TL;DR Ramblings on the Women of Supernatural
I love Supernatural, but it doesn't make it easy for me.
For a show with such a loyal female fanbase, Supernatural has pretty horrific feminist credentials. Male gaze and casual misogyny abound.
But if there's one thing that bothers me more than misogyny in media, it's misogyny in fandom. I've seen Jo called a Mary Sue, Bela called a cunt, and Ruby called a whore. All the stranger, this attitude seems to be most prevalent in slash fans, apparently because all female characters are prospective love interests who threaten male-male OTPs.
I ship Dean with Castiel. I love them more than I can say. I honestly think they are meant to be together.
Do you know who my favorite character is in the whole show?
Jo Harvelle.
There are some great female characters on Supernatural, and it's sad that the writers often seem to forget about them, disregard them, or hold them in contempt. As fans, especially as female fans (which comprises most of slash fandom, by the way), we should have their backs.
Mary: The very first woman we see on the show, and at first she is the perfect example of a woman stuffed in the refrigerator. She doesn't have much of a personality, and her death provides a lovely backdrop for the messed-up lives of her widower and sons. The entire arc of the first two seasons can be summed up by, "Kill the demon that killed my wife/mother."
There was a hint of something deeper in "Home," with ghost-Mary's cryptic apology to Sam. At the time I didn't notice it, because I was too busy rolling my eyes at the fact that Sam and Dean were experiencing the death of their saintly mother AGAIN. Jesus, they had enough angst from losing her the first time.
Then came "All Hell Breaks Loose," and one word that changed everything. "You!" Mary said as she recognized Yellow-Eyes in Sam's nursery. Oh hot damn. There was more going on here than I thought.
It wasn't until season 4 that we got the payoff. Mary was a Hunter. She was from a goddamn Hunting dynasty. She was a motherfucking Hunting princess. And she was good at it. Awesome.
It might have bothered me to see a kickass woman choosing domesticity over badassery like young Mary wanted to, but in this case I think it worked. The show had done a really good job of showing us what a crappy life Hunting is, so Mary's desire to live a normal life seemed to me like wisdom rather than cowardice.
I love young Mary, and I love that the show kept going back and showing her to us. A brave, rebellious, stubborn young woman with goals is so much more interesting than a sweet and loving mother dead on the ceiling. There's just one problem.
We know that she failed. She died, John became bitter and unstable, and her sons were raised as Hunters against her wishes. Everything she had was taken away from her, and everything she wanted was denied her. And she's still dead, so there's no closure to all this tragedy. I know the show's not about her, and I know it's not like the boys can just stop being Hunters, but it kind of cheapens her story to know that all of her courage and all of her plans were for nothing.
And this would be sad, but not necessarily problematic, except for one thing: John got to come back just long enough to watch his sons complete his life's work. What did Mary get? Jack shit. Except for a couple of creepy and disrespectful cameos from when the boys were in Heaven and when Sam was in withdrawal. Doesn't she deserve an end to her story? Apparently the writers don't think so.
Jessica: About five minutes after Jess first appeared on screen, I said out loud, "Countdown to Stuffed in the Fridge! Five! Four! Three..."
She was Mary 2.0, with none of the interesting backstory. And God knows we couldn't have had a girl join the boys in the Impala. No, she had to die and Sam had to angst. And the boy does angst beautifully, but between Mary, Jess, and the Woman in White I was seriously side-eyeing the show by the end of the pilot. I kept watching solely by the virtue of Jensen Ackles's face.
Ruby: Ruby is awesome. She fooled the boys, she fooled me, she fooled everyone. Even if you didn't like the idea of Sam getting friendly with a demon, you can't tell me that you didn't think she was sincere in Season Three when she talked about how she wanted to help because she remembered being human.
I don't know whether fans hate her more for sleeping with Sam, driving the brothers apart, or starting the Apocalypse. But I appreciate her for all three. There can be no drama without conflict, and Ruby stirred up conflict but well. If you liked the plotlines about Sam's addiction to demon blood, the boys reconciling after their time apart, or anything about Lucifer, you have Ruby to thank. She made that happen.
