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Samuel William "Sam" Winchester is a Hunter as well as a Man of Letters, and along with his older brother Dean, is one of the main protagonists of Supernatural. Both Sam and Dean are related to the Winchester and Campbell families - a Letters family and a Hunting family respectively. The pair also share a bloodline with Cain and Abel. Because of this, Sam was pre-destined to be the True Vessel of Lucifer (whilst Dean was Michael's).

Both Sam and Dean were raised in the hunting life by their father John after the demon Azazel killed their mother.Sam left the Hunting life to pursue a career in law, and most likely would have married his college sweetheart Jessica Moore, had she not died. When the series begins, Sam is reluctant to start Hunting again, but when Jessica is killed, he is pushed back into the hunting life. Over time Sam has accepted the lifestyle and repeatedly sacrificed himself for the greater good, highlighting his selfless nature. However, he has been repeatedly known to try and back out of Hunting in the hope of finally having a normal life as he wanted. Sam is very mentally strong, evidenced by his ability to overpower possession by Lucifer. Sam also served as a vessel for the angel Gadreel before expelling him.

Contents

  1. Biography
    1. Early Life
    2. Season 1
    3. Season 2
    4. Season 3
    5. Season 4
    6. Season 5
    7. Season 6
    8. Season 7
    9. Season 8
    10. Season 9
    11. Season 10
  2. Appearance
  3. Personality
  4. Equipment
  5. Powers and Abilities
  6. Weaknesses
  7. Deaths
  8. Relationships
  9. Name
  10. Notable Episodes
  11. Quotes
    1. Season 1
    2. Season 2
    3. Season 3
    4. Season 4
    5. Season 5
    6. Season 6
    7. Season 7
    8. Season 8
    9. Season 9
    10. Season 10
  12. References to Pop Culture
    1. Season 1
    2. Season 2
    3. Season 3
    4. Season 4
    5. Season 5
    6. Season 6
    7. Season 7
    8. Season 8
    9. Season 9
    10. Season 10
  13. Trivia
  14. Canon Discrepancies
SeasonsAll
SpeciesHuman
Special Child - formerly
Demon - briefly
Spirit - formerly
StatusAlive
DatesMay 2, 1983 - 2007 (killed by Jake/resurrected by a crossroads demon)
2010 (locked in Lucifer's Cage/pulled out soulless by Castiel)
2011 (regains his soul)
Title/AliasSammy
Moose (by Crowley)
Sasquatch (by Crowley)
Boy With the Demon Blood
Boy King
Winchester Jumbo Size
OccupationHunter
True Vessel of Lucifer
Men of Letters
LocationAge 6 months - Lawrence, Kansas
Present - Lebanon, Kansas
AffiliationWinchester Family
Castiel
Men of Letters
Bobby Singer
Crowley (unwillingly; formerly/on-off)
Rowena (unwillingly; formerly/on-off)
Charlie Bradbury
Campbell Family
FamilyCain (ancestor)
Abel (ancestor)
John Winchester (father)
Mary Winchester (mother)
Henry Winchester (paternal grandfather)
Millie Winchester (paternal grandmother)
Samuel Campbell (maternal grandfather)
Deanna Campbell (maternal grandmother)
Dean Winchester (brother)
Emma (niece)
Adam Milligan (half-brother)
Becky Rosen (ex-wife)
Bobby Singer (surrogate father)
Lucifer (vessel)
Portrayed byJared Padalecki
Baby (uncredited in Pilot)
Alex Ferris (Child in Something Wicked)
Colin Ford (Child in A Very Supernatural Christmas, After School Special, When the Levee Breaks, Dark Side of the Moon, & The Girl Next Door; Teen in The Devil Is in the Details)
Nathan Smith (Child in Swan Song)
Hunter Dillon (Child in Bad Boys)
Colton James (Body swap in Swap Meat)

Biography

Early Life

Sam Winchester was born on May 2, 1983 to John and Mary Winchester in Lawrence, Kansas. He is the couple's second child, four years younger than his older brother Dean. When Sam was exactly six months old on November 2, 1983, he is visited in his nursery by the Yellow-Eyed Demon, who drips demon blood into his mouth. When Mary interrupts him, the demon kills her, pinning her to the ceiling and setting the house on fire. John grabs Sam and hands the baby to Dean, who carries him from their burning home, while John tries to save Mary. Unable to do so, John scoops up both Dean and Sam, running across the front lawn, while the nursery on the second floor explodes above them.

When Sam is 6, in a flashback of Something Wicked, he is left in Dean's care in a motel room in Fort Douglas, Wisconsin while John is on a hunt. While a bored Dean leaves briefly, Sam is attacked by a shtriga, but is rescued by John.

When Sam is 8, he and Dean are again on their own in a motel in Broken Bow, Nebraska on Christmas Eve. Until this time Sam believes his mother died in a car accident, and doesn't know John is a hunter. On finding John's journal, Sam confronts Dean, who confirms that supernatural beings exists; that one killed their mother and that their father, who is a superhero, hunts them.

When Sam is 11 or 12, he is sent to live with Bobby for two months while John is on a hunt and Dean has been sent to a boys home.

When Sam is 12, he wins a Division Championship Soccer trophy, which he later finds in John's lock-up.

On July 4, 1996, when Sam was 16, Sam and Dean set off a box full of fireworks in an empty field. As Dean recalls, they "burned the field down."

In the summer 1997, Sam, Dean and John hunt a werewolf.

Sam was a Mathlete in high school, as remembered by Travis.

In 1998, Sam researches kitsune alone in a library and feeds the information to Dean and John, who are hunting one, by cellphone. He wants them to stop bothering him so that he can try to have a normal time. At the library he meets a girl named Amy, and helps her fend off two bullies. She invites him to her house in thanks. They have common ground in that their families are always on the road, and they feel out of place, like freaks. They kiss. Amy's mother returns, and Amy hides Sam in a closet. Amy and her mother are both kitsune, and her mother has seen Dean and John tracking her. Amy tries to sneak Sam out, but her mother finds him and would have killed him, but Amy killed her instead. Sam lets Amy go.

At some point in his teenage years, when living in Flagstaff, Arizona, Sam ran away from home on "Dean's watch"; he was gone for two weeks and adopted a dog, "Bones", and lived on junkfood. Sam and Bones call Six Flags home during this time.

When Sam is 18 or 19, he leaves his family to study at Stanford.

In 1998 or 1999, Dean went on a road trip that was supposed to be "5 states, 5 days" while Sam was "in Orlando with Dad, wrapping up that banshee thing".

When Sam is 20, he starts dating Jessica Moore. He tells Dean in Route 666 he had lied to Jessica for "a year and a half" about what their family did.

Season 1

Sam is 22 and about to enter law school, when Dean turns up unexpectedly at his apartment in Palo Alto. The two have not spoken for some time (see Canon Discrepancies for how long). However, their father is missing, and Dean asks Sam to help find him. After a weekend of searching, Sam returns to the apartment he shares with Jessica, only to find that she has been killed in the same manner as his mother.

This spurs Sam to embark on a journey with Dean to find their missing father and get vengeance on whatever killed both Jessica and Mom. While John Winchester is missing, he occasionally contacts the boys to leave them new missions to complete. This frustrates Sam, who only has a narrow focus: team up with Dad, and get vengeance. Meanwhile, the boys fend off mystical creatures such as the Woman in White, the wendigo, folklore's Bloody Mary, spirits, the famous Hook Man, a pagan god, and a shapeshifter.

In Bloody Mary, Sam draws her to the mirror by calling her name three times. It only works if there is a secret involved, one that involves a death, so Dean isn't sure if she will show, but Sam has a secret concerning Jessica's death. Dean pushes Sam to share, but he doesn't, claiming he will need the secret to draw Mary. Afterwards, Sam still refuses to share the secret, although he tells Dean later in Home.

In Skin, Sam checks his email, telling Dean that he tells his friends from Stanford that he's on a road trip with his brother, that he needs some time off after Jess. Dean claims Sam's lying; Sam claims he's just not telling them the whole truth. Dean tells Sam he needs to cut out others from his life; Sam tells Dean, "You're anti-social, you know that?" He gets an email from his college friend Rebecca Warren, concerning her brother that had been implemented in his girlfriend's murder. Sam convinces Dean to go help, so Sam and Dean go to investigate. Sam lies to Becky, telling her his brother Dean is a cop (Dean upgrades himself to detective), to let them into the crime scene. Later Becky calls Sam on the lies, before telling him goodbye. When the shape-shifter looks like Dean, it reveals Dean's fear of Sam leaving him, and of his jealousy of Sam's life. Later it also tells Sam that he should appreciate Dean more, before they fight and Sam loses. At the end, Becky realizes exactly what Sam and Dean does, telling him it must be lonely. (He responds with, "It's not so bad.") She tells him everyone misses Sam at Stanford, asking him to call sometime before he leaves. Dean apologizes at the end, wishing Sam could be "Joe College". Sam confesses he's never really fit in at Stanford; Dean half jokes that they are both freaks.

Through these missions, Sam begins experiencing episodes of precognition and once displays telekinesis. In Home, Sam finally confesses the secret of dreaming of Jessica's death for days before it happened. (Jessica, in Sam's dreams after she died, kept asking "Why?" This implied that Sam might have been able to prevent Jessica's death, a weight he keeps tightly to himself.) He confesses it because he has another dream-vision, and needs to go stop it so he won't be haunted as he is haunted by Jessica. Dean is skeptical at first, but by the end of the episode, he seems to believe Sam might have a precognitive power. In Nightmare, Sam has another dream-vision. Dean's not sure it could be real, but they head out to save the man. When they arrive too late, Dean wonders what is up with Sam's visions. Sam starts having these visions while awake - painful, mind-blowing, flashing, someone dying visions - as his precognition grows. He has several during this episode, one being where Dean is killed. (All visions involve someone dying in some manner.) Sam was locked up in a closet during Dean's death vision, and with extreme willpower and desperation, he displays telekinesis to move the dresser so he can escape the closet.

In Asylum, Dr. Ellicott was experimenting on patients, with extreme rage therapy, so his spirit is doing the same thing. He infected Sam, and in his rage Sam pulls a shotgun on Dean. Sam tells Dean he's tired of taking orders, that Dean is a "good little soldier" and that he "follows Dad's orders without question". Sam asks, "Are you that desperate for his approval?" Sam further tells Dean that he's got a mind of his own, that he's not pathetic like Dean. Sam only wants to find Dad. When Dean pushes Sam into taking a gun, that Sam hates him that much to kill Dean. He pulls the trigger, several times, only to find Dean gave him an empty gun. Dean knocks Sam out, then deals with the spirit. Afterwards Sam apologizes, claiming he didn't mean any of it. Dad calls at the end of the episode, which sets Sam off.

Sam is determined to find Dad, and since he called they have a lead on where he is. So in Scarecrow, while Dean follows Dad's orders and heads off to a hunt, they fight and Sam ditches him; Sam heads to California where Dad had called from. The brothers stay in contact over the phone, talking about Dean's case. They kind of apologize to each other about the fight, before Dean tells Sam, "You were right. You gotta do your own thing, you have to live your own life. ... You've always known what you want, and you go after it. You stand up to Dad, and you always have." Dean wishes aloud that he might be able to, and tells Sam that he admires him, and is proud of him, for it. After promising to take care of himself, and call Dean when he finds Dad, they hang up. Later, after not getting Dean on the phone, Sam gives up the hunt for Dad to head back and rescue Dean. While Sam was trying to track down Dad, he runs into a girl named Meg.

In Faith, Dean acquires a fatal heart condition when he is electrocuted during a hunt. Dean tells Sam he has to let Dean die, but Sam vows that he WILL save Dean and finds a faith healer for him.

Sam learns more about Dean this season. In Route 666, Sam finds out about a relationship Dean had previously with Cassie. He gets upset with Dean for telling her "the family secret", when he lied to Jess for a year and a half. After meeting Cassie, Sam wonders if putting everything on hold is worth it. Also, in Something Wicked Sam learns Dean was haunted by the fact he put Sammy in danger. Sam points out that Dean was just a kid, trying to release his guilt.

Later, in Shadow, Sam meets up with Meg once more and suspicious, spies on her. As they prepare to battle Meg, Sam confesses to a surprised and shocked Dean that he will return to Stanford after they kill Azazel, the demon who killed their mother and Sam's girlfriend, Jessica Moore. Meg traps the boys in the hopes of catching John, but she is defeated. John reunites with his sons, but all three are attacked by Daevas. After Sam defeats it, the injured Winchesters escape. Dean supports John when he declares it is too dangerous for them all to be together, much to Sam's chagrin, since he didn't want to split up.

Dean pushes Sam into trying a romantic relationship with Sarah Blake in Provenance, not-so-subtlety trying to help him get over Jessica. Sam acknowledges that Jess would want him to move on, but that was only part of it. Later, in talking with Sarah, Sam tells her that there is something between them, but that he wants to keep her safe. When people are around Sam, they get hurt, and he cites Jess' death. He's afraid he's cursed, and just can't go through the pain again. However, at the end, he does hook up with Sarah, at least temporary.

John reunites with his sons in Dead Man's Blood, and this time they win the argument and convince Dad that the Winchesters are stronger when together. They also retrieve the famed Colt, which can kill anything. This gives them hope to kill the Yellow-Eyed Demon, thereby exacting revenge on Jess and Mom's deaths.

John has found signs from the Yellow-Eyed Demon centering on Salvation, Iowa, and the Winchesters head out for a final confrontation. While searching for clues, Sam's visions start up again. Dean backs Sam, while John gets upset at this revelation. John is lured away, while Sam and Dean stake out the house that Yellow-Eyes will hit. Sam tries to shoot the demon, but it teleports. During the attack, Dean has to physically block Sam from going back in the burning nursery to kill the demon - telling Sam it's burning to the ground, and it's suicide. Sam doesn't care, but Dean does. Dean doesn't want Sam to end it (killing the demon), if it meant ending Sam's life, too. Dean hoped they never find it, if it meant dying over it. Sam's furious - it killed Jess, it killed Mom! - but they are gone, and they aren't coming back, counters Dean. They only have each other, only to find John was captured by Meg.

The boys rescue John in Devil's Trap, only to find that it's the Yellow-Eyed Demon inhabiting Dad. It taunts Sam, trying to get him (while pinned to a wall) to use his psychic powers to kill him with The Colt, but Sam is unable to. Sam demands to know why it killed Mom and Jess, and it tells him they got in the way of it's plans for Sammy, and all the children like him. The demon and Dean exchange words, before the demon starts to kill Dean. Dean begs Dad not to kill him, and John manages to get control for a moment, freeing Sam. Sam grabs The Colt, confronting the demon. The Yellow-Eyed Demon quickly reminds Sam that if he shoots him, he will kill John, too; Sam shoots him in the leg instead, wounding but not killing both the Yellow-Eyed Demon and John. Weakened, the Yellow-Eyed Demon again loses control to John, who urges Sam to kill him and the demon while he can still keep the demon inside. However, Sam hesitates too long and the Yellow-Eyed Demon soon manages to escape both John's body and the Winchesters, sinking through the cabin floor as demon smoke. While Sam is driving the Winchesters to a hospital after Dean and John were hurt, an 18-wheeler truck crashes into them, causing massive damage to Dean's Impala with the Winchesters inside.

Season 2

In the beginning of the second season In My Time of Dying, Sam threatens the demon with the Colt, to get it to back off and so saves his family. In the hospital, he clashes with Dad over the demon, while Dean is dying. Sam feels Dean's spirit, and is able to talk with him through an ouija board. He tries, but fails, to get Dean help, but Dean wakes on his own. Sam clashes with his dad again, before he goes to get Dad some caffeine. When he returns, Sam finds his father on the floor. He is pronounced dead, shocking both brothers.

Dean and Sam gave their father a hunter's funeral in Everybody Loves a Clown. While the body was burning, Sam asked Dean if Dad had said anything to him before he died. Dean lies, saying no. While trying to deal with his grief, an old message takes the boys to a roadhouse where they meet Dad's friends Ellen and Jo Harvelle, and the computer genius Ash. Ash puts in all the information into his computer, and promises to call them if he gets anything. While working, Sam takes a more active role in the hunting, even telling Dean that this is what their dad would have wanted him to do. Unfortunately, it is with a killer clown, and Sam has coulrophobia, a fear of clowns. At one point Sam pushes Dean to deal with Dad's death, and Dean pushes back by telling Sam he spent his entire life fighting with Dad. That Sam only wants to make it right because Dad is dead. After the case is closed, Sam admits to Dean that he was right, that he misses Dad, and he feels guilty. He pushes back at Dean, pointing out that Dean isn't all right either, before walking away.

In Bloodlust the brothers meet another hunter named Gordon Walker. Dean hits it off with him, but later Sam accuses Dean of trying to fill the hole their Dad left with Gordon, insulting Dad's memory. Dean hits Sam. Sam is kidnapped by vampires, who don't drink human blood, and to prove it they let him go without a mark. Later Sam points out to Dean that they don't kill supernatural, just evil. Dean makes the choice to backing Sam, making Gordon their enemy. Dean, at the end of the hunt, thanks Sam for being his moral compass pain in the ass.

Sam feels the need to say goodbye to Dad, and so asks Dean to swing by Mom's grave to bury Dad's Marine dog tags in Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. Dean finds a case, but he is erratic and scary so Sam calls him on it. Sam breaks his right wrist fighting a zombie; Dean promises to set him up with a cast on his wrist. Sam wears it in subsequent episodes, up until Nightshifter, when it comes off. Driving out of town, Dean stops to apologize to Sam about his behavior, and to share his feelings that Dad is dead because of him.

In Simon Said, Sam displays immunity to Andy Gallagher's power of mind control. He is also immune to the demonic sulfur virus in Croatoan.

In Hunted, Sam learns what his father told Dean moments before his death: that the Yellow-Eyed Demon plans to cause Sam to become evil and use him and "children like him" as soldiers in an upcoming war. Dean was told that if he could not save Sam, he would have to kill him. Sam is convinced that he must save as many people as he can in order to change his destiny, as he drunkenly states in Playthings. In Houses of the Holy, Sam has a vision of what he thinks is an angel, telling him he has been chosen to kill someone evil. The angel is later revealed to be the spirit of Father Thomas Gregory. We learn in this episode that Sam has faith and prays regularly.

In Born Under a Bad Sign, Sam is possessed by the demon which had previously possessed Meg Masters. While possessed Sam killed Steve Wandell, attacked Jo and shot and beat up Dean. It is initially difficult to exorcise as it has used a spell (signified by a brand on Sam's arm) to bind itself to Sam's body. In What Is and What Should Never Be, Sam and Dean aren't close in the alternate reality created by a djinn. Neither Sam nor Dean had ever hunted, and Jessica is Sam's fiancee.

