Supernatural: 10 Ways Mary Winchester Got Worse and Worse

In the very first episode, viewers meet Mary Winchester in a flashback. Mary, in a white nightgown, goes into Sam’s nursery, groggy from sleep. Once she’s there, she’s killed by some mysterious force that not only fatally cuts her, but pushes her to the top of the ceiling where she combusts. John, her husband, looks on helplessly as he tells Dean to take his baby brother and run.

This, Mary’s death, is the reason why John becomes a hunter. Mary is the reason why Dean and Sam are raised to be hunters. For many seasons, Mary’s death weighed heavily on the brothers, especially Dean. Amara (the Darkness) felt that Mary’s absence made Dean incomplete, and so she in her goddess-power thanked Dean by bringing Mary back to life. While there are a great many things to admire about Mary, her new life didn’t always bring about the best of her.

10 She Forgot Her Ghost-Life

When Mary comes back to life, she doesn’t remember her existence as a ghost. While viewers know that her early memories of Dean and Sam when they time-traveled were erased by Michael, there’s never an explanation about her ghost memories. When Mary was a ghost, she stayed in the old house.

Then a case brought her sons to that old house, and she protected them. She saw Dean and Sam, and she remembered them. Nearly always a brave character, Ghost-Mary actually used her own energy to “kill” the evil spirit so that she could save her sons. However, nearly-minted Mary has no memory of this. She doesn’t know her sons and has to be re-introduced to them. Most characters who were ghosts at least remember a little.

9 She Wanted to Return to the Afterlife

Mary is given an opportunity to know her sons and to do more with her life. Eventually, she comes around to accepting this, but at first, she doesn’t feel like she should be alive. Mary is more than happy to go back to the afterlife where things were simpler.

This, of course, makes her sons feel abandoned all over again, like they aren’t enough for their mother.

8 She Avoided Sam

While she didn’t feel comfortable around either son, she especially didn’t feel comfortable around Sam. She may have felt more comfortable around Dean because he was a little older when she died, meaning that she had more memories with him. She may also have been more comfortable with Dean because they were more alike.

When off on her own, hunting, she didn’t contact Sam. Even Sam noticed that Mary contacted Dean when she needed to communicate with them. More than likely, she avoided Sam because she felt guilty. Her promise with the yellow-eyed demon led to Sam being fed demon-blood, which then led to catastrophic events.

7 She Slept with Ketch

Ketch later became an ally to the Winchesters, but he was pretty horrible in the beginning. A product of the British Men of Letters, Ketch was without moral judgment. He did what was asked of him, even if it meant killing or torturing an innocent person or colleague. Dean automatically didn’t trust him.

Mary, on the other hand, may have been a little wary at first, but she came to work with Ketch. She told her sons that she needed to hunt alone for a while, but she hunted with Ketch. This led to her having a sexual relationship with him. While it’s likely that Mary felt out of sorts and was lonely, this choice grossed her sons out and many viewers as well.

6 She Kept Information From Her Sons

Dean and Sam know that Mary is out hunting and needed time to adjust. What they didn’t know is that Mary was hunting and collaborating with the British Men of Letters. For some reason, she was secretive about this and kept it from her sons. Later, she brought them on board, but this secretive nature caused some rifts between her and her sons.

It wasn’t just the British Men of Letters that Mary was secretive about; she hid information from Sam and Dean. Later, this improves, but for many episodes, she seemed wary of her sons.

5 She Preferred Young Dean and Sam to Present-Day

When Mary was manipulated and controlled by the British Men of Letters, she went into her happy place. In order to save their mother, Dean was able to join her in her subconscious. When he did, Mary was with a young-Dean, the Dean she remembered. Even though she knew the current-Dean was there, she tried to ignore him.

Thankfully, Dean is pretty convincing and was able to wake her up, but it took a great effort to do so.

4 She Lost Her Spunk

Mary, as a young hunter, was memorable. She was spunky and energetic. On top of this, it was clear that she was intelligent, creative, and caring. The yellow-eyed demon noted how much he liked Mary. When Dean first time-traveled and saw her, he was impressed.

When Mary came back, she was distant and subdued. The spunk and charisma that pulled people to her seemed a distant memory. She was more of a shadow of her previous self.

3 She Was Easily Manipulated by The Men of Letters

In so many ways, Mary was easily manipulated by The British Men of Letters. Many times, she seemed to choose them over her sons. She liked that they gave her purpose, but she trusted even Ketch. For someone who was supposed to have good instincts, this was clearly off.

Mary had been part of a long hunting legacy. She had stayed alive as long as she had (before the yellow-eyed demon) because she was smart. In this case, she wasn’t smart and became a tool for their mission instead.

2 She Killed Hunters

The British Men of Letters made Mary into a tool to kill American hunters. They considered the American hunters unruly and a problem, rather than an asset. Mary was a good hunter, but more so, they used her because people liked Mary. Although Mary had been gone for a while, she was able to quickly connect to the hunting community.

Hunters would happily open the door to a smiling Mary because they would never expect that she was there to kill them. This, of course, wasn’t really Mary but what the British Men of Letters made her become. As strong as she was made to seem, she became easily manipulated.

1 She Didn’t Live Up To Her Hunter Fame

Mary is supposed to be a great hunter. She was raised as a hunter, and her father taught most of what he knew. However, Samuel (her father) knew so much, including how to reverse vampirism, something that John never even knew. Crowley even praised Samuel’s depth of knowledge. Why then does Mary seem to have a limited amount of knowledge?

Mary’s instincts aren’t as strong initially. She trusts the wrong group. While this does change eventually, it also makes her seem not as good of a hunter as she is known to be and was throughout her early life. Additionally, Mary becomes the damsel in distress for several episodes. It gets better, but it takes time. For a hunter, rumored to be as capable as Mary, this was a strange part of her storyline.

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