That's not to say that I was rooting for her. I was devastated when Sam chose her over Dean, and I cheered when Dean stabbed her. But I'm not betraying the boys when I acknowledge that Ruby was an evil genius and a load of fun to watch. I liked her when I thought she was good, I liked her when it became apparent that she was bad, and I liked her when she was gloating in Sam's face that she had been deceiving him for two years.
Even if she was playing for the other side all along, she played a long game and she played it well. Kudos, Ruby. Too bad you didn't remember to keep your guard up after you'd won.
Bela: I've seen a lot of hate out there for Bela, and I think it stems in part from the fact that she consistently makes the boys look like great big morons. But, like Ruby, that's exactly why I like her. I love the boys, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying a woman who can play them like finely-tuned mandolins.
Don't we all love the cowboy, the anti-hero, the trickster who's looking out for #1 and no one else? So why don't we love the same character when she's a woman? I especially liked the sequence in Fresh Blood where she betrays both Gordon and the boys to each other, and profits from it. I honestly though Gordon was going to best her, but she never backed down. Awesome.
Despite the fan-hate, I think the show handled Bela's story really well. When it was hinted that she had killed a member of her family in Red Sky at Morning, at first I groaned. There's usually only two possibilities with a revelation like that: either the writers don't know where they're going with it and it never gets mentioned again, or they do know where they're going with it and they can't wait to blow their load in one big awkward splooge of exposition. I was pleasantly surprised when the show did neither. Bela's history unfolded slowly, and by the end we still didn't really know the whole story. The boys certainly didn't. That's the mark of good character writing. A writer who didn't care about Bela would have made her spill her whole story, but Sera Gamble knew that Bela's integrity was more important than letting the boys know everything. Say what you want about Sera, but she did right by Bela.
I was sad that she died, but I suppose there's not much you can do when your time is up. In my headcanon, she hitched a ride out of Hell with the angels when they grabbed Dean.
Pamela: As with Bela, sometimes this show pleasantly surprises me. After Pam got her eyes burned out in her first appearance, I really thought that would be the end of her. After all, a depressing number of television writers seem to think that disabled people can't be useful in an action series, and the séance in Lazarus Rising smacked of, "That's what you get for not listening to warnings, lady." I fully expected never to see Pamela Barnes again.
That's why, "I've still got more senses than most," is one of my favorite lines from the show (and there are a damn lot of good lines in this show). You can tell that Pam dealt with her loss, came to terms with it, chose some bitchin' fake eyes, and went back to work with her flirty attitude intact.
And then she died, about which I am still bitter. I was somewhat placated by a glimpse of her in Heaven, but I maintain that she would have been an awesome recurring character and that her powers would have complemented the boys' skills and Bobby's knowledge nicely. I really don't get why they killed her when it would have made so much sense and been so easy to keep her alive.
Meg: I love Meg.
You'd think I wouldn't. She's pretty sexualized, pretty one-dimensional, and basically morally irredeemable. Also she was directly responsible for the death of two of my favorite characters ever, Ellen and Jo. But you know what? I can't hate her for any of that. On her, it works.
I think it helps that the writers haven't tried to give her any Freudian excuse or background motivation. Sure, she's Azazel's daughter, but she never seemed too terribly invested in his plans. She was on Lucifer's side for a while, but she was never seemed to be devoted to him. Whenever she allies with anyone, it seems less like she's throwing her chips in with a certain faction and more like she's making friends with the people who will allow her to wreak the most havoc.
That's the great thing about Meg, and I don't know whether to credit the writers or the actresses who have played her. I guess it's both. She's not complicated or dogmatic. She doesn't have an endgame. She just wants to kill people, fuck with the Winchesters, and have fun doing it. Also, survive. She's as good at surviving regime changes as Crowley is.
There are a few things that bother me about Meg. I think Caged Heat was a damned uncomfortable episode, and I didn't like her working with the Winchesters at all. As Dean pointed out, she killed Ellen and Jo. I never want to see another hint that she might be on our side in any capacity ever again. I like her as a villain, thank you very much. Also, we still don't know her real name. I don't know if that was an oversight by the writers or if it was decided that she didn't mind that the boys kept calling her by the name of her first vessel, but it's a little weird.
