Rowena MacLeod

"I mean, fabulous speech, but you put yourself on far too high a pedestal. The fact remains I do not, will not, and have not loved anything ever."

- Rowena to Crowley

"I hate you, because when I look into your eyes I see the woman I used to be, before magic, before the coven. When I was nothing but Rowena, the tanner's daughter. A pale, scared little girl, who smelled of filth and death. I hate you, because when you were born, your father said he loved me, then he went back to his grand wife and his grand house, whilst I lay pathetic and half dead on a straw mat -- my thighs slick with blood. I hate you, because if I didn't, I'd love you. But love, love is weakness. And I'll never be weak again."

- Rowena to Crowley

Rowena is a villainess appearing in the CW horror action television series Supernatural. She is the main antagonist in Season 10, a minor antagonist /anti-villain in Season 11, and a anti-hero in Season 12.

She is portrayed by Ruth Connell.

Biography
Rowena is a powerful Scottish witch seeking to re-build her power base, and is the mother of Fergus MacLeod aka Crowley.

Season 10
She first appears in the closing scene of "Soul Survivor," where she sits in a hotel room, quietly reading a book while two hotel employees are impaled on the ceiling above her.

Rowena next appears in "Girls, Girls, Girls," where she enters Raul's Girls and uses a hex bag to kill a demon named Raul. She then convinces two young women to accompany her out of the club and takes them to a restaurant. There, Rowena reveals she is a witch and she was banished from her coven for her extreme uses of witchcraft. In the final act, Rowena has been captured by Crowley's demons, who bring her down to Hell and imprison her in a dungeon. When Crowley enters her cell to meet with her, Rowena begins mocking him. The episode ends with a stunned Crowley asking "Mother?"

After catching up with Crowley, who still resented her for leaving him and mistreating him when he was a child, she eventually gains his trust. However, she starts plotting behind his back by framing Gerald, one of his subordinates, for being a traitor, which gets Gerald killed by Crowley. She also spies on Crowley as he goes to go meet with the Winchesters about the Mark of Cain and retrieving the First Blade. She then orders Guthrie, another one of Crowley's subordinates, to retrieve the First Blade. Afterwards, she then kills Guthrie and frames him, telling Crowley that he was betraying him.

Katja, a witch and the member of the Grand Coven, travels from Europe to the United States, in pursuit of Rowena as ordered by her superiors in the Coven. Her hunt was thwarted by Sam and Dean Winchester when Dean incinerated her in her own flaming kiln, killing her.

Rowena is present at the court and scorns a crossroad demon for demanding Crowley the credit which equals his work. She,then, suggests Crowley halve him and pin the bloody pieces to the wall of the court so that no one dares demand anything from Crowley anymore, thus not wasting the king's time, which Crowley complies.Rowena,later, reveals that Olivette, her rival and superior, the high priestess of the Grand Coven, has just resurfaced and implores Crowley to track down Olivette and coerce her to sanction her practice of magic once again on her behalf. Crowley reluctantly agrees but later, revokes the plan as he has some business with the Winchesters to exterminate Cain. Rowena is disappointed and chastises Crowley, telling him not to go but Crowley rebuffs. When Crowley returns distressed and crestfallen, double crossed by the Winchesters, Rowena is ready to leave but Crowley halts her. She berates him for being their puppet and lap dog and addresses him "their bitch".

Rowena remains vexed with Crowley and vents her frustration by ruining the court and casting shocking spells to all those who interferes her ; she hexed one of the demons to spawn a rear face. She also rebukes Crowley for denying to help her and for choosing the Winchesters over his own blood. She taunts Crowley about his existence only because of her and again, spoils his palace by casting a spell. Crowley later captures Olivette, and brings her before Rowena, much to her joy. Rowena shackles Olivette and beats her. Olivette reveals she excommunicated Rowena for having a child with a non-witch and that the Grand Coven has already devastated and weakened dedicated to the Men of Letters. She mentions that the Winchesters are the only known Men of Letters. With the assumption that the Grand Coven from which she has been hiding for centuries and which she has been fearfully groveling until now is no longer powerful and authorized, she tortures Olivette and eventually, transforms her into a hamster.

As part of her plan to defeat Dean, Rowena draws sigils and symbols in blood on her body, and appears on earth. She casts the Attack Dog Spell on a trio of teenagers, and uses them to attack Dean. When Dean successfully beats the teenagers without killing them, Rowena uses a Gaelic spell on Dean which was supposed to rip him apart, but did not since Dean bears the very powerful and ancient Mark of Cain. Dean spares her life for the sake of the hexed trio, as he knows that Rowena can only break the spells cast on them. Overwhelmed by the knowledge that even her mightiest spell cannot overpower Dean, she injures herself and reveals to Crowley that Dean attacked her in the hope of Crowley retaliating against Dean for his mother. However, Crowley ignores her, feeling unconvinced by her love for him, stating that the only reason she is clinging to him is he is being useful to her. Rowena then packs, and leaves her son's palace.

