Death (Supernatural)

Evil-doer
Full Name	Death
Alias	The Fourth Horseman The Grim Reaper Thanatos Angel of Death Azrael
Origin	Supernatural
Occupation	Death incarnate Horseman of the Apocalypse (against his will)
Powers / Skills	Immortality Superhuman Strength Superhuman Stamina Nigh-omnipotence Nigh-omniscience Omnipresence Reality warping Resurrection Telepathy Teleportation Atmokinesis Necromancy Death factor Terrakinesis Telekinesis
Hobby	Upholding the Natural Order. Eating unhealthy food.
Goals	Escape Lucifer's service (succeeded). Maintain the natural order. Reap God once there is nothing else (both failed).
Crimes	Necromancy Mass murder Nigh-populicide Grand theft animarum
Type of Villain	Omniscient Death God

“	Nothing lasts forever. Well, I do.	„
	~ Death to Dean Winchester.

“	It's for the greater good. Once you consider that, this makes all the sense in the world.	„
	~ Death to Sam Winchester.

Death is a supporting character appearing on the television series Supernatural.

Death is not an outright villain, as he does not actively seek the end of the world or to spread unnecessary death, although he does harbor a strong indifference to humanity. Instead, he is an upholder of the natural order and the natural end to life. He is only an antagonist due to being enslaved by Lucifer during the Apocalypse. Of all the supernatural beings in the show and for all his callousness, he is generally one of the more helpful and benign.

He is portrayed by Julian Richings, who also played Three Finger in Wrong Turn, Charon in Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and voiced Grax in Starlink: Battle For Atlas.

Horseman of the Apocalypse

Death is one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, alongside his brothers War, Famine, and Pestilence. In the episode "Abandon All Hope...," he is revealed to be imprisoned deep within the earth, and is also referred to by Bobby Singer as "the Big Daddy Reaper," suggesting that he created the race of Reapers. Later, Lucifer performs a ritual that frees Death from his prison and he greets him.

In "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid," Death is revealed to be responsible for causing the dead in Sioux Falls, North Dakota to rise. Bobby's resurrected wife Karen describes Death as a thin, skeletal man.

Death enjoying an authentic Chicago Pizza, which doesn't compete with NY pizza.

In "Two Minutes to Midnight," Death comes to Chicago, where a massive storm is about to devastate the city; he is shown driving a white car. After he exits his car and as he makes his way down a sidewalk, a passerby bumps into him and rudely tells him to watch where he's going; this prompts Death to brush the spot the passerby touched him and cause the passerby to drop dead.

Later, Death is sitting in a restaurant eating pizza when Dean Winchester sneaks in, intending to kill the Horseman with his own scythe so he can obtain his ring (one of four needed to open Lucifer's Cage). Unfortunately, Death's scythe burns in Dean's hand, causing him to drop it. Death, however, simply thanks Dean for returning his scythe (which suddenly appears on the table next to Death) and invites him to sit down for some pizza.

Death hands Dean his ring.

Dean complies, and the two engage in a civil conversation in which Death claims to be either as old as God or even older, then states that he'll eventually reap God Himself, much to Dean's shock. He then goes on to explain that Lucifer used a spell to bind him (Death) to his control, using him to cause all matter of disasters, and expresses his displeasure with Lucifer, whom he characterizes as a "bratty child having a tantrum." That said, he then offers Dean his ring on the condition that Dean allows his brother Sam to consent to Lucifer possessing him so he can jump into Lucifer's Cage. After a moment, Dean agrees, and Death hands over his ring, then gives Dean the instructions on using the Horsemen rings.

Powers and Abilities

“	He made me his weapon. Hurricanes, floods, raising the dead. I'm more powerful than you can process, and I'm enslaved to a bratty child having a tantrum.	„
	~ Death complaining about being bound to Lucifer and describing his abilities to Dean Winchester.

