By Owen Quinn the author of The Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
copyright CW
As the first season of the Supernatural spin off, The Winchesters, comes to a succwssful close, there is one character that stands out above the rest.
Carlos Cervantez for me has become the best character in the show with their sassy attitude, killer hair. fashion sense and deep loyalty for those he cares about. Carlos is played by the effervescent multitalented JoJo Fleites.
Carlos has an explosive entrance in the pilot episode where all the others have walk on intros or handshakes.
When battling a demon, John nd Mary are saved by a camper van that rear ends said demon into unconsciousness. Carlos swaggers out talking non stop, encircling the demon with salt and gets John to eorocise the demon while revealing a favourite sandwich on the reverse og the menu the spell os written on. Hispanic Carlos is smart, sassy and has a new mission to get John dressed in appropriately fashionable clothes.
With his mass of long hir and sharp fashion sense, Carlos is totallyunlike any hunter we have met before but so muh more than a token caricature. Like the character of transgender Catalina in the Time Warrior story The Skull, Carlos is ahead of his time and a reminder people have always been people all through time.
Carlos was thrust into the hunter life when a ghoul murdered his entire family. Young Carlos once had a crush on Mary but snogged her former boyfriend. Carlos is a singer and a musician something that reflects Jojo’s real life talents. As a non binary character Carlos’ addition to the Supernatural universe is a refreshing and welcome one. Over the course of the episodes we discover Carlos is far more than a PC tick exercise but a carefully thought out character. It is highly likely Jojo had a lot of input into how Carlos should be portrayed.
The series is set in the era before the internet so together with fellow hunter, pacifist Lata, Carlos has to play detective in order to solve cases and bring down the Akrida. It is also Carlos that helps Lata admit to her darkest secret when both are trapped by a magical bracelet.
Carlos breaks boundaries on every level especially when we discover that they are in fact a veteran of the Vietnam War. Carlos and John enter a therapy group while on a case in a veteran‘s hospital. Carlos discovers that such therapy frpm Dr Z is helping him deal with his trauma but struggles to get John to admit to his. Visually you wouldn’t think of Carlos in those terms but his time at war and traumatic past totally affects his effervescent attitude to life and zest to live it to the full. As he tells John it’s how a hunters have worse endings than beginnings. This is something brought from the original series. So many times Sam and Dean tried to have a normal life to no avail and it was all their mother wanted for them before she was murdered by the yellow eyed demon.
Shades of that once normal life creep back when Carlos’ former band mate betrays yjrm to the Trickster Loki. This is the first crossover with the original series as Richard Speight Jr returns to the role.
In Supernatural he was the bane of Sam and Dean’s existence as the Trickster before it was revealed he was actually Archangel Gabriel hiding behind the guise of Loki to avoid other angels. He was killed by his brother Michael in an alternate world but in this prequel, Loki is alive and well. The gang are powerless against him and Carlos has to die to save them. He refuses to inflict the curse on anyone else. By choosing to sacrifice himself, Carlos breaks the curse which allows them to trap Loki and stop anyone else dying.
Carlos does nothing without a reason and when they are battling a nest of vampires hunting John down, Carlos does what is the stand out moment of the season. Lata dowses his luscious locks in holy water. As the vampires attack, Carlos swings his head, water showering the vamps with holy water long enough to gain the upper hand.
With such a deceptive look, there is no doubt Carlos has no hesitation in killing anything that threatens people using anything and everything close to hand.
However that ruthlessness is offset when they fall for Anton. They have a first date but Carlos struggles with asking for a second one. Maybe this is because of the life of a hunter and the dangers it brings he mentioned to John earlier in the show. After all how a hunter’s life ends is worse than how they begin this life as we saw many times. But Carlos does ask Anton out again reinforcing you cannot let this hunter’s life destroy any moment of happiness that comes your way. But this is Carlos. They live life despite the horrors because after all the trauma Carlos grabs it all by the throat. The future is not written; all we have is now especially with the threat of the Akrida about to invade our world destroying everything natural and supernatural alike.
We are about to reach the end of the first season of the Winchesters and an epic battle awaits. Whatever happens Carlos needs to stick around for a long tome to come.
It is characters like Carlos that need to be front and centre to continue breaking those barriers.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 