In All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1, Sam is trapped in a haunted abandoned town in South Dakota with other psychics like him. It was revealed that there is demon's blood in Sam and his mother Mary Winchester knew who the demon was, much to Sam's surprise. He is stabbed by a soldier named Jake and dies in his older brother's arms just as he and fellow hunter Bobby arrive to the rescue. In the second episode of the season finale, Dean made a deal with a crossroads demon to deliver himself to Hell in one year, in exchange for Sam's life. Sam doesn't know of what happened while he was dead, and is in fact unaware he was ever dead in the first place. In the following battle to prevent Jake and the Yellow-Eyed Demon from unleashing a demonic army, Sam shoots and kills Jake, unloading over ten bullets into his body. This is the first time Sam kills a man, or someone that isn't a demon, and he seems to show no remorse. The Yellow-Eyed Demon questions Dean if he is sure that what he brought back 100% pure Sam, but this is never elaborated on. Sam figures out that he was dead, and tells Dean he'll get him out of the deal he made, no matter what.

Season 3

Throughout season three Sam's quest is to find the loophole in Dean's contract with the crossroads demon in order to save Dean from going to Hell. For a while, Sam is quietly and fondly exasperated about Dean's hedonistic tendencies, but Dean's borderline suicidal behavior is bothering him a lot. Sam tries everything in his power to save Dean, he even goes as far as to summon the crossroad demon and shoot her with the Colt.

He receives unlikely help from Ruby, a demon who reveals that not everybody in Hell is opposed to Sam, that in fact, there a demons who are very much behind Sam. Sam also learns, that he holds dubious fame as the "boy-king" or rather "the Antichrist," something that brings fellow hunter Gordon Walker to pick up his trail and hunt him down. In the episode Fresh Blood, Sam kills Gordon using nothing but his own two hands and a wire.

A notable episode is Mystery Spot, in which, after having lived through a groundhog-day like setting for over 100 times in which Dean is killed and Sam can't save him, Sam has to fend for his own with Dean in Hell. The episode shows what will become of Sam when Dean goes to Hell - namely a single-minded, dead-inside hull of a person.

To save Dean, Sam even goes as far as to consider using a questionable scientific method which helps a homicidal doctor, Doc Benton to stay "alive" in a Frankenstein-like body.

Ruby, who claims to know a way to help Sam save Dean - but who revealed to Dean that she was lying in episode Fresh Blood - is trying throughout the season to get Sam to embrace his demonic powers.

In the season finale, No Rest for the Wicked, Sam still hasn't found a way to save Dean, and has to watch, helplessly and powerless, Lilith sic her hellhounds on Dean and tear him to pieces.

Season 4

Throughout the course of season four, Sam's activities while Dean was in Hell are slowly revealed. Sam was in despair after Dean's death, and tried to make a deal with a crossroads demon, but no demon would deal with him. He drinks to excess and acts recklessly, until Ruby makes contact with him and begins to teach him how to use his demon-given powers.

Ruby possesses the body of a comatose woman whose soul has already fled. In a short time, Sam and Ruby become lovers, and Ruby is able to shake Sam out of his depression to some extent. Together, they hunt demons and Sam exorcises them and sends them back to Hell using his powers. Sam is overwhelmed when Dean returns from Hell, but the two quickly begin fighting. Castiel informs Dean of Sam's use of his powers, leading up to a minor fallout between the brothers, as Dean tries to get him to stop using them and stop hanging out with Ruby.

Sam, who is more religious than Dean, is delighted to find that angels are helping them, but is severely disillusioned in It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester, when he finally meets Castiel and another angel, Uriel, and the angels attempt to destroy an entire town. Also a shock is that Uriel treats Sam with complete disgust, threatening to kill him as soon as Sam is no longer useful. Sam promises Dean to stop using his abilities, but quickly breaks the promise.

Season four shows a colder, less emotional Sam. He blatantly lies to Dean and has also become much more accepting of collateral damage and incidental loss of human life.

Finally, in On the Head of a Pin, we find out that Sam has been drinking demon blood to fuel his powers. In this episode, he has become strong enough to torture Alastair to the point of making him reveal information (though Dean's torturing methods could not make him give any information away), and then subsequently kill Alastair.

In The Rapture, it is easy to see that Sam has become very addicted to demon blood, showing all of the signs of a drug abuser. Apparently, he has not seen Ruby in awhile, which therefore means that he has not had much demon blood. He desperately calls Ruby and drinks the last of his supply. Though previously he was strong enough to kill Alastair, a very powerful demon, now he can't even exorcise a low-ranking demon. Dean is worried about Sam because he recognizes that Sam is strung out and that he cannot use his ability. Later, when Sam and Dean go to save Jimmy Novak and his family from demons, Sam loses control and drinks a demon's blood, right in front of Castiel and Dean. This leads Dean to call Bobby Singer, and together, they lock Sam in Bobby's panic room to help Sam detox.

In When the Levee Breaks, Sam hallucinates while detoxing from demon blood. He thinks he is being tortured by Alastair and then he seems himself as a fourteen year old. He also sees his mother, and then thinks that Dean is taunting him and calling him a monster. Later, Castiel lets Sam out of the panic room on the angels' orders. Sam immediately takes off to find Ruby where he drinks a lot of her blood and learns that there are only a few seals left, and the last seal must be broken by Lilith herself. Dean eventually finds him which results in a major fight where Sam almost strangles Dean. As Sam turns to leave, Dean echoes John Winchester's words, saying that if Sam leaves, he should never come back.

In Lucifer Rising, Sam works with Ruby to reach Lilith before she can break the final seal. When Sam and Ruby finally reach Lilith, he kills her, with his eyes turning black because of the amount of demon blood he had to ingest. Once Lilith is dead, he learns that Ruby had been working to raise Lucifer all along. When Dean bursts into the room, Sam holds Ruby while Dean kills her with her own knife. Sam and Dean then watch in horror as Lucifer's door is finally opened.

Season 5

In Sympathy for the Devil, following Sam's actions and Lucifer's release, Sam tries desperately to redeem himself by trying to stop the devil's plans. However, Dean and Sam temporarily part ways, leaving Sam in a normal life until he is approached by Lucifer, who appears in the form of the deceased Jess. Lucifer tells Sam that he is his true vessel, in conjunction with Dean being the archangel Michael's true vessel.

Dean and Sam reunite shortly after this and Sam does his best to rebuild his relationship with his brother although the brother's are no longer as close as they once were and find it hard to reconnect, a fact emphasized in Dark Side of the Moon when Sam's version of Heaven was completely devoid of his family and involved incidents that meant he was away from the Winchester's which causes Dean to discard the amulet Sam gave to him years prior.

In Point of No Return, Dean admits he doesn't believe in Sam and is convinced Sam will say "Yes" to Lucifer at some point. However, Sam is shown to still have faith and belief in Dean and it is this faith that stops Dean from saying "Yes" to Michael.

It is revealed in The Devil You Know that Sam's good friend from Stanford, Brady, was possessed all that time and Sam has been hounded by demons from even back then. Brady taunts Sam that perhaps the reason he is so angry and so easily manipulated by demons is because of all the demon blood inside of him.

Sam still lives with a craving for demon blood. In My Bloody Valentine, Sam is affected by Famine's ability and he attacks and drinks from Famine's henchmen, becoming strong enough to exorcise five demons at once and eventually defeats Famine although he is soon returned to Bobby's panic room. Sam also admits that he is angry all the time although he is unsure as to why, a trait that Lucifer tells him he will need when Sam finally agrees to be his vessel.

After discovering that Lucifer can he locked back into his Cage using the rings of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Sam considers the enormous task of allowing the Devil to possess him in order for Sam to push him back into Hell.

In Swan Song Sam finally says "Yes" to Lucifer, prior to which he consumes an incredible amount of demon blood to strengthen his body. Lucifer appears to take full control of Sam and starts a number of natural disasters around the globe. He also gathers all the remaining minions of Azazel who have been keeping watch over Sam his entire life (including a grade school teacher and Sam's prom date, Rachel Nave). Lucifer informs Sam that they were always meant to be this way, two parts of the same whole and that Lucifer is Sam's true family.

Lucifer meets Michael in the chosen area for the final battle, during which he kills both Castiel and Bobby and severely injures Dean. However, Dean tells Sam that he's there for him and after glancing into the Impala, Sam's memories return enough for him to take control of his body again. Sam opens the gate to Hell and pulls Michael in with him, effectively stopping their battle.

Dean accepts Sam's final request, to find Lisa Braeden and live a normal life, and sits down with them in their home. However, just outside the window, staring in at them, is Sam.

Season 6

A year after the events of season five, Sam reveals himself and reunites with Dean in Exile on Main St. after Dean is attacked and poisoned by a djinn. Sam reveals to Dean he has been back practically the entire time and has spent the past year hunting alongside the remaining Campbells.

Dean and Sam begin hunting together again in The Third Man. However, it is immediately apparent that Sam is not the same person he was before. He is shown to be a more cold and calculating person than before and also a more efficient and ruthless hunter, particularly when he doesn't object to torturing a young boy in order to gain information about their case which horrifies Dean.

When Dean confronts Sam about the fact he is acting differently, Sam denies that Hell affected him in the same way that it did Dean and that he is absolutely fine though Dean doesn't buy it.

In Live Free or Twihard when Dean is changed into a vampire, Sam is shown observing the change with a small smile on his face. Samuel Campbell confronts Sam about knowing about the cure for being turned which Sam denies ever having known and suggests that Sam actually allowed Dean to be turned to be used as a bait, something the old Sam would never have considered doing.

In Family Matters, with the help of Castiel, Dean discovers the reason for Sam's cold, relentless behavior is because his soul is missing. It is confirmed by Crowley that he was barely able to bring Sam's body back from the cage and his soul is still in there with Michael and Lucifer. Is suggested by Castiel, Crowley and even Death that Sam's soul is "mutilated" and "flayed to the raw nerve" and even if they're able to retrieve it, Sam may die from the damage done.

In Appointment in Samarra, Dean makes a bet with Death that if he could be him for a day, Death will bring Sam's soul back. Sam does not want his soul back and goes to extreme lengths to prevent this from happening, even almost killing Bobby. However, even though Dean loses the bet, Death does bring Sam's soul back and creates a mental wall within Sam's mind to deal with the memories of Hell before he forces it back into Sam's screaming body.

Sam remains unconscious for ten days after the return of his soul. When Castiel exams his soul at the beginning of Like a Virgin, he says that it feels as though it was "skinned alive," and doubts Sam's survival. Nonetheless, Sam does regain consciousness, and has no memory of the past year and a half, either from Hell or from Earth. He is overjoyed to see Dean and Bobby alive and well, and eagerly hugs them both. He is hungry, and curious to know how he has been saved. Dean chooses not to tell him what has actually happened, and Bobby reluctantly follows his lead. Sam is ready to start hunting at once, and joins Dean to investigate the disappearances of some girls under strange circumstances. Sam suspects that Dean never went back to Lisa after the Apocalypse was stopped, and when Dean tells him briefly that after a year, his relationship with Lisa did not work out, Sam is sympathetic. As the interrogate witnesses, Sam's empathy and consideration provide a stark contrast to RoboSam's methods. Sam is quick to realize that Dean is not giving him the whole truth, and prays to Castiel. The angel appears, glad to see Sam intact. Sam hides his memory loss, and from Castiel's questions realizes that he was on Earth without his soul. He hides his surprise, and asks the angel to help him remember some of the details that are fuzzy. Dean and Sam rescue the girls and defeat a dragon, and when they return to Bobby's, Sam apologizes to Dean for what he did while soulless. He feels that he needs to make amends where he can, even if he is not entirely responsible.

As they investigate a case in Unforgiven in a town Sam visited while soulless, he begins to remember flashes of the missing year. He discovers the brutal way in which he dealt with the victims of an arachne, one of whom was turned and drew him back to the town. At the end of the investigation, he drops to the floor convulsing as he recalls some of the torment he endured in Lucifer's Cage. He awakes after a few minutes, remembering about a week of his experiences in the pit. Sam is sufficiently recovered to run the next case himself, and encourages Dean to follow up on a call he received from Ben. In The French Mistake, Sam and Dean are thrown into an alternate world where Sam is an actor married to the actress who played Ruby. He lives in a mansion decorated with art of himself and owns an alpaca. In spite of the wealth he has in this world and his enjoyment of his alternate universe wife, he wants to return to his own world, where his life matters.

Eve remains a focus for the brothers, and they track her during ...And Then There Were None. They find themselves the victim of her new creation, the Khan worm, which possesses Samuel Campbell. Sam is forced to kill him, and in spite of everything, regrets that his grandfather has died. The brothers lose Rufus, but manage to save Bobby. The brothers also deal with repercussions from the angelic civil war, including Balthazar's saving of the Titanic, and the attempts by Fate to kill off the survivors. Sam and Dean agree to act as bait for her, and she is stopped when Castiel agrees to re-sink the Titanic.

Eventually, Sam remembers that there is a hunter's library in the Campbell Compound, and leads Dean and Bobby there in search of a way to kill Eve. They discover that phoenix ash is her weakness, and that Samuel Colt reported the death of a phoenix in 1861. They arrange for Castiel to send them back in time. Dean tracks the phoenix while Sam goes to find Samuel Colt. He proves he is from the future using his Blackberry, and impresses Colt with his knowledge, but the older hunter is not interested in helping, as he is 'retired'. Sam reminds him that hunters cannot retire, and persuades him to give up the Colt so that Dean can use it to kill the phoenix. They do not get the ashes, but Samuel Colt manages to send a package to Bobby's house in the present day using the information from Sam's Blackberry.

Sam, Dean, Bobby, and Castiel go in pursuit of Eve armed with the ashes. The find a city that Eve has peopled with monsters in Mommy Dearest. Together they manage to defeat Eve after she drinks the phoenix ashes when she bites Dean, but discover that Crowley is alive. Sam and Bobby both suspect that this can only have been because Castiel is in league with Crowley. They are proved right in The Man Who Would Be King. Sam, Dean, and Bobby try to find Crowley on their own, but are blocked by Castiel, who has, as they discover been spying on them. They trap him in a flaming ring of holy oil to interrogate him. Castiel tries to defend himself, revealing that he resurrected Sam. Sam is shocked, and suspects Castiel of having deliberately left his soul behind.

Crowley strikes at the brothers in Let It Bleed, kidnapping Lisa and Ben. Dean tortures demons to find them, and Sam tries to keep him calm. He offers to take over, but Dean refuses. Sam, though Dean suspects Castiel's complicity in the kidnapping, prays for Castiel's help. Castiel listens invisibly. The brothers later summon Balthazar, telling him about Castiel's involvement with Crowley. The angel is surprised, though he lies to cover it. He later gives them Lisa and Ben's location. The brothers go to rescue them, but Sam is caught, and Dean must complete the mission alone. They rush an injured Lisa to the hospital, where she is expected to die, until Castiel appears and heals her. Dean then has him take away all their memories of the Winchesters. Sam disagrees with his decision, and thinks it is a low thing to do.

In The Man Who Knew Too Much, Sam finds himself fleeing from the police near John's lock-up. He hides in a bar, and tells the bartender Robin he does not know who he is. After a few flashes of memory surface, she drives him to his hotel, and he finds Bobby's address. They head for South Dakota, and it suddenly switches from night to day. Sam also smells whiskey and old spice. And a soulless version of himself tries to kill him. Sam realizes that he is trapped in his own mind. He manages to kill his soulless counterpart, and absorbs him. He then remembers the last year, including Robin, a woman a crossroads demon was using as a human shield, that Sam shots. He makes his way on his own to his mental version of Bobby's place, and finds the version of himself that remembers Hell. They talk, and though it may kill him, Sam decides to face the memories so that he can wake up and help Dean against Cas. He awakes and goes after Dean and Bobby. He finds them in the aftermath of the Purgatory opening ritual that Castiel performed. The angel has killed Raphael, and is not willing to give up the power of the souls that he has taken in. Sam stabs him from behind with an angel sword, but the weapon does not kill him. He welcomes Sam, and tells Dean, Sam, and Bobby that he is a new god, a better god and tells them to worship him.

Season 7

In Meet the New Boss, after his unsuccessful attempt to kill Castiel, Sam's condition begins to deteriorate. Because the brothers continue to oppose him, Castiel chooses not to repair Sam's wall. He leaves, and Dean and Bobby take Sam back to Bobby's place. Sam begins to experience hallucinations, seeing Hell, but does not reveal his problems. Castiel is killing people, Dean has given in to despair, and even Death will only provide a way to reopen Purgatory. When Castiel's very public actions become more erratic, it is Sam that prays for him to let them help him before it is too late. Castiel responds, and they return to Crowley's lab to reopen Purgatory. Sam goes after the jar of blood they need, but is stopped by a vision of Lucifer.

The souls in Castiel are returned, but he is taken over by Leviathans, who use him to disappear into a reservoir. The Winchesters and Bobby regroup in the aftermath during Hello, Cruel World, and Dean and Bobby confront Sam about his obvious troubles. Sam admits that he is seeing the Devil, who tells him that he is still in Hell, being tormented. His hallucination tries to convince him that killing himself is the only solution. Sam is tricked into going alone to an empty warehouse. Dean finds him, and convinces him that he is back on Earth by helping him see the difference between real physical pain and pain in Hell.

When they return to the salvage yard, they find Bobby's house destroyed, and no sign of the hunter. The brothers are attacked by Edgar the Leviathan, and are so badly injured that they are taken to the Sioux Falls hospital, which is also infested with leviathans. Bobby appears in The Girl Next Door, and manages to get Dean and Sam, with an additional head injury, away to hide at Rufus's cabin. As they heal, Sam insists to both Dean and Bobby that he is well. Sam soon spots a familiar killing pattern in local papers, and leaves Dean behind while he tracks it. He knows the kitsune responsible, Amy Pond; her met her when they were kids, before finding out what she was, and even asked her out. Sam leaves her alive now because she was hunting for her sick son, and swears she is finished. Dean pretends to accept Sam's decision, but secretly goes after Amy and kills her.