Death is the joint second most powerful being within the Supernatural series, being God's equal while being weaker than The Darkness. He has complete omniscience of the entire universe, and has nigh omnipotence. Death's powers range from being able to kill anyone and anything with a simple touch, to outright full cosmic manipulation, being able to create a solar eclipse. He is capable of casually wiping out all life on planet Earth, can instantly teleport to anywhere in the universe, and his mere presence in physical form when walking the earth can cause catastrophic storms and disasters.

Death's reappearances

Death returns in the Season 6 episode "Appointment In Samarra” when Dean summons him asking him to retrieve the souls of his brothers, Sam and Adam from Hell. Death limits Dean to choosing one brother only, to which he picks Sam. However, Death refuses to do the task, as he believes Dean does not fully understand the Natural Order of things and is being reckless with it. Death gives Dean his ring and tells him to wear it, which bestows Dean with the powers to reap souls like a reaper. He tells Dean to assist fellow reaper, Tessa with her tasks of reaping souls for the day. If he believes Dean now understands the Natural Order of things once the day is up, he will rescue Sam’s soul from Hell. If he does not still understand, he will leave Sam’s soul in Hell. After a day of reaping souls, which culminates in Dean being forced to reap the soul of a young girl who died in an accident after he initially refused to reap her, Death believes Dean fully understands the Natural Order now and so retrieved Sam’s soul from Hell and places it in Sam, placing a “wall” in the soul so Sam cannot remembers the horrific memories of Hell his soul has been through.

Death next appears in the Season 7 premiere, “Meet the New Boss”, where Sam, Dean and Bobby use a powerful binding spell to bind Death to them. Annoyed at being bound, he warns the trio this will not end well. Dean asks Death to kill God, a request that astounds Death, despite Death initially claiming he could kill God years before. Castiel arrives, having been empowered with every soul from Purgatory. Dean states he wants Death to kill Castiel as he is God. Death balks at this request, as Castiel is simply a “mutated angel” and not God. Death tells Dean that Castiel has absorbed every soul within Purgatory, which includes the first beasts ever created by God, the Leviathans which are ravenous beings that should not ever escape from Purgatory. As Death moves in to kill Castiel, Castiel removes the binding spell from Death and vanishes. While angry that Dean asked Death for help yet again, he still decides to help as he finds Castiel arrogant. Death decides to conjure another solar eclipse to open the portla to Purgatory again so Castiel can be banished there. Death then departs, warning the trio that he will kill them if they ever try to bind him again.

In the Season 9 premiere "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here," while Sam is in a coma after collapsing from the Trials to close Hell, Death appears in Sam's mind-scape. When Sam decides to pass on, he asks Death to make sure his death be permanent, meaning no one can undo it, and Death replies he can promise that. The two prepare to leave together until Ezekiel, disguised as Dean, appears and convinces Sam to return to life; however, this is a ploy by Dean to trick Sam into allowing Ezekiel to possess Sam so he can heal Sam from the inside.

Death appears in the Season 10 finale "Brother's Keeper." Dean, having been cursed with the Mark of Cain and increasingly corrupted by it, opts to summon Death to either remove the mark or kill him to prevent him from becoming a demon once again. Death tells Dean that while he could in theory destroy the Mark, doing so would release the Darkness, a primordial force of oblivion that God fought back at the dawn of creation in order to create the universe. Death says he has no intention of releasing the Darkness. Unlike Death's nonchalance for the Leviathans, the Darkness is something he actually considers a serious threat. Death tells Dean that the Mark makes Dean invulnerable, but proposes an alternative: He can send Dean to a place where he can't hurt anyone, space, or some equivalent, a place where he will not be able to hurt himself or anyone else.

Dean calls Sam, who had been using a spell by the witch Rowena to remove the Mark of Cain. Once Sam arrives, Dean tells him that Death was going to send him into some remote corner of space to keep him safe, but there was only one issue: Sam himself. Both Dean and Death knew that Sam would do anything to get Dean back if he vanished, that he would move Heaven and Earth, possibly literally, to find and get back his brother. To ensure Sam doesn't go on a rampage that ended with Dean's release and thus the release of the Darkness, Death tells Dean that Sam has to be killed before Dean is exiled.

