Supernatural's Ending Failed Sam Winchester's Very First Story
Sam may have presumably lived a long and happy life after the Supernatural series finale, but his happy ending also failed his first ever storyline.
Supernatural’s historic 15-season run started with a young Sam Winchester not wanting to be a hunter, but some time along the way the show forgot Sam’s original intention of becoming a lawyer and instead had the show's ending gloss over this ambition. After Dean died in the series finale, Sam went on to get married and have a child, whom he named after his brother. While it seems Sam didn’t continue to hunt, the show also didn’t reveal what his profession ended up being.
While Sam had dedicated much of his life to the greater good by hunting with his older brother Dean, he often seemed like he was looking for an out. In particular, Supernatural season 8 showed Sam starting to settle down when he thought Dean (who died many times before) was dead. While this “apple pie” life was short-lived, as Dean came back from purgatory, it reminded audiences that Sam’s end goal was always to leave hunting behind to settle down.
Supernatural's Ending Didn't Pay Off Sam Winchester's Original Goal
When audiences first met Sam in the pilot, he was attending Stanford and getting ready to start law school. However, when his girlfriend Jessica was killed, the death set in motion Sam’s original journey to kill the demon that murdered Jessica. Sam was supposed to go back to school, but his journey never went back to where it was supposed to start. In fact, there’s barely a mention of law school in later seasons, though Sam does act as Dean’s lawyer against the god Osiris in Supernatural season 7, episode 4.
The skills Sam picked up at Stanford did help when it came to doing research for hunts with Dean and other hunters in Supernatural like Bobby Singer, so it wouldn’t have been too hard to get back into his studies. It also implies he’d want to be a lawyer, something he may have moved on from after 15 years. Sam still seemed to want to settle down, and it seemed as if season 15 was setting up Eileen to be the girl Sam ended up with. However, Sam’s wife in the series finale was never identified. Even if Sam became a lawyer and started a family, it still didn’t give him a life removed from hunting.
What We Know About Sam's Life After Supernatural
Because of the pandemic, Supernatural didn’t get the ending it deserved. This meant that viewers got minimal details about Sam’s life after Dean died in the Supernatural series finale. In Sam’s old age, the Impala can be seen under a sheet, implying that he stopped hunting. However, when Sam is on his deathbed, his son, Dean is shown having an anti-possession tattoo, hinting that hunting was still part of the family business. Sam may have encouraged Dean to get the tattoo without ever letting him get involved in hunting, but it seems unlikely Dean would get a tattoo without knowing what it meant, or why he needed it.
With the Supernatural series finale's mixed reception, one point of improvement would have been getting Sam Winchester the ending he deserved by shutting down the Men of Letters Bunker forever and removing himself completely from hunting. While it seems he got a few decades’ worth of time as a normal, non-hunting person, it seems as if hunting was never too far away from Sam’s life. Though an undeniably happy ending for Sam’s first-ever Supernatural story, all things considered, it still would’ve been nice to see Sam and Dean Winchester retire together and leave hunting behind.
More: Every Easter Egg, Cameo & Reference In Supernatural's Series Finale
