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Don't be afraid. We're going to save the world.
Lilith
in Lucifer Rising
I don't have to answer to puppy chow. Sic 'em, boy.
Lilith
in No Rest For The Wicked

Lilith was an extremely powerful white-eyed demon and the first demon Lucifer created, as well as being the final seal of the 66 Seals that had to be broken for him to be freed from his cage. She was trapped in Hell until May 2007, when she escaped and effortlessly defeated multiple rival demons to take over the deceased Azazel's former position as leader of the army of demons that he had unleashed alongside her. Lilith led this army on Earth and commanded the rest of the forces of Hell in the War of the Seals against the Host of Heaven. She was responsible for the destruction of sixty-six seals guarding Lucifer's cage in 2008, ending with her allowing Sam Winchester to kill her and freeing Lucifer in 2009.[1][2][3]

Although the Winchesters wanted to stop Lilith from raising Lucifer, their grudge with her ran far deeper than this due to the large part she played in Dean Winchester's death and his suffering in Hell, having not only ensured that he go there to break the first seal but even going so far as to sic a hellhound on a helpless Dean, killing him, to send him there and forcing an equally helpless Sam to watch it all happen in front of him.[4]

Biography

Early life

Lilith was originally one of the early humans created by God and was the first wife of Adam

God demanded that angels bow to humans and love them more than him, but the archangel Lucifer refused because he saw humans as unworthy, for which he was cast from Heaven. Trying to prove to God that he was right about humanity's flaws, Lucifer "twisted and tempted" Lilith's soul into a demon. Because of this wicked act, God had Lucifer imprisoned in a cage by Michael as punishment for this unforgivable offense. The Cage was closed with 600 seals. 66 of these seals had to be broken for Lucifer to escape. As Lilith had been Lucifer's first demon, she was also made into the 66th seal; thus, if she died after 65 of the seals had been broken, her death would set Lucifer free. As the oldest demon, Lilith was created before even Cain and the other Knights of Hell.[5][6][1]

Afterward, Lilith herself became trapped "neck-deep" in Hell, rendering her unable to leave Hell on her own power.[1] It is unknown who or what imprisoned her but it's possible that God trapped her there as her violence endangered humanity.

Freedom and leadership

Devil's gate - AHBL2

Lilith among many other demons escape Hell through the Devil's Gate.

After Lucifer told Azazel that Lilith was essential to his release from the Cage due to her capability to break the seals, Azazel plotted to free her as part of his plan to free Lucifer.[1] He acquired the Colt and manipulated Jake Talley into using it to open a devil's gate in May 2007 CE. Although Azazel's plan was successful and Lilith managed to escape Hell through the opened gateway before it was closed by hunters Bobby Singer and Ellen Harvelle, Azazel was killed by Dean Winchester.[2] Many demons fought ferociously to be the one to take over his position as the leader of Hell's army, while some chose to steer away from the plan of Azazel,[7] but in the end Lilith managed to claim leadership and effectively control the demonic army.[3]

Lilith gained the support of the King of the Crossroads, Crowley, and instated him as her right-hand man. It is suggested that they were also lovers.[8] Lilith's inner-circle of followers also included a demon named Merrick whom she made her lieutenant and a unnamed demon who acted as Lilith's "personal chef" by kidnapping and preparing human babies for Lilith to eat.[9][5] Additionally, Lilith often had large groups of demons with her to act as her personal servants, lookouts, bodyguards, and assassins.[4][1]

Lilith sought to break the 66 seals. Knowing that she had to die to break the last seal, she had Ruby go to Lucifer's true vessel, Sam Winchester, to protect him from threats and have him kill Lilith once 65 seals had been broken. Lilith did not divulge this information to any other demon and so all other demons believed that Ruby had become a traitor, not realizing that she was actually carrying out an undercover operation she had been assigned to by Lilith.[1] Lilith also recognized Sam's brother and Michael's true vessel, Dean, as the "Righteous Man" named as the only one who could break the first seal and enable the remaining intact seals to be broken. Lilith knew that to achieve this, his soul had to go to Hell and torture other souls, and so she worked towards this goal to bring on the breaking of the seals.[10] Lilith staked an indirect claim on his soul through her subordinate Crowley, who held Dean's contract as King of the Crossroads.[11]

Liliths eyes

Lilith, possessing a young girl, identifies herself before destroying the sheriff's office.