After a brief fight with Sam, Dean takes Death's scythe and readies it before his brother, but delays in light of what he's about to do. Sam tries to argue that Dean is good inside and that, regardless of what he does to him, neither he nor Dean is evil and that the world will be a worse place without him. Dean remains stoically nihilistic, but still doesn't look forward to killing his own brother to keep himself from hurting anyone. Death states that all three of them knew that no matter what he did to keep Dean out of trouble, Sam would try to undo it like clockwork, so killing him was the only way to keep Dean under lock and key and if Dean couldn't bring himself to kill Sam, Death would be willing to do it himself. Dean looks at Sam and says he was sorry, then swings the scythe around and strikes Death. Death dies (or appears to) just as the legend says. In a case of serendipity, Rowena completes the spell moments after Death dies and the Mark of Cain is broken, freeing the Darkness. With the death of the only being other than God qualified to turn back the Darkness, Sam and Dean get caught in the fall-out of the Darkness's release from the Mark of Cain.

In the second episode of season 11, "Form and Void", it is revealed that upon Death's destruction his reapers pick up the slack, continuing to enforce mortality on behalf of their fallen leader and preserving his legacy. The reaper Billie comes to Sam and tells him that Death apparently found Sam and Dean's continued deaths and resurrections amusing but that she and her kind were not going to have it anymore. According to Billie, the next time either Sam or Dean die the reapers have every intent of avenging Death by "making a mistake" and tossing the brothers out into "The Empty", a form of oblivion, instead of taking them to an afterlife.

In season 13, Billie, having earlier been killed by Castiel, reappears as the new incarnation of Death. Billie explains that when one incarnation of Death dies, the next Reaper to die takes his place. As a result, Billie inherits Death's job and his library revealing the potential fates of every living thing.

In season 15, while discussing the war with God, Billie explains that Death's library contains a book that depicts even the way God can die. Later, the Darkness reveals to the Winchesters that she and God are actually twins and their separation caused the Big Bang and the creation of life. When Sam reminds her that Death told the Winchesters that the Darkness was the firstborn, the Darkness suggests that Death either lied or simply told them what the Winchesters needed to hear.

Quotes

“	Thanks for returning that. Join me, Dean. The pizza's delicious. Sit down. Took you long enough to find me. I've been wanting to talk to you.	„
	~ Death's first lines, "Two Minutes to Midnight"

“	You have an inflated sense of your importance. To a thing like me, a thing like you, well... Think how you'd feel if a bacterium sat at your table and started to get snarky. This is one little planet in one tiny solar system in a galaxy that's barely out of its diapers. I'm old, Dean. Very old. So I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you.	„
	~ To Dean, "Two Minutes to Midnight"

“	As old as God. Maybe older. Neither of us can remember anymore. Life, death, chicken, egg. Regardless--at the end, I'll reap Him, too. [...] Oh, yes. God will die, too, Dean.	„
	~ To Dean, "Two Minutes to Midnight"

“	Lucifer has me bound to him. Some unseemly little spell. He has me where he wants, when he wants. That’s why I couldn’t come to you. I had to wait for you to catch up. He has made me his weapon. Hurricanes, floods, raising the dead; I am more powerful than your mind can ever process, yet I am enslaved to a bratty child having a tantrum.	„
	~ To Dean, "Two Minutes to Midnight"

“	Chicago? I suppose it can stay. I like the pizza.	„
	~ To Dean after being asked about Chicago, "Two Minutes to Midnight"

“	That had better be "yes," Dean. You know you can't cheat death.	„
	~ To Dean, "Two Minutes to Midnight"

