine; horrible, evil, messy things. And I've loved every damn minute.

— Crowley, Episode "The Prisoner"

Fergus Roderick MacLeod (c. 1661 - 1723) was a human, who after death became Crowley; a powerful demon who was formerly King of the Crossroads and later became King of Hell.

Although he initially served with Lilith, he went rogue in Season 5 after her death and Lucifer's release, aiding the Winchester brothers in resealing the latter back into his cage. With the power vacuum in Hell unoccupied, he appointed himself the new King of Hell.

Crowley allied with Sam and Dean in Season 5 against Lucifer to obtain the Four Horsemen's rings with them to protect himself, then with Castiel to obtain the power of Purgatory and briefly with Raphael after his betrayal in Season 6, and then with the Winchesters again in Season 7 against the ambitious Leviathans. However, in Season 8, he cuts his allegiance to the Winchesters and Castiel, seeking vengeance as well as attempting to capture the Prophet Kevin Tran and The Word of God to further his own goals, only to be captured by the Winchesters as part of their plan to close the gates of Hell. In Season 9, Crowley was temporarily Sam and Dean's captive while being hunted by Abaddon as part of her plan to take over Hell. However, upon being freed as part of a deal with Dean, he has rightfully resumed his post. After Dean was killed by Metatron and revived by the First Blade, Crowley guided Dean through the process of becoming a demon. The two spent a significant amount of time together, Crowley wishing to run Hell with him, until Dean was cured.

Crowley's role is often shifting from main antagonist to anti-hero. He was an anti-hero in Season 5, one of the two main antagonists in Season 6, an anti-hero in Season 7, the main antagonist of Season 8 and an anti-hero of Season 9 and Season 10 once more. However, in all of his durations as an anti-hero he is still openly an antagonist usually pulling a life-threatening stunt on the Winchesters after assisting them. He is currently the longest lasting antagonist in the series.

Lilith

Main article: Lilith (Supernatural)

Meg Masters

Main article: Meg Masters

Ruby

We first meet Ruby in season 3, portrayed as a demon hunter to surprise the audience of her demonic nature. We later learn that she was turned into a demon around the 1350s during the black plague. Her first appearance is in episode one where she follows Sam and Bobby as they hunt the seven deadly sins. She forms an alliance with Sam promising to help get Dean out of his deal with the crosswords demon. We first meet Ruby in season 3 playing as Katie Cassidy but due a possession of her vessel by Lilith, Jared Padelecki’s wife Genevieve Cortese-Padelecki then plays her in season 4. Her reasons for helping Sam and Dean were not revealed until the Finale of season 4. It opens with the Winchesters and Ruby fighting to keep the seals from opening. After unsuccessfully working to free Dean from his deal she helps Sam search for Lilith and ignite his revenge by killing her. Sam learns during the season finale that Ruby has been in league with Lilith for Sam to kill Lilith and break the seal. Once he kills Lilith and breaks the seal, he then turns on Ruby, he and Dean kill her.

Main article: Ruby (Supernatural)

Hunters

Hunters are men and women who spend their lives hunting supernatural creatures and attempting to save those affected by these creatures. Most appear to have had some kind of negative encounter with the supernatural (for example a relative being killed by demons, a spouse being possessed by a demon, or a sibling being turned by a vampire), which prompts them to become hunters. While hunters, by their nature, operate 'off-the-grid' (typically hunters support themselves via credit card fraud, although some have been shown to have actual jobs, such as the Singer Salvage Yard), there are, nevertheless, hunter communities that meet and interact with each other to exchange information and stories; the Harvelle Roadhouse was one such location until it was burnt down. Typically, hunters find cases by consulting newspapers to track down information about suspicious deaths in certain areas. Some cases come about thanks to contact with people they knew before becoming hunters or contact with people they helped during previous hunts who turn to them for their expertise. Some hunters are shown to have particular targets, such as Sam and Dean's initial hunts in the show's first two seasons focusing on tracking the Yellow Eyed Demon who killed Dean and Sam's parents, or Gordon Walker 'specializing' in hunting vampires.

Bobby Singer

Main article: Bobby Singer

Charlie Bradbury

Charlie (played by Felicia Day) first crosses paths with Sam and Dean when working as an I.T. expert at Richard Roman Enterprises. She is initially reluctant to get involved in the supernatural world by helping the Winchesters, but becomes a more reliable ally in her second episode and has decided to become a hunter herself by her fourth episode. She quickly becomes a friend and even a surrogate little sister to the Winchesters. By the end of "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo", it is revealed that her real name is not Charlie Bradbury but merely one of her aliases, and that she has had to go into hiding before. "Pac-Man Fever" delves into her past and it is indicated that "Charlie's" true surname is Middleton. "There's No Place Like Home" reveals that Charlie's given name is in fact Celeste Middleton. She is the only prominent LGBT character on the show; in her first episode, she informs the brothers she is lesbian when she is asked to flirt with a male guard to gain access to a restricted area.

Charlie's first appearance is in the season seven episode "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo", where Dick Roman asks her to decrypt Frank Devereaux's hard drive. Once she succeeds, she starts reading files describing the Leviathans and their activities, including their connection to Dick Roman. Although she doesn't believe it at first, she realizes the truth when she witnesses a leviathan eat her supervisor and shapeshift to replace him—something Dick explains they cannot do to Charlie, as she possesses a rare "spark" that can't be perfectly replicated. Sam and Dean recruit a terrified Charlie to retrieve Frank's hard drive to protect the information there, as well as to break into Dick's office and hack his emails to gain information for their side. She does so, which alerts Sam and Dean to a secret package meant for Dick which they then steal (the package is later revealed to hold the secret to defeating the leviathan). She is nearly killed when Dick realizes her duplicity, but is saved by Bobby's ghost holding the leviathan off—breaking Charlie's arm in the process—whilst Sam and Dean arrive and rescue her. She leaves after telling Sam and Dean not to contact her again.

Charlie reappears in the season eight episode "LARP and the Real Girl". Now under a different alias, she is the queen of one of four kingdoms of the LARPing game of Moondoor. When two of her "subjects" are killed, it draws Sam and Dean's attention and they head to Moondoor. Charlie's initial reaction is to flee and start a new life again, fearing that she will once more become a target for monsters. After learning why Sam and Dean are there, she agrees to help them investigate the deaths and other mysterious injuries that have happened. Charlie is eventually captured by a good fairy named Gilda who has kidnapped her on her master's orders. Charlie is instantly smitten with Gilda. Dean, Sam and Gerry eventually find Charlie with help from the "prisoner", only to find that she is making out with Gilda. It is revealed that Gerry is Gilda's master; he has unrequited feelings for Charlie and has bought a spellbook with which to control Gilda and force her to kill other players as part of a scheme to make Charlie fall in love with him. Charlie eventually destroys the book to set Gilda free and render Gerry powerless. Afterward, she and Gilda share a goodbye kiss before Gilda returns to her world with Gerry to have Gerry punished. Charlie decides to stop running and changing her identity and to stay and make a life for once. She tells Sam and Dean to call her if they ever need her help again. The three of them participate in a mock battle between their group and the other LARPers, which Charlie's side wins. Charlie's backstory is explored when she returns in "Pac-Man Fever" to give Sam and Dean a case. After she proves to be an excellent shot, Dean takes her as his (temporary) partner instead of Sam, who has become increasingly ill from the trials. Charlie is eventually captured by the creature they are hunting, a type of djinn, who poisons Charlie and places her in a nightmare from which she won't wake up from. In her nightmare, she is trapped in a video game she stole as a kid, recreated, and gave out for free, and where she must endlessly protect her hospitalized mother from super-soldier vampires. It is revealed that her parents had been involved in a car accident when driving over to pick Charlie up from a sleepover, resulting in her father dying and her mother rendered brain-dead. Charlie has been paying for the care of her mother, whom she refuses to let go due to her feelings of guilt over the accident. When Dean takes a potion to enter her nightmare himself to save her, he convinces Charlie that she must let her mother go in order to move on. She then wakes up and in the episode's last scene, takes Dean's advice by having her mother taken off of life-support after reading The Hobbit aloud to her like her mother did to Charlie as a little girl.

Charlie is called in by the Winchesters for help in the ninth season episode "Slumber Party" in order to reconfigure an ancient computer at the Men of Letters' bunker. A childhood fan of L. Frank Baum's Oz books, Charlie is excited when the real Dorothy is found in the bunker. The group works together to try to find a way to defeat The Wicked Witch of the West. Charlie dies to protect Dean from the Witch, but he has Gadreel bring her back to life and tells her that she had only been knocked out, though she learns the truth anyway from Dorothy; Charlie later agrees to keep her death and subsequent resurrection a secret from Sam so long as Dean agrees to one day explain what had really happened. Charlie and Dorothy eventually devise a way to kill the Witch, but are attacked by Sam and Dean, who are both possessed by the Witch. While Dorothy holds the brothers off, Charlie finds and kills the Witch by stabbing in the head with Oz's famous ruby slippers before the Witch can let her army in through a portal to Oz. When Dorothy extends an offer to Charlie to come with her to Oz, Charlie jumps at the prospect of finally getting the kind of magic and adventure she wants. After bidding their goodbyes to the brothers, Charlie and Dorothy cross over to Oz, leaving Sam and Dean to speculate if and when they will come back.

In the season 10 episode "There's No Place Like Home", Sam and Dean find out that Charlie is back from Oz and is attacking people who helped cover up her parents deaths. To their surprise, they find there are two Charlie's, a good and a dark Charlie. The good Charlie explains that she and Dorothy fought a war in Oz to free it from evil and in order to win, Charlie made a deal with the Wizard of Oz to split herself into her good and dark sides. Charlie's dark side single-handedly won the war and Dorothy and the Wizard now lead Oz. Now, dark Charlie has come to Earth seeking revenge for her parents deaths, good Charlie following to stop her. As dark Charlie broke the Key to Oz so Charlie couldn't return, she and Sam investigate the Key in hopes of finding a way to fix it, and eventually track down a former Man of Letters named Clive Dylan who was trapped in Oz after discovering the Key. Dean meanwhile tries to protect Russell Wellington, the man who killed Charlie's parents, but Dark Charlie tricks Dean, kills Russell, and follows Dean to Clive's house where they fight and he brutally beats her, hurting Good Charlie who is still connected to her. At the same time, Sam and Charlie learn that the Wizard is in fact Clive's dark side, split from him as Charlie's was. Unable to fix the Key and to save Oz, Clive shoots himself to force the Wizard to Earth to heal Clive and save himself. Unable to defeat the Wizard, Clive signals Charlie to shoot him which she hesitantly does, killing Clive and the Wizard. Sam stops Dean from beating Dark Charlie to death and they are able to reverse the Wizard's spell and reunite the two Charlie's. Afterwards, Charlie, unable to return to Oz, decides to dedicate herself to finding a way to save Dean from the Mark of Cain and forgives his actions.

Charlie returns to the brothers several episodes later, having found an ancient book known as the Book of the Damned, which is said to document every curse as well as their cures. Upon acquiring the book, a group of unknown men, all with the same tattoo on their wrist, begin to pursue her. After a violent encounter with them, Charlie is shot but narrowly escapes, and calls the Winchesters from a telephone booth, informing them of her discovery and injury, mentioning she sewed it back together with dental floss, a testament to her resourcefulness. When reunited, Sam and Charlie begin their attempt to decipher the book's text, as it is written in an unknown ancient language, but Dean insists they stop, and destroy the book entirely, worrying that the Mark will cause him to use the its information to do evil. Sam and Charlie decide not to destroy it but to put it away in a curse box, which will prevent anyone from tracking it down. Meanwhile, Dean goes to find Charlie's pursuers, who Sam had determined to be members of the historically-prominent Styne family. When they attack the house Charlie and the Winchesters had been staying at, Dean instructs Sam to destroy the book before the men can take it. Sam throws the book in the fire, and the trio defeats and kills their attackers. However, it is later revealed he threw another book in, and hid the real book in hopes he could still cure Dean, despite his brother's wishes. When Charlie, Sam and Dean return to the bunker, they are greeted by Castiel, and Charlie is excited to meet him for the first time. Upon hugging him, she comments she had expected him to be shorter. At Charlie's joking request, Castiel heals her carpal tunnel and even her bullet wound without being asked, having gotten his full power back. The four then have a dinner, laughing and enjoying each other's company.

During "Dark Dynasty", Charlie is called in by Sam to work with Rowena on how to translate the Book of the Damned. Charlie is stunned that Sam lied about destroying the Book and reluctantly agrees to work on translating the Book behind Dean's back. However, Charlie is forced to work with Rowena who annoys her greatly with her disgust at Charlie being a nerd instead of a witch and her insistence that they are similar. Unable to take it anymore, Charlie asks Castiel to let her go cool off for a while and slips out while he ties up Rowena in another room. Going to a motel, Charlie continues her efforts to translate the Book of the Damned and finally manages to crack the code just before Eldon Styne arrives. Charlie contacts Sam and Dean who tell her to give him the Book which she doesn't have or her notes to save her life. However, unwilling to betray her friends or give the Styne Family the power of the Book, Charlie smashes her Surface and is killed by Eldon. A devastated Sam and Dean find her body soon afterwards. However, unknown to them, Charlie's last act was to email Sam her notes on how to translate the Book, giving them the chance to finish what she started.