Lilith issued orders for demons to kill both Winchesters.[3] Although she would have wanted Dean dead to begin breaking seals as early as possible, her motive behind calling for Sam's death as well is unknown. It was most likely a ploy to keep her true plans for Sam (and thus Ruby's cover) secret.[12] After a demon contacted her with the news that her forces had trapped the Winchester at a police station in Monument, Colorado, but that the Winchesters had escaped after exorcising most of the demons, Lilith herself paid a visit to the station. She destroyed the building itself with blast of explosive white light,[3] but kept its living human occupants (which Ruby indicated was seven people) alive for an additional forty-five minutes to torture them all; this included skinning the screaming Nancy Fitzgerald alive while forcing everyone else to watch. Lilith killed FBI Agent Victor Henriksen last.[13] The incident was reported by the media as a massive explosion caused by a gas leak that had instantly killed everyone inside the police station at the time, including (ironically) Sam and Dean, who were believed to have been held in custody at the time. After learning of this, Ruby gave the Winchesters hexbags that would help keep Lilith and her minions from finding them.[3]

Lilith also aimed to deprive the Winchesters of the Colt so that they would no longer have their one sure-fire way to kill her and in the future Sam would be more open to Ruby's suggestion of using his powers to kill her. To this end, Lilith and Crowley contacted Bela Talbot. As Bela was a professional thief who had encountered the Winchesters before and earned a modicum of their trust, the demons wanted her to steal the Colt from the brothers for them. In return, they would release her from her contract. Bela accepted the deal, stole the Colt, and gave it to Crowley. Instead of upholding their end of the deal, however, Lilith and Crowley changed the terms of the deal so that Bela was forced to also kill Sam if she wanted to get out of her original deal. Her attempt to kill him failed and it is implied that she was killed by a hellhound and her soul taken to Hell soon afterward.[8][14]

Breaking the first seal

Before her death, Bela told the Winchesters about her deal with Lilith. She also told them that Lilith had claimed to hold the contracts to all deals, including Dean's, in the hopes that they would use this information to kill Lilith.[14] As a result, the Winchesters and their friend Bobby began searching for Lilith. A year to the day of Lilith's release from Hell in May in 2007, they finally located her with a tracking spell, stole Ruby's demon-killing knife, and came to New Harmony, Indiana, planning to kill Lilith to break Dean's contract and save his life.[4]

Lillith

Lilith about to kill her host's grandfather.

After having to fight other demons to become their leader and prepare elaborate schemes for the upcoming war over the seals with the angels, Lilith had gone to New Harmony to take "shore leave" and have fun. She entertained herself by tormenting the Freemont family while possessing their young daughter, holding them hostage inside their own house, forcing them to cater to her every demand, and inflicting psychological torture, fear, and stress upon them without letting them act as if anything were out of the ordinary. If they did not play along, or went against her in any way, Lilith killed them. She killed her host's babysitter and the family pet for being "mean" to her, then killed her host's grandfather after he tried to go to a neighbor for help, not knowing that this neighbor, like the rest of the neighborhood, was possessed by Lilith's minion.[4]

Bobby set up a trap to prevent Lilith's minions from going to her aid while the Winchesters infiltrated the Freemont home with Ruby. However, Lilith was already aware of the hunters' presence and secretly left the body of her Freemont host, found Ruby trapped in a Devil's trap and possessed her host and apparently sent Ruby back to Hell. She later returned to Sam and Dean pretending to be Ruby and assisted them in finding her former host and almost killing it until Dean realized that it wasn't Lilith anymore. When time was running out Sam begged "Ruby" if there was another but just like the actual Ruby, Lilith told Sam that her powers could have helped but doesn't have the time to perfect them like before, then the clock struck midnight. 

Lilith3x16

Lilith possessing Ruby's host.

