Bela Talbot

"They were lovely people. And I killed them. And I got rich. I can't be bothered to give a damn. Just like I don't care what happens to you."

- Bela lies to Dean about her past, Time Is On My Side.

Bela Talbot (c. 1983 - 2008), real name Abbie, made a deal with a crossroads demon when she was a teenager to kill her abusive parents. She later became a con-artist and thief who stole supernatural objects to sell and ran scams selling fake charms and running seances for rich clients. She was widely regarded as a nuisance by hunters, whom she in turn looked down upon.

With her ten-year deadline coming to an end in 2007, a desperate Bela attempted to get out of her deal by agreeing to work for demons, who used her to steal The Colt and to try to kill Sam Winchester. Bela was ultimately killed by a hellhound and her soul taken to Hell.

Physical Appearance
Bela was 5'8" and, according to Rufus Turner, "skinny." She had shoulder-length light-brown hair and green eyes. She spoke with a posh English accent, although she could mimic an American accent. Her taste in clothes favored the feminine, as she often wore dresses, skirts, and/or low-cut tops, along with a jacket or coat (usually leather) and leather boots. She kept a plethora of wigs as well as costumes for occasions when she wanted to disguise herself.

Personality
"Come on. You do this out of vengeance and obsession. You're a stone's throw from being a serial killer. Whereas I, on the other hand, I get paid to do a job and I do it. So, you tell me—which is healthier?"

- Bela, Red Sky at Morning.

As a young girl, Bela appeared to be quiet and timid due to the abuse she endured from her parents. She later developed a light-hearted demeanor that belied how ruthless she could be. She had a witty, sarcastic sense of humor that she used to tease and banter with others. As her deadline for her deal approached, however, she became increasingly desperate and dropped her cheerful persona. She tried to act nonchalant even under tense conditions such as the threat of death. She was smug, sophisticated, and stuck-up, at one point showing exasperation at Dean's unrefinement. Her choice of aliases suggested a fondness for classic horror films, just as the Winchesters use the names of their favorite rock stars as aliases.

Bela's skills, resources, lack of loyalty to anyone other than herself, and willingness to do whatever it took to get what she wanted made her a dangerous adversary despite not all that invincible, having struck a demonic bargain from her youth for ten years and had bore that debt the entire time. She tricked Sam and Dean at least once in most of the episodes she appeared in, although she usually received some form of punishment for this; for example, she manipulated them into getting a hand of glory which she then stole, but almost died as a result, had to enlist their help to save herself, and paid them a cash reward. She tried to remain in control of her situation and twist any opportunity to her advantage; however, she is not blind to potential threats, as Bela was obviously disturbed when she received a warning from Dean that she will hunt her down as soon as he deals with Gordon, whom she non-chalantly clued on to the Winchesters whereabouts, and attempted to appease Dean by giving information on Gordon.

Bela was greedy, manipulative, and selfish. She did not feel guilty if achieving her goals hurt or even killed people; she believed that the world couldn't be saved. She thought hunters were sociopathic killers pursuing vengeance on the supernatural, although she found Sam and Dean naive and somewhat endearing for trying to save people. She felt that she was alone, once telling the brothers, "You wouldn't understand. Nobody did."

Bela sought to conceal much about herself, refusing to divulge the truth about her parents to Dean, instead claiming that they were "lovely people" and she didn't care that she had killed them. She hid how truly damaged she was out of her distrust of other people. Because of the deal she'd made, Bela preferred not to ask for help or be indebted to anyone; this led to her death when she made enemies of those who could have saved her. She found it easier to pay a large amount of money than to simply thank people.

Background
"You wouldn't understand. No one did. Nevermind. I'll just do what I've always done. I'll deal with it myself."

- Bela, Red Sky at Morning.

Abbie was born to a wealthy family in the United Kingdom around 1983.

Abbie's reaction to Dean's quip that her father must not have hugged her enough and a flashback in Time Is On My Side of an older male entering her room and closing the door as she sat on her bed crying indicate that her father sexually abused her.

