I watched this with Husband who saw, like, none of it. It seemed blindingly obvious to me, so there are some things I’d like to point out. Mainly? Sam is terrified of Lucifer. And not in an intellectual way, in a visceral, lizard-brain kind of way. He’s pushing past it, because they have a universe to save, but he’s not nearly as unaffected as some people seem to think.
(Sorry for the shitty gif quality, I’m unskilled at this.)
Example A: Lucifer tries to disintegrate them. Look at Sam’s reaction vs. Dean’s. Dean pulls away, he knows something was supposed to happen, but he’s not sure what. It also takes him a lot longer to react. That’s because while Dean knows intellectually that angels can mojo you by snapping, but it takes his mind a second to connect the dots.
Sam spent decades trapped in the cage with Lucifer, whose powers were very much intact. He doesn’t need to connect the dots intellectually, his body knows that sound and reacts instinctively. He reacts faster and he reacts differently- while Dean looks offended and slightly put out, Sam blinks- another reflexive flinch response.
Example B: Lucifer storms off to have a tantrum. Dean turns to watch him go, but keeps his eyes on Lucifer’s face.
Sam drops his eyes, backs out of the way, and holds his breath. He sees Lucifer coming and does everything he can to get the fuck out of the way. He’s being about as submissive as your body language will let you be, when you’re 6′4, and Sam knows it- after Lucifer passes he glances at Dean, like he’s expecting him to make a comment.
B.1- A few seconds later, Dean has turned his attention over to Chuck. Sam is keeping his eye on the door- he doesn’t want to turn his back on the last place he saw Lucifer.
Example C: Dean switches his attention between Chuck and Sam. At one point he glances at Lucifer. Sam, on the other hand, is clearly nervous. He’s trying to talk to Chuck but he can’t make solid eye contact with anyone in particular. He keeps glancing over to Lucifer (who is just about boiling over with rage at this point) and switching his weight from one side to another.
Example D: Whenever Sam has the chance, He stands closer to Chuck than Lucifer. Or actually just, he stands far away from Lucifer. He tries to keep either Dean or Chuck between him and Lucifer all the time- I think it’s because they’re both people he feels can protect him. That having been said, he angles his body toward Lucifer a lot- that’s the focus of his attention, because that’s where he feels a threat may come from.
Example E: Chuck teleports them off the balcony. Dean takes a second to catch his balance, he looks back up at where they just were (to see if he’s still there? Who knows.) Sam’s used to getting manhandled by angel powers. He’s been zapped all over the place. He knows he’s intact, he doesn’t need to check to make sure his stomach is still here. He goes straight into assessing the situation he’s in now, which is: next to Lucifer. He’s trying to listen to Chuck but he can’t- he needs to see what Lucifer’s doing.
Bonus example: protecting the Winchester family jewels.
Basically they never had a straight up “Sam is scared of Luci” scene but if you watch, there isn’t one single second in the whole show where he’s not paying attention to where Lucifer is, and what he’s doing.
