As Supernatural nears the conclusion of Season 8 (having already been renewed for Season 9), I had the chance to speak to executive producer/showrunner Jeremy Carver. Carver talked about the recent appearance by Bobby (Jim Beaver), this week’s return of Charlie (Felicia Day), Sam’s trials and more.

To be perfectly frank, no. We knew we wanted to bring him back. We weren’t certain when. We wanted to bring him back, and we wanted it to make sense. We found a way as we developed both the trial and purgatory storylines over the course of the season. Because you never really want a death to feel unimportant or transitory -- because a lot went into that death, you know? So essentially you want to earn it, and I think we found a way to make it make sense. Bobby had a little bit more to say, so we were happy with it.Well, he’s an ornery guy, so hopefully so.Yeah, I think Charlie has been one of our favorite recurring characters as of late. I think what’s so exciting about this episode coming up, episode 820, is that we really get a much deeper insight into her and her past and her character. You’re always going to have a certain amount of humor when it comes to Charlie, but we get a tremendous amount of hardened emotion in this upcoming episode that I think folks are going to enjoy, as Sam and Dean peel back the many layers of Charlie.Well, we had another female character that stuck around for awhile, and that was Meg -- and you see what happened to her. But yeah, what can I say? Charlie, to me, is a character who brings a breath of fresh air into the show. Male or female, I think you always want to see someone like that come back for more.We’re in a situation here, whether people realize it or not, we’re at a bit of a crossroads here. The boys have two trials down, and Kevin’s fate is rather uncertain here at the end of episode 19. So the idea of finding out about this third trial is very much on the forefront of their minds and something that we’ll be dealing with well before the finale as well.That’s an excellent question, and I think we can. I mean, you have no choice until Crowley says differently... in Season 14. [Laughs]The way you asked that is a little bit tough for me to answer, aside from the fact that the boys, they started this season very much -- they were coming from different positions at the beginning of the season. The other thing that really united them was this shared sense of revenge. So I think what Dean and Sam are both going to have to contend with as they march towards the end here is, how far are they willing to go to get this revenge? Because things get pretty hairy.