When a hellhound came Dean, Sam and Lilith ran into the kitchen and barricaded themselves in with salt. Lilith tried to trick Sam into giving her the knife. Right when Sam was about to do so, Dean suddenly noticed the difference in the demon's true face and realized that the demon with them was Lilith, not Ruby. Lilith immediately dropped the charade and used telekinesis to overpower and immobilize them before they could attack her. Lilith then introduced herself to them before kissing Sam. When Sam, believing that she wanted to kill him as her rival for leadership of Hell, offered to let her have him if she would let Dean go, she turned down the deal and let the hellhound in to kill Dean, laughing. With Dean dead, Lilith cast her white light on Sam, but it appears to be completely ineffective on him. She fled her host body when Sam advanced on her with the knife.[4]

Upon getting killed by the hellhound, Dean's soul went to Hell. There, he was tortured by Alastair, the chief torturer of Hell, at Lilith's command, with the offer of not getting tortured anymore if he tortured other souls. The first seal was finally broken after he agreed to the deal, three months (three decades, in Hell) later. The destruction of the first seal rendered all other potential seals susceptible to breaking, allowing Lilith and her forces to begin targeting seals at will.[10]

The War of the Seals

Lilith3

Lilith is distracted from killing Sam.

When angels learned that Lilith had sent Dean's soul to Hell to break the first seal, they rushed to Hell to save him, but arrived too late. Instead, they resurrected him and informed him of Lilith's plan to release Lucifer, looking to enlist him to stop Lilith and her demons from starting the Apocalypse. Secretly, however, higher-ranking angels were arranging for Lilith to succeed in her mission, having arranged for the events leading up to it because they wanted to fulfill destiny by having Michael kill Lucifer.[10][15][13][1]

Lilith commanded the forces of Hell in battle against the Host of Heaven and hunters over the seals. In addition to breaking seals on her own, she also employed the strategy of informing select demons on what select seals were and sending them out to break them, not only creating greater difficulty and confusion for the Host as they tried to defend various seals from her forces but also ensuring that she alone knew what the seals were and which ones she planned to break. Thus, killing her was the only way to ensure that demons did not finish breaking the seals.[16][1][17]

Meanwhile, Ruby was preparing Sam to break the final seal by strengthening his demonic powers so that they would grow powerful enough to kill Lilith. However, Lilith began having second thoughts about her upcoming sacrifice; she took another vessel and eventually went to negotiate a deal with Sam, offering to stop breaking seals if Sam agreed to sacrifice himself and Dean as her "consolation prize." Sam pretended to go along with it to get close enough to her to kill her with the demon-killing knife. She overpowered him and seized the knife before he could stab her, but was forced to leave when the prophet Chuck Shurley's entrance into the room started to summon Raphael to kill her and protect Chuck. For his part, Sam believed that she never actually intended to stop breaking seals and that she would have gone back on their deal had he agreed. Regardless of her intentions, Lilith renewed her attack on the seals, recommitting herself to her fate.[18]

Death

Lilith7

With Lilith dead, her blood begins to form Lucifer's cage.

Lilith arranged for the breaking of 65 seals. When she was the last seal that needed to be broken to free Lucifer, she traveled to St. Mary's Convent and began preparing for her demise with a group of her minions. Dean was eventually told the consequences of her death by the angel Castiel. Together, they sought Sam out to warn him not to kill Lilith, but were hindered by the archangels.[1]

When Sam and Ruby arrived to kill her, Lilith was overpowered by Sam and telekinetically pinned to the altar. However, she still survived his initial attempts to kill her, even with his greatly increased power from having drank more demon blood than ever before. At that moment, Dean arrived at the convent alone, having been sent by Castiel to try to stop Sam while Castiel himself tried to delay the archangels. Seeing Sam hesitate when he hears Dean call out to him, Lilith begins to laugh mockingly at him, drawing his attention back to her. She taunted him on how he had turned himself into a freakish monster for the sole purpose of killing her, yet is now hesitating to kill her, deeming it "adorable." The taunt baited him into using his full power on her and Lilith was soon killed by it, breaking the final seal. Her host's corpse fell limp to the floor and began bleeding from the mouth. This blood moved on its own to form a symbol on the convent floor, from which Lucifer rose from the Cage.[1]

