Supernatural: How Many Times Have Sam and Dean Died?

Supernatural is back, and the first two episodes of the fourteenth season have been pretty darn fantastic - and packed in a whole lot. Right now, Jack (Alexander Calvert) is hanging out at the bunker with the Apocalypse World crew, waiting to get his grace back while Castiel (Misha Collins) acts as his father figure once more. Lucifer is gone, but his vessel Nick (Mark Pellegrino) is now back in his own mind and trying to figure out what you do after your family is murdered and you then spend years as the Devil's meat suit. And of course, Dean (Jensen Ackles) is possessed by Michael, who wants to start a monster army to rule the world, while Sam (Jared Padalecki) has to find a way to save his brother without killing him in the process. Again.

Of course, this isn't anything new for the Winchester boys; Sam and Dean tend to die every couple of seasons, and so far, they've always come back again. They're not the only ones, either. Team Winchester is now almost entirely made up of resurrected hunters - Sam, Dean, Castiel, Mary (Samantha Smith) and Bobby (Jim Beaver), (although Bobby is technically from another dimension, rather than a straight-up return from the dead). So although Sam and his family are busy being worried that this time, it won't be possible to get Dean back from Michael unharmed, fans are less concerned about his fate. It's Supernatural - these guys have died literally hundreds of times already...

The Many Deaths Of Dean Winchester

Even in a series where death is no rarer than a bad cold, Dean Winchester has managed it an impressive number of times - and is the 'most killed' character in the series. In fact, over the course of the first episode where Dean dies, he racks up around 100 different deaths... thanks to the Trickster. Since then, he's died over a dozen more times - not all accidental.

3.11 Mystery Spot: Dean is killed over and over by the Trickster, Loki, in a variety of inventive ways including being mauled by a dog, crushed by a falling desk, and killed by Sam (with an axe). Each time, the Trickster also brings him back to life, in an attempt to teach Sam to live without his brother.
3.16 No Rest For The Wicked: Dean is mauled to death by Hellhounds, and although he is brought back from the dead by Castiel, he remembers decades of torture in Hell.
5.04 The End: Dean sees his own death (killed by Lucifer) in an alternate future, a dystopian world created when Sam and Dean refuse to help the angels.
5.16 Dark Side Of The Moon: One of Dean's most prosaic deaths happens when he (and Sam) are killed by another pair of hunters, who shoot the Winchesters for starting the Apocalypse. They're both brought back to life by Joshua.
6.11 Appointment In Samarra: In true Supernatural form, this season 6 death is part of a plan by Dean to bring Sam (and Adam) back from the dead - or more accurately, back from the cage where they are trapped with Lucifer. Dean goes to a doctor to have his heart stopped and then be revived in order to have a little chat with Death himself.
9.23 Do You Believe In Miracles: After almost two seasons alive (unless you count Purgatory), Dean is stabbed in the heart by Metatron with an angel blade. However, thanks to the Mark of Cain, death doesn't stick and he comes back as a demon.
11.17 Red Meat: For the second time, Dean actively kills himself (with an overdose) in order to talk to Death - or in this case, Billie the Reaper. He wants to convince her not to take Sam, who has been shot... although it turns out that Sam wasn't dying at all, just badly injured.
12.09 First Blood: Billie returns for this episode, where she makes a deal with the Winchesters to kill them both and then bring them back to life so that they can escape prison (and continue to astound authorities, who have some seriously hefty files on these unkillable 'criminals').
13.05 Advanced Thanatology: Last season, Dean killed himself one more time - in order to solve a ghost case, and allow him to speak to the spooks that he and Sam are hunting.

The Many Deaths Of Sam

Sam may not have died quite as much as Dean (and he certainly hasn't had a Trickster murder him a hundred times over), but he's also had his fair share of deaths (and quasi-deaths) over the past thirteen seasons. He was also the first of the brothers to die and be resurrected, all the way back in season 2.

2.21 All Hell Breaks Loose: Sam is killed by one of the others given powers by the Yellow Eyed Demon's blood - stabbed in the back before dying in Dean's arms. He is resurrected when Dean makes a deal with a crossroads demon.
4.08 Wishful Thinking: Sam suffers only a brief death in this one, when he is killed by a wish. However, when the wishing spell is broken, all the wishes are reversed and he returns to life.
5.01 Sympathy For The Devil: Another quickie death, as Sam's lungs are removed by Zachariah, but then quickly returned to his body.
5.13 The Song Remains The Same: Sam is killed by Anna, an angel who believes that he must be killed in order to save the world - however, Michael resurrects him in order to allow the line of Cain and Abel to play out the story that is fated.
5.16 Dark Side Of The Moon: Sam and Dean both are murdered by hunters for starting the apocalypse, then resurrected by Joshua (see above).
5.22 Swan Song: Wrapping up Sam's most death-filled season, he is trapped in the Cage with Lucifer, which is a kind of death - especially as it's assumed he won't be coming back. However, his body is resurrected by Castiel, and his soul is restored by Death himself.
12.09 First Blood: Sam and Dean are killed and resurrected by Billie to escape prison (see above).
13.21 Beat The Devil: Sam's most recent death takes place in Apocalypse World, where he is killed by a swarm of vampires and left for dead by his brother. However, Lucifer pops up to bring him back to life this time - and make a deal with him to get closer to his son.

The Grand Totals

Between the two of them, this leaves Sam and Dean with well over a hundred deaths - and that's not including trips to purgatory, Heaven or Hell when there wasn't an on-Earth death to kick the trip off. Over thirteen seasons, only seasons one, seven, eight and ten don't feature either Sam or Dean dying - and those ones have plenty of other deaths (and general mayhem) to even things out. So what's next for the Winchesters in season 14?

Obviously, a large part of the season is going to focus on Dean's battle to get free of Michael, but given that Michael isn't the 'big bad' of the year, it's highly likely that this will happen before the halfway mark, allowing Sam and Dean to come together and battle the actual big bad. At some point in the future, the show may end, and then we'll see some deaths that stick (and a triumphant Billie, most likely). However, for now, it seems that Sam and Dean will just keep racking up the trips to the afterlife...