An old friend of John Winchester, Ellen Harvelle is the wife of hunter William Anthony Harvelle and the mother of Jo Harvelle. She runs Harvelle's Roadhouse, a saloon and pub frequented by hunters of supernatural creatures. When Sam and Dean Winchester arrive there in the second-season episode "Everybody Loves a Clown", a wary Ellen holds them at gunpoint until she learns that they are John's sons. She gives them information regarding a dangerous hunter named Gordon Walker in "Bloodlust", while Sam and Dean later explain to her in "Simon Said" about the demon Azazel's planned war against humanity. Her relationship with the brothers is strained in the episode "No Exit", where she reveals that she believes her husband's death was the result of a mistake made by John Winchester while they were working together on a hunt. However, she admits to Sam in "Hunted" that her husband's death was not John's fault and that she had forgiven him a long time ago. She also does not blame the brothers for Jo's decision to go off hunting by herself.