After an encounter with the Styne Family where Sam appeared to destroy the Book of the Damned in a fire, he meets with Rowena in the hope that she can find a way to reverse the Mark of Cain, since she is a very powerful witch. With a smile, she discussed the terms of an agreement with him.

Rowena stipulates that Sam has to kill Crowley in return for her decoding the book, to which Sam agrees. She mentions that an affiliate of the Grand Coven, a witch named Nadia, once wrote a codex which can help interpret the Book of the Damned. Nadia, however, was murdered by the Men of Letters, and her codex was plundered and hidden in a Werther Box which induces hallucinations and delusions to all those who attempt to open it. These illusions manipulate the victims to commit suicide, with 98 percent lethality. When Sam and Dean discover the whereabouts of the Werther Box, the former opens it which causes Dean to have hallucinations of purgatory, in which he kills a leviathan and confronts Benny.

Benny was trying to persuade Dean into puncturing himself with a shattered glass bottle, killing himself. Meanwhile, Sam is saved from Suzie, who blames him for being responsible for her death by Rowena by using a spell, who, herself, is a hallucination induced by the Werther Box. Rowena and Sam confer how to open the Werther box in order to get Nadia's codex. Rowena uses a spell to reveal the letters etched on the box which read that only by spilling the Men of Letters' blood would the hallucinations cease, and allow the box to open. Sam cuts his arm, and spills his blood into the collection bowl on the box. It doesn't work, however, since more blood is needed.

Being a hallucination that would bring about Sam's death, Rowena encourages Sam into spilling vast amounts of his blood and he almost kills himself by excessive blood loss, but Dean is freed from his hallucination by impaling Benny instead of himself. He seeks out Sam, and spills his blood with Sam, which deactivates the spell on the Werther box, and disperses Rowena. Having successfully opened the Werther box and retrieving Nadia's codex, Sam arranges a rendezvous with Rowena, and hands her the codex. As a precaution to make sure that Rowena neither goes back on her promise and abandons the search for a cure, Sam binds her with iron manacles and chains. Sam tells her to work on the codex and departs, leaving Rowena furious and enraged.

Since Rowena has not found a cure for the mark, Sam argues with her for procrastinating in deciphering the Book of the Damned using Nadia's codex, to which Rowena replies that she is an, artist and needs time for interpreting the cure for Dean. She also states that her deciphering of the codex could be expedited if she could use magic, since Sam has her in iron shackles. Sam is desperate and demands why she is stalling but Rowena denies, saying that removing the Mark of Cain would insure her life, plus her willingness to have Crowley killed. In addition, Rowena mentions that Nadia also encrypted her own codex so that no one could ever decode it, to Sam's chagrin. When Sam goes to leave, Rowena asks him to go grocery shopping.

He returns with Charlie, who is also there to help find a cure for the Mark, but Rowena is antagonistic toward Charlie, and tells Sam that she does not need an ancillary decoder. Sam retorts by revealing that Charlie wouldn't be her helper, as she would be subordinate to Charlie. Rowena is not impressed by Charlie's confidence in tech, as she has never heard of the school where Charlie learned this magic. Sam tells her that she will find the ancient spells and curses, while Charlie's tech will put it into context. When Castiel is counted in, Rowena is intrigued by him, and taunts that all their discreet and unwilling collaboration must be unbeknownst to Dean, who doesn't even know that Sam didn't destroy the book. Sam, Charlie, and Castiel make a mutual agreement on cooperating for Dean's sake.

Rowena taunts Charlie and her laptop, and Castiel enters with his favorite snack as a human, pork rinds. Charlie asks Rowena about the nun who wrote the Book of the Damned, and Rowena replies that she was a hermit nun, Agnes, and that she was incinerated at the stake by the men of the church. Rowena mentions that her and Charlie are similar, however Rowena believes Charlie has too much trust in the Winchesters. Charlie confesses that the Winchesters are like her brothers, but Rowena tells her that her loyalty would be her undoing. Because Rowena won't leave her alone, and even tried to talk her into witchcraft, Charlie tells Castiel that she has to leave for two hours, or even one, just to get away from Rowena.

When Charlie and Rowena start arguing, Castiel calls Sam to let him know that Charlie wants to leave. Sam says it is too dangerous, however, so Castiel moves Rowena to another room, and chains her there. Rowena felt that Charlie was being the dramatic one, and believed that determining a cure would go faster if Charlie accepted her help. She also mentions that Crowley is her son, which surprised Castiel. Castiel leaves her, and finds out that Charlie has left for a motel, where she is later killed by Eldon Frankenstein.