“	I'm busy, Dean. Talk fast.	„
	~ To Dean, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	You mean my ring? I recall loaning you that temporarily.	„
	~ To Dean, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	I'm sorry, you assume that I don't know where you've hidden it. Now we've established you have hubris but no leverage, what is it you want?	„
	~ To Dean, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	Dean, quit shuffling and deal.	„
	~ Telling Dean to get to the point, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	As a rule, I don't bring people back. I might make an exception once, not twice. So...pick.	„
	~ Forcing Dean to choose between Sam and Adam, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	Dean, Dean, Dean. What do you think the soul is? Some pie you can slice? The soul can be bludgeoned, tortured, but never broken. Not even by me.	„
	~ To Dean, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	Can't erase Sam's hell, but I can...put it behind a wall, if you will. [...] In his mind. A dam to hold back the tide. Nasty, those memories. You don't want to know what they'll do to him. Believe me.	„
	~ To Dean, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	Nothing lasts forever. Well, I do, but...	„
	~ To Dean, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	Don't roll your eyes, Dean. It's impolite.	„
	~ To Dean, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	No, I'm being incredibly sarcastic.	„
	~ To Dean after he asks him if he's serious about him (Dean) acting as Death for the day, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	Heavier than it looks, isn't it? Sometimes, you just want the thing off. But you know that.	„
	~ To Dean, about his ring, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	So, if you could go back, would you simply kill the little girl? No fuss, no stomping your feet?	„
	~ To Dean, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	I think it's a little more than that. Today, you got a hard look behind the curtain. Wrecking the natural order's not quite such fun when you have to mop up the mess, is it? This is hard for you, Dean. You throw away your life because you've come to assume that it'll bounce right back into your lap. But the human soul is not a rubber ball. It's vulnerable, impermanent, but stronger than you know. And more valuable than you can imagine. So...I think you've learned something today.	„
	~ To Dean, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	Most people speak to me with more respect.	„
	~ To Dean, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	I wouldn't do it for you. You and your brother keep coming back. You're an affront to the balance of the universe, and you cause disruption on a global scale. [...] But you have use. Right now, you're digging at something. The intrepid detective. I want you to keep digging, Dean. [...] It's about the souls. You'll understand when you need to.	„
	~ To Dean after announcing he's going to retrieve Sam's soul from Hell, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	Now, Sam, I'm gonna put up a barrier inside your mind. [...] It might feel a little...itchy. Do me a favor: Don't scratch the wall. Trust me; you're not gonna like what happens.	„
	~ To Sam, before restoring his soul, "Appointment in Samarra"

“	You're joking.	„
	~ To the Winchesters and Bobby as he appears after they cast the binding spell, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Sorry, Sam. One wall per customer.	„
	~ To Sam, "Meet the New Boss"

“	This isn't going to end well.	„
	~ To the Winchesters and Bobby, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Annoying little protozoa, aren't they? "God"? You look awfully like a mutated angel to me. Your vessel's melting. You're going to explode.	„
	~ To Castiel, "Meet the New Boss"

“	You think you can because you think you're simply under the weight of all those souls, yes? But that's not the worst problem. There are things much older than souls in Purgatory, and you gulped those in, too.	„
	~ To Castiel, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Long before God created angel and man, He made the first beasts: The Leviathans. [...] I personally found them entertaining, but He was concerned they'd chomp the entire petri dish, so He locked them away. Why do you think He created Purgatory? To keep those clever, poisonous things out. Now Castiel has swallowed them. He's the one thin membrane between the Old Ones and your home.	„
	~ To the Winchesters and Bobby, telling them about the Leviathans, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Stupid little soldier you are.	„
	~ To Castiel, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Service? Settling petty vendettas?	„
	~ To Castiel, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Quite the humanitarian.	„
	~ To the Winchesters and Bobby, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Destined to swat you, I think.	„
	~ To Castiel, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Really bought his own press, this one.	„
	~ To the Winchesters and Bobby, about Castiel, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Please, Cas. I know God, and you, sir, are no God.	„
	~ To Castiel, "Meet the New Boss"

“	All right. Fine.	„
	~ Before attempting to smite Castiel, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Shall we kick-box now?	„
	~ To Castiel, after being freed from the binding spell, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Well, he was in a hurry.	„
	~ To the Winchesters and Bobby after Castiel teleports away, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Shut up, Dean. I'm not here to tie your shoes every time you trip. I warned you about those souls how long ago? Long enough to stop that fool. And here we are again, with your little planet on the edge of immolation.	„
	~ To Dean, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Maybe I should spend my effort on a better planet.	„
	~ To Dean, "Meet the New Boss"