Sam knows something is wrong with his brother. Sam uses his long abandoned legal training in an attempt to defend Dean from Osiris's judgment, but his brother gives in without explanation, and Sam must defeat Osiris in a more traditional way. Sam tries to get Dean to open up, while also attacking Dean's alcohol use. Matters are complicated when two leviathans masquerade as Sam and Dean in Slash Fiction and go on a killing spree in hopes of exposing the brothers. Bobby sends them to Frank Devereaux, who gives them new fake IDs and destroys Sam's computer, and charges him for another one. Sam and Dean are eventually caught by police, and the Leviathans come after them. Dean manages to behead them with an axe, but not before the one pretending to be Dean reveals the truth about Amy to Sam.

The brothers separate for a time, but reunite to investigate a series of murders in The Mentalists. They discuss their viewpoints on Amy, and though Sam remains unhappy about it, they agree to move on. On their annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas in Season 7, Time for a Wedding!, Sam summons Dean to a Little White Chapel, where Sam eagerly marries Becky Rosen. She has drugged him with a demon love potion, and as it becomes less effective Becky resorts to tying up Sam to keep him around. In spite of his drugged state and Becky's other obstacles, Sam is able to help with the case to defeat the demons who want Becky's soul.

Investigating murders in New Jersey during How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters, Sam, Dean, and Bobby, run across the Leviathans again. They are tampering with the food supply through the Biggerson's Restaurant chain, and Sam and Bobby take the lead after Dean ends up drugged. After Dean recovers, they go after the leviathan test facility, but during their escape Bobby is shot in the head by Dick Roman. The boys rush him to the hospital, where Sam sits in the waiting room, continually massaging his scarred hand to keep the monsters in his head at bay. Bobby awakes briefly, gives the brothers a series of numbers, and dies.

The brothers retreat to Rufus's cabin to mourn. Sam suggests that they notify Bobby's old contacts about what happened, but Dean is uninterested. Sam receives a surprise call from one of them, Krissy Chambers, and investigates the disappearance of her father on his own in Adventures in Babysitting while Dean is with Frank Devereaux. Sam comes to Dean's rescue in Time After Time, when Dean is pulled back in time, managing with the help of Sheriff Jody Mills to get him back. He protects Dean again in The Slice Girls, this time from Dean's Amazon offspring. Sam feared that Dean would not be able to kill the girl, and might have died; the prospect of losing his brother again deeply disturbed Sam.

In Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie, Sam must once again confront his fear of clowns when two monstrous specimens are sent after him with magic. He survives, despite being covered in glitter. His situation takes a turn for the worse during Repo Man, when the brothers try to protect Jeffrey from the demon that once possessed him. In fact, Jeffrey is trying to bring back his demon, and kidnaps Dean, leaving Sam alone with his Lucifer hallucination. He has been ignoring Lucifer diligently for months, but when the vision starts taunting him about Dean, then offering useful advice, Sam acknowledges him. Dean is rescued, but now that Sam has given in to the taunting, he can no longer escape it. By Out with the Old Sam is unable to sleep, and in The Born-Again Identity he buys sleeping pills off of a drug dealer in an attempt to help himself, but is institutionalized after being hit by a car. Lucifer continues to torment him in the hospital, and he is eventually reduced to a catatonic state. He is saved when Castiel takes on his suffering, enabling Sam to continue his life.

The brothers re-team with Garth in Party On, Garth, and Garth suggests that Bobby may still be with them as a ghost, tied to the flask. The same idea has occurred to the brothers, and they are finally able to see Bobby in Of Grave Importance. Sam is willing to attempt working with Bobby to bring down the leviathans, and they do manage to steal a tablet that is the Word of God from Dick Roman, and have a prophet named Kevin Tran translates it for them. Uncovering the tablet wakes Castiel.

The brothers work on a weapon to defeat the Leviathans based on the tablet, and secure blood from the Alpha Vampire, Castiel, and Crowley for it. Bobby meanwhile becomes vengeful, and asks the brothers to burn the flask, and send him away. They agree. Then Sam, Cas, and Dean enter the leviathan headquarters, and Cas and Dean manage to find and stab Dick. There is a strange explosion of black ooze, and Sam is left alone in the laboratory, with no sign of his brother or the angel.

Season 8

Throughout the first half of season 8, Sam's time with Amelia during the year that Dean was in Purgatory is slowly revealed. After the events of Survival of the Fittest, Sam fixes up the Impala and drifts across the country. When he accidentally hits a dog with the Impala, he rushes it to a nearby veterinary hospital where he meets Amelia, the veterinarian who tends to the injured animal. She has Sam adopt the dog because he has no owner and Sam later names him Riot. Sam finds a job at a nearby motel as a repairman and runs into Amelia, who happens to be living there, when she walks into him fixing her garbage disposal. They soon start dating and end up living together in the same house. When it is revealed that Don, Amelia's husband who was thought to have been killed in Afghanistan, is actually alive, Sam decides to leave so that Amelia can get back together with her husband.

We Need to Talk About Kevin picks up just as Sam is leaving Amelia and heading back to Rufus's cabin in Montana. There he reunites with Dean, who soon becomes angry after Sam reveals that he did not go looking for Dean following his disappearance into the explosion of black ooze. This is compounded when Dean finds out that Sam had also abandoned Kevin, the one person they were responsible for protecting, and didn't even answer the phone whenever he called. Despite this, they team back up and soon find Kevin in an abandoned church in Iowa and find out that there is a way to close the Gates of Hell, thus sealing all demons in Hell forever. When Crowley arrives looking for Kevin and the demon tablet, Sam, Dean, and Kevin manage to escape but are unable to prevent Crowley from killing Kevin's girlfriend, Channing.

In What's Up, Tiger Mommy?, Kevin has Sam and Dean take him to his mother, Linda Tran. When they find out that she is being monitored by demons, they rescue her and go to where Kevin hid the demon tablet only to find out that it is missing. They are soon invited to an auction, hosted by the Roman god Plutus, where the demon tablet is being sold off. Linda Tran bids her soul so that they can get the demon tablet and Kevin, who had been added to the deal, back. However, Crowley takes back the tablet after possessing Linda, and Kevin and his mother disappear because Kevin is no longer needed by the brothers and knows that anyone they no longer need ends up dead.

The brothers then get back on the road and do what they do best, hunting, while also searching for Kevin and the demon tablet.

Sam reveals in Heartache that he no longer takes joy from hunting and just wants a normal life. He tells Dean that after they find Kevin and the demon tablet and close the Gates of Hell he is done hunting for good.

After Sam meets Benny in Blood Brother and realizes he is a vampire, he questions Dean as to why he didn't tell him about Benny and why he is letting him live. Sam admits to Dean that he may have to kill Benny one day, with Dean telling him that they will deal with it when the time comes.

In A Little Slice of Kevin, Sam and Dean investigate a series of mysterious disappearances that have been occurring across the globe, when Castiel suddenly returns after Dean sees him several times. Castiel reveals that the people that have gone missing are all future prophets. Sam and Dean realize that Crowley must be holding them while he searches for Kevin. Sam is then contacted by Linda Tran, who tells him that Kevin has been kidnapped by Crowley and she needs his and Dean's help in getting him back. They find out where Kevin and the future prophets are being held after interrogating a demon and head on there to rescue them. They successfully rescue Kevin, however Crowley escapes with half of the demon tablet after Castiel smashes it into two pieces. Sam has Kevin and Linda go stay with Garth while they go searching for the other half of the demon tablet.

In Citizen Fang, Sam reveals to Dean that he had Martin Creaser, who had been discharged from the psychiatric hospital not that long ago, track Benny for him to make sure he didn't kill anyone. Dean is upset by this, but decides to go and investigate Benny anyway once he learns Martin told Sam that Benny killed someone. When they find out that Martin didn't actually see Benny kill anyone, Sam allows Dean to go investigate on his own for a few hours while he keeps Martin at bay. When Dean comes back and tries to convince Sam and Martin that Benny is innocent, Sam doesn't believe him and believes he isn't thinking clearly. Martin knocks Dean unconscious which doesn't make Sam happy, but he goes off with Martin anyway to go kill Benny. However, he soon gets a distressing text from Amelia and heads off to Kermit, Texas on his own. When he finds out that Dean tricked him so that he could deal with Benny, Sam is mad at Dean for trusting Benny and making him think that Amelia was in danger when she wasn't.

Sam runs into Amelia again and explains why he came to her house to check on her. He still cares about her and she reveals that she still cares about him as well. She makes an ultimatum with him, that if they wanted to get back together they would show up at the motel Sam is staying at in two days and commit to each other. In the meantime Sam gets back together with Dean to help Castiel rescue Samandiriel from Crowley, who is doing experiments on him. After Castiel kills Samandiriel to put him out of his misery, Sam and Dean have to decide whether they want to stick together or separate again. Dean decides to give up Benny and Sam decides to not get back together with Amelia and chooses to continue hunting with Dean instead.

With the brothers back together for good, Sam and Dean go off investigating several cases. In As Time Goes By, Sam and Dean learn about the Men of Letters when their grandfather, Henry Winchester, suddenly emerges in their motel room after time traveling from 1958. He is soon followed by the demon Abaddon, the last remaining Knight of Hell, who wants to find a box that had been given to Henry. Sam soon discover from a surviving Man of Letters that the box is actually the key to the Men of Letters secret bunker. Unfortunately, Abaddon was possessing his wife and captures Sam, forcing Dean to trade Henry and the key for him. They are able to trick Abaddon and incapacitate her, however, not before she fatally wounds Henry. Sam and Dean bury their grandfather and head off to the Men of Letters' secret bunker.

After settling into the Bunker, Kevin soon contacts Sam and Dean in Trial and Error and informs them that there are three trials that need to be performed in order to close the Gates of Hell. The first one requires bathing in the blood of a hellhound. Sam and Dean manage to track one down, and Dean tells Sam that he wants to perform the trials so that Sam can go on to live a normal life. Despite his protestations, Sam agrees to let Dean do this. However, Sam ends up killing the hellhound and being covered in its blood when he protects Dean from it. Dean begrudgingly agrees to let Sam perform the trials. Sam recites the Enochian spell for the first one and his arm glows red while he is saying it.

Sam's condition begins to deteriorate in Man's Best Friend with Benefits when he coughs blood into his hand. In Remember the Titans he spits out blood into a sink and Dean begins to suspect that the trials are hurting Sam. In Goodbye Stranger Sam coughs blood into a napkin and Dean's suspicion that the trials are having a negative effect on Sam grows.

Kevin deciphers the second trial in Taxi Driver and summons Sam and Dean to Garth's safe-boat. He tells them that the second trial involves rescuing an innocent soul from Hell and delivering it to Heaven. Sam and Dean learn from the rogue reaper Ajay that he had taken Bobby to Hell under Crowley's orders. Sam goes alone with Ajay to Purgatory in order to use a back door to access Hell. Sam is able to get Bobby out of Hell and through Purgatory with the help of Benny, who sacrifices himself so that Sam can get out with Bobby's soul. When Sam releases Bobby's soul, it is stopped by Crowley who tries to bring it back to Hell. With the help of the angel Naomi, Bobby's soul is delivered to Heaven where it should be and Sam completes the second trial. Sam and Dean return to Garth's safe-boat only to find Kevin missing.

Sam's condition gets worse after completing the second trial. He sleeps for a day in Pac-Man Fever and is visibly unwell, he is even unable to shoot a target. Despite this - and against Dean's wishes - he goes on the case anyway. He was able to help Dean rescue Charlie from the nightmare the djinn puts her into, killing the second djinn.

In The Great Escapist Dean is worried about Sam's worsening health while Sam insists that the trials are not only making him sick but are also transforming him in some way. When reading the translations that Kevin sent to Sam and Dean in his email, Sam sees a recurring symbol which appears to be Metatron's signature. He then remembers a similar symbol used by a tribe in Colorado. Sam and Dean then head to Colorado and check in at a hotel. There Sam begins to hear noises, develops a high fever, and has vivid flashbacks to his childhood. Dean is forced to submerge Sam in a tub full of ice after he finds him passed out on the floor of the hotel with a high temperature. They then discover Metatron, the angel who wrote the Word of God, who reveals that Sam is now beginning to resonate with the tablets and with Metatron himself, so Sam can sense both when he is in close proximity. Metatron rescues Kevin from Crowley, who had taken Kevin and fooled him into thinking that he was still on the safe-boat. Before Kevin can reveal it, Metatron tells Sam and Dean that the third trial involves curing a demon.

In Clip Show, Sam and Dean discover an old film reel showing two priests, Father Simon and Father Max Thompson, unsuccessfully attempting to cure a demon by having it drink Father Thompson's blood. After speaking with Father Simon, they go back to the Bunker and watch the reel of the last test, in which Father Thompson successfully cures a demon after injecting it with his blood several, which had been purified through confession. Sam and Dean plan to recreate this using Abaddon; however, she escapes while Crowley informs them to go to an address in Indiana, which turns out to be Jenny Klein, the woman they saved in Shut Up, Dr. Phil, who was burned in her oven. After unsuccessfully trying to save Sarah Blake, the girl from Provenance, Crowley tells them he will keep killing everyone they have saved one by one if they don't stop the trials. Sam and Dean contemplate whether to accept the ultimatum.

In Sacrifice, Sam and Dean decide to take the ultimatum before Crowley can kill Sheriff Jody Mills. After reviewing the deal, Dean handcuffs Crowley with special handcuffs etched with binding magic. They then take Crowley to a small abandoned church, where they plan to cure Crowley and complete the third and last trial. Sam confesses his sins and then begins to inject Crowley with his blood while Dean goes off with Castiel to help him complete the trials necessary to close the Gates of Heaven. Crowley manages to send out a message to any nearby demons to get them to rescue him. Unfortunately, it is Abaddon who comes, but Sam douses her meatsuit with holy oil and set Abaddon aflame, forcing her to leave her vessel. Sam continues injecting Crowley and prepares to recite the spell for the last trial when Dean comes back. He begs for Sam to stop the last trial because it will kill him. Sam is not phased and tells Dean that he is worried that Dean will turn to someone else if he lets him down again. Dean tells him he wouldn't put anyone else in front of Sam and tells him to let it go. Sam is then struck by pain and collapses. Dean helps Sam out of the church and they collapse right beside the Impala just as the angels begin to fall from Heaven.

Season 9

At the start of season 9, Sam is in a coma as a result of the trials. In his mind, he is starting to give up and considers letting himself die. His desire to live and his desire to die manifest themselves as images of Dean and Bobby, respectively, and they fight amongst each other in his head. Sam finally agrees with Bobby and apologizes to the vision of Dean in his head, saying goodbye. He comes face to face with Death, who tells Sam that he has come to collect him personally, and Sam asks him to make sure that his death is permanent this time. Meanwhile, in the real world Dean has asked an angel named "Ezekiel" to help him cure Sam. Ezekiel tells Dean that the only way he can save Sam's life is if Sam allows him to possess his body. Dean realizes that Sam would never agree to such a thing, and in a moment of desperation agrees to help Ezekiel trick Sam into saying yes. Ezekiel shows up in Sam's head, disguised as Dean, and begs Sam to live so they can stay together. Sam agrees, and Ezekiel possesses his body. He promises Dean that Sam will never know he's hiding inside him, and that as soon as he's healed Sam he'll leave.

In Devil May Care, Sam is still unaware that he's harboring an angel, and is surprised to find out that Dean left Crowley alive. Dean argues that Crowley can help them track down all the demons on Earth, and him and Sam lock him up in the bunker's dungeon. They receive word that Abaddon is still alive and is kidnapping hunters, so they go on a rescue mission. During the hunt, Sam is overpowered by three demons and Ezekiel takes over, destroying all of the demons and causing Abaddon to flee. Ezekiel stabs all three of the corpses with Ruby's knife, so that he and Dean can maintain the illusion that there aren't any angels involved. When Sam wakes up, Dean tells his brother that he was the one who defeated all the demons. And Sam relays how impressed he is at Dean's skill. Later on, Sam recovers at the bunker and reveals to a guilty Dean that he feels a lot better about his life now than he has in a long time.

In I'm No Angel, Ezekiel takes over Sam halfway through a conversation to reveal to Dean that angels are chasing Castiel. Dean tells Ezekiel that he doesn't want him popping up without any warning and that he'd rather handle things with his brother. Sam and Dean try to reach Castiel before the angels can get their hands on him, but run into a dead end. Worried for Castiel's safety, Dean asks Ezekiel to locate him, and they manage to find him just as a rogue reaper stabs him through the chest. Dean kills the reaper, and Ezekiel uses his powers to bring Castiel back to life. Sam and Dean bring Castiel back to the bunker with them, and Sam wonders how Dean was able to find their friend in time. Dean comes up with an excuse to pacify his brother's curiosity, but Ezekiel takes over and admits that he can't stay in the same place as Castiel since he's a target for dangerous angels. He tells Dean that if he doesn't kick Castiel out of the bunker, he'll have to leave and Sam will die. And Dean is forced to send Castiel away in order to save his brother's life.

In the following episodes, Dean continues to hide Ezekiel's presence from Sam, coming up with cover stories to explain away the discrepancies that Sam is starting to notice more and more. Ezekiel also heals Sam a number of times, saving his life from fatal injuries and healing Dean's friends whenever they are in danger. But after every use of his power, he tells Dean that each time means longer that he'll have to stay inside of Sam to recharge.

In Rock and A Hard Place, after encountering the goddess Vesta, she tells Sam that his organs are completely burned and that he's nothing but "duct tape and safety pins inside." Sam is worried by her statements and tells Dean that he feels like something has been wrong with him lately. He says he feels like he can't recharge his batteries and that he's always tired. Dean tries to pass the symptoms of Ezekiel's presence off as a lingering effect of the trials, but Sam admits that he thinks something is just wrong with him and that he'll never be normal. Dean can't stand Sam thinking about himself that way, so he decides to tell him the truth. But Ezekiel takes over before he can say anything and warns Dean to not even try.

In Holy Terror, Sam and Dean go on a case to investigate multiple angel slaughters. They meet Castiel, who is attempting to help his angel brethren, even as a human. After this encounter, Ezekiel takes over and reminds Dean that he can't be near Castiel, so Dean sends Castiel away again. Ezekiel walks outside and runs into Metatron, who reveals that he knows that "Ezekiel" is actually Gadreel, the angel who let Lucifer into the Garden of Eden, and was locked up for thousands of years. Metatron offers him a role in the rebuilding of Heaven and Gadreel is so desperate to clear his name that he accepts, so Metatron gives him a piece of paper with an assassination target for him to take care of. Meanwhile, Dean starts to worry that "Ezekiel" hasn't been telling him the truth. He and Kevin plan a spell that can knock the angel out of control so he can talk to Sam, but Gadreel overhears the conversation and changes the symbol, tricking Dean into believing he's Sam and knocking him out. Gadreel kills Kevin (the assassination target) and steals Sam's body, leaving Dean crying over Kevin's corpse.

