#or else if that reveal had come earlier in like during season 2 when meg was possessed

[dyed-red]

brb imagining an AU in which adam milligan didn’t exist (sorry adam!) but where Jo was actually john’s daughter (as per kripke allegedly wanted at one point) and...

none of them (except Ellen, obvy) knowing that Jo is John’s kid, jo still dying in Abandon All Hope when they go to kill Lucifer... and then being brought back to act as Michael’s vessel.

her agreeing because she’s wanted her whole life to be respected within the hunting world and as a hunter, to be a protector and not the protected. she’s trained for this, for something, and she’s ready. her agreeing because she already died to stop Lucifer once and failed, this is just upping her arsenal, is just committing to that. if she’s willing to give up her life she’s willing to give up her body too.

and she’s really not about to be talked out of it by sam or dean, either. she’s stubborn, she’s made up her own mind, and it turns out she’s their sister anyway (if that’s a recent revelation and didn’t come sooner in the series, in which case layering in the betrayal she’s still working through when it comes to her mother, to that revelation, and the shock of it. and sam and dean’s wide-eyed reactions to it, both of them re-examining their attraction to her and her doing the same, but there’s no time to dwell).

just... yeah. sam having to reconcile with the fact that he’s dragging jo down with him to the cage. dean having to reconcile with the fact that jo -- who he tried to protect, who he failed to protect, who he could almost imagine a life with (his half-sister, and isn’t that just fitting) -- is the one taking his place as michael’s vessel and he can’t stop her. is the one he’s leaving in the cage when he makes his deal with Death.

#maximum oof #maximum angst #it would only work narratively if there was deliberate foreshadowing earlier in the story about jo being their sibling #or else if that reveal had come earlier in like during season 2 when meg was possessed #otherwise it would come across as some deux ex machina shit and feel shoehorned #but if done well? #ahhhhh #jo #season 5 is a special kind of pain