Supernatural: 10 Secrets Sam Shouldn’t Have Kept From Dean

Supernatural‘s Sam is a smart man who can be discreet when necessary. The problem is that he’s often discreet when it would’ve been better to just come clean and tell his brother or the other relevant party. Refusing to tell civilians the truth about what killed their loved ones makes sense. Keeping secrets that could get your hunting partner killed or worse doesn’t.

While Sam is usually right that revealing his secret would cause a difficult confrontation, that confrontation is often necessary. Here are some of the secrets that would’ve caused a lot less trouble if he’d just been honest about them.

10 He Was Alive

This decision is easily blamed on Sam being soulless. Coming back from hell without his soul made Sam behave like a completely different person. It made him cold and cruel rather than the compassionate guy with the puppy-dog eyes.

Sam claimed that he chose not to tell Dean he was alive because he wanted Dean to have the happy life he’d said he would with Lisa and Ben. This seems like a weird explanation considering he was much colder than he used to be. Regardless, Dean deserved to know and needed to know given the suspicious circumstances of Sam’s resurrection.

9 He Was Working With Ruby

Ruby had helped the boys before Dean was dragged to hell. So, in theory, it shouldn’t have been so upsetting that Sam continued working with her after Dean’s death. The fact that he hid it, however, made Dean extremely suspicious (and reasonably so).

There were alarming details about the progression of Sam’s relationship with Ruby. The fact that he started to rely on her for all of his supernatural information, like how angels work, was a problem. While she helped with the Colt, Sam traveled down a slippery slope where his primary hunting partner was a demon.

8 He Couldn’t Feel

Sam did a lot of morally questionable things while he was soulless. One of his not-so-immoral but still dubious choices was to hide his lack of feelings from Dean. He knew he didn’t sleep anymore, and that certain things didn’t emotionally bother him the way they once would have.

However, Sam still intellectually knew that his brother had his best interests in mind and that this change should hypothetically show something was wrong with him. Dean could’ve helped Sam figure things out sooner, but instead, Sam made Dean paranoid about him.

7 He Was Hallucinating Lucifer

In a protective Winchester move, Sam decided not to worry Dean by telling him about his hallucinations of Lucifer. Except this didn’t work as protection. Instead, Sam made himself a liability and wandered off by himself with a gun that he aimed at Dean in confusion.

Sam’s hallucinations almost interfered with putting the souls back in Purgatory, and eventually caused a breakdown that didn’t allow him to sleep and nearly killed him. The sooner Sam mentioned this, the sooner they could’ve started working toward a solution. It’s true that this secret put pressure on Dean, but not knowing was more dangerous.

6 He Didn’t Know Something Was Going to Work

Sam has come up with some clever means of stopping monsters. He just doesn’t always explain them to Dean and simply hopes they work. He did this in Season 1 when he told Dean to drive into a cemetery and stop with a ghost truck chasing him, and he also did it in Season 4 when he put blood on their faces to deter Samhain.

Sam didn’t know for sure these things would work, but he turned out to be right. It just doesn’t always make sense for him to not tell his brother beforehand so Dean can be prepared if the plan fails.

5 He Was Working on a Spell for the Mark

Sam was willing to do anything to save Dean from the effects of the Mark of Cain. A magic mark necessarily called for a magic solution, and it made sense that he needed knowledge of some pretty dark magic to get the job done.

Sam took a big risk bringing in Rowena and the Book of the Damned, but what’s worse is that he didn’t make Dean aware of the danger. The whole plan turned into a demonstration of Murphy’s Law, in which Charlie died, Rowena escaped with the Book of the Damned, and Castiel was put under a spell.

4 He Got Infected By the Darkness

One of the first things Amara did on her return to Earth was to infect people and make them go rabid. Sam got infected after the boys split up. Dean called to check in and Sam flat-out lied that everything was okay. Not only was he not okay, but he was also dying and was literally told by a reaper that he wouldn’t be coming back this time.

Sam was lucky she inadvertently gave him a clue so he could cure himself just in time, and even luckier that he had holy oil with him to do the job. There was also no reason to keep hiding it after he’d cured himself. What if it had somehow come back or had lingering effects?

3 He Was Tracking Benny

Sam did have good reason to worry about Benny’s conscience. Dean had hidden his existence, and there was a question of whether Benny was only a friend as long as it took to get out of Purgatory. However, he could’ve been honest with Dean about tracking him.

Instead, Sam waited until Martin learned about a kill in the area that could be blamed on Benny. This just makes it seem like an especially nasty ‘told you so’ instead of a hunter’s precaution. He very strongly implies that Dean’s judgment can’t be trusted.

2 His Nightmares Were Coming True

This secret was particularly harmful to Sam, and one of the first in the series. He’d had a vision of Jessica’s death and did nothing about it because he considered it to be just a dream. He lived with that burden of guilt for a few episodes and would’ve done so for longer if Dean hadn’t pushed for an explanation when asked to go back to Kansas.

The psychic visions were actually key in figuring out why their mother had died and the whole apocalypse that was later to come. The psychic visions didn’t play a role in later seasons, but Sam could’ve told Dean sooner.

1 How His Exorcism Powers Worked

Sam left out some significant details when he finally explained to Dean that he was working with Ruby. He neglected to mention that his psychic powers and ability to exorcise demons with his mind were dependent on drinking demon blood.

Sam neglected to mention this for obvious reasons, but it was a huge red flag that Dean would’ve been reasonable to point out. Sam was rationalizing away some dark behavior that was only going to get darker; he was drinking the blood of possessed humans. He needed someone to call him out on his ‘for the greater good’ BS.

About The Author