Supernatural's Sam Winchester hasn't had an easygoing life. He has had more than his fair share of death, destruction, sacrifice and tragedy in his life. Sam hated the life of a hunter and sought to escape it, only to be sucked back in; on more than one occasion, no less. Sam and his older brother Dean have shared in some of these tragedies together, but Supernatural's Sam also has some of his own grievances and burdens to carry, given he and Dean are obviously different people with different experiences.
Some of these hard times have been appropriately portrayed onscreen, but some deserve far more exploration.
10 Overrated: Sam & John's Reunion
Sam was tortured for years over his strained relationship with his father. He even went through a period in Season 2 of Supernatural, suffering from guilt because he believed he'd allowed his father to die thinking that Sam hated him. Time and again Sam's dysfunctional relationship with John was mentioned and is clearly a big character aspect of Sam's.
However, in Supernatural's 300th episode, "Lebanon", Sam and John share a relatively quick and simple talk, clearing the air, but not quite covering everything. Perhaps they said all they needed to say at the time, but considering all the torture Sam put himself through over his father over the years, audiences, as well as the two characters, deserved something a little more than they received.
9 Underrated: Everything He's Seen
The same could be said for Dean in this circumstance. Not only has Sam seen countless monsters more evil and disgusting than any horror film could conjure up, but he's been to Hell. He's been to Purgatory, too. He's seen biblical creatures--even God Himself--try to destroy the Earth, and he's been forced to save the world countless times. PTSD surely affects Sam; no doubt he has nightmares featuring things from vampires to Lilith to Ruby and the angels. He never gets a chance to digest one thing from another, but somehow the next big disaster keeps him going as he's forced to deal with it, and thus he must have a method of compartmentalizing to deal. However, it wouldn't hurt to focus more on this aspect from time to time, as Sam is only human and would need to have a break every once in a while.
8 Overrated: Sam's Treatment Of Benny
Dean and Benny were close, but Sam never cared for Dean's vampire bestie. Benny was there for Dean when Sam wasn't, and he was generally a "good" monster. Sam usually allows "good" monsters to live, as is the case with Amy Pond.
However, Sam is hypocritical when it comes to Benny's and Dean's friendship, and though Sam is genuinely hurt by it, he needed to get over it. Dean and Benny had been through a mutual experience together and while Sam was living a normal life, Dean was fighting to survive, with Benny's help. Sam was being petty and he should've understood.
7 Underrated: Soulless Sam
It seems like Sam got away relatively scot-free following his experience being soulless once he was freed from Hell. Considering Sam was without emotions, including remorse, it seems unbelievable that he didn't do more unspeakable things that would've come back to haunt him at some point. It would seem more believable to have some kind of underlying tension between the brothers due to Sam's soulless period, or to have something or someone from Sam's time of being soulless to appear and cause trouble.
6 Overrated: Sam's Reaction To Being Possessed By Gadreel
Sam shouldn't have been surprised that Dean resorted to such tactics to keep him alive. Dean helps Gadreel trick Sam into saying "yes", and unfortunately, Dean was tricked as well, which led to some dire consequences.
Following the fallout, Sam is furious with Dean and distrusts him. The whole thing just seemed ridiculous--Dean had already gone to Hell to keep Sam alive; Sam should've known from that experience that nothing was off the table when it came to Dean's will to keep Sam alive.
5 Underrated: Losing His Dream Life
Sam was never into the hunting business like Dean was. He rebelled most of his life, and opted for a Stanford education and normal life. The events of Season 1 ended those plans, and while things did keep coming up, Sam still never took the chance at any point to resume his plans. He did try at a normal life a couple of times, but he never tried law school again, and he gave up too easily in his love life, especially when the closest he ever got to love following Jessica's death was his relationship with Amelia. Sam didn't get to have his dream, and he must think about that, and occasionally miss it, more often than audiences see onscreen.
4 Overrated: Sam's Loss Of Hope
Sam has been in plenty of dire situations before. It's no exaggeration to state that Sam has seen the world come to an end in different ways over the years. Still, all it takes for him to lose his hope is Chuck's way of forcing Sam to see possible futures in which nothing turns out alright?
This event takes place during Season 15, and by then, Sam's had his fair share of hopeless moments. Sam's always possessed faith and hope that was unbreakable. Why was it so easy for Chuck to suddenly break that? It's just not realistic.
3 Underrated: Sam's Powers
Sam's powers are dangerous; there's no question about it. He's prone to a demon blood addiction; audiences have seen Sam relapse in the past. Yet, these days it seems that struggle is hardly ever mentioned. Sam is around demons all the time, and his stress level is usually high. That can be a dangerous combination in itself, but on top of that, Sam has to keep himself in check because of his previous struggles. That struggle with addiction would be something Sam has to live with the rest of his life; it wouldn't just drop off the radar like it has.
2 Overrated: Sam & Lucifer
Lucifer tortured Sam; Sam's mind was beyond broken back in Season 7 because of him. Sam suffered from terrible hallucinations; not to mention the fact that Lucifer himself would taunt Sam terribly in person. Still, there's a certain charm about Lucifer that undermines just how awful he really is, and that includes his relationship with Sam.
Lucifer is Sam's worst nightmare, but Sam doesn't fall apart every time he sees him; he just puts up with Lucifer as though he's an annoying relative or something. That's not the case each time, but it happens more than it should given their history, so what was the point of Sam suffering so deeply if Lucifer was going to be portrayed as an awful yet somehow charming jerk?
1 Underrated: The Loss Of Jessica
Season 1 was successful in many ways, but one of the ways in which it failed was the portrayal of Sam's grief over Jessica. She was the love of his life; his way of dealing with it was to avenge her death, but it's not really shown how else he deals with it. He doesn't talk about her much, even though she was the girl he was going to marry. It seems Sam preferred a silent way of grieving her, but it wasn't very realistic, and Sam suffered far more for her loss than what was portrayed in the show.
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August 28, 2020 at 05:30AM
