Sam Winchester

Samuel William "Sam" Winchester (b. May 2, 1983-2060s) was a hunter as well as a Man of Letters, along with his older brother Dean. He 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 shares a bloodline with Cain and Abel. Because of this, Sam was predestined to be the true vessel of the fallen archangel Lucifer (whilst Dean was Michael's). Sam is friends with angel Castiel, Prophet Kevin Tran, the demon Meg and former lover-turned-enemy of demon Ruby. He is also the occasional reluctant ally of demon Crowley and for a time was forced to be an unknowing and unwilling vessel for the angel Gadreel (before expelling him). After the demon Azazel killed their mother, Mary, both Sam and Dean were raised in the hunting life by their father John. Sam left the hunting life to pursue a career in law, and most likely would have married his college sweetheart Jessica Moore. At the series' start, Sam was reluctant to start hunting again. When Jessica was killed, he was pushed back into the hunting life. 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. After Sam's quest to remove the Mark of Cain unleashed the Darkness upon the world, Sam was forced to confront the consequences of his actions. For Sam, the situation worsened when Lucifer manipulated the situation to escape in the vessel of Castiel. Sam was left torn between using Lucifer to help battle the Darkness as Castiel wished and his own traumas and the resulting desire to be rid of the rogue archangel as a result. Following the reconciliation of the Darkness and God, Sam was abducted by agents of the British Men of Letters and tortured. During this time, Sam faced a surprise reunion with his resurrected mother, the return of Lucifer to evil and the draw of the promises of the British Men of Letters to rid the world of monsters. The situation was further exasperated when Lucifer conceived a Nephilim child before his apparent defeat and return to the Cage. With the British Men of Letters threat growing, Sam was forced into a leadership role to end the threat but suffered losses while battling Lucifer for control of his child. With the losses of Crowley and Castiel and with Mary Winchester trapped in the Apocalypse World with Lucifer, Sam struggled to find a way to rescue his mother while dealing with Lucifer's son Jack and Dean's growing depression, aided by Castiel's subsequent resurrection. He was also forced to contend with the threat from the last Prince of Hell Asmodeus. However, after Jack got trapped in Apocalypse World as well, Sam fell into a depression of his own, only lightened when a way was found to rescue Mary and Jack. With the growing threat of the Apocalypse World Michael, the return of Gabriel and the death of Asmodeus, Sam's focus shifted completely to saving his family and ending the threat of Michael and Lucifer once and for all. After being killed by vampires in Apocalypse World, Sam was resurrected once more by Lucifer and reluctantly forged an alliance with his old enemy in light of the situation. Sam's subsequent decision to purposefully strand Lucifer in Apocalypse World again led to severe consequences when Michael and Lucifer worked together to reach the Main Universe. Though Lucifer was finally killed by Dean with the help of Michael, the victory was short-lived for Sam after he was forced to watch his brother taken over by Michael who was let loose upon the Main Universe in the body of his one true vessel. After Dean's final death, Sam goes on to live a long life, have a family and eventually die of old age. He is then reunited with Dean in Heaven. Sam is very mentally strong, evidenced by his ability to overpower possession by Lucifer. It has been argued that he is the smarter or more intelligent of the Winchester brothers, although Sam himself would disagree. Over time, Sam has resigned himself to the hunting lifestyle and has repeatedly sacrificed himself for the greater good, highlighting his selfless nature. Physical 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 tall, standing at 6’4 making him taller than his older brother. Sam has a muscular build with broad shoulders and a muscular 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. 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. In season 14, Sam grew a beard in the three weeks that Dean was possessed by Michael, mainly due to running himself ragged while hunting for leads. He later shaves it off in Mint Condition, after Dean made fun of him. Sometime before Jus In Bello, Sam got a tattoo on his chest of the anti-possession symbol to protect himself from demons. He kept it until Road Trip when Castiel removed it so Crowley could go inside Sam and help him expel Gadreel. He got it restored at some point off-screen as it is seen again in later seasons. A cut on the palm of his left hand was sustained during the episode Meet the New Boss. He was taught by Dean to use it as a way to discern hallucination from reality. Although the scar has healed by now, Sam still presses upon his left palm whenever things get too difficult to believe. In The Benders, a police file on Sam states his eyes are brown; however, his FBI file in later seasons lists them as blue. Personality Holy Terror 06 Sam possesses a dual nature. He can be unusually kind, empathetic, intelligent and independent. But he can also be coldly pragmatic, cruel, vengeful, arrogant, and proud. Sam tends to be driven by feelings of anger and vengeance. It is only through constant, deliberate choice that Sam develops his better qualities and rejects his darker side. In the 200th episode, he is described as 'sweet, brave, selfless Sam'. He is often the exasperated voice of logic in his relationship with Dean, who in turn sees him as a geek or prude, and teasingly calls him "bitch," to which Sam usually responds with "jerk". Dean has respect for Sam as a capable hunter and trusts Sam to "have his six". Sam is repeatedly telling Dean that killing humans is wrong and he does not enjoy the job as much as Dean. However, his desire for vengeance is what drives earlier seasons and keeps the pair in hunting long after Dean would abandon it, and in later seasons he has not hesitated to kill humans when necessary and even led an assault to wipe out the British Men of Letters American operation despite them all being human due to the threat they posed. He was even poised to shoot the unarmed Doctor Hess due to the threat she represented before she was killed by Jody Mills instead. 