Legacy

Lilith's death was the final seal that set Lucifer free. He was set loose to wreak havoc and cause death and disaster on Earth for months (along with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the help of most demons) due to Lilith's sacrifice. He was reimprisoned with, ironically enough, another sacrifice—Sam's. He trapped himself deep in Hell, much like Lilith had been trapped in Hell, and like her, he was eventually freed.[19][20]

Killing Lilith when she had been the final seal is a huge source of guilt for Sam; he blames himself for raising Lucifer and causing the Apocalypse.[21] Although Dean believes that it was an understandable mistake,[22] he also holds Sam responsible for it, calling it one of his brother's greatest sins.[23] Crowley named Lilith as one of the great threats who fell as a result of underestimating the Winchesters.[24]

Appearance

Lilithpinned

Lilith in her final host.

Dean: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Lilith is a little girl.
Chuck: No, uh, this time she's a "comely dental hygienist from Bloomington, Indiana."

As a demon, Lilith manifested on Earth as a thick cloud of black smoke that possesses hosts whose eyes turned fully-white when Lilith chose to reveal her demonic nature. Her true form could not ordinarily be perceived by humans. When Dean glimpsed her true face in "No Rest for the Wicked", he was disturbed and described her face only as "awful". He could not immediately tell her apart from Ruby despite his temporary ability to see the faces of demons, which suggests that she and Ruby look similar enough to pass for one another (at least to humans).

Lilith preferred to possess blonde females. She primarily possessed young girls in Season 3: a brunette child and the blonde-haired Freemont child. Dean later hallucinated her as the latter in "Yellow Fever". When she possessed Ruby's host, she noted that she liked being "all grown-up and pretty". She possessed another beautiful adult woman throughout Season 4.

Personality

Sam: "What do you want?"
Lilith: "For it to go back to the way it was. Before I had angels to deal with twenty-four/seven. The good old days, when it was all baby blood, all the time."
Lilith: "Are you really so arrogant that you would put your life before the lives of six billion innocent people? Maybe it's all that demon blood pumping through your pipes. Man after my own heart."

Lilith often feigned a childish, sweet disposition to hide how truly evil she was. As part of this act, she treated even her victims with friendliness. If provoked, however, she dropped this and became so cold she appeared almost emotionless. She switched between these two behaviors very quickly to unsettle those who witnessed it. She played on the expectations people had associated with her vessels' appearances, acting innocent and playful in children hosts and behaving in an alluring and seductive manner while in adult hosts. She successfully impersonated Ruby for a short time before Dean caught on to the swap by noticing the difference in the two demons' "faces". She was also intelligent and cruel enough to choose to summon Witnesses whom hunters had tried and failed to save, correctly predicting that the ghost's anger and the hunters' guilt would likely make it more difficult for them to fight back and resulted in their deaths; Castiel described this as Lilith's sense of humor.

Even by demon standards, Lilith was extremely monstrous and sadistic, finding it fun and relaxing to inflict suffering onto others. Lilith reveled in chaos and misery and enjoyed inflicting pain and destruction merely for the sake of it. Unlike many demons, Lilith delighted in tormenting humans past their breaking point, not as part of any mission or objective, but as her twisted form of entertainment and her idea of taking a break from work. She also adored emotional and psychological torture as well as physical as she relished in Sam's anguish by laughing as he had to watch as his brother slaughtered. She tortured seven people to death by flaying them alive while forcing those still alive to watch, saving Victor Henriksen for last because he shared Dean's desire to save people. She also toyed with the family of a girl she was possessing by terrorizing them and ruthlessly killing anyone who angered her, causing them to become desperate enough to escape her wrath that they were willing to betray one another and even kill the girl. She also frequently fed on new born infants and had her "personal chef" provide her with regular supplies. Lilith seemed to be very popular among demons as Ruby described her as "a real pied piper" and she possessed her own personal entourage of demons. All of Lilith's subordinates seemed to either fear or revere her. At least two demons refused to give up any information on her to Sam and Dean even under torture because they feared how she'd punish them, believing that any torture Sam or Dean could devise would be "a flea bite" compared to Lilith's methods. Ruby also claimed that if Sam and Dean had faced her then she would "peel the meat from their pretty pretty faces." Lilith detested angels and found dealing with them irritating; Alastair claimed she'd kill "a hundred, a thousand" of them if she could.

