This is a review, and contains multiple spoilers for Supernatural and Wayward Sisters. If you have not seen the episodes, The Bad Place [13.09] and Wayward Sisters [13.10], and you don’t want to be spoiled, do not read any further. I reference characters and plot points from all of Supernatural’s history, so be aware of those spoilers as well. Episode references are in brackets with the first number being the season, and the second number, the episode.​

A couple of weeks ago, I previewed Supernatural’s back door pilot for a new spinoff, Wayward Sisters. This has the potential to be more than a spinoff. Because the characters are known to the fans, and known to other Supernatural characters, there is the potential of it also being a companion series with guest stars from the main Supernatural cast: Sam, Dean, Cas, Jack, Lucifer, Rowena, and a host of others. 

Bringing in familiar characters for new stories is always an intriguing concept. Fans are already drawn in because the character development interest is high. Some characters that have returned to the main show have been Kate from Bitten [8.04], Walt and Roy from Dark Side of the Moon [5.16], Mary Winchester, of course, from the Pilot [1.01], and most recently, Rowena, from the dead. Kate, Mary, and Rowena are all strong, powerful women in their own right, and could potentially cross over into a Wayward Sisters spinoff, if not in physical form, by mentioning them or through phone calls, and other call backs. 

Other characters that might be nice to catch up with include the powerful half-demon, Jesse [5.06, I Believe the Children Are Our Future], Krissy and her housemate hunters [8.18, Freaks & Geeks], Melanie Golden from The Mentalists [7.07, The Mentalists], and Cesar and Jesse Cuevas, the newly retired hunters from The Chitters [11.19]. The possibilities are practically endless.

The Wayward Sisters episode [13.10] opened more or less where The Bad Place [13.9] left off. I wasn’t a huge fan of Claire’s narration, but I’m hoping that was just for the pilot to kind of explain to the casual viewer who Clarie was and why we should care about her.

A couple of lines stood out to me: the boys are on a hunting trip…we’ve got work to do…a family don’t end in blood reference even if not in those precise words. These are all call backs to the original Supernatural; the first two from the original pilot, and the third a continuing theme woven throughout the entire series beginning with their relationship with Bobby, the acceptance of the concept, of the belief that you create the family you have. Family is what you make of it. As Dean said to Crowley in Inside Man [10.17]: “Family don’t end in blood. But it doesn’t start there either.”

I loved Alex’s allusion to Claire as Biker Barbie. I think it shows the deeper relationship between Clarie and Alex. They’re not best friends, but they’re also not enemies. There’s a depth that we, as longtime viewers recognize and can refer to, but it’s also not so specific that a new viewer can’t catch it also. It further highlights their differences – Claire’s hard edges and Alex’s calm and softness, and yet we see later that Alex can handle the fighting as well. I found it wonderful that she told Patience that they all contribute in their own ways. Claire’s the hunter, Alex the healer, Jody the mama, Donna the fun aunt. Patience will find her place also. It just takes time. She’s still welcome in this family – the family you make – as I mentioned, an underlying theme throughout Supernatural.

I’ve been waiting for this concept for so long that it didn’t seem new to me. What I mean is that it was new in the sense of fresh and compelling, but it was also comfortable. Jody and Claire have been a part of the boys’ lives since seasons 5 and 4, respectively. They’re already family. They’re also already our family.

Robert Behrens and Andrew Dabb really capture the distinct personalities of the characters – they’re not cookie cutter or cardboard cutouts of typical sci-fi genre women. Even when they appeared as secondary characters on the main show, they owned their screen time. The actresses were fantastic. the behind the scenes excitement and camaraderie was jumping off the screen any time they appeared. It [this pilot] was everything I hoped it would be; and more.

With the other backdoor pilot, Bloodlines, it was very much a separate show set in the same universe. With Wayward Sisters, I can see Sam and Dean, and other familiar characters guest starring and being incorporated into the world of Jody’s home of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The potential for crossovers and storyline is tremendous. I don’t want to be repetitive, but these women are already known to us – we already like them.

Even the newest character, Kaia, who I felt we needed to get used to still managed to fit in with the team by the time the boys are rescued. We weren’t sure about her, at least I wasn’t. By the time the end of the show came around, we adored her [I did], we were shipping her and Claire [I was], and we were devastated [I still can’t believe it] when she was taken too soon. The shock of killing off a main character in the pilot was unconventional to say the least, and the final twist from the other world, while making sense and being a great twist was also surprise enough to keep us gasping and wanting more. C’mon, CW! Where’s our green light?!

Wayward Sisters have so much potential; I am excited and on the edge of my seat looking forward to a whole season of women hunters carrying on the family business.

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Before I go, I’d like to leave a quick introduction/refresher of the six characters who we met for the first time all together in the pilot as well as some of my own commentary:

Sheriff Jody Mills – Introduced in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid [5.15]. She is known to Bobby as the local law enforcement, and we’re not sure where they stand with each other. Her son, who has died has come back to life as did others in town. Eventually, the “zombies” begin to eat their families, and Sam has to kill him after he kills his father, Jody’s husband. We next see her in Weekend at Bobby’s 6.04] where she helps Bobby with the FBI.

Sheriff Donna Hansom – Introduced in The Purge [9.13]. She’s the local sheriff in Hibbing, Minnesota, but she’s at a health resort which Sam and Dean are undercover, investigating. They are friendly, but she has no idea about their kind of monsters. She finds out in her next episode, Hibbing 911 [10.08] where she also meets Jody for the first time.

Alex Jones – Introduced in Alex Annie Alexis Ann [9.19] Alex meets Jody when she is arrested. Alex was kidnapped as a younger girl by a nest of vampires. She is treated like family, and she goes out and gets them food (ie. people). The nest is cleared by Sam and Dean after they are called in by Jody, and Alex is taken in by Jody as she recovers from her trauma and Stockholm Syndrome.

Claire Novak – Introduced in The Rapture [4.20] Claire is a young girl when we meet her. She is the only child of Jimmy and Amelia Novak. Jimmy Novak is the vessel that Castiel has been occupying. We see her next in The Things We Left Behind [10.09] where she is a teenager, abandoned by her mother, her grandmother having died. She’s angry and she’s tough, and she can take care of herself, so she says.

Patience Turner – Introduced in Patience [13.03] Patience is the granddaughter of Missouri Moseley, a psychic living in Lawrence, Kansas who we meet in Home [1.13]. She was a longtime friend of John Winchester.She and Patience’s father are estranged, and so Patience doesn’t know about her own psychic ability until it happens to her. Missouri asks Sam and Dean to make sure she doesn’t get hurt. Missouri is killed before she can reconcile with her son and granddaughter.

Kaia Nieves – Introduced in The Bad Place [13.09] Kaia is a dreamwalker that Jack is led to. She can go through to other planes of existence, and Jack is searching for a way to reach Mary Winchester and bring her home. Kaia is reluctant because her dreamwalking has only taken her to the bad place. She eventually agrees to help Jack, Sam, and Dean, but they end up all being blown away from each other – Kaia on the roadside, Jack with Mary, and Sam and Dean in a jungle/wooded place with giant, dinosaur sized and shaped footprints in the mud, and that is where Wayward Sisters begins.