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Reapers in General
Reaper
"Come with me. Be done. You've earned it. Or fight me. Stay here. And you know the drill."
—Reaper in "Death's Door" (S07, E10)
Reapers escort souls to the afterlife under the direction of Death. They are seen in "Faith" (S01, E12), "In My Time of Dying" (S02, E01), "Death Takes A Holiday" (S04, E15), "Abandon All Hope..." (S05, E10), "Two Minutes To Midnight" (S05, E21), "Appointment In Samarra" (S06, E11), "Death's Door" (S07, E10), "Taxi Driver" (S08, E19), "I'm No Angel" (S09, E03), "Stairway to Heaven" (S09, E22), "Form and Void" (S11, E02), "The Devil in the Details" (S11, E10), "Red Meat" (S11, E17), "Alpha and Omega" (S11, E23), "Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox" (S12, E06), "First Blood" (S12, 09), "Advanced Thanatology" (S13, E05), "Funeralia" (S13, E19), and "Nihilism" (S14, E10).
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Able to alter humans' perception and appear in any form they choose.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Most of them wear suits. All of them are badass.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: Rogue ones aside, reapers are quite amiable folks, unlike ordinary angels. Makes sense, considering that they are supposed to guide souls to the afterlife. They have to put up a calm and friendly demeanor if they want to gain their clients' trust.
- Eye of Newt: Spells can be used to bind or trap a Reaper.
- Geometric Magic: Can be held within traps of drawn symbols.
- The Grim Reaper:
- Other than wearing a black suit and tie instead of the classic Black Cloak and Sinister Scythe, reapers are a race instead of a person. When a human dies, the reaper closest to them gets the job to collect their soul, instead of an omniscient being coming for them. As they don't wield a scythe, they reap souls by touching them. This makes them simply psychopomps than the all-powerful Grim Reaper.
- Instead of God, reapers report directly to Death the Horseman, who on the contrary is the classical scythe-wielding Grim Reaper. Before Season 5, he is imprisoned under Earth and is supposed to be remain so until the Apocalypse. Unlike his underlings, Death rarely reaps a soul by himself. He is also an extremely potent Person of Mass Destruction; he can cause catastrophes to places he visits, although he mostly negates that power. Compared to his subordinates, the Grim Reaper is a harbinger of destruction.
- Season 9 retcons the reapers to be a type of angels, which opens up a rather big can of worms, though this actually makes them closer to the real-life Abrahamic view of the Grim Reaper as an agent of God.
- Seasons 10 and 13 adds two facets regarding the nature of Death the Horseman: he can be killed, and the reaper who dies after him will take his place.
- Invisible to Normals: They usually are only seen by humans who are ready to die, or already dead. Angels are able to see them as well, as are Demons, and whoever wears Death's ring (as they temporarily become Death).
- Mook Promotion: The first Reaper to die gets to be their boss. Since Death had died in Season 10, Billie assumes his position after her own death in Season 12, complete with a scythe and a ring. After she dies late in season 15, another Reaper takes her place in the second-to-last episode.
- Portent of Doom: Gather in groups at times of great catastrophe or distress.
- Powers That Be: Are in the service of Death.
- Psychopomp
- Really 700 Years Old: As angels, they have existed since long, long ago. Death, on the other hand, claims to be as old as God. However, Season 11 retcons him to be significantly younger; the Darkness doesn't know him, yet she personally knows (and even battled) the Archangels, which would put Death as younger than the latter.
- Retcon:
- Season 9 establishes Reapers as a subset of angels, which completely contradicts everything established about reapers before.
- Things might have been re-retconned in Season 13, where reapers for all respects function as independent entities again. When Naomi informs Castiel the number of angels left in the universe (less than a dozen), she doesn't seem to count reapers. If they are indeed endangered, Billie would not be awfully nonchalant. This is likely a response to the Season 9 retcon, which is rather unpopular with the fanbase.
- Stopped Clock: Freeze clocks at the time of death.
- Throat Light: When killed.
- Teleporters and Transporters: Disappear in a flash of light.
- Tom the Dark Lord: While not exactly evil, being the personifications of Death doesn't exactly give people a comforting feeling. They have such names as Billie, April, and Jessica.
Death
The oldest of the four horsemen and a being that embodies the force of death for all life. He is almost as old as God and has power nearly a match. For more information of this character look under the reapers section linked here.