Lilith was an exceptional strategist who outplayed angel "grunts" in the battle over the 66 Seals by being unpredictable in her tactics, at one point breaking three seals in one day. She masterminded the actions of her underlings without revealing her hand in their actions. Lilith knew how to play with people's emotions in order to manipulate and play mind-games with them. She frequently used this to outwit her opponents and second-guess their moves as she went along.

Unlike Azazel and Ruby, Lilith lacked any religious devotion to Lucifer and cared more about The Apocalypse that Lucifer's rise would incite (specifically the chaos, destruction and suffering it would bring) than Lucifer himself, and was disappointed that she would have to die and miss all of it in order to trigger it. Although she wanted to let him "rot" in his cage and return to enjoying herself and torturing others as she had before breaking the seals, she resigned herself to her fate and even provoked Sam into killing her in the end by laughing at him.

Powers and Abilities

Ruby: "Judging by the size of the blast...smart money's on Lilith."
Liliths powers

Lilith obliterates the police station.

As "Lucifer's first," Lilith was the oldest demon and thus among the most powerful to appear in the series. She out-ranked even fellow white-eyed demons and Azazel in the hierarchy of Hell, with only Lucifer himself as her superior. She commanded great respect from other demons, including Alastair, as well as being feared by most of them. Astaroth described Lilith as the demons' "messiah" and saw her as "a real leader" (compared to Sam). According to Bela, Lilith held the contracts to all crossroads deals when she was in power. She could also make her own deals, but claimed to be unique from other deal-making demons in that sealing the deal with her required sex rather than a kiss. She seemed unafraid of normal angels and regularly won battles against them for the seals, but Lilith did fear the power of archangels and fled from their presence. She was described as having the capability to break most of the numerous seals, which required various rituals and spells, to open Lucifer's cage.