In Road Trip, it's revealed that Gadreel has trapped Sam in a fantasy world inside his own head, where he believes he is working on cases with Dean. Dean, Castiel and Crowley capture Gadreel and attempt to separate his mind from Sam's so that Sam can expel the rogue angel, but fail, so Crowley possesses Sam and explains the situation. Sam fights Gadreel and manages to overpower him, expelling the angel from his body. Castiel heals some of the effects from the trials that Gadreel wasn't able to and promises to stay and keep healing Sam until he's better. Sam is furious at Dean's deception over the last few months, and when Dean decides to leave, Sam lets him.

While Dean is off on his own in First Born, Castiel discovers that Sam still has some of Gadreel's grace within him, and they try to use it to locate the angel. And even though Sam is willing to sacrifice himself for it to work, Castiel is not and he completely heals Sam, telling him that he wouldn't want to lose him and eliminating the last of the grace.

In Sharp Teeth, Sam and Dean reunite on a case while looking for Garth. And although the brothers work the job together, Sam tells Dean that he's still angry and that they obviously aren't on the same page anymore. He says that they can't be brothers anymore, only hunting partners. And in The Purge, after Dean refuses to apologize, Sam tells him that he wouldn't have done the same thing if their situations were reversed.

In Blade Runners, Sam, Dean and Crowley team up to locate The First Blade, the only weapon that can kill Abaddon. Working together, they locate former Man of Letters Cuthbert Sinclair who has the Blade. Revealing themselves to be Henry Winchester's grandsons, Sam and Dean are able to get into Cuthbert, aka Magnus's lair. However, when Magnus learns that Dean possesses the Mark of Cain, he teleports Sam outside as he plans to add Dean to his collection. With Crowley's help, Sam gets back inside, but is captured by Magnus who plans to torture Sam to make Dean willing to do what he wants. Crowley frees Dean who decapitates Magnus with the First Blade and Sam has to talk him out of the uncontrollable rage he experiences as a result. In the aftermath, Sam suggests killing Crowley now that they have what they want, but Crowley steals the Blade from them, only intending to give it back once they've found Abaddon.

In Mother's Little Helper, Sam is forced to take a case by himself because Dean insists that he's too focused on finding Abaddon. Sam travels to Milton, Illinois where normally good people suddenly become violent murderers. Sam stops one of the murders and finds out that the affected people are similar to what happened to him when he was soulless. Hearing Julia Wilkinson, an ex-nun, mention demons, Sam asks her what happened and learns that Henry and Josie Sands (Abaddon's vessel) traveled to the town in 1958 to investigate similar happenings. Julia reveals that Henry and Josie exorcised two of the demons creating soulless soldiers for a demon army. But one was Abaddon who possessed Josie and had the other demon continue her work in secret. Sam travels to the convent and finds the demon and the victims' souls captured in jars. Sam uses a recorded exorcism to distract the demon, then kills her and releases the souls back to their owners. After thanking Julia for her help, Sam returns to the bunker and tells Dean what he learned.

Sam and Dean finally manage to capture Gadreel in Meta Fiction, but Sam chooses to return him to Metatron to trade for Castiel's life. They plan on trapping Metatron at the exchange, but Metatron reveals that he's been using the angel tablet to charge himself up, and now he has powers equal to God.

The Winchesters help Castiel with an interrogation in King of the Damned and learn that Metatron has a secret door to Heaven. Crowley calls them with Abaddon's whereabouts, so they travel to his location in order to kill her. Dean tells Sam that Crowley warned him about some demons in the basement of the hotel, so Sam goes down to check. But when the room is empty, Sam realizes that Dean lied to him in order to get him out of the way. He arrives just in time to see Dean kill Abaddon with the First Blade, but he won't stop brutalizing the corpse and Sam struggles to get Dean to finally drop the blade. They spare Crowley's life and tell him to return his son (that Abaddon plucked out of the time stream as a bargaining chip) to his proper time, but Crowley refuses and disappears. On the drive home, Sam tells Dean that he's concerned about his worrisome attachment to the blade and asks that they get rid of it now that they don't need it anymore. Dean refuses.

In Stairway to Heaven, Sam continues to worry about Dean's growing dependence on the First Blade. He asks Dean to leave it at the bunker while they go to help Castiel, and his brother agrees. They find that some of Castiel's angel followers are attacking others in suicide bombings. Dean stays behind to interrogate the group while Sam and Castiel search for Metatron's doorway to Heaven. They find a warehouse full of traps, but once they get past them, the whole thing turns out to be a fake. Sam and Castiel return to find that Dean lied about keeping the blade, and that he's killed Tessa the reaper with it. Castiel's army ask him to kill Dean for his crimes, but Castiel refuses and the rest of his angels leave. Sam tries to bring up the blade again, but Dean tells him that he's the only one who can kill Metatron and that Sam doesn't have a say in anything they do until that's done. Gadreel shows up at the bunker, telling the three of them that he's defecting from Metatron's side after finding out that he secretly orchestrated all of the angel bombings. He asks for their forgiveness, but Dean attacks him with the First Blade.

In the season finale, Do You Believe in Miracles?, Sam and Castiel try to restrain Dean from killing Gadreel and manage to lock him up in the bunker's dungeon. They find Gadreel and (after some reluctance on Sam's part) all decide that Dean is their best bet at defeating Metatron. They return to the bunker to find that Dean has escaped, and while Castiel and Gadreel try to sneak into Heaven, Sam goes after his brother. He finds Dean working with Crowley and tells him that they have to do this together, Dean agrees and they go after Metatron. Dean starts to apologize about letting Gadreel possess Sam and Sam forgives him, then Dean knocks Sam out, telling him that it isn't his fight. Sam wakes up and goes after Dean, but arrives too late to stop Metatron from stabbing him through the heart. Metatron teleports back to Heaven and Sam tells Dean that he lied about being okay with killing Metatron no matter the consequences. Dean dies in his arms and he cries over his brother's body. He takes Dean's corpse back to the bunker and tries to summon Crowley for a demon deal in order to save Dean. Not knowing that Crowley shows up on his own to place the First Blade in Dean's hands. Crowley places the First Blade into the apparently dead Dean's hands, and Dean' eyes open. They are all black, revealing him to have become a demon.

Season 10

In Black, Sam is shown to have been desperately searching for Dean for the past 6 weeks, and has a sling on his arm. Sam and Castiel have a conversation over the phone about Dean and Castiel reveals that Sam's shoulder was injured by a demon. Later on, Sam is captured by Cole, who is looking for Dean in revenge. Cole wants Sam to tell him where Dean is, so he threatens to torture him. Through Cole, Sam and Dean have their first interaction, with Cole calling Dean on Sam's phone. Dean says that Sam's problem is his own problem, abandoning him. The episode ends with Sam tied up and Cole pacing around him. Same also discovers that Dean is a demon through video surveillance of a store. Sam calls a phone left be a demon and reached Crowley, who then tells Sam about what's happened. Sam then threatens to kill Crowley and tracks him down. Crowley and Dean also talk about Sam multiple times in the episode.

In Reichenbach, Sam is shown being tortured by Cole, and then escapes. He finds a strip club that Demon Dean went to and proceeds to track him down. Crowley also visits him outside his motel and tells Sam where Dean is. Once he finds Dean, Sam tried to reason with him, but Demon Dean just mocks and threatens him. Sam says he doesn't care what Dean has done, and that 'you're my brother, and I'm here to take you home'. Later, Cole throws a smoke bomb in the bar and has a fight with Dean, which ends with Sam capturing Dean and letting Crowley go.

In Soul Survivor, Sam brings a demon Dean into the dungeon to cure him from being a demon. While Sam gives him purified blood treatments, Dean taunts him on how far he went to find Dean. A flashback shows Sam using Lester to summon a crossroads demon, but before Sam could stop him, Lester sold his soul. Sam regrets that. Later Dean taunts Sam on how much better his life would be without Sam in it. Sam still continues the purified blood treatments. However, at one point, Dean breaks free and stalks Sam through the bunker with a hammer. When Dean tried to swing at Sam, Sam ducked and put his demon knife to Dean's throat. In the end, he was not willing to kill him. He stepped back, and Castiel stepped in, grabbing Dean. Sam finishes the ritual, curing Dean.

In Paper Moon, Sam and Dean hunt werewolves, who turn out to be Kate from Season 8 Bitten and her sister. The episode starts with Sam and Dean sitting on deck chairs drinking beer, before deciding to go on the hunt.

In Fan Fiction, the 200th episode of Supernatural, Sam and Dean stumble across an all-girls school that is putting on a musical of the Supernatural books. Sam reveals that he was a theatre kid, and it is all very jarring for the boys, but in the end, Sam kills the god behind the kidnappings. In the episode, the lead girl that plays Sam, hands Dean a makeshift Samulet, which Dean later hangs on the mirror of the Impala, after telling her 'I don't need a symbol to remind me how I feel about my brother'. The episode ends with the boys driving off into the sunset in the Impala.

In Ask Jeeves, Sam and Dean go to collect Bobby's inheritance, and begin hunting a shapeshifter. There are multiple girls that hit on Sam in the episode, older women.

In Girls, Girls, Girls, Sam and Dean hunt a witch who turns out to be Crowley's mother, Rowena. Sam sees Cole again when Dean and him have another fight, but they don't fight.

In Hibbing 911, Jody Mills calls Sam to tell the boys she found a case. Sam and Dean go to meet her and help with her on the case of werewolves. Sam and Jody are shown to have a close relationship in the episode, and 'passing notes during class'. Sam confided in her about Dean becoming a demon. In the end, Dean tells Sam that killing the werewolves made him feel like himself again. The boys also cross paths with Sheriff Donna from The Purge.

In The Things We Left Behind, Sam and Dean go help Castiel reach out to Claire Novak. At a scene at a bar, Sam and Dean talk about their father John Winchester and how he raised them right. The boys tell Castiel that it wasn't always easy, but they loved their father. At the end of the episode, Dean gives in to the mark and slaughters many people in a room which Sam then comes in to discover. Sam holds Dean's face and begs him to tell him that he had to do it, very concerned for him.

Appearance

Sam has shaggy brown hair that grows longer and smoother in later seasons; he had a fringe as a child as well as in the first two seasons. Over the course of the show, he grew the fringe out. His eye color seems to change; sometimes they appear light green, sometimes they appear brown, etc. He is noted by other characters to be handsome. Sam is very tall, 6'4" having a muscular build with broad shoulders and chest. This is especially ironic considering that he used to be teased for being short and wiry as a teenager. Like Dean, Sam often wears multiple layers of clothing (namely plaid shirts) as well as jeans and boots. Recently in Season 8 of the series, Sam, who is known for always having a clean shaved face, has been sporting some facial stubble similar to Dean.

Personality

Sam is usually kind, empathetic, intelligent and independent. In the 200th episode, he is described as 'sweet, brave, selfess Sam'. He is often the exasperated voice of reason in his relationship with Dean, who in turn sees him as a geek or prude, and teasingly calls him "bitch". Dean has respect for Sam as a hunter and trusts Sam to "have his six". Sam is repeatedly telling Dean that killing humans is wrong, and does not enjoy the job as much as Dean. He does not seem to drink alcohol as much as Dean does and has a much healthier diet than his brother (Dean scoffs at Sam's diet and calls it "rabbit food"). Sam also has a phobia of clowns, due to his brother often leaving him at Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie when they were children. This is not helped by the fact that every time they have encountered a clown in the show, it has tried to kill them. Sam can become a very different person when Dean is dead, as evidenced by his change in Mystery Spot and what is shown in I Know What You Did Last Summer, becoming almost psychotically angry.

Sam has phenomenal mental power. This is most evident in Swan Song, where he is able to mentally overpower possession by Satan himself to stop the apocalypse. Other incidences include My Bloody Valentine, in which Sam is able to resist Famine's temptation and not drink more demon blood, exorcising the demons and killing Famine instead.

Because of his intelligence, Sam is usually assigned the role of researching information for hunts; he is the "brain", whilst Dean is the "muscle". He normally remembers details that Dean overlooks and is prone to make connections quicker than his brother. He also knows a great deal of information that causes Dean to label him a "walking encyclopedia of weirdness". In college, Sam scored a 174 out of 180 on his LSAT, which Jessica noted was "scary good" in the Pilot. In spite of their bickering, Sam has looked up to Dean since they were children and knows him better than anyone else. He tries to get Dean to open up about his emotions and problems, and encourages him to take care of himself; on several occasions, he has even been frustrated by his brother's fixation on placing Sam's well-being above his own. However, Sam shows similar protective tendencies towards Dean, particularly after Dean makes his deal and returns from Hell as a shadow of who he used to be, to the point that Sam's memories of Dean allowed him to regain control of his body while possessed by Lucifer. Sam tends to be driven by feelings of anger and vengeance.

As a teenager and even as a young man, he argued with his father constantly whenever they were together. Sam wanted to live a normal, "apple pie" life instead of continuing to hunt, which led to most of his arguments with John and his estrangement from his family at the beginning of the series. However, Dean once stated that despite his own best efforts to be like John; liking the same music, clothes and cars; being the good son, the soldier and the Hunter; Sam always has been and always will be more like John than Dean is. Sam and John clash and argue so much because they are so similar. Sam does not take this as a compliment, and it is clear that both boys are not overly fond of their father.

After Jessica's death, Sam became fixated on vengeance, but still held out hope for eventually returning to Stanford. Early in Season 1, Sam was more focused on finding Jessica's killer than he was on following John's instructions on which hunts to take, something that often put him at odds with Dean. He was obsessed with revenge, and was even willing to sacrifice his life to kill Azazel, although he ultimately proved that he valued Dean's life over the demon's death in Devil's Trap.

After John's death in In My Time of Dying, Sam focused all of his attention on hunting instead of returning to a normal life. He felt guilt for angrily confronting his father in his final moments and for not realizing that he had been planning on sacrificing himself. Sam put all of his energy into doing what he thought John would want him to and kept trying to get Dean to deal with their father's death in a healthy way. After the reveal of John's ultimatum to Dean and the discovery of the other "special children", Sam became terrified that he would somehow turn evil. He made Dean promise to kill him if anything were to happen. Everything came to a head in All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1, when Azazel placed all of the special children in a death match. Sam was killed (metaphorically and literally stabbed in the back) because he refused to murder another human being, but when Dean brought him back to life by selling his soul, Sam killed his murderer without hesitation. And after finding out Dean had made a demon deal, Sam declared that he would save his brother no matter what.

In Season 3, Sam spent most of his time trying to save Dean from his deal. He became frantically obsessed with doing everything he could to stop Dean from going to Hell - even going so far as to try to convince Dean to turn them both into monsters and harvest organs for their survival in Time Is On My Side. Sam kept struggling to come up with some way to save his brother to the very end, but ultimately wasn't able to. And he was forced to watch helplessly as hellhounds tore Dean apart.

Following Dean's death and condemnation to Hell, Sam became so fixated on avenging his brother and killing Lilith that he almost turned himself into a monster. Due to his grief at Dean's death, the demon Ruby was able to manipulate Sam into a sexual relationship and convinced him to start drinking demon blood, claiming it was the only way he would be able to avenge his brother. Sam drank so much that he became an addict; showing the same symptoms and going through an immensely torturous detox (at the start of season 5, Sam's addiction is gone, but later he has to drink a great deal in order to house Lucifer in his body). Even after Dean returned, Sam was unwilling to let the desire for vengeance go and he continued the affair in secret. Sam was repeatedly warned by Dean and Castiel that he was making mistakes, but he disregarded their advice, believing that he was the only one who could stop Lilith from releasing Lucifer.

After Zachariah manipulated a fake voicemail message from Dean, saying that he didn't love Sam anymore and was planning on killing him, Sam decided to take Lilith down on his own in a possible suicide mission. Sam was able to defeat Lilith with his powers, but didn't realize that Ruby had lied to him and that Lilith was actually the final seal to unlock Lucifer's Cage. And as a result of his arrogance, Sam ended up being the one to release Lucifer from Hell and begin the apocalypse.

Sam felt extremely guilty over his role in freeing Lucifer throughout the majority of Season 5, and spent a large portion of his time trying to make amends. He also took responsibility in his part of starting the apocalypse. In Sam, Interrupted, Sam confessed that he always felt angry and he didn't know why; as well as the fact that he tended to blame other people for his anger, instead of accepting it as a personal flaw. In Swap Meat, when he temporarily switched bodies with a teenaged boy and was forced to lead said teenager's life, he told Dean that the boy's ordinary life "sucked", and seemed to decide to forgo normal life in favor of being a hunter. In Swan Song, Sam's desire to set things right finally culminated in him sacrificing himself to save the rest of the world, throwing himself into the Cage with Lucifer and Michael in order to protect his brother. It was thought that Sam would be trapped in the Cage forever, but the final show of season 5 reveals that Sam is not in the Cage at all, but on Earth, alive.

At the start of season 6 (one year later), Sam reveals himself to Dean, and they begin Hunting again. however, something about Sam is strange; he let Dean get turned into a vampire in order to find a nest. It is later revealed that, whilst his body and mind are not in the Cage, his soul is. During the time that Sam was soulless in Season 6, he lacked empathy and behaved like a sociopath. Without any emotions or sense of morality, he was often willing to overlook the deaths of civilians as collateral damage, which was an extreme departure from Sam's normal desire to help people and protect the innocent. Without his soul, Sam also felt nothing for any of his loved ones, telling Dean point blank that he didn't care about him, and he even tried to murder Bobby in an attempt to prevent his soul from being returned to his body. After his soul was replaced, Sam again felt great remorse for his actions and spent the rest of the season struggling to make up for what his soulless self had done.

In Season 7, after Castiel brought down the wall in Sam's head, Sam began to lose his sanity as a result of the damage done to his soul in Hell. He started to see hallucinations of Lucifer tormenting him, and had a hard time determining what was real and what was a flashback of his torture in the Cage. Dean managed to help Sam distinguish between the two, and Sam was able to block out the worst of the hallucinations. However, in Repo Man, Dean was captured by a serial killer and Sam became desperate enough to save his brother's life that he turned to Lucifer for help. He was able to save Dean, but the reliance on his hallucination meant that he could no longer turn them off, and his visions became so severe that Sam almost died due to fatal insomnia. Dean became determined to save his brother's life in The Born-Again Identity and, luckily, came across Castiel. Sam's mental stability returned when Castiel absorbed Sam's insanity into himself to atone for his actions.