Following Charlie's death, Sam decides to end the work to remove the Mark and kill Rowena, but changes his mind once he receives an email from Charlie with how to crack the codex. Rowena confirms she can now remove the Mark, but demands that Sam kill Crowley before she will as she doesn't trust him to keep up his end of the deal otherwise. After Sam fails, he calls Rowena to tell her and give her Crowley's warning. While Rowena is left worried, she insists Sam keep trying.

Following his failure to kill Crowley, Sam tries to threaten Rowena into helping with witch killing bullets. However, Rowena is unthreatened as Sam needs her to crack the Book and to cast the spell. She offers a new deal: her freedom and the codex in exchange for removing the Mark. Sam agrees and Rowena determines the ingredients needed for the spell which includes her sacrificing the person she loves most. Castiel is able to determine it is a young man named Oskar who's family had helped her hundreds of years before and she had grown so fond of she cured him of a terminal disease and made him immortal. Castiel summons Crowley who brings them the ingredients and Oskar. Rowena is happy to see Oskar despite her protests of loving no one and is horrified that she will have to kill him. However, she goes through with it and casts the spell to remove the Mark. She succeeds in removing the Mark, but unwittingly releases the Darkness at the same time. Rowena takes the opportunity to escape with the Book of the Damned and the codex, casting the Attack Dog Spell on Castiel so he will kill Crowley.

Season 11
Rowena stands before a trio of witches in an abandoned warehouse, at her altar she declares that they shall be known as the "Mega Coven" to the confusion of the trio. When one witch questions why they would join her, Rowena tells them that the Grand Coven is obsolete and and falling apart. She tells them of how she compelled an angel to kill her son, the King of Hell. But one witch tells her, she made a deal with Crowley only the day before, she declares Rowena "delusional as ever." As the trio begins to leave, Rowena pulls out the Book of the Damned and performs an incineration spell, killing the trio of witches where they stood.

At a restaurant, Rowena sits with two witches, pitching them to join her new Mega Coven and offering them power they could never get while in the Grand Coven. The witches appear to agree to join, when suddenly a demon possessed waiter attacks. One witch attempts to fend him off with a spell, but is too late and has her throat slit. Rowena makes her hasty retreat, using a spell to block her exit with furniture.

Sometime later, Rowena comes out of a brick building, disguised in a blonde wig and speaking in an American accent, carrying her suitcases towards a yellow Taxi. She quickly realizes that the driver is actually Dean Winchester and sends him flying across the alley, pinning him to a wall. Before she can kill Dean, Sam appears from nowhere and places her in iron shackles. Back at the Bunker's dungeon, Dean is chaining Rowena to the chair while Sam is searching her luggage for the Book of the Damned, but is only able to find Nadya's Codex and Charlie's code breaker. When Sam goes to retrieve Cas, Dean threatens to call Crowley unless she helps them, Rowena eggs him on, telling him if she is dead, there will be no one to remove the curse from Castiel. A panicked Sam returns to the dungeon, telling Dean Cas has gone missing. The trio pile into the Impala and track Cas down using his phones GPS. Dean parks the Impala in the general vicinity of where Cas' GPS brought them, and tells Sam to take Rowena one way, while he looks another. When Dean tracks Castiel down, Rowena and Sam show up not long after as Castiel starts attacking Dean. With a gun to her head, with witch-killing bullets, Sam orders Rowena to remove the curse. Once done, Sam briefly takes his attention away from Rowena to place her back in shackles, but Rowena is able to use the momentary lapse to her advantage and uses a spell to send Sam's gun flying across the room, along with Sam. Before either Winchester can do anything, Rowena traps them behind a cage and makes her escape.

A hooded and shackled Rowena is brought before Crowley and the Winchesters. She surmises they want her help to deal with the force that was released when the Mark of Cain was removed. Dean tells her everyone in the room holds a piece of the puzzle to stop the Darkness, Rowena is then filled in on Amara being God's sister, and is shocked at learning the truth, as back her day people would be burned at the stake for merely suggesting God had a sister. Knowing that her decoding the Book of the Damned is pivotal to their plan, she wants to know would be in it for her, to which Crowley agrees to call off his assassins, until the next time she crosses him. She asks what is in the Cage that is so important, when they tell her Lucifer, Rowena elated at the prospect of meeting the "Dark Prince." With everyone in agreement, Rowena is taken to the Bunker, where she is given Nadya's Codex and Charlie's code breaker. After some studying, Rowena finds the spell necessary to communicate with Lucifer without opening the Cage, and along with Sam and Crowley journey's to Hell to perform the spell.