In "The Prisoner", following her death, Sam and Dean cremate Charlie in hunter's tradition and Dean decides to slaughter the Styne's in revenge, telling Sam to stop the work on the Book. Sam initially does until he receives Charlie's email and decides to continue. Dean brutally slaughters the Styne family for what they did to Charlie and ultimately kills Eldon, avenging her.

Dean Winchester

Main article: Dean Winchester

Dean Winchester is the older brother to Sam Winchester, and the one of the main protagonists throughout the series. He is very protective of his brother and has died for him. He sometimes hides things from Sam, often resulting in conflict and loss of trust, but the brothers always reconcile. Dean has died many times, but has consequently been resurrected by various supernatural means. He harbours close friendships with Bobby Singer, Jo and Ellen Harvelle, and the angel Castiel.

Donna Hanscum

Sheriff Donna Hanscum is the sheriff of Stillwater, Minnesota who, while at first oblivious to the supernatural, became a hunter after two encounters with it. She first appears in "The Purge" when Sam and Dean investigate mysterious deaths where overweight people are drained of most of their fat. Donna is portrayed as an overweight woman who has recently gotten from a divorce from a man who dumped her for her weight and is a jerk. She helps Sam and Dean early in the investigation, but then goes to a health spa where the owner, a pishtaco, feeds on her fat, causing her to lose ten pounds, something she attributes to fire cupping. Donna, slightly stoned from the roofies she was given, inadvertently blows Sam and Dean's cover at the spa and explains her weight loss to them. After the case is over, Sam and Dean attribute it to a psychopathic serial killer, something Donna accepts. Several months later, during "Hibbing 911", Donna goes to a sheriff's retreat in Hibbing, Minnesota, her hometown where she meets Sheriff Jody Mills. The two are partnered up during the retreat and Jody tries to keep Donna out of the case where people are completely consumed by an unknown monster except for their bones. In turn, Donna is annoyed when Jody defends her from her husband who is extremely rude to her and unknowingly makes a rude comment about Jody's own lost husband, something Donna immediately regrets when she realizes what she's done. Donna later sees Sam and Dean who Jody called in and is surprised to recognize them while Jody is shocked to realize Donna knows her friends. Donna eventually finds Sheriff Len Cues over another victim and sees that he is a monster, more specifically a vampire, shocking her. She tells Jody about it and they break into Len's room where Donna finds a clue about the location of the vampire's nest. When Sam and Dean arrive, they are forced to tell Donna the truth about what's going on in Hibbing and what happened in Stillwater. Donna insists on going with them and with the support of Jody, she successfully convinces them to let her go along, though she is a bit unsettled at the idea of having to decapitate the vampires to kill them. The group is captured by the vampires and their leader, Starr, explains that Len used to be their leader, having taught them to use all parts of their prey, before growing a conscience and leaving them. The vampires were trying to lure Len back and when he refuses, Starr kills him. Dean breaks free and kills two of the three vampires, but Starr goes after Jody. Donna, who broke one of the lenses of her glasses and used it to cut herself free, decapitates Starr, saving Jody and quipping "Hakuna Matata, lady." Later, Donna discusses the experience with Jody, saying that knowing monsters are out there makes the world seem bigger and darker. Jody, complimenting Donna's actions, offers to train her to be a hunter, something Donna accepts. Donna later reappears in Plush, calling in the Winchesters after a man in a bunny mask murdered a local man and the mask won't come off. When her deputy, Doug, is forced to kill the young man, Donna is left horrified as the mask appears to be a cursed object, making the young man another innocent victim. Donna burns the mask and it appears to be over, but a young woman in a court jester's outfit attacks the local football coach and the Winchesters learn that they are dealing with an angry ghost, not a cursed object. Dean is able to break the ghost's possession of the young woman and Donna makes up a story and lets her go as she's innocent. As the Winchesters talk to Rita Johnson, the woman who donated all of the possessed costumes, Donna distracts her son Max. Afterwards, the Winchesters inform her its the ghost of Chester Johnson, a children's performer who committed suicide a couple of months before. When told that they need to locate and burn the costumes, Donna offers to deal with that with Doug. She is later called by Sam after another possessed victim murders the coach who was in a coma. Donna and Doug locate all of the costumes and burn them, but when Donna calls Sam, he learns she never found a deer's head mask. After Chester's spirit is destroyed, Donna visits the Johnson house with Doug and the Winchesters tell her that as she now has three cases under her belt, she is an official hunter to her great joy. After they leave, Donna apologizes to Doug for her treatment of him due to her bad experience with her ex-husband Doug who was also a cop. Doug forgives her, telling Donna he has baggage too and the two are able to joke around with each other comfortably.

Ellen Harvelle

Main article: Ellen Harvelle

Garth Fitzgerald IV

Garth Fitzgerald IV, portrayed by DJ Qualls, is a hunter who generally works alone, although he has teamed up with the Winchester brothers on two occasions. Since Bobby's death and Sam and Dean's subsequent year-long absence, he has taken on Bobby's role as hunter coordinator, although he remains mobile where Bobby maintained a 'home base', carrying various cell phones around with him; he has even started wearing Bobby's hat and attempting to imitate Bobby's old phrases, although this has met with variable success. As part of this, he has started to track hunters via the GPS in their cell phones and assign them cases, something that creeps Sam out but Dean says is "very Bobby." Garth eventually disappears sometime after "Taxi Driver" and is found by Sam and Dean in "Sharp Teeth" where he reveals that he was turned into a werewolf on a hunt two months before his disappearance and hid it. Garth has joined a pack of werewolves that peacefully coexist with humans and married one named Bess. After Sam and Dean find him, he introduces them to the pack and tries to convince them that everything is fine, however, members of the pack worship Fenris and want to rule over humanity. To this end, they kidnap, Garth, Bess and Sam, planning to murder Garth and Bess and frame Sam and Dean to goad the pack into returning to their old beliefs and bring about Ragnarok. Before the plot can be carried out, Dean comes to their rescue and kills the three werewolves involved. In the aftermath, Garth, who is upset to learn of Kevin's death and blames himself as he wasn't there for him, offers to return to hunting using his new powers to help fight. However, Dean recognizes that not all of the werewolves were bad and tells Garth to stay with his new family where he has found happiness.

Gordon Walker

Gordon Walker, portrayed by Sterling K. Brown, is a vampire hunter whose methods often put him at odds with the Winchester brothers. Gordon focuses on eliminating the supernatural simply because it isn't human, where the Winchesters—particularly as the series develops—are more willing to tolerate supernatural entities that are not actively killing humans. Gordon takes pleasure in considering himself a killer who freely resorts to torture, where Sam and Dean regard themselves as Hunters who only kill when they must and do nothing to their enemies that the situation doesn't force upon them.

When Gordon was 18 years old, a vampire broke into his house and abducted his sister. Gordon ran away from home, learned how to fight, hunt, and kill vampires, and tracked down the vampire who had taken his sister. He killed the vampire, and his sister, who had been turned, marking the beginning of his hatred for the undead. At some point during his career as a hunter, Gordon met John Winchester and Ellen Harvelle. Ellen described him as a skilled hunter in the sense that Hannibal Lecter is a good psychiatrist, being good at his job but dangerous to everyone else around him.

Gordon is introduced in the episode "Bloodlust", meeting up with Sam and Dean while hunting a nest of vampires. At first, Dean bonds with Gordon, but Gordon proves himself to be bloodthirsty and sadistic as he tortures one of the captured vampires, even though he knows these particular vampires feed off cattle blood and do not kill humans. After Gordon tries to force one of the vampires to drink Sam's blood while torturing her with dead man's blood, Dean, seeing the vampire resist the urge, ends up beating Gordon in a fight and leaves Gordon tied to a chair while the vampires escape. Later, while performing an exorcism, Gordon learns about the coming demonic war, Azazel's special children, and Sam's powers. In "Hunted", he kills Scott Carey- another of the 'special children'- and then tracks Sam down and tries to kill him, convinced that Sam and those like him are 'traitors' to humanity. However, Dean intervenes, and, after a scuffle, Gordon knocks Dean out, ties him up, and uses him as bait to catch Sam in a booby trap of grenades set with trip wires. Sam manages to evade the trap and knocks Gordon out. As the brothers leave the damaged house, Gordon regains consciousness and chases them, firing two pistols in their direction. The police arrive to subdue Gordon, based on an anonymous tip from Sam, and find his cache of weapons in his car.

In "Bad Day at Black Rock," Gordon is shown to be in prison, where he convinces a visiting fellow hunter to go after Sam Winchester, convinced that Sam was involved in the opening of the Devil's Trap regardless of Bobby's claims that Sam was actually trying to stop it. Gordon eventually escapes from prison and, once again, pursues the Winchester brothers in "Fresh Blood". However, he is captured and subsequently turned by a vampire. Gordon, however, turns on his sire, kills two other vampires, and then sets up a trap for the Winchester brothers, still convinced it is his duty as a hunter to rid the world of Sam Winchester. A fight ensues in a warehouse where Gordon holds a girl he has kidnapped—and turned—to use as bait, ending with Sam decapitating him with a garotte improvised out of razor wire.

According to series creator Eric Kripke, Gordon was originally going to learn about the hunter Sam killed while possessed and use it to convince more hunters to turn against Sam. This was intended to be a story arc stretching over multiple episodes. However, Sterling K. Brown was contracted for the Lifetime Television series Army Wives, and Lifetime would only allow him to return to Supernatural for two more episodes.

Gwen Campbell

Gwen Campbell, portrayed by Jessica Heafey, is a hunter and third cousin related to Sam and Dean's mother's side of the family. When Sam re-enters Dean's life in "Exile on Main Street", he reveals that he has been back for a year and hunting with the Campbells, including Gwen. She and the others assist the brothers in defeating a Djinn. Gwen is present at the compound in "Two and a Half Men" when the brothers arrive with a baby Shapeshifter, and is overpowered, along with the others, when the Alpha Shapeshifter arrives. When hunting the Alpha Vampire in "Family Matters", she is ordered to stay behind and flush out any stragglers with Dean. She and Dean fight well together, and she covers for Dean when he disobeys orders. However, she sides with Samuel at the end of the episode when she holds the Winchesters at gunpoint, and follows him even when it is revealed that he has been working for Crowley. She is next seen in "...And Then There Were None", hunting with Samuel. While investigating a series of murders, they encounter Bobby, Rufus, Sam and Dean. Gwen tells Dean that she did not know that Samuel had betrayed them to Crowley. The creature responsible for the deaths—dubbed the Khan Worm—infects Dean, who kills Gwen.

Jo Harvelle

Main article: Jo Harvelle

Jody Mills

Jody, portrayed by Kim Rhodes, is the sheriff in Bobby's hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She originally had quite a hostile relationship with "town drunk" Bobby. However, when the town's deceased, including the sheriff's son and Bobby's wife, rise in "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid", this changes her perspective on him. She attempts to prevent Sam and Dean from investigating, but when her son kills her husband she works with Sam to kill the remaining zombies. In "Weekend at Bobby's", Jody shows up with an FBI agent looking for Rufus Turner. She attempts to distract the agent and later in the episode extradites Rufus so he can escape custody and assist Bobby in retrieving his soul. Jody is recovering from an appendectomy in Sioux Falls General, in "Hello, Cruel World" when the Leviathans take control. She informs Bobby and he rescues her. Jody accidentally and unintentionally aids Bobby into discovering the one thing (Sodium Borax) that brings severe harm to the Leviathans in "Slash Fiction". She also starts developing an attraction towards Bobby. She later contacts the Winchesters in "Time After Time" to warn them about supernatural killings she's gotten wind of and teams up with Sam to bring Dean back to the present. She is referred to in "There Will Be Blood" when Sam and Dean give her number to a girl named Emily who was kidnapped by vampires twelve years before, telling her to call Jody if they don't come back and that Jody would take care of her. In "Sacrifice," Jody goes on a date with what she thinks is a man named Roderick, but is actually Crowley. He reminds her of her dead son and husband and she starts crying and goes into the bathroom to calm down. Crowley casts a spell to make her start choking on her own blood and uses her fast running out time to force Sam and Dean to agree to a deal: stop the trials and exchange the demon tablet for the angel tablet. Once they agree and surrender, Crowley lets Jody live. Jody returns in "Rock and a Hard Place" where she calls Sam and Dean about a bunch of mysterious disappearances of virgins in Hartford, South Dakota. She works the case with Sam and figures out that they are dealing with Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth. Jody helps Sam figure out where the kidnapped Dean is and when they need the blood of a virgin to kill Vesta, Jody punches one in the nose to get the blood when she refuses to help. During the confrontation with Vesta, Jody uses her knowledge of the goddess' true nature to catch her off guard and tries to kill her while she is distracted. Jody fails and is non-fatally wounded thanks to Sam, but kills Vesta from behind while she is distracted talking to Sam. Sam and Jody rescue Dean and the other surviving victims and Jody, who has her arm in a sling from her injury, thanks Sam and Dean before leaving. In "Alex Annie Alexis Ann," Jody saves a young woman named Alex from a vampire and calls Sam and Dean for help. Knowing there will be more vampires coming for Alex, Jody takes Alex to her family cabin to protect her while Sam and Dean hunt the nest. That night, Dean calls Jody to warn her about Alex and the fact that the nest are coming, but it is too late as the vampires arrive, having beaten the location out of Jody's deputy Frank. They knock Jody out and flee back to their nest in Nebraska. In the morning Sam and Dean return and warn Jody that Alex acts a lure for victims for the nest and that they intent to raid the nest and kill all the vampires, Alex included if needed. Jody insists on going with them and at the nest finds Alex who has been turned into a vampire. Jody is knocked out by the "mother" of the "family" of vampires, Celia, who tries to get Alex to feed on her. Jody, admitting that she sees Alex as a way to deal with her family's loss, realizes that Celia kidnapped Alex for similar reasons: she lost a daughter of her own and tried to replace her. Celia admits it, but tries to kill Jody. Jody is saved by Alex who injects Celia with dead man's blood. Telling Alex to turn away, Jody decapitates Celia and is joined by Sam and Dean who took care of the other vampires. As Alex didn't feed, Sam and Dean are able to cure her and Jody decides to take care of Alex as she has no family left. Jody promises to be there for Alex and offers understanding at Alex having lost her whole family, having gone through it herself, something Alex understands and acknowledges. In "Hibbing 911", Jody, who has adopted a rebellious Alex, goes to a sheriff's retreat in Hibbing, Minnesota where she meets overeager Sheriff Donna Hanscum of Stillwater, Minnesota who becomes her partner. Jody becomes aware of mysterious deaths where all of a victim is consumed but their bones and after alerting Sam and Dean, tries to investigate without getting Donna involved. However, Donna sees another sheriff, Len Cues over another victim and learns the truth along with the fact that they are dealing with vampires. Sam, Dean, Jody and Donna team up take down the vampires who are revealed to have been taught to consume everything of a victim. Dean kills most of the vampires but one goes after Jody. Donna saves her and kills the vampire, impressing Jody. In the aftermath, Jody promises to teach Donna how to hunt, an idea she likes.