After Dean and Castiel's disappearance in Survival of the Fittest, Sam spent a year thinking that his brother was dead (which he technically was). He "spiraled" out of control for a while, but eventually found some semblance of normality with Amelia. It was at this point that Sam started to re-imagine the possibilities of a normal life. After Dean's reappearance, Sam immediately returned to his side, but Dean was hurt when he found out that Sam hadn't looked for him while he was in Purgatory. Sam defended his choices of quitting hunting and grew jealous of Dean's close relationship with Benny, which led to a growing strain between the brothers. After bumping into Amelia once more, Sam realized that he wanted to stay by Dean's side and chose his brother over his ex-girlfriend. Sam became determined not to let Dean down again and took on the weight of the trials to prove himself. They took an extreme toll on his health, and as Sam got sicker, he became ever more defensive of Dean's attempts to mother him. He eventually got to the point where he was so ashamed of letting his brother down that he was willing to commit suicide in order to finish the trials. Dean managed to talk him back from the edge, but they weren't able to cure Sam before he succumbed to the effects.

Sam started Season 9 in a coma, dying from what the trials had done to his body. He remained somewhat suicidal, deciding to go with Death if he could promise that no one would be able to get hurt by bringing him back. But Dean managed to trick Sam into allowing the angel Gadreel to possess him, and for the first half of the season, Sam seemed to be in a much healthier place emotionally. However, once Sam found out that Dean had lied to him, he became furious. He told Dean they couldn't have a brotherly trust anymore and their relationship remained tense until the end of the season. Eventually, Sam's worries over Dean's reliance on the First Blade took precedence over Sam's anger, and when Dean attempted an apology, Sam forgave him. But they made up just in time for Sam to see his brother die in his arms, and Sam's grief at Dean's death propelled him to try and make another demon deal.

Equipment

Sam uses a stainless steel Taurus PT-92 9mm pistol (similar to the Beretta M92 on which Taurus based this gun) with mother-of-pearl grips, and uses a pistol grip 4-shelled 12 gauge Ithaca Pump shotgun loaded with rock salt.

He owns what appears to be a Dell Precision M65 laptop, which he uses to gather information for hunts. The first time he uses the laptop is in the second episode Wendigo where he plays a video message. The laptop may not belong to him, as his possessions were destroyed in a fire in the previous episode Pilot. In that same episode, his brother Dean references using computer software which may indicate he is the actual owner of the laptop. Later in the series he owns what appears to be a macbook pro.

Sam also appears to own a Verizon-branded Motorola Q which has on at least one occasion been used to visually track unseen ghosts, as seen in Hollywood Babylon.

Sam and Dean have matching tattoos on their left breast that prevent them from being possessed by ordinary demons.

Powers and Abilities

Sam has been shown to possess talents such as telekinesis and precognitive abilities (manifesting as visions). As the series progressed, Sam has learned to further develop his powers allowing him to exorcise demons from their human vessels and eventually to kill demons.


Premonitions/Visions

Sam's premonitions began "about six months" before Jessica's death. Initially they only occur when he's sleeping (through dreams), but by Nightmare they occur when Sam is awake. Sam cannot control when the premonitions occur or what they're about, and they are often accompanied by intense headaches. Sam and Dean theorize that Sam only has premonitions when they are somehow related to the Yellow-Eyed Demon. This is likely true, for Sam ceases to experience visions after the demon's death in All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2, which also suggests that his visions were a result of some sort of link between himself and Azazel.


Occurences:
Telekinesis:

Sam first displays telekinesis during a moment of desperation, allowing him to move a heavy cabinet blocking his path to Dean. Sam tried to repeat this ability afterward but was unable to do so. In fact, his telekinesis did not manifest again until after he began training with Ruby and drinking her blood. By the time he wields his power again, Sam is shown to be highly adept at hurling a demon as powerful as Alastair across a graveyard with little effort. He can also maintain a grip on demons, preventing them from moving or using their powers.


Occurences:
  • In Nightmare, Sam moves a cabinet trapping him in order to save Dean's life.
  • In Death Takes a Holiday, Sam throws Alastair with telekinesis after he proves immune to Alastair's own telekinesis. He seems to be able to simultaneously hold a demon telekinetically and use his exorcism powers on it.
  • In Lucifer Rising, Sam uses his telekinesis to throw Lilith across a room.
  • In My Bloody Valentine, Sam uses his telekinesis to throw a demon across the room after he gives in to his demon blood cravings.

Exorcism:

Sam can force a demon to leave its host through sheer force of will. Initially, using this ability caused Sam a great deal of stress and would often result in severe headaches and nosebleeds, but with time and practice he was able to exorcise a demon without these side-effects. Once removed, the demon "smoke" falls to the ground and burns a black circle as it descends back to Hell. Unless the host is already dead, the vessel will survive this process. He does admit to unintentionally killing a few during training.


Occurences:
  • In Lazarus Rising we learn that Sam is now able to exorcise a demon by holding out his hand and forcing the demon to leave the possessed body and return to Hell. He was taught that skill by Ruby.
  • In Metamorphosis, Dean finds Sam practicing his exorcism powers and brings him to promise him that he will never use them again.
  • Sam breaks that promise in It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester when he exorcises Samhain.
  • In The Rapture, Sam attempts to exorcise a demon who is attacking Jimmy Novak's family. However, he is unable to do it. Later, in the warehouse where demons are holding Amelia and Claire Novak, Sam exorcises a demon from Jimmy's wife Amelia, after drinking blood from the neck of a demon possessed human.
  • In My Bloody Valentine, after Sam gives into his craving for demon blood, Famine offers his demons to Sam so he can drain them of their blood. Sam refuses and instead exorcises all five demons at once before exorcising the demons that Famine has consumed and effectively defeating him.

Immunity:

Sam has immunities to demonic attacks that steadily expand over time. At first, Sam was vulnerable to all forms of demon powers, being easily overpowered by telekinesis from both YED and lesser demons. However, his first bout of immunity manifests after being exposed to the Croatoan virus. Sam proves immune, and is later able to survive Lilith's "light" without any harm. Though still susceptible to the telekinetic attacks of other demons (like Alastair, for example) and possession by the Demon, Meg, Sam eventually reaches a point where no demon can harm him so long as he's high on demon blood. To this end, Lilith is practically defenseless against Sam during their final confrontation.


Occurences:
  • In Simon Said, Sam is immune to both Andy Gallagher and his twin brother Ansem Weems mind controlling powers.
  • In Croatoan, Sam is immune to the demonic virus that was spreading in the town through blood-to-blood contact.
  • In No Rest for the Wicked. Lilith turns her power on Sam after killing Dean (in the same manner she used in "Jus in Bello") Sam shields himself with his arm, and after the light dies down, he is shown to be completely unharmed, and apparently immune to Lilith's power.
  • In It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester, he is also able to withstand Samhain.
  • In Death Takes a Holiday, Sam proves immune to Alastair's telekinesis.
  • In The Monster at the End of This Book, Lilith herself says that Sam is immune to her power.

Execution & Torture:

When fueled by a certain amount of demon blood, Sam powers are strong enough to allow him to not only exorcise demons, but kill them too. Killing a demon creates the same light inside their body as when they're killed by the Colt or Ruby's knife. When killing Alastair, Sam was able to do so with ease, but Lilith required extreme concentration and will, the result of which drained him of all his powers upon completion. After consuming several gallons of demon blood in preparation for becoming Lucifer's vessel, Sam was powerful enough to kill two demons without moving a muscle. Sam is also capable of inflicting intense pain on any demon, which proves useful in torturing them for information for the agony is so great that Lilith's servant begged for death after just a few minutes of exposure.


Sensing the Supernatural:

Sam has a sixth sense that allows him to detect impressions or a sense of supernatural presence. In Asylum, Sam describes this as a "vibe".


No Soul:

When Sam came back from Lucifer's Cage his soul was left behind which left him completely emotionless. Castiel sticks his right arm into Sam's chest and reveals to Dean that, the reason for Sam's cold/relentless behavior is because his soul is missing because of him being in hell. He has said himself that he doesn't feel anything anymore, with no remorse. The new Sam will do anything to kill monsters, even let his own brother be turned into a vampire. Sam claims that it has a few benefits that have allowed him to become a better hunter: he doesn't need to sleep or really eat anymore, he has a higher pain tolerance and was able to lie to the goddess Veritas, even though she can make all other people, even Dean, tell the truth.

This soulless version of Sam has also been proved to be quite dangerous, with his lack of emotion or empathy for others makes him something of a sociopath. He doesn't seem to care about those he works with, or even his brother Dean, as he just uses those close to him to achieve his own ends. This comes to a head by the middle of season six, when Death restores Sam's soul.

Weaknesses

Deaths

Throughout the course of the series, Sam has died multiple times. He has died as many times as Dean, excluding Mystery Spot. His resurrection seems to have been the catalyst for Sam's increasingly cold nature and it has been insinuated by Azazel that when he was resurrected, he did not come back "100% pure Sam".

Relationships

Dean Winchester is Sam's older brother. When Sam was a baby, John told Dean to take care of Sammy and Dean spends his life doing so. Nothing takes precedence over Sam, even to the extent of selling his own soul or killing Death for Sam. Like all siblings, there are squabbles, joking, and teasing. Dean taught Sam everything growing up - how to connect with girls, working on the car engine, even walking and talking. Sam loves his brother fiercely, and cannot imagine living without him, although he has been forced to do so on occasion. Sam has done everything in his power to save Dean - drank demon blood to stop the Apocalypse in Dean's place, did the Trials to close Hell, made demon Dean human again, and set free the Darkness to save Dean from the Mark of Cain.

Adam Milligan was Sam's younger half-brother. They share the same dad. Although John taught Sam to be a hunter from a young age, he did not do the same with Adam. Sam thought he was teaching Adam to be safe when he first ran across him; however, it was a ghoul taking Adam's appearance. When Adam was raised from the dead, Sam tried to connect with the boy to keep him out of the angels' way.

Bobby Singer was like a second father to both boys. He looked up lore and came running when they needed help. Bobby worried about Sam when he was without his brother, when he was soulless, and when Death gave Sam the Great Wall of Sam to keep the memories of Hell at bay. Sam attacked Bobby while soulless, so it took a bit for Bobby to warm back up to Sam.

John Winchester was Sam's father. Sam resented his father for the way he raised Dean and Sam, as soldiers. Sam is similar to John in temperament, and they butted heads on practically everything. Sam wanted to go to college, but John did not, so the fight drove Sam away, with the admonition for Sam to stay away. Sam was not sure Dad would want to see him again, as they were hunting for him, but Dean told Sam how Dad would watch out for Sam. After Jess burned the same way Mom did, Sam and John were more similar than anyone else. John's death messed up Sam, but he eventually healed.

Castiel and Sam are friends. Sam was hoping for glory and powerful angels, but Dean explained they were mostly "dicks". Cas is closer to Dean, having raised him from Perdition. Castiel let Sam out of the locked panic room for him to run to Ruby, in order to raise Lucifer. It was Castiel's doing that Sam was raised from the Pit, albeit without his soul. Soulless Sam threatened Castiel with death if Cas did not help once, so he reluctantly did. Castiel tore down the wall inside Sam's mind to keep Team Free Will off his back while he won the angel war. When Cas was found again, he came to rescue Sam's insanity by taking it upon himself. After Dean tricked Sam into letting in an angel to keep him from dying and to heal him, there were some issues between "Zeke" and Castiel. Once the angel left, Castiel stuck around to keep healing Sam. The bond between them deepened when they came together to save Dean from the Mark of Cain.

Ruby was a demon, claiming she could help Sam save Dean from his deal. Sam let her into his life, turning to her in desperation when Dean was going to die. After Dean's death, she led him down a path of drinking demon blood for revenge against Lilith, and they became lovers. After Dean's resurrection, Ruby and Sam were more cautious. When Dean found out about the demon blood and forcibly made Sam detox, when Sam escaped, he ran to Ruby. She made sure he was ready and killed Lilith, raising Lucifer. When Sam realized how she had manipulated him, he grabbed her while Dean killed her with her own demon knife.

Jessica Moore was Sam's girlfriend while he was a Stanford University. Sam was planning to propose to her, have gone shopping to pick out her ring. Jess was killed on Azazel's order; her death was the reason he started hunting again.

Mary Winchester was Sam's mother, but he never really knew her, only pictures of what she looked like. When he was a baby, she died by Azazel's hand, so he grew up in the hunting lifestyle with his father to avenge her death. He grew to resent it, and longed for a normal lifestyle. When Sam was pulled back into hunting, there was a hunt at their old house. Mary, as a ghost, apologized to Sam before sacrificing herself to save him. He found out later she did a deal to allow Azazel to bleed demon blood into Sam's mouth to make him one of the Special Children, not knowing the extent of the deal. Twice Sam has visited Mary's gravestone. Once to bury Dad's dog tags; the second time close to 10 years later as Dean was contemplating death as a sacrifice to save the world.

Emma was Dean's daughter, by an Amazon. When Dean could not bring himself to kill her, Sam did. He felt nothing for her - she was a monster and needed to be put down.

Becky Rosen first met Sam when Chuck called her to bring the boys a message. She was instantly a Sam fan, rubbing her hands all over his chest. She gravitated towards Sam when they showed up at the Supernatural Convention, which she tricked them into coming to, and away from Chuck who had been trying to win her over.

Name

Notable Episodes

Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10

Quotes

  • So get this... (Sam's signature line, said in almost every episode in one form or another)