But for the most part, Meg is a deliciously, unapologetically, gleefully evil douche. And I can't get enough of her.
Note to writers: if you want to write a villain, but you don't want to put that much work into building her character, this is how you do it.
Eve: And this is how you DON’T do it.
Eve, as a villain, had a lot of potential. The idea of a "Mother of All Monsters" was interesting, and her first appearances were pretty creepy. But I never felt like I knew what she wanted, and there was no sense of the stakes involved in fighting her. She loved her babies and hated Hunters for hurting them? I never really believed that. We don't see her getting upset about all the creatures the boys kill or going out of her way to protect them. She just remained pretty, ethereal, and vaguely threatening. I think they were trying to make her seem spooky and otherworldly, but she just came across as flat and uninteresting. It's not as if the writers don't know how to make villains charismatic (ie. Crowley, Gordon, Zachariah, etc.). Why would they give Eve such an interesting origin and then proceed to make her the most boring character in the show?
Even the final showdown was boring. Sure, she was difficult to kill in a technical sense, but her death was anticlimactic in the extreme. When the boys fought Azazel, Lilith, and Lucifer, there was always a sense of tension and sacrifice. Those fights were turning points for the show and for the characters. Eve went down like any other monster of the week with no real repercussions or risks.
That might be an unfair standard to hold her to, seeing as Eve wasn't supposed to be a Big Bad. She was a decoy villain to set up Castiel's fall at the end of the season. But if you need a red herring, why would you use something as thematically huge as the "Mother of All?" And why would you make her so damned dull?
Lisa: What can you say about Lisa? No seriously, what can you say? She loves Ben. She puts up with Dean's shit. She's, well, a nice lady. But she doesn't really have a character of her own outside of her relationships with Dean and Ben. She's an empty shell ready to be filled with anyone's preconceived notions about the kind of woman Dean Winchester might want to settle down with.
I resented the fact that the show seemed to be smacking us over the head with hints that Lisa was Dean's ticket to love and a normal life. Why? What was so special about her? Dean's relationship with Ben was ten times as interesting, and if I had to pick the door that Dean should have shown up at after saving the world and losing everything, it would have been Cassie's. Remember her? Dean's first love? Dean had way more of a reason to go back to her than to Lisa, with whom he had spent one steamy weekend and one kidnapping-themed reunion. (And I know they're never going to bring Cassie back because she was in the episode about the racist truck and they want us to forget all about that one, but I can dream.)
I didn't mind the fact that Dean settled down for a year (even though my fangirl heart was screaming, "WHAT. ABOUT. CAS?!"), but the writers should have put more effort into Lisa as a character. If all I can say about a woman is that she's a good mother and a good girlfriend, then she's not a strong character.
Anna: Hmm. First Meg and now Anna. Two supernatural beings known only by the names of their vessels. Show, I'm side-eyeing you a little right now. I guess I can understand if Anna wanted to keep her human name to make a point about how she was no longer allied with Heaven, but it was weird that her former subordinates, who presumably knew her by her angelic name for millennia, went along with it so easily.
I don't think I reacted to Anna quite the way the show wanted me to. I was a little miffed at first, what with her being Hollywood-crazy and sleeping with Dean out of nowhere (really, where did that come from?), but as soon as she restored her Grace I was like, "Awesomesauce! Let the fun begin!"
And then the show forgot about her for five episodes. Hmm.
That's okay. When she came back, it seemed like she would be Castiel's conscience and his mentor as he walked the path to rebellion. I was intrigued again. She saved Castiel's life and helped the boys out, and I thought she had pretty well established herself as being a powerful ally.
Then Castiel betrayed her. And no one ever called him out on it. Hmm.
The next time we see Anna, she's gunning for Sam and is treated by the characters and the text as a full-on villain, despite the fact that she's unstable mainly because of the torture she underwent when Castiel sold her out. And all excuses for her behavior aside, here's the thing. ANNA WAS RIGHT. Killing Sam was a really good plan... if you weren't Sam. Hell, even the boys end up agreeing that their never having been born might solve a lot of problems, and yet Anna is still portrayed as a psycho killer. I love Castiel, and I love that he ignores logic in order to protect the boys, but Anna was totally right and the episode never really acknowledged that. She died as a villain despite being one of the great forces for freedom and independence. And her plan was a damn sight more reliable than, "let Sam say yes to Lucifer and then hope against hope that he can take control for long enough to jump to his death and everlasting torment."
