Of all the crazy things to happen on Supernatural, one of the most bizarre occurred smack in the middle of the series’ epic 15-season run. If you ever wondered if Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) was dad material, wonder no further. Season 7 was an odd one for the show, introducing the Leviathans, killing off main characters, and stripping the Winchesters of their iconic Impala for a time. But one of the weirdest additions to the show’s ever-evolving mythos was when writers Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner gave Dean a daughter after he slept with an Amazon. Not only did the elder Winchester produce a child of his own, but that very same daughter later tried to kill him. It doesn’t get much stranger than that on Supernatural.
“The Slice Girls” Officially Gives Dean Winchester a Not-So-Little Girl of His Own
In the show’s seventh season episode, “The Slice Girls,” which takes place not long after the death of their surrogate father, Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver), the Winchesters find themselves in Seattle investigating some pretty strange murders. Each of the victims had their hands and feet cut off and bore a symbol carved into their chest, which is about right up the brothers’ alley. Additionally, each of these victims had engaged in one-night stands at a local bar, The Colbalt Room, which they only discovered after Dean first had a sexual encounter of his own with a woman named Lydia (Sara Canning). Soon after, Lydia becomes pregnant and gives birth to a young girl named Emma, who ages rapidly into a teenager in less than three days.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would BeYour Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
FIND YOUR PARTNER →
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we’re walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.
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02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can’t follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won’t explain until it’s needed. EBy whatever means are available — I’ve driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.
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03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I’ve reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you’ve had all week.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven’t thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.
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06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we’re there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven’t accounted for — there’s always one thing — and make sure we’re holding it.
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07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I’d do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I’m out — they don’t leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.
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08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
ATechnology that shouldn’t exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it’s been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.
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09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn’t ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don’t fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that’s who they’ve always been.
REVEAL MY PARTNER →
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
As Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean try to figure out their next move, they discover that Lydia is one of the Amazons, a group of warrior women (not unlike Wonder Woman) who were blessed by the Greek goddess Harmonia with the ability to conceive and give birth quickly for the sake of amassing their armed forces. As the Amazons continue to build their army, they do so by traveling from place to place every few years, only to bear more children, kill their fathers, and move on to the next town. With Seattle as their current locale, Sam and Dean put two-and-two together, recognizing that Lydia was an Amazon and that her rapidly aging daughter Emma (played later by Alexia Fast, who had previously played Missy Bender in the fan-favorite “The Benders”) is actually Dean’s offspring.
As Sam is jumped by an Amazon elsewhere, Dean is confronted by Emma, now at the end of her rapid-aging process. Though Sam and Dean thought that Lydia would have come to kill Dean, Sam discovers that the Amazons assign their children to commit patricide as a rite of passage into their ranks. While confronting Dean, Emma pleads with her father to help get her out from under the Amazonian cult, and tries to appeal to their familial ties, but it’s all a trick. Emma had been briefed by her superiors on her father and uncle’s profession and had prepared to deceive Dean into letting his guard down. By the time Sam gets back to the motel, Dean and his daughter are engaged in a standoff, forcing Sam to be the one to ultimately pull the trigger.
Emma’s Potential on ‘Supernatural’ Was Instantly Cut Short
Emma (Alexia Fast) is shot and killed in front of Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) in the ‘Supernatural’ episode “The Slice Girls.”Image via the CW
The idea that either Sam or Dean would have children while Supernatural was in its heyday is something that the showrunners would never have allowed to happen. After all, it would drastically change the tone of the show and introduce character dynamics that wouldn’t conform naturally to the way the series had been set up. Supernatural was always meant to be a horror road show, and because of that, for the first seven and a half seasons, the Winchesters never had a base of operations or a home to call their own. While Season 8 would change that by introducing the Men of Letters and their Lebanon, Kansas-based bunker, Season 7 was still firmly set on the open road. It’s not surprising then that the rest of Supernatural essentially forgets about this moment, never mentioning Emma again after this season.
Nevertheless, “The Slice Girls” exists, and Emma is legitimately Dean’s only known biological child. That’s not something you see every day, and for a character who struggles with living under a deadbeat dad of his own (we still love you, John Winchester), the idea that Dean would have a daughter is a fascinating concept. Considering that Emma was an Amazon like her mother, it makes the concept all the more engaging, knowing that Dean’s only confirmed child isn’t even human. We have to remember that, at this point in Supernatural, Dean was rarely merciful to monsters. If anything, he would go out of his way to make sure more were put down properly. Sure, he and Sam let a few go over the years (provided they didn’t kill humans), but earlier in Season 7, Dean had been responsible for killing a monster friend of Sam’s from his childhood, one who only killed to save her own son. Sam was furious with Dean then, and his killing Emma allowed him to return the ill-gotten favor.