Season 1

1 Pilot
  • Sam: I swore I was done hunting. For good.
    Dean: Come on. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad.
    Sam: Yeah? When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45.
    Dean: Well, what was he supposed to do?
    Sam: I was nine years old! He was supposed to say, don't be afraid of the dark.
    Dean: Don't be afraid of the dark? What are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there.
  • You think Mom would have wanted this for us?
  • Dean: So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?
    Sam: No. Not normal. Safe.
    Dean: And that's why you ran away.
    Sam: I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing.
  • Sam: I swear, man, you've gotta update your cassette tape collection.
    Dean: Why?
    Sam: Well, for one, they're cassette tapes.
  • Dean: Well, house rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole.
    Sam: You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old. It's Sam, okay?
  • If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back.
  • Dean: No chick-flick moments.
    Sam: Alright... jerk.
    Dean: Bitch.
  • Dean: You found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy.
    Sam: Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking, shooting Casper in the face, you freak?
    Dean: Hey, saved your ass. I'll tell you another thing. If you screwed up my car? I'll kill you.
  • We got work to do.
2 Wendigo
  • But in the meantime? I'm driving.
3 Dead in the Water
  • Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?
4 Phantom Traveler
  • Dean: Man, I look like one of the Blues Brothers.
    Sam: No you don't. You look more like a...seventh-grader at his first dance.
  • You're humming Metallica?
5 Bloody Mary
  • Sam: Why'd you let me fall asleep?
    Dean: Cause I'm an awesome brother. So what did you dream about?
    Sam: Lollipops and candy canes.
6 Skin
  • Dean: Look, it sucks, but in a job like this, you can't get close to people, period.
    Sam: You're kind of anti-social, you know that?
  • Dean: I think we're close to its lair.
    Sam: Why do you say that?
    Dean: Because there's another puke-inducing pile next to your face.
    Sam: Oh, God!
  • Dean: Sorry, man.
    Sam: About what?
    Dean: I really wish things could be different, you know? I wish you could just be... Joe College.
    Sam: No, that's okay. You know, the truth is, even at Stanford, deep down, I never really fit in.
    Dean: Well, that's 'cause you're a freak.
    Sam: Yeah, thanks.
    Dean: Well, I'm a freak, too. I'm right there with ya, all the way.
    Sam: Yeah, I know you are.
7 Hook Man
  • Dean: Your, uh, half-caf, double vanilla latte is gettin' cold over here, Frances.
    Sam: Bite me.
8 Bugs
  • Larry walks away with Matt. Dean joins Sam, glancing back towards Larry and Matt.
    Sam: Remind you of somebody?
    Dean looks over at Larry, who is yelling at Matt. Dean looks back at Sam, confused.
    Sam: Dad?
    Dean: Dad never treated us like that.
    Sam: Well, Dad never treated you like that. You were perfect. He was all over my case (pause) You don't remember?
    Dean: Well, maybe he had to raise his voice, but sometimes, you were out of line.
    Sam scoffs.
    Sam: Right. Right, like when I said I'd rather play soccer than learn bowhunting.
    Dean: Bowhunting's an important skill.
    Sam rolls his eyes.
    Sam: Whatever.
  • Sam: Dean, you know what most dads are when their kids score a full ride? Proud. Most dads don't toss their kids out of the house.
    Dean: I remember that fight. In fact, I seem to recall a few choice phrases comin' out of your mouth.
    Sam: You know, truth is, when we finally do find Dad... I don't know if he's even gonna wanna see me.
    Dean: Sam, Dad was never disappointed in you. Never. He was scared.
    Sam: What are you talkin about?
    Dean: He was afraid of what could've happened to you if he wasn't around. But even when you two weren't talkin'... he used to swing by Stanford whenever he could. Keep an eye on you. Make sure you were safe.
    Sam: What?
    Dean: Yeah.
    Sam: Why didn't you tell me any of that?
    Dean: Well, it's a two-way street, dude. You could've picked up the phone.
  • Sam: I wanna find Dad.
    Dean: Yeah, me too.
    Sam: Yeah, but I just... I want to apologize to him.
    Dean: For what?
    Sam: All the things I said to him. He was just doin' the best he could.
    Dean: Well, don't worry, we'll find him. And then you'll apologize. And then within five minutes, you guys will be at each other's throats.
    Dean looks back at Sam. Sam laughs, a real laugh, before sharing a look with Dean.
    Sam: Yeah, probably.
    They sit in silence for a few seconds.
    Sam: Let's hit the road.
    Dean: Let's.
9 Home
  • Sam: Dean, I know where we have to go next.
    Dean: Where?
    Sam: Back home. Back to Kansas.
  • Sam: I have these nightmares.
    Dean: I've noticed.
    Sam: And sometimes... they come true.
  • Sam: Yeah, but how much do we know? I mean, how much do you actually remember?
    Dean: About that night, you mean?
    Sam: Yeah.
    Dean: Not much. I remember the fire... the heat. And then I carried you out the front door.
    Sam: You did?
    Dean: Yeah, what, you never knew that?
    Sam: No.
  • Dean: Sam!
    Dean walks into the kitchen and finds Sam and the fire figure. As he looks at the fire figure, he steps in front of Sam to protect him, and he raises his gun.
    Sam: No, don't! Don't!
    Dean: What, why?!
    Sam: Because I know who it is. I can see her now.
    Suddenly, the fire is blown out. Standing in front of them is Mary Winchester, her hair softly blowing around her face, exactly as she was the night she died. Her eyes open, and she gives a soft smile at her boys.
    Dean: Mom?
    Mary smiles and steps over to him.
    Mary: Dean.
    Mary walks away from him and goes to Sam. She looks up at her youngest, smiling sadly.
    Mary: Sam. I'm sorry.
    Sam: For what?
    She looks at him sadly, but says nothing. She walks away from them and looks up at the ceiling. Her voice takes on a creepy echo, filled with power.
    Mary: You, get out of my house. And let go of my son.
  • Sam: What happened?
    Missouri: Your mom's spirit and the poltergeist's energy, they cancelled each other out. You mom destroyed herself goin' after the thing.
    Sam: Why would she do something like that?
    Missouri: Well, to protect her boys, of course.
  • What's happening to me?
10 Asylum
  • Sam: You think Dad was texting us?
    Dean: He's given us coordinates before.
    Sam: The man can barely work a toaster, Dean.
  • Kat: So, how do you guys know about all this ghost stuff?
    Sam: It's kinda our job.
    Kat: Why would anyone want a job like that?
    (Sam chuckles.)
    Sam: I had a crappy guidance counselor.
  • Sam: Dean.
    (Dean looks over. Sam reaches up and wipes the blood.)
    Sam: Step back from the door.
    (Dean rises to his feet, his eyes going from the gun to Sam's face.)
    Dean: Sam, put the gun down.
    Sam: Is that an order?
    Dean: Nah, it's more of a friendly request.
    (Sam raises his gun to point at Dean's chest.)
    Sam: 'Cause I'm getting pretty tired of taking your orders.
    Dean: I knew it. Ellicott did something to you, didn't he?
    Sam: For once in your life, just shut your mouth.
    Dean: What are you gonna do, Sam? Gun's filled with rock salt. It's not gonna kill me.
    (Sam shoots Dean in the chest. The shot blasts him backwards through the hidden door to fall on the floor.)
    Sam: No. But it'll hurt like hell.
  • I am normal. I'm just telling the truth for the first time. I mean, why are we even here? 'Cause you're following Dad's orders like a good little soldier? Because you always do what he says without question? Are you that desperate for his approval?
11 Scarecrow
  • Dean: Alright, look, I know how you feel.
    Sam: Do you? How old were you when Mom died? Four? Jess died six months ago. How the hell would you know how I feel?
  • Dean: Dad said it wasn't safe. For any of us. I mean, he obviously knows something that we don't, so if he says to stay away, we stay away.
    Sam: I don't understand the blind faith you have in the man. I mean... it's like you don't even question him!
  • Dean: You're a selfish bastard, you know that? You just do whatever you want. Don't care what anybody thinks.
    Sam: That's what you really think?
    Dean: Yes, it is.
    Sam huffs, and grabs the last bag, swinging it over his shoulder, before facing Dean once more.
    Sam: Well, then this selfish bastard is going to California.
  • Sam: Just trying to get to California.
    [Later]
    Meg: You know, the next bus isn't until tomorrow.
    Sam: Yeah. Yeah, that's the problem.
    Meg: Why? What's in Cali that's so important?
    Sam: Just something I've been looking for. For a long time.
  • Dean: Sam. You were right. You gotta do your own thing. You gotta live your own life.
    Sam: Are you serious?
    Dean: You've always known what you want. And you go after it. You stand up to Dad. And you always have. Hell, I wish I... Anyway... I admire that about you. I'm proud of you, Sammy.
    Sam: I don't even know what to say.
    Dean: Say you'll take care of yourself.
    Sam: I will.
    Dean: Call me when you find Dad.
    Sam: (sadly) OK. Bye, Dean.
  • Meg: Who was that?
    Sam: My brother.
    Meg: What'd he say?
    Sam: Goodbye.
  • Meg: But... I don't understand. You're running back to your brother? The guy you ran away from? Why? Because he won't pick up his phone? Sam. Come. With me, to California.
    Sam: I can't. I'm sorry.
    Meg: Why not?
    Sam: He's my family.
  • Dean: How'd you get here?
    Sam: I, uh... stole a car.
    (Dean laughs.)
    Dean: That's my boy! Keep an eye on that scarecrow. He could come alive any minute.
    (Sam looks over, after finishing untieing Dean.)
    Sam: What scarecrow?
  • Dean: So. I drop you off somewhere?
    Sam: No, I think you're stuck with me.
    Dean: What made you change your mind?
    Sam: I didn't. I still wanna find Dad. And you're still a pain in the ass. But, Jess and Mom - they're both gone. Dad is God knows where. You and me. We're all that's left. So, ah, if we're gonna see this through... We're gonna do it together.
  • You should be kissing my ass. You were dead meat, dude.
12 Faith
  • Dean: Look, Sammy, what can I say, man, it's a dangerous gig. I drew the short straw. That's it, end of story.
    Sam: Don't talk like that, alright? We still have options.
    Dean: What options? Yeah, burial or cremation.
    (Sam can NOT believe he's hearing this, shaking his head, looking away.)
    Dean: And I know it's not easy.
    (A short pause as Dean is barely shaking his head.)
    Dean: But I'm gonna die. And you can't stop it.
    (Sam's resolve has now firmed. He nods his head.)
    Sam: Watch me.
  • Hey, Dad. It's Sam. Uh... you probably won't even get this, but, uh... it's Dean. He's sick, and uh... the doctors say there's nothing they can do. Um... but, uh, they don't know the things we know, right? Um, so, don't worry, cause I'm, uh... gonna do whatever it takes to get him better. Alright. Just wanted you to know.
  • Sam: What the hell are you doing here?
    Dean: I checked myself out.
    Sam: Are you crazy?
    Dean: Huh, I'm not gonna die in a hospital where the nurses aren't even hot.
    (Dean shrugs. Sam huffs a laugh and shuts the door.)
    Sam: You know, this whole I-laugh-in-the-face-of-death thing? It's crap.
  • Dean: You're not gonna let me die in peace, are you?
    Sam: I'm not gonna let you die, period. We're going.
13 Route 666
  • You mean you dated somebody? For more than one night.
  • You told her, the secret! Our big family rule number one. We do what we do and we shut up about it. For a year and a half I do nothing but lie to Jessica, and you go out with this chick in Ohio a coupla times and you tell her everything?
  • Sam: What's interesting is you guys never really look at each other at the same time. You look at her when she's not looking; she checks you out when you look away.
    (Sam looks at Dean. Dean turns to look at Sam.)
    Sam: It's just a... just an interesting observation in a... you know... observationally interesting way.
  • I miss conversations that didn't start with 'this killer truck'.
  • Sam: Think that'll do it?
    (The ghost truck appears, headlights on and engine revving. Both brothers look up in surprise.)
    Dean: I guess not.
  • Sam: Where you goin'?
    Dean: Goin' for a little ride.
    Sam: What!
    Dean: Gonna lead that thing away. That busted piece of crap, you gotta burn it.
    Sam: How the hell am I supposed to burn a truck, Dean?
  • Sam: Evil spirits cross over hallowed ground, sometimes they're destroyed. So I figured, maybe, that would get rid of it.
    Dean: Maybe? Maybe!! What if you were wrong?
    Sam: Huh. Honestly that thought hadn't occurred to me.
14 Nightmare
  • (Dean takes a cocktail sausage from the coffee table. Chewing contentedly, he looks at Sam shaking his head.)
    Dean: What?
    Sam: Just... tone it down a little bit, Father.
  • Dean, I'm scared man. These nightmares weren't bad enough, now I'm seeing things when I'm awake? And these, visions, or whatever, they're getting... more intense. And painful.
15 The Benders
  • Jenkins: Why don't you give it up, Sammy? There's no way out.
    Sam: Don't... call me... Sammy!
  • Sam: So, you got sidelined by a thirteen-year-old girl, huh?
    Dean: Oh, shut up.
    Sam: Just sayin', you're gettin' rusty there, kiddo.
    Dean: (chuckling) Shut up.
16 Shadow
  • Dean: I talked to the bartender.
    Sam: Did you get anything?
    (Sam glances up at Dean and back down.)
    Sam: Besides her number?
    Dean: Dude. I'm a professional. I'm offended that you would think that...
    (Sam gives him a knowing look.)
    Dean: All right, yeah.
    (He chuckles and holds up a napkin with the bartender's phone number on it.)
    Sam: You mind doin' a little bit of thinking with your upstairs brain, Dean?
  • (Meg is dressing. A woman notices Sam watching Meg's window.)
    Sam: I'm - oh, no, no, no, I'm just-
    Woman: Pervert.
  • Sam: God, could you imagine if we actually found that damn thing? That demon?
    Dean: Let's not get ahead of ourselves, all right?
    Sam: I know. I'm just sayin'... what if we did? What if this whole thing was over tonight? Man, I'd sleep for a month. Go back to school. Just... be a person again.
    Dean: You wanna go back to school?
    Sam: Yeah, once we're done huntin' the thing.
  • Dean: You and me and Dad. I mean, I want us to... I want us to be together again. I want us to be a family again.
    Sam: Dean, we are a family.
    Dean: (softly) Well...
    Sam: I'd do anything for you. But things will never be the way they were before.
    Dean: (sadly) Could be.
    Sam: I don't want them to be. I'm not gonna live this life forever. Dean, when this is all over... you're gonna have to let me go my own way.
  • Meg: Come on, Sam. There's no need to be nasty.
    (She leans in to whisper in his ear.)
    Meg: I think we both know... how you really feel about me.
    (Meg moves to sit on Sam's legs.)
    Meg: You know, I saw you... watching me. Changing in my apartment. It turned you on, didn't it?
    (Dean rolls his eyes.)
    Dean: Get a room, you two.
    Meg: I didn't mind. I liked that you were watching me. Come on, Sammy. You and I can still have a little dirty fun.
    (She begins kissing his neck.)
    Sam: You wanna have fun? Go ahead then. I'm a little tied up right now.
  • Meg: Now, were you just trying to distract me while your brother cuts free?
    Sam: No. No.
    (Sam shakes his head no. Meg sits back down on his legs, satisfied.)
    Sam: It's because I have a knife of my own.
  • Dean: Sam! Listen to me! We almost got Dad killed in there. Don't you understand? They're not gonna stop. They're gonna try again. They're gonna use us to get to him. I mean, Meg was right. Dad's vulnerable when he's with us. He... he's stronger without us around.
    Sam: Dad.
    (He puts a hand on his father's shoulder.)
    Sam: No. After everything-
    (John reaches up to grasp Sam's wrist, giving a small amount of comfort.)
    Sam: after all the time we spent lookin' for you-please. I gotta be a part of this fight.
17 Hell House
  • Dean: What the hell is this symbol? It's buggin' the hell outta me. This whole damn job's buggin' me. I thought the legend said Mordechai only goes after chicks.
    Sam: It does.
    Dean: All right. Well, I mean that explains why he went after you, but why me?
    Sam: Hilarious.
  • Dean: People believe in Santa Claus. How come I'm not getting hooked up every Christmas?
    Sam: Cuz you're a bad person.
  • Kinda makes you wonder. Of all the thing we hunted... how many existed just cuz people believed in them.
18 Something Wicked
  • Sam: Dude! Dude! I am not using this ID.
    (Sam shows Dean the ID.)
    Dean: Why not?
    Sam: Because it says 'Bikini Inspector' on it?
    (Dean grins.)
    Dean: Don't worry. She won't look that close, all right? Hell, she won't even ask to see it. It's all about confidence Sammy.
    (He spins Sam to face the desk and keeps walking.)
    [...]
    Receptionist: Can I see some ID?
    (Further down the corridor Dean sniggers. Sam throws Dean a dirty look, before smiling at the receptionist.)
    Sam: Yeah of course.
    (Sam reaches back into his pocket, quickly flashing the ID, holding his thumb over part of it.)
    [...]
    (Sam approaches a grinning Dean, giving major bitchface. Dean gives him a wide grin, arms open wide.)
    Dean: See. Told you it'll work.
  • But if Dad went after it, why is it still breathing air?
  • (Young Sammy reaches into the box and grabs the toy. He holds it toward Young Dean.)
    Young Sam: D'you want the prize?
  • Sam: An old person, huh?
    Dean: Yeah.
    Sam: In a hospital? Phew.
    (Sam turns away, shaking his head and sniggering.)
    Sam: Better call the Coast Guard.
  • Sam: "I was sleeping with my peepers open?" Hahahaha.
    Dean: I almost smoked that old girl, I swear. It's not funny.
    Sam: Oh man, you shoulda seen your face, Dean.
  • Sam: Sometimes I wish that...
    Dean: What...?
    Sam: I wish I could have that kinda innocence.
    (Sam smiles slightly. Dean looks down before facing Sam.)
    Dean: If it means anything, sometimes I wish you could too.
19 Provenance
  • Sam: Dean, ah... no thanks, I can get my own dates.
    Dean: Yeah, you can, but you don't.
    (Sam looks up sharply at Dean.)
    Sam: What's that supposed to mean?
  • Sam: Dude. Enough already.
    Dean: What?
    Sam: What? Ever since we got here, you've been trying to pimp me out to Sarah. Just back off, all right?
    Dean: Well, you like her don't you? All right, you like her, she likes you, you're both consenting adults.
    (Dean shrugs. Sam is frustrated, voice rising.)
    Sam: What's the point, Dean? We'll just leave. We always leave.
    Dean: Well I'm not talking about (chuckles) marriage, Sam.
    Sam: (agitated) You know, I don't get it. What do you care if I hook up?
    Dean: (calmly) Cause then maybe you wouldn't be so cranky all the time.
    (Sam is surprised at him. Dean's eyebrows goes up to make his point. Sam huffs out a breath and looks away. Dean sits up in bed, leaning forward.)
    Dean: You know, seriously Sam, this isn't about just hooking up, okay? I mean, I- I think that this Sarah girl could be good for you. And I don't mean any disrespect but I'm... I'm sure this is about Jessica, right?
    (Sam looks over.)
    Dean: Now I don't know what it's like to lose somebody like that... but... (softly) I would think that she would want you to be happy.
    (Sam is quiet, tears in his eyes.)
    Dean: God forbid, have fun once in a while... wouldn't she?
    (Sam thinks, and a slow smile briefly appears.)
    Sam: (softly) Yeah I know she would.
    (Dean nods his head. Sam shakes his head, then sighs heavily.)
    Sam: Yeah you're right. Part of this is about Jessica. But not the main part.
  • Sarah: You guys seem to be uncomfortably comfortable with this.
    Sam: Well, ah, this isn't exactly the first grave we've dug.
    (Sam smiles at Sarah.)
    Sam: Still think I'm a catch?
  • What kind of house doesn't have salt? Low-sodium freaks!
  • Dean: Sam, you good?
    (Sam slowly looks at Sarah, then gives a half shrug before answering.)
    Sam: Not bad.
20 Dead Man's Blood
  • Sam: (grumpily) That's probably what Dad's thinking. 'Course it would be nice if he just told us what he thinks.
    (Dean looks over at sulking Sam.)
    Dean: So it is starting.
    Sam: What?
    Dean: Sam, we've been looking for Dad all year. Now we're not with him for more than a couple of hours and there's static already?
    Sam: Hmph. No. Look. I'm happy he's okay, all right? I'm happy that we're all working together again.
    Dean: Well good.
    (Sam is unable to stop from speaking.)
    Sam: It's just the way he treats us, like we're children.
    Dean: Oh God.
    Sam: He-he barks orders at us, Dean. He expects us to follow 'em without question.
    Dean: Sam.
    Sam: He keeps us on some crap need-to-know deal.
    Dean: He does what he does for a reason.
    Sam: What reason?
    Dean: Our job!
    (Sam makes a huff of disagreement.)
    Dean: There's no time to argue. There's no margin for error, all right? That's just the way the old man runs things.
    Sam: Yeah, well, maybe that worked when we were kids but not anymore, all right? Not after everything you and I have been through, Dean. I mean, are you telling me you're cool with just falling into line, and letting him run the whole show?
    (Sam looks at Dean challengingly. Dean gives Sam a long look. He responds weakly, as if he is convincing himself.)
    Dean: If that's what it takes.
  • (Once in front Sam slams on the brakes, causing the Impala to swerve sideways in front of John's truck. They both stop.)
    Dean: Oh crap. Here we go.
    (Sam gets out of the car.)
    Dean: Sam!
    (Dean follows out of the car.
    Sam and John, who is also out of his truck, are both looking angry.)