Anna is one of my favorite characters, and one of the most misused.
Cassie, Tamara, and Missouri: What the fuck is it with this show introducing awesome black female characters in one episode, only to never mention them again? This is getting to be a pattern, and it makes me very sad.
Cassie, as I mentioned before, was Dean's first love. Tamara was an amazing Hunter with knowledge and experience that complemented the boys'. Missouri was John's goddamn mentor and a powerful psychic. You think any of these people deserve a second episode, or at least a second mention? Me too.
Show, if this happens again, I'm going to have to assume that you're deliberately perpetuating this pattern, at which point I will have to quit you in disgust.
Lenore, Madison, and Amy: Speaking of patterns, here we have the sympathetic monsters who must be killed for their own good, because they can't control themselves. These three characters represent the failure of women to decide their own destinies.
Lenore was an inspiration, a hope that vampires and humans could coexist. She had principles, and she defended them even under threats and torture. She deserved better than to have her pacifist movement destroyed and her own integrity stolen from her, and she certainly deserved better than to die destitute, begging, and unmourned in Bobby's basement. (By the way, they could have imprisoned her until Eve was killed and her hunger subsided, instead of killing her horribly. Just saying.)
I don't get why Madison had to die. In Buffy, when they found out that Oz was a werewolf, did anyone say, "Well, that's that. We have to kill him. There's no other way." No! They figured out ways to keep him imprisoned when he transformed. It's not that hard. Werewolves are strong, but it's not like they can unlock doors or phase through walls. Get the girl a house with a panic room before you shoot her, for fuck's sake.
And Amy. Well, Amy. I can't exactly fault Dean for his decision. He was right. Next time the chips were down, Amy would have killed again. But she was so sympathetic that killing her just felt like a shitty thing to do. Not to mention that this woman who had worked hard to overcome her nature and be a good person was sacrificed on the altar of Sam and Dean's Conflict.
Jodie: I'm not going to say a damn thing about Sheriff Mills, because I don't want to jinx her. (Go Jodie! Be awesome! Have awkward, charming chemistry with Bobby! Please don't die!)
The Harvelles: Whenever Supernatural fails at writing a good female character, I feel compelled to hold up Ellen and Jo and say, "You already proved that you could do it right! Now quit fucking up!"
I love these women. I love that Ellen runs the Roadhouse, bosses people around, and is the voice of reason right up until it's time to fold or go all in, at which point she shoves all her chips onto the table no matter what her hand looks like. I love that Jo has a dream and is stubborn, naïve, and brave to a fault. These are really excellent characters who have their own backstories and motivations that weave together nicely with those of our main characters.
But here's what make Ellen and Jo special: each other. They are female characters, and the most important person in each of their lives is another female character. That makes them unique in all of Supernatural. I'm serious. I don't think most other women on this show even ever talked to another female character. For most of them, their most important relationships were with the Winchesters (Mary, Jess, Ruby, Pam, Cassie, Missouri, Madison, Amy...). Some had other important men in their lives, whether they be family, friends, or lovers (Anna, Tamara, Lenore, Jodie...). Some didn't seem to care about anyone at all (Bela, Meg, Eve...). But Ellen was first in Jo's life, and Jo was first in Ellen's. That didn't change even when Sam and Dean came into their lives and turned everything upside down. It was true right to the end.
Ah, the end. Never have I been so torn over a plot point. On the one hand, HOW COULD THEY KILL THE BEST GODDAMN SIDE CHARACTERS THEY HAD? On the other hand, what we got out of a regrettable decision to kill off Ellen and Jo was one of the best-written, best-acted, most-heart-wrenching death scenes I've ever seen on TV. I cry every single time I see it. So it's a small comfort that at least Supernatural understood the gravity of what it was doing when it self-destructed the best heroines it had ever put on screen.
