Sam Winchester

Samuel Winchester
Supernatural character
First appearance	Pilot
Created by	Eric Kripke
Portrayed by	Jared Padalecki
In-universe information
Alias	Agent Hamill Robert Singer Mr. Berkowitz Detective McCreedy Father Frehley Dr. Jerry Kaplan Deputy Marshal Frank Beard Detective Dante Police Chief Phil Jones Agent Page Detective Bachman Wedge Antillies Agent Angus Agent Tyler Agent Lee
Nickname	Sam/Sammy
Species	Human (some supernatural abilities)
Gender	Male
Occupation	Hunter Doctoral Student (Formerly)
Family	Dean Winchester (brother) John Winchester (father; deceased) Mary Winchester (mother; deceased)
Relatives	Deanna Campbell (grandmother; deceased) Samuel Campbell (grandfather; deceased) unnamed granduncle, deceased
Psychic abilities	Telekinesis, precognition

Samuel "Sam" Winchester is a fictional character in The CW Television Network's Supernatural, played by Jared Padalecki.

Background

Sam was born on May 2, 1983 to John and Mary Winchester in Lawrence, Kansas. He was the couple's second born child and younger son, four years younger than his older brother, Dean. Sam stands at 6'4" tall. Sam is named after his maternal grandfather Samuel Campbell.

Sam is different from his older brother, in that he is sensitive, rational, more innocent, and seemingly more concerned with living a "normal life" than his brother; in spite of this, it is apparent that he would do anything for Dean. He also rebelled against his father's attempts to raise him as a hunter and enrolled in Stanford University.

When Dean came to ask Sam for his help in the first episode, the viewers are introduced to Jessica, Sam's girlfriend. It is apparent that Sam was somewhat popular, despite no one knowing what it is his family really does. The nickname "Sammy" was given to him by his father, though no one besides Dean is allowed to call him that. Sam points this out in the season one episode "The Benders", where a guy calls him Sammy, to which he angrily responds that his name is Sam. Hunter Gordon Walker refers to him as Sammy too, in episode "Bloodlust", after which Sam explains crankily that Dean is the only one who gets to call him that.

Because of his softer side and his need for a normal life, Sam is more careful with girls and therefore has more relationships than Dean(who tends to favour one-night stands,)such as Jessica, Sarah Blake, Madison, and possibly Ruby.

The character of Sam has shown a gradual change over the course of the third season, starting from the finale of season two "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2". The most noted part to this change is an unusual coldness in his normally "nice guy" nature, particularly in the episode "Bedtime Stories" when he kills the Crossroads Demon in cold blood as well as going partially insane in the episode "Mystery Spot".

Season 1

When Sam was only six months old (November 2, 1983), his mother was killed in his nursery by the demon Azazel. Azazel had dropped demon blood in infant sams mouth. Infant Sam was saved when Dean ran outside with him while their father went back to try to rescue Mary, who was stuck on the ceiling and consumed by the flames that later engulfed the entire house.

Twenty-two years later to the day, Azazel kills Sam's girlfriend, Jessica, spurring Sam to embark on a journey with his brother to find their dad and kill the demon that killed their mother. While their father, John, is missing, he occasionally contacts the boys to leave them missions. The boys take care of mythical creatures and urban legends such as the Woman in White, the wendigo, folklore's Bloody Mary, and shapeshifters. During this time, Sam begins experiencing episodes of precognition and once displays telekinesis.

The season finale concludes with Sam, Dean, and their father escaping from a horrific crash with Azazel in Salvation, Iowa. While Sam is driving his father, and a badly wounded Dean to a hospital after his brother is nearly killed by the demon (who had been possessing John), a truck piloted by a possessed man crashes into them, totaling Dean's Impala and leaving Dean on the cusp of death & 911 is called.

Season 2

In the beginning of the second season, Sam takes a more active role in the hunting. He tells Dean that this is what their dad would have wanted him to do. Azazel's plans for Sam are still unknown. Dean and Sam meet with three people that John once knew: Ellen Harvelle, her daughter Jo, and their computer genius associate Ash. They assist the brothers in their hunting.