  • White light - By raising her hand, Lilith could generate a blast of white light from the palm that apparently destroyed anything she wanted it to. For example, she blew apart an entire police station without killing the people inside, and later performed the reverse by concentrating it solely on Sam so that it did not affect the house she was in at the time. Along with Samhain, she was one of the only two demons known to have this ability. Other beings who possessed white light were considerably more powerful angelic beings.
  • Advanced Telekinesis - Lilith broke a grown man's neck with a click of her fingers without touching it, and later used telekinesis to fling Sam and Dean across the room, holding Sam immobilized to a wall at the same time she did the same to Dean to a table.
  • Possession - Lilith took over the bodies of human beings against their will. Unlike most other demons, who usually enter and exit humans' bodies in a rush of black smoke as the humans scream, Lilith apparently could also do this without humans noticing, as the Freemont girl's mother did not realize that her daughter was no longer possessed (though its possible she left when she wasn't looking) and Lilith's host did not wake up after Lilith departed. 
  • Exorcism (possibly)- Lilith claimed to have expelled Ruby from her vessel in "No Rest for the Wicked". Ruby claimed in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" that she had been imprisoned in Hell by Lilith, and that Lilith had eventually released her once Ruby promised to find and kill Sam for her. As Ruby had been working undercover for Lilith all along, it is unknown whether or not they were telling the truth.
  • Invulnerability - Lilith could not be harmed or killed by conventional means.
  • Flight - In her disembodied smoke state, Lilith could fly.
  • Spell-casting - Lilith was named by Castiel as the one who raised the Witnesses. She was able to select specific ghosts to summon and compel to attack the hunters she chose.[13] It is likely that she performed other spells to break the other 66 Seals. Additionally, Lilith possessed the most extensive knowledge of the seals out of all the demons; by the time she escaped Hell, she even knew what the final seal was, something that was not common knowledge among demons.[1]
  • Thermokinesis - Lilith could emit extreme heat through her host's body. She could also control the intensity of this power as in one instance she was able to scald Sam's lips as she forcefully kissed him and in another instance she was able to burn through a Devil's Trap by merely touching it.
  • Teleportation - As the oldest demon, Lilith could instantaneously appear and disappear at will. In "The Monster at the End of This Book", she appeared suddenly behind Sam inside the brothers' motel room after knocking on the door and waiting for him to answer it. She surprised a guard at St. Mary's Convent in "Lucifer Rising" by showing up out of nowhere from behind him.
  • Immunity - Lilith could enter hallowed ground and Ruby claimed that she was not vulnerable to holy water. Lilith proved to be the most resilient to Sam's demonic powers of all the demons he used them on, even with him at the peak of his power and her powers useless against him. After he had grown strong enough to incapacitate and kill Alastair with them, his powers merely stirred Lilith's hair. Sam trained for a year by honing his powers on lesser demons and drinking demon blood in order to kill Lilith. When he finally succeeded in "Lucifer Rising", it required all the blood of one demon, more blood from another, immense effort from him, and Lilith intentionally provoking him to anger, nearly transforming him into a monster in the process. The effort of killing Lilith also exhausted Sam's powers completely.
  • Super strength - As the first demon, Lilith was stronger than humans, demons and certain angels. Even while possessing the body of a little girl, she slaughtered grown men with her bare hands. When Lilith got involved in a physical struggle with Sam, she quickly overpowered him, despite his having the advantage of position (she was lying down beneath him) and weight (his body was much larger and muscled than her vessel).
  • Super Stamina - As a demon, Lilith did not require food, sleep, water or air to sustain herself. 
  • Immortality - Lilith was the first and eldest demon, predating even the Knights of Hell. Lilith was tens of thousands of years old, and had the potential to live indefinitely had she not been killed.[25]

Weaknesses

Lilith-kill-TTL

Lilith is killed by Sam's powers.

As one of, if not, the most powerful demons to appear, Lilith was immune to most of the standard demonic weaknesses. So much so that Sam believed only his powers were strong enough to kill her. Despite this, Lilith possessed a few weaknesses.

  • Demon-killing knife - The knife is able to harm and probably kill Lilith, as she was extremely wary of it: she tried to trick Sam into giving it to her, fled when he went to stab her with it, demanded to know where it was when she visited him later on, and she quickly wrestled it from him when he again tried to stab her with it.[4][18] However, her susceptibility to the knife was never tested and her subordinate, Alastair, survived being stabbed in the upper chest with it. At the very least, it could likely cause her pain such as with Alastair and Abaddon.
  • Devil's trap - Lilith had the standard demonic weakness to devil's traps. She stopped short of the devil's trap Sam had set up to catch her and made a point of breaking it, implying that she would have been susceptible to it had it stayed intact.[18]
  • Archangels - Lilith could be smote by archangels. When Raphael began descending upon her to protect Chuck, she elected to flee.
  • Sam Winchester - Despite showing an impressive amount of immunity to them at first, Lilith eventually became vulnerable to Sam's powers. He telekinetically threw, immobilized, and eventually killed her in a manner that she evidently found excruciatingly painful.[1]
  • The Colt - Lilith's susceptibility to the Colt was never tested. However, as it is capable of killing high-tier demons,[2] in all likelihood the Colt could be used to badly hurt or even kill Lilith had she been shot with it, with death depending on whether or not she was shot in a vital area.
  • Death's Scythe - It can kill demons.
  • Hex Bags - Like all demons, Lilith cannot locate someone if they are concealed by hex bags.
  • The First Blade - The First Blade can kill any demon

Apocrypha


Titaniccanonnoncanon The Titanic. Yes, well, uh, it was meant to sink, and I saved it.
This article or section is about a canonical subject but contains information from sources (novels, animated series or comics) that are either not canon or are dubiously canon.

