God bless the show where Sam Winchester is the awkward nerd of the group. When the show began, Sam was an intelligent, ambitious young man desperate to get away from his family and pursue a more socially acceptable life, with college and a career as a lawyer. He destroyed the LSATs, possesses a near encyclopedic knowledge of pretty much everything, and visibly perks up at the suggestion of research in a musty old library. Then his girlfriend is horribly murdered by a demon, and everything changes. Sam rejoins his brother Dean in the family business of "hunting", and over the past nine seasons he's been molded by circumstances into a killing machine. He still uses his smarts in researching the Winchesters' latest enemies, and the prim schoolmarm side of his nature comes out around free-wheeling Dead, with all his booze and ladies. But still, he's so far away from the person that he was in the first season that it's simultaneously terrifying and heartbreaking.
Audrey Fox is an ex-film student, which means that she prefers to spend her days in the dark, watching movies and pondering the director's use of diegetic sound. She currently works as an entertainment writer, joyfully rambling about all things film and television related. Add her on Twitter at @audonamission and check out her film blog at 1001moviesandbeyond.com.