In the episode "Simon Said", Sam displays immunity to Andy Gallagher's power of mind control, as opposed to Dean, who gave him his beloved Impala. He is also immune to the demonic sulfur virus in the episode "Croatoan."

Since "Hunted", Sam has learned what his father told Dean moments before his death: That Azazel 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 the episode "Born Under a Bad Sign", Sam is possessed by the same demon responsible for Meg Masters' possession in Season 1, and the demon uses Sam's body to kill another hunter. This demon may also have knowledge of the events that led to the death of Ellen's husband. It becomes clear that if the time comes for Dean to shoot his brother, Dean would not be able to do so.

In the episode "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 fiancée. As in reverse to reality, their mother is alive but their father died of natural causes.

The first episode of the second season finale, "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 1", Sam is trapped in a haunted abandoned town in South Dakota with "others" of his kind. It is revealed that there is demon blood in Sam and his mother knew who Azazel was, much to Sam's surprise. Sam is stabbed by a soldier named Jake and collapses in his older brother's arms just as he and fellow hunter Bobby Singer come to the rescue. He dies within the minute, amidst his brother's pleas for him to stay with him.

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 that he was ever dead in the first place. In the following battle to prevent Jake and Azazel from unleashing a demonic army, Sam shoots and kills Jake, unloading seven bullets into his body, four in the back and three in Jake's face. This is the first time Sam kills a man, or someone that isn't a demon, and seems to show no remorse; this could be because Jake killed him prior. Azazel questions Dean if he is sure that what he brought back in Sam is 100% pure. 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

Season 3 mainly focuses on Sam taking a darker tone than he had in the previous seasons. He is doing whatever he can, or has to, to save Dean from going to Hell. In the episode "Fresh Blood" he decapitates Gordon Walker, a hunter who is turned into a vampire after he tries to kill Sam. Sam kills him with only a long piece of barbed wire. Furthermore, Sam says that his powers have gone away since Dean killed the Yellow-Eyed Demon. Thus far during the season Sam has seemed to show no remorse for killing people possessed by demons or other "human" enemies as previously seen in the show.

In the season finale Dean and Sam, armed with Ruby's demon-killing knife, confront Lilith in a last ditch effort to protect Sam and save Dean's soul. Lilith, having stolen Ruby's host body, ultimately incapacitates Sam and opens the door for the hellhounds to attack Dean, forcing Sam to watch. She then tries to kill Sam, but her powers are apparently useless against him. Sam recovers the knife as Lilith abandons her host. He then goes to Dean's bloody and lifeless body and cradles it as he begins to cry.

Season 4

Sam gains a new ability; one that allows him to exorcise a demon at will. He has also been trying to hone his psychic abilities, something that he has kept secret from Bobby and Dean. Sam also appears to have entered a closer relationship with Ruby, sharing a hotel room with her and pursuing hunts together. He also is more willing to believe in angels than his brother. In the episode "In the Beginning", Sam is shown leaving with Ruby in the middle of the night and is not seen for the rest of the episode. The final scene shows Castiel talking to Dean telling him that he, and the others know what Azazel did to Sam but are not sure why and what his "End Game" is because Azazel had covered his tracks. He tells Dean that Sam is heading down a dangerous road, and they are unsure of where it leads; ultimately warning him to stop it or they will.

It is revealed in "Metamorphsis" that Sam went out with Ruby to learn where Lilith is. Dean, however, discovers that Sam has been lying to him. After assisting Dean in dealing with a rougarou in Missouri, Sam resolves to not use his powers again. However, when confronted with a demon that he could kill by no other means, he eventually used his powers again to exorcise him.

At the end of the episode "Yellow Fever", Dean catches a glimpse of Sam's eyes, for a split second, to glint a golden yellow color; the same color as Azazel's eyes.

Sam finally meets Castiel in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester". He's rebuffed by Castiel and deals with outright scorn from Uriel. Sam uses his power to kill Sam Hain; forcing himself so hard that his nose practically runs with blood and he gets a splitting headache. Uriel warns him again not to use his powers. He also tells Sam to ask Dean what he remembers of Hell.

Equipment

In Season 1, he owns a 2006 Hewlett Packard laptop, which he uses to gather information for hunts & information with $500 for food, drink & music on vampires, monsters, witches, demons, ghosts & evil. The first time Sam uses the laptop is in the second episode "Wendigo", where he plays a video message on Youtube in a Colorado national park to rescue a girl's brother from a terrifying creature. He can also contact local police/law enforcement for help.

