DJ Qualls on Garth’s Supernatural Sendoff in “The Heroes’ Journey”

There are relatively few characters on Supernatural who have been around as Garth (DJ Qualls) while still having virtually everybody love them. The character feels very much like an old friend whose life has been evolving in the background between his appearances, making him not just likable but also one of the most well-developed characters in the show’s world and somebody who has one of the most complete arcs in Supernatural. This week, he comes back for what sounds like one last time — and after years of getting help from the boys, it sounds like he’s there for them, providing a little guidance.

He also provides something else that a lot of fans will like: an example of someone who has managed to get (mostly) out of the hunter life and who proves that you can survive it and have some semblance of happiness and a real life. At least in some cases.

“In this episode, you see him in his home environment,” Qualls told ComicBook.com. “He’s living on a farm in Wisconsin, in a community of werewolves, which is just weird on its face, but he’s living this sort of 1950s Americana lifestyle, aside from the werewolf thing and the thing that eating of cow hearts. And he has a wife and a young daughter and two twin boys. It shows that there’s a life away from hunting, and he summons the boys because he needs a little help with something, and he winds up being sort of the elder in the situation and knowing what to do to sort of get them out of it.”

Of the episode’s title, Qualls explained, “It sort of means two things — that it’s about the boys, and sort of losing their shine a bit, and what they’re going to do next. But it’s also about Garth finding his inner hero. It’s a really beautiful thing they wrote for this character — this sort of lovely sendoff after these eight years. When I read it, I sent an e-mail immediately, thanking the writer who wrote it because it’s such a wonderfully sensitive thing. I was like, ‘This person knows who Garth is.’”

That doesn’t mean that the whole episode will be dewy eyes and rainbows, though. When we asked whether there would be any moments as weird as that first time the audience saw Garth eviscerating a cow, Qualls laughed.

“There’s something very weird that happens in the middle of the episode, that I think is going to wind up being an iconic moment in the show’s history,” he answered. “It’s so bizarre, and so beautiful, and so crafty, and it’s something between a Garth and Dean. I’m so excited for the audience to see this sort of four-minute segment that’s in the middle of the episode. It’s a non-sequitur sort of red herring moment in the show, but it’s pretty weird. Oh! And then also Dean and Garth have sort of a Little Shop of Horrors dentist’s moment in the middle of it too.”

So…you’ve got that to look forward to.

Supernatural airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT, Thursday nights on The CW before episodes of Legacies. “The Heroes’ Journey debuts tonight.