The Loughlin Family were a family of powerful witches that were wiped out by hunters.
History[]
The Loughlin Family was a family of powerful witches, the only ones still in existence that practiced druidic magic. The family owned the Black Grimoire, a powerful spellbook filled with powerful druidic magic. In the early 20th century, the Loughlins' moved to America, turning a small town on the Mississippi Delta into their own personal fiefdom. Witches would come from around the world to live with them and study the Black Grimoire's secrets for a price. One such witch was Rowena MacLeod after being forced from her homeland by the British Men of Letters. However, the Loughlins' cruelly rejected Rowena's attempt to get help from them. Eventually, hunters attacked the family, killing all but the three Loughlin children Gideon, Boyd and Catriona who were able to escape with the Black Grimioire. While rumors existed that a few of the Loughlins' had escaped, they were believed to be extinct, even by other witches.
The surviving three Loughlins' eventually settled in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. They employed Barry Gilman as their accountant until he stole money from them. Though Gideon urged his siblings to let it go, Catriona cursed Barry to have his stomach stuffed with money until he died of it. This drew the attention of hunters Sam and Dean Winchester who investigated. While at a burger joint, Dean recognized Gideon from a picture of him with Barry that had been hanging in Barry's office. Dean shot Gideon with a witch-killing bullet, mortally wounding Gideon who fled into the nearby woods. Near death, Gideon cast the memory curse on Dean before succumbing to his wound shortly thereafter. After discovering his brother's condition, Sam contacted Rowena MacLeod who recognized the Loughlins' as being responsible after recognizing the druidic sigil used in the curse. Though Sam attempted to force Catriona to break the curse, she and Boyd captured him and attempted to use a soul-switching spell to resurrect Gideon in Sam's body. Before they could succeed, Rowena confronted Catriona, ending with Dean killing both Catriona and Boyd with witch-killing bullets, rendering the Loughlin Family extinct. Rowena was then able to use the Black Grimoire to break the curse Gideon cast on Dean.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Loughlin Family were all very powerful druidic witches:
- Spell Casting - As druidic witches, the Loughlin Family were able to cast a variety of spells from the Black Grimoire and beyond.
- Hexing - After Barry Gilman cheated the family out of money, Catriona hexed Barry to have his stomach stuffed full of money.
- Cursing - After being mortally wounded by Dean, Gideon hit him with the powerful Memory Curse which caused Dean to lose his memory and would've ultimately killed him through forgetting how to breathe and swallow had the curse not been broken.
- Will Materialization - Catriona was able to use a spell to make her insect taxidermy collection revive and make enough noise to make Sam's ears bleed and to disable him.
- Soul Switching - Using a ritual, Boyd intended to switch Sam's soul with that of the deceased Gideon's as a form of resurrection.
- Telekinesis - Gideon, Boyd and Catriona all displayed powerful telekinetic abilities. Gideon was able to fling hunter Dean Winchester into some trash, Catriona easily pinned extremely powerful fellow witch Rowena MacLeod to the wall with her mind and Boyd threw Sam Winchester into a wall and disarmed him of a knife, though he used the Repelling spell for the former.
- Invulnerability - At least Catriona is invulnerable to most forms of harm as shown with her scoffing at the idea of a bullet being able to harm her. Presumably all of the other members of her family shared a similar level of invulnerability to normal harm.
Weaknesses[]
As extremely powerful witches, the Loughlin Family possessed few known weaknesses:
- Witch-killing bullets - Bullets imbued with the witch-killing spell were capable of killing members of the Loughlin Family as seen with the deaths of Gideon, Catriona and Boyd.
Known members[]
- Gideon Loughlin (deceased) - Gideon was the de facto ruler of the family after most of the family was wiped out by hunters. After his sister Catriona killed their accountant Barry, Gideon was hunted down by Dean who managed to fatally wound him with a witch-killing bullet. In his last moments, Gideon cursed Dean with the memory curse, but Dean was successfully cured before the curse could kill him. Gideon himself was nearly resurrected by his siblings until Dean intervened.
- Boyd Loughlin (deceased)- Boyd was one of the three remaining Loughlins following the family's near-extinction at the hands of hunters. Like Gideon, he disagreed with killing Barry which drew the attention of hunters Sam and Dean Winchester. Killed by Dean with a witch-killing bullet moments after Dean killed Catriona.
- Catriona Loughlin (deceased) - Catriona instigated the family's demise when she ignored Gideon's warnings and killed their accountant Barry as punishment for stealing their money. This drew the attention of hunters Sam and Dean Winchester who killed Gideon. Catriona plotted to resurrect Gideon by swapping his soul for Sam's but came up against Rowena MacLeod, a fellow witch she had once treated cruelly. As Catriona prepared to kill Rowena, she was killed by a memory-less Dean with a witch-killing bullet to the head.
Enemies[]
- Barry Gilman (deceased) - Barry was trusted with the Loughlins' money only to betray them. Despite Gideon ordering her to leave Barry alone, Catriona hexed him. It was Barry's death that drew the family to the Winchester's attention, which ultimately led to their demise.
- Dean Winchester - Investigating Barry's murder, Dean killed Gideon with a witch-killing bullet, but not before Gideon hit him with the memory curse. Despite having no memory, Dean was able to kill Catriona and Boyd, rendering the family extinct.
- Sam Winchester - Like Dean, Sam became an enemy of the family when he investigated the murder of Barry Gilman. After Dean was cursed, Sam attempted to threaten Catriona into giving him what he needed to break the curse, only to be captured so that the Loughlins' could resurrect Gideon by swapping Sam's soul for his. Fought with Boyd and directed the memory-less Dean to kill him.
- Rowena MacLeod (deceased) - Many years ago, Rowena had asked for help from the Loughlins only to be cruelly brushed aside. In 2017, Rowena aided the Winchesters against the Loughlins' after Dean fell under the memory curse. As part of this, Rowena battled Catriona only to lose. However, Dean killed Catriona before she could kill Rowena and Rowena broke the curse Gideon had cast on Dean.
- Hunters - As a family of witches, the Loughlin Family were natural enemies of hunters. Years before 2017, hunters wiped out the entire family aside from Catriona, Gideon and Boyd.
Equipment []
- Black Grimoire - A tome of druidic magic belonging to Laughlin Family, by which witches would come from around the world to study its secrets for a price.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- This is the first witch family introduced in the series. The second was Mrs. Plum and her daughters and the third Witch Mother and her daughters.
- This is also the first witch family to go extinct within the same episode it was introduced.
- As a witch family, it is likely that they were all natural witches, although it remains unclear.