Linda Tran is Kevin Tran's mother.
History
Season 7
Linda Tran is interviewed
In Reading Is Fundamental, when her son vanishes, she goes to the police for help. A detective visits her at her house and while he's interviewing her, Kevin appears with two angels. Linda is relieved to see her son, but the reunion is cut short when the detective reveals himself to be Edgar, a Leviathan, who kills both angels and kidnaps both Kevin and Linda.
In There Will Be Blood, Dick Roman holds Linda hostage and uses her life to force Kevin to translate the Word of God for him. Once Kevin is finished, Edgar instructs his men to let Linda go, under the condition that she doesn't talk.
Season 8
In What's Up, Tiger Mommy?, Concerned about his mother's welfare, Kevin convinced Dean and Sam to visit his mom. After clearing through the demons secretly guarding her home, Kevin and his mom are reunited. Linda takes the news of her son being a prophet with surprising ease, even willing to go on the job with them to ensure Kevin's safety. During the episode, she establishes herself as a devoted mother not to be taken lightly, from getting a tattoo without flinching to attacking Crowley head-on, despite knowing how dangerous he is.
Linda Tran, possesed by Crowley.
She, alongside Dean, Sam, and Kevin, attends the auction held by the pagan god, Plutus, for The Word of God. After Kevin is kidnapped by Beau, Linda offers her own soul in exchange for her son. After declining the angels' protection, Linda is possessed by Crowley, with the help of Beau, who burns her anti-possession tattoo off. In her body, Crowley kills Plutus, steals The Word of God, and escapes before Dean can kill him in Linda's body. Linda is left severely traumatized by the event, and Kevin is angry that Dean was willing to kill his mother to get to Crowley. She later disappears with Kevin, in an attempt to get away from both the Winchesters and Crowley.
In A Little Slice of Kevin, when Kevin gets back to the abandoned restaurant where they are hiding out, Linda, who has recovered from her possession, dumps a bucket of holy water on him to make sure he isn't possessed. Linda reveals that in order to replicate the "demon bomb" spell Kevin used to escape Crowley so they can strike at him, she has hired a witch named Delta Mendota off of Craigslist to gather the ingredients they need which are found all over the world.
When Delta arrives, Linda squirts her with holy water to make sure she is not possessed and is annoyed when Kevin shows interest in Delta. Linda is angry when it turns out Delta didn't bring them much ingredients, wanting to be paid first and is shocked that Delta betrayed them to Crowley. Crowley kidnaps Kevin and leaves a demon to kill Linda, however, she squirts him with holy water and overpowers him. Needing help to rescue Kevin, Linda calls Sam for help and brings the demon in the trunk of her car bound by a Devil's Trap so they can interrogate him. Linda meets with Sam and Dean and gives them the ingredients and Kevin's notebook with instructions for the demon bomb. Interrogating the demon, they get Kevin's location, but when they get there, Sam handcuffs Linda to her steering wheel so she won't be in danger or get in the way.
Sam, Dean and Castiel rescue Kevin and reunite him with Linda. Linda helps Kevin clean up a bit as Sam warns her about how calling in a witch led to this situation and tells her that they are calling in Garth to look after them and that Castiel believes he can fix Kevin's cut-off finger.
In Hunteri Heroici, Linda calls Sam to tell him they are safe on Garth's boat while Kevin translates the Demon Tablet.
In Taxi Driver, Crowley later captured her son who was alone on the boat one night. Crowley claims to have finally captured Linda and tortured her for Kevin's location. Crowley claims that when Linda wouldn't break, he killed her and got Kevin's location off of Linda's SmartPhone. Upon hearing of Linda's supposed death, Kevin screams in horror.
In Sacrifice, after Kevin is rescued, he mentions to Castiel and Dean that his mother is dead, indicating that at least he believes her to be dead.
Season 9
In Devil May Care, when Kevin confronts Crowley in the Bunker's dungeon about the murder of his mother, Crowley places doubts into Kevin's mind as to whether he actually did kill her, saying he had been lying and pointing out that Kevin never actually saw her body. Crowley claims that Linda really is alive, but she wishes she were dead and claims that he will lead Kevin to her if he frees him. Kevin doesn't, but decides to go and look for her on his own. Dean stops him, telling him that even if Linda is still alive, she is dead in all the ways that matters.
In Captives, when Kevin was killed, he became a ghost and contacts Sam and Dean to look for Linda who, he has learned is alive from another ghost named Candy who was held in the same place as Linda. Tracking down Candy's ghost, Sam and Dean manage to locate her and Sam goes to release her only to be trapped with her by Del, the demon who was holding and torturing Linda. Using her knowledge of electronics from helping Kevin with school projects, Linda is able to free them and they capture Del who they give Linda the pleasure of killing. Linda then demands to be taken to Kevin.