John Winchester

Main article: John Winchester (Supernatural)

John Winchester is the father to Dean and Sam. In season 2 John sold his soul to the yellow eyed demon to bring Dean out of his coma. In season one John leaves his notebook with his sons and sends them on hunts as he tries to find yellow eyes. John and his sons find the colt and John gives that to yellow eyes when he sells his soul and yellow eyes uses it to kill John in his hospatial room. John is the one that gives Dean the 67' impala.

Mary Winchester

Mary Winchester (née Campbell) regularly portrayed by Samantha Smith but depicted by Amy Gumenick in the time-travel episodes "In the Beginning" and "The Song Remains the Same", is the wife of John Winchester and mother of Sam and Dean. She was born in 1954. Her parents, Samuel and Deanna Campbell, were hunters, and she was raised into a life of hunting. Dean, sent back in time by the angel Castiel, unknowingly brings Mary to Azazel's attention through his actions. Azazel kills her parents and then-boyfriend John Winchester (a non-hunter unaware of Mary's hunter lifestyle), after which he bargains with Mary for John's life, offering to resurrect John if she allows him to enter her house ten years later. Not knowing Azazel's intentions, she agrees, eventually marrying John, leaving the life of a hunter, and giving birth to Dean and Sam.

In the pilot episode, it is revealed that six months after Sam's birth in 1983, Mary was awakened by sounds of him crying in his crib. She discovered Azazel there - later revealed to have been feeding Sam his demonic blood - and confronted him, but was pinned to the ceiling by him and slashed across her abdomen, eventually bursting into flames. According to series creator Eric Kripke, her relation to Azazel was supposed to be addressed in the third season, but was pushed back to the fourth season due to the 2007-08 writer's strike.

In the episode "Home", her sons return to their childhood home in Lawrence, Kansas, to investigate a recurring dream Sam experiences. Mary's spirit seems to haunt the house, and a poltergeist is in the house with her. After the poltergeist pins Sam to the wall, Mary appears before Sam as a fiery figure and tells him she is sorry. Her spirit then fights with and neutralizes the poltergeist, forcing both spirits out of the home.

In "The Kids Are Alright", it is revealed that all of Mary's friends and acquaintances have been killed off in the years since her death, although the reasons for this are never explained.

It is revealed in "Dark Side of the Moon" that Mary, like her husband John and fellow Hunters Ellen and Jo Harvelle, cannot be found in Heaven or Hell, making their current whereabouts unknown.

Rufus Turner

Rufus Turner, portrayed by Steven Williams, is semi-retired hunter who helped Bobby Singer when his wife, Karen Singer, was possessed by a demon. Rufus exorcised the demon and helped cover up Karen's death. It is Rufus who introduced Bobby to the world of the supernatural, and they hunted together for many years until a hunt went wrong in Omaha, Nebraska, and someone important to Rufus died. They became estranged after this. Fifteen years later, Rufus responds to Bobby's request for information on Bela Talbot and helps Dean locate her in "Time Is On My Side." He returns to active hunting after Lucifer rises and the Apocalypse begins.

Rufus is introduced in the third season episode "Time Is on My Side" when Bobby, who has not heard from Rufus in about 15 years, receives a phone call in which Rufus alerts him to the whereabouts of Bela Talbot. Dean visits Rufus, even though Sam opposes the idea of hunting for Bela, as they have only a couple of weeks until Dean's deal runs out. Rufus presents Dean with a manila folder on Bela, which gives Dean new and interesting details from her past.

Rufus appears off-screen in "When the Levee Breaks", when he calls Bobby with news of more of the 66 Seals being broken.

In "Good God Y'All", Rufus heads to a town he thinks is under attack from demons, based on omens of a polluted river and a falling star. He calls Ellen, Jo, and Bobby for help. When Sam and Dean arrive, he and Jo have been separated from Ellen. Jo and Rufus capture Sam, thinking he is possessed. Later, Ellen and Dean are able to help break the spell War has over them. Bobby talks on the phone to Rufus about omens that may indicate the appearance of Death, in "The Devil You Know".

In "Weekend at Bobby's", Rufus arrives at Singer Salvage Yard to dispose of the body of an apparently dead Okami. Bobby assists him and helps him evade capture by the FBI. However, the Okami is revealed to still be alive and is subsequently dispatched by Bobby. Afterward, Rufus uses his contacts to uncover information on Crowley's life as a human and later steals a signet ring from a museum which once belonged to Crowley's son as part of Bobby's attempt to regain his soul from the demon. Rufus investigates the same case as the Winchesters and Bobby, in "...And Then There Were None". The group later encounters Samuel and Gwen Campbell, and discover that the monster is a new breed created by Eve, the "Khan Worm." After Gwen and Samuel are killed, Rufus is stabbed by a possessed Bobby. As cremation is not undertaken in the Jewish tradition, Rufus is buried in a Jewish cemetery rather than given a Hunter's funeral pyre. Bobby pours some of Rufus' favorite drink—Johnnie Walker Blue Label—on the grave before taking a drink himself.

After becoming comatose from being shot in the head by Dick Roman, Bobby relives various memories of Sam, Dean, Karen, his family, and Rufus. Remembering Rufus has a traumatic effect on Bobby, and he reveals to Rufus that he is just a memory appearing in Bobby's comatose mind. While initially disbelieving, Rufus accompanies Bobby in a quest through the past in which Bobby confronts his worst memories to momentarily recover from his gunshot wound.

Sam Winchester

Main article: Sam Winchester

Samuel Campbell

Samuel Campbell, portrayed by Mitch Pileggi, is the maternal grandfather of Sam and Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester's namesake. He and his wife Deanna are revealed to be hunters in the fourth season episode "In the Beginning", where Dean is transported back in time. Dean discovers that Samuel is being possessed by Azazel, and he dies when Azazel leaves his body.

In the sixth season premiere, it is revealed that Samuel was brought down from Heaven at the same time Sam was resurrected from Hell. While he claims to have no idea why he was brought back, he, Sam and the other surviving members of the Campbell family are shown to be capturing dangerous supernatural creatures behind Dean's back, instead of killing them.

Samuel, who knows the cure to vampirism, returns during a string of vampire attacks in Limestone, Illinois, after Dean has been turned into a vampire. Knowing that Sam knew about the cure, as well, he concludes that Sam wanted Dean inside the nest to locate the Alpha Vampire, though Sam denies it.

It is later revealed that Samuel was resurrected by Crowley, and working with him in an attempt to find the location of Purgatory—the afterlife for monsters—in exchange for his daughter's resurrection. After Samuel betrayed the Winchesters when they attempted to kill Crowley, claiming that Mary was the only family that mattered to him, Dean vows to kill his grandfather the next time they meet.

A case he worked during his year spent hunting with Sam is seen in the episode, "Unforgiven", during which Samuel was shown to be disturbed at soulless-Sam's actions, using one of their current allies as bait to trap a monster.

In "...And Then There Were None", Samuel and Gwen encounter Sam, Dean, Rufus, and Bobby as they all investigate the same case. Sam prevents Dean from killing Samuel, feeling that he may be of some use yet. Gwen reveals that she was unaware of Samuel's betrayal but is killed by Dean, who is possessed by the Khan worm. Samuel is unapologetic when confronted by the brothers, and it is subsequently revealed that he was possessed by the Khan worm and is shot dead by Sam. However, the Khan worm is not killed and uses his body to attack the group, but is driven out of Samuel when Bobby throws him against a live wire, electrocuting him and revealing the Khan worm's weakness.

Samuel Colt

Based on the historical gun maker of the same name, Samuel Colt is a hunter who lived in the 19th century and the creator of the Colt—a gun that can kill almost any supernatural being; Lucifer revealed that he is one of five supernatural beings immune to its powers. Colt also designed the locked door that keeps the portal to Hell known as the Devil's Gate from opening. The Devil's Gate and the Colt gun are linked together—the gun serves as the key to the gate, allowing it to be opened by inserting the Colt's muzzle into the key hole. Colt also built a railroad of iron, in the shape of a pentagram with a church at each of the points, around the devil's gate to further ensure that it was demon-proof. Colt was portrayed by Sam Hennings in the season six episode "Frontierland". Sam and Dean, when looking for a method of destroying Eve, come across Colt's journal which reveals that the hunter had killed a phoenix in 1861. As the ashes of a phoenix are needed to kill Eve, Castiel sends Sam and Dean back in time to retrieve them. Although Samuel is initially reluctant to assist Sam, he eventually gives him the Colt which Dean kills the phoenix with. When Sam and Dean are pulled back to the present day without the ashes, it is revealed that Colt sent a courier package 150 years ago containing the ashes, which arrives at Bobby's door. He was able to figure out how to use Sam's cell phone, which he left behind (and which Colt sent back to him), and learned the date and Bobby's address from it.

Other humans

Adam Milligan

Adam Milligan, portrayed by Jake Abel, is a boy in his late teens and John Winchester's youngest son. In contrast to Dean and Sam, who were raised as hunters, John spent time with Adam mainly to do the normal things that hunting didn't allow him to do with Dean and Sam, such as taking him to a baseball game or buying Adam his first beer when he was fifteen. Dean and Sam were never aware they had a half-brother until Adam called them in the fourth season episode "Jump the Shark". He needed their help since his mother went missing, and so the three brothers met for the first time. After telling Adam the truth about who they were, they taught him a few things about the life of a hunter. Sam realizes too late Adam is not Adam, but actually a ghoul who eats his victims and then takes on their form. Dean finds Adam's remains in a tomb, and after defeating the ghoul, they burn his body, a traditional way of destroying a hunter's body, as Dean felt like Adam died like a hunter. Almost a year later in fifth season episode "Point of No Return", Castiel witnesses the resurrection of Adam, who was brought back by Zachariah as part of Plan B; Dean refused to say yes to becoming Michael's vessel, so they took the next best thing, Adam. Although Dean and Sam try to gain Adam's trust and Castiel shields him from the other angels, Adam manages to tell Zachariah his whereabouts and he's taken away. He then discovers he was part of a trap to lure Dean to the angels so he would say yes. After Zachariah tortures Adam and Sam, Dean finally says yes and Michael is summoned by Zachariah. Dean kills Zachariah and escapes with Sam, but Adam disappears, fate unknown. Castiel later reveals Adam has been taken by Michael as his vessel. Adam returns in "Swan Song", now as Michael's vessel, to fight Lucifer. Dean, Bobby and Castiel soon interrupt Michael and Lucifer, throwing a molotov cocktail filled with holy fire at Michael, incinerating him and sending him away for the moment. When he returns to the battlefield, Sam takes back control of his body and opens the portal to Lucifer's prison, dragging Michael along as he falls in. In the sixth season episode "Appointment in Samarra", Dean chooses to rescue Sam over Adam when Death only agrees to retrieve one of them from Lucifer's Cage. In season 10 Adam is mentioned in the episode "Fan Fiction" as John Winchester's other son who was still stuck in the cage with Lucifer in hell; Sam and Dean then appear to have forgotten about him up until then.

Ash

Ash, portrayed by Chad Lindberg, is a mullet-wearing computer genius, who works and lives at Harvelle's Roadhouse with Jo and Ellen Harvelle. He attended MIT, but was kicked out for "fighting". He owns a homemade laptop, which he uses to track the paranormal, particularly Azazel, with the information John Winchester and his sons, Sam and Dean, have gathered. In the episode "All Hell Breaks Loose: Part 1", he calls Dean to tell him he has discovered something important, but by the time Dean arrives at the Roadhouse to talk, the Roadhouse has been burned to the ground, and Dean finds Ash's corpse (identified by his distinctive watch) in the rubble.