Abbie encountered a crossroads demon as a teenager. The demon offered to "take care of" her parents and she agreed to the deal, which resulted in her parents getting killed in a car crash. She inherited their fortune.

Abbie, now named Bela, eventually became a thief of the occult. She used aliases and disguises to avoid her real identity from being discovered, and even burnt off her fingerprints.

Bela encountered hunter Bobby Singer before Season 3; he helped her get a good deal on an amulet in Flagstaff and kept tabs on her before she went to the Middle East and he lost track of her.

Bela returned to America in Bad Day at Black Rock.

Season 3
"We're all going to Hell, Dean. Might as well enjoy the ride."

- Bela, Bad Day at Black Rock.

Bela hired two criminals to steal a cursed rabbit's foot from a storage container owned by the deceased hunter John Winchester. John's sons, Sam and Dean Winchester, retrieved the foot from her lackeys when the latter became cursed. Bela disguised herself as a waitress at the diner the brothers were eating at, and stole it back from Sam, cursing him with bad luck that would eventually turn fatal.

Dean broke into Bela's apartment and took the foot back, but she interfered when they were about to destroy it and shot Sam in the shoulder to coerce them into giving her the foot. Dean, however, tricked her into touching it, and she was forced to let them destroy it or else eventually be killed by bad luck. She made up for the lost profit by stealing $46,000 in winning lottery tickets from Dean that he had purchased using the foot's granted luck.

Under the alias "Alex," Bela conned an elderly woman named Gert Case into believing that she had solved the case of Gertrude's mysteriously-drowned niece, who died after seeing a ghost ship. However, the Winchesters investigated and accidentally revealed to Gertrude that the case was not yet solved, causing her to stop paying an irate Bela. During the investigation, Bela and the Winchesters heckled each other out of mutual irritation and dislike.

Bela discovered that the cause of the drownings was the spirit of a sailor, whose hand was turned into a Hand of Glory, a precious magical artifact, after his death. Pretending that she wanted to get the Hand to destroy it and solve the case, she enlisted Sam and Dean's help and attended a party at the Sea Pines Museum with them and Gert. She took the Hand once Dean stole it, swapping it out with a ship in a bottle to fool the Winchesters; after she sold it, however, she saw the ghost ship, which only appeared to those who were responsible for the death of a family member, as the sailor had been betrayed and executed by his own brother.

A terrified Bela begged Sam and Dean for help; while Dean was happy to let her die, Sam suggested they give the spirit the one he truly wanted revenge on: his own brother. During the summoning, Bela was almost killed by the sailor, but survived through Dean and Sam's protection. She gave them $10,000 as repayment.

Hunter Gordon Walker tracked Bela down to make her give him the location of the Winchesters. When he told her that Sam is the Antichrist, she mocked Gordon, not flinching even when he threatened to kill her. However, she agreed to call Sam and Dean to learn their location in exchange for his priceless mojo bag, believing that Gordon was acting alone and that the brothers would be able to easily fight him off. Dean later called her and vowed to hunt her down and kill her for her treachery; visibly shaken, she used a Ouija board to obtain information on Gordon and his location, which she gave to Sam and Dean to pacify them.

The Winchesters contacted Bela for dream root, which would allow them to enter comatose Bobby's dreams and wake him up. While she initially refused to help them, she later showed up and gave them the dream root, claiming that she wanted to repay Bobby for saving her life. In actuality, she had been contacted by Lilith, who told her that she (Lilith) held all the contracts for deals made by crossroads demons. Lilith had offered her a new deal: if Bela stole The Colt for her, she would be released from her contract. Once she gave it to Crowley, however, he changed their deal and ordered her to kill Sam as well.

Sam and Dean tried to track Bela down so they could reclaim the Colt to save Dean from his own crossroads deal. She lead them right into a trap, getting them arrested and imprisoned. Lilith sent her forces to the police station to kill the brothers, but Sam and Dean fended them off and eventually escaped.

