Harvelle's

 Evening Night Owls and Hunters,

This week we are going to talk about my all-time favorite characters in the show Supernatural; Ellen and Jo Harvelle.

Sam and Dean meet this mother-daughter duo at Harvelle's Roadhouse at the beginning of Season 2. For context, John Winchester, the boy's father, has just died, and they're navigating how to go on with the hunt for the Yellow-Eyed Demon after a huge defeat. To get themselves back on the horse, they look for another hunt and find a voicemail on their father's phone from Ellen regarding information about the demon.

They set out for Nebraska and walk into a seemingly empty saloon. After some investigation, Sam and Dean each find themselves on the wrong end of a shotgun with Jo and Ellen on the other side of them. After a moment, Ellen recognizes their names and realizes that these are "John Winchesters Boys," lowers her rifle and introduces herself and her daughter Jo.

Ellen was surprised to see them because she had left that voicemail for John weeks earlier and hadn't expected them to come in his place. From the boys, she learns of Johns's death, and while showing condolences for the loss, she gives them not an inch of slack as they appear defensive over losing their father. She has information, and if they want it, good; if not, "don't let the door smack your ass on the way out."

From her, the boys learn that the roadhouse is a common road stop for hunters when they pass through on cases. John knew Ellen's late husband Bill back in the day (he was also a hunter), and the two were friends.

Like her mother, Jo is a feisty, no-nonsense woman who also helps bust the Winchesters out of their grief funk and helps them get back to work. They hook them up with a case, and they get their groove back.

The reason I love Jo and Ellen so much is because while they aren't seen in the show much, their effect on the boys' journey is huge. They remind them to get their head out of their butts and to not forget what's important; family. Family is more than those that share your blood. They were hunters and had a community around them should they choose to reach out for help. They are also human and allowed to be vulnerable once in a while.

A big scene too that appears is when Jo joins Sam and Dean for a hunt. She's inexperienced and is put in danger a few times but comes out mostly unscathed; Ellen is furious when they get back.

We find out that the reason that Ellen didn't want Jo hunting is that John and Ellens's husband Bill had gone on a hunt years before, and Bill ended up dying on the hunt under John's watch. Although Ellen considered John a good friend, she lost trust in him after that, and some of that mistrust she had reflected in Sam and Dean in the hunt they went on with Jo. Which she knew wasn't necessarily fair of her, but it brought up bad memories and feelings she couldn't shake.

The lesson the boys learned here was just how dangerous their job really is. They'd become desensitized to it because they'd been doing it their whole lives. But to those that haven't been doing it a long time, it's the most dangerous place one could physically put themselves, and if people weren't a part of the hunt, then hunters would encourage them to stay out and have a life.

Ellen and the boys do make peace, and they move on past this incident, but the lessons learned stuck like glue.

It's an important lesson to know that Individuals that come into your life may not always stick around forever, but those that don't will always teach you something.