Series creator Eric Kripke stated that Ash's death "had to do with how much I hated the actual Roadhouse itself rather than anyone in it." As for the character's return, Kripke replied, "Ash is a possibility." This comes to fruition in the fifth season episode "Dark Side of the Moon", in which Sam and Dean meet Ash in Heaven, as well as Pamela. Enjoying the afterlife more than his actual life, and having discovered means to infiltrate other people's Heavens and tap into the angel's communications, Ash helps the brothers hide from Zachariah.

Becky Rosen

Becky, portrayed by Emily Perkins is a fan of the "Supernatural" series of books. Her online name is samlicker81, and she is the webmistress of morethanbrothers.net. She writes Wincest fanfiction. Carver Edlund aka Chuck Shurley contacts her to get a message to Sam and Dean in "Sympathy for the Devil". It is obvious from her reaction to the boys that she is a Sam Girl, and fixates upon him much to his dismay.

Becky Rosen "borrows" Chuck Shurley's phone, pretending to be him, and texts Sam & Dean saying he's in a life or death situation in "The Real Ghostbusters". Sam and Dean rush over after driving all night only to find out that Becky has invited them to a Supernatural Convention for Chuck's books. When real ghosts start attacking people, Chuck has to step up and help keep everyone safe while Sam and Dean and two Supernatural fanboys, Demian and Barnes, fight the ghosts. His bravery impresses Becky who immediately abandons her pursuit of Sam for a relationship with Chuck. She also tells Sam that in the book which covers the events of "Time Is on My Side", Bela gave the Colt not to Lilith but to her right hand demon, and possibly lover, Crowley.

In "Season 7, Time for a Wedding!" a Crossroads Demon gives her a love potion to make Sam marry her, then betrays the demon when (as Sam warned her) he asks for her soul in exchange for making the effect permanent. According to her, Chuck broke up with her, which is presumably her reason for fixating on Sam again. During the battle at the end, she helps trap the demon, but his minion breaks him free. As the demon and his minion Jackson are about to kill the hunters, Becky retrieves Ruby's Knife and kills Jackson with it, allowing the Winchesters to overpower the Crossroads Demon whose deals are revoked by Crowley who is bemused when she recognizes him. Later, she and Sam get an annulment.

In "Slumber Party," it is revealed by Charlie that Becky posted all of Chuck's unpublished manuscripts to the Internet, with the result that the public is now 'aware' of events in Sam and Dean's lives up to the confrontation between Lucifer/Sam and Michael/Adam. When asked if they know her, Sam quickly denies it.

Bela Talbot

Main article: Bela Talbot

Ben Braeden

Ben Braeden is the son of Lisa Braeden, a woman Dean once spent a weekend with in August 1999, portrayed by Nicholas Elia. Lisa and Ben live in Cicero, Indiana. Though Dean suspects he is Ben's biological father, Lisa confirms that this is not so.

Dean drops in to visit Lisa in "The Kids Are Alright", while investigating a case. This is also Ben's 8th birthday. Dean meets Ben and is struck by his familiar rock-music loving, girl ogling ways, but Lisa assures Dean that he is not Ben's father. Later Dean helps Ben out in an encounter with some bullies. Although his advice, to "kick the kid in the nuts," does not get Lisa's approval, Ben hugs Dean in thanks. Later Ben is one of the children taken by a mother Changeling, and one of her offspring imitates Ben and starts feeding on Lisa. Dean and Sam rescue all the children and kill the head Changeling, destroying the imitation Ben. Dean is impressed by Ben's cool headed behavior during the rescue, having put Ben in charge of helping the other children out a window.

When Dean returns to Lisa after the showdown in Stull Cemetery, in "Swan Song", Ben is seen at the dinner table.

Dean lives with Lisa and Ben for a year, but after an attack he insists they move and is conflicted by his desire to remain with his new family, his desire to hunt and the fear that he is raising Ben as his father raised him. Eventually, Lisa lets him go in "Two and a Half Men". Dean talks to Ben on the phone in "The Third Man". After believing he is about to die after having been turned into a vampire in "Live Free or Twi-Hard", Dean returns to say goodbye. However, he struggles to control his vampiric urges and shoves Ben and flees. Ben tricks Dean into returning once more in "Mannequin 3: The Reckoning"; however, he fails to reconcile with Lisa and Dean explains to Ben that he fears that if he stayed around, Ben would end up like him. Ben is still upset and accuses Dean of abandoning his family. Ben and Lisa are kidnapped by the demon Crowley, in "Let It Bleed", in an attempt to force Dean to stand down. After they are rescued, Dean asks Castiel to wipe his and his mother's memories of him.

Chuck Shurley

Chuck Shurley, also known by the pseudonym Carver Edlund, and portrayed by Rob Benedict, is an author of a marginalized book series Supernatural, which recounts everything the Winchester brothers have experienced during the show's run. After confronting him about his seemingly omniscient knowledge of their escapades, it is revealed by the angel Castiel that he is a Prophet of the Lord, and his works will become new gospels. He is also protected by an archangel powerful enough to force even Lilith to flee from its presence. Between the fourth season finale "Lucifer Rising" and the fifth season premiere "Sympathy for the Devil", he witnesses the death of Castiel at the hands of the archangel Raphael. Being the author of the Supernatural series, he attends the first Supernatural convention Sam and Dean were tricked into attending; when it turns out the hotel is actually haunted, he is forced to occupy the guests and the hotel staff while the Winchesters and a pair of cosplayers destroys the ghosts. When the hotel manager leaves and breaks the salt line, he dissipates the ghost with an iron post, while unintentionally gaining the affections of Becky.

Periodically during "Swan Song", Chuck is narrating about the history of the Impala, his script having the same name as the episode. He informs Dean of the final battlefield between Michael and Lucifer, despite the angels wishing him not to know. At its conclusion, while ending the narration, Chuck smiles and disappears into thin air, leading some to question whether he is merely a prophet that is no longer needed or is actually God. Castiel later states that while he doesn't know what happened to Chuck, he must be dead as a new Prophet was chosen in the form of Kevin Tran and that only happens when the old Prophet dies.

In "Fan Fiction" Chuck reappears at the end of a play based off his books and comments that it was "not bad" when asked his opinion by the play's writer, Marie.

There has been speculation among the fan community that Chuck is, in fact, God himself. According to the angels, God has been missing from Heaven for some time now, and is reportedly hiding on Earth somewhere.

Claire Novak

Claire Novak, portrayed as a child by Sydney Imbeau and later in the series as a young adult by Kathryn Newton, is the daughter of Jimmy and Amelia Novak. She is raised in Pontiac, Illinois, until roughly the age of eleven, when her mother disappears, overwhelmed by grief of her father's death. Claire is then left in the custody of her grandmother until her death, at which point she is moved between numerous foster homes and eventually placed in a juvenile center.

Eight-year-old Claire is first introduced, along with her mother, in the season four episode "The Rapture", where the story of Jimmy becoming Castiel's vessel is revealed. Her first appearance occurs after Castiel is shown taking possession of Jimmy. Claire runs outside frantically and asks "Daddy?" to which Castiel replies that he is not her father, and begins to walk away, as she watches him leave. A year later when Castiel is forced out of Jimmy's body, Jimmy is able to return and begins to try and rebuild his life with his family. This is short lived, as demons learn about Jimmy, and take his wife and daughter hostage.

Claire is possessed by Castiel when her parents, Dean, and Sam Winchester, are held captive by demons, her mother having been possessed so that the demons could watch Jimmy and determine his unique qualities as a vessel. Castiel, in Claire's body, expels two demons from their hosts during the fight. Castiel intends to let Jimmy die so that he will go to Heaven and be at peace as a reward for his service, but Jimmy begs Castiel to use him as a vessel and free his daughter. Castiel obliges.

Seven years later, Castiel is inspired to look into Jimmy Novak's old life after recent events with Hannah. He discovers that Claire is in solitary confinement in a juvenile center after attempting the latest of a series of escapes, prompting him to visit and get her out by posing as Jimmy. Claire reveals that her mother vanished after leaving her with her grandmother, and she has been in and out of homes since her grandmother's death. blaming Castiel for breaking her family apart by taking her father as a vessel. Castiel helps her escape the center, but Claire steals his wallet and runs away again to rejoin with Dustin and Randy, friends of hers who were expecting her to collect money to help settle Randy's gambling debts.

The Winchesters and Castiel arrive in time to prevent the robbery, but Claire leaves them in disgust, declaring that Dustin and Randy are her family while the three men are just the people who killed her father. However, when Randy's loan shark offers to take Claire to compensate for the debt, Randy agrees, forcing the Winchesters and Castiel to step in and save her. They arrive at the house and are surprised to not see her, but when they hear screams coming from upstairs, they know she is in fact in the house, and in danger. Castiel locates her and busts down the door of the room where the loan shark is attempting to rape her.

Despite the Winchesters and Castiel saving her, Claire makes it clear that she still doesn't trust them, and resists Castiel's efforts to help her. After being brought to the bunker, she runs away, and meets a couple who suggest that she kill Dean as the person responsible for her father's death, helping them arrange a trap for him. However, she tips Dean off at the last minute, finding herself unable to go through with the plan, and he manages to fight them off and spare their lives despite the corrupting influence of the Mark of Cain. Although Claire still intends to leave Castiel and find a new life on her own, she suggests that she would not be against him keeping in touch with her.

Months later, during "Angel Heart", Claire has begun a search for her long-missing mother, tracking her through her diary to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Claire confronts Ronnie Cartwright, the last person to see her mother and is knocked unconscious. As Castiel is in the emergency contacts on her cell phone, the hospital calls him and he calls in Sam and Dean to help him deal with her. After learning what she is up to, the Winchesters and Castiel decide to help her but she escapes the hospital and returns to her motel room where she finds Sam waiting for her while Dean and Castiel have gone to interrogate Ronnie. Sam offers to help Claire hack her mother's credit card records which she is intrigued by and with what they learn from that combined with what Castiel and Dean learn from Ronnie, they are able to track Amelia to a farm run by a faith healer named Peter Holloway. However, Dean and Claire are left behind as they don't want Claire getting hurt and the Mark of Cain's influence on Dean is getting worse. While initially awkward for Dean and Claire, they bond over mini-golf and Claire inadvertently gives Dean a clue that they aren't dealing with a normal angel. Searching through the lore, Claire discovers that Holloway is a Grigori, a class of angel that preys on humanity. When they are unable to reach Sam and Castiel, Dean allows Claire to join him in the rescue, even giving her a gun. Claire and Dean find Castiel who has rescued a weak Amelia. Claire and her mother are finally reunited and Claire tearfully embraces her rather than berating her like she'd planned. While Claire tries to help Amelia out of the barn, Holloway, revealed to be Tamiel, comes and tells her that Amelia is beyond saving. Claire attempts to kill him with the gun and when she fails, he tries to kill her. Amelia sacrifices herself to save her daughter, leaving Claire devastated. Sam, Dean and Castiel are unable to defeat Tamiel so Claire kills him herself with his own sword to save them and avenge her mother. The next day, the three decide to send her to Jody Mills until she can get on her feet and she forgives Dean and Castiel for their roles in Jimmy's death, taking with her a gift Castiel gave her for her birthday. Dean takes back the gun, but leaves her Caddyshack and a lore book as he noticed her take Tamiel's sword and realizes she intends to become a hunter.

Cole Trenton

Cole Trenton, portrayed by Travis Aaron Wade, is a military brat and an ex-Marine whose father, Edward, was killed by Dean Winchester in 2003, making him bent for revenge against his father's killer all his life. During his time in the military, he took part in the campaigns in Iraq, Dafur, and DR Congo and established many connections, including his longtime friend Kit Verson and a member of the Military Intelligence. Though Cole is not a hunter and leads an ordinary life with a wife and a son, he is an expert at martial arts and is fit due to his time as a soldier, and he also keeps a rifle that is associated with hunters. He tracks Dean upon the latter's sighted attack at a store captured by a surveillance camera and beats Sam, attempting to use him as a hostage. When Sam escapes, Cole follows him as the latter is about to meet Dean at a bar. However, though he finally confronts his father's killer, Dean easily defeats him with his demonic powers, but spares him as he wants Cole to live in humiliation for failing to avenge his father. Cole does not give up, however, and he begins studying about demons and starts to torture demons in hopes of tracking Dean once more. Cole holds Dean at gunpoint when the latter is cornering Rowena, forcing Dean to let her go, and sprays holy water against him, but as Dean is no longer a demon at that point, it does not work. He is defeated once again, but Dean offers to explain his motive of why he killed Edward: Edward was a monster who had killed many people and eaten their livers, and he would have killed Cole and his mother had Dean not killed him earlier. Convinced by Dean and Sam, Cole decides to drop his revenge and return to his family.

Later, Cole with Dean and Sam work together to help his friend, Kit, after the latter's wife, Jemma, reported his weird actions. Upon finding out that Kit is possessed by a Khan Worm, Cole is concerned that the Winchesters would try to kill him like they did with countless others, including his father. Cole is possessed by a Khan Worm, but Dean manages to save him by dehydrating the room and causing the monster to flee. However, the three are too late to stop Kit from succumbing to the parasite even further, and Sam has to kill him because of it. Cole thanks the brothers for saving him, but hopes that he will never see them again.

Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spangler

Edd Zeddmore and Harry Spangler, portrayed by A.J. Buckley and Travis Wester, are self-proclaimed professional paranormal investigators. They are introduced in the episode "Hell House" as the Hell Hounds, operating a web site called HellHoundsLair.com. They perceive Sam and Dean as amateurs, although the latter use the duo and their website to help them defeat the monster of the week. At the end of the episode Sam pulls a prank on them by posing as a Hollywood producer on the phone. In the episode "Ghostfacers", they produce a television pilot, which covers their investigation of a house that is haunted every leap day, where Sam and Dean make a guest appearance; however, Sam and Dean manage to magnetically wipe their footage. The episode was nominated for a GLAAD award for its portrayal of Ghostfacers intern Alan Corbett. In "It's a Terrible Life", where the Winchesters are placed in an alternative life as office workers, Zeddmore and Spangler appear on the Ghostfacers website where they present instructional videos on how to find and to defeat ghosts, and refer to the Winchesters as rival "douche bags that we hate". Ed, Harry and the rest of the team also star in the Ghostfacers web series, a spoof advertisement which is seen in "Hammer of the Gods". They were also used as plot devices, in the season nine episode "Thinman" Ed and Harry face a conflict similar to one Sam and Dean face, creating a parallel between the characters, at the end of that episode we see an end to the Ghostfacers after Ed invents the monster Thinman to keep Harry from leaving for a normal life. Their names are homage to Winston Zeddemore and Egon Spengler, members of the Ghostbusters from the 1984 film.

Eldon Styne

Eldon Styne, portrayed by David Hoflin, is the heir to the powerful Styne Family, a dynasty of people who cause and take advantage of disasters including the Nazi rise to power and the September 11th attacks to make a profit. Like all other members of his family, Eldon has received surgical enhancements including a second heart and more muscles in his legs, making him physically powerful and hard to stop. After his brother Jacob is killed, Eldon is dispatched to hunt down the Winchesters and the Book of the Damned. After being captured by Dean, Eldon tells him the family history, including that they used to be known as the Frankensteins and that the Book can't be destroyed. After Dean leaves to confront Sam over the revelation, Eldon escapes by ripping off his own arm. After hearing from his cousin Eli that he has found Charlie Bradbury, Eldon goes after her personally in hopes she has the Book. After finding her, Eldon brutally murders her but is left empty-handed. Returning home, Eldon tells his father of the Men of Letters bunker and its stash of supernatural knowledge and suggests they raid it. Eldon gets a new arm from a boy that had been bullying his little brother Cyrus and takes him and his cousin Roscoe to rob the bunker. As he prepares to burn what they can't take, Dean arrives, killing Roscoe and he and Eldon face off. Eldon taunts Dean over Charlie's murder until he reveals he slaughtered Eldon's whole family in revenge. Dean then points out that despite all the enhancements Eldon has, he still only has one brain. Not getting it, Eldon asks him "so what" before Dean shoots him in the head, killing him.

Frank Devereaux

Frank Devereaux, portrayed by Kevin R. McNally, is an expert in counterfeit documents and in avoiding government intelligence. He was first introduced in the sixth episode of the seventh season, "Slash Fiction". It's revealed in the eleventh episode, "Adventures In Babysitting", that when he was 26, his wife and two children were killed. Sometime after that, he met Bobby Singer, who once saved his life in Port Huron. Frank lives in a run-down, electronics filled house on a little traveled street. He describes himself as 'bi-polar with delusional ideation'.

Bobby sent the Winchester's to see Frank when two Leviathans begun a series of killings throughout the country, masquerading as the brothers. When Sam and Dean entered Frank's house, and he was waiting in the dark with a shotgun. He was prepared to shoot them, but because he owes Bobby he agrees to help them. At first, Frank believes that Leviathan Sam and Leviathan Dean are clones created by the government. Frank advises that the boys go into hiding, maybe even move to Cuba, but Dean says they need to go "further off the grid, but keep us on the board" so they can hunt down the Leviathans. He tells them that they need to keep a lower profile, avoid security cameras, and to get rid of their rockstar aliases, which are too easy to track. He smashes Sam's laptop, gives him a new one, and demands $5000 for it. He then takes their pictures for new IDs as Tom and John Smith and gives them a map of the towns their Leviathan doppelgangers have hit so far.

In "Adventures in Babysitting", Dean gives to Frank the numbers "45489" which Bobby wrote on Sam's hand before he died, and also asked him to research Dick Roman. Having not heard from him over a month, Dean returns to Frank's house to find it deserted. Frank suddenly appears, confronts Dean, and they both have to shed some blood to prove to the other they are not a Leviathan. Frank states that he has moved all his equipment into an R.V., feeling he was being watched after he started investigating Dick Roman. At that time, Frank seemed too much paranoid with Leviathans, even thinking that Gwyneth Paltrow is one of them. He tells Dean he has found nothing on Bobby's numbers, but when he tried combinations with adding a sixth number, he discovered that they were coordinates to a field in Wisconsin, owned by Dick Roman. Frank and Dean travel to the area and disguise themselves as phone company workers. They discover surveillance covering the area and retreat to Frank's RV to monitor it. They discover Amanda Willer, an employee of Dick Roman, surveying the site for construction. As they began to spy the camp field, Frank challenges Dean about how he is dealing with himself on the whole situation, even telling Dean his dark past.

In the next episodes, Dean talks with Frank off-screen. In "Out with the Old", Frank talks with Dean by phone from his camper, updating Dean on the Leviathan activity worldwide. He has no record of their activity in Portland, Oregon, where Sam and Dean are currently working, but Leviathans are there all the same. Frank discovers this when Dean asks him to investigates a company behind an odd Realtor; and the company links back to Dick Roman. Sam and Dean set out to meet Frank at the end of the episode, but instead find his RV, filled with smashed electronics and blood. In "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo", it's revealed that Dick Roman took Frank's hard drive, which he gives to the IT expert Charlie to hack it. When Charlie tries to hack it, the defense system uses Frank's voice. After finally hacking it, an automatic e-mail sent to the brothers which states that if they are receiving it, it means that Frank is dead or worse. Frank has a GPS tracker on the drive and it hacks into Charlie's webcam so they know who's hacking it. While Charlie is successful, she finds out the truth about Dick Roman and the Leviathans from his files and later teams up with the Winchesters to erase the drive. Frank's final fate is still unknown, but he is presumably dead given all the blood and that Dick Roman had his hard drive.

Jessica Moore

Jessica Lee Moore, portrayed by Adrianne Palicki, is Sam's girlfriend for two years as of the start of the series. Despite this, she is unaware of his family's strange occupation. Sam planned to ask her to marry him, but she is killed by a demon on Azazel's orders; it was revealed the demon that killed her was the friend who introduced her to Sam, in order to break Sam from his increasingly normal life. Her death then prompts Sam to join Dean on his quest to find their missing father and avenge her. In the days preceding her murder, Sam had received premonitions about it, which he ignored, believing them to be random nightmares. Afterwards, he feels much guilt he did nothing to prevent her murder. Her death is avenged when Sam kills Brady, the demon that killed her.

Kevin Tran

Kevin, portrayed by Osric Chau, is a Prophet of the Lord who is chosen to interpret the Word of God after Sam and Dean break it out of the slab of stone it is trapped in. He is in advanced placement and is preparing for college when he is struck by lightning and chosen. Kevin is driven to drive his mother's car to the mental institution where Castiel is and where Sam and Dean have taken the Word. He steals the Word, but Sam and Meg catch him. Castiel reveals that Kevin is a Prophet and he's able to read the tablet which talks about the Leviathans and when it breaks, he is able to put it back together.

After two angels arrive to take him away and are driven away by Dean, they take him to Rufus' Cabin where they set him to work on translating the tablet. The angels return, but after Meg kills one to save Castiel, the others allow Kevin to finish the translation before taking him home. Kevin reunites with his mother, but they discover to their horror that the detective investigating his disappearance is the Leviathan Edgar in disguise. Edgar kills the two angels accompanying Kevin and takes him and his mother prisoner.

Dick Roman later uses Kevin's mother to force Kevin to translate the tablet for him. After the Leviathans bring in a girl named Polly, Kevin manages to escape the room he's trapped in and learns of Dick's plan to poison coffee creamers to kill all the skinny people in the world, but is captured by Dick's assistant Susan before he can escape. During Sam, Dean and Castiel's break-in of Sucrocorp, Sam finds and rescues Kevin who reveals Dick's new plan to him and insists they need to blow up Dick's laboratory.

In the lab, they find Dean and Castiel killing Dick and Kevin is shocked when Dean and Castiel disappear when Dick explodes. Kevin nervously tells Sam they have to leave because more Leviathans will be coming, but Crowley shows up and reveals he has it taken care of and kidnaps Kevin as a prize. It's later revealed that he wants Kevin in order to translate another Word of God tablet so he can learn how to open all the gates of Hell and release every demon in existence upon the world. Kevin tricks Crowley and escapes, going on the run for a year before Sam and Dean catch up to him. Kevin reveals that he has learned that it is possible to seal the gates of Hell forever and banish all demons from the Earth from the tablet and Sam and Dean decide to do so with his help.

However, Crowley catches up with them and although they escape thanks to Kevin's quick thinking, Crowley murders his girlfriend in revenge. Kevin later convinces Sam and Dean to take him to see his mom who is surrounded by demons. After they rescue her, Mrs. Tran joins them in closing the gates of Hell, but they find the tablet stolen and being sold at an auction. Kevin's mom wins the auction by bidding her soul, but Crowley possesses her and gets away with the tablet. In the struggle, Dean tries to kill Crowley even though he is possessing Kevin's mother and in doing so, loses Kevin's trust. This along with the fact that Crowley warned him that the Winchesters have a habit of using people up and disposing of them when they no longer need them, causes Kevin to flee with his mother. He spends the next several episodes on the run from both Crowley and the Winchesters, but after his mother hires a witch to get the ingredients needed for the spell he used to kill the demons and escape, Crowley captures and tortures him to force him to translate the tablet. Sam, Dean and Castiel, who are alerted to his situation when Mrs. Tran calls them for help, arrive and rescue Kevin and get half of the tablet, but Crowley gets the other half and Kevin loses a finger, though Castiel is able to regrow it. They then call in Garth to look after the Trans and he takes them to his houseboat where Kevin works on translating the half of the tablet he has to no avail. Dean and Castiel later go to Kevin for help in preparing more demon bombs in order to rescue the angel Samandriel.

Kevin is now so focused on translating the tablet that he has somewhat let himself go and has a very disheveled appearance. He has also sent his own mother away so he can work in solitude, explaining to Dean that he can't enjoy the world he is trying to save until it is saved. Though he doesn't believe it is possible to get the ingredients needed for the bomb as they are very rare, he gives them the list and Castiel is able to get them. It is shown in "Trial and Error" that Kevin lets himself go completely while he focuses on translating the tablet, believing that closing the gates of Hell will be the only way he can go back to a normal life. Eventually, after weeks of non-stop work, he cracks the instructions and calls Sam and Dean to let them know. Kevin learns that in order to close the gates, someone must complete three trials and recite an Enochian spell after each one. Kevin has only cracked the first trial which is to kill a hellhound and bathe in its blood. Despite Sam's advice to slow down, Kevin begins taking (and its indicated overdoing) stimulants to keep awake and eventually calls Sam and Dean to inform them that he has learned that a hellhound (which is naturally invisible) can be seen through an object scorched with Holy Fire such as a pair of glasses, giving them a way to see the hellhound so they can kill it. In "Taxi Driver," Kevin is under so much stress that he is hallucinating Crowley in his head and that Crowley is mentally torturing him. Panicked, he calls Sam and Dean and hides, but has also deciphered the second trial: Sam must rescue an innocent soul from Hell and release it into Heaven. After Sam leaves to rescue Bobby Singer's soul from Hell, Dean stays with Kevin, trying to calm him down. Kevin is so freaked out he hides in a closet and later hides his half of the tablet somewhere, believing it will take the pressure off of him. After Dean leaves, Kevin demon-proofs Garth's houseboat even more, but Crowley shows up and reveals he killed Kevin's mother and got his location from her smartphone. When Sam and Dean return they find the boat deserted. In "The Great Escapist," Kevin is trapped in an illusion of Garth's houseboat and is tricked into translating Crowley's half of the demon tablet by demons pretending to be Sam and Dean. At the same time, a prerecorded message Kevin prepared is sent to Sam and Dean with his notes on the tablet. While Sam and Dean aren't able to figure out the trial from them, they eventually lead them to Metatron, the angelic scribe who wrote the Word of God. Eventually Kevin realizes the truth as the demons are too polite and sends them into a trap. Crowley confronts him and Kevin refuses to reveal more than the fact that Crowley has no idea the power he could've gotten from his half of the demon tablet and that he won't break. Not caring as he has the angel tablet, Crowley strangles Kevin who is rescued by Metatron. Metatron takes Kevin back to the hotel where he lives and heals him and Kevin reveals that he has Crowley's half of the demon tablet with him. With that half of the tablet, Kevin has learned the third trial: cure a demon. Kevin is left confused as to who Metatron is when Metatron reveals knowledge of the third trial as well. After Sam and Dean pretend to make a deal with Crowley to stop him killing people they've saved, Kevin digs up the first half of the demon tablet and reunites the two halves, giving the tablet to Sam and Dean who send him to the Men of Letters bunker for safety. When Dean and Castiel need to know the third trial to close the gates of Heaven, they take the angel tablet to Kevin who is distraught as he believed that it would be over once he was done with the demon tablet, causing an angry Castiel to yell at him that he is a Prophet until he dies. After completing the second trial, Dean calls Kevin who tells him that while he has found trials on the angel tablet, he doesn't see anything that matches what they have done. When Naomi shows up to tell Dean and Castiel that Metatron is really trying to expel all angels from Heaven, Kevin listens, but is unable to confirm what she has said. He later tries to leave the bunker, but stops when alarms start going off, signaling the fall of all angels to Earth.

