The Winchester Family Business

I have been wondering about that too!

During Season 3, the dormant phase, Sam reached the conclusion that Azazel's death meant the end of his abilities. He had no more visions, and didn't move any objects. All the other known special children were dead, so there is no basis for comparison to see if all of them lost those abilities. The visions certainly seemed tied to Azazel. Maybe the initial demon blood "inoculation" created a tie to the demon that brought the powers to the surface when Azazel wanted them to emerge. He may have had more influence on their powers and their ability to use them than is known.

Before they died, Jake and Ava gave in to Azazel's wishes, and showed at least as much control and strength as Sam did while he was drinking demon blood in early Season 4. It doesn't appear that the two 'dark side' special children were drinking blood. Perhaps Azazel was supplying some of their power, like demons do for witches, through a demon blood link. Maybe when he died, a fresh supply of demon blood was needed because the powers were internalized and not being supported by someone outside.

Maybe I am retconning too furiously with that.

In Season 6, I wondered if soulless Sam didn't have access to them because of his very soullessness. Maybe there is some connection between the spirit and the body that enables Sam to use those abilities.

Now that Sam has his soul back, I wouldn't expect him to actively try his powers, because they have led to so much trouble in the past. I think he would deliberately avoid thinking along those lines.

However, Sam's soul was in Hell a long time. There is a wall between the human part of his soul and the 'other' part, but that second half is still with him. If Sam had a little bit of demon in him, then I would expect him to be able to use his powers without drinking demon blood. His own blood would be at least a little tainted. He hasn't faced demons since his soul was returned, so maybe the instinct to use his powers has yet to be triggered. I wouldn't be surprised to see him raise his hand without thinking about it later in the Season, and cause something very dramatic to happen.

Follow-up question: what happens if Sam samples angel blood? Castiel had to use Dean's blood for a spell earlier in the season because his own other-than-human blood wouldn't work. So angels alter the blood of their vessels, too. Could Sam smite Raphael?

I think, come season 5, Sam learned his lesson with his powers and the demon blood--he continued to struggle with addiction and realized it's something he would deal with the rest of his life. Souled!Sam, I think, doesn't want to use the powers, knows the cost is too high both for himself and his loved ones.

But that leaves me wondering about Robo!Sam again. Was Robo!Sam also dealing with the demon blood addiction? I can't see him really trying to suppress the urges, especially if he saw drinking the blood and having powers as being helpful on a hunt.

Then again, Sam tried to embrace his powers because he was exorcising demons while leaving hosts intact, something not possible with Ruby's knife. Would Robo!Sam care about that? He never seemed the type to care about collateral damage. It seems like it would be a lot of extra work for Robo!Sam to harness his powers when the advantages would be minimal in his eyes.

I also think it's probably significant that we haven't seen much dealings with demons this season--Sam's powers don't have anything to do with monsters and that seems like what the Campbells focused on over the year Sam hunted with them, since Samuel was hunting Alphas for Crowley. Demons don't really fit into that scheme, not giving Robo!Sam much opportunity to deal with the powers.

My post got lost, but the gist of it was that I hope those powers and blood drinking are gone for good.

I don't want those boys to be superheroes, but human ones who fight against great odds and sometimes win and sometimes lose.

Ruby said he didn't need the feather to fly and Ava and Jake said the switches just turn on in your head. Didn't seem to be that way with Sam. He never tried to turn on his switches until being taught by Ruby.

If Soulless Sam had powers, wouldn't he have used them? He had no conscience.

Perhaps the powers were burned away in the cage and his body wasn't in it for very long anyway. Maybe it needed a whole Sam for his powers to return and he has had a lot to think about right now without worrying about that.

Perhaps if he sees Dean in peril in the future some of them may return, as that is how they began. (not his premonitions but the kinetic energy he projected)

Personally I hope they don't return as I don't want that type of angst back on the show.

I agree with May that in S1-S2 the powers were related to YED. In Season 3-5 Sam needed the demon blood to aczess the powers and control them.

"The feder" in my understanding was Ruby she pushed Sam to the decisions he made.

Since demons are humans whose souls have been twisted and corrupted logically that is where there powers stem from. Demon's powers don't manifest until they take form (i.e. a meatsuit). They are just invasive (and scary) black smoke whose only ability is to take over a body until they actually get one. Sam's powers are rooted in Azazel's blood being fed to same, so his powers have demon roots. The power must come from his soul. Souless Sam's powers were in the pit with his soul. Now that he has it back the powers should be available, but he gained more control over them so should be able to suppress them if he becomes aware of them and wants to. Of course, our Sammy has always been a "Needs must" kind of guy and willing to tap them in extreme need so I'm betting we could see their re-emergence as they get more into the battle with Eve. Dean will NOT be happy.

Uhm, I for one don't believe there is something like "good" power (if not God's power, if you like). We have a plethora of examples that when you give someone the power over someone else or over something, almost ever it turns out that power is just this: a drug. You end up thinking that because you have the power, you MUST use the power to make things go as you like.

