‘Supernatural’s Kim Rhodes Says It’s ‘Undeniable’ Jody Needs Sam & Dean’s Help

Kim Rhodes as Jody Mills and Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester in Supernatural Season 15 Episode 12 - 'Galaxy Brain'
Q&A
Katie Yu/The CW

Jody Mills has survived a decade of knowing the Winchesters on Supernatural, but should we be worried her time may be up? After all, the promo for her return in Monday’s “Galaxy Brain” features her saying, “if you don’t come, I’m dead.”

“You should always be worried,” Kim Rhodes told TV Insider.

When the series returns with its final nine episodes on a new night, “Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) respond to a frantic call and together along with Castiel (Misha Collins), Jack (Alexander Calvert) and Jody, assist in an extraordinary and heartbreaking rescue,” according to the logline.

Here, Rhodes teases what to expect, discusses her Wayward Sisters, and looks back on Jody’s journey.

Supernatural Season 15 Episode 12 Sam Jody Galaxy Brain

(Katie Yu/The CW)

What can you preview about what brings Jody back into the Winchesters’ orbit?

Kim Rhodes: It is undeniable that she needs their help. There are just certain things in this world that only the Winchesters can handle, and this is a situation where Jody needed some assistance.

The promo has that line, “if you don’t come, I’m dead,” which has me very, very worried about Jody. How concerned should we be?

It’s Supernatural. You should always be worried. Let’s just say that in 10 years of being Jody, I have not seen her encounter this situation.

What have you enjoyed most about the way Jody’s relationship with the brothers has grown over the years?

I love that they don’t need to talk to understand each other. I love that they trust each other implicitly, and I really love how they work as a functioning unit. I think that will be shown very well in this episode, and the added connection with Cas.

Jody and Cas have never worked with each other. They’ve never really met face-to-face, and there’s a link there that slots into place in this episode where Cas really helps Jody with something she needs that Sam and Dean would not have been able to help her with. It’s sad that it happens in this final season, but the entire mechanism really slots into place, how Jody works with the Winchesters and with Alex and with Cass in extension.

Supernatural Season 15 Episode 12 Jody Winchesters

(Bettina Strauss/The CW)

What can you say about Jody and Jack’s dynamic?

Jody loves easily. Jody has a great deal of empathy for what he’s going through because the recurring theme of Jody’s life is love hurts and we do it anyway. She’s feeling really supportive of him.

Every time Jody sees Sam and Dean, it seems like life has just gotten harder and rougher for them. What does she see in them when they reunite this time?

I’m going to be super honest. She’s really worried about the trouble she’s in. She doesn’t really have time to worry about them at this point.

A couple episodes ago, God showed Sam a future where Jody had to hunt the brothers. What was filming that like and could Jody ever hunt them down if it did come to that?

Oh, yes. Filming that was actually the first time I cried for the show ending. It was really sad for Kim.

Jody, in that reality, had already lost her girls. Everybody was dead. And I truly see Jody having a death wish at that point. I see her just being like, this has to be done, and she loves the boys enough to know that. It’s coming full circle — Sam had to take her son out because he was a zombie. And so the loving thing he did for Jody, even though they didn’t know each other, was to do what needed to be done, as quickly and with as much love as possible. And I see Jody being the same way. “I love them, so it should be at my hands because I know the life that’s being taken.”

Supernatural Season 15 Episode 12 Dean Jody

(Katie Yu/The CW)

And how’s everything going with Donna and the Wayward girls? Like you said, when we first got to know Jody, we saw her lose her family and now she’s built a new one, albeit with hunters in a very dangerous line of work. Every day she could lose one of them.

It’s a twofold thing. She doesn’t like it. In fact, that is addressed in this episode. She lives with constant fear that someone she loves is going to die, but that’s just the reality of the situation. There’s really no way around it, so what are you going to do?

How much do you think Jody needed to have those women in her life when they showed up and came together and now?

She’d be dead [otherwise]. She would’ve taken riskier behavior or she would’ve become self-destructive. That’s just Kim’s projection, but she is a human being. She’s like a border collie. If she doesn’t have a herd to guard, she has no job and will become self-destructive.

Jody’s come quite a long way since Season 5. Can you talk about how much she’s grown, as a hunter and in general?

Her world has gotten bigger, and she’s grown to meet it in all aspects. She started off as a very black and white thinker, and her relationship with Bobby forced her to admit the grays in life. She has really enjoyed finding different kinds of love that aren’t what you would assume is a stereotypical dynamic with people. She loves a lot of people very deeply in ways that are not traditional.

And it has to be a bit crazy for her to think about the fact that she’s gone from dealing with the dead and hunting vampires to having God as the Big Bad.

You know what I will say? And I love this. I have adopted this for Jody. Jody doesn’t worry herself with the big picture. Jody really deals with the problem at hand. She’s always done that. I love that phrase in the episode “Wayward Sisters” when she said, “you guys go save the world, we’ll worry about Sioux Falls.” And that’s really Jody’s attitude. “I don’t care who the Big Bad is, who do I have to fight right now?” And she does not have a crisis of conscience about, “oh it’s God.” She just shrugs and says, “okay, what’s the job at hand? Let’s get it done.”

Supernatural Season 15 Episode 12 Jody Sam

(Bettina Strauss/The CW)

What do you think and hope the show’s legacy and Jody’s legacy will be?

It’s undeniable that the show’s legacy will be about finding your family. And I would like to think Jody’s legacy within that is, like I said earlier, love hurts and it’s always worth it.

Supernatural, Mondays, 8/7c, The CW