The heroes of the Supernatural universe are the people who fight monsters and the things that go bump in the night. The show highlights the Winchester brothers as the primary saviors of the world, but, over the years, several hunters have stepped forward as heroes in their own right.
The women who have been introduced play an especially critical role in the Supernatural narrative. The female hunters, angels, and witches have been fighting the good fight since the very beginning of the show; their efforts have more than a few times played a huge part in saving the world. Here are some of the most courageous acts of heroism Supernatural women have done.
Anael Deals With Lucifer
In season 13, Sister Jo was introduced as one of the angels who survived on Earth after the Fall. She worked as a healer and "an excellent business woman." Lucifer, back from the apocalypse world and stripped of his grace, encounters her after killing several other angels to keep himself alive. Before he can drain her grace, though, she proposes that, instead of killing her, he feed off her grace a little at a time, thereby ensuring a steady supply.
Later, we learn that only a handful of angels had been left to power Heaven, so breaking Lucifer's cycle of going through angel after angel possibly saved Heaven and angelkind.
Naomi Retakes Heaven
Season 8 showcased a more villainous yet not completely unfathomable side of Naomi as the presumptive leader of Heaven while she tries to take hold of the angel tablet. She takes a more amiable turn when she returns in season 13 and reveals that she was not dead, as many were led to believe.
She reemerges to a different Heaven than the one she left, one that had been decimated by Lucifer's reign with only a handful of angels still alive to power it, yet she again assumes a leadership role with a promise to restore Heaven and protect angelkind and Earth alike.
Jody Becomes A Mom Again
Jody met Alex only a few years after her family had been killed. As Alex was without a family herself, Jody decides to take her in. Later, she also adopts Claire Novak as one of her own. In season 13, she welcomes teenage psychic Patience Turner into the fold, then dreamwalker Kaia Nieves.
With all the hype surrounding the promising (but infamously disregarded) spin-off to revolve around these Wayward Sisters, little attention is paid to the true act of heroism Jody carries out. Most hunters in the Supernatural universe ride alone, but she welcomes these girls into her home and trains them to be hunt monsters. It's these kinds of actions that save worlds and transcend generations.
Claire & Kaia Rescue Sam & Dean
When the Winchester brothers are trapped in the Bad Place, Jody becomes concerned after not hearing from them in a while. She calls Claire and tells her, "it's time to come home." Feeling she owes it to the Sam and Dean to bring them back, Claire tracks down Kaia, the last person to see them alive, and she helps them find the rift into the Bad Place.
Although Kaia is hesitant to pass through it, having been forced to reside there in her dreams, she follows Claire through the rift. They find the boys and bring them back, though Kaia is killed in the process.
Rowena Battles Amara
After she spends her first season on Supernatural exclusively as a villain, the redemption arc of one Rowena MacLeod starts to curve with the introduction of season 11's main villain, the Darkness.
When the time comes for the final Chuck versus Amara showdown, Rowena joins Team God, using her talents as one of the most powerful witches in the world to help defeat the Darkness. In "We Happy Few," she is on the frontline, the first of the team to take on Amara, using the power of five witches to weaken her.
Charlie & Dorothy End The War In Oz
Although only one episode - "Slumber Party" - is dedicated to this pair's war on evil in the land of Oz, they actually spend a whole year restoring the part of the fairy world to a peaceful state. Dorothy felt it was her duty as a hunter to save Oz; Charlie saw it as the adventure of a lifetime.
In the same way that Sam and Dean are often regarded as the heroes of Earth, Charlie and Dorothy are undoubtedly the heroes of Oz, saving an entire world from the wicked witch's reign of terror.
Mrs. Tran Outbids Crowley
When an auction begins over her son, a prophet, Linda Tran attempts to offer up her house and retirement savings in order to get him back. Those pale in comparison, however, to Crowley's bid of the moon. Finally, she bids her soul. Seeing that she was offering everything she had, the auctioneer awards her the prophet.
While her effort to protect her son was noble in itself, what makes her even more of a hero in the Supernatural universe was that she prevented the king of Hell from being able to read the demon tablet, which would have killed any chances of sealing Hell for good.
Ellen & Jo Stay Behind
Going up against the devil himself would be reason enough to add the Harvelle women to this list, but they both surpass what fans and the Winchester brothers expected of them in "Abandon All Hope..."
When their group is chased by hellhounds, Jo goes back and helps Dean when he falls behind, ending up fatally injured herself. When they manage to lock themselves in a hardware store to escape, she proposes that they build a bomb and leave her to trigger the detonator. The team reluctantly agrees to the plan, but Ellen decides to stay with her daughter as she dies. In a show chock-full of death and self-sacrifice, Ellen's and Jo's are touching and manage to stand out among them.
Mary Starts Hunting Again
The Winchester matriarch had been a bit of an enigma until her return in season 12, but one thing we did know about Mary was that she had always wanted to leave the hunting life in which she had grown up, and raise a family in a safe environment.
When she is resurrected to find her worst nightmare had come true, that her sons had been raised to be hunters, she picks it up again. She even makes the decision to work with the Men of Letters, who promise that their collaboration will rid the world of monsters forever, for the sake of giving her boys the safe, happy life she always wanted for them.
Kelly Prepares For Birth
After learning not only that she is pregnant, but that she is carrying the child of Lucifer, Kelly is undoubtedly terrified at the prospect of birthing the nephilim, especially when she also learns that all the mothers of nephilim die in childbirth. When her fetus shows her the paradise that he can bring to Earth, though, she fights for her child to live and to usher in this Heaven on Earth, even if she wouldn't be around to see it.
Even when Sam develops a plan to strip Jack of his powers in the womb, saving both mother and child, she refuses to go through with it, noting that he would never be able to deliver what she saw in the vision without the thing that makes him special.