J could be for Jimmy Novak, the vessel where Castiel resides (we've covered Castiel here). J could also be for Jo Harvelle, fellow Hunter, friend to the Winchester brothers and daughter of Ellen (we've covered the Harvelle's here). J could be for Sam's girlfriend, Jessica Lee Moore, but for this retrospective J is for Sam and Dean's Father, John Winchester - and for this article I'll be primarily looking at Jeffrey Dean Morgan's (another J) portrayal of the character.
Let's face facts, John Winchester is not winning any 'Father of the Year' awards. In countless flashback episodes we see the Winchester brothers either alone in a Motel room whilst John goes off on his latest hunt, or staying with their surrogate father, Bobby, or another one of John's friends. It could be argued that this is the result of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's career taking off so well and he was unavailable (or too expense) to resume the role of John Winchester, but I think it's more likely that it's actually true to character, and this is exactly the way he bought up Sam and Dean.
Later we did learn that it was not John's intention to bring up his children that way, and we also discovered he had another child, Adam, with Kate Milligan, a nurse who had looked after him when he was injured. Adam was raised away from the Hunters life, and John saw him as a second chance to be a father. John did everything he could to be a normal Dad to him - taking him to ball games on his birthday, teaching him to drive, buying him his first beer. So he had it in him to be a good father, if it wasn't for the hunting getting in the way.
John hadn't always been a Hunter though, he only took up the business after his wife, Mary, was killed by the demon Azazel on November 2nd 1983. After learning that Mary had been a Hunter before they wed, he dedicated his life to tracking down the 'supernatural', especially Azazel.
John's influence is the early driving force in the series. In the Pilot episode Dean arrives at Stanford to enlist Sam's help in finding their Dad who has gone missing whilst working a case. Dean is the one who feels he has to follow in his father's footsteps, possibly as a desire to earn John's love and respect. Sam never wanted the Hunter's life, something that caused a rift between him and his father, with John telling him he should stay away, and so Sam went to college. Unbeknown to him, John would stop by Stanford and check up on Sam every once in awhile.
John is often referred to as one of the best Hunters, and rarely failed to catch and destroy any monster he searched for. Over the years he gathered a vast knowledge of the supernatural and documented it in his journal. It's that journal that has proved invaluable to the brothers Winchester, especially when looking for their father.
When they finally catch up with John he is seeking the Demon killing Colt gun to kill Azazel. In the season 1 finale, Devil's Trap, all three of them are involved in a car crash after a brutal encounter with a demon trucker. At the start of season 2, John makes a deal with Azazel to bring back Dean from the dead, in return John goes to Hell.
Later in season 2, in the episode All Hell Breaks Loose (Part 2), hell literally does break loose when the Devil's Gate is opened. This gives John a chance to escape, he assists Dean in finally killing Azazel. With his work complete John moves on to Heaven.
Again, this is just a potted history of John's character. Many of his story lines feature in other installments of my A to Z. Next time though, it's something a little different. You will have to wait and see what it is when I reveal just what K stands for in my A to Z of Supernatural.
Previous entries
A is for Azazel
B is for Bobby
C is for Castiel
D is for Dean
E is for Exorcisms
F is for Family
G is for Ghostfacers
H is for Hunters
I is for Impala