Bela eventually contacted Rufus Turner. Unfortunately for her, he was an old friend of Bobby's who alerted Bobby and thus the Winchesters to her whereabouts. Rufus also got her record (including her real name and parents' deaths) from the United Kingdom when he sent them a frame of her ear captured on his security camera, and gave them to Dean. Bela was confronted by Dean in her hotel room. He prepared to kill her but stopped when he saw that she was protecting her room with devil's shoestring--an herb that guarded against hellhounds--and realized that she had made a deal and was already doomed. He left, but she had already managed to pick his pocket and had a receipt from the motel he and Sam were staying at. Shortly before her deal was up, she went to their motel to kill them, but found sex dolls placed in their beds to fool her; Dean knew that she'd taken the receipt and the brothers had escaped ahead of time.

Dean called the room's phone and a shell-shocked Bela answered. Breaking down into tears, she begged him to help her, and though he refused, saying that it was too late, she passed on vital information about Lilith. When he pointed out that this could not possibly benefit Bela and asked why she told them, she responded, "Because maybe you can kill the bitch." Dean hung up on her after saying, "I'll see you in Hell."

A few moments later, Bela's deal was up and hellhounds moved in to kill her. It was implied that she was killed and her soul brought to Hell where it is currently being tortured until she becomes a demon.

Relationships

 * The Winchesters and Bela

Appearances

 * Season 3
 * Bad Day at Black Rock
 * Red Sky at Morning
 * Fresh Blood
 * Dream a Little Dream of Me
 * Mystery Spot (Mentioned only)
 * Jus In Bello
 * Long-Distance Call (Mentioned only)
 * Time Is On My Side
 * No Rest For The Wicked (Mentioned only)


 * Season 5
 * The Real Ghostbusters (Mentioned only)

Trivia

 * Bela was created to broaden the world of Supernatural as the concept of a human who moved through the supernatural but chose to use it to benefit herself rather than be a hunter. She was initially described in press releases before Season 3 as a mercenary.
 * Bela was not planned to be English until actress Lauren Cohan was hired to portray her.
 * Bela was slated to be a recurring character, but her role in the series was expanded after the network requested a second female regular for the third season in addition to Ruby.
 * Cohan originally auditioned for the role of Ruby while Katie Cassidy, who portrayed Ruby's third season incarnation, originally auditioned for the role of Bela.
 * Bela's real name, Abbie, is a nickname for Abigail, which means "father's joy" in Hebrew.
 * Bela used "Lugosi" to do business with the thieves in Bad Day at Black Rock and was known as "Bela Talbot" to most people, both of which reference Bela Lugosi (Dracula - 1931). "Talbot" also references the character Larry Talbot, played by Lon Chaney Jr. in the Wolfman (1941). Dean mentioned in Time Is on My Side that she has used the alias "Mina Chandler"--"Mina" being a character from Dracula, "Chandler" being the surname of the actress who portrayed her in the 1931 film (the same film in which Bela Lugosi portrayed Dracula). "Talbot" might also have been a nod to 16th-century Englishman Edward Talbot, who shared many traits in common with Bela: he swindled people, claimed to be a spirit medium, and attempted to become rich from making gold through alchemy.
 * Bela owned an apartment in Queens, New York, where she kept a pet Siamese cat.
 * Bela shared some similarities with the DC Comics character Catwoman, such as their occupations as thieves, their wealth, their affection for felines, and their antagonistic sexual tension with the heroes they are pitted against; Bela with Sam and Dean, Catwoman with Batman. Amusingly, Dean joked that he was Batman in the same episode in which Bela was introduced.
 * Bela was killed off for multiple reasons: her continued reappearances felt out-of-place because she was not properly tied to the overall storyline, she was presented as too antagonistic to redeem herself and become an ally of Sam and Dean, and the audience reacted negatively towards her. Ironically, the episode she died in did not have the above issues: she was revealed to have a storyline that mirrored Dean's and to be working for the season's main antagonist (Lilith), she was treated in-universe as an antagonist rather than as a friendly enemy, and even some of the audience who had previously disliked the character felt sympathetic to her due to her tragic backstory and ultimate fate.
 * Bela is the only series regular character who never appeared in a season premiere or finale.