Is Sam Winchester Too Stupid To Live?
By the end of season two Sam is nearly convinced that he is destined to become evil, so much so that he got Dean to promise to kill him [Playthings], he’s been confronted with other hunters killing special kids [Gordon], discovered that he had demon blood dripped into his mouth thus strengthening his belief that he is cursed, and now holds a secret so terrifying that he cannot bring himself to share it with Dean, their mother was killed because she recognized the YED when he came into his nursery. Now that’s a wedge to drive between two brothers and it was done so subtly, so passively that the true damage comes not because of the deed done 23 years in the past, but because Sam cannot bring himself to tell Dean. This is the lie that starts all the others; this is the lie that makes all the other lies to come so much easier.
Enter Ruby, what Meg started Ruby continues. I don’t know if Meg’s story is complete – I sure hope that Ruby’s is simply because as far as I can see we’ve gotten her beginning, her middle and her end; and what an end.
Ruby’s beginning:
She mysteriously arrives, proves helpful, not only in killing demons but in repairing the Colt, tells Sam there’s a bigger plan here and reveals that ‘someone’ went to a lot of trouble to cover it up, and dangles the best bait ever, “I can help you with Dean.” Hooked.
Season 3 is all about Ruby’s beginning, she lures Sam along with tidbits of information and when she really needs to set her claws she strikes at her most vulnerable line of offense, Dean. Dean is a hindrance to her ability to really affect Sam so she has to off balance him; she does so brilliantly. Ruby not only saves Dean’s life but she tells him that all demons were once human and if that was not enough she appeals to that part of him that he can never deny, “You have to help me get Sam ready to fight this war without you.” Brilliant.
Ruby, having delivered a performance worthy of an Oscar slithers off to wherever she slithers off to and lets time do its work. Her next appearance allows her to drive a wedge between the two and allows her to check Sam’s status, how far is Sam willing to go? Will he kill one innocent under the guise of saving many? Sam does not give a complete answer here but it is quite obvious that he it deeply conflicted, save 30 plus people by sacrificing one ““ might be the way to go. Trouble is Dean is still around and his influence remains strong. Were Lilith and Ruby not working in concert that plan, which succeeded, would have remained successful. But Lilith and Ruby have bigger fish to fry so for no reason, other than to deepen a rift between the brothers, Lilith comes and slays all those at the precinct and Ruby deliver her “I told you so” speech. Effective.
Ruby does slip her game face from time to time, trapped in a devil’s trap she shows her true colors, then again her easy escape from the trap shows that her part in this scheme was not done. Lilith delivers the final blow, killing Dean and dragging his soul to hell, while a helpless Sam watches. I believe Lilith knew that Sam was immune to her powers, perhaps that is the lesson of Croatoan. She disappears and allows Ruby to return to begin the part of training Sam.
Ruby’s middle:
Here is where Ruby really shines, she’s patient and firmly in control. She saves Sam, after setting him up with another demon, and then agrees to find a more suitable body simply because Sam balks. I doubt she expected that level of morality but having a much bigger plan in mind she displays a willingness to go along. This unsettles Sam, even though he is too lost in his grief to fully accept what it means, still it shifts his thought process on who and what Ruby is.
Her plan works well until a speed bump appears; Dean is raised from hell by forces unknown. Ruby shows just how masterful she is at her game of illusion and deceit as she offers to step back and give Sam and Dean some time, “I mean, I’m not exactly in your brother’s fanclub. But he is your brother, and I’m not going to come between you.” This is evil at its most patient, its most controlling and its most dangerous. Either way this works is a win/win for her, if Sam suggests they back off a bit, Ruby can gallantly take the ‘high road’ and say no problem, contact me when you’re ready to resume. If, as is what happens, Sam says he wants to continue, she confirms what she already suspects, she’s got a good hook into him and she can simply ascent to his wishes. Pure evil, purely perfect.
It’s notable that she does back off a bit, especially after Sam makes the decision to stop. She makes another approach when the timing is right, figuring she’s got a good opportunity at hand [IKWYDLS and HAH]. She’s got to contend with Dean knowing about her presence so she slips back into the role we’d seen during season 3. Fortunately for her and her plans, she’s got Sam fairly convinced of her genuineness and because all lies have an element of truth well, the really good ones that is, she’s able to unbalance Dean again because she did, in fact, save Sam’s life. The fact that Alastair caught her, a trap she willingly walked into, only added to her cachet of being worthy of trust.
