[Post 7.17 Theory] Does Sam have a psychic connection to Lucifer in Hell?
Through a combination of reading articles and having Twitter conversations (thank you Ardeospina and bookdal) and Livejournal discussions (see monicawoe’s posts here and here), the new theory I’m stuck on is that Hallucifer is not in fact a hallucination, but rather the manifestation of a psychic link between Sam and the Devil in the Cage.
Why? A number of reasons, but the most important is that Sam is Lucifer’s true vessel. Lucifer possessed Sam. And Sam’s soul spent nearly two centuries in the Cage with the fallen angel.
In “Free to Be You and Me,” Castiel tells Dean, “There's, well, almost an open phone line between a vessel and his angel. One just has to know how to dial.” At that point they were trying to summon Raphael to his drooling mess of a vessel, but it’s also probably safe to assume that Lucifer knows how to dial considering the various times Lucifer appeared to Sam in his dreams during season 5.
But there is also something helping that connection. Sam was dosed with Azazel’s demon blood as an infant, granting him what manifested into psychic powers as an adult. Long before Sam knew anything about angels, he was having visions. Those powers have been dormant since the end of season 5, but they are as much a part of Sam as his floppy hair and giant heart.
It should also be noted that Lucifer has been shown to communicate from the Cage. In “Lucifer Rising,” Azazel slaughtered a convent of nuns and was able to talk to his imprisoned creator, getting his orders that started his creation of generations of psychic children. If we consider Azazel’s slaughter of the nuns to be opening the phone line to dial the Cage, then it seems comparable to the already established link between angel and vessel.
Now, Hallucifer himself provides some pretty good evidence as well, particularly in “Repo Man.” The first time Sam interacted with Lucifer in the library, Sam snaps at him to shut up before angrily getting up from the table and walking off. But the camera remains on Lucifer, who giddily says, “He said shut up to me.” If Lucifer were solely a manifestation of Sam’s broken psyche, then this shouldn’t have been possible without him around.
Lucifer was also sitting behind Nora’s desk when Sam broke into her office; he was there before Sam opened the door, like he was waiting. Again, he seems to be acting with some kind of independent agency here that shouldn’t be possible without Sam present.
And then there are just the types of comments that Lucifer makes. If Lucifer were truly a manifestation of Sam’s PTSD, then it logically follows that he is an echo of Sam’s thoughts-like him helping Sam with the case in “Repo Man,” giving Sam information that he already knew but wasn’t putting together quickly enough to help Dean. However, on more than one occasion Lucifer says something particularly nasty, like calling the serial killer in this episode a “chubby chaser,” that does not seem in line with something Sam would say or even think.
And to go off on a tangent for a second, here’s the thing about Lucifer helping Sam find Dean in “Repo Man”: I work as a tutor for a living and the first rule of tutoring is to not give the student the answer; you are supposed to help them along and get them to come up with the answers themselves. There’s no learning if you’re just offering up the answers for them. Lucifer has this strange, twisted affection for Sam that can sometimes be read as parental. So I feel like that can easily be read as Lucifer helping Sam with the case like a parent would their kid’s math homework. It’s more rewarding when the student gets the answer himself and it probably seemed like the best opportunity for Lucifer to get some real interaction with Sam, which was the first step to really worming his way into Sam’s mind and breaking him down for good.
All of this is food for thought, sure, but what really cemented this idea for me was Cas’ actions in “The Born-Again Identity.” Unable to rebuild the wall he’d broken down in Sam’s mind, Cas decides to transfer Sam’s suffering into himself; as an angel, he’d be better equipped to handle what Sam was dealing with since he neither needs to eat or sleep-things that Sam, by the end of the episode, had become unable to do and were slowly killing him.
So, Cas takes in Sam’s suffering and is left with his own form of Lucifer vision while Sam’s is gone. I find this problematic for a couple of reasons. First, how does one transfer personalized hallucinations based on someone else’s traumatic memories? If Cas had simply taken in Sam’s trauma, it would make more sense for him to be having his own living nightmares than Sam’s-which were based on his time in Hell.
And if Cas took in Sam’s memories as well, which would have the same effect on Cas as Sam most likely and lead to Lucifer-vision, then I am not going to be happy. It’s far too sloppy of a quick-fix that negates the well-deserved peace of mind Sam shared with Dean in “Defending Your Life”: When asked why Osiris passed over Sam’s guilt for the trial, Sam says, “Hell. Look, I’m not saying it’s logical, it’s just, you know, I feel like I did a lot of stuff I should have felt bad for and then I paid a lot of dues and came out the other side,” and “I finally feel like my past is my past and I can move on with my life.” Peace of mind only comes from having those memories and I don’t think someone like Sam would want them gone.
The second reason Cas’ actions strike me as problematic is that Cas’ Hallucifer interacted directly with him, saying “Hello brother.” Again, there seems to be an agency in the hallucination that doesn’t seem to make sense.
So what does this all come down to? My theory is that at some point, whether while possessing Sam in “Swan Song” or when he had Sam’s soul in Hell, he implanted a sliver of his own Grace into Sam’s soul. This, theoretically, could open the already existing line of communication between the angel and his attuned vessel, allowing him to communicate even from the deepest depths of Hell.
Cas, then, in taking Sam’s suffering actually transferred Lucifer’s Grace into himself and therefore took on the open link. And Cas had already been to the Cage once, when he retrieved Sam’s body, which could potentially serve to strengthen the link between the angels.
Why does this matter? I think it’s a more hopeful outcome for everyone because it seems likely that it would be easier to remove Lucifer from Cas down the line if the hallucinations he took on were a byproduct of an open link of communication with Lucifer in the Cage rather than PTSD-related.