Hunter and hunted: Jo in Born Under a Bad Sign.
I’ll assume if you are reading this you are not of the kill Jo with a spork faction and will therefore allow me some indulgence in tracing Jo’s journey since we last encountered her and though the events of this episode.
In this essay, I will take as canon the back story from the official online Hunter’s Blog, transcripts of which can be found at the wonderful Super Wiki.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Jo - so how did she end up in this bar in Duluth?
We know from Sam’s conversation with Ellen in Hunted that she has left the Roadhouse and been off hunting on her own.
Well, after she worked that job with you boys she decided she wanted to keep on hunting. I said "not under my roof", and she said "fine".
I don’t think Ellen is being quite honest here. I think she knows it wasn’t just the hunt with the Winchesters that sent Jo off on her own and she admits as much:
I wish I could blame the hell out of you boys. It'd be easier. Truth is, it's not your fault. Sam.
There is an obvious parallel here with Sam’s own history - the not under my roof line must echo for him. However I think Ellen and Jo’s situation is quite different.
We know Jo has been out on hunts before this one, with Ellen’s blessing. And we know Jo went off to college for some time. The sticking point between them has been Jo going hunting on her own. (And let's remember Dean was at least Jo's age or older when he went on his first solo hunt)
This situation has been exacerbated by Jo’s experience in Philadelphia, which bought to the surface Ellen’s grief over her husband’s death while on a hunt with John Winchester.
Ironically I think Ellen’s revelation to Jo about the circumstances of her father’s death, only firmed her resolve to keep hunting because as she told Dean:
It's my way of being close to him.
I think the separation between Ellen and Jo is just that - part of the normal if sometimes difficult process by which a child separates from her parent. It’s not an estrangement - I mean Jo is sending postcards!
So, to the bar in Duluth where Jo has chosen to have a base for her hunting rather than living on the road. And, as someone seeking to establish herself on her own terms, she looks for all the world like her mother back at Harvelle’s.
Jo is surprised to see Sam and it’s no wonder. She didn’t part on good terms with the boys - well specifically with Dean. In fact most of her interaction has been with Dean rather than Sam (on-screen at least and not withstanding the long uncomfortable drive back from Philly).
Evil!Sam starts talking, explaining he is not like John (and yep the old Meg!demon holding a bit of a grudge against John I think). When Jo reacts at the mention of Dean, Evil!Sam seizes on this infers that she has a romantic attraction to Dean.
And who wouldn’t? We know there is some sexual interest on both sides, although when they meet it’s the wrong place, wrong time. But I don’t think that’s Dean’s main attraction for Jo.
I think Jo is drawn to Dean because he’s a hunter. We know she has worked with other hunters in the past - including Gordon (disastrously) and Rick (with who she had a relationship). She’s keen to hunt more, to hunt solo, and I think she sees Dean in that role - as someone she can learn from and hunt with. A mentor, and possibly a partner, in hunting. And hunting with Dean, the way her father did with John, may make her feel closer to her father.
I think it is also no coincidence that we learn that one of the strongest memories she has of her father is of his leather jacket. Subconsciously at least she also sees some of her father in Dean - a man who has made hunting his life. So in a couple of ways being with Dean brings her closer to her dead father.
evil!Sam’s words do disturb her because now that, like her mother, she has got over her anger and grief about Dean’s “connection” to her father’s death, Dean is someone she holds in esteem and I don’t think it is the ‘no hope of romance’ line that bothers her. It hurts her to hear that Dean thinks of her as a schoolgirl and not as a hunter.
When evil!Sam then offers himself as interested in her she is confused, and rejects him. I think this is a mistake on the demon’s part. We know this demon’s m.o. is to draw people in through sexual attraction, but if it wanted something from Jo it is the wrong tact to take. Mind you given it only needs Jo as bait, I don’t think it really matters.
On regaining consciousness, Jo says You’re not Sam. In light of her latter question to Dean He was possessed? she may mean that this sexually violent man is not the Sam she knows, rather than guessing that he is not Sam in a more literal sense. But I rather think her hunter-senses are tingling and she knows something is up but, like Dean, she doesn’t quite know what.
Evil!Sam then taunts Jo with a version of her father’s death, one that is more horrible and paints John Winchester in an even worse light. Dean arrives, only to seemingly ignore her peril.
Yet after all this she reacts as a hunter - searching and assisting Dean.
Don’t be such a baby Jo says as she removes a bullet from Dean’s shoulder in an effort to reclaim some adult status for herself. She asks whether demons ever tell the truth, and I think she is asking both in relation to what evil!Sam told her about Dean and about her father.
Dean then guesses that as evil!Sam is after hunters, he will go after Bobby next. Think what this implies - first evil!Sam called her bait, and now Dean doesn’t consider that she may be a hunter worthy of being on evil!Sam’s list. Jo demands her right to join in the hunt, but Dean rejects this.
I’ll call you Dean says. No you won’t Jo acknowledges to herself. The words are the same that would be used in a romantic situation. The parallel here is that this hunting partnership isn’t going anywhere. Dean has a partner - Sam - and there isn’t room for anyone else. Who knows what might’ve happened if Jo had met Dean while Sam was off at Stanford? For now it remains the wrong place, wrong time.
Jo has moved away from her mother and from her family at the Roadhouse to assert her independence and follow her calling. The Winchesters represent what she wants - a life with hunting at the centre, and maybe someone to share that with.
I hope she finds it.