After the angels fall, Kevin is left trapped in the bunker as it locks down and he panics, nearly shooting Dean with a crossbow when he arrives. Kevin is not happy to see that the Winchesters have Crowley captive and have not killed him. Kevin is put to work trying to find a way to reverse Metatron's spell using the angel tablet. When Dean calls Kevin to get him to confirm their cover at a military base, Kevin is able to succeed by hacking into the person he is talking to's computer and blackmailing them. He later gets a call from Abaddon and passes on her message to Sam and Dean and at their request, looks through the archives for a way to kill a Knight of Hell. Crowley, who is in a dungeon in the next room, taunts Kevin, causing Kevin to beat him with a sledgehammer. Crowley then claims that he never killed Kevin's mother and will lead Kevin to her if he releases him and that the Winchesters are just using him. While Kevin doesn't release Crowley, he decides to leave and look for his mother but is stopped by Dean who convinces him that his mother is as good as dead even if she is still alive. Dean tells him that the Winchesters consider both him and Castiel to be family and would die to protect him if need be. Kevin aids Sam and Dean with finding a spell to communicate with animals and is later asked by Dean to find a way to suppress an angel. Kevin finds a way, but is murdered by Gadreel possessing Sam soon afterwards on Metatron's orders. Dean burns his body in a Hunter's Funeral afterwards and is devastated by and blames himself for Kevin's death. A month after his death, Kevin returns as a ghost, having been stuck in the veil between worlds due to Heaven being closed. Kevin asks Sam and Dean to rescue his mother who he has learned from another ghost named Candy is still alive. With Candy's help, Sam and Dean track down Linda who tearfully reunites with Kevin. Despite the risks, Linda decides to take the ring Kevin is attached to and look after him until he can enter Heaven. Kevin similarly wants to look after his mother now that he has her back. Kevin informs Sam that he doesn't blame him for his death, aware that it was really Gadreel and asks Sam and Dean to put aside their differences and start being brothers again before leaving.

Linda Tran

Linda is Kevin's mother and is first heard when she calls him about a test he has to take. When Kevin disappears, Linda grows frantic and calls the police and is relieved when two angels return him to her. However, the detective she called in to help turns out to be the Leviathan Edgar and he kills the angels and captures her and her son. Linda is used as a hostage to force Kevin into translating the Word of God tablet for Dick Roman, but she is let go with a warning not to talk afterwards. A year later she still hasn't heard from Kevin and is unknown to her, surrounded by demons, keeping an eye on her and protecting her. At Kevin's insistence, the Winchesters rescue her and she joins them in their quest to close the gates of Hell forever. Linda proves to be strong-willed, withstanding getting an anti-possession tattoo easily while comforting Kevin (and also indicating to her son's surprise that it is not her first tattoo) and later using her knowledge of tax law to intimidate a pawn shop owner into telling them what they need to know when nothing else works. At the auction, when all else fails, she bids her own soul to save Kevin, though she is warned that she will survive though she will wish she didn't. She refuses the offer of angelic protection for Kevin from Samandriel and is captured by Beau and Crowley who burn off her tattoo and Crowley possesses her to get the tablet. In the struggle that follows, Dean tries to kill her to kill Crowley and he flees her body, getting the tablet. Linda survives, but is left catatonic by the experience, though Sam and Dean believe she will recover due to her strong-willed nature. However, the incident shatters Kevin's faith in the Winchesters and he goes on the run with her. Some time later, Linda has recovered from her catatonia and looks for a way to strike back against Crowley by hiring a witch off of Craigslist to get the ingredients needed for the demon bomb. The witch brings enough ingredients for one bomb instead of all that Linda specified and betrays them to Crowley. Crowley leaves a demon behind to kill Linda as he leaves with Kevin, but Linda overpowers and captures the demon instead and calls Sam and Dean for help to rescue Kevin. She brings them the ingredients, Kevin's notes on how to build the bomb and the demon allowing them to locate Kevin and launch a rescue mission. While Linda wants to help, Sam handcuffs her to her steering wheel to keep her out of the way and out of danger. Kevin is rescued and Sam chides her for calling upon a witch for help. He and Dean call upon Garth to look after Linda and Kevin and he takes them to a houseboat he uses as a safe house. Kevin, wanting to work in solitude to translate the half of the tablet that Castiel retrieved, later sends Linda elsewhere, explaining to Dean that he can't enjoy the world he is trying to save until it is saved. In "Trial and Error", Kevin reveals that while he sent Linda away, he still does talk to her on the phone, but all she does is cry. In "Taxi Driver", Crowley finds Kevin, claiming that he captured Linda and tortured her for Kevin's location. Crowley states that Linda did not break, so he killed her and got the location off of her smartphone. Later, in "Devil May Care," Crowley claims that he did not actually kill Linda and that she wishes that she was dead and promises to take Kevin to her if he releases him. Unsure whether to believe Crowley or not, Kevin doesn't free him, but decides to look for himself before being stopped by Dean who tells him that even if Linda is still alive, she is as good as dead. In "Captives," the ghost of Kevin returns to ask Sam and Dean to rescue Linda who he has learned is still alive from another ghost named Candy. With Candy's help, Sam and Dean track down Linda in a storage unit in Wichita, Kansas where she and Sam end up trapped together due to the demon Del who has been holding Linda captive and torturing her. Using her knowledge of electronics from helping Kevin with his school projects, Linda is able to get them out of the room they are trapped in and is devastated to learn of Kevin's death. After Del is captured, Sam and Dean let Linda kill him. At Linda's demand, they then take her to the bunker where Linda is reunited with the ghost of her son. Linda finds her husband's old ring, the object Kevin is attached to and decides to take him home with her despite the risks so she can look after him until he can enter Heaven.

Lisa Braeden

Lisa Braeden, portrayed by Cindy Sampson, is a woman Dean spent a weekend with circa 1999. In the third season, Dean decides to revisit Lisa while he is investigating some suspicious deaths that took place nearby. He discovers she has an eight-year-old son named Ben, who shares Dean's cocky attitude and love of classic rock. Dean becomes suspicious Ben might be his child, though he is later assured by Lisa he is not. After Ben is kidnapped by a changeling who committed the murders, Lisa becomes aware of Sam and Dean's work. After Sam and Dean rescue Ben, Lisa indicates she'd like Dean to stay for a while, but he regretfully declines. In season five Dean goes to Lisa and tells her, when he is preparing to become Michael's vessel, whenever he pictures himself in a normal happy life, it's with Lisa and Ben. He warns her there will be danger coming but he will make sure she and Ben are protected. Lisa urges him to reconsider doing whatever he's planning on doing, and urges him to stay and have a beer. However, Dean refuses and leaves.

After Sam and Dean decide to go and confront Lucifer, Sam tells Dean he cannot try to save him, and he should go and live a normal life with Lisa. After Sam is locked in Lucifer's cage he keeps his promise to Sam arriving at Lisa's house. Sensing something has happened, Lisa comforts Dean as he breaks down in her arms. In the closing moments of the episode, Dean is having dinner with Lisa and Ben as Sam watches from outside. In the sixth season, she is shown living with Dean and takes Ben to stay with Bobby when Dean must go hunting again. After the local threat had passed, Dean moved them again, but had to return once Sam needed help with a string of shapeshifter attacks. Lisa admits that she knows he can no longer be always there for them, and lets him go, as long as he could return now and then to see them. This does not last; when Dean was turned to a vampire, believing he was to be killed, he went to see Lisa and Ben, but could not control his vampiric hunger and fled, but not before striking Ben. Lisa was furious and took off with Ben. Later, she called him while he was under the influence of Veritas, she was forced to admit that she was jealous of Sam because he had returned and she wanted to be the most important person in Dean's life. She is next seen in "Mannequin 3: The Reckoning", after Ben tricks Dean into returning. However, they fail to reconcile their differences. Crowley kidnaps Lisa and Ben in an attempt to force Dean to stand down in his pursuit of the demon and Castiel. Lisa is possessed by a demon and fatally wounded during the rescue attempt by Sam and Dean. Castiel heals Lisa and, at Dean's request, wipes her and Ben's memories of Dean. Dean later asks Sam to never mention Lisa or Ben to him again.

Magnus

Magnus (real name Cuthbert Sinclair), portrayed by Kavan Smith, is a former Man of Letters who has caused Sam and Dean trouble directly and indirectly on two occasions. Magnus was a powerful magician who was so good at spells, he was made the Men of Letters Master of Spells right after he was initiated into the order. He acted as Henry Winchester, Sam and Dean's grandfather's mentor and designed most of the warding for the Men of Letters bunker. However, he felt that the Men of Letters should be more proactive, using their knowledge to fight evil instead of hiding it away and protecting it. Magnus' ideas got so radical that after he created the Werther Box, a vault designed to protect an important decryption codex but with a deadly alarm system, he was kicked out of the Men of Letters on May 16, 1956. As a result, he survived the massacre of the order by Abaddon in 1958. Crowley became aware of his separation from the Men of Letters and attempted to locate him to get into the Men of Letters bunker, but failed to find him. At some point Magnus changed his name from Cuthbert Sinclair to Magnus, the name the Men of Letters use while going incognito, long enough that he hadn't gone by it in a long time by 2014 and built himself a warded impenetrable hideout where he collected important supernatural artifacts and a zoo of various creatures including vampires and shapeshifters. Due to his proficiency with spells, Magnus was able to make himself immortal, looking forever to be in his 30s despite being much older. Several weeks before the events of "Blade Runners", Magnus tracked down the mythical First Blade and acquired it for his collection. Searching for the First Blade to kill Abaddon, Sam and Dean tracked down Magnus with the help of the Men of Letters files and Crowley and were able to get him to talk to them by mentioning their grandfather and the Men of Letters. However, upon learning that Dean had the Mark of Cain, Magnus decided to add him to his collection rather than help them and teleported Sam outside. Magnus worked to convince Dean to work with him and then attempted to brainwash him when that failed. Eventually Sam and Crowley managed to break in and while Magnus was distracted with Sam, Crowley freed Dean who decapitated Magnus with the First Blade to save his brother. A year later during "The Werther Project", Sam learned of Magnus' connection to the Werther Box while searching for the codex inside. Following the destruction of the Men of Letters, Magnus' creation had caused at least four deaths and Sam and Dean set out to disarm it and get the codex. They eventually discovered that Magnus had designed the box so that only all of the blood of a Man of Letters could disarm the spell and open it, but by combining their blood, the Winchesters were able to safely open it. After getting the codex, Dean destroyed the Werther Box just to be safe.

Pamela Barnes

Pamela Barnes, portrayed by Traci Dinwiddie, is a friend of Bobby Singer. A skilled psychic, she is bold and aggressive. Bobby calls upon her assistance in discovering what pulled Dean Winchester out of Hell. She holds a seance and discovers it is a being named Castiel. In attempting to get a glimpse of Castiel, her eyes are burnt out and she becomes permanently blind. However, her psychic abilities appear to enable her to perceive her surroundings. The Winchesters again seek her assistance in finding out why Anna Milton is able to hear angels speak. She expresses an interest in "dicking over" angels because one caused the loss of her sight. She places Anna under hypnosis, which restores to Anna her memories of being an angel. She is called upon one more time by the Winchesters, to help them perform astral projections of themselves. While doing so, she is mortally wounded by a demon, but as her dying act, whispers a warning to Sam to stop using the demonic forces within him. In "Dark Side of the Moon", the Winchester brothers encounter Pamela in Heaven, who is happy residing in her own private paradise.

Rowena

Rowena, portrayed by Ruth Connell, is a very powerful witch and the mother of Fergus Rodrick MacLeod, as a demon known by the name Crowley, with whom she had a dysfunctional past; she had once tried to sell him and later abandoned him when he was young. She is from Scotland and speaks with a thick Scottish accent. Rowena is probably immortal, as she has lived since at least the 17th century, though she remains a human. She indicates at one point to Charlie Bradbury that she had a hard life growing up herself, but it is unclear if she was lying. Formerly a member of the Grand Coven, an ancient community of witches, she was expelled because of her violent and forceful use of magic. She self-describes herself to be a "Naturalist": a witch who is naturally gifted with magic; to reflect this, she is very experienced in witchcraft, having invented a spell that could specifically kill demons and mastered the use of hex bags. She also knows a Gaelic spell that could obliterate any target with its only drawback being the Mark of Cain.