Tessa
Tessa (Lindsey McKeon)
First appears in "In My Time of Dying" (S02, E01).
"It's your time to go, Dean. And you're living on borrowed time already."
Tessa is Dean's Reaper.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl/Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
- Back for the Dead: In "Stairway to Heaven", she appears for the first time since Season 6 and kills herself with the First Blade, unable to bear hearing the screams of those who can't get into Heaven.
- Dark Is Not Evil/Don't Fear the Reaper: Some of the other Reapers we see range from creepy to outright scary, but Tessa appears to spirits as a gorgeous, compassionate, and genuinely sweet servant of Death, and Sam and Dean even willingly save her from meeting a grisly fate in Season 4. Though during her role there, she's a bit more snippy than in her first appearance, mostly dismissing the brothers when they try to help a dead young boy who has yet to pass on, the reason being that she was supposed to take Dean until he was brought back to life by Azazel thanks to his dad making a deal.
- Death Seeker: Ironically, since she's, well, a reaper. She desperately wants to die because she can't take the souls of the dead to Heaven no matter how hard she tries, thanks to Heaven's door being closed.
- Despair Event Horizon: She loses her will to live after hearing the cries of the souls that are stuck in the Veil because Metatron closed Heaven.
- Damsel in Distress: In "Death Takes a Holiday", when Alastair kidnaps her to use as a sacrifice for a Seal.
- Driven to Suicide: Jumps on the First Blade.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: She assumed her human form only after Dean freaked at seeing her incorporeal one, which looks more like a ghost. When a boy who died was scared off by even her human form, she appeared in a white dress instead.
- Grand Theft Me: Azazel briefly body-jacks her in the Season 2 premiere to use her power to heal Dean per his deal with John, even though she's incorporeal.
- I Have Many Names: When Dean calls her "Tessa" when he meets her again in her second appearance, she simply replies "Yes, that is one of my names".
- Killed Off for Real: Chooses to commit suicide so she can finally stop hearing the voices of the dead.
- Meaningful Name: "Tessa" is a form of "Theresa", which is Greek for "to harvest" or "to reap".
- More than Mind Control: It looks like Tessa is persuaded by Metatron to take part in the suicide bomb-squad. However, it turns out that Tessa does so because she wants to die, having hearing the despairing voices of the dead for so long.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Her primary argument to persuade souls to go with her.
Ajay
Ajay (Assaf Cohen)
Appears in "Taxi Driver" (S08, E19).
"Smuggling a mortal across the border is risky enough, but gate-crashing a Winchester into Hell seriously blows."
Ajay is a rogue Reaper who smuggles people and souls between earth, Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, for a price.
- Border Crossing: Sam asks Ajay if a coyote
like him could get them into Hell. - The Ferry Man: Smuggles people and souls across the borders.
- Go into the Light: When traveling to Purgatory, he has Sam take his hand and step into blinding white light.
- In the Back: Crowley stabs Ajay in the back, killing him with an angel blade.
- Killed Off for Real: Gets killed by Crowley so Sam will be trapped in Purgatory after entering Hell. Obviously, it doesn't work.
- The Nth Doctor: He claims to have been Bobby's Reaper, who was was played by Henri Lubatti in "Death's Door" (S07, E10).
- Secret Path: Ajay and other rogue Reapers know where the back doors into Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory are.
Maurice
Maurice (Artine Brown)
Appears in "I'm No Angel" (S09, E03).
"You can kill me. It won't matter. If I don't find Castiel, there are others that will."
A freelance Reaper hired by the angel Bartholomew to find the now-human Castiel after he wards himself against angel detection.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: What he was hired to do to Castiel, if April's treatment of Cas is any indication. Winds up on the wrong side of the equation when the Winchesters realize he's tailing them.
- Evil Gloating: Tells Dean that the angels will eventually find Castiel and that he will kill him (Dean) eventually. In return, he gets impaled by the angel blade.
- Forgot About His Powers: Why he chooses not to use his invisibility power (which all reapers have) to sneak on the Winchesters is a mystery. Regardless, it ultimately leads to his death, making this a case of Too Dumb to Live.
- Genre Blind: Maurice expects to be the one pulling someone into an alleyway and holding a knife to his throat, not the other way around. Still no excuse for continuing down an alleyway into which his marks have seemingly vanished.