    John: What the hell was that?
    Sam: We need to talk.
    (John comes to a halt face to face with Sam.)
    John: About what?
    Sam: About everything. Where we going Dad? What's the big deal about this gun?
    Dean: Sammy, come on, we can Q and A after we kill all the vampires.
    John: Your brother's right. We don't have time for this.
    Sam: Last time we saw you, you said it was too dangerous for us to be together. (yelling) Now out of the blue, you need our help. Now obviously somethin' big is going down, and we wanna know what!
    John: Get back in the car.
    Sam: No.
    John: I said get back in the damn car.
    Sam: Yeah. And I said no.
  • Sam: (mumbles) This is why I left in the first place.
    John: What'd you say?
    (Sam swings back.)
    Sam: You heard me.
    John: Yeah. You left. Your brother and me, we needed you. You walked away, Sam. (yelling) You walked away!!
    Dean: Stop it, both of you.
    Sam: (yelling) You're the one who said don't come back, Dad! You closed that door, not me. You were just pissed off that you couldn't control me anymore!
  • John (voiceover): Back in 1835, when Halley's Comet was overhead, the same night those men died at the Alamo, they say Samuel Colt made a gun. A special gun. He made it for a hunter. A man like us, only on horseback. Story goes, he made thirteen bullets. This hunter used the gun a half dozen times before he disappeared, the gun along with him. 'Til somehow Daniel got his hands on it. They say... They say this gun can kill anything.
    Dean: Kill anything, like supernatural, anything?
    Sam: Like the demon.
  • John: I don't think I ever told you this but... the day you were born, you know what I did?
    (John smiles slightly. Sam is confused.)
    Sam: No.
    John: I put a hundred bucks into a savings account for you. I did the same thing for your brother. It was a college fund. And every month I'd put in another hundred dollars, until... Anyway my point is, Sam, that... this is never the life that I wanted for you.
    Sam: Then why'd you get so mad when I left?
    John: You gotta understand somethin'. After your mother passed, all I saw was evil. Everywhere. And all I cared about was... was keeping you boys alive. I wanted you... prepared. Ready. 'Cept somewhere along the line I, uh... I stopped being your father and I... I became your, your drill sergeant.
    (Sam slowly starts walking over.)
    John: So when you said that you wanted to go away to school, all I could think about - my only thought was-
    (Sam sits down across from John.)
    John: that you were gonna be alone. Vulnerable. Sammy, it just... it never occurred to me what you wanted. I just couldn't accept the fact that you and me... We're just different.
    (Sam laughs, ducking his head.)
    John: What?
    (Sam is fighting tears.)
    Sam: We're not different. Not anymore. With what happened to Mom and Jess...
    (Sam shakes his head, then laughs again.)
    Sam: Hell, we probably have a lot more in common than just about anyone.
    (John gives a sad smile.)
    John: I guess you're right, son.
  • Sam: Hey Dad? Whatever happened to that college fund?
    John: Spent it on ammo.
  • Dean: Well, Dad you can't take care of them all yourself.
    John: I'll have her. And the Colt.
    Sam: But after. We're gonna meet up, right? Use the gun together. Right?
    (Dean and Sam look at John. Long pause. John doesn't face them.)
    Sam: You're leaving again, aren't you?
    (Sam shakes his head.)
    Sam: You still wanna go after the demon alone.
    (John finally looks back at Sam.)
    Sam: You know, I don't get you. You can't treat us like this.
    John: Like what?
    Sam: Like children.
    John: You are my children. I'm trying to keep you safe.
  • John: So boys.
    (They turn, slowly lining up to face John.)
    Sam: (whispers) Yes sir.
    John: You ignored a direct order back there.
    Sam: Yes sir.
    Dean: Yeah, but we saved your ass.
    (Sam's eyes slide sideways at Dean, nervously. John looks steadily at Dean. Dean swallows.)
    John: You're right.
    (Dean is surprised.)
    Dean: I am?
    John: It scares the hell out of me. You two are all I've got. But I guess we are stronger as a family.
    (John nods. Theme music starts. Dean's thrilled.)
    John: So... we go after this damn thing. Together.
    Dean and Sam (together): Yes sir.
21 Salvation
  • Sam: So basically, this demon is going after these kids, for some reason. The same way it came for me? So Mom's death... Jessica? It's all 'cause of me?
    Dean: We don't know that Sam.
    Sam: (upset) Oh really? 'Cause I'd say we're pretty damn sure, Dean.
    Dean: (frustrated) For the last time, what happened to them is not your fault!
    Sam: (shouting) Yeah, you're right! It's not my fault! But it's my problem!
    Dean: No, it's not your problem! It's our problem!
    John: Okay. That's enough.
  • Sam: I wanna thank ya.
    (Dean is confused.)
    Dean: For what?
    Sam: For everything. You've always had my back, you know? Even when I couldn't count on anyone, I could always count on you. And ah... I don't know, I just wanted to let you know. Just in case.
  • Sam: It's still in there!
    (Dean grabs Sam.)
    Dean: Sam. Sam, no!
    (Sam struggles against Dean.)
    Sam: Dean! Let me go, it's still in there!
    Dean: It's burning to the ground! It's suicide!
    Sam: (yelling) I don't care!
    Dean: I do!
  • Dean: So what, you're just willing to sacrifice yourself, is that it?
    Sam: Yeah. Yeah, you're damn right I am.
    Dean: Well, that's not going to happen, not as long as I'm around.
    Sam: What the hell are you talking about, Dean? We've been searching for this demon our whole lives. It's the only thing we've ever cared about.
    Dean: Sam I wanna waste it. I do. Okay? But it's not worth dying over.
    Sam: What?
    Dean: I mean it. If huntin' this demon means gettin' yourself killed... then I hope we never find the damn thing.
    Sam: That thing killed Jess. That thing killed Mom.
    Dean: You said yourself once, that no matter what we do, they're gone, and they're never comin' back.
    (Sam totally loses it, grabs Dean and shoves him hard against the wall.)
    Sam: (angry and upset) Don't you say that, not you! Not after all this - don't you say that!
22 Devil's Trap
  • Dean: I don't care! Sam. I don't care what Dad wants, okay? And since when do you care what Dad wants?
    Sam: We want to kill this demon. You used to want that, too! Hell, I mean, you're the one who came and got me at school!
    Sam: You're the one who dragged me back into this, Dean! I'm just trying to finish it!
    (A beat. Dean looks up at Sam, and back down, shaking his head. He looks back up.)
    Dean: Well, you and Dad are a lot more alike than I thought, you know that? You both can't wait to sacrifice yourself for this thing. But you know what? I'm gonna be the one to bury you!
    (Sam doesn't answer. Dean drops his head again, before looking back up.)
    Dean: You're selfish, you know that? You don't care about anything but revenge.
    Sam: That's not true, Dean. I want Dad back.
  • Sam: It's you, isn't it?
    (Azazel smiles.)
    Sam: We've been looking for you for a long time.
    John/Azazel: Well, you found me.
  • Sam: But the holy water?
    John/Azazel: You think something like that works on something like me?
  • Sam: I'm gonna kill you!
    John/Azazel: Oh, that'd be a neat trick. In fact,
    (John/Azazel puts the Colt down on the table.)
    John/Azazel: here. Make the gun float to you there, psychic boy.
  • Sam: I wanna know why. Why'd you do it?
    John/Azazel turns to Sam.
    John/Azazel: You mean why did I kill Mommy and pretty little Jess?
    Sam: Yeah.
    [...]
    John/Azazel: You wanna know why? Because they got in the way.
    Sam: In the way of what?
    John/Azazel: My plans for you, Sammy. You, and all the children like you.
  • Sam: Look, just hold on, alright? The hospital's only ten minutes away.
    John: I'm surprised at you, Sammy. Why didn't you kill it? I thought we saw eye-to-eye on this? Killing this demon comes first. Before me, before everything.
    (Sam looks in the rear view mirror at Dean, who is looking back steadily at Sam.)
    Sam: No, sir. Not before everything. Look, we've still got the Colt. We still have the one bullet left. We just have to start over, alright? I mean, we already found the demon onc-
    (An eighteen wheeler suddenly slams into the passenger side of the Impala at full speed, driving it sideways in front of it, glass going everywhere.)

Season 2

1 In My Time of Dying
  • Sam: (low) Get back... or I'll kill you, I swear to God.
    Demon: You won't. You're saving that bullet for someone else.
    (The music fades out. Sam cocks the gun, aiming it higher.)
    Sam: You wanna bet?
  • Spirit Dean: Come on, Sam. Go find some Hoodoo priest and lay some mojo on me. I'll be fine.
    [...]
    Sam: Nothin'. Look, if the doctors won't do anything, then we'll have to, that's all. I don't know, I'll find some... Hoodoo priest and lay some mojo on him and...
  • John: Where's the Colt?
    Sam: Your son is dying, and you're worried about the Colt?
    John: We're hunting this demon, and maybe it's hunting us too. That gun may be our only card.
  • Hey, Dad? You know, the demon. He said he had plans for me, and the children like me. Do you have any idea what he meant by that?
  • Sam: Oh man. Dean is gonna be pissed.
    (Bobby and Sam exchange a look before looking back at the Impala. Both head over to the ruined car.)
    Bobby: Look, Sam. It's... this just ain't worth a tow. I say we empty the trunk and sell the rest for scrap.
    Sam: No. Dean would kill me if we did that. When he gets better he's gonna want to fix this.
    Bobby: There's nothing to fix. Frame's a pretzel. The engine's ruined. There's barely any parts worth salvaging.
    Sam: Listen to me, Bobby. If there's only one working part, that's enough. We're not just going to give up on...
  • Sam: Think I wouldn't find out?
    John: What are you talking about?
    Sam: That stuff from Bobby. You don't use it to ward off a demon, you use it to summon one. You're planning on bringing the demon here, aren't you? Having some stupid macho showdown!
    John: I have a plan, Sam.
    Sam: That's exactly my point! Dean is dying, and you have a plan! You know what, you care more about killing this demon than you do saving your own son!
    Spirit Dean: (overlap) No, no, no, guys, don't do this!
    John: (overlap) Do not tell me how I feel! I am doing this for Dean.
    Sam: How? How is revenge going to help him? You're not thinking about anybody but yourself! It's the same selfish obsession!
    Spirit Dean: (overlap) Come on guys, don't do this!
    John: (overlap) It's funny, you know what? I thought it was your obsession too! This demon killed your mother, killed your girlfriend. You begged me to be part of this hunt. Now if you'd killed that damn thing when you had the chance, none of this would have happened.
    Sam: It was possessing you, Dad, I would have killed you too!
    John: Yeah, and your brother would be awake right now!
    Spirit Dean: Shut up, both of you!
    Sam: (overlap) (quietly) Go to hell.
    John: You know what? I should have never taken you along in the first place. I knew it was a mistake, I knew I was wrong-
    Spirit Dean: (overlap) I said SHUT UP!
  • Sam: Dean, are you here? Couldn't find anything in the book. I don't know how to help you. But I'll keep trying, all right? As long as you keep fightin'. I mean, come on, you can't - You can't leave me here alone with Dad. We'll kill each other, you know that.
    (Sam chuckles low. A pause. Sam looks at Dean's body.)
    Sam: Dean, you gotta hold on. You can't go, man. Not now. We were just startin' to be brothers again. Can you hear me?
  • Sam: (confrontational) Where were you last night?
    John: I had some things to take care of.
    Sam: Well, that's specific.
    Dean: Come on, Sam.
    Sam: Did you go after the demon?
    John: No.
    Sam: You know, why don't I believe you right now?
    John: (pleading) Can we not fight? You know, half the time we're fighting, I-I don't know what we're fighting about. We're just butting heads. Look Sammy, I-I've-I've made some mistakes. But I've always done the best I could. I just don't want to fight anymore, okay?
    Sam: Dad, are you alright?
    John: Yeah. Yeah, I'm just a little tired. Hey, Sammy, would you mind, uh...? Do you mind getting me a cup of caffeine?
2 Everybody Loves a Clown
  • Sam: We've been at Bobby's for over a week now and you haven't brought up Dad once.
    Dean: You know what? You're right. Come here. I'm gonna lay my head gently on your shoulder. Maybe we can cry, hug. Maybe even slow dance.
    Sam: Don't patronize me, Dean, Dad is dead. The Colt is gone, and it seems pretty damn likely that the demon is behind all of this, and you're acting like nothing happened.
  • Dean: Planes crash!
    Sam: And apparently, clowns kill.
  • Sam: You were right.
    Dean: About what?
    Sam: About me and Dad. I'm sorry that the last time I was with him I tried to pick a fight. I'm sorry that I spent most of my life angry at him. I mean, for all I know, he died thinking that I hate him. So you're right. What I'm doing right now, it is too little. It's too late.
    (Sam's lips tremble. He shakes his head.)
    Sam: I miss him, man. And I feel guilty as hell. And I'm not all right. Not at all.
    (Tears in Sam's eyes, as he takes a big breath.)
    Sam: But neither are you. That much I know.
    (Pause.)
    Sam: I'll let you get back to work.
3 Bloodlust
  • Wow. Give you a couple of severed heads and a pile of dead cows and you're Mister Sunshine.
  • (Sam steels himself, blowing out a breath, and starts poking his fingers into the mouth of a severed head.)
    Sam: Dean, get me a bucket.
    Dean: You find something?
    Sam: No, I'm going to puke.
  • Gordon: Well, lighten up a little, Sammy.
    (Sam indicates Dean.)
    Sam: He's the only one who gets to call me that.
  • Sam: Talk? Yeah, okay, but I might have a tough time paying attention to much besides Eli's teeth.
    Lenore: He won't hurt you either. You have my word.
    Sam: Your word? Oh yeah, great, thanks. Listen lady, no offense but you're not the first vampire I've met.
    Lenore: We're not like the others. We don't kill humans, and we don't drink their blood. We haven't for a long time.
    Sam: What is this, some kind of joke?
    Lenore: Notice you're still alive.
  • Dean: What part of 'vampires' don't you understand, Sam? If it's supernatural, we kill it, end of story. That's our job.
    Sam: No, Dean, that is not our job. Our job is hunting evil. And if these things aren't killing people, they're not evil!
  • You know, you slap on this big fake smile but I can see right through it. Because I know how you feel, Dean. Dad's dead. And he left a hole, and it hurts so bad you can't take it, but you can't just fill up that hole with whoever you want to. It's an insult to his memory.
4 Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things
  • Sam: Stop it! That's enough, okay? Enough!
    Dean: Sam, I know what I'm doing.
    Sam: No, you don't. At all. Dean, I don't scare easy, but man, you're scaring the crap out of me.
    Dean: Don't be overdramatic, Sam.
    Sam: You're lucky this turned out to be a real case. Because if it wasn't, you would have just found something else to kill.
    Dean: Wha-
    Sam: You're on edge, you're erratic - except for when you're hunting, because then you're downright scary. You're tailspinning, man! And you refuse to talk about it and you won't let me help you!
    Dean: I can take care of myself, thanks.
    Sam: No, you can't! And you know what? You're the only one who thinks you should have to. You don't have to handle this on your own, Dean, no one can.
    Dean: (overlap) Sam, if you bring up Dad's death one more time I swear...
    Sam: (overlap) Stop. Please, Dean, it's killing you. Please. We've already lost Dad. We've lost Mom. I've lost Jessica. And now I'm going to lose you too?
  • Dean: I hear you. Okay? Yeah I'm being an ass. And I'm sorry. But right now we've got a friggin' zombie running around and we need to figure out how to kill it. Right?
    Sam: Our lives are weird, man.
6 No Exit
  • That's funny! And for you, so bitchy.
9 Croatoan
  • Sam: This is the dumbest thing you've ever done.
    Dean: I don't know about that. Remember that waitress in Tampa?
11 Playthings
  • Dean: Of course, the most troubling question is, why do these people assume we're gay?
    Sam: Well, you are kind of butch. They probably think you're overcompensating.
  • Sam: You're bossy.
    Dean: What?
    Sam: You're bossy. And short.
  • What do you wanna do, poke her with a stick? Dude! You're not gonna poke her with a stick!
12 Nightshifter
  • We're not working for the Mandroid!
13 Houses of the Holy
  • Wait, there's no such thing as unicorns?
15 Tall Tales
  • It's not food anymore, Dean, it's Darwinism!
  • Dean, this is a very serious investigation. We don't have time for any of your bu-blah blah blah. Bu-blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah.
  • Too precious for this world.
16 Roadkill
  • Dean: You're like a walking encyclopedia of weirdness.
    Sam: (somewhat bitterly) Yeah. I know.
17 Heart
  • Okay, Sparky. And you know what? After we kill it we can go to Disneyland!
18 Hollywood Babylon
  • Dean: What's a P.A.?
    Sam: I think it's kind of like a slave.
  • You know, maybe the spirits are trying to shut down the movie because they think it sucks. Because, I mean, it kinda does.

Season 3

3 Bad Day at Black Rock
  • I lost my shoe.
  • Dean: I'm Batman.
    Sam: Yeah, you're Batman.
6 Red Sky at Morning
  • Dean: Can I shoot her?
    Sam: Not in public.
7 Fresh Blood
  • Yeah, I've been following you around my entire life! I mean, I've been looking up to you since I was four, Dean. Studying you, trying to be just like my big brother. So yeah, I know you. Better than anyone else in the entire world.
11 Mystery Spot
  • Yesterday was Tuesday, right? But today is Tuesday, too!
  • You peed yourself.
  • Sam: It wasn't a guess
    Dean & Sam together: Right, you're a mind reader. Cut it out, Sam. Sam Winchester wears makeup. You think you're being funny but you''re being really really childish! Sam Winchester cries his way through sex. Sam Winchester keeps a ruler by the bed and every morning when he wakes up he - Okay, enough!

Season 4

10 Heaven and Hell
  • Sam: She was convinced that he wasn't her real daddy.
    Dean: Who was? The plumber, hmmm? A little snaking the pipes??
    Sam: Dude, you're confusing reality with porn again.
12 Criss Angel Is a Douchebag
  • You got something against magic?
19 Jump the Shark
  • (about Adam) He's a Winchester. He's already cursed.
21When the Levee Breaks
  • You don't know me. You never did, and you never will.

Season 5

1 Sympathy for the Devil
  • Umm... Becky, can you... quit touching me?
5 Fallen Idols
  • Dude, you just got whaled on by Paris Hilton.
7 The Curious Case of Dean Winchester
  • It's like Mission: Pathetic.
8 Changing Channels
  • I've got genital herpes.
  • (to Gabriel) So which one are you? Grumpy, Sleepy, or Douchy?
9 The Real Ghostbusters
  • Dean & Sam together: I need a drink.
  • Sam: Oh, hey, Chuck, look. If you really want to publish more books, I guess that's okay with us.
    Chuck: Wow. Really?
    Sam: No, not really. We have guns and we will find you.
11 Sam, Interrupted
  • Boop!
14 My Bloody Valentine
  • Unleash the Kraken. See you tomorrow morning.
17 99 Problems
  • No drinking, no gambling, no pre-marital sex? Dean, they basically just outlawed 90 percent of your personality.
20 The Devil You Know
  • Why? Because Crowley said so? Because we trust him now? Like I trusted Ruby? Or like I trusted Brady back at school?

Season 6

2 Two and a Half Men
  • You've got a whole Dr. Huxtable vibe coming off you. You're like... father material.
6 You Can't Handle the Truth
  • Ever since I came back, I am a better hunter then I've ever been! Nothing scares me anymore, because I can't feel it.
8 All Dogs Go to Heaven
  • We're specialists. And they call us in to answer the questions of mouth-breathing dick monkeys.
  • Sam: Why shack up with a family? Is it a kinky thing? Do you like to play with your food? Roll over, Lucky. Speak.
    Lucky: Go to hell.
    Sam: Already been. Didn't agree with me.
9 Clap You Hands If You Believe
  • Sam: What? You see something? Dean, what's up?
    Dean: Hand on a second. Holy... UFO! UFO!!
    Sam: Whoa! Dude, stop yelling. You're breaking up. I didn't catch that last part.
    Dean: Close encounter! Close encounter!
    Sam: Close encounter! What kind? First? Second?
    Dean: They're after me!
    Sam: Third kind, already? You better run, man. I think the fourth kind is the butt thing.
    Dean: Empathy, Sam! Empathy!
    Sam: They still after you?
    Dean: Come on!
    Sam: Dean? Are you there? What happened? Dean? (waitress hands him a beer) Thanks.
  • So you've been hunting UFOs for over three decades and you basically have no concrete data and zero workable leads. Have you considered the possibility that you suck at hunting UFOs?
  • Dean, did you service Oberon, King of the Fairies?
  • Do you have bigger cups?
15 The French Mistake
  • Dean: Seriously. Why? Why would anybody want to watch our lives?
    Sam: Well, according to the interviewer, not very many people do.
  • We landed in some dimension where you're Jensen Ackles and I'm something called a Jared Padalecki.
  • So, now ah, what's the deal with all this TV crap?
  • Dean: Yeah, amen Padaleski.
    Sam: Uh, "lecki."
    Dean: What?
    Sam: -Lecki, I'm pretty sure.
  • Wow. I must be the star of this thing.
19 Mommy Dearest
  • Dean: Well that's great, because without your power, you're basically just a baby in a trench coat.
    Sam: I think you hurt his feelings.

