Benny Lafitte

"What I wanted was to leave a crater behind. I wanted to put your memory to rest. What I loved, it ain't here anymore. It was snuffed out long ago by monsters like me. Like what you've become. [...] I think we're all damned."

- Benny to Andrea

Benjamin "Benny" Lafitte was a vampire, turned by the ancient one known as The Old Man, whom he worshiped as a God. However, fifty years ago, Benny fell in love with a Greek woman named Andrea Kormos, deciding to abandon his maker. The Old Man discovered this and killed Benny, condemning his soul to Purgatory, the realm where all monsters go when they die. Fifty years later, he helps Dean Winchester escape from Purgatory in exchange for being brought back to life, developing a strong friendship with him while there. Back on Earth, Benny decides to go after his maker, eventually killing him with Dean's help. After trying and failing to adapt to life on Earth, Benny allows Dean to kill him so he can return to Purgatory and rescue Sam. Benny, who doesn't fit in on Earth anymore, then stays behind to hold off a group of vampires so Sam and Bobby Singer can escape.

Early life
Benny Lafitte became a vampire at the hands of an ancient and cruel one known as The Old Man, serving in his isolated nest, where the vampires worked as pirates. For many years, Benny worshiped his maker as a God, eventually becoming his second-in-command. At some point, he met rogue vampire Desmond. Fifty years ago, he fell in love with a Greek woman named Andrea and tried to run away with her. However, they were discovered and his nest buddies held him down while The Old Man cut off his head, sending his soul to Purgatory, where all monsters went after dying.

His remains were buried on his property in Louisiana, presumably where he was killed. In Purgatory, he spent the next fifty years fighting the souls of other deceased monsters. At some point, he learned about a portal that led back to Earth. However, because only humans could use this portal, Benny remained trapped in Purgatory.

We Need To Talk About Kevin
When Dean Winchester ends up in the depths of Purgatory, Benny saves Dean from another vampire. Benny offers Dean a deal for doing so; he knows a way out that only humans can use, as Purgatory is not designed for humans, and does not want them in there. He will lead Dean to this 'exit point' if he allows Benny's soul to hitch a ride out with him. Dean reluctantly agrees on the condition that they find the missing Castiel first. During this time in Purgatory Dean comes to trust and respect Benny. He regards the vampire as his blood brother, even to the point of him meaning more to Dean than Sam, who never looked for Dean and stopped hunting while Dean was in Purgatory - a strong bond which was forged during their ordeals in Purgatory.

A year after Dean got trapped in Purgatory, he finally escapes using Benny's method, although without Castiel, arriving in Maine with Benny's soul in his arm. Dean travels to Benny's grave in Louisiana and performs a spell over his bones that spills his soul over his remains and resurrects the vampire. The two embrace with great affection and go their separate ways, but not before Dean tells Benny to stay out of trouble, but that he can call Dean if he ever needs his help.

Benny later calls Dean and they agree to stay away from each other for a while until they're both used to being back in the outside world, though Dean does tell Benny to call him if he gets into trouble. Before ending their call, Benny tells Dean to keep his nose clean and that he wishes he appreciated the "pureness" of Purgatory like Dean did. The raw and pure feeling of defending one's self has left them broken, yet with a bond that cannot be broken, no matter how much Sam disapproves. Sam then sends the maniacal Martin to trail Benny and inform Sam what he finds. Martin thinks that Benny is killing innocents, so he tries to kill Benny. Benny calls Dean, and he goes to help him. Upon Dean's arrival, they find out who is actually killing the said innocents, and it's actually Benny's old nestmates. They track them back to the hive, where Benny is reunited with his love, Andrea. They devise a plan, and kill their Maker - The Old Man. Benny asks Andrea to go away with them, however, she refuses. She wants Benny to stay with her on the island their Maker had created. Dean has no choice but to kill her. Dean and Benny then leave.

What's Up, Tiger Mommy?
In Purgatory, Benny watches as Dean interrogates a monster for the location of Castiel. After what seems to be an eternity, Dean finally gets the location out of the monster and then kills him.