“	You know, I really don't. But I do find that little angel arrogant.	„
	~ His reply to Sam about whether he cares about what happens to them, "Meet the New Boss"

“	I'll make another. 3:59 Sunday morning, just before dawn. Be punctual. Don't thank me. Clean up your mess.	„
	~ To the Winchesters and Bobby, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Try to bind me again, you'll die before you start.	„
	~ To the Winchesters and Bobby, "Meet the New Boss"

“	Nice pickle chips, by the way.	„
	~ To the Winchesters and Bobby as he departs, "Meet the New Boss"

“	I must admit, when I heard it was you, well, I had to come myself.	„
	~ To Sam, "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here"

“	Perhaps, but not in the way you assume. I consider it to be quite the honor to be collecting the likes of Sam Winchester. I try so hard not to pass judgment at times like this--not my bag, you see--but you... Well played, my boy.	„
	~ To Sam, "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here"

“	Don't tell me that's queso.	„
	~ To Dean, after being summoned, "Brother's Keeper"

“	What I find truly fascinating, Dean...is that you and I both know that I've been burned by you Winchesters before, yet you still call.	„
	~ To Dean, "Brother's Keeper"

“	Well, I never thought I'd see the day. My goodness. Dean Winchester has tipped over his king.	„
	~ Death, "Brother's Keeper"

“	God created the earth out of nothing, or so your Sunday-school teacher would have you believe. [...] Before there was light, before there was God and the Archangels, there wasn't nothing. There was the Darkness, a horribly destructive, amoral force that was beaten back by God and His Archangels in a terrible war. God locked the Darkness away where it could do no harm, and He created a Mark that would serve as both lock and key, which He entrusted to His most-valued lieutenant, Lucifer. But the Mark began to assert its own will, revealed itself as a curse, and began to corrupt. Lucifer became jealous of man. God banished Lucifer to Hell. Lucifer passed the Mark to Cain, who passed the Mark to you, the proverbial finger in the dike. [...] So I could remove the Mark, but only if you will share it with another...to ensure that the lock remains unbroken and the Darkness remains banned.	„
	~ To Dean, "Brother's Keeper"

“	Our conundrum is simple, Sam. Your brother cannot be killed, and the Mark cannot be destroyed, not without inciting a far greater evil than any of us have ever known.	„
	~ To Sam, "Brother's Keeper"

“	Even if I remove Dean from the playing field, we're still left with you, loyal, dogged Sam, who I suspect will never rest until he sets his brother free, will never rest until his brother is free of the Mark, which simply cannot happen, lest the Darkness be set free. Then there was that time you stood me up.	„
	~ To Sam, "Brother's Keeper"

“	It's for the greater good. Once you consider that, this makes all the sense in the world.	„
	~ To Sam, "Brother's Keeper"

“	Please. Do me the honor.	„
	~ To Dean, handing him his scythe so he can kill Sam, "Brother's Keeper"

“	It's for family you must proceed, Dean. To be what you are, to become what you've become, is a stain on their memory. Do it. Or I will.	„
	~ To Dean when he stalls over killing Sam; also his last lines, "Brother's Keeper"

Gallery

Images

Death meets his demise by own scythe.

Videos

Death's Intro... Supernatural S5E21

Trivia

• Death, unlike demons, angels and ghosts, does not need to possess a human to appear as one and interact with the world in human form; he shares this trait with his fellow Horsemen.
• One of the few things that seems to irk Death, other than being bound, are those who compare themselves to beings such as him and God.
• Death is the only Horseman that is actually killed in the series, the other three are rendered powerless with the removal of their rings. He is later replaced by his former subordinate Billie.
• Death seems to be the only supernatural being that Dean Winchester is genuinely afraid of, given that he has defied Death a ridiculous amount of times.

External links

• Death at the Supernatural Wiki.
• Death at the Heroes Wiki.

Navigation

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