Season 7

10 Death's Door
  • I'm not an idiot, Dean, I know first aid for a friggin' bullet to the head.
15 Repo Man
  • (to Lucifer) Shut up.
21 Reading is Fundamental
  • Castiel: Outside, in the garden today, I followed a honey bee. I saw the whole route of flowers. There's nothing to add.
    Sam: You might want to add a little Thorazin.
  • Castiel: This is in the handwriting of Metatron.
    Sam: Metatron? Are you saying a-a Transformer wrote that?
    Dean: That's Megatron.
    Sam: What?!
    Dean: The Transformer, it's Megatron.
    Sam: What?!
  • Kevin: What's happening?! What's happening?!
    Dean: What is that?
    Sam: It's... Kevin Tran. He's in Advanced Placement.

Season 8

1 We Need to Talk About Kevin
  • I hit a dog.
3 Heartache
  • Cacao was the most powerful god because maize was the most important thing to the Mayans. Well, that and torturing and killing everyone in sight.
15 Man's Best Friend with Benefits
  • Dean: Wow. You know, of all the lame-ass things you've ever said, that's got to be the lame-assiest.
    Sam: I'm sorry, but I happen to think Shemp was a funnier stooge than Curly.
    Dean: Curly was a freaking genius!
    Sam: I always found Curly's work a bit obvious.
    Dean: It's supposed to be obvious, man. They're stooges!
22 Clip Show
  • Look, I know this is insane, but insane is kind of what we do.

Season 9

14 Captives
  • Del: Do it. Kill me.
    Sam: We're saving you for someone else.
    Del: Crowley?
    Sam: Much worse. (hands the knife over to Mrs. Tran)
16 Blade Runners
  • Sam: (looking at Crowley) ..what is Crowley doing?
    Dean: (looking at Crowley) Stealing candy.
    Sam: He is - he's - he's stealing candy.

Season 10

12 About a Boy
  • Sam: I'm way too big to fit in that.
    Dean: First time you ever had to say that, huh?
  • Dean: Look, I know what you're gonna say alright? But you were in deep and I...
    Sam: I know, I know. You saved me, and... you saved Tina... You pulled a 'Dean Winchester'. Thank you.
    Dean: Any time.
13 Halt & Catch Fire
  • Dean: And Trini is?
    Sam: You'll have to excuse my partner. When it comes to technology, he's a little behind. He just learned to poke on Facebook.
16 Paint It Black
  • Dean: Tell me you didn't think that nun was hot. I think she had a little thing for me too.
    Sam: Dean, she was married to Jesus.
17 Inside Man
  • Castiel: I'm an angel.
    Oliver: No, you can't be.
    Castiel: Why not?
    Oliver: Because I'm an Atheist.
    Sam: Not anymore.
18 Book of the Damned
  • When Dean came to get me at school, I-I told myself... One last job, you know? One more job. And then when I lost Jess, I, again, told myself, one more job. There's always one more job, you know? And one more job and one more job, and then I was gonna go back to law and-and to my life. I guess I really understand now that.. This is my life. I love it. But I can't do it without my brother. I don't want to do it without my brother.
19 The Werther Project
  • It's the only way. It needs legacy blood. Enough to take a life.
20 Angel Heart
21
22 The Prisoner
  • Charlie, we're gonna miss you. You were the best. And I'm so sorry.
  • Dean, you're all I've got. So of course I was gonna fight for you, because that's what we do.
  • Sam: I'm saving my brother. I know what I told Dean. Look, I've been the one out there, messed up and scared and alone. And Dean...
    Castiel: ...Did whatever he could to save you.
    Sam: Yes. It's become his thing. I owe him this. I owe him everything.
  • Maybe everyone else forgot about all the bad you've done, but I haven't. I have watched you kill people, innocent people, people I cared about, people I loved. Yeah, you have the accent and the suit and the snark, but at the end of it you are a monster.
23 Brother's Keeper
  • The only way I know how to save my brother is to cure the Mark. I know there will be consequences, but not you, not Dean, not anybody can tell me what those consequences are! So I'm not gonna let my brother destroy himself on a guess. We save Dean.
  • Sam: What? He's gonna send you into outer space?
    Dean: Well, he didn't say outer space.
    Sam: This is madness, Dean!
  • Wait a second. We are not evil. Listen, we're far from perfect, but we are good. That thing on your arm is evil, but not you. Not me.
  • You were also willing to summon Death to make sure you could never do any more harm. You summoned me because you knew I would do anything to protect you. That's not evil, Dean. That's not an evil man. That is a good man, crying to be heard, searching for... some other way.
  • You'll never, ever, hear me say that you, the real you, is anything but good. (He spits out blood to the side.) But you're right. Before you hurt anyone else, you have to be stopped, at any cost.
  • Wait. Take these and one day, when you find your way back, let these be your guide. They can help you remember what it was to be good, what it was to love. (Sam places the pictures on the floor between him and Dean. The first one is of Mom and Dean, approximately age 4. The second one is of Mom, baby Sammy and Dean.)

References Sam Makes to Popular Culture

Season 1

1 Pilot
  • The Brady Bunch - "We're not exactly the Bradys."
  • Miller Beer, Jim Bean bourbon, Jack Daniels whiskey, José Cuervo tequila - "So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift. [...] Yeah, he's just hunting up at the cabin and he's probably got Jim, Jack, and José along with him."
  • Casper, the Friendly Ghost - "What were you thinking, shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"
2 Wendigo
  • Hansel and Gretel - "It's better than bread crumbs."
3 Dead in the Water
  • Loch Ness (Nessie) and Lake Champlain (Champ) - "Loch Ness, uh, Lake Champlain, there are literally hundreds of eyewitness accounts, but here, almost nothing."
  • Let's Make a Deal - "Door number two sounds good."
4 Phantom Traveler
  • Metallica - "You're humming Metallica?"
7 Hook Man
  • The Invisible Man - "Or it could be nothing at all. One freaked out witness who didn't see anything? Doesn't mean it's the Invisible Man."
8 Bugs
  • Oprah - "You watch Oprah?"
  • Willard movie - "You mean, like Willard?"
14 Nightmare
  • Hobgoblins and Hobgoblins 2 - "McCreedy. Detective McCreedy. Badge number 158."
16 Shadow
  • Boy Scouts - "Scout's honor."
18 Something Wicked
  • LexisNexis - "Dude, I ran LexisNexis, local police reports, newspapers, I couldn't find a single red flag. Are you sure you got the coordinates right?"
  • The Simpsons - "Same deal. Before that, there was, uh, there was Ogdenville, before that... North Haverbrook, and Brockway."
19 Provenance
  • Grant Wood & Grandma Moses - "Well I'd say it's more Grant Wood than Grandma Moses. But you knew that. You just wanted to see if I did."
  • Da Vinci Code - "What, like a Da Vinci Code deal?"

Season 2

1 In My Time of Dying
  • I Love Lucy or Agatha Christie's 4.50 from Paddington - "Elroy McGillicuddy?"
3 Bloodlust
  • Weekly World News - "Weekly World News."
4 Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things
  • Aggro - "Maybe the groundskeeper went a little aggro with the pesticide."
  • Night of the Living Dead & Dawn of the Dead - Dean: We can't just waste it with a head shot?
    Sam: Dude. You've been watching way too many Romero flicks.
5 Simon Said
6 No Exit
7 The Usual Suspects
8 Crossroad Blues
9 Croatoan
11 Playthings
12 Nightshifter
13 Houses of the Holy
14 Born Under a Bad Sign
15 Tall Tales
16 Roadkill
17 Heart
18 Hollywood Babylon
19 Folsom Prison Blues
20 What Is and What Should Never Be

Season 3

1 The Magnificent Seven
2 The Kids Are Alright
3 Bad Day at Black Rock
5 Bedtime Stories
8 A Very Supernatural Christmas
9 Malleus Maleficarum
10 Dream a Little Dream of Me
11 Mystery Spot
12 Jus in Bello
15 Time Is on My Side
16 No Rest for the Wicked

Season 4

1 Lazarus Rising
2 Are You There God? It's Me, Dean Winchester
3 In the Beginning
4 Metamorphosis
5 Monster Movie
8 Wishful Thinking
9 I Know What You Did Last Summer
10 Heaven and Hell
11 Family Remains
12 Criss Angel Is a Douchebag
13 After School Special
14 Sex and Violence
15 Death Takes a Holiday
21 When the Levee Breaks
22 Lucifer Rising

Season 5

2 Good God, Y'All
3 Free to Be You and Me
4 The End
5 Fallen Idols
6 I Believe the Children Are Our Future
8 Changing Channels
10 Abandon All Hope
11 Sam, Interrupted
12 Swap Meat
13 The Song Remains the Same
14 My Bloody Valentine
15 Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
16 Dark Side of the Moon
19 Hammer of the Gods
21 Two Minutes to Midnight

Season 6

3 The Third Man
4 Weekend at Bobby's
5 Live Free or Twihard
6 You Can't Handle the Truth
7 Family Matters
8 All Dogs Go to Heaven
9 Clap Your Hands If You Believe...
10 Caged Heat
12 Like a Virgin
13 Unforgiven
14 Mannequin 3: The Reckoning
16 ...And Then There Were None
17 My Heart Will Go On
18 Frontierland
19 Mommy Dearest
20 The Man Who Would Be King
22 The Man Who Knew Too Much

Season 7

1 Meet the New Boss
2 Hello, Cruel World
3 The Girl Next Door
4 Defending Your Life
5 Shut Up, Dr. Phil
6 Slash Fiction
8 Season 7, Time for a Wedding!
9 How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters
11 Adventures in Babysitting
12 Time After Time
13 The Slice Girls
14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie
15 Repo Man
17 The Born-Again Identity
18 Party On, Garth
20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo
21 Reading Is Fundamental
22 There Will Be Blood
23 Survival of the Fittest

Season 8

5 Blood Brother
6 Southern Comfort
8 Hunteri Heroici
11 LARP and the Real Girl
12 As Time Goes By
13 Everybody Hates Hitler
15 Man's Best Friend with Benefits
16 Remember the Titans
17 Goodbye Stranger
18 Freaks and Geeks
20 Pac-Man Fever
23 Sacrifice

Season 9

2 Devil May Care
4 Slumber Party
5 Dog Dean Afternoon
6 Heaven Can't Wait
7 Bad Boys
12 Sharp Teeth
13 The Purge
15 #THINMAN

Season 10

2 Reichenbach

Trivia

Actor Trivia

  • Jensen Ackles was initially cast in the role of Sam, but was recast as Dean when Jared came along and auditioned.
  • When he auditioned for the role of Sam, Jared Padalecki had just finished starring in the Gilmore Girls playing a character called Dean.
  • Jared does not get to make decisions about Sam's hair or beard.
  • Jared tweeted "778-237-3022". It's a number to a prop phone used on set for Dean Winchester. So many fans texted and called, it tied the phone up and used up all the data that was paid. Thankfully, it was a pre-paid phone.
  • In an early season, Jared leaped into the back seat of Baby, scraping his head on the ceiling - and lost a chunk of hair and scalp.
  • Jared insisted he can't act without that slate snapping. He uses it as a 'starter pistol' to jump into the character of Sam.
  • Jared and Gen keep spoiling planned story lines. At the end of Season 4, the storyline was for Sam and Ruby to be married. However, in real life they announced their engagement and the show-runners figured that it would be a tacky move for their characters to follow suit, so the story was rewritten for Dean to stab Ruby. They again messed up a Season 7 storyline, when Ruby was to come back and have Sam's baby. But Jared and Gen beat the show to the punch by announcing they were expecting a baby.
  • Jared Padalecki was nominated for a 2007 Teen Choice Award in the category of "TV Actor: Drama" for his role as Sam Winchester in Supernatural.
  • The actor who plays Young Sam Winchester, Colin Ford, won Young Artist Award - "Best Performance in a TV Series - Recurring Young Actor 13 and Under". (2010)
  • Jensen and Jared were nominated as Sam and Dean for Favorite Duo for TV Guide Award for 2014. They did not win.
  • Jared Padalecki was nominated for the Teen Choice 2016 award for SciFi TV Actor.

Character Trivia

  • Sam was originally named Sal, and the last name was Harrison. So instead of Sal Harrison, we now have Sam Winchester. The reason Harrison was changed to Winchester was that there was an actual person named Sam Harrison in Kansas.
  • It does not say Federal Bureau of Investigation on Dean and Sam's FBI badges. That's because even if it's just being made for a prop on a TV show, it is illegal to make a fake FBI badge. Instead they read: The Federal Bureau of Justice, United States Department of Investigation.
  • Sam has killed one major antagonist; Lilith at the end of Season 4. He's also killed two secondary antagonists; killing Jake Talley and Alastair. In season 5 Sam defeated main antagonist Lucifer and secondary antagonist Michael by sending them to Hell.
  • Sam's birthday is May 2nd, which means his zodiac sign is Taurus.
  • Sam's birthday is May 2nd, 1983. In 2007, this also became the birthday of executive producer and creator Eric Kripke's son, which Kripke describes as "creepy".
  • Sam's character is influenced by Luke Skywalker of Star Wars.
  • According to Eric Kripke, Sam was originally the main protagonist of the series and the story centered around him.
  • Sam suffers from Coulrophobia (fear of clowns).
  • Q: Will we ever re-visit the whole <Sam killed another hunter> story which seems to be a hole right now?
    EK
    : Right. Honestly, probably not. There was going to be more to the Gordon storyline but it had to get cut. External events affecting your internal reality. Gordon was going to find out about this hunter that Sam killed and use that to really round up the posse and go after Sam. There were going to be multiple episodes of this band of hunters that wanted to kill Sam. It was a developing story. But unfortunately, the word from Lifetime [network] was that we could get Sterling [Brown] only twice more, so that particular storyline had to drop out the window and we had to get to a climax with Gordon. At this point it would be too repetitive to bring it back up again with more hunters wanting Sam dead, so that's probably a storyline that will never see the light of day. - Supernatural Creator Eric Kripke Answers Fan Questions - Part II
  • A running gag in the show is that Sam almost always gets hit across the back of the head.
  • Whenever Sam is sleeping, the camera shows his feet hanging over the end of the bed. Supposedly, this is the remind the audience of how tall he is.
  • He only allows those closest to him, such as Dean and John, to call him "Sammy", as Gordon Walker learned the hard way in Bloodlust. However Lucifer, Crowley, Ruby, Meg, and Rowena have also called him Sammy at least once.
  • Sam had a magician phase, mentioned in Criss Angel Is A Douchebag
  • Sam is one of two characters shown to have been possessed by both an angel and a demon (the other being his father). However, unlike John, Sam had been possessed by an angel and a demon at the same time, the only known human on the show to have done so.
  • In The Song Remains the Same, Michael reveals that Sam is descended from the biblical Cain, the first murderer, who killed his younger brother, Abel.
  • Many of the characters Sam is romantically or sexually connected to end up either dying, being revealed as a supernatural being, or both; exceptions include (to the best of our knowledge) Lori Sorensen (Hook Man), Dr. Cara Roberts (Sex and Violence), Lindsay (Free to Be You and Me), and Amelia Richardson (Season 8). Dean referenced this trend in-show in the episodes Sex and Violence and Season 7, Time for a Wedding. Sam himself brings it up in Rock and a Hard Place, saying that most of his relationships don't end well while at a chastity group with Dean whole-heartedly agreeing.
  • Sam is the only Winchester to not have successfully made a deal with a demon, as both Mary and John made deals with Azazel whereas Dean made a deal with a female Crossroads Demon.
  • Sam, like several other members of 'Team Free Will', has been to Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.
  • Sam has twice been able to seize control of his body after being possessed by an angel. His father and Bobby Singer had previously managed to seize back control from demons, but for shorter periods of time than Sam and against foes much weaker than Lucifer or Gadreel.
  • Sam is the only being on the show to be possessed by five different beings: Meg, Lucifer, Ezekiel/Gadreel, The Wicked Witch, Crowley.
  • Despite being briefly possessed by him, Crowley never actually did anything to control Sam's body, a first for someone being possessed.
  • Interestingly, Sam with no soul was similar to the concept of a philosophical zombie, a creature in a thought experiment that has no soul/mind/internal experience but acts exactly as if it does, e.g. exactly like a person.
  • When Sam had no soul, he used a different gun than that of the normal Sam uses. This was seen prominently when Soulless Sam and normal Sam confronted each other: each used the gun they preferred to use while in control of Sam's body.
  • Sam has been possessed by an angel twice in the series.
  • Sam has attempted the Demon Curing Ritual twice and used it successfully once: to cure his own brother.
  • Sam might have to some degree a supernatural sense, as he was able to sense that Benny was not human by shaking his hand.
  • Even though he's had a stronger connection to demons he's the Winchester to become possessed by an angel twice. Once by the Archangel Lucifer and second time by the Seraph Gadreel.

Canon Discrepancies

Sam went away to Stanford either at the age of 18 or 19, so when Dean shows up to collect Sam in the pilot episode, he is aged 22. (Dean mentioned he was 26, Sam was younger by four years.) If they had not been talking the entire time Sam was there, then it would have been either three or four years. However, it is generally the opinion of fans that although Dad (John) had told Sam not to come back, that Sam had, in fact, kept in contact with his beloved older brother for a few years before they stopped talking. Dean says he had not asked anything of Sam for two years; this would support the idea that the brothers had stayed in some contact after Sam left for college. Kripke mentioned that he originally had only two years in the script, later on it was changed to three years, except Dean's line which had slipped by. If it was meant to be three years, then it was possible the brothers had not spoken since Sam left the family to head off to Stanford.

On the birth certificate on the wall at the Men of Letters London Chapter in Alpha and Omega, Sam's birthday was listed wrong as April 13, 1983.