The Official Companion series

Lilith's rank is further clarified with the revelation that white-eyed demons are considered the "chiefs in staff" in the demonic hierarchy and thus are Lucifer's highest-ranking servants. Additionally, she is identified as the Queen of the Crossroads for whom all crossroads demons make deals. It is unknown if she shared this position with Crowley (the King of the Crossroads), she usurped him following her release from Hell, or he replaced her following her demise.[26]

Lilith is revealed to be the one who originally sent Ruby (as a human) to Hell, indicating that Lilith killed Ruby after Ruby sold her soul to Astaroth. This would mean that Lilith was active on Earth during the fourteenth century before getting trapped deep in Hell at some point prior to 1972 and requiring a devil's gate to free her. Despite Lilith's having killed her and sent her to Hell, the demon Ruby became Lilith's most loyal servant.[26]

It is strongly implied that Lilith had feigned the failure of her white light against Sam in "No Rest For The Wicked" as part of her and Ruby's scheme to convince Sam into believing that he was the only one capable of killing Lilith. This suggests that her powers would have actually still been effective against him as much later as "The Monster at the End of This Book" (given that she was still immune to his powers at this time), contrary to her claims otherwise.[26]

Supernatural: Rising Son

LilithSPNRisingson

Lilith as she appears in the comics.

In 1990, Lilith escaped Hell and masqueraded as an elementary school teacher named Susan Lyle in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She endeared herself to her young student Sam, aware that Sam had a special destiny of some importance to the forces of Hell. Dean was the first to realize she was a demon. His and Sam's father, John, fought with her as well as a transmogrified construct near the railroad tracks. Around this time, Lilith led a special army of demons called the succubi.

Trivia

  • Lilith is the main antagonist of season 3 and season 4.
  • Originally, the writers did not plan for a new demon to replace Azazel as a demon commanding other demons for an overall plan, instead wanting demons to be chaotic and having their own individual groups and goals. However, with the demon plot becoming unclear and unfocused, they decided to go against their initial decision and create a new demonic leader so that the demons would have an overall plan. They did not have the new leader planned out right away, giving the character the nickname "Zarqawi" in the writers' room as a reference to the real-life terrorist (the demon war in Season 3 first being planned as a reflection on real-life terrorism and war) and planning for the character to be male. However, Sera Gamble insisted that the new leader be female and suggested the mythological Lilith. The writers then debated whether Lilith should be presented in the form of a woman or a little girl. Although they initially settled on the latter for Season 3 because they found it creepier, they had her possess adults in her later appearances because depicting Sam killing a little girl would be unacceptable.[27][28]
  • Lilith is the third demon of real-world lore to appear in the show: the first was Azazel and the second was Astaroth.
  • The mythological Lilith is commonly portrayed as either a seducer of men or the destroyer of children. The character of Lilith in Supernatural is meant to represent both aspects of that mythology.[29] For example, Lilith's sexualized interactions with Sam is a nod to Lilith's marriage to the fallen angel Samael in real-world mythology.
  • Lilith was the first white-eyed demon introduced, sharing her eye color with Alastair. She was also the first female Big Bad.
  • Lilith was the second character to be the Big Bad for two seasons; the first was Azazel and the third was Crowley.
  • Dean hallucinated Lilith when he was infected with a fear-increasing ghost sickness. In this hallucination, she taunted him about him dying and going back to Hell, and what he had done there. The hallucination was so intense that Dean began to have a heart attack and nearly died from it as a result. Unusually, he did not hallucinate his actual torturer from Hell (Alastair).[30]
  • Lilith was the oldest demon, yet ironically would often appear in the youngest vessels.
  • Lilith fed on human infants and even had a special "chef" who kidnapped babies from hospitals for Lilith to eat.[5] This is a reference to the real-life mythology surrounding Lilith, who is said to kill newborns unless they are protected with appropriate talismans and the like.
  • Despite Lilith's fear of the demon-killing knife, it may not have had the power to kill her, given that demons of similar or even lesser rank and age as her have survived being stabbed with it, including her own subordinate. In fact, Cain has shown to be completely immune to the knife, meaning its possible that Lilith would be immune to it as well.
  • Unlike other demons, Lilith emitted a white-yellow glow during her death, as opposed to the usual red-orange glow.
  • Lilith is the only demon in the show to claim that she requires sex to seal a contract. This is possibly a reference to the fact that in some mythology Lilith is known to be a succubus.
  • Lilith was the third recurring villain whom Sam killed. She was also the first Big Bad he defeated and, thus far, the only one he actually killed. Of all the enemies Sam has encountered (possibly excluding Lucifer), Sam's hatred for Lilith has been the strongest. 
  • Becky Rosen speculated that Lilith had had sexual relationship with Crowley in addition to him being her top servant.[8]
  • Astaroth refers to Lilith as the demon's "messiah" when encountering Sam. This is interesting as Lilith does sort of fit the bill as a demonic version of Jesus, especially given that she sacrifices herself to "save" her kind by letting Sam kill her- in a manner which resembles crucifixion no less. However, her goal is more in line with the Anti-Christ in lore, bringing about the end of the world. 
  • Lilith has some of the lowest appearances of the main villains, only appearing twice in each of her seasons.
  • Lilith is technically the only big bad to have successfully completed her overall goal and be triumphant over the Winchesters, although she had to die to achieve this.
  • Lilith appears in a different manner in the Anime series. In this version, she is black-eyed (and unnamed) and not as evil or high ranking. She takes possession of Ms. Lyle.
  • Lilith and Azazel are the only two major demons not to be affected by a devil's trap in some way. Both avoided them with Lilith breaking one to get to Sam and Azazel not being able to cross the one surrounding the Devil's Gate until it was broken. All the other major demonic characters on the show have been trapped at least once in a trap including Meg, Crowley, Ruby, Abaddon and Cain.
  • One of Aleister Crowley's kids had Lilith in their name. The kid died at 2, maybe why Lilith possessed children.