Following the monster's directions, Benny and Dean finally locate Castiel and tell him of their plan to escape, though Benny warns that he doesn't know if it will work for an angel. Benny becomes hostile towards Castiel, accusing him of abandoning Dean, which Castiel admits, but says it was to protect Dean from the monsters that were after him, particularly the Leviathans. While Benny wants to leave Castiel behind, Dean convinces him to join them in their search for a way out.

Blood Brother
In Purgatory, Dean, Benny and Castiel come under attack by monsters but kill them all. Both Benny and Castiel try to convince Dean to abandon the latter because as a Seraph, Castiel is drawing monsters to them. Benny tells Dean that the way out may not even work for Castiel as it is meant for humans only. Dean is a human so it will work for him and Benny figures that as a former human he can skate by too, but Castiel isn't even close to human. Castiel agrees with him, but Dean insists that they will all get out or die trying which Benny is uncomfortable with. However, before they can continue the argument, Castiel senses Leviathans approaching and they are forced to run. Two Leviathans attack the group and while Dean beats one easily, the other defeats Castiel and goes to kill him. To Dean's shock, Benny decapitates the Leviathan, saving Castiel's life.

Benny, knowing that his maker will come after him again if he finds out he has been resurrected, goes after The Old Man himself. He tracks down a vampire named Quentin that he used to work with and asks for the location of The Old Man, but Quentin ambushes him with two other vampires. Benny manages to kill all three of his enemies, but is left badly injured and calls Dean for help. Dean comes and brings him his stolen blood and using it, Benny quickly recovers. Benny reveals what he is up to and Dean decides to join him in hunting The Old Man. As they search Quentin's things, Benny explains to Dean the story of how his former nest members are vampire pirates, or "vampirates" as Dean calls them, and Dean figures out that they are on Prentiss Island. Benny and Dean head there to hunt and destroy the nest and along the way, Benny explains his personal story to Dean.

On Prentiss Island, Benny is shocked to learn that Andrea is not dead as he had believed but has been turned into a vampire instead. Benny is overpowered and captured while Dean escapes. Benny learns that Andrea is The Old Man's second-in-command and makes fun of her for it, but when they are left alone, Andrea reveals that she still loves him and doesn't worship The Old Man like the others do. Andrea gives Benny his handcuff keys and a knife to kill The Old Man with before a vampire named Sorento takes him to The Old Man. The Old Man reveals that he turned Andrea as revenge against Benny, but Benny reveals that Andrea is on his side by showing his free hands. Sorento attacks Benny, but Benny overpowers him and kills him with moves he apparently learned in Purgatory. He faces The Old Man and demands that he defend himself. However, The Old Man hates the world and wants to die on his own terms and refuses to fight back. Benny promises to show The Old Man a new world (Purgatory) and kills him with Andrea's knife. Returning to Andrea, he confirms that The Old Man is dead and asks Andrea to leave with him to start a new life. However, she wants to take control of the piracy operation and run it with Benny while he wants to destroy it completely. To Benny's sorrow, he realizes that the woman he loves is long dead as Andrea moves to attack him but Dean, having killed all of the other vampires in the nest, has no choice but to kill her from behind.

Leaving the island, Benny despondently asks why Dean didn't just betray him instead of resurrecting him like he'd promised. Dean is confused by this. The thought of doing that never would have occurred to him because he considers Benny to be a close friend. Instead he asks Benny if he's all right, and Benny replies "I don't know what I am." Dean and Benny return to the mainland where Sam is waiting for them. Benny shakes hands with Sam who considers attacking him before Dean stops him. Recognizing the awkward moment and that Sam and Dean need to be alone, Benny leaves.

