Joan Hopkins is an immortal former hunter and the Akrida Queen.
History[]
Early Life[]
Joan was born on June 11, 1673, to a family that was hunting even before the Campbell's. Joan wanted out of hunting, so she turned on her own kind, having lost her parents, her brother and her whole family to the cause and then her husband William. No matter how hard Joan fought, there was always another monster, another death, another Apocalypse. Joan decided that the monsters weren't the problem, mankind was. Mankind always needs saving and hunters are the ones who always end up paying the price with their lives. The humans then waste the second chance at life that they've been given, killing each other, beating each other down and destroy their planet. Joan believes that monster have it right and that humans are nothing more than food. Joan eventually consumed a great deal of monster essence, gaining a number of powers. The monster essence drove Joan insane, making her obsessed with ensuring that hunters were protected by wiping out everyone that needed saving. With no way to kill Joan, hunters teamed up with the Men of Letters and banished her from their world.
Unknown to her Men of Letters, the world which they sent her was the one in which the Akrida lived. The Akrida were created by God to act as a failsafe in case he was defeated in the War for Creation, designed to wipe out all life in every universe, but Joan gave them meaning in freeing every world from the tyranny of mankind, starting with her world. Joan ended up becoming their leader, the Akrida Queen.
Over the centuries Joan would lead the many campaigns to try and invade her former universe, though each one was repelled by the Men of Letters using the Ostium to banish the Akrida back to their world. After the Akrida's defeat in 1957, most were banished back to their universe. However, a number of Akrida and Joan remained on Earth in hiding. Using every ounce of power that she had left, Joan wiped out the Men of Letters, removing the only obstacle to her goals.
In 1972, the Akrida reemerge and preparing for another invasion, this time unimpeded. In order to restore Joan's strength, the Akrida Leader began collecting monster essences, particularly from rare monsters while the Akrida searched for Joan's underground hiding place. However, Dean Winchester, a hunter from another universe, became aware of the threat of Joan and the Akrida and brought the Monster Club together to defeat them once and for all.
The Winchesters[]
In Reflections, the Monster Club learns of the existence of the Akrida Queen from the Men of Letters information on the Akrida and the Ostium. From their notes, Lata determines that the Akrida share a hive mind and are linked to their queen and, if she's banished or killed, the Akrida will die. The Monster Club mistake the Akrida Leader for the queen and banish her with the Ostium, only realizing that she's not the queen when it fails to stop the other Akrida.
At the same time, the Akrida's mind-controlled puppets find Joan's underground hiding place and bring her the gathered monster essences to restore her strength so that she can bring the rest of the Akrida to take the world for their own.
In You've Got a Friend, Samuel Campbell provides the Monster Club with reconnaissance pictures that he took of several locations where the queen might be. With the pictures being light damaged and useless, the hunters will have to check out each location again. However, amongst the pictures is one of Dean Winchester, the man who gave John his father's letter. With the Ostium having been broken, Millie attempts to repair it while Samuel and Ada Monroe search for magic that can kill the Akrida Queen.
Joan begins to regenerate from the monster essence.
In Suspicious Minds, Joan instructs Kyle Reed, under Akrida mind control, to find out more about Dean whom she sees as a threat to the Akrida. To this end, the Akrida frame John for Kyle's murder. At the same time, Carlos and Lata search for Joan's location, finding no sign of her at any of the locations provided by Samuel. Using a form of magical hypnosis taught to Lata by Tony Monroe, the two help Rockin' Roxy, the Akrida Leader's former vessel, remember her possession and she is able to supply them with Joan's location where they spot a woman that they recognize as one of the Akrida puppets that they have encountered, confirming it as Joan's location.
In The Tears of a Clown, witch Rowena MacLeod provides Ada with a crystal that, when powered by a piece of her soul, can kill Joan and the Akrida. Rowena reveals that Joan will have to use an alignment of five planets to open her portal, an alignment that Lata discovers has already begun.
In Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye, Joan contacts Samuel, identifying herself as a fellow hunter who has information about Dean and where the Monster Club can find him. At a bar, Samuel, John and Mary meet with Joan who reveals that the Campbell Family and the Hopkins Family had hunted together in the past. However, Samuel has never heard of them before as Joan's family line ended with her a long time ago. Joan explains that the Man With No Name as she calls Dean was digging around in things that should've stayed buried like the Akrida. Joan knows that Dean isn't from around here, but there's only so much that Dean could do as his hands were tied. Although Dean had managed to stay ahead of Joan for awhile, he's not going to be a problem anymore. An amused Joan reveals to the increasingly alarmed hunters that while the Akrida's portal is "not quite up to code yet," she managed to pry it open just enough to toss Dean and his car into it and no human can survive the portal so Dean's body will be torn to shreds for centuries. All that's left of Dean is his journal which Joan has in her possession and lays on the bar.
All of the people in the bar reveal themselves to be possessed by the Akrida and John realizes that Joan is actually the Akrida Queen. Joan explains that she's been following the hunters for awhile now and she knows everything about them thanks to Kyle Reed and their police records. Joan reveals that she is not Akrida, she's human, and she really was a hunter once too and Joan claims to have been just like Mary. John challenges Joan to fight them, but Joan isn't there to fight them, rather she wants them to leave together. Joan also wanted to get them out of the clubhouse long enough for the Akrida to take it over. At the same time, the Akrida burst into the clubhouse where Lata is continuing her research. While Joan could've killed everyone a long time ago, she doesn't want one more hunter to needlessly die. Joan delivers an ultimatum - join her or die - and teleports away with all of the Akrida.
At the Campbell home, Mary gets off the phone with Samuel who has discovered that the Akrida are guarding both entrances to the clubhouse. Samuel is going to look for the portal while John and Mary dig through her family's history in the attic as there has to be something about her in it if Joan was telling the truth about her having history with the Campbell's. Carlos and Ada arrive with the news that the queen is gone from her lair and are alarmed to learn that Joan has taken over the clubhouse where Lata is.
In the clubhouse morgue, Joan searches for Lata who attacks Joan and slashes her face with a silver blade, briefly wounding Joan before it quickly heals. Joan notes that hunting has driven Lata to break her pacifist streak and disarms Lata. Mary finds information on Joan's history in a book while Joan explains her history to Lata. Joan was born on June 11, 1673, to a family that was hunting even before the Campbell's. Joan wanted out of hunting, so she turned on her own kind, having lost her parents, her brother and her whole family to the cause and then her husband William. No matter how hard Joan fought, there was always another monster, another death, another Apocalypse. Lata asks if Joan decided to join the monsters when she couldn't beat them, but Joan explains that she decided that the monsters weren't the problem, mankind is. Mankind always needs saving and hunters are the ones who always end up paying the price with their lives. The humans then waste the second chance at life that they've been given, killing each other, beating each other down and destroy their planet. Joan believes that monster have it right and that humans are nothing more than food. Lata asks if it's Joan talking or the monster essence that's powering her while Mary reads that the monster essence drove Joan insane, making her obsessed with ensuring that hunters were protected by wiping out everyone that needed saving. With no way to kill Joan, hunters teamed up with the Men of Letters and banished her from their world. Instead of explaining how the Akrida came into her life, Joan decides to just show Lata who stabs Joan in the heart with a scalpel, leaving her completely unharmed. Strangling Lata one-handed, Joan burns off her anti-possession tattoo.
With Lata trapped with Joan, the Monster Club debates on their best course of action, especially as the crystal could cost Ada her soul to use it. Carlos recalls how using the rock from the Akrida's world on the Ostium sent them back to where they belong and suggests using the Ostium in reverse with Dean's Journal to bring him back to their world. Mary instructs Carlos to bring Samuel's lore on the Ostium to the garage while she, John and Ada go to the clubhouse to try and help Lata.
