One of Supernatural's first major female characters, Bela Talbot (Lauren Cohan) only lasted one season before being killed off, and here's why. While Supernatural played host to lots of great characters over the course of its 15-year run, the show did sometimes draw criticism for being a bit of a boys' club. Brothers Sam and Dean Winchester were of course the leads, with their angel pal Castiel becoming a series regular himself later, as did Sam and Dean's surrogate father figure Bobby Singer.
Supernatural did eventually create some great female characters of its own, such as powerful Scottish witch Rowena, tough but caring cop Jody Mills, and Sam and Dean's own resurrected mom Mary Winchester. Still, for a long time, the lack of strong female representation in the main and recurring cast was quite noticeable. Perhaps that traces back to the introduction of Bela Talbot in season 3, one of the first big roles played by future Walking Dead superstar Lauren "Maggie Greene" Cohan.
Cohan's Bela Talbot appeared in 6 of season 3's 16 episodes, although it would've probably been more if that season hadn't been cut short by a writer's strike. Unfortunately, her fate of dying early probably would've remained the same, for a few reasons.
Bela Talbot was originally only planned to be a recurring antagonist, but after The CW requested a second female regular in the cast - the demon Ruby had also recently joined - producers agreed to make Bela a more prominent fixture in Supernatural season 3. They opted not to simply make her a love interest for Sam and Dean, and tried their best to introduce her in small doses. Unfortunately, fans were cool to the character right away. While some of that was simply fans wanting Sam and Dean to always be the center of attention, Bela was was also unpopular due to how she was written.
Bela was, to put it lightly, a huge jerk to the Winchesters, and went out of her way to screw them over whenever it suited her. However, unlike Crowley later, there weren't really moments designed to make her a likable anti-hero either. Fans felt she was getting too much focus, and the backlash was immense. Supernatural creator Eric Kripke would later admit that they had gone too far in giving her the spotlight, and also written her in a way where she seemed irredeemably awful.
The writers also ran into the problem of being unable to come up with believable reasons why Bela would just happen to keep running into the Winchester brothers, as she seemed to have no direct ties to the season's main story about trying to release Dean from his demon deal. Finally, the decision was made to kill her off near the end of season 3, and oddly enough, backstory for Bela was injected that made many fans see her in a new light. Bela had made her own crossroads deal that was about to come due, in exchange for the death of her abusive parents. She was then killed by hellhounds and carried off to the netherworld. If they introduced this sympathetic element much earlier, perhaps Supernatural fans would've been more receptive.
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