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") and a more strident exercise routine. According to Dean, Sam's blood type is O negative as said in the episode Red Meat. Sam also has a phobia of clowns. 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 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 incapacitating 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 Moore noted was "scary good" in the series 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 is 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. Sam has a possessive love of Dean as his older brother and relies on his brother as a means of tempering his darker qualities and as a touchstone for what is right. He is happy to allow Dean to take the lead in most things but will go behind Dean's back for Dean's 'own good' when Sam feels it necessary. Sam will choose Dean's wellbeing over the greater good, even against Dean's bluntly stated wishes. When Dean is dead, Sam becomes a very different person, as evidenced by his change in Mystery Spot and what is shown in I Know What You Did Last Summer. When Dean is dead, Sam devolves into cold logic without reason, becoming nearly non-human in his focus to destroy things and get his brother back. Sam's memories of Dean's enduring and selfless love for him allowed him to regain control of his body while possessed by Lucifer. 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 while Dean truly idolized his father, both boys are not always overly fond of their father due to his secrets, mysterious actions, and his strict treatment and upbringing of his sons. Childhood Sam spent the majority of his childhood under the care of his older brother, Dean. When Dean was too small to fully care for Sam alone, the brothers were left with Pastor Jim while their father, John, went on hunts. Once Dean was around 7 or so he was deemed capable of watching the toddler Sam, and the pair would be left in motel rooms during shorter hunts. Sam was protected far longer than Dean, still believing in Santa Clause and living in ignorance of the supernatural and their father's role as a hunter until the age of 8. As Dean became older and developed into a capable helpmeet to John on hunts, Sam was frequently left alone. He was used as a research and reference resource for looking up information, but largely kept out of hunting and danger. At age 9, lonely Sam had an imaginary friend, Sully, and dreamed of either being allowed on hunts with Dean, resenting that he was viewed as too young, or running away and escaping his life for a normal one. Sam once ran away as a child for a full two weeks, living off of funyuns and Mr. Pibb, and adopting a stray dog. Those two weeks became one of his happiest memories. Lacking babysitters and resources, the young Dean would often leave Sam at children's play arcades for hours while he would "go trolling for chicks," believing this would at least be better than leaving Sam in their motel room. This instilled a lifelong hatred of such places as well as a crippling fear of clowns. Sam's childhood education was spotty. He often missed school due to his father's hunts, though he became well and widely read during his time alone. However, he did participate in extra curriculars, such as little league baseball, and excelled academically when he did attend. Sam learned hunter's skills early, such as shooting and fighting. By the age of 14, Sam was permitted to go on hunts at last and assisted his family in hunting a werewolf. A teacher who read the 'fictional' account of how Sam spent his summer inspired Sam to decide to attend college and abandon hunting. Young Sam was obsessed with being 'normal' and trying to feel like he wasn't a freak. He recalls reading stories of King Arthur's knights as a child and feeling dirty and unworthy of ever being permitted to undertake a quest. Sam had an extremely contentious relationship with his father throughout his childhood and into adulthood, often engaging in screaming, angry fights, with Dean acting as mediator. Sam applied to college without telling anyone, not even Dean, and vowed never to return after he left in the middle of the night for the bus to college. Story Arcs 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. Azazel implied to Dean that since he was resurrected by a demon deal, he may not truly be "100 percent pure Sam", which Dean would also come to question himself when Sam killed Casey when Dean told him to stop, as he wanted her alive. After finding out Dean had made the 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. To his horror, he was forced to watch helplessly as hellhounds tore Dean apart and was distraught at holding his dead brother's body. 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 momentarily returned in My Bloody Valentine, exacerbated by Famine, and later 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. As he previously hunted alone for months, Sam became more understanding to his father's training him in hunting. This was best seen when the Winchesters met their half-brother Adam Milligan whose mother went missing because of a monster and he tried to teach the latter how to hunt, despite Dean's protest. 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, Sam's behavior markedly deviated from what was typical for him; he leaves Dean to to live with the Braedens while he hunts with Samuel Campbell for a year, letting Dean think he's still in Hell, spends the night with a prostitute, and most peculiarly, lets Dean get turned into a vampire in order to find a nest. Even his overall demeanor is different, being much calmer and more collected than before, even when greeting Dean after being separated for a year, he did so as if he just saw his brother the previous day. This leads Dean to momentarily believe Sam was still possessed by Lucifer. However, 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, such as urging Dean to snipe the skinwalker pack leader despite there being innocent people in the way, and killing all the arachne victims with the rationale that it would take too long to get them to hospital, which was an extreme departure from Sam's normal desire to help people and protect the innocent. He was also much ruder and snarkier than before, verbally attacking Castiel for ignoring his prayers, taunting Buddy with dog jokes and disdainfully mocking Marion for believ