At the bunker, Linda tearfully reunites with Kevin's ghost and locates his father's ring, the object she believes him to be attached to. Despite warnings that taking a ghost with her could turn out badly, Linda decides to take and protect Kevin until Heaven is reopened, declaring that as his mother, it's her job.
Personality
Linda is shown to be very resourceful and easily underestimated. In What's Up, Tiger Mommy?, her determination and knowledge surprises everyone. She is also able to make a pawnshop owner tell them what they want to know with her knowledge of tax law rather than physical intimidation. In A Little Slice of Kevin, she was able to contact a witch for ingredients to the demon bomb and after Crowley left a demon to kill her, she overpowered him despite having no apparent formal training in fighting. She was also smart enough to take the demon with her to her meeting with the Winchesters, knowing he could likely lead them to Kevin.
In Captives, she was able to free herself and Sam from their cell, demonstrating a knowledge of electronics in the process. She states that she got this from helping Kevin with his school projects. She also demonstrated a great memory in the process since it had been at least a couple of years since she would've been able to have helped him.
Following her captivity, Linda seemed to become somewhat vengeful: she took great pleasure in killing Del. In fact, her response to the opportunity scared Del who basically pleaded for his life. When telling Del they weren't going to kill him but leave him for someone else, Sam indicated that he believed Linda's wrath to be worse than that of Crowley's. Indeed, Del was frightened by her despite her having been his prisoner for nearly a year.
Fundamentally, Linda cares deeply for her son and will do anything to keep him safe. She is also good at accepting otherwise surprising news, such as her son's status as a prophet and his brief return as a ghost.
In her first appearance, Linda was far more easily intimidated.
Powers and Abilities
Despite being a normal human with no powers, Linda has displayed a few extraordinary abilities.
- Resourcefulness - Linda has shown herself to be incredibly resourceful, using tax law rather than intimidation to get what she wants, capturing a demon left to kill her and helping Sam escape a cell even after months of being held captive. She was also resourceful enough to take the demon with her when she met up with the Winchesters and Castiel, knowing he could likely lead them to Kevin so he could be rescued.
- Knowledge of Electronics - Linda has shown a surprising level of electronic knowledge, being able to free herself and Sam from a storage unit they were held captive in. She explained that she learned it from helping Kevin with his engineering club projects years before.
- Basic Hunting Skills - Linda has shown a basic level of hunting knowledge with regards to demons due to being on the run with Kevin. She has used holy water and salt lines as defenses against demons. She was also able to capture a demon who was ordered to kill her, overpowering him somehow after hitting him with holy water. Once she had him captive, she put him in her trunk where she drew a devil's trap similar to the one on the Impala trunk to hold him for the drive to meet up with the Winchesters and Castiel.
Appearances
- Season 7
- Season 8
- What's Up, Tiger Mommy?
- A Little Slice of Kevin
- Hunteri Heroici (mentioned only)
- Taxi Driver (mentioned only)
- Sacrifice (mentioned only)
- Season 9
- Devil May Care (mentioned only)
- Heaven Can't Wait (mentioned only)
- Road Trip (photo only)
- Captives
Trivia
- It is revealed in What's Up, Tiger Mommy? by Linda that she received a tattoo on a certain part of her body in her past (most likely somewhere sexually suggestive). Given Kevin's reaction to this revelation, he didn't know about it.
- It is mockingly revealed in What's Up, Tiger Mommy? by Crowley after possessing Linda that she had an extramarital affair that resulted in the birth of her son Kevin Tran, though whether he was being truthful or not is unclear.
- Linda's brother works at the Wyoming tax assessor's office.
- After her brief possession by Crowley, Linda was left catatonic. However, she recovered by her next appearance though how long and what it took for her to recover is not revealed.
- The actress was changed in the beginning of Season 8. The original Linda Tran was Khaira Ledeyo.
- The portrayals of Linda are different between the actresses: the Linda in season 7 was more meek and easily frightened by Edgar and was cowering while being held captive by Dick Roman. In contrast, Lauren Tom's Linda is much stronger and more assertive, only displaying fear when held captive by Crowley for months but quickly recovering.
- Linda once punched Crowley in the face. He wasn't pleased which may have contributed to his later possession of her rendering her temporarily catatonic.
- In Captives, Linda reveals her husband died when Kevin was a baby and Kevin never really knew him.
- Linda seems to share her resourcefulness with Kevin as he has proven to be extremely resourceful like his mother at times as well, such as when he concocted the demon bomb to escape Crowley and tricked two of Crowley's demons into a Devil's Trap while still a prisoner.
- Linda's fate following Captives isn't revealed as she isn't mentioned when Kevin briefly returns in All in the Family or when he comes back again in Raising Hell.