When Supernatural first started, the show was a road-trip approach to American urban legends and mythology. Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) were just two brothers trying to find their missing father, only to be thrown into an apocalyptic conspiracy that reached further than they could fathom. Throughout the show’s earliest years, Supernatural largely centered on Sam and his desire to move away from the hunting life, all while embracing it to uncover the reason behind the deaths of so many loved ones.
At this time, Sam had precognitive abilities, and these psychic powers connected him even more deeply to the supernatural. But what ever happened to Sam’s psychic powers, and why did it take so long for Supernatural to revisit these ideas again? Well, it’s a long story.
What Ever Happened to Sam’s Psychic Powers on ‘Supernatural’?
When Supernatural first began, Sam was having occasional visions of the future — dreams that, unfortunately, began to come true. After weeks of nightmares about his girlfriend Jess’ (Adrianne Palicki) death, he was horrified to finally see it happen at the end of the “Pilot.” Several episodes later, in Season 1’s “Home,” Sam feels a ghostly presence in their childhood home in Lawrence, Kansas, and a few episodes after that, in “Nightmare,” his visions begin connecting him to others who share similar psychic abilities. In fact, it’s here that we see that Sam has low levels of telekinesis as well. However, it’s not until Season 2 that we discover that these powers were due to Sam being fed demon blood from the Yellow-Eyed Demon as a child, blood that mixed with his own. This is why Gordon Walker (Sterling K. Brown) would begin referring to Sam as “the Antichrist,” because he believed he was no different from the monsters they hunted. As one of Azazel’s “Special Children,” Sam would continue to grow stronger until the two-part Season 2 finale, “All Hell Breaks Loose.” After Dean killed Azazel, Sam’s powers vanished — or at least went dormant for some time.
But why didn’t the younger Winchester have his powers throughout the entire series? Well, it turns out that Sam and Azazel were more connected than the Winchesters realized, but that didn’t mean that Sam couldn’t restore his powers — at least in some form or another. After not having a vision for over a year, Sam spent the months between Dean’s death in Season 3 and his return in Season 4 working alongside the demon Ruby (Genevieve Padalecki). At that time, he returned to his childhood roots and began drinking her demon blood, thus unlocking the powers that he seemingly lost when the Yellow-Eyed Demon was vanquished.
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It’s time for the Winchesters to return.
Only this time, Sam could do a lot more than just see the future or move things with his mind. Instead, his psychic powers manifested on a far more spiritual level, allowing him to exorcize demons at will just by thinking about it. The more demon blood he consumed, the easier it got. But eventually, Dean and Bobby (Jim Beaver) forced Sam to detox from his demon blood addiction, which removed these powers once again. Twice more, Sam would return to demon blood to battle his enemies, first in the Season 4 finale “Lucifer Rising” and again in Season 5’s “Swan Song.” In both cases, he would be divinely cleansed of the demon blood after use.
Sam Winchester Always Had a Stronger Connection to the Otherworldly in ‘Supernatural’
Of the two Winchester brothers, Sam was always the one who seemed to be pulled into the world of the supernatural more naturally. While Dean was certainly an expert hunter, Sam could always sense the supernatural in ways that his brother couldn’t. At first, this was just due to his Special Child abilities. They helped him to sense different spirits and other Special Children out there throughout the first few seasons. More than that, it gave Sam a sort of sympathy for some of the non-violent monsters that the brothers encountered, a trend that Season 7 would reveal went all the way back to his own childhood.
But over time, the show continued to put Sam in the path of the paranormal even without his psychic connection to them. He would become the vessel for Lucifer, then he would lose his soul, then he would be possessed by the angel Gadreel (Tahmoh Penikett), and so on. While Dean too would find himself attached to paranormal curses and characters like the Mark of Cain, the Darkness, and the Apocalypse World version of Michael, Sam’s connection was long-lasting.
Returning to Supernatural‘s early seasons (and Sam’s role in them), Season 11 brought back Sam’s visions, only this time they weren’t due to demon blood. Instead, Sam began having visions that he believed were from God, visions of how he and Dean could defeat the Darkness once and for all. But as it turned out, these visions came from Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino), who used them to lure Sam back to him after years of being apart. It wouldn’t be until the final season, Season 15, that Sam would have visions again, this time due to his connection with Chuck (Rob Benedict). But instead of his connection to Chuck being a good thing, as he once hoped in Season 11, it came only after using the Equalizer on the cosmic being, which allowed Sam to see visions of alternate Sams and Deans across the multiverse as Chuck did. But these abilities also faded after Chuck removed their connection. By the time Sam and Dean defeated the corrupt deity, the younger Winchester brother was back to normal.
‘Supernatural’ Should’ve Better Utilized Sam’s Paranormal Abilities
While Supernatural began with Sam Winchester having psychic powers, that element was removed as time went on. But this was always kind of strange. While the initial demon blood plotline was an interesting take on psychic phenomena, considering Sam’s sensitivity to these abilities, it always seemed a bit odd that he never developed them again on his own. After all, there are plenty of Supernatural characters that also have psychic powers without the use of demon blood, so why couldn’t Sam have recovered some of these powers for good?
But at the end of the day, Sam retaining his paranormal abilities would have changed the show too much. Although Supernatural started with these powers, they were ultimately rooted in evil. It’s no wonder that Sam had no desire to see them return after Lucifer’s previous defeat in Season 5. Even when the show eventually revisited these abilities years later, Supernatural solidified the fact that Sam no longer needed them.
