Supernatural: 5 Best Winchester Plans (& 5 Worst) | ScreenRant
Over the course of Supernatural, Dean and Sam Winchester were constantly placed in situations where they had to come up with ways to beat their enemies. Due to this, the brothers would devise plans that were sometimes overarching with the plot or relevant to specific situations.
Not all of these turned out to be genius ideas, as there were many that led to even more ruin. The Winchesters heavily relied on trial and error, so a lot of their plans were the catalysts for further problems. Still, the brothers did manage to best their enemies quite a few times, making certain plans stand out as the best they had.
10 Worst: Using Abaddon To Learn About The Demon Cure
Sam and Dean decided to test the demon cure on Abaddon since they had hidden her cut-up body parts and only needed to reassemble her. However, this came back to bite them as Abaddon used it as an opportunity to escape when the brothers were distracted.
It was an altogether silly plan to begin with since finding a regular demon was hardly difficult and by causing Abaddon’s escape, the brothers ended up giving the demons one of the most powerful of their kind as she then concoted her own plans to become the Queen of Hell.
9 Best: Sam Trapping Lucifer Within Himself
After spending the entirety of Season 5 attempting to find a way to beat Lucifer, Sam displayed his selfless nature by volunteering to sacrifice himself. This plan involved giving consent to Lucifer to possess him but then overpowering him long enough for Sam to jump into the cage in Hell.
Since there was no way to kill Lucifer, this was the closest solution the Winchesters could come up with. While it meant Sam’s demise, it was still a smart way of beating Lucifer by making believe he’d won and trapping him in the body he wanted to possess all along.
8 Worst: Binding Death To Force Him To Kill Castiel
There was certainly no love lost between the Winchesters and Castiel after the latter had absorbed all of Purgatory’s souls to empower himself. The brothers didn’t exactly have a great master plan to counter this either, as they decided to bind Death and force him to kill Castiel.
As expected, this blew up in their faces as Castiel freed Death instead and escaped, leaving the brothers at the mercy of an enraged Death. This also severed any of Castiel’s remaining restraint he’d shown toward the Winchesters as he was somewhat angered by their attempts to kill him.
7 Best: Dean Accepting Michael's Possession To Fight Lucifer
Lucifer stole Jack’s grace and became empowered, taking the latter and Sam with him. Dean, being his ever-protective self, came up with the plan to allow Alternate Michael to possess his body but only as far as giving him his powers and enabling Dean to be in control.
Although it carried the risk of Michael betraying their deal — which he later did — this was still a good idea since Dean was supposed to be Michael’s true vessel and was the only hope of defeating Lucifer. In the end, the plan worked as Dean took Lucifer’s life.
6 Worst: Sam's Plan To Cure Dean By Releasing The Darkness
By the end of the Mark of Cain arc, Dean had become the villain as his violent new personality caused him to kill just about anyone. Sam came up with the plan to cure him by coercing Rowena to use the Book of the Damned. This was a poor plan overall since Sam knew curing the mark would release the Darkness, along with causing other innocent deaths like Rowena’s surrogate son Oskar’s.
This also prevented Death’s plan of sending Dean to another world where he couldn’t threaten anyone from coming about, as the Darkness ended up being released and almost destroyed all of creation.
5 Best: Using The Alternate Sam And Dean To Pose As Themselves
The final season brought with it the revelation that there were many other Sams and Deans out there. The Winchesters decided to free a pair of their alternate counterparts and made them appear as themselves while they chased after the Occultum.
This plan was in place in order to make Chuck believe that the prime Sam and Dean were still at the Men of Letters headquarters while they were in actuality outside looking for ways to bring Chuck down. The execution of this idea worked well, as the Winchesters accomplished their task and Chuck was none the wiser.
4 Worst: Trapping Jack In The Ma'lak Box
Being gullible was always one of Jack’s weaker qualities and this remained so even in his soulless persona. The Winchesters were fueled by their anger at Jack accidentally killing Mary and came up with the plan to seal Jack away forever. Dean convinced Sam to manipulate Jack into entering the Ma’lak box and shut him in there, hoping he’d be trapped until the end of time.
Not only was this a despicable move, but the plan was doomed from the start as the enraged Jack was powerful enough to destroy the box after realizing the Winchesters’ betrayal and then proceeded to plunge the world into chaos as a direct result.
3 Best: Using Castiel To Get To Dick Roman
The Winchesters didn’t know how to differentiate between the Leviathans due to their shape-shifting nature and came up with the plan of using Castiel, who was the only one who could tell between copies and the genuine Dick Roman.
It also involved making Dick believe that they had gotten the wrong weapon to kill him, giving him a false sense of security. All this tied into confronting Dick, who had nowhere to run and directly attacked Dean, only for Castiel to cause a distraction and allow Dean to end Dick and the Leviathans by killing him with the weapon.
2 Worst: Manipulating Amara With The Intention To Kill Her
Aware that killing Chuck would mean the end of the world since he and Amara balanced the universe, Dean devised a plan to kill Amara as well. She had grown as a person by then and was no longer a villain, but Dean still decided to end her life and forced Sam to play along.
This deception nearly worked until Chuck revealed the Winchesters’ plan to Amara, who became so disenchanted by the way she was manipulated that she accepted being assimilated into Chuck. This meant that the Winchesters’ idea led to Chuck becoming his most powerful and cost them their strongest ally.
1 Best: Distracting Chuck Long Enough For Jack To Steal His Power
The final plan the Winchesters had in the series was to cause Chuck to drain his own powers without realizing it. The brothers found out that Jack was in a state where he could absorb the powers of other beings and goaded Chuck into attacking them.
Chuck manhandled them to his heart’s delight, only to find out that Jack had taken in the powers he’d been releasing and overpowered him. This caused Chuck to lose all his godly abilities and led to his defeat. The Winchesters had then managed to finally gain control of their own lives, meaning all of their struggles ended due to this plan.