Season 8 Sam ramble
Iâve seen quite alot of posts in the past few days regarding Samâs behaviour in Season 8, AKA his OOC for the entire season. I normally donât write stuff because I am not good at it, but seeing these posts made me to post this, because Sam does not deserve the hate and misunderstanding that people have given him in this regard. Â This is me rambling about this so that I can get it out off my head, be warned this might go long.
In the beginning of the first episode of the season we see Dean coming out of purgatory with Benny and meeting Sam later, meanwhile we are shown Sam living together with Amelia in a ânormal apple pieâ life and as soon as he hears from Dean, he drops everything and goes back to Dean. Â He doesnât even say anything to Amelia and he just bolts off thinking sheâs asleep, because he knew he wouldnât be back with her and he knew Dean needs him and likewise Sam needs his brother. Right from the moment Sam explains that he didnât look for Dean after killing Dick Ronan, Dean starts accusing him for not looking for him. The reason for why Sam didnât look for Dean was not explained till now except that heâs guilty and that is indeed very out of character for him, given that we have seen how he had behaved in the past when Dean was dead. In Season 3 âMystery Spotâ and Season 4 till âLazarus Risingâand âI know what you did last summerâ.
¡      Let me get into like detail, in Mystery Spot, we see Sam being distant after Dean was killed on a Wednesday in the parking lot and he see him crying while holding his body and there was no âgroundhog dayâ scenario, the days kept rolling on for about six months without his brother.
¡        Focused on finding Trickster and killing him.
¡        Shut out Bobby, I donât think he was talking to anyone.
¡        Had big killings alone.
¡        Booked double bed rooms in motels even though he needed only one.
¡        Ordered extra food for Dean, which was untouched.
¡        Sewing his gunshot wound by himself.
¡    He was dead inside.    When he meets Trickster (Gabriel), he convinces him to bring back Dean, no matter how many times Gabriel told him this is how things will be after Deanâs deal is up. He does not express any reproach and simply begs Gabriel to bring him and he gets his brother back.
Dean does not know how Sam was for the past months, how hellish it had been for him. He held his brotherâs body and grieved, he was almost out of his mind obsessed with revenge like when he was soulless, he had no regard for himself.
In season 4, the infamous stuff we got see about Sam were-
¡        He had an entire year to prepare himself for his brotherâs death, he tried like anything to save Dean and he had to watch his brothers being ripped off by hellhounds and grieve for him when the hounds killed him.
¡        Shut down Bobby- AGAIN, Ruby was the only person he talked to, he was obsessed/focused with killing Lilith.
¡        He was out of his mind and certainly suicidal. Ruby made his comment during one of their conversations that she knew that Sam does not expect to survive when he confronts Lilith and that is what he wants.
¡        Demon blood addiction and going on a dark path.
¡        Manipulated by Ruby into releasing Lucifer, this was a huge mistake- He was desperate to fulfil his revenge for Deanâs death, he wanted them to pay for what they had done. Those days were hell for him even though he got Dean back he couldnât make up his mind because Ruby was messing his mind and demon blood, the way the angels treated him didnât help either . I donât agree with his actions but I kind of understand his need for revenge or retribution in this situation and we should also remember how Dean was when he knew John sacrificed his life for him and he felt worthless for that because he thought he didnât deserved to be saved and how was Sam supposed to feel when he knew Dean put up a deal and gets killed by hellhounds and feeling helpless and desperate to be worth of Deanâs life?
Not to go off the topic, Sam didnât try to save Dean when he âdiedâ and when to purgatory, this time he was confronted with these things-
¡        He lost his mind few episodes before and almost died in the mental hospital, even though Cas took away his pain Iâm convinced he was still hurting and he was guilty that Cas he lost his mind because of him.
¡        He didnât have any corpse to convince him of anything, I have seen people say he must know killing a leviathan will take us to purgatory- I donât think he did this time. I still forget the look on his face when Crowley told him that he was truly alone his time.  The utter confusion and loss was so evident.
¡        Bobby was dead and Castiel was nowhere to be found like Dean- He didnât have anyone.
¡        Like usual he shut off people but this time he was really out of mind and clueless about anything and had nowhere to go.
