| “ | That town, Harlan, Kansas, is less than a mile from the cemetery. | ” |
Harlan, Kansas is a town in Kansas that was the epicenter of the Ghostpocalypse.
History[]
Season 14[]
In Moriah, Castiel meets with Jack in the cemetery less than a mile from town before Dean arrives to kill the young Nephilim. However, after Dean changes his mind and refuses to kill Jack, an enraged God starts the Ghostpocalypse. Both John Wayne Gacy and Mary Worthington immediately begin stalking townspeople.
Season 15[]
In Back and to the Future, the demon Belphegor, using Jack's corpse as his vessel, is able to eject the Hell Ghosts from the corpses with a spell. However, some of the ghosts such as John Wayne Gacy and Mary Worthington have already begun killing local residents.
Driving away from the cemetery in the Impala, Belphegor suggests using a spell to create a magical barrier a mile wide to contain the ghosts until a permanent solution can be found. However, Castiel becomes alarmed as Harlan is less than a mile from the cemetery so Dean decides that they need to evacuate the town first. Posing as an FBI agent, Sam claims to the sheriff that there is a benzene leak outside of town and the residents must be evacuated for safety. Though dubious, the sheriff suggests a high school five miles away which is acceptable as the school is outside of the spell's radius.
Sam and Castiel coordinate the town's evacuation while Dean and Belphegor prepare for the spell. However, several residents are killed, including the sheriff who is killed by Constance Welch and whose heart Belphegor uses in the spell. Belphegor succeeds in establishing a barrier around the town that traps the ghosts inside, but the locals begin asking a lot of questions and the Winchesters know that they only have a day or two until the real FBI shows up.
In Raising Hell, the town remains quarantined by the Winchesters, Castiel, Belphegor and several other hunters who respond to Sam's call for help including Jules, Stevie and Arthur Ketch. Against orders, a few residents sneak back in, resulting in their deaths. The Hell Ghosts, under the leadership of Francis Tumblety, better known as the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper, begin organizing an effort to break down the barrier and escape. Witch Rowena MacLeod manages to contain the ghosts using a Soul Catcher that she creates, but even more escape through the Rupture to Hell with the barrier weakening and unable to hold the ghosts back for much longer.
In The Rupture, the other hunters monitor both the townspeople at the high school and the magical barrier over the town which is now under constant attack from Hell Ghosts trying to break through it. Following a failed attempt by Rowena to strengthen the barrier using a spell from the Book of the Damned, Belphegor suggests traveling into Hell itself to retrieve Lilith's Crook and use it to draw all of the escaped souls back into Hell. While the plan originally works, Ardat reveals to Castiel that Belphegor wants to rule Hell before the other demon kills her.
As Belphegor uses the Crook to draw the souls into himself, Sam, Rowena and Dean perform the Sanetur Acre Vulnus healing spell to close the rupture. However, in order to stop Belphegor, Castiel is forced to smite the demon before he can finish drawing the souls back into Hell, destroying the Crook as well. As a last resort, Rowena sacrifices herself to use the Death Is an Infinite Vessel spell to draw the souls into her own body and cast them back into Hell and ending the Ghostpocalypse.
In the aftermath, the townspeople are able to safely return to their homes and normal lives. Dean later reports to Sam that Stevie reports that the town is as good as can be expected now.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- While the town is seen in Moriah, the exact location isn't identified until Back and to the Future.