Before her debut in season 10, Rowena is mentioned several times, though not by name, by her son in season 8 and 9, claiming that his mother was dabbling in witchcraft and had taught him a few things; he puts this into use in killing several people who had been saved by Sam and Dean to blackmail them into handing over the Demon Tablet. After appearing in a brief cameo at the end of Soul Survivor, Rowena makes her first proper appearance in Girls, Girls, Girls, where she has been working to establish her own coven by recruiting women who work at a brothel operated by demons by killing their leader, Raul. Dean manages to capture her, but is forced to let her go when Cole confronts him. She is later captured by demons working for Crowley and revealed to be his mother. After managing to convince her son to trust her by telling him about his second-in-command, Gerald's trafficking of demons, Rowena sends a demon, Gothrey, to retrieve the First Blade and upon killing him, manipulates the situation so that Crowley will not give the Blade to the Winchesters. At Rowena's behest, Crowley captures Olivette, the current High Priestess of the Grand Coven, whom she subsequently converts to a hamster, so that she would be allowed to freely practice magic, but to her surprise, she finds out that the Coven is a shadow of itself after the Men of Letters plundered their spells and potions. She unsuccessfully attempts to kill Dean through mind controlling three men, which fails due to the protection of the Mark of Cain, and reveals her knowledge of the mark. With Dean's suggestion, Crowley kicks Rowena out after he realizes just how little his mother means to him. Later, Sam seeks Rowena to translate the Book of the Damned in hopes of removing the Mark of Cain from his brother. After getting a codex that Rowena says can crack it, he chains her up to make sure she does not use the Book for her own purposes.

Rowena teams up with Charlie Bradbury in translating the book, but she annoys Charlie so much that Charlie decides to go out for a while and gets killed by Eldon Styne just when she finally breaks the codex. Receiving Charlie's notes, Rowena agrees to translate the book if Sam kills Crowley first, but Crowley is too powerful for Sam to defeat. Threatened by Sam with witch-killing bullets, Rowena offers another deal: her freedom and the book and codex becoming her own in exchange for removing the Mark of Cain from Dean. One of the requirements of the spell requires Rowena to kill a Polish man, Oskar, whom she loved so much that she turned him immortal. Though upset, she kills him anyway and finally removes the Mark, but she unwittingly sets the Darkness free. Rowena then casts the Attack Dog spell on Castiel to make him attack Crowley before escaping with the book and the codex.

Victor Henriksen

Victor Henriksen, played by Charles Malik Whitfield, is an FBI agent who pursues the Winchesters since the bank "robbery" in the season two episode "Nightshifter". He believes the Winchesters are serial killers responsible for the deaths that have occurred in various towns. He continues to pursue them when, in the season three episode "Jus in Bello", he finally captures them and holds them in a small town jail while waiting for a FBI helicopter to arrive. However, demons arrive and destroy the helicopter; one of them possesses Henriksen but is exorcised. Finally believing in the supernatural, he agrees to help the Winchesters as they fight off the demon horde. Afterwards, he agrees to tell the FBI that they were in the helicopter when it crashed. However, after the Winchesters leave, he is killed by Lilith. Henriksen makes another appearance in season four's "Are You There, God? It's Me...Dean Winchester". Lilith is breaking the 66 Seals to free Lucifer, and one of them is the Rising of the Witnesses. Sam, Dean, and Bobby meet the ghosts of people they could not save, including Henriksen, who tells them what happened after they left the jail at the end of "Jus in Bello". The ghosts terrorize the trio until they are put to rest.

Other supernatural beings

The Alpha Vampire

The Alpha Vampire, portrayed by Rick Worthy is the very first member of the vampire species. He was created by Eve and spread vampirism afterwards. When Crowley starts a hunt for Alphas to locate Purgatory, he starts sending telepathic messages to his "children" to create as many new vampires as they can. Dean sees this message when he's briefly infected with vampirism and the Campbells are able to use it to track him down and capture him. The Alpha is tortured, but eventually breaks free, killing Christian Campbell. After a fight, Christian, who is revealed to be possessed by a demon, gets up and injects him with dead man's blood, incapacitating him. Afterwards, Crowley arrives and takes him away. The Alpha is held with all the other captured monsters in Crowley's prison, but escapes before Castiel can kill him like he does the other Alphas and monsters in the prison. The Alpha makes a deal with the Leviathans to share humanity among both species with the Leviathan substance that makes humans more docile making it easier for vampires to feed. After several of his vampires die after feeding on infected humans, the Alpha flees to his retreat at an old monastery where Sam and Dean track him down. However, Emily, a young woman he'd held prisoner for twelve years, calls him to warn him that they're coming. The Alpha captures Sam and Dean who ask for his blood, explaining that the Leviathan substance was what killed his vampires and that he'd been betrayed. The Alpha refuses to listen and after hearing that Edgar has arrived, orders the hunters locked up. The Alpha confronts Edgar who confirms Sam and Dean's story, telling him that the Leviathans intend to use the fact that so many monsters feed on humans to wipe them out. When Edgar insults Eve, the Alpha attacks him, throwing Borax in his face, but Edgar overpowers him. Before Edgar can kill the Alpha, Sam and Dean, who broke free, attack and Sam decapitates Edgar. Grateful for their actions and understanding that they have a common enemy, the Alpha gives Sam and Dean his blood without a fight and allows them to take a young boy named Alan he has captured. As they leave, warning him not to keep Edgar's head too close to his body, the Alpha taunts them that they truly want to kill him instead of leaving it for another time and promises to "see you next season."

Amy Pond

Portrayed by Emma Grabinsky as an adolescent and by Jewel Staite as an adult. Amy was a Kitsune who grew up traveling around with her mother. In 1998, they crossed paths with Sam Winchester in Lincoln, Nebraska. Amy killed her mother to protect Sam, with whom she had grown close. Amy re-encountered Sam years later. Sam tracked her down after she committed a series of murders. Amy then reveals that she had only committed the murders to strengthen her sick son Jacob. Given the circumstances, and their history, Sam agrees to let her go and makes Dean promise to do the same. However, Dean later returns and kills Amy. He spares her son, who vows revenge. Dean lies to Sam about Amy's fate but is plagued by guilt. The truth is eventually revealed and is a source of conflict between the brothers for a time.

Amy's name is a nod to the Doctor Who character of the same name.

Benny Lafitte

Benny Lafitte (Ty Olsson) is a vampire who was a vampire pirate during his first lifetime until he met Andrea Kormos and fell in love with her, leaving his nest and stopping feeding on humans. He was eventually tracked down and killed by his nest mates and went to Purgatory where he spent around fifty years before Dean ended up there after killing Dick Roman. Benny saves Dean from another vampire and makes a deal with him: in exchange for Dean taking him with him, Benny will show him a portal out of Purgatory. Benny helps Dean find Castiel, warning him that traveling with an angel will get them killed, but Dean is insistent on all of them getting out. After Benny saves Castiel from Leviathans, he earns Dean's full trust and Dean carries him out of Purgatory in his arm. On Earth, Dean travels to Benny's grave and resurrects him. The two remain in touch, but stay separate until Benny goes after his nest for revenge and to protect himself from further attempts on his life. After Benny is injured, he calls Dean for help and together they take down the nest, with Benny killing his maker. However, Benny is reunited with Andrea who he learns was turned into a vampire instead of being killed. She helps him out, but to Benny's heartbreak, he learns that she has changed and wants to take over the pirating operation herself and Dean is forced to kill her to save Benny. Needing something to keep him on the straight and narrow, Benny moves to his hometown of Carencro, Louisiana where he meets and secretly looks out for his great-granddaughter Elizabeth. Rogue vampire Desmond tries to get Benny to join him, but Benny refuses and Desmond leaves a trail of bodies to try to get Benny to agree, drawing the attention of insane hunter Martin Creaser and Sam and Dean. Dean and Benny hunt down and kill Desmond, but Martin tries to kill Benny, using Elizabeth as a hostage. Benny is forced to kill him in self-defense and is left in a deteriorating situation worsened by the fact that Dean soon afterwards cuts off all contact. When Sam gets trapped in Purgatory, Dean goes to Benny for help, knowing he can get Sam out. Benny agrees, telling Dean he feels he no longer fits in on Earth. Dean kills Benny who saves Sam and Bobby Singer from vampires and leads them to the portal out. However Benny, who never intended to return to Earth, stays behind to hold off a group of vampires and allow Sam to escape. Benny is last seen fighting the vampires. Benny finally gains Sam's acceptance with this self-sacrifice and Dean buries his body instead of burning it in hopes of bringing him back one day.

Chet

Chet (played by Sean Owen Roberts) is a Leviathan stationed at a credit card company. When a flagged alias that was registered by the Winchesters was used, Chet begins to hunt the Winchesters down, tracking them to their hotel room in Prosperity, Indiana. While he easily dominated the brothers, a witch that the Winchesters helped disabled Chet and allowed them to escape. Using copious amounts of chains, the brothers took Chet to Bobby Singers to determine his weakness.

While the brothers attempted to stop a pair of Leviathan doppelgangers, Bobby attempted to find a way to kill or hurt Chet. Nothing worked, until a Borax cleaning product used by Sheriff Jody Mills upstairs dripped from the ceiling; the chemical was significantly more painful and corrosive than anything else used, which Bobby affirmed to be the most effective countermeasure to Leviathans, in tandem with decapitation as long as the head was kept away from the body. Ultimately Bobby decapitated Chet who had at that time assumed Bobby's own form to taunt him and had Sheriff Jody Mills drop his head into a river while he encased Chet's body in concrete.

The Darkness

The Darkness, portrayed by Emily Swallow, with Gracyn Shinyei, Yasmeene Lily-Elle Ball, and Samantha Isler, portraying her child, preteen, and teenage forms, respectively, is a primordial being that exists since before creation. According to Death, the Darkness, an amoral entity that obliterates everything in its path, made up the world before there was light or life. It is possibly the oldest being in the universe; it claims to not know Death, who was God's contemporary. Metatron mentions that the Darkness is God's sister who was sacrificed so He could make the world. God and His archangels battled it in a terrible war and eventually managed to seal it with a powerful mark that would later become known as the Mark of Cain. God entrusted the mark to one of His archangels, Lucifer, but Lucifer was corrupted by the mark's curse and turned evil. After his banishment from Heaven, Lucifer gave the mark to Adam's son, Cain, who sacrificed himself to take Lucifer's corruption over his brother, Abel. Cain and his descendants would be corrupted by the mark, and the mark was passed millennia later to Dean Winchester so he could kill Abaddon. Death says that if the mark is removed without being passed to someone else, the Darkness would be released once more. True to this, when Rowena removes the mark from Dean using a spell from the Book of the Damned, she unwittingly sets the Darkness free to the world.

The Darkness then takes the form of a woman who personally converses with Dean, thanking him for releasing it and stating that they are bound to each other. Later, after Sam and Dean manage to save Amara, a baby whose father is infected by the Darkness, Amara is revealed to be the Darkness incarnated, as she shows the Mark of Cain on her body. By consuming Deputy Jenna's soul, she grows up from her baby form into a little girl, who is directed by Crowley to eat more souls so he can use her for his own deeds. Amara continues to grow by eating souls until eventually, she decides that Crowley is worthless and prevents him from attacking Dean, whom she spares due to their personal "link". Later, after killing several religious preachers, she meets with Dean and states that God exiled her due to her supposedly being able to create better creations. After she again reiterates their link, the latter rejects her. She then transports Dean to safety when the entire Host of Heaven opens up the sky to confront her.

Death

Death, portrayed by Julian Richings, is an immensely powerful entity also called The Grim Reaper or the Pale Horseman. He is neither demon nor angel, and states he is "as old as God, maybe older."

In the climax of "Abandon All Hope", Lucifer performs a bloody ritual to raise Death, and to bind him to Lucifer's apocalyptic bidding. In "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid", Death goes to Bobby's hometown of Sioux Falls and resurrects many deceased locals as undead; this include Bobby's wife. The revived at first appear and act normal, but soon take on feral states; this forces others to kill them in self-preservation. These events were an attempt to break Bobby, one of the few remaining influences keeping Sam from agreeing to be Lucifer's vessel. In "The Devil You Know", Bobby temporarily sells his soul to Crowley in order to locate Death. In "Two Minutes to Midnight" — Death's first corporeal appearance — Death arrives in Chicago to precipitate a storm which would kill 3 million. His vehicle is a pale white 1959 Cadillac. In a lengthy conversation with Dean, he reveals that this and other actions is the influence of Lucifer's binding spell, which Death wishes to break. He presents Dean with his ring, the final piece allowing the Winchesters to open Lucifer's cage and re-imprison Lucifer. "Two Minutes to Midnight" also introduces Death's taste for the typical, renowned, and often unhealthy local restaurant foods of the places he visits, which becomes something of a running gag.

Death appears again in "Appointment in Samarra", in which Dean attempts to convince him to retrieve Sam's soul from Lucifer's cage. Death agrees to do so if Dean performs Death's duties for an uninterrupted 24 hours. Although Dean fails, the Horseman still restores Sam's soul, regarding the Winchesters as "useful". He also forms a wall between Sam's active consciousness and the debilitating memories of his time in Lucifer's cage.

In season seven when Castiel proclaims himself God, the Winchesters summon and bind Death as part of a plan to stop Castiel; Death takes an instant dislike to him. He informs the angel that he is not God and that he is harboring something else within him, the Leviathans, that will soon break free. Castiel removes the Winchesters' bind and leaves. Death, of his own free will, creates another eclipse, giving the Winchesters and Castiel a chance to return the souls to Purgatory before they destroy his vessel. Castiel succeeds in sending the souls back, but the Leviathans manage to hold on and escape into the world.

In "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here," when Sam is dying, Death comes to reap him personally, intimating he considers it an honor. He also states that, he usually doesn't pass judgment, all Sam's actions were "well-played." Sam requests, and Death agrees, to make it so that Sam dies permanently, that no one and nothing can bring him back to life. Ezekiel, in Dean's form, interrupts them, however, and Death allows them to talk, saying that it's Sam's choice if he lives or dies. Sam chooses to live, ultimately, and Ezekiel possesses him in order to heal the damage the trials inflicted.

