Hugo Moriarty was a powerful violent spirit who trapped the ghosts of children.
Background
Hugo with his daughter.
Hugo was a loving family man with a daughter named Elizabeth until 1978 when his daughter was killed in a hit and run accident. The loss of Hugo's daughter drove him insane and he bricked himself behind a wall in his basement and starved to death.
Following Hugo's death, he became a ghost trapped in the house he had once lived in. As families moved in with children, Hugo coveted the children in his maddened state and murdered them, binding their spirits to his which gave him great power. Hugo committed these murders in 1985, 1989, 1991 and 2004. Among those killed was Lucas Kellinger.
Season 12
Hugo's corpse.
In 2016, a couple was drawn into the abandoned home where Hugo and his trapped souls resided. Hugo murdered both adults, freezing their hearts solid. The deaths drew the attention of hunter Mary Winchester who investigated with the help of her sons Sam and Dean. After encountering the spirit of Lucas, the younger Winchesters believed themselves to be dealing with mylings, the vengeful spirits of children from Scandinavian lore, but Mary recognized that Lucas wasn't trying to hurt her and contacted his mother to learn of how he died, learning that he had died in the same manner as the couple Hugo had murdered.
Upon Mary's return to the house, she was led to the wall Hugo's body was hidden behind by Lucas but was confronted by Hugo who possessed her and used her to attack her sons. Before Hugo could kill Dean, Mary started struggling for control with him, regaining enough control to direct Sam to the basement. As Lucas directed Sam to the wall behind which Hugo's remains were located, Hugo regained full control over Mary and disarmed Dean, but turned his attention to the basement after hearing Sam start to knock down the wall behind which he was hidden. Taking advantage of the moment, Dean uses an iron chain to bind Hugo as Sam salts and burns his body. Hugo is expelled from Mary and as he goes up in flames, the souls of the children he trapped appear around him. With a scream, Hugo's ghost disappears in a blast of flame and the children are released, allowing their souls to finally move on to Heaven.
Hugo goes up in flames surrounded by his victims.
After returning to the Men of Letters bunker, Mary explains to her sons that when Hugo possessed her, she saw and felt what had driven him to do what he had done and explains his motives to them.
Powers and Abilities
Hugo was an extremely powerful ghost due to the number of souls bound to him.
- Invisibility - As a ghost, Hugo was naturally invisible.
- Soul Control - Hugo was able to trap and control the spirits of the children he murdered. The children were unable to move on until he was destroyed even if their bones were salted and burned.
- Soul Channeling - Hugo was able to draw power from the souls of the children he had bound to himself in order to increase his own power.
- Thermokinesis - With a touch, Hugo was able to freeze a person's heart solid to kill them. He could even do this while possessing someone. His mere presence also caused the temperature to drop in rooms.
- Electromagnetic Interference - Hugo's presence caused interference in Dean's cellphone and then the call to drop.
- Telekinesis - Hugo was powerfully telekinetic, able to pull a grown woman across a room effortlessly and throw grown men. He also displayed this power while possessing someone.
- Terrakinesis - Hugo was able to induce a mildly powerful tremor capable of shaking his house briefly.
- Ghost Possession - Hugo was able to possess people and utilize his powers through them.
- Ectoplasm Secretion - While possessing someone, Hugo caused ectoplasm to stream from their eyes.
- Super Strength - While possessing Mary Winchester, Hugo was able to lift and strangle Dean with one hand.
- Immunity - While possessing Mary Winchester, Hugo demonstrated a partial immunity to iron which held him, but not enough to keep him bound completely or to evict him from Mary as it did Bobby Singer from Louise.
Weaknesses
- Salting and Burning of remains - Salting and burning Hugo's remains destroyed him.
- Iron - Although he was partially immune to iron, it had enough effect on Hugo to restrain him with effort on Dean's part.
Appearances
Notes
- Hugo is the first ghost since Whitman Van Ness in season 7's Of Grave Importance who has been dispatched simply by salting and burning his bones. The other spirits between the two required more than their bones to be destroyed in the case of Vance Collins, had to be convinced to move on to their rest in the cases of Timmy's mother and Andrew Silver or had been cremated and were attached to an object or series of objects that had to be destroyed in the cases of Isabella and Chester Johnson.
- Hugo's destruction is different than that of the other ghosts on the show who have been dispatched through their bones or an object being salted and burned. Unlike other ghosts who are consumed in moments by fire starting from their feet and going upwards, parts of Hugo's form caught on fire and he incinerated more slowly before his flaming form blasted upwards. When Avery Meadows is destroyed in season 13's Advanced Thanatology, his destruction is a normal one.