This is particularly true for "supernatural" powers, i.e. the powers that go beyond the human nature, "far from normal, from human", like Dean said. Because that kind of powers shortens in a dramatic way the distance between the thought and the action: they take away the struggle, the fatigue, the hard work, the hard choices, the time for doubting and rethinking that are needed to realize your projects, dreams, intentions or goals. You get used to have it easy, straight and immediately. And if you do that often enough, you can get (and almost ever will get) tyrannical, self-centered (you can be self-centered even when doing things for other people), proud, arrogant.

That's why I usually don't buy the stories about magic and magicians (Harry Potter included) and think that the best lesson you can learn about your "magic" o supernatural or extraordinary powers is not how to use or "control" them, but how NOT to use them. Luke Skywalker himself in the end refused to use his jedi powers to fight against his father and the Emperor (just like Obi-Wan did when confronted by Darth Vader).

When I started to watch Supernatural, one of the things that appealed me the most, was that the boys fought evil in a very "material" way: guns, rifles, machetes, even bare hands, if needed. No magic, no super-powers, no some sort of "supersayan" or "mystical" thing. Even when they performed exsorcisms and enchantments, it wasn't from some sort of "inner energy" or stuff like that, but just an ancient and well-used ritual, a lore of old, something "external" to the boys themselves. In a way, I found that to be very... refreshing. I was sick and tired of wizards, witches, superheroes, "chosen ones" and alike. I wanted "human" heroes: people who fought evil armed just of their strenght, heart, courage, brain and brawn... and maybe some good weapons, if needed. I needed to believe that "simple" human beings could fight "against good, evil, angels, demons, destiny and God himself". And while Dean and Sam are not exactly "ordinary" people, they were also not really "extraordinary".

It was ok for me tht Sam could have visions: they could be "sent" to him in some way, it didn't mean that he was "special". But when his telekinetic powers popped up I went "hu-ho". I feared I was going to witness ANOTHER story about a "chosen one". And it was, indeed. But they got to not push me away because they made it clear from the start that this was not a blessing, but a confusing, alarming, scary, upsetting, huge blow coming from the above on two brothers already severely tried by life. So Sam's powers were not the "solution": they were instead the (THE) problem.

And I liked that relationship dynamic between the "abnormal" brother and the "normal" one: it added to the drama of the situation, it fleshed out more the characters, it built up layers to their personality and relationship. So Sam carried on the weight of being "different" (and in a way feeling guilty for that) and Dean the weight of being "an ordinary guy" in an extraordinary situation.

I liked also that Sam's powers were marked clearly as "dangerous", if not outright "evil". I liked how in S4 the story showed his slow but constant progression from the use of his power to "save the victim" to the use of them to get sheer revenge and destroying demons without care for the human host. Because this is what I think about "power", this is what I think power can do to the ones too eager to use it.

So I, for one, don't want to see these powers resurface. At the moment I don't want something getting in the way of the brothers rebuiliding their relationship and trust toward each other. I agree that the issue have to be dealt with. They have to explain us something about them being "dormant" or forever gone or whatever. It was too an important issue in the past for the brothers never bringing up the matter again. And I don't mind if they add up some "spice" to the story. Just... not now. In the future, maybe in Season 7.

Late again, but with so many fantastic theories on here, is it okay if I jump in?

Sam and his powers intrigue me, they always have. Not that the whole psychic thing is in itself strange, because SPN has established that psychic ability isn't necessarily a big deal, but because we have no idea just how far these psychic abilities can go. Given that we’ve only ever really seen them in spurts, we’ve never been able to explore how wide ranging they actually could be.

First things first, I think Sam was born with basic psychic ability, same as Missouri and Pamela (and I’d imagine countless other nameless, faceless psychics out there). YED didn’t give Sam this ability. The same applies to the other special children. With or without the demon blood, Andy would still have been empathic, Ava psychic, Jake overly strong etc. After all, baby Rose showed psychic abilities before YED visited.

The blood drinking as babies merely linked the special children to YED. It was a tagging system, a way to be able to call them all together when the time came, a way for other demons to know that these kids were off limits and it also served to someway make YED vaguely familiar to the kids.

Subconsciously, Sam’s natural psychic ability was developing into something needed by his family in order to survive. I feel had Mary not died and were it not for the total immersion into the hunting lifestyle, Sam’s psychic visions might have utilised themselves in another way that best served the family’s needs at the time (if Sam’s family were fishermen, Sam visions would be about weather patterns etc).

Point is, Sam’s psychic ability manifested in a way that was needed, visions about YED. He’d spent his life surrounded by demons; it makes sense (to me) that he would be more attuned to them. I don’t think this was YEDs plan. I doubt he would want the Winchesters to have a way of tracking him as it would put him in danger, would it not?

Sam’s visions helped his family, the same way that Sam’s psychic ability translated to telekinesis when Dean was in danger (in Nightmare).

