A wraith is a type of supernatural creature that feeds on human brain fluids and can infect them with high doses of dopamine.
One appeared as monster of the week in the episode Sam, Interrupted, in which a wraith was feeding on psychiatric asylum patients. In Mommy Dearest, Eve incorporated some wraith traits into her Jefferson Starship hybrid monsters. A a third known wraith preferred attacking psychics.
Characteristics
Wraiths feed on brain fluids, which can be extracted through a spike located in its wrists. They introduce it in a weak spot behind the ear to easily get to the victim's brain. Wraiths can use it as a weapon, but it seems to be easy to break. Victims with their brain fluids sucked out are left with completely dried brains.
A Wraith's retractable wrist spike.
It is shown that the best survival site for a wraith would be a psychiatric asylum, as it is the perfect place to feast