In Season 2, he & Dean become good friends with Bobby Singer along with Harvelle's Roadhouse owners Ellen & Jo Harvelle. He shoots dead Azazel in Wyoming but more demons are released.

In Season 3, pretty demon Ruby is "revealed" to be Lilith in Indiana & was sent into pure hell by the beuatiful 18 year-old Lilith. Sam cries in an Indianapolis park after losing Dean apparently into a ditch with no way of Dean climbing out & escaping.

In Season 4, there are more girls to meet & more monsters, aliens, evil, help, mistrust of Uriel & Castiel, & 66 seals to make sure the devil Lucifer doesn't escape from a 600-year slumber.

Powers, Skills, and Abilities

Sam exhibits both telekinetic and precognitive abilities at various times throughout the series. His telekinesis on screen is limited to a single incident wherein he was under extreme stress and pressure, while his precognitive abilities, manifesting as dreams and visions of others' deaths, started prior to the first episode with dreams of Jessica's death, and continued throughout the first two seasons. Sam stated that visions stopped with the death of Azazel at the end of Season Two; Azazel is assumed to have given Sam and the other psychic children their gifts by feeding them his blood. However, according to Ruby, his powers are simply dormant. Ruby also states that if he was in full control of his power, he could blow away demons as powerful as Lilith with no effort. At the end of "No Rest For the Wicked," Sam demonstrates an ability to stop Lilith's attack, proving Ruby's theory correct. At the start of the fourth season, Sam is seen to have begun using his powers to exorcise demons, with the help of Ruby, occupying a new host. In the first season episode "Home", Sam demonstrated the ability to sense the presence of the poltergeist even after Missouri couldn't. Also, in "In My Time of Dying", Sam was able to sense Dean's spirit during a time of great stress. He is immune to a demon-spawned virus, called Croatoan, which turns humans violent and driven to infect others.

In addition, with the training given to him by his father, Sam is a skilled fighter, proficient with firearms, shotguns, and melee weapons. Like his brother Dean, Sam possesses many abilities that are frowned upon by law, including, but not limited to: lock picking, computer hacking, disguised conning, and car jacking. In the first two seasons, he is often hesitant about using these skills because of his desire to be a 'normal' citizen, however this lessens as the series progresses. Sam commands vast knowledge of the supernatural and is considered an "encyclopedia of weirdness." He is proficient in reading and recalling spells written in Latin, which can be used to exorcise, summon or vanquish demons. More often than Dean, Sam is stuck with the job of researching the supernatural for their hunts. He has a great sense of direction and time, being able to find a vampire's nest while blindfolded by keeping track of the time and the turns of the car. Due to these traits, it can be said that Sam is more intellectually driven than his brother.

Weaponry

Sam uses a chromed Beretta 92fs loaded with silver rounds and uses a pistol grip 4-shelled 12 gauge shotgun loaded with rock salt.

Though Sam is usually more concerned about not hurting the hosts and others possessed by demons, he has actually used The Colt on more occasions than any other known person, including the original hunter. However, as of the end of the third season he has only killed three demons with the weapon, the same number as Dean.

At the end of the third season Sam loses possession of The Colt, but he gains possession of Ruby's Dagger upon Dean's death and Ruby's absence.

Appearances

As one of the stars of the series, Sam has appeared in all the episodes. However, most episodes are focused on either Sam or Dean.

Notable episodes about Sam

• "Pilot"
• "Bloody Mary"
• "Bugs"
• "Home"
• "Provenance"
• "Asylum"
• "Nightmare"
• "Salvation"
• "Simon Said"
• "Croatoan"
• "Hunted"
• "Playthings"
• "Houses of the Holy"
• "Born Under a Bad Sign"
• "Heart"
• "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 1"
• "Bad Day at Black Rock"
• "Fresh Blood"
• "A Very Supernatural Christmas"
• "Mystery Spot"
• "Lazarus Rising"
• "Metamorphosis"

External links

• Supernatural Wiki

Possession of The Colt

Possession of Ruby's Dagger