After YED’s death, while the visions of him stopped, Sam’s psychic ability did not die with him. The natural ability merely lay dormant until such time as there was overwhelming stress and need in Sam’s life, namely Dean’s death and Sam’s utter helplessness in getting his brother out of hell.

On the exorcising ability, I don’t think drinking blood was the reason Sam could exorcise demons. Ruby’s ‘feather to fly’ comment aside, I think this was Sam’s dormant ability waking up and materialising in a way that was needed now, killing demons. Given the hostility between Sam and demons and the redundancy he felt at their hands, it doesn’t strike me as surprising that the third time Sam’s psychic ability came to light it was in relation to something more empowering.

I don’t feel Sam needed the blood to exorcise the demons but he needed the blood as an excuse as to why he can do what he can do. For someone as reserved as Sam, I don’t think he’d want to acknowledge that he can kill demons with his mind, no demon blood required. By using external causes such as the blood, he is able to argue with himself that this (ability to exorcise) is not because of something he is, but because of something he has done. By bringing in these external factors on which to blame them, he is, in part, absolving himself of what he is naturally capable of doing.

I think Ruby was yanking Sams chain about the blood because I no longer believe her main aim was breaking the final seal. Given that Heaven, hunters and parts of hell were after her, Lilith was dying with or without Sam.

I feel Ruby’s main role was much more important, to prepare Sam to be Lucifer’s vessel and for that, Sam needed to start drinking blood. We heard Nick was chugging gallons of the stuff when Lucifer was in him but that wasn’t enough, Nick was falling apart. But by having Sam gradually drink more and more blood, it became part of him, so that when he did take the big hit, his tolerance would have grown and his body would be ready for it.

It’s the same as training for a marathon. If you’ve never trained before, there’s no point running 10 miles every day for the week prior to the race, you need to do one mile four times a week and gradually build it up for 12 months so that you’ll be in peak condition the day of the race. By having Sam space out the blood drinking and going little and often to gradually drinking more (and Sam went from licking Ruby’s arm, to drinking from a bottle, to sucking a neck to draining a number of demons dry), the demon blood was infused IN Sam at the time of breaking the final seal, making him in prime condition to house Lucifer. (Had Nick been drinking demon blood for a time prior to saying yes, odds are he'd have been a much stronger vessel.)

In relation to why Sam doesn’t exorcise the crap out of demons during season 6? Anytime we’ve seen Sam use his powers willingly (i.e. when he wasn’t in training) it’s been out of necessity. He’s had to do it in order to ensure his or Deans survival (e.g. with Samhain and Famines minions). He rarely exorcised for the sake of it.

Given that Sam was soulless for most of season 6, I wouldn’t expect him to have used his powers. He’s been cold, calm and logical the entire time so I don’t see him caring enough about anything to need to exorcise. Also, given his new found tendency to shoot first, I don’t see him having ever got into a situation where he was about to die at a demons hand. Since he got his soul back, there haven’t been any demons around so no need to exorcise.

Finally, it might be a case that the remnants of Sammy in Soulless Sam might associate exorcising demons with the Cage and that’s one place even Soulless Sam doesn’t care to visit again!

It’d be interesting to see what would happen now if either Dean or Bobby were in danger from a demon, ala MBV, how Sam (and the show) would react. Would he draw on the powers that (I believe) are inherently there or has Sam now got a huge mental block in place about these powers?

Strangely, if the situations were reversed (i.e. Dean was the one with the exorcising ability) I don’t think Dean would need the extra spur (of blood) to use them. I think he’d take them for what they are, a weapon, and use them accordingly. (He was prepared to use his body as a weapon by saying yes to Michael.) I wonder how Dean would react to another hunter (who wasn’t his baby brother) exorcising demons in such a way. Would he see him as a weapon or as a threat?

I also don’t think Lucifer could, or would, remove Sam’s powers. I think he’d like them to serve as a reminder to Sam as to what he ‘is’, something other than human. I think Lucifer would get a kick out of Sam believing he belonged in hell; it’d be much easier for him to go into a self-righteous monologue this way. I feel that Lucifer would get off on the idea that while Sam is powerful, and as was mentioned above, might be (or have the ability to be) the King of Hell, he’s still not more powerful than Lucifer.

Luci wouldn’t get any particular joy out of Sam if he were a mere minion. From Lucifers POV, Sam having these powers puts him above the level of the hairless apes, but Lucifer is still stronger than him. Also, as a source of pride, I don’t think Lucifer would be on board with the whole idea of being bested by a mere human, not if he could help it.

However, one of the main reasons I feel that Lucifer didn’t/couldn’t take Sam’s powers is because they are not his to take. The psychic ability, and as a consequence the powers, are as much a part of Sam as puppy eyes and shaggy hair.

Do I think we’ll see the powers again? While I would love to, I don’t think we will. Not because I think they’re not there but because from a writing point of view, reusing past material is never a good idea. It’d be like taking ten steps backwards in terms of story progression.

That being said, if an episode ended with Sam closing his eyes and raising his hand, I’d be very, very excited.....