In "Brother's Keeper", Dean summons Death to kill him as he feels the Mark of Cain is corrupting him too much and he can't fight it anymore. Death is unable to kill Dean because of the Mark's power and explains that the Mark is the lock on the prison of a primordial evil called the Darkness and removing it without passing it on will release the Darkness. Death will only remove the Mark if Dean passes it on and when Dean refuses to do that, offers to transport Dean so far away he's no threat to anyone. However, he demands Sam's death in return as he fears Sam will try to rescue Dean and won't give up until he succeeds. Believing it to be for the greater good, Dean agrees and calls Sam to their location. Death tells Sam his reasons for wanting him dead, including Sam escaping him earlier. Death watches as Sam and Dean argue and fight and then Sam agrees to sacrifice himself to stop the threat of the Mark and the Darkness. Death gives Dean his scythe to do the job and tells him that if Dean doesn't kill Sam, he will. However, after being reminded of how good he really is and his love for his family, Dean instead impales Death with the scythe, killing him. Death can only stare at Dean in shock before crumbling to ash, leaving Dean stunned that he actually killed Death.

In "Form and Void", a Reaper named Billie confirms to Sam that while Dean did kill Death, a new Death has taken his place. While the old Death was amused by Sam and Dean's constant dying and returning, this new Death is not and will have them thrown in the Empty upon dying so that they can never return.

Dick Roman

Dick Roman (played by James Patrick Stuart) is a billionaire businessman whose secret identity is that of the nameless leader of the leviathans. Shortly after they were unknowingly released by Castiel (Misha Collins), the leviathans infiltrated human society, with their leader murdering and impersonating the real Dick Roman. Dick is shown to have a hatred of demons that exceeds even his feelings about humanity, rejecting the demon Crowley's (Mark Sheppard) offer to join forces with him and telling the current leader of Hell that he might very well wipe his kind from the Earth. In "How to Make Friends and Influence Monsters", Dick visits an experimental facility run by a leviathan impersonation of one Dr. Gaines (Cameron Bancroft), disappointed by the newspaper articles stemming from the drugs used, and makes him eat himself. When his henchmen capture Bobby (Jim Beaver), Dick attempts to stop the Winchesters' rescue attempt, fatally wounding Bobby on their escape. Dick is later revealed to be after something from archaeological digs, and assigns Charlie (Felicia Day) to break Frank's (Kevin McNally) hard drive. Unknown to him, she cracks it, learns the truth about him and the rest of the Leviathans, and then teams up with the Winchesters to erase the drive and find out his plans. The Winchesters switch the item he was looking for with a Borax bomb that explodes in Dick's face. Realizing that Charlie betrayed him, he orders the building locked down and goes after her, but the Winchesters break in with the help of Bobby's ghost and Bobby holds Dick off long enough for Charlie and the Winchesters to escape. Dick has Edgar kidnap Kevin at the end of "Reading is Fundamental" and threatens Linda to get Kevin to translate the Word of God tablet in "There Will Be Blood". Dick correctly predicts that the Winchester brothers are planning to get the blood of the Alpha Vampire and of Crowley for the leviathan-killing bone described by the tablet; after sending Edgar on an ill-fated mission to kill the Alpha Vampire before the Winchesters can attain the alpha's blood, Dick summons and traps Crowley. Rather than kill the demon, however, Dick makes a deal with Crowley: in exchange for Crowley giving the Winchesters the wrong blood as part of a trap, the demons will get a free rein with humans in the world, excluding America, which is the place where the leviathans are currently targeting for its abundant food source. Foreseeing Crowley's betrayal, Dick also arranges for several decoys of himself positioned in Sucrocorp to fool the Winchesters into wasting the bone on a fake. However, Dean and Castiel ultimately find and confront Dick, whom Castiel is able to identify due to the brief time that the leviathans used him as their host. When the bone seemingly fails to work, Dick initially believes that he has won, only to find out that he himself has been tricked when Dean kills him with the real bone, sending him back to Purgatory. As an unintended consequence of using the bone, however, Dean and Castiel are pulled into Purgatory with him.

Edgar

Edgar (played by Benito Martinez) is the first Leviathan introduced in the series, taking the form of a demolitions expert and working under orders from "the Leader" - which will be later revealed to be Dick Roman - sent to lead in those feeding indiscriminately and to kill Sam, Dean and Bobby when they interfered on his plans. After observing the new system for feeding developed at Sioux Falls General, he torches Bobby's house and confronts the Winchesters, breaking Dean's leg and knocking Sam unconscious. Dean crushes him with a car from Bobby's scrapyard, but he is later revealed to have been unharmed and continues to pursue the Winchesters and Bobby.

After that, Edgar still worked underground under Dick's order, supervising Sucrocorp project. When the clay tablet that contained the Word of God was stolen by the Winchesters. Dick ordered Edgar to stop them, so he took the form of the detective Collins (played by Eric Floyd) and searched for Kevin Tran, the teenager prophet destined to keep the word. After two Angels return Kevin to his mother's house, Edgar easily kills the two. He later helps Dick force Kevin Tran to translate the Word of God for them and tries to kill the Alpha Vampire. However, Sam decapitates him while he's distracted and as a result of his betrayal, the Alpha gives Sam and Dean his blood for the weapon they are creating. Edgar is left to the Alpha with a warning to keep his head away from the rest of his body.

Eleanor Visyak

Portrayed by Kim Johnston Ulrich, Eleanor Visyak is a creature from Purgatory who is over 900 years old. She who was released from there on March 10, 1937 by a spell performed by H.P. Lovecraft. She possessed the body of his maid, Eleanor. She has been living as a professor of medieval studies at San Francisco University. She has a romantic past with Bobby Singer. In "Like a Virgin", at Bobby's suggestion, Dean visits Dr. Visyak to gain information about dragons and how to kill them. She has a dragon killing sword - the Sword of Brunswick (or Braunschweig) - in her basement, which is stuck in a large rock. Dean extracts it using plastic explosives, breaking the sword in the process. While visiting Westborough, the son of Eleanor, who saw his mother possessed by a creature from Purgatory in 1937, Bobby sees a photo of the woman and realizes that it is the woman he knows as Eleanor Visyak. He finds her in a cabin - one of her 'safe houses' - and tells her he knows who she really is. She confirms his suspicions, but denies that she killed H.P. Lovecraft. Bobby warns her that Castiel is looking for her. He asks for the information about how to open a door to Purgatory, but she refuses to tell him, and also rejects his offer of protection. As she leaves the cabin at the end of the episode, Castiel appears and takes her. A flashback of Sam's in the finale "The Man Who Knew Too Much" reveals that he, Bobby, and Dean found her, fatally wounded, in an alley. She recounts her tortured at the hands of Crowley and Castiel, and admits that she eventually gave in and revealed the spell to access to Purgatory, which involves the blood of a virgin and the blood of a creature from Purgatory. Eleanor dies before she can reveal where Crowley and Castiel are.

Eve

Eve, portrayed by Julia Maxwell and Samantha Smith, is also known as the "Mother of All". Eve was last on Earth 10,000 years ago. She is the original propagator of the majority of supernatural beings. She has been trapped in Purgatory, where the souls of the supernatural go. Eve is released from Purgatory in "Like a Virgin" by a sacrificial ritual. In "...And Then There Were None", Eve creates a being - referred to colloquially as the Khan Worm - that can enter a person's body through the ear and control their actions. She plants it inside a trucker, who goes on to kill his family. It then passes to one of his co-workers who kills 12 people. While investigating the murders, it infects Dean who kills his cousin Gwen, and then infects Samuel, and finally Bobby who kills Rufus while possessed. While possessing Bobby, it tells Dean and Sam that it was created by Eve, who intends for supernatural beings to take over the world. After acquiring the ashes of a Phoenix, said to be lethal to Eve, Sam, Dean, Bobby and Castiel take the fight to her in "Mommy Dearest". Eve reveals that her actions are purely a response to Crowley, still alive, and his capture and torture of her children. She speculates that he is after the souls in Purgatory, and claims that she was satisfied with the natural order of humans and monsters coexisting (with occasional bloodshed on both sides) until Crowley forced her hand. Eve dies after biting Dean, who had Phoenix ash in his blood, to which Crowley takes her body for autopsy. In "There Will Be Blood!," when the Leviathan Edgar is very dismissive towards the Alpha Vampire, he calls himself a "son of Eve," but Edgar calls the Alpha a "mutt" and Eve was "barely worth being called one of us." When Edgar calls Eve a whore, the Alpha Vampire is enraged and attacks him.

Dr. Gaines

Dr. J. Gaines (played by Cameron Bancroft) is a Leviathan using the surgeon's form, although his original form was taken from a young girl named Annie. Under orders from Edgar, he killed the real Dr. Gaines and took his identity. Gaines is responsible setting up a system of feeding on patients at Sioux Falls General, thereby reining in the Leviathans' indiscriminate feeding. Gaines also appears to be the one responsible for conducting the experiments on Sucrocorp, modifying food to make humans docile, dumb and hungry. Gaines is "bibbed", a form of punishment where he was forced to eat himself alive in a bib under Richard Roman's orders, since his experiments attracted the attention of the media.

Ghosts

Ghosts are one of the most recurring monsters of the week on Supernatural, appearing at least once a season. During season 7, hunter Bobby Singer became a ghost for a time after his death to look after the Winchesters and help stop the Leviathan threat. When he started turning into a vengeful spirit, the Winchesters were forced to put him to rest. In the show, there are several different types of ghosts that appear including Woman in White, Spectre, the ghosts of people who were evil in life, Death Echoes, Death Omens and most commonly, Vengeful Spirits, the ghosts of people who want revenge for a wrong committed to them in life. During the show, a number of ways are employed to put the various ghosts to rest, but the most commonly used is salting and burning their human remains. Generally when a spirit's remains are salted and burned, they go up in flames. However, sometimes this is not possible due to cremation and they are attached to an object that must be salted and burned too, sometimes an object that was a part of them like hair or a bracelet with their blood on it, or at other times something that was just important to them in life. Sam and Dean regularly use iron objects and rock salt shotgun pellets to battle ghosts as iron and salt repel them for a while. While it was initially unknown where ghosts go after they are destroyed, hunters generally believed it to be oblivion. However, its revealed in season 8's Taxi Driver that Reapers take the spirit to where they belong once the ghost has been forced from this plane of existence.

Leviathans

Leviathans were first introduced as another primary "creation" of God—already including humans, angels, and demons—during the season premiere of Season 7. According to Death, the Leviathans were among God's earliest creations but were sealed in Purgatory because they were a threat to His other creations. Castiel accidentally absorbs them, along with the souls in Purgatory, during his attempted apotheosis, and the Leviathans free themselves. Once free, they organize a hierarchy with the Leviathan possessing the businessman Richard "Dick" Roman as the leader, though Crowley claims that this being has always been their leader.

The Leviathans are portrayed as virtually indestructible, voracious, and stronger than demons and low-level angels. They can shape-shift into humans, but to do so, they must use traces of their DNA. Leviathans not only replicate the corporeal form of a human, but also their memories and skills. They also have the ability to punch into an angel, killing it. Leviathans' weaknesses include magic, borax, and decapitation, though none of these are lethal. One way for a Leviathan to die is for it to be eaten by a Leviathan. They can commit suicide by eating themselves. Late in season seven, the characters find a tablet containing the "Word of God" that reveals a Leviathan can be killed by using "a bone of a righteous mortal washed in the blood of the three fallen." When this happens, the Leviathan liquefies and explodes.

In season seven, the Leviathans, led by Roman, plan to turn humankind into a farmed, Leviathan food source. They intend to do so through chemically decreasing their intelligence via food adulterants and curing their diseases, including cancer. The Winchesters put a stop to this during the season finale, with Dean and Castiel killing Roman, which, as a side consequence, sends them to Purgatory. Killing Roman, the only Leviathan leader that there has ever been, severely weakens the Leviathans, as they are now directionless. According to Crowley, they will now be regular monsters, albeit ones that are much harder to kill. The remaining Leviathans heavily involved in the plan for humanity are slaughtered by Crowley and his army in the confusion, but Crowley indicates that there are more. By season 8, all the Leviathans' influence appears to have disappeared from the Earth though there are apparently some still out there as it is suggested in "Pac-Man Fever" that they are responsible for mysterious deaths.

Not all Leviathans may have escaped from Purgatory through Castiel, as four were seen there during Dean and Castiel's time in the realm, attacking them. Castiel indicates that there are even more and states that they are relentlessly hunting him. One of his last memories before escaping Purgatory is of Leviathans chasing him.

Pestilence

Pestilence, portrayed by Matt Frewer, is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, along with War, Famine and Death. He equates to the Green Horsemen, and wears an emerald-embedded ring. He can create and manipulate infestations, plagues, diseases and other sicknesses. Upon Lucifer's rise, Pestilence spreads Swine Flu on Earth. It is later revealed that the flu was spread in order to distribute the Croatoan Virus in the form of a 'vaccine'. Dean witnesses the effects of this when transported to the future by Zachariah- approximately 90% of the planet's population is infected. When the Winchesters track Pestilence, he is revealed to be vengeful for the defeat of War and Famine. Castiel defeats the Horseman by removing his ring and, with assistance from Crowley, the spread of the Croatoan Virus is prevented. The eventual fate of Pestilence is unknown, but it can be assumed that he survived his defeat, albeit much weakened.