Interesting reply, CLDeangrl. I believe we are mostly in agreement about these subjects. I just happened to be more disappointed with Mary’s appearance in “Home”, but you make a good defense of it. I also admit that I have a problem with the “sale of one’s own soul” being presented in the show as something heroic (when done as a loving sacrifice for somebody else), although it has also been stated by some characters (as I said before) that there is something really wrong about it. Dean himself spent a whole season digesting that his father had done that for him, and his first impulse about the guy in “Crossroads Blues” who had done the same thing for his wife (only with ten extra years of life) was to blame him of being guilty of a really wrong sin. But John, his worshipped hero, had chosen to do it, so there went Dean, following his father’s steps when he saw it necessary. I also believe that after selling his soul and being subjected to all that demonic manipulation in Hell, Dean would have become irreversibly evil, not because it weren’t understandable that he would give in under the terrible pain, but because of his ‘original’ sin of selling his soul to begin with, what means giving it up to the demons to do away with it. But anyway, as it is such an integral plot of the whole series, I have agreed with myself to finally accept this Supernatural heroic version of the “selling one’s soul” business, and I’m also kind of glad that Dean’s fall in Hell was conveniently overcome so that he could be a good guy again, and even a fighter of evil fighting on Heaven's side as their chosen hero (before giving up all kind of guidance whatsoever coming from the angels after feeling betrayed by them).
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THEIR FRIENDS (EXTENDED FAMILY)
Bobby Singer (who has appeared in 45 episodes, more or less) has stated once and again that he loves the Winchester bros as if they were his own sons. And he has confirmed this with hard facts: in his always being there for them (even at the risk of his life) and in the occasional much deserved scolding of the ‘idjit’ boys. His house and the surrounding salvage yard are a refuge for our guys and especially his panic room, an unbeatable bunker designed for ultimate protection against evil forces, which symbolizes what the character of Bobby offers to Sam and Dean: a fortress full of sigils, gadgets, tricks, weapons, lore knowledge (books over books of it), hunter experience and human wisdom to help them in their fight against all kinds of enemies, including the ones lurking inside of themselves.
It might be interesting to try to guess what a salvage yard means in Erik Kripke’s mind. An early draft of the pilot opens with Dean in a junkyard with all the stocked cars’ carcasses going wildly alive in a threatening supernatural kind of a way (
http://es.scribd.com/doc/886560/Earliest-Pilot-draft; link taken from
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com). Also, in the already mentioned Anime episode “Rising Son”, a bunch of junk cars join to form an enormous “transformer” monster demon. These examples indicate that those old discarded vehicles could be harboring a big hidden threat. It also could just show the decay of our gadget-based society or, following up with the Impala’s symbolism, the breaking apart of lots of familial relationships leading to a desolated psychological landscape, prone for monsters to come and find their prey in it. Bobby’s hunter activity also derived from a demon messing up with his wife. He comes from a broken family, but took responsibility and faced the challenge to hunt monsters and demons away. That’s what hunters do. They take care of some desolate areas of life and watch for bad things not to prey on them.
Bobby was introduced to the (hunter’s) life by Rufus Turner (4 episodes), who also used to be like a brother to him until a big fall out happened between them, and who finally died at Bobby’s own hands when his old friend was possessed by one of Eve’s creatures... what happens to be a typical hunter’s story, where a close partnership gets shattered big time once and again by the hardships of the life and where one hunter ends up killing his hunter mate because of having been turned, or possessed, or just per accident when acting as a bait or during a fight gone wrong. This is also the fate that seems always just waiting to happen even to such close hunting partners as Sam and Dean: both were deadly confronted against each other when Sam was influenced by a ghost in 1.10 or possessed by a demon in 2.14 (or just lacking a soul in half of season 6, when he even dared to turn against Bobby as a father figure) or when Dean was turned into a vampire in 6.5 and therefore just asked to be killed, or just any moment after John’s death because the older brother was warned by his father that he might eventually need to kill his (ginormous) little brother. A fate which also induced a few hunters to hunt them, or at least Sam (as Gordon, Kubrik and the ones who attacked them in 5.3 or 5.16) and even made a few related hunters get killed by the brothers (grandpa Samuel being killed by Sam and cousin Gwen by Dean). A fate that sadly also reached John Winchester when he unwillingly killed his hunting partner Bill Harvelle.
