Supernatural: Katherine Ramdeen on What to Expect From Wayward Sisters

When Supernatural airs its backdoor pilot for Wayward Sisters in the episode of the same name this week, viewers will have a chance to meet the cast of the potential show, both familiar faces and new. Among the women who will be spinning off to form their own group of hunters is Alex Jones, played by Katherine Ramdeen, who spoke about what Supernatural fans can expect from the episode and the series, should it be developed further.

When Ramdeen first appeared on Supernatural in season 9’s “Alex Annie Alexis Ann” as a human member of a vampire family who used her as bait, there was no reason to think it would be more than a single guest spot. “When I did my very first episode as Alex, I didn’t have any expectations that there was going to be anything else,” says Ramdeen. “Never in a million years would I imagine that there was the possibility for an entire show around these characters.”

But as the recurring character of Sheriff Jody Mills, played by Kim Rhodes, began to gather women into her fold that had seen hardship in their lives, fans started to hone in on the idea that a completely separate story could be told. “It’s been in the background for a long time. The fans have been going crazy for a couple of years now about it,” Ramdeen explains. “The artwork that they’ve done, the forums, going to conventions — Kim and Briana [Buckmaster who plays Sheriff Donna Hanscum] really hyped it, and it was always a question at conventions… I think that it happened so organically, getting these characters together. It wrote itself!”

The fact that Wayward Sisters would take place in the single location of Sioux Falls rather than in the many settings of Supernatural is significant, according to Ramdeen. “I’m a fan of Star Trek, and watching Deep Space 9 is a different story because they’re on a space station, and they’re stuck in one place,” she explains. “But the thing is when we’re all in Sioux Falls, presumably, that just means that we can just go so much more in depth with the relationships that we have between the women… but that being said, I think there’s definitely a mechanism in place that’s going to make Sioux Falls a place a hunter would want to be.”

Another way Wayward Sisters would differ from Supernatural is with the addition of two new characters who have special abilities to aid in the fight: Patience is psychic and Kaia can walk between worlds. “I think for the writers, there’s just a million more places to go with that,” Ramdeen says, “and I think that it being a gift can also be a curse. And there’s also places to go with it where it can get them in trouble. So I think it just adds more layers, more possible stories to tell, and it’s pretty badass. I mean, it’s like we’re a group of superheroes!”

The new family of Wayward Sisters has been carefully assembled ever since Alex Jones and Claire Novak, played by Kathryn Love Newton, were first adopted by Jody, and each “wayward sister” brings something different to the group. “I guess in my mind, I see Jody and Donna as the leaders of the pack,” says Ramdeen, “and then there’s Claire who’s self sufficient… and then there’s Alex who fights when she has to. I don’t think she has a particular affinity for killing things because that what she’s been doing for most of her life is killing people. But that being said, she feels so strongly about her family that she’s made and these new people in her life that she just desperately wants to hold onto. She’d do anything for them!”

Alex would have room to evolve in a full series like Wayward Sisters, since the consequences of her damaged past have only been explored once in the season 11 episode of Supernatural called “Don’t You Forget About Me,” where a former victim-now-vampire seeks revenge. “I think that it’s unreasonable to assume that Alex is okay,” Ramdeen warns. “She spent over half her life with these terrible people doing terrible things, and I think she has a long way to go. Through the love and support of her family, of course, she’s doing so much better, but I think that she has a lot of internal turmoil that she has to deal with. And she kind of thinks of helping her family and doing these good deeds as sort of a redemption, I think, for her past.”

There are a number of directions the writers could take Alex in the new series, especially with the new characters joining the team. “Alex is an intellectual,” Ramdeen says. “I think she and Patience actually are really going to get along. They both love learning things, and I think they’ll make a really good pair for the stuff that has to happen when solving cases or fighting crime. I mean, Sam in Supernatural is sort of that role, the researcher… so I think it’d be really cool for Alex maybe to explore that talent.”

Ramdeen wouldn’t mind bringing in a few of her own interests as well to round out her character should Wayward Sisters get picked up. “This is just me speaking, but I love computers,” Ramdeen admits. “I love video games in real life, and so it would be so great for Alex to explore that and maybe be some super hacker person or something like that. But that’s just me, just wishful thinking. I have no idea what they’re going to do.”

Whatever happens with Alex or Wayward Sisters at large, anticipation is high for the episode that will help the network and potential fans decide whether the idea can sustain its own series. “What’s just crazy about this entire thing is that, for a pilot, there is so much anticipation and hype before it even was a script,” Ramdeen says. “So with the show coming out, we have that going for us. People just really want this to happen.”

“And as far as attracting new viewers, it’s its own show,” adds Ramdeen. “It has, of course, a lot of the supernatural elements and themes of family and fighting bad guys and such, but… I would want to watch the show. I don’t know how far that goes or what kind of weight that holds. It’s just a cool show!” Viewers will be able to decide on the potential for the series for themselves when the backdoor pilot of Wayward Sisters airs on Thursday at 8/7c during Supernatural’s regular time slot.

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