A Little Slice of Kevin
In Purgatory, Benny leads Dean and Castiel to where someone told him the portal out of Purgatory is. Dean expresses disbelief about Benny's information, asking if he sure he wasn't lied to. Benny tells him that he lies, he doesn't get lied to and is proven right when the nearby portal opens in response to Dean's presence, as he is a human, and it was made for humans. As he and Dean prepare to cast the spell to absorb Benny's soul into Dean, Benny tells Dean he's putting a lot of trust in him. Dean tells Benny that he has earned that trust and casts the spell, pulling Benny's soul into his arm. Benny escapes Purgatory when Dean gets through the portal, but Castiel remains behind. At first, Dean blames himself. He thinks that he has failed Castiel. Months later, Castiel has managed to escape from Purgatory, and tells Dean that Castiel pulled away. He made it so that Dean could get out at the portal.

Citizen Fang
Following Dean leaving and with Andrea dead, Benny decides to return home and goes back to Louisiana, where he was born. He even manages to get his old job at a diner back (the one he had before he was turned), as well as meet up with Elizabeth , who is his great granddaughter, although she is unaware of this. However another vampire, Desmond, who knew Benny from before he reformed, contacts him, and tries to get him to join his newly forming nest.

Benny refuses, so Desmond begins killing and leaving the bodies near Benny, to try and force Benny to join. This convinces Martin Creaser, who had been spying on him, at the direction of Sam, that he had killed them. Benny leaves for a few days, but Desmond simply follows him. He meets up with Dean and tells him what's really going on and Dean convinces him to let Dean, Martin and Sam hunt Desmond instead to prove Benny's innocence. When that fails and Martin and Sam go after Benny, Dean calls Benny to warn him and Benny reveals that he has pretended to give in to Desmond to learn his location and kill him which he offers Dean if he works with him. Together the two of them sneak into Desmond's den to kill him. Benny then saves Dean from Desmond when he gets overpowered and kills Desmond. However, Desmond had cut Dean, and the sight of the blood arouses Benny's suppressed hunger.

Outside he tells Dean that he finally feels that he has gotten control of his hunger, but realizes that he will have to leave, as other hunters will come looking for him. Saddened by this, he goes to have one final look at Elizabeth before leaving. However, Martin, still believing him to be dangerous and mentally-unstable, kidnaps Elizabeth and forces him to return. Martin cuts Elizabeth's neck (not fatally), and once again the sight of the blood causes his control over his hunger to be shaken. To save Elizabeth, he places his head down on the counter for Martin to cut it off. However, as Martin swings, Benny fights back, and the two struggle. This proves too much for Benny and the hunger wins. He kills Martin by ripping open his neck before running off to parts unknown. But Elizabeth is left unharmed, save for the laceration to her neck.

Torn and Frayed
Benny calls Dean from somewhere in the Catskill Mountains to explain, but Dean doesn't need him to and believes him as Elizabeth told him what happened. Benny, who seems to be losing reasons to not feed on humans, asks Dean to meet up with him which he agrees to do once he finishes the case he is on.

Days later, there is no sign of Dean and Benny is down to one bag of blood left. Dean calls Benny to tell him that he is ending their relationship permanently, though he will always appreciate what Benny did for him. Benny is understanding and says a final goodbye to Dean, indicating he will now ditch his cell phone now that he has no one to talk to. Benny is now left in a deteriorating condition: low on blood and with Dean and Andrea gone, no reason to no longer feed on humans.

Taxi Driver
Upon learning that Sam was trapped in Purgatory, Dean turned to Benny for help as the vampire knew the way out. Benny agreed to let Dean kill him and to lead Sam and Bobby Singer to the escape portal. Benny added that part of the reason was that he no longer felt like he fit in the world. After agreeing to return with Sam the same way he came back with Dean, Dean decapitated Benny with a machete. In Purgatory, Benny rescued Sam and Bobby from vampires and led them to the exit portal. However, before they could leave, three more vampires arrived, and taunted Benny as a traitor and once again helping a Winchester. Having never intended to return to Earth from the beginning, Benny told Sam to leave. Benny then attacked the vampires and held them off long enough for Sam to escape through the portal. He was last seen being taken down by the vampires. But Dean did not burn the body hoping he would still come back one day.