The life of a hunter is a solitary one and the partnership with other hunters, although desirable in principle, tends to end in a bad way, so that the ‘family’ bond among the Winchester brothers and Bobby Singer is really a rare exception. As it also is a really rare endeavor to run a Roadhouse for hunters, where they can hang out together in their idle times. Ellen Harvelle (9 episodes) sticked to this task after her husband died, maybe because of her need to keep an eye on the hunting business and still take care of her impetuous daughter Jo (until she decided to take care of herself). Ellen had once respected John Winchester as a good friend and tended kindly to his sons after his death, trying to forget the damage done. Her figure (paralleling the Roadhouse) is that of a nurturing mother (or home) and a core reference of helpful connections, but unavoidably engulfed in an atmosphere of suspicion (because of the dangerous nature of the people surrounding her) and fated (both she and her bar) to an untimely departure from the show. Her role of being a friendly harbor for the guys, deriving from her relation with John in the old times, was earlier played by Missouri Moseley (who reprises Ellen’s role in the Anime show), a character who seems to have evolved into both Bobby and Ellen after the actress was found unavailable to return to the show. Other characters who have played a similar role, although with much less time on screen, were Pastor Jim and Caleb (both killed by the demon Meg, who also had a hand in the killing of Ellen and Jo).
In an alternate dimension (4.17) Dean believes his parents are called Bobby and Ellen, and that he has a sister named Jo. Also in the ‘Unsunk Titanic’ reality (6.17) Ellen and Bobby appear as a couple, with Jo being their daughter/stepdaughter, what places her in a ‘sisterly’ role with respect to the Winchester brothers. Joanna Harvelle (6 episodes), raised in a hunting environment, belongs to the extended family of our boys, and despite her romantic inclination towards Dean, she was mainly regarded by them as a little sister. Before Bill’s story was known, it was speculated by the fans that Jo could have been their real half-sister, assuming a love affair had taken place between John and Ellen in the old times, but the honor of being the third hidden Winchester sibling went finally to Adam Milligan (3 episodes), son of a sporadic love relationship between John and his mother Kate. However, Adam unfortunately was already dead when Sam and Dean finally learned about him and ran to his help.
Adam and his mother were killed by revengeful creatures which had been deprived of their father by John (4.19), while Ellen and Jo (already mortally wounded by Meg’s hellhounds) died in a self-inflicted explosion to buy some time for the boys in the big battle against the devil himself (5.10). The previous night they had taken a ‘family’ picture at Bobby’s place, a lovely picture which ended being vicariously cremated. After losing their mother and father, Sam and Dean have also lost each other (several times, although luckily yet only temporarily) and their closest ‘family’ friends, except Bobby, who was saved of the big catastrophe in “Abandon All Hope” by his being in a wheelchair (after another fateful encounter with the same demonic Meg).
The brothers still found later a new hunters’ family in the Campbell clan, what resulted in a big deception, as the revived grandpa Samuel (8 episodes) turned out to be a traitor and cousin Christian (4) the vessel of a demon. Gwen and Mark Campbell might have been some alright relatives if they had stayed alive long enough to overcome the reserves the whole clan held against Dean upon first meeting him. The Campbells of past times, when young Mary still lived with her parents, are another example of a hunter family, all of its members horribly fated to untimely deaths. Jo and young Mary seem to be contrasting figures as both girls were raised in a hunting environment, but Mary didn’t want to stay in the family business while Jo did wish (unsuccessfully for a long time) to be accepted in it; Mary tried to marry out of the hunting circle (with John), what ended being the beginning of a new hunting clan (the Winchesters), while Jo felt attracted to a hunter (Dean), to end up being rejected as a hunter herself (for some time). The whole Harvelle clan became (like the Campbell clan) finally eliminated: all of their members getting killed while in action with some of the Winchesters.
As helpful aids for the brothers’ task, per their valuable skills, and in close relation to Ellen and Bobby, we find the interesting characters of Ash and Pamela (appearing in 5 and 4 episodes, respectively), the only good friends of our guys who, after their obligatory untimely deaths, are known to have made it safely to heaven. Other important allies of the Winchesters fall under different categories, like their supernatural friends (Castiel as their angel brother and others like Anna, the questionable Ruby, etc.) and their romantic relationships (Jessica and Lisa), which will be presented at another time.