Show. You've proved that you can do better. Now go do better. I'm waiting. And hoping.
For a show with such a loyal female fanbase, Supernatural has pretty horrific feminist credentials. Male gaze and casual misogyny abound.
But if there's one thing that bothers me more than misogyny in media, it's misogyny in fandom. I've seen Jo called a Mary Sue, Bela called a cunt, and Ruby called a whore. All the stranger, this attitude seems to be most prevalent in slash fans, apparently because all female characters are prospective love interests who threaten male-male OTPs.
I ship Dean with Castiel. I love them more than I can say. I honestly think they are meant to be together.
Do you know who my favorite character is in the whole show?
Jo Harvelle.
There are some great female characters on Supernatural, and it's sad that the writers often seem to forget about them, disregard them, or hold them in contempt. As fans, especially as female fans (which comprises most of slash fandom, by the way), we should have their backs.
Mary: The very first woman we see on the show, and at first she is the perfect example of a woman stuffed in the refrigerator. She doesn't have much of a personality, and her death provides a lovely backdrop for the messed-up lives of her widower and sons. The entire arc of the first two seasons can be summed up by, "Kill the demon that killed my wife/mother."
There was a hint of something deeper in "Home," with ghost-Mary's cryptic apology to Sam. At the time I didn't notice it, because I was too busy rolling my eyes at the fact that Sam and Dean were experiencing the death of their saintly mother AGAIN. Jesus, they had enough angst from losing her the first time.
Then came "All Hell Breaks Loose," and one word that changed everything. "You!" Mary said as she recognized Yellow-Eyes in Sam's nursery. Oh hot damn. There was more going on here than I thought.
It wasn't until season 4 that we got the payoff. Mary was a Hunter. She was from a goddamn Hunting dynasty. She was a motherfucking Hunting princess. And she was good at it. Awesome.
It might have bothered me to see a kickass woman choosing domesticity over badassery like young Mary wanted to, but in this case I think it worked. The show had done a really good job of showing us what a crappy life Hunting is, so Mary's desire to live a normal life seemed to me like wisdom rather than cowardice.
I love young Mary, and I love that the show kept going back and showing her to us. A brave, rebellious, stubborn young woman with goals is so much more interesting than a sweet and loving mother dead on the ceiling. There's just one problem.
We know that she failed. She died, John became bitter and unstable, and her sons were raised as Hunters against her wishes. Everything she had was taken away from her, and everything she wanted was denied her. And she's still dead, so there's no closure to all this tragedy. I know the show's not about her, and I know it's not like the boys can just stop being Hunters, but it kind of cheapens her story to know that all of her courage and all of her plans were for nothing.
And this would be sad, but not necessarily problematic, except for one thing: John got to come back just long enough to watch his sons complete his life's work. What did Mary get? Jack shit. Except for a couple of creepy and disrespectful cameos from when the boys were in Heaven and when Sam was in withdrawal. Doesn't she deserve an end to her story? Apparently the writers don't think so.
Jessica: About five minutes after Jess first appeared on screen, I said out loud, "Countdown to Stuffed in the Fridge! Five! Four! Three..."
She was Mary 2.0, with none of the interesting backstory. And God knows we couldn't have had a girl join the boys in the Impala. No, she had to die and Sam had to angst. And the boy does angst beautifully, but between Mary, Jess, and the Woman in White I was seriously side-eyeing the show by the end of the pilot. I kept watching solely by the virtue of Jensen Ackles's face.
Ruby: Ruby is awesome. She fooled the boys, she fooled me, she fooled everyone. Even if you didn't like the idea of Sam getting friendly with a demon, you can't tell me that you didn't think she was sincere in Season Three when she talked about how she wanted to help because she remembered being human.
I don't know whether fans hate her more for sleeping with Sam, driving the brothers apart, or starting the Apocalypse. But I appreciate her for all three. There can be no drama without conflict, and Ruby stirred up conflict but well. If you liked the plotlines about Sam's addiction to demon blood, the boys reconciling after their time apart, or anything about Lucifer, you have Ruby to thank. She made that happen.