- Killed Off for Real: Killed by an angel blade.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Hunting Castiel via the Winchesters. Gets captured by them.
- Too Dumb to Live: Oh sure, tracking the extremely-experienced Winchesters without using your invisibility power which leads to your capture, and then gloating about how he will kill them after the angels find Castiel? Your seconds are numbered.
April Kelly
April Kelly (Shannon Lucio)
Appears in "I'm No Angel" (S09, E03).
"New sheriff in town, Cas. They hired a bunch of us. I got lucky. Enough questions from you — I have several of my own."
Another freelance Reaper hired to track down Castiel, her approach is somewhat different: After possessing the real April's body, she gains Castiel's trust by giving him food, shelter and companionship — as in, introducing him to sex.
The next morning, Cas finds out the hard way that she's borrowed his angel blade. April reveals herself to be a Reaper, ties Castiel to a chair, and tortures him for information on Metatron's spell to empty Heaven. Sam and Dean arrive and ice her — but not before she fatally stabs Castiel through the stomach.
- Bait the Dog: She pretends to be kind to Castiel. Pretends.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She starts out seeming to be a sweet-natured woman. Once she reveals her true identity and purpose, she becomes a lot more snarky and unpleasant.
- Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi: She sleeps with Castiel while possessing a human woman. While Castiel is iffy enough, the human woman most certainly did not agree to her body being used to seduce Castiel.
- Expy: April's human persona bears a strong resemblance to Penny in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog—who was, coincidentally, portrayed by Charlie Bradbury's actress.
- Hate Sink: She takes Castiel's virginity under questionable circumstances, then tortures and (temporarily) kills him. Needless to say, she's not even slightly missed.
- Hero Killer: Well, for a moment, anyway. Stabs the then-human Castiel with an angel blade, which kills him instantly. He gets brought back by Gadreel.
- Honey Trap: Her strategy for capturing Castiel. Posing as the human April Kelly, she wins him over with kind gestures like giving the starving Castiel her sandwich and taking him home to clean his wound and make him feel less alone. Unsurprisingly, they have sex.April: My briefing said you were "dangerous" and "powerful". And you did arrive armed, so. I needed information, so I had to gain your trust.
Castiel: And that required intercourse?
April: [laughs and points the angel blade at Castiel's crotch] Well, I'm allowed some leeway for executive decisions. [straddles him] And I can't say I didn't find you attractive. - The Ingenue: Nope. April initially appears to be wholesome, innocent, and kind-hearted. She turns out to be The Vamp when she reveals her intentions.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: What she inflicts on Castiel.
- Killed Off for Real: Killed by an angel blade.
- Psycho for Hire: It's not clear whether the opportunity to cause pain and suffering was the primary reason April took the job, but she does revel a bit in her sadistic streak. If you look closely at the wounds on Castiel's torso, you notice she carved a smiley face into him.
- Questionable Consent: It's highly unlikely that Castiel would have slept with her if he'd known her true identity (given that he was on the run at the time).
- Torture Technician: And she enjoys every second of it.
- The Vamp: She also enjoys this part of her job.
Billie
Billie (Lisa Berry)
First appears in "Form and Void" (S11, E02).
"You and Dean dying and coming back again and again. The old Death thought it was funny, but now there is one hard fast rule in this universe. What lives, dies."
A Reaper who shows up after the apparent death of Death, which she seems to take personally. It's her stated goal to make sure the next time Sam and Dean die, they don't come back. After her death in Season 12, she is promoted to become the new Death.
- All-Powerful Bystander: Like her predecessor, after she becomes Death, Billie is content to watch from the sidelines all the conflicts that are unfolding in the universe. She only interferes if the natural order is disturbed, but even then she does it indirectly by sending the reapers.Jessica: "You've met Billie, right? She's got rules, clean hands, no interference. Well, no direct interference, anyway."
- All Deaths Final: She firmly believes in this trope, which is why she is mad that the Winchesters are always able to escape their deaths.
- Badass Longcoat: As the new Death, she starts wearing a leather trenchoat, striking a pretty impressive figure.
- Back from the Dead: In Season 13 she returns from non-existence to become the new Death.
- Bait the Dog: Her "new" outlook as the new Death is revealed to be this in "Unity," when her plan to kill Chuck and Amara would result in her rising to godhood instead, allowing her to undo every resurrection and put everyone back where they belong, the angels to Heaven, demons to Hell, and alternate universe versions to their respective universes.