Ruby’s no fool though, having gained Dean’s grudging acceptance, minimal that I believe it was, she keeps her profile low and does not attempt to contact Sam with Dean around. She slips back under Sam’s defenses and reminds him that Lilith is breaking seals faster and faster and uses Sam’s desire to have all this over with to set firmly her hook, again. She also furthers her hold on Sam by appearing to come when called to assist him in saving Dean from torturing Alastair which gets Sam to the place where she wants him most, able to kill.
Having played upon his love and loyalty to family she’s cleverly danced around his less noble characteristics of pride and obsessive need for revenge. Now that he’s proven to be able to protect Dean, in fact, save him from a death – one he couldn’t save him from before – Sam has unlocked his pride and need for control and Ruby’s manipulated it all along.
Of course there is another wonderful little part here that needs to be played and this time it’s not Ruby playing it but Lilith. Lilith comes to fully test the readiness of Sam and ensure that all of Dean’s meddlesome questions get put to rest. Someone needs to drive the final wedge and while Ruby’s done an admirable job sometimes the boss needs to step in; enter Lilith.
I have no belief that Lilith ever intended to ‘stand down’ nor did she intend to let Sam kill he, nor did she intend to kill Sam, although I’m not so sure about Dean. No, Lilith’s intent was to assure herself of Sam’s readiness to do his final part and to focus Sam purely on one thing, kill Lilith. It worked.
After that little encounter with Lilith Sam is no longer having any doubts about right or wrong, what Dean is doing or not doing; Sam is focused on one thing, kill Lilith. It’s notable that after this Ruby does her disappearing act, ensuring Sam’s withdrawal. I doubt she foresaw the bloodletting of the ghouls but the fact that she didn’t come any faster after that episode is proof that she intended to have Sam endure that agony. Likely she and Lilith were off breaking seals while Sam suffered but no matter, the stage was set.
Ruby arrives “just in time” to assist Sam in amping his powers back up to the levels to kill Lilith, just in time for the final breaking of the seal, on the right night, at the right place, perfect. Sam was pushed, beguiled, deceived all along the way and no wonder, lies that are sprinkled with truth work every time and when the demons know the plan and no one’s weaknesses, family, loyalty, obsession, pride and need for control, they’ll twist them and use them.
Ruby promised to help save Dean if Sam would just trust her. Ruby claimed she wanted Lilith dead and needed Sam to do it. Ruby offered support and friendship, emotional intimacy and physical release when Sam was grieving and alone. She gave Sam space, saved Dean’s life, restored the Colt, that Lilith got out of the way anyway, killed demons, got beat up and nearly killed. Ruby’s plan was brilliant, the fact that it worked in no way makes Sam stupid. She had all the cards, all the time and played them just when she needed to.
Ruby’s end:
We’ve seen it – unless Kripke has another card up his sleeve. Ruby’s exclamation of “I’m awesome!” and going back and watching her with fresh and knowledgeable eyes and minds, show her end, Ruby was in cahoots with Lilith and loyal to one plan, free Lucifer.
Was Sam stupid? No. Was Sam prideful? Yes. Does that make him any less of a hero? No. He is human and for that it makes him someone to identify with, to have sympathy for, a hero to root for. We get to see his desirable qualities, ability to have compassion for others, wish to do well, save people, and we get to see his less desirable qualities, pride, and obsession, his thirst for revenge. To me it makes him interesting to watch as he struggles with his ‘curse’, as he struggles to use it for good and now to watch him as he struggles to deal with the aftereffects. I can’t wait to see what he does in season 5.
So there you go, I present Is Sam to Stupid to Live”¦make your own decisions, you already know my thoughts.
Thanks for reading.
If Sam is to stupid to live then I think the rest os us should be dead a long time! After all no one is perfect, and Sam and Dean are “normal” people and, very important, humans like the rest of us (let’s face it if they were perfect this show would suck, and would not be going for season 5), we all make mistakes, we all make choices every day some good some bad/wrong, so, where does it say that making a bad/wrong choice or a make a mistake equals being to stupid to live??!!
Now serius, ‘Saint Dean’?!’Demon Sam’?! some call Dean the Jesus Christ of the Supernatural?! Can I say bunch of crap!!! Give me a break people!!
Now that i got it out….
Great article Elle2! Loved it all the way and agreed whit all you’ve wrote, thank you for this one 🙂 , and you can keep it comming after all we’ve still got 79 days of hellatus to “kill”…
See ya…
Thank you.