That's not to say that I was rooting for her. I was devastated when Sam chose her over Dean, and I cheered when Dean stabbed her. But I'm not betraying the boys when I acknowledge that Ruby was an evil genius and a load of fun to watch. I liked her when I thought she was good, I liked her when it became apparent that she was bad, and I liked her when she was gloating in Sam's face that she had been deceiving him for two years.
Even if she was playing for the other side all along, she played a long game and she played it well. Kudos, Ruby. Too bad you didn't remember to keep your guard up after you'd won.
Bela: I've seen a lot of hate out there for Bela, and I think it stems in part from the fact that she consistently makes the boys look like great big morons. But, like Ruby, that's exactly why I like her. I love the boys, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying a woman who can play them like finely-tuned mandolins.
Don't we all love the cowboy, the anti-hero, the trickster who's looking out for #1 and no one else? So why don't we love the same character when she's a woman? I especially liked the sequence in Fresh Blood where she betrays both Gordon and the boys to each other, and profits from it. I honestly though Gordon was going to best her, but she never backed down. Awesome.
Despite the fan-hate, I think the show handled Bela's story really well. When it was hinted that she had killed a member of her family in Red Sky at Morning, at first I groaned. There's usually only two possibilities with a revelation like that: either the writers don't know where they're going with it and it never gets mentioned again, or they do know where they're going with it and they can't wait to blow their load in one big awkward splooge of exposition. I was pleasantly surprised when the show did neither. Bela's history unfolded slowly, and by the end we still didn't really know the whole story. The boys certainly didn't. That's the mark of good character writing. A writer who didn't care about Bela would have made her spill her whole story, but Sera Gamble knew that Bela's integrity was more important than letting the boys know everything. Say what you want about Sera, but she did right by Bela.
I was sad that she died, but I suppose there's not much you can do when your time is up. In my headcanon, she hitched a ride out of Hell with the angels when they grabbed Dean.
Pamela: As with Bela, sometimes this show pleasantly surprises me. After Pam got her eyes burned out in her first appearance, I really thought that would be the end of her. After all, a depressing number of television writers seem to think that disabled people can't be useful in an action series, and the séance in Lazarus Rising smacked of, "That's what you get for not listening to warnings, lady." I fully expected never to see Pamela Barnes again.
That's why, "I've still got more senses than most," is one of my favorite lines from the show (and there are a damn lot of good lines in this show). You can tell that Pam dealt with her loss, came to terms with it, chose some bitchin' fake eyes, and went back to work with her flirty attitude intact.
And then she died, about which I am still bitter. I was somewhat placated by a glimpse of her in Heaven, but I maintain that she would have been an awesome recurring character and that her powers would have complemented the boys' skills and Bobby's knowledge nicely. I really don't get why they killed her when it would have made so much sense and been so easy to keep her alive.
Meg: I love Meg.
You'd think I wouldn't. She's pretty sexualized, pretty one-dimensional, and basically morally irredeemable. Also she was directly responsible for the death of two of my favorite characters ever, Ellen and Jo. But you know what? I can't hate her for any of that. On her, it works.
I think it helps that the writers haven't tried to give her any Freudian excuse or background motivation. Sure, she's Azazel's daughter, but she never seemed too terribly invested in his plans. She was on Lucifer's side for a while, but she was never seemed to be devoted to him. Whenever she allies with anyone, it seems less like she's throwing her chips in with a certain faction and more like she's making friends with the people who will allow her to wreak the most havoc.
That's the great thing about Meg, and I don't know whether to credit the writers or the actresses who have played her. I guess it's both. She's not complicated or dogmatic. She doesn't have an endgame. She just wants to kill people, fuck with the Winchesters, and have fun doing it. Also, survive. She's as good at surviving regime changes as Crowley is.
There are a few things that bother me about Meg. I think Caged Heat was a damned uncomfortable episode, and I didn't like her working with the Winchesters at all. As Dean pointed out, she killed Ellen and Jo. I never want to see another hint that she might be on our side in any capacity ever again. I like her as a villain, thank you very much. Also, we still don't know her real name. I don't know if that was an oversight by the writers or if it was decided that she didn't mind that the boys kept calling her by the name of her first vessel, but it's a little weird.