Yes, this was out of character for Sam because heâs not even himself in this scenario, Sam character has changed from season 4 and he is broken beyond repair and yet he was standing.  He did the only thing he knew when he realized there was literally no one for him â HE RAN. He just hid himself from the world, he couldnât FOCUS and I think he mustâve been afraid of what he will become if he went further on trying to find Dean because he knew what he was capable of when Dean is not around and how he was when he was soulless.  All I remember he was trying his car and hit a dog. We know Sam is a very empathetic person and this pushed guilt even further and thatâs why he tried to take care of the dog, because the responsibility of the dog kind of saved him in a way
About Amelia, half the time I am convinced she isnât even real if she was I think I kind of understand their relationship. Â Their relationship consists of two things- two broken people. Â While Sam was running away from everything I think he found a safety in her presence and felt wanted. He tried to make something of his life with her â he didnât have happy go lucky life with her, he was in a sense recuperating from all that has happened in his life. I am convinced if Ameliaâs hadnât turned up or if Dean had not come back, Iâm convinced he wouldâve become like how he was in season 3 and 4 to an extent because thatâs who he was and he always needs his brother. Amelia was just like a rebound/ or someone to fill in a void in his life.
Once heâs back with brother, obviously Dean expected to look for him and try to bring him back. When he found out that Sam didnât try to get him back, he starts attacking Sam verbally and physically. It doesnât help do when the person is already feeling guilty and you just keep adding even more fuel to the fire. Â There were many many times Dean made him feel bad and guilty for not looking for him, right after they hear Kevinâs voice messages and to top it off Dean got close with Benny â a vampire. This Sam was plain possessive and Dean made it clear that Sam had let him down again and again, and this should make anyone feel unwanted and worthless. Dean started being normal to Sam after the trails were started.
In this period, Sam took the trials because he wanted to prove that he will never put Dean down ever. Before the first trial we see Dean talking to Sam about how worthless he was and Sam was the one who he thought deserved to live. If you look closely in 8X14 âTrial and Errorâ, Dean tries to convince Sam that he was grunt and heâs going to die anytime soon, Sam drinks in every word he says and later uses them to convince Dean that he is worth to be saved and is brother deserves to live as well and tells the truth that Dean is the best hunter he ever knew. He knew his brother would take the trials as a suicide mission and he doesnât give a damn about himself, he wanted to show Dean he can still protect him and be there for him and he wanted prove his brother that he wonât let his brother down again â ever.
As the trial progresses, at first Dean was still reluctant for letting Sam do the trials, he keeps trying to talk him out of it and Sam adamant as ever to finish the trials. We see Samâs health deteriorating and to point that even Cas claims he wouldnât be able to cure him. One thing was clear from the start of the Trial to Sam and as well to us viewers that Sam will not be surviving when the trial gets over. Look at him, he has reduced alot of weight, brain cooking fevers and nose bleeds etc. Dean was very aware of this conditions right from the start and he was there was his brother as always. If these were the physical ailments that the trials caused to him, we donât know what was going on in Samâs mind â he was warned before the beginning of the trials the person will need to sacrifice himself (They shouldnât be afraid of their spine ripped off), he remembered stuffs from his childhood about how unclean he felt , then demon blood and he saw Benny in purgatory which meant Dean had sacrificed his friend to save him and obviously hit must have crossed  his mind that he was burden to his brother, his abandonment when Dean went to purgatory, downgrading his self worth even more and to be honest this ought to put alot of pressure on him to finish the trials.
The heart wrenching season finale is one of my favourites and I absolutely loved how Jared and Jensen portrayed the church scene. Â I find it hard to believe that Dean didnât know that Sam wouldnât survive the trials until Naomi told him, it was obvious. Up to this point I think Dean was in denial that Sam will not live after the trials and Naomi just hammered the truth for him and once he realized he rushed to save his brother. Even now when Dean asked for Sam to stop the trials, he wouldnât because he didnât want to let his brother down AGAIN, he didnât want be a burden â as someone who needed a chaperone, he couldnât focus, he knew he was dying anyway and he was downright suicidal. itâs so sad that someone who wanted to survive the trials in the beginning to accepting their death at the end. I am not saying it was all on Dean â NO, this just shows how damaged he was because he thought he lost Dean, his brother no longer needed him and doesn't trust him anymore; even though his brother was with him again; he gave up trials for his brother, even though it almost killed him and it took him months to recover.
I think I kinda understand how a person feels if they feel they are not needed anymore and not trusted. It's no wonder considering their codependency throughout the seasons. Sam does not deserve all the hate and misconception for this season he was just a guy trying to fix things and be useful and prove he's trustworthy, that he was willing to give up his life so that his brother will be safe after the hell's gates are closed and seek forgiveness for not looking out for his brother in the beginning of the season.