Crowley leads the trio to "limbo," a desolate area in the furthest reaches of Hell. There Rowena paints warding sigils around a cage, and performs the first part of the spell which activates the warding sigils, as a ring of holy fire surrounds the cage. The second part of the spell causes the flames to rise high above, once they die down a figure appears in the shadows with glowing red eyes, Lucifer. As Rowena and Crowley watch Sam's conversation with Lucifer from a distance, Rowena becomes enamored by the fallen angel. Eventually, the illuminated spell-work on the cage begins to fade and the fire around the cage begins dying. Crowley looks startled, but Rowena looks intrigued. As Crowley questions why the warding failed, Rowena simply tells him to follow her, and leads him away.

During a recurring nightmare, in which she is experience Christmas morning with a child-like Crowley, the dream is suddenly interrupt by Santa Claus kicking the door down and impaling Crowley with a candy cane, when Rowena asks who he is because he is a new element in the dream, Santa pulls down his beard and reveals himself as Lucifer, causing joy to fall on Rowena.

After Sam is transported into the Cage, Rowena and Crowley have absconded to another room. While Rowena sits at a table, Crowley begins to choke her telling her she betrayed him in his kingdom. But she tells it's not his kingdom, it's Lucifer's and she is also his. Crowley questions how long she has been working for Lucifer, she tells him not long and Lucifer came to her in a dream. Telling him her allowing Crowley to capture her was all apart of Lucifer's plan. She tells Crowley that once Lucifer defeats the Darkness, he will ascend to Heaven and take the throne with her by his side as his queen.

While Crowley and Rowena are about to have tea, Crowley excuses himself, but unbeknownst to him Rowena slips a hex bag in his pocket, allowing her to eavesdrop on his conversation with Dean Winchester. She reveals this fact to Crowley when he returns to her, however Crowley turns it around on Rowena, telling her he drugged her tea, causing Rowena to double over in a coughing fit, allowing Dean to place a witch catcher around her neck. Furious, Rowena demands Crowley remove the collar from her neck, he tells her would, if not for the fact that the collar allows him to control her, and proves this point by forcing Rowena to hop on one leg, which she does, much to her chagrin. With Rowena in their control, Dean and Crowley force her to perform a spellto send Lucifer back to the Cage, with the caveat that the spell will only work as long as Lucifer doesn't take a vessel to anchor himself. Rowena performs the spell and is seemingly successful, when Lucifer disappears in blinding white light. With everyone regrouped, Crowley declares the team-up a "trainwreck" and over, when Sam questions what to do with Rowena, Crowley tells him she is staying with him in Hell.

With everyone taking their leave from Hell, Crowley sits in front of a fireplace and has Rowena massage his temples. During this time, he asks his mother why she hates him. Rowena goes on to tell him about her life before magic and how his father abandoned them after his birth and with tears in her eyes, that if she didn't hate him, she would love him and love is a weakness. Unexpectedly, Castiel appears in the doorway. However, Castiel soon reveals himself to actually be Lucifer, who had gained consent from Castiel before Rowena finished the spell. As Crowley tries to flee, Lucifer flings him to the wall and approaches Rowena. He removes the witch catcher from her neck and tells her she deserves a reward for her help in freeing. As closes in seemingly to kiss Rowena, he asks her if anyone else is capable of opening the Cage. When Rowena tells her only she is capable, he snaps her neck, twisting it around her body.

However, Rowena earlier cast a spell (which apparently can only work once), which revived her almost immediately after. She begins working with Amara to heal her from the combined angel smiting, but upon seeing what Amara intends to do, switches over to Sam, Dean, and Crowley, letting them know she is still alive, to reimprison Lucifer. When Lucifer tries to kill Amara and is captured, Rowena leaves.

Later, Sam and Dean recruit Rowena, along with the angels and Crowley, to help reimprison Amara. Rowena is powered up by other witches and zaps Amara with lightning, but she turns the spell back on her, killing the other witches, though Rowena survives. Rowena spends the rest of the season with Sam, Dean, Castiel, Crowley, and Chuck (God), anticipating the end of the world until she puts together a soul bomb inside Dean so he can kill Amara, though Amara reconciles with God before the bomb can be used.

Season 12
Rowena decides to leave her life of magic and dealing with demons, until Crowley enlists her help in tracking down Lucifer. After they track him down, Rowena paralyzes him, but she and Crowley are unsuccessful in exorcising him from his new vessel. Crowley escapes, and Lucifer considers killing Rowena for good, but imprisons her instead.

Lucifer tries to force Rowena to cast a spell to make Vince his permanent vessel. Instead Rowena casts a spell to speed up the decaying process of his vessel, and then banishes him to the bottom of the ocean before Castiel and Crowley arrive. Rowena tells them she won't help them track him down, but she will help them defeat him if they find him.

In the episode "Lotus", Rowena will help Sam, Dean, Castiel, and Crowley fight Lucifer.

Trivia

 * Though considered the main villain of Season 10, Rowena is not the main threat (which is the Mark of Cain), but rather the most prominent villain of the season. Aside from manipulating Crowley and being forced to remove the Mark of Cain from Dean, she hardly plays a major role.