But for the most part, Meg is a deliciously, unapologetically, gleefully evil douche. And I can't get enough of her.
Note to writers: if you want to write a villain, but you don't want to put that much work into building her character, this is how you do it.
Eve: And this is how you DON’T do it.
Eve, as a villain, had a lot of potential. The idea of a "Mother of All Monsters" was interesting, and her first appearances were pretty creepy. But I never felt like I knew what she wanted, and there was no sense of the stakes involved in fighting her. She loved her babies and hated Hunters for hurting them? I never really believed that. We don't see her getting upset about all the creatures the boys kill or going out of her way to protect them. She just remained pretty, ethereal, and vaguely threatening. I think they were trying to make her seem spooky and otherworldly, but she just came across as flat and uninteresting. It's not as if the writers don't know how to make villains charismatic (ie. Crowley, Gordon, Zachariah, etc.). Why would they give Eve such an interesting origin and then proceed to make her the most boring character in the show?
Even the final showdown was boring. Sure, she was difficult to kill in a technical sense, but her death was anticlimactic in the extreme. When the boys fought Azazel, Lilith, and Lucifer, there was always a sense of tension and sacrifice. Those fights were turning points for the show and for the characters. Eve went down like any other monster of the week with no real repercussions or risks.
That might be an unfair standard to hold her to, seeing as Eve wasn't supposed to be a Big Bad. She was a decoy villain to set up Castiel's fall at the end of the season. But if you need a red herring, why would you use something as thematically huge as the "Mother of All?" And why would you make her so damned dull?
Lisa: What can you say about Lisa? No seriously, what can you say? She loves Ben. She puts up with Dean's shit. She's, well, a nice lady. But she doesn't really have a character of her own outside of her relationships with Dean and Ben. She's an empty shell ready to be filled with anyone's preconceived notions about the kind of woman Dean Winchester might want to settle down with.
I resented the fact that the show seemed to be smacking us over the head with hints that Lisa was Dean's ticket to love and a normal life. Why? What was so special about her? Dean's relationship with Ben was ten times as interesting, and if I had to pick the door that Dean should have shown up at after saving the world and losing everything, it would have been Cassie's. Remember her? Dean's first love? Dean had way more of a reason to go back to her than to Lisa, with whom he had spent one steamy weekend and one kidnapping-themed reunion. (And I know they're never going to bring Cassie back because she was in the episode about the racist truck and they want us to forget all about that one, but I can dream.)
I didn't mind the fact that Dean settled down for a year (even though my fangirl heart was screaming, "WHAT. ABOUT. CAS?!"), but the writers should have put more effort into Lisa as a character. If all I can say about a woman is that she's a good mother and a good girlfriend, then she's not a strong character.
Anna: Hmm. First Meg and now Anna. Two supernatural beings known only by the names of their vessels. Show, I'm side-eyeing you a little right now. I guess I can understand if Anna wanted to keep her human name to make a point about how she was no longer allied with Heaven, but it was weird that her former subordinates, who presumably knew her by her angelic name for millennia, went along with it so easily.
I don't think I reacted to Anna quite the way the show wanted me to. I was a little miffed at first, what with her being Hollywood-crazy and sleeping with Dean out of nowhere (really, where did that come from?), but as soon as she restored her Grace I was like, "Awesomesauce! Let the fun begin!"
And then the show forgot about her for five episodes. Hmm.
That's okay. When she came back, it seemed like she would be Castiel's conscience and his mentor as he walked the path to rebellion. I was intrigued again. She saved Castiel's life and helped the boys out, and I thought she had pretty well established herself as being a powerful ally.
Then Castiel betrayed her. And no one ever called him out on it. Hmm.
The next time we see Anna, she's gunning for Sam and is treated by the characters and the text as a full-on villain, despite the fact that she's unstable mainly because of the torture she underwent when Castiel sold her out. And all excuses for her behavior aside, here's the thing. ANNA WAS RIGHT. Killing Sam was a really good plan... if you weren't Sam. Hell, even the boys end up agreeing that their never having been born might solve a lot of problems, and yet Anna is still portrayed as a psycho killer. I love Castiel, and I love that he ignores logic in order to protect the boys, but Anna was totally right and the episode never really acknowledged that. She died as a villain despite being one of the great forces for freedom and independence. And her plan was a damn sight more reliable than, "let Sam say yes to Lucifer and then hope against hope that he can take control for long enough to jump to his death and everlasting torment."
