| “ | Dean: It's okay. Jo: No, it's not. You deserve better. Dean: No, you did. You deserved better, Jo. |
” |
— Dean and Jo
in No Exit | ||
Dean Winchester and Jo Harvelle shared a friendship. Their relationship was damaged in "No Exit" and "Born Under a Bad Sign", although they moved on enough years later to renew their friendship when they met again in Season 5.
History[]
Background[]
Dean and Jo's fathers, John Winchester and Bill Harvelle respectively, were fellow hunters. John sometimes visited Harvelle's Roadhouse, where the Harvelles lived and worked, and grew quite close to the Harvelle family; Jo's mother, Ellen, later described him as being "like family" at one point.
John and Bill went on a hunt together that resulted in the latter's death and the former's estrangement from the Roadhouse crew. John avoided the Roadhouse out of guilt and never told his sons Dean or Sam about it, the Harvelles' existence, or Bill's death. Due to this Jo gets mad and yells at Dean and Sam and quotes "like father like son" she than leaves and doesn't return until season 5.
Season 2[]
- [Jo presses the barrel of a rifle against Dean's back.]
- Dean: Oh, God, please let that be a rifle.
- [Jo cocks the rifle.]
- Jo: No, I'm just real happy to see you.
Dean and Jo first met when Sam and Dean broke into the Roadhouse in "Everybody Loves a Clown" after tracing a voicemail Ellen left on their now deceased father's phone. When Sam left the room, Jo snuck up on Dean from behind and managed to subdue him. The Winchesters and Harwells realized that they were on the same side. After which a friendship began between them.
Dean and Jo talk at the Roadhouse.
When Dean and Sam next visit the Roadhouse, Dean talk with Jo. She wanted to help him and Sam with their case, but he refused by claiming he was afraid of what Ellen might do to him, which amused Jo.
In "No Exit" When Jo went to work her case even after Ellen forbade it, she encountered the Winchesters already there to try to solve it. An irritated Dean didn't want to let her join in on the hunt because she was an amateur. Jo managed to convince him to let her stay when her mother called to look for her.
Dean tried to watch over Jo while they hunted together. He also tried to persuade her out of trying to hunt before she ruined her life. Later, they shared what they remembered of their fathers and Jo explained to Dean why she wanted to hunt when he tried to give her a replacement for Bill's knife. Jo was abducted by the ghost they were hunting, but eventually Dean and Sam saved her and they trapped the ghost.
Ellen then told Jo that John had accidentally gotten Bill killed. Jo was shocked and angry to hear this. She blew up at Dean before quietly ordering him to leave the Roadhouse.
Sam temporarily became possessed by the demon Meg, who commented that Dean only saw Jo as a little sister or a schoolgirl.
Dean eventually arrived, but refused to kill his brother. He paused long enough to untie Jo before he chased after the fleeing demon. Jo later went looking for Dean to make sure he and Sam were alright, tracking his ringtone and finding him shot by Meg and almost drowned on a boat launch.
Jo wanted to help him exorcise Meg from Sam, but gave up when Dean threatened to tie her up himself to ensure she wouldn't get killed on his watch. She came to believe that he did not care about her.
Season 5[]
Dean and Jo briefly encountered again in "Good God, Y'all", after Ellen and Dean convinced Jo and Rufus Turner that War was making them hallucinate demons, they greeted each other and went about finishing the job.
Dean and Jo in a picture with their family and friends.
In "Abandon All Hope...", Jo helped Dean and Sam break into Crowley's mansion to reclaim the Colt by luring out the demonic guards and subduing them. Afterwards, they gathered at Bobby's house before trying to kill Lucifer.
Later in the episode, when the hunters ran from hellhounds, Jo was injured to the point that she could not walk and bleeding heavily.Dean knew she was dying, but went into denial and tried to make a plan to save her, at which point she pointed out that the only solution was to build a bomb to kill the hellhounds while Dean and the other hunters escape and she stay behind to sacrifice herself. Dean saw the logic in this plan and did as she said.
Dean says goodbye to Jo.
Once the bomb was built, Dean gave Jo the trigger. When the brothers left the building via fire escape, Ellen planned to stay behind and die with Jo, saying that someone needed to let the dogs in and that she would not let Jo die alone. Jo was distraught by the idea of her mother dying as well but tearfully accepted her decision. After their attempt to kill Lucifer failed, they returned to Bobby's house and burned the group photo.
Season 7[]
In Defending Your Life, Jo's ghost was called as a witness to Dean's guilt when Osiris put him on trial. She told that she admired him as a hunter and they just used to work together, saying that Dean was "kind of a jerk" as a person. Dean felt guilty about letting her do first case and how it had eventually led to her death.
Jo says goodbye to Dean.
After Dean was declared guilty, Osiris sent Jo to kill him. She told him that he carried too much guilt for circumstances outside his control. Then Jo turned the gas on the stove on, broke the window to blow away the ring of salt he was protecting himself with, and took lighter to ignite the gas and kill Dean in an explosion. But Sam Winchester destroyed Osiris in time, after which Jo disappeared.
Notes[]
- Some members of the fanbase perceived Dean and Jo acting more like brother and sister, which got two nods in canon: in "Born Under a Bad Sign", Meg claimed that Dean saw Jo as a little sister, and in the alternate lives the angel Zachariah created for Dean and Sam, a memory-altered Dean believed that she actually was his little sister.
- Dean was the third hunter whom Jo had friendly feelings for, although their relationship was the only one shown on-screen; the other two (Rick and Gordon Walker) were only revealed in her online blog.
- "Defending Your Life" Dean blamed himself for Joe's death.