At the clubhouse, Lata has been possessed by an Akrida who tells Joan that Lata is filled with knowledge and anger and is putting up a fight against its control. Joan explains to Lata that the Men of Letters cast a spell preventing the Akrida portal opening which is the last thing that is holding Joan back. Joan burns the spell, breaking it and destroying all of the Aquarian Stars around the clubhouse.
John, Mary and Ada arrive at the clubhouse to find it abandoned with no sign of the dozens of Akrida that had been guarding it. The Akrida Lata, revealing itself to be the same one that had mind-controlled Kyle Reed and the detective that had interrogated John, holds a knife to Lata's wrists to keep them from attacking, repeats Joan's offer to be at her side as the Akrida rid all of Creation of humanity. The Akrida asks how many Winchesters and Campbells have to die, calling the clubhouse a tomb with no history or legacy worth fighting for. While the Men of Letters thought that they were ridding the world of Joan, she was sent to the Akrida when they cast her out to another planet and Joan gave them salvation. The Akrida were made by an angry God as a failsafe in case he was ever bested, designed to wipe out all life in every universe, but the queen gave them meaning in freeing every world from the tyranny of mankind. Holding a knife to Lata's throat, the Akrida demands that they make a choice, but Ada uses the crystal to kill it and save Lata, sacrificing a part of her soul in the process. Lata apologizes to Ada who simply tells Lata to find the other way and Lata reveals that she has good news and bad news about that with the good news being that she knows how to hurt Joan.
At the garage, Lata warns the others that the bad news is that the queen has all of her strength back and she will have the portal completely opened by tonight. Millie reveals that they know where the portal is, Samuel having found a bunch of Akrida near what's left of some old warehouses. Carlos and Millie explain that the Ostium works by creating a portal connected to whatever object it's fed. When the Monster Club fed it the rock, the Ostium was able to send the Akrida back to their world. If they feed it the journal and trace the sigils in reverse, the Ostium can bring to their universe whatever was tied to the journal - the Mystery Man if he's still alive. However, according to the lore, the Ostium's polarity can only be reversed at midnight meaning that they need to buy themselves some time. Lata reveals that although they can't kill Joan, she is vulnerable: the monster essences that Joan consumed have given her both monster powers and monster weaknesses. As a result, Lata was able to hurt Joan with a silver blade, meaning that they can use silver to hold Joan off until midnight. With Ada and Lata still recovering, Mary orders them to remain behind and bring back Dean when the time is right. However, John convinces Mary to remain behind as facing Joan is likely a suicide mission and they need Mary to lead Dean into battle when they bring him back to their world.
At night, Joan successfully begins to open her portal, but stops as John, Carlos and Samuel, armed with silver swords, approach her. Recognizing that they are there to fight, Joan attempts to appeal to the hunters, offering to save Mary, pointing out that no amount of ghouls that Carlos kills will fill the hole in his heart left by the death of his family and telling John that he's already a monster and doesn't need her sales pitch, but none of the men are interested in Joan's offer. Joan conjures a sword of her own while several Akrida-possessed people, similarly armed, emerge to act as her backup. John engages Joan in a sword fight while Samuel and Carlos battle the other Akrida.
At midnight, Lata activates the Ostium in reverse and Mary feeds it Dean's Journal, but Dean doesn't emerge. While nothing appears to happen at first, Millie spots the Impala parked at the gas pumps, having been summoned back by the Ostium instead of Dean. Lata and Millie conclude that Dean must be dead, so the Ostium pulled out the car which it is also connected to. Mary realizes that like its owner, the Impala is also not of this Earth and so the car can take out Joan and by extension the Akrida. The women pile into the Impala and drive off to run Joan down.