Anna is one of my favorite characters, and one of the most misused.
Cassie, Tamara, and Missouri: What the fuck is it with this show introducing awesome black female characters in one episode, only to never mention them again? This is getting to be a pattern, and it makes me very sad.
Cassie, as I mentioned before, was Dean's first love. Tamara was an amazing Hunter with knowledge and experience that complemented the boys'. Missouri was John's goddamn mentor and a powerful psychic. You think any of these people deserve a second episode, or at least a second mention? Me too.
Show, if this happens again, I'm going to have to assume that you're deliberately perpetuating this pattern, at which point I will have to quit you in disgust.
Lenore, Madison, and Amy: Speaking of patterns, here we have the sympathetic monsters who must be killed for their own good, because they can't control themselves. These three characters represent the failure of women to decide their own destinies.
Lenore was an inspiration, a hope that vampires and humans could coexist. She had principles, and she defended them even under threats and torture. She deserved better than to have her pacifist movement destroyed and her own integrity stolen from her, and she certainly deserved better than to die destitute, begging, and unmourned in Bobby's basement. (By the way, they could have imprisoned her until Eve was killed and her hunger subsided, instead of killing her horribly. Just saying.)
I don't get why Madison had to die. In Buffy, when they found out that Oz was a werewolf, did anyone say, "Well, that's that. We have to kill him. There's no other way." No! They figured out ways to keep him imprisoned when he transformed. It's not that hard. Werewolves are strong, but it's not like they can unlock doors or phase through walls. Get the girl a house with a panic room before you shoot her, for fuck's sake.
And Amy. Well, Amy. I can't exactly fault Dean for his decision. He was right. Next time the chips were down, Amy would have killed again. But she was so sympathetic that killing her just felt like a shitty thing to do. Not to mention that this woman who had worked hard to overcome her nature and be a good person was sacrificed on the altar of Sam and Dean's Conflict.
Jodie: I'm not going to say a damn thing about Sheriff Mills, because I don't want to jinx her. (Go Jodie! Be awesome! Have awkward, charming chemistry with Bobby! Please don't die!)
The Harvelles: Whenever Supernatural fails at writing a good female character, I feel compelled to hold up Ellen and Jo and say, "You already proved that you could do it right! Now quit fucking up!"
I love these women. I love that Ellen runs the Roadhouse, bosses people around, and is the voice of reason right up until it's time to fold or go all in, at which point she shoves all her chips onto the table no matter what her hand looks like. I love that Jo has a dream and is stubborn, naïve, and brave to a fault. These are really excellent characters who have their own backstories and motivations that weave together nicely with those of our main characters.
But here's what make Ellen and Jo special: each other. They are female characters, and the most important person in each of their lives is another female character. That makes them unique in all of Supernatural. I'm serious. I don't think most other women on this show even ever talked to another female character. For most of them, their most important relationships were with the Winchesters (Mary, Jess, Ruby, Pam, Cassie, Missouri, Madison, Amy...). Some had other important men in their lives, whether they be family, friends, or lovers (Anna, Tamara, Lenore, Jodie...). Some didn't seem to care about anyone at all (Bela, Meg, Eve...). But Ellen was first in Jo's life, and Jo was first in Ellen's. That didn't change even when Sam and Dean came into their lives and turned everything upside down. It was true right to the end.
Ah, the end. Never have I been so torn over a plot point. On the one hand, HOW COULD THEY KILL THE BEST GODDAMN SIDE CHARACTERS THEY HAD? On the other hand, what we got out of a regrettable decision to kill off Ellen and Jo was one of the best-written, best-acted, most-heart-wrenching death scenes I've ever seen on TV. I cry every single time I see it. So it's a small comfort that at least Supernatural understood the gravity of what it was doing when it self-destructed the best heroines it had ever put on screen.
Show. You've proved that you can do better. Now go do better. I'm waiting. And hoping.