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Carry on my Winchester brothers.
But what happened to Emma — a girl who, had she survived, we might have come to know as Emma Winchester — is a tragedy. Not only was Dean’s Amazon-born daughter brainwashed by the Harmonia-centric cult, but she also showed no remorse about killing her own father. If Dean could have saved her, if he could have convinced her to leave with him (or at least go their separate ways), it’s possible we could’ve had a very heartfelt father-daughter Supernatural story down the road, which might’ve changed the elder Winchesters’ outlook on the opposite sex. More than that, it might’ve been a more natural way to change Dean’s mind concerning monsters in general, rather than how the following season did so with his time in Purgatory.
Emma’s Story Is Tragic, but Dean’s Reaction Is Even More So
Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester with his shirt off in the ‘Supernatural’ episode “The Slice Girls.”Image via the CW
There’s no denying that what happened to Emma here is a tragedy, even if it’s an understandable one. Here’s a girl who died for no reason simply because she was ordered to kill her father by a group of cultic warriors. According to Emma, she had no choice in the matter, though Dean (captain of “Team Free Will” over here), of all people, knows that everyone always has a choice. Dean’s inability to convince Emma of her own autonomy is heartbreaking, and while we’re not meant to sympathize with his psychotic Amazonian daughter, it’s not hard to see why Dean himself would want to. At the end of the episode, Sam accuses Dean of not being able to pull the trigger, which Dean adamantly denies. But the truth is, Sam, might be right. Dean saw Emma as his daughter, his only daughter, and for that reason alone, we can’t help but feel for his strange loss.
To make matters worse, the Amazons get away in the end. As far as we know, Emma’s mother, Lydia, was with them, likely furious at the fact that her daughter didn’t return from her mission. But, because Supernatural never acknowledged this episode beyond a brief reference in the very next episode, “Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie,” Lydia is left in the wind. Though the show treats it as a standard monster-of-the-week story, it feels much more than that, and given how other episodes this season would be followed up on in the future, Supernatural’s decision to ignore the Amazon story seems like an oversight. It’s unlikely that Lydia wouldn’t want to avenge her daughter’s death, just as it’s strange that the Amazons wouldn’t attempt to kill the Winchesters after Sam first killed two of their own. Instead, this is just yet another one of Supernatural’s many loose threads.
This Isn’t the First Time ‘Supernatural’ Teased Dean Winchester’s Offspring
Of course, this isn’t the first or only time that Supernatural teased the idea of Dean being a father. As early as the show’s third season, Lisa Braeden (Cindy Sampson) and her son Ben (Nicholas Elia) were introduced in “The Kids Are Alright,” and immediately the show made us believe that Ben was the result of a hook-up between Dean and Lisa years earlier. Though Lisa denied it, Ben’s aesthetic, choice of music, speech patterns, and physical appearance made many believe otherwise. After Sam was trapped in Hell at the end of Season 5, Dean went to live with the Braedens and became Ben’s surrogate father. By the end of Season 6, Dean had Castiel (Misha Collins) erase Ben and Lisa’s memories after the pair were nearly killed by a demon, but not before that demon revealed Ben was indeed Dean’s son.
Naturally, Dean (and Supernatural itself) framed this as just another lie the demon was trying to tell, and so Dean left his makeshift family behind forever. This all took place just before Season 7, when Dean had his encounter with Emma, making her not the first, but the second child of his that he’s walked out on (or worse, in Emma’s case). It wouldn’t be until the show’s final few years that Dean would have one more chance to redeem himself as a surrogate father figure with Jack Klein (Alexander Calvert), the estranged son of Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino). Dean, Sam, and Castiel helped raise Jack (who is a Nephilim) into a stand-up young man, one who ended up being vital in saving the world. While things between Dean and his only confirmed biological child might have turned sour, the elder Winchester proved himself to be worthy dad material by the end. No wonder Sam later named his own child after his brother.
Supernatural is available for streaming on Netflix.
Image via the CW
Image via the CW
