Development
Originally intended as a recurring character, Bela was upgraded to a series regular after the CW requested a second female character for the season. Cohan auditioned for the demon Ruby, the other new female role, but ultimately received the part of Bela. Upon learning of Cohan's British accent, a "really psyched" Kripke reworked the character to be British. The actress herself later pictured Bela that way, feeling she "has some kind of cool shading and sneakiness, which fits the British accent". At the time Cohan's casting, however, she had been given little exposure to the character script-wise, and was unaware she would play a "nasty person". It was not until The CW up-fronts that Kripke gave her a "good spiel" about Bela because she would be interviewed. The actress later turned down an offer from him to provide more of the character's backstory, and instead opted to learn it as the episodes were filmed. In order to prepare for her role, Cohan received weapons training to be "well equipped with swords and a lot of instruments—sharp instruments".
Due to "protective and occasionally nervous" fans, Kripke meant for Bela to be introduced in "small doses". He wanted fans to know the show would always be just about Sam and Dean Winchester, and stated, " there for important plot elements, but it's not the Ruby and Bela show, nor is it about the four of them cruising around in the Impala together. It's about the guys." However, he feels the writers pushed it too far in the episode "Red Sky at Morning", stating his opinion it "was by far the least successful episode this year because it really kind of became the Bela show". Unfortunately, the writers also did not take the time to consider how to tie her into the Winchesters' storylines. As Kripke pointed out, "It's a road show and we're in a different town every week, so if you're going to run into the same character over and over again, you better have a damn good reason..." They were eventually "crushed under the weight of the absurdity of it" because it became more difficult to justify her reappearances within the narrative. Another key problem stemmed from their conceptualization of her as an antagonistic character rather than a potential love interest for the brothers. The writers, "so taken with a woman who could screw the boys over at every turn", ended up making Bela too antagonistic without establishing a balance. Any chance for a "funny effervescent episode where they all work together" was lost after the character attempts to have the Winchesters killed on multiple occasions.
Read more about this topic: Bela Talbot
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