Considering how longSupernaturalran on the air, it’s easy to forget about some of the most important aspects and characters from the show’s beginning. When the series started,it was primarily a horror road showthat centered on two brothers hoping to get revenge on a demon for the death of their mother, all while searching for their missing father. But was that it? If you remember from the very first episode, there was actually another character whom the brothers, particularlyJared Padalecki’s Sam Winchester,were hoping to avenge in those early years. If you’re a die-hard fan, then you probably rememberAdrianne Palicki’s Jessica Moore,Sam’s college girlfriend who is brutally murdered by demons at the end of the “Pilot.“Though she might’ve slipped from our memory (Palicki only appeared in four episodes total, and only one of them while Jess was alive), she never quite left Sam’s memory.
Jessica Moore Haunted Sam Winchester Throughout ‘Supernatural’s Early Years
When Dean (Jensen Ackles) arrives at Stanford to pick up Sam in the “Pilot,” he is surprised to find out that Sam and his girlfriend, Jessica, are in a pretty serious relationship. Dean is further surprised that Sam has never told her anything about the hunting life that they grew up in, as the younger Winchester is still fighting to maintain something of a normal life. If only Sam had told her. After traveling with Dean to Jericho, California to investigate John Winchester’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) disappearance while working a Woman in White case, Sam returns home to Jess, only to experience the unthinkable. Just as their father witnessed their mother’s death 22 years earlier,Sam looks up in horror as Jessica is pinned to the ceiling, dead, only to combust into supernatural flames. From then on, Sam vows to kill the demon who murdered her, no matter what. Over the next few episodes, Sam sees Jessica everywhere. From a nightmare of her corpse rising from the dead in “Wendigo” to apparitions while on the road in “Bloody Mary,” he struggles to move on from her death.
It’s not until the boysreturn to their hometown of Lawrence, Kansasin the episode “Home” thatSam reveals that he had been having nightmares, or visions, about Jess’s death weeks before it happened. These visions were a dark result of his budding psychic abilities, which turned out to be residual effects of the demon blood he was given as an infant by the Yellow-Eyed Demon, Azazel, the one ultimately responsible for Jessica’s death. While the Winchesters certainly band together again in the first season to find their father, there’s little doubt that Sam’s real motivation for being there in the Impala with his brother is to get revenge for what happened to Jess. Sam notes on more than one occasion thathe doesn’t have the same memories of their mother, Mary Winchester(Samantha Smith) as Dean. Because of that, he’s after Azazel for more personal reasons relating to the horrific murder of Jessica, a woman who Sam fully intended to marry (as revealed in “Devil’s Trap”).
This is a powerful motivation that puts Sam in the driver’s seat ofSupernatural(even if Dean still makes him ride shotgun), forming the show’s entire narrative around the younger Winchester’s story. While later years would center more on Dean, the first few seasons were the Sam Winchester show, with Dean there to support and protect his brother along the way. But the idea that Sam wanted to marry Jess comes up again in Season 2’s “What Is And What Should Never Be” after Dean is drugged by a Djinn, forcing him to see a “better” version of his life. Of course, the fantasy isn’t all butterflies and roses, but one aspect that Dean holds onto is that Sam was engaged to be married to Jessica. But this dream was nothing more than that, and only a few episodes later, Sam and Dean vanquished the Yellow-Eyed Demon in"All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2.“Though they claim that the killing blow is in honor of their mother, we can’t help but believe that Jessica’s death was an equally large part of it.
Even Lucifer Knew To Use Jessica Against Sam
Though she’s not mentioned again the following season, and scarcely in Season 4, the fifth season ofSupernaturalbrings Jessica back to the forefront of our minds with the advent of Lucifer.Played primarily byMark Pellegrino, actress Adrianne Palicki returns to play the Devil herself in the episode “Free To Be You And Me,” offering Sam a glimpse of the happiness he might’ve had with Jessica. While communicating with Sam through his dreams,Lucifer uses Jessica’s form to tug on his heartstrings, offering him a chance to finally be happy. This works for only a moment before the fallen angel shifts back into his Mark Pellegrino-shaped form via his current vessel, Nick. But before the Devil reveals the deception, Sam admits that he still loves Jessica and desperately misses her.
