Character Profile: Tessa

Character: Tessa

Actress: Lindsey McKeon

Appearances (In chronological order):

In My Time Of Dying (Season 2, Episode 1)

Death Takes A Holiday (Season 4, Episode 15)

Appointment In Samarra (Season 6, Episode 11)

Number of Episodes: 3

Species: Reaper

Powers/Abilities: They are invisible to humans except to those they are coming for and humans in spirit or astral projection form and they are capable of stopping time and making humans see them in any way they want.

Bio: As reaper, Tessa is a servant of Death (the horseman) and it is her responsibility to escort the souls of those who’ve passed away into the afterlife. When reaping, she (and other reapers) will refuse to tell the deceased what is on the other side and reapers are neither on Heaven or Hell’s side. It is revealed that Tessa can only die by Death's Scythe after a ritual is performed under a solstice moon and that they can be bound by an enochian circle.

Tessa first appears in the episode “In My Time Of Dying” where Dean, close to death, tries to stop her from reaping other people’s souls, especially when she comes for him. Despite thinking the reaper departs, she returns as Tessa – a supposedly sympathetic woman who tries to convince Dean that dying isn’t so bad and that it’s not in his control, anyway. When Dean realizes who she is, the two hold a conversation about Vengeful Spirits and how they are ghosts that refuse to go over and eventually go mad. This makes Dean really think about whether or not to cross over however, Azazel interceded and possessed Tessa, bringing Dean back to life to uphold his deal with John Winchester.

Tessa reappears in “Death Takes A Holiday” to finish the job of a reaper in a small town who’s gone missing. Dean only recognizes her once she’s restored his memory and after a little convincing, she agrees to go on a reaping hiatus as for the meantime, while the issue of the missing reaper is resolved since Sam and Dean suspect that a demon is behind it. Despite agreeing, she tells them that as soon as the problem is solved, she will continue reaping. She then however gets kidnapped by Alastair because Alastair plans to kill two reapers in order to break one of the 66 Seals. When Sam and Dean free her, she continues to reap then tells Dean to stop lying to himself, telling him that bad things are coming.

We come across Tessa again in “Appointment In Samarra” where she is summoned by Dean after he arranges for himself to have an out of body experience in order to see Death. Despite Tessa’s refusal, Death appears on his own accord but makes a wager with Dean: He has to be death for a day. Tessa is then assigned to escort Dean for he next 24 hours, explaining to Dean how reaping works: The newly dead often have questions and not killing someone who’s supposed to die will cause a domino effect, resulting in death of many others as a consequence.