- Because Destiny Says So: When she becomes Death, she receives premonition that no matter how much she wants to see the Winchesters die, she has to let them live for the betterment of the universe.
- Big Bad Ensemble: After apparently serving as an ally to the Winchesters throughout the season, she's revealed as one of main villains near the end of Season 15 along with God. She wants to use Jack to kill God and Amara so that she may reign supreme and establish order over the universe whether everyone wants it or not.
- Black Boss Lady: Once she becomes the new Death, being the boss of all the Reapers and the flow of life and death in the universe.
- Came Back Strong: Since she was the first Reaper to die after the last incarnation of Death, she became the new replacement, basically getting a promotion by dying.
- Contrasting Replacement Character: While the old Death was affable and somewhat of a Bunny-Ears Lawyer (until he gets mad), Billie is dead serious about her job and hard to bargain with. That doesn't mean that Billie is humorless, just that she is very hard to please. In "Moriah", God himself openly states his dislike of her code. Then again, God Is Evil (and is an established sexist).God: I like the old Death better. The new Death, she sticks her scythe to where it didn't belong.
- Enemy Mine: Helps the Winchesters to stop the Darkness by catching an army of ghosts to empower Dean and giving him the ability to use Soul Bomb.
- Evil Is Petty: Makes it clear to Dean in their chat after Dean has committed suicide to try and bargain for Sam's life, who he believes to be dead, that even if Sam was the only person who could stop the Darkness, she still would not bring him back, even if it meant the annihilation of reality, herself included. By Season 13, she has moved on from this.
- Godhood Seeker: Appears to have this as her primary goal in Season 15, seeking for the deaths of God, Amara, and Jack so that she can become the new god and re-establish order in the universe whether anyone likes it or not.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Switches back and forth on whether helping the Winchesters or not. She's Heel in her first appearance, but becomes Face in late Season 11 as she helps the Winchesters save the world from the Darkness. Then she goes back to Heel once the world is saved. Currently, she's Face, She becomes the Face after realizing that the entire universe needs the Winchesters if it wants to survive.... until the Empty revealed in "Unity" that she put her plan in motion to have the Winchesters and Jack kill God and Amara so she could become the new God and put things back in order. This includes (among other things) permanently killing everyone resurrected by Winchesters.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: She's worn a grey leather jacket in her first two episodes.
- Interspecies Romance: Implied to have had a thing with Crowley. This is not Crowley's first time; Naomi is also implied to be one of his exes.
- It Is Not Your Time: Says along the lines of this to Dean when he practically begs her to claim him after freeing the lobotomy ghosts.
- Knight Templar: Will do anything to prevent Dean and Sam from coming Back from the Dead again. When she finally manages to freely claim Dean, though, she chooses to let him live Because Destiny Says So.
- Noodle Incident: She is not unfamiliar with Crowley and their meeting in "Alpha and Omega" suggests that they had something going on in the past.
- No-Sell: In "Funeralia", having unlocked her true power, Rowena throws all the magic she has at Billie, who doesn't even seem to feel it. Becoming Death has really done her a favor.
- Not So Omniscient After All: As with her predecessor, she gains a great amount of foresight in her capacity as Death, but she is not an omniscient. The most notable example is when Alternate Michael ends up being brought down in a totally different manner than what her notes tell (by sealing him into the Ma'lak Box, which she claims to be the only possible way). However, Michael does get offed by Jack, who seems to be Immune to Fate.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: In a way, she appears to have a noble goal for wanting to stop the Winchesters from coming back to the world whenever they die, saying that their continued existence in the world brings more harm than necessary. However, she's mostly acting out of a petty desire for revenge, outright stating that she intends to toss them into the Empty and refusing to bring them back even if it means the universe dies. Eventually, she gets over this.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Upon becoming Death, she maintains a non-interference clause regarding fate. When she chooses to break it, however, something very bad is going to happen:
- In "Nihilism", she appears personally to give Dean his death note, which contains instructions on how to seal Alternate Michael, whose freedom could potentially result in total catastrophe.
- In "Moriah", she enters the Empty and meets with the Shadow and Jack to discuss about God's plan to end the universe.