It’s not until later that season that Sam learns an uglier truth about Jessica’s death. While it was still ordered by Azazel directly, Sam’s college buddy Brady (Eric Johnson) was the one to pull the spiritual trigger. In “The Devil You Know,” Sam discovers that Brady, who washis best friend at Stanford, was actually a demon the whole time and that he killed Jessica directly. To make the whole thing worse, Brady admits to bringing Sam and Jessica together in the first place, using her as a pawn to draw Sam closer to his dark destiny as Lucifer’s true vessel. Whiledemons lie all the time, this is a rare instance where it seems as if the black-eyed evil spirit is telling the truth, and it wrecks Sam. After years of Jess’s death going unavenged, the younger Winchester kills the demon Brady and puts Jessica’s memory to rest once and for all.
Unfortunately, for all the additional appearances that Lucifer makes in the show’s seventh, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth seasons, the Devil never uses this trick against Sam again — which would’ve been really effective in the early parts of Season 11, but I digress. As a result,Jessica is largely forgotten for the rest of the series. Aside from occasional references or passing mentions to her in the show’s middle years, Brady’s death allows Sam to finally move on. In Season 8, Sam finds a new long-term love interest in Amelia Richardson (Liane Balaban), and following Season 11,Eileen Leahy (Shoshannah Stern)becomes the younger Winchester’s longest-running love interest, lasting through the end of the show. Some have theorized that Eileen is the one whom Sam settles down with and marriesin the series finale “Carry On,“but that’s not been confirmed.
Jessica Stuck With Sam, Even a Decade After Her Murder
Though we only saw her alive for a few brief scenes in the “Pilot,” Jessica Moore was a looming presence over the rest ofSupernatural,one who pushes Sam to be a better hunter so that others don’t end up like her. It’s because of Sam’s personal loss, beyond that of losing his mother and childhood, that drives him to save the world, even beingwilling to spend eternity with the Devil in hellif it meant keeping his brother and the rest of humanity safe. Without Jess and her fiery demise, Sam might never have become this sort of hero, and he certainly wouldn’t have gotten back into hunting.Supernatural: The Anime Seriesrecognizes this as well, giving Jessica (voiced there byMie Sonozakiin the Japanese andAngela Galuppoin the English dub) a larger role in the story. While her fate ultimately remains the same,The Anime Seriesgave the character additional backstory and agencythat reinforced her role in Sam’s life.
But the truth is, even though Sam is able, in many ways, to move on after avenging Jessica’s death,her memory still sticks with him. In the Season 12 opener, “Keep Calm and Carry On,” when being tortured by Lady Toni Bevell (Elizabeth Blackmore), Sam recalls Jessica to mind, specifically the moment of her death. This moment breaks Sam as he screams out her name, unable to stop himself from reliving the tragedy. Again later that season, in “Who We Are,” Sam reminds Dean that it’s because of their mother’s demon deal with Azazel that Jessica ends up dead in the first place. (It also allowed them to be born since Azazel resurrected their father, but that’s a whole different argument.)
However, the most important callback to Jessica comes from Season 15’s “Atomic Monsters,” where Sam reveals something heartbreaking to Dean. As Dean is giving his brother a pep talk about why they do what they do, Sam explains that he can’t let go of all those they’ve lost, revealing that,after nearly two decades after her death, he still often thinks about Jessica. It’s a masterful moment that calls back to the very beginning of the series and reminds audiences why Sam got back into hunting in the first place. After having gotten out and lived something of a normal life, he was pulled back in again, not by Dean or his father or even the memory of his mother, but becausethe woman he loved was killed by a malevolent forcethat only he could handle.Supernaturalis a show that’s always been about family, reminding us that “family doesn’t end in blood.” Well, Jessica, in many ways,wasSam’s family, and for a short year and a half, she was the only family he had. Losing her drove him back into hunting and was the true catalyst for Sam Winchester’s journey as a hero.
Supernatural
Two brothers follow their father’s footsteps as hunters, fighting evil supernatural beings of many kinds, including monsters, demons, and gods that roam the earth.
Supernaturalis available for streaming on Netflix.
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