Bela Talbot
Bela Talbot is a fictional character on The CW Television Network's drama/horror television series Supernatural, portrayed by Lauren Cohan. Appearing only in the third season, she uses knowledge of the supernatural world to her advantage rather than to help those in need. Self-centered and a thorn in the side of the series' protagonists, Bela makes her living by stealing occult objects and selling them to wealthy clients. Critical reaction to the character was mixed, with negative responses from fans ultimately leading to her departure at the end of the season.
In her first appearance, "Bad Day at Black Rock", Bela Talbot hires two crooks to steal a cursed rabbit's foot from a storage container owned by the deceased John Winchester, a hunter of supernatural creatures. Anyone who touches the foot is granted good luck, but will die within a week if the foot is lost. She intends to sell it and shows no concern for the fate of the thieves. John's sons, series protagonists Sam and Dean, retrieve the foot but are cursed by it. Bela interferes when they attempt to destroy it, and shoots Sam in the shoulder. Dean, however, tricks her into touching it. She gives the foot up for destruction to save herself, but manages to steal $46,000 in winning lottery tickets from Dean that he had purchased using the foot's granted luck.
She next appears in "Red Sky at Morning", an episode in which the Winchesters track down a ghost ship responsible for local deaths. Bela fools them into helping her again, with the three of them working together to steal the precious and magical Hand of Glory. The Winchesters plan to destroy the artifact to end the curse, but Bela steals it from them to sell to a client. However, Bela then witnesses the ghost ship, which only appears to those who have spilled the blood of a family member. Condemned to death, she turns to the Winchesters for help. Dean is prepared to leave her behind to die, but Sam comes up with a plan to save Bela's life. This time, Bela gives them $10,000 as a "thank you" before she leaves because she does not like being indebted to others.
In "Fresh Blood", hunter and recently escaped felon Gordon Walker tracks Bela down and threatens to kill her unless she reveals the location of the Winchesters, as he plans to kill Sam. Bela agrees to find out their location in exchange for his priceless mojo bag, and has an unsuspecting Dean disclose their whereabouts to her. After Dean threatens to kill her, she uses a Ouija board to placate him by obtaining information on Gordon's location so the Winchesters can neutralize the other hunter first.
In "Dream a Little Dream of Me", Bela returns when the Winchesters contact her for help in saving fellow hunter and family friend Bobby Singer after he falls into a mystical coma. They need dream root to enter Bobby's dreams and find out what is keeping him asleep. She claims nothing from them in compensation, explaining she is helping them in order to repay a debt to Bobby. However, the Winchesters discover after Bobby awakens that she was lying, having helped them to gain access to the Colt, a mystical gun capable of killing any being. Enraged at the theft, Dean and Sam attempt to track her down in "Jus in Bello", but instead are led into a trap she has set up; police arrest the Winchesters and place them in jail. Though the demonic overlord Lilith sends her forces, Sam and Dean eventually make their escape.
In "Time Is On My Side", Dean discovers Bela no longer has the Colt. He later gets her criminal record from England and learns her true name is Abbie. Almost ten years prior, when she was 14, she had her parents killed in exchange for her soul as part of a ten-year deal made with a Crossroads Demon; though Dean believes that she killed them to inherit their fortune and Bela supports this story, the audience is shown a flashback that suggests that she had actually agreed to the deal to escape abuse from her father. Now desperate because her time is running out, Bela tries to kill the Winchesters, but they anticipate her and escape ahead of time. Dean then calls her a few minutes before her deal is up and she confesses to him she tried to get out of the deal with the Crossroads Demon by trading the Colt. Once she gave it up, however, the deal changed so she had to kill Sam as well. Though Dean refuses her pleas for help, she reveals to him the demon Lilith holds all the contracts brokered by Crossroads Demons, including his own. Bela's death—and her soul's resulting descent into Hell—is inevitable, but not shown.