- Order Is Not Good: Her ultimate goal as the new Death is to re-impose the natural order as a new god. While this is good for the interference of angels and demons, it also means everyone ever resurrected would be killed again, including those who Team Free Will saved.
- Physical God: While reapers are powerful in their own right, when Billie became the new death she, presumably, gained many of the abilities and powers of the previous death. Some of those abilities, among others, make her a Time Master, Space Master, Nigh-Invulnerable, and possibly Reality Warping.
- Pragmatic Villainy: She's on the same page as Sam and Dean when it comes to defeating the Darkness and saving the universe, but she makes it clear that she doesn't like either of them.
- Revenge Before Reason: She won't bring back the Winchesters even if they're the only thing that can save the world, herself included. Flipped 180 degrees in Season 13, where she won't let the Winchesters die even if they want to.
- Ring of Power: Comes with being the new Death.
- Sinister Scythe: As part of her promotion to new Death. And unlike the previous Death's gardening sickle, it's as every bit scary as how you imagine a Grim Reaper would wield.
- Tranquil Fury: While telling Sam that All Deaths Final, she remains calm, but the way she speaks makes it clear she's not happy after Death was killed.
- Turn the Other Cheek: In "Funeralia", she doesn't seem to be that mad about Rowena messing with the natural order and instead wants her to see the error of her ways herself. Throughout the episode, Rowena kills a couple of people and reapers sent to collect their souls, kidnaps Sam, almost kills him, and attacks (well, attempts to attack) Billie. In return, Billie forgives and even imprints her with some advice.
- Villainous Breakdown: When Dean mortally wounds her with her own scythe, she decides that she is willing to give up her "no interference" code to kill him instead, regardless of his importance to universal survival.
- Walking Spoiler: Her appearances after "First Blood" are all these. Mostly because she's supposed to die in that episode.
Jessica
Jessica (Kayla Stanton)
First appears in "Advanced Thanatology" (S13, E05).
A reaper tasked to reap Dean's soul when he dies in "Advanced Thanatology". She is later ordered by Billie to watch over the Winchesters.
- Bystander Syndrome: Played for Laughs when Dean is duking it out with Bernard, while Jessica, following the "clean hands" rule, watches and occasionally comments in the background.
- Oh, Crap!: When she learns just whose soul she is going to reap, she immediately calls for backup. A wise choice, considering that Dean has defied death and reapers like her multiple times before.
- The Peeping Tom: It's not fetishistic, but her order to watch over the Winchesters includes checking out their belongings, including Sam's "impressive, extensive array of hair products" and Dean's, "three-day-old bacon cheeseburger and the VHS labeled Sweet Princess Asuka Meets the Tentacle of-".
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Suddenly teleports to the back of the Impala in "Funeralia", in a manner very similar to Anna's in "The Rapture".
Merle
Merle (Sandra Ferens)
Appears in "Galaxy Brain" (S15, E12).
"One measly life on the line and you're ready to lose it all? That's not just dumb, that's Winchester dumb."
A reaper assigned to keep the newly revived Jack out of trouble before his planned attack on Chuck.
- Badass Longcoat: Not necessarily badass in the physical sense, but she knows enough about magic to tell the Winchesters exactly how much is wrong with the bunker's warding and temporarily strengthens it.
- Grumpy Old Lady: She appears to be a well-groomed woman of sixty odd years, and is pretty cutting about the ill-prepared do-gooders she's suddenly dealing with.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: She defends the Winchesters and Jack from Chuck's watchful eye while they rescue Our Kaia from the Bad Place. Billie impales her with a scythe because she wanted Merle to prevent Jack from using his magic for stupid heroics, not help him get away with it.
- Properly Paranoid: She knows just how bad and how easy it would be for Chuck to find out about Jack's return and Billie's plan. When pressed she helps Jack and the Winchesters anyway. As it turns out Chuck wasn't the only one she needed to worry about.
Betty
Betty (Kimberly Sustad)
Appears in "Inherit the Earth" (S15, E19).
"Okay. The end of God is in the special book. And if you give Betty the book, Betty can read it. Understand?"
A reaper who's captured and killed by Lucifer so she can become the new Death.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She's killed by Lucifer after she gets Chuck's death book open.
- A deleted scene shows that she intended to pull this on Lucifer as well, dismissing him as "yesterday's papers" and intending to send him back to the Empty after Chuck was defeated.