The Werther Project
While under the influence of the Werther Box, Dean hallucinates that he is in Purgatory once more where he is saved from a Leviathan by Benny. Dean instantly recognizes that Benny is not real and wanders Purgatory with Benny following him trying to escape the hallucination. Benny reminds him of how pure he found Purgatory and the ability to kill monsters with no consequences and tells him that to stop the Mark of Cain he has to kill himself to prevent Sam and Castiel from having to do it. Dean agrees and takes Benny's weapon and in the real world nearly kills himself with a broken bottle. However, Dean recognizes that the whole thing is not real and that the real Benny wouldn't want him to do it. Dean stabs Benny through the stomach with his weapon, dispelling the illusion.

Mamma Mia
After capturing Dean as well as Sam, Lady Toni Bevell attempts to interrogate him about his releasing of Benny from Purgatory and their subsequent friendship. However, Dean refuses to answer.

Powers and Abilities
Benny possesses all the powers of an average vampire, though his abilities have been more developed and refined from years of constant life or death combat in Purgatory. His prowess has allowed him to kill six vampires single-handedly, albeit with some difficulty. He was also shown to be highly trained in hand-to-hand combat, and his skills seemed to have become much more advanced after his years in Purgatory.
 * Superhuman Strength - Due to his time in Purgatory and the constant fighting against various monsters, Benny's strength and fighting skills were greatly honed, as he managed to kill half of his former nest, including his maker, who due to his much older age should be stronger, though his maker didn't fight back.Sfonews0348.jpg
 * Vampire fangs - Benny's teeth are sharp and super-humanly strong.
 * Super speed - Benny is able to move at speeds greater than humans can.
 * Superhuman agility - Benny possesses incredible agility.
 * Super senses - Benny possesses enhanced senses including night vision.
 * Immortality - Benny can potentially live forever. He can't grow physically old and won't get sick by any conventional diseases.
 * Invulnerability - Benny cannot be killed by conventional methods, such as gunshots or knife wounds.
 * Regeneration - As long as he has enough human blood, Benny can heal any wound short of amputation.
 * Spell Casting - Benny knew of a spell that would allow him to store his soul inside Dean's body, more specifically his arm. Dean possibly learned the spell he used to resurrect Benny from him as well.

Weaknesses

 * The Colt - It can kill vampires.
 * Vamptonite - Human blood with DNA altered by Leviathan corn syrup. This altered blood kills vampires quickly as though they have ingested a powerful acid.
 * Decapitation - Chopping off a vampire's head will kill it. Benny was killed when Dean beheaded him with a machete.
 * Dead Man's Blood - The use of blood from the recently deceased can also be used as a method to incapacitate vampires briefly but it cannot kill them.

Appearances

 * Season 8
 * We Need To Talk About Kevin
 * What's Up, Tiger Mommy?
 * Blood Brother
 * A Little Slice of Kevin
 * Citizen Fang
 * Torn and Frayed
 * Taxi Driver


 * Season 10
 * The Werther Project


 * Season 12
 * Mamma Mia

Trivia

 * Benny is the first known monster to develop a strong bond with Dean.
 * Benny's actor, Ty Olsson, played another vampire, Eli, back in Season 2. Eli shared a similar mindset to Benny in that he didn't feed on humans, but was much more reluctant.
 * Benny is the first (and currently only) vampire that has been brought back from the dead.
 * Benny is revealed to be similar in nature to Lenore and her group of vampires before Eve influenced them. However, instead of feeding on animal blood, he feeds on stolen blood transfusions. He explains to Dean, "I feed on blood, not people."
 * Benny wears similar clothing to John Winchester's anime-counterpart.
 * Unlike most monsters, Benny has actually been to Purgatory twice, the second time not leaving of his own volition despite the chance to go.
 * While fighting, he often whistles. One of the pieces he whistles is the famous In the Hall of the Mountain King.
 * Benny is referred to by his full name only by The Old Man in Blood Brother and not again until Mamma Mia when Lady Toni Bevell asks Dean about Benny.