List of appearances

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8

Comics

References

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Lucifer Rising
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 All Hell Breaks Loose - Part 2
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Jus In Bello
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 No Rest For The Wicked
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 When the Levee Breaks
  6. As Time Goes By
  7. Sin City
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 The Real Ghostbusters
  9. Repo Man
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 On The Head Of A Pin
  11. Crowley originally owned Dean's soul. The crossroads demon told Sam in "Bedtime Stories" that the demon who held Dean's contract was a higher-ranking male demon whom she referred to as her "boss"; this could only mean Crowley, the King of the Crossroads. Later on in "Time Is On My Side", it is said that Lilith holds all contracts, including Dean's. This means that Lilith indirectly held the contracts because she had the King of the Crossroads as her subordinate but that she did not directly hold them, that ownership of the souls truly did transfer hands to Lilith at some point after "Bedtime Stories", or simply that Lilith had lied to Bela and Ruby upheld this lie to trick the Winchesters into an ill-fated confrontation with Lilith in "No Rest For The Wicked".
  12. Before Lilith took over, Sam was seen by demon-kind as a potential candidate as the new leader of the army and many demons wanted to kill him to stop him and take that position for themselves. Had Lilith ordered a cease-and-desist after becoming leader, or even just not call for the competition presented in Sam to be wiped out after defeating other demons for the spot, other demons would have questioned why she wanted Sam alive, potentially spread this question to Sam himself, and thus risk blowing her entire plan.
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester
  14. 14.0 14.1 Time Is On My Side
  15. Lazarus Rising
  16. Death Takes A Holiday
  17. Criss Angel Is A Douchebag
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 The Monster at the End of This Book
  19. Swan Song
  20. Appointment In Samarra
  21. Sympathy for the Devil
  22. Fallen Idols
  23. Sacrifice
  24. The Man Who Would Be King
  25. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named first
  26. 26.0 26.1 26.2 The Essential Supernatural: On the Road with Sam and Dean Winchester
  27. Supernatural: The Official Companion, Season 3
  28. Supernatural: The Official Companion, Season 4
  29. http://eclipsemagazine.com/hollywood-insider/5639/
  30. Yellow Fever
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