John holds his own against Joan who flings him with telekinesis while Samuel and Carlos are overpowered and held at sword point by the other Akrida. Joan reveals to John that, after the Men of Letters defeated her last invasion, Joan used every ounce of her remaining power to wipe out the Men of Letters, including John's father. Reaching a long stretch of road leading to the battle location, Mary orders Millie, Ada and Lata out of the Impala, not sure that their plan is going to work, and she asks Millie to keep an eye on John for her. Spotting Mary driving at Joan, speeding past a surprised Samuel and Carlos, John reengages Joan in a sword fight, eventually kicking her backwards into the path of the speeding car. Spotting the Impala coming at her, Joan opens her portal in its path on the other side of her. Mary hits Joan with the Impala, killing her, and causing Joan to explode into dust. However, the car passes through the portal as a consequence, and it closes behind Mary and the Impala. With the Akrida Queen dead, the other Akrida all die almost instantly, and their confused vessels run off, leaving the grief-stricken hunters to mourn Mary's apparent loss.
Moments later, the portal reopens, and the Impala emerges with Dean behind the wheel. Helping Mary out of the car, Dean explains that the Impala had kept both of them safe from harm, although there's not a lot that can hurt Dean as he's already dead. Dean was stuck in the World Between Worlds so he stayed close to the portal until the Impala came through and Dean hopped in and grabbed the wheel. Samuel asks who he is, and Dean explains that he's a hunter, but one from a different Earth. While searching for a world where his family had a chance at a happy ending, Dean had discovered the Akrida and the threat that they posed to all of existence and intervened to stop them against the rules as Sam is still alive and would eventually be in danger when Joan and the Akrida reached the Main Universe.
Powers and Abilities[]
Due to consuming a number of monster essences, which gave her monster powers, Joan is enormously powerful.
- Immortality - Joan is immortal, having been alive since 1673.
- Invulnerability - Joan is invulnerable to most harm and can't be killed by anything of her own world. Due to the source of her power, she can be harmed to a degree by monster weaknesses such as silver however, they can't kill her. She can only be killed by objects from other worlds.
- Regeneration - Any injuries that Joan receives she is able to heal almost instantly.
- Teleportation - With just a snap of her fingers, Joan is able to teleport herself and several Akrida away.
- Spell Casting - Joan is able to use magic with proficiency.
- Portal Creation - Using a planetary alignment, Joan is able to open a portal to bring the Akrida to her world.
- Super Strength - Joan is able to lift Lata into the air and strangle her with just one hand.
- Thermokinesis - With just a touch, Joan is able to burn away Lata's anti-possession tattoo.
- Telekinesis - Joan was able to throw John with telekinesis.
- Master Swordsman - Due to her centuries of experience, Joan is a master swordsman, easily holding her own against John Winchester.
Weaknesses[]
Despite her great power, Joan has a few weaknesses.
- Magic - Using magic, the Men of Letters were able to banish Joan from the world. They also were able to keep Joan from opening her portal using a spell until Joan managed to break it.
- Ostium - Like the Akrida, Joan could be banished from her world using the Ostium.
- Monster Weaknesses - Due to consuming monster essence, Joan is vulnerable to monster weaknesses such as silver, although she can't be killed by them.
- Otherworldly Objects - While Joan can't be harmed by anything of the Monster Club Universe, objects from other worlds are capable of killing her.
- The Impala - As the car is not of her world, Joan can be harmed by it. Mary was able to kill her by hitting Joan with the Impala.
Appearances[]
- The Winchesters
- Reflections (silhouette only)
- Hang on to Your Life (mentioned only)
- Suspicious Minds (mentioned only)
- The Tears of a Clown (mentioned only)
- Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
Trivia[]
- From the snippet of Joan Hopkins's life as a hunter, it parallels to that of Dean Winchester.
- Both fought monsters, experience death and even stopped a form of the apocalypse in their time.
- Not only that, they equally lost their parents, siblings and lovers to the hunter life.
- Both characters have also shed their humanities, albeit Dean only did so unknowingly, while Joan shed hers willingly.
- One other characteristic that they shared was that both gained supernatural invulnerability, as even the Akrida Queen was unable to harm him and thus was only able to banish him to prevent him from interfering with her plans. Though ironically he was able to harm her.
- One difference between the characters is that Dean never gave up hope or his belief in humanity and was defiant against the insurmountable. Whereas Joan did and willingly gave up the fight and was corrupted by the darkness, making her an antithesis to the Winchester.