I am so very, very tired of people going on about how Sam is evil and Dean is a paragon of saintly virtue and has no faults. They’re BOTH human, good persons at the core but with plenty flaws like everyone else. Jesus. If you want perfect, flawless characters, go read Jean M. Auel’s books about Ayla.
I love BOTH boys and I love the show and I can’t wait for S5.
Hi, Dany and Jojo,
I get so tired of the ‘fans’ raking the show over the coals and narrowing their vision saying that one brother is good and the other is bad. Sure Kripke has the theme of good vs. evil going strong in the show but he also keeps blurring the lines…Lenore is a good example and so is Casey from Sin City. Sure sure was a demon but I kinda liked her…aside from the whole possessing of an innocent person that is. Then again there’s the ghouls and it’s hard to decide if they’re bad or not…sure they’re bad when we met them but what pushed them to decide to take revenge and go after ‘fresh meat’…John Winchester…wow, talk about a full circle there. THere were more points I wanted to bring to bear in this article but I’ve learned that when I go too big in an article, I lose my point of reference so I simplfied and laid out what you’ve read. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I like flawed characters, especially ones that learn and grow. I see a lot of growing for Sam as well as Dean in S5…it’s gonna be great. Thanks for reading
Nicely argued, Elle2.
Sam was tricked by a master of the art, that doesn’t make him stupid. The angels tried to stich up Dean and would have managed it too if Cas hadn’t come through at the eleventh hour so they both got played by creatures they thought they could trust … Stupid? Nope, just human …
Hi, Suze,
Yep, that’s my point, a master of deception who played on all of Sam’s insecurities. We knew all the way back in Devil’s Trap he knew things about the boys, remember all he taunted Dean with as he tortured him. Makes sense he’s know all the right buttons to push on his ‘favorite’. Sam never had a chance…but now that he knows….
Ever since the pilot it has been shown that Sam has control issues. Not control over other people, but control over himself and his destiny, which is something we all want. It is also something that he has never been able to achieve. Along comes Ruby with the means for him to take that control, or so she wanted him to believe. Not only to take control, but to make all the tragedy and pain that came before mean something. Like elle2 said, Sam never had a chance.
Regarding the section of fandom that refuses to see anyone’s point of view other than their favorite brother, well it makes reading message boards easier because I can just skip right over those posts. People have every right to watch this show from the perspective that Dean (or Sam) is the most perfect example of perfection ever created. I just choose to ignore them because if the show actually took that view it would have been cancelled years ago. Perfection is unlikable and boring. This season has seen a rather remarkable increase in attention because these characters have been shown to be imperfect people who react to extraordinary situations in very human ways.
Wonderful article elle2!
I agree with JOJO. The characters of Sam and Dean are human complete with all of humanities faults. If people want to believe that Sam is too stupid to live then you can say the same about Dean. If he is such a saint (and I wouldn’t want him to be) then he wouldn’t have subcumbed to Alistar’s torture and broke the first seal. If that seal couldn’t be broken then there wouldn’t be any reason for Ruby to continue to manipulate Sam. Sam could want to get all the revenge he could on Lillith but what good would it do if Lucifer couldn’t rise because the first seal wasn’t broken.
Anyways, history is full of good people who’ve made bad decisions even though they thought they were right at the time.
Hi, Trina and Eileen,
Thanks for the comments and sharing your views. Trina, you’re right, it’s easier to skip those posts/threads and the people that start them as I’ve learned who some of the people are who have very little good to say. I used to be one on antoher show and another forum so I’m not bashing them, simply saying as a reformed former show basher (of another show altogether) that lived in misery and loved to post my misery…this is soooo much more fun. And, I truly believe what I say so that makes it more so.
Sam is a control person, perhaps becasue he ‘woke up’ as he once stated, into this life of hunting and felt he never had any say in his life. That’s a great place to start having control issues, I’d say.
Eileen, you’re right, if Sam is too stupid to live than Dean should have been stronger and not broken in hell. But that isn’t the case, they’re human and they broke. And for those out there wondering how John survived in hell and didn’t break I have two thoughts…first, I’m not sure I trust Alastair and that John didn’t break…demons lie; further, if John knew Azazel’s plan and that Lilith would try to break him to break the first seal…well, he’s hang on just to spite them. We all know John has a stubborn streak, a big stubborn streak.
On the other hand, if John did break (and that would help explain how/why he was free to ‘walk’ out of hell when the devil’s gate opened) then perhaps he didn’t have the righteousness that Dean had. Perhaps it’s John’s revenge obsessed nature that cancelled out that aspect of righteousness that Dean apparently had. When has Dean shown the level of revenge/obsession of Sam or John? Perhaps that’s the answer.
I agree, Sam and Dean have made the best decisions they were able to make at the time, either not enough intel (as Meg claimed in Are You There God and thus she was killed rather than depossessed) or too much intel (As in Dean knowing John had made a deal with the CRD and thus he felt justified in doing the same) and the list could go on.
Thanks for the comments.
Well argued and I agree completely!
Also, I may just love you forever for the paragraph saying Sam is not ignored and Dean is not a paragon of virtue! I have always felt the same way, but not brave enough in the rabid sectors to say so x
Hi, Peek-a-boo,
Thanks for braving the sector here! It amazes me sometimes the things people say ’cause I often wonder…what show are they watching? Then again, if it’s not ‘in your face’ and totally explained I guess they miss it.
Glad you ventured out to peek and then speak (Lame, I know, I couldn’t help myself!)
Thanks for the comments
You are right….I think about everything.
Hi, Wicca,
Hey, thinking is good, very good. Thanks for the comment.
😎
Needless to say, SN is all about gray…how many times have they made us question just how evil or non-evil their baddies were?
I really believe in balance, so I think every good story has to have some element of good vs bad, but then again when it’s clear cut and in your face that ‘this is good’ and ‘this is bad’, it gets boring. Enter SN with all it’s..well, grayness. SN takes human weaknesses, flaws that all of us have, and uses that as a platform to explore the lines between good and evil. And that is why SN is so wonderful…Sam and Dean are not superheroes of cold steel, they are human superheroes. They have their own flaws that if anything just make us love them even more.
(And Elle2, I’d totally love to hear what you have to say about the ghouls…they sure beggared some good questions)
Sorry to double post, but I forgot to mention that HELL NO Sam is NOT too stupid to live. On the other hand, Ruby is too skanky to live.
Hi, Narcissus — double post and all. 😛
First off, ROTFLOL re: Ruby too skanky to live — great.
This is why I think S5 will be even more awesome with both Sam and Dean having dual ‘guilt’ or whatever regarding the breaking of the seals neither has anything to hold over the other (not that they would but in the fandom realm there will be those that try). Dean perhaps has him moral compass back, something he lost in S2 and had on hold in S3 ’cause he only had one year to love, so for Dean this will be (I think) helpful in reestablishing some of his confidence. As for Sam, hey, heroes sometimes take a big, big, gigantically big fall; what they do afterwards is the measure of their character. I read a lot, lot, lot of growth and angst and self-doubt followed by maturity and regaining of self for Sam in S5 and I’m all for it. Castiel has some gray lines to work around and if Anna returns and if Zach returns it will be interesting to see what their characters do, learn, act, bring to the table. They gray the lines as well.
As for the ghouls…well, perhaps I’ll dredge up my other part to an earlier review I had in which they played prominently (I think it was the review of Jump The Shark) and I had some thoughts on that and the whole graying of lines.
I’ll set my mind to it and see what comes of it.
🙂
what a fantastic article! thanks for the sanity in such an insane world that is the fandom… 🙂
Great analysis, Elle2. I completely agree that the lines are constantly blurred on the show and I love that each brother struggles between the light and dark parts of their psyche. I honestly don’t get how fans can get so polarized on a show that is about the both brothers and their fears, hopes, struggles, personal demons (pun fully intended) and the most pivotal of all, their relationship with one another. I cannot wait to see what is in store for the Winchesters in Season 5!
Hi, dreamalittledreaimofsam and jennifoofighter (BTW, big wave to Jenn who has written some really awesome Without A Trace fanfic that I absolutely adore *wave!*
GLad you both liked the article. I truly do not get how so many people say they are fans and then trash one or both characters or the show, the direction, the mytharc, the MOTW…you get the point.
I know some people have their preferences (I”m sick, I doooo like hurt/sick/Dean in the hospital) but I also adore conflicted Sam who is torn between right and wrong and sacrifice and believing he’s cursed and trying to do the best he can with it…oh, how many days until September 10th? Quick, where’s the clock.
Thanks for the commeents guys…personal demons…buyah!!!!
Waves back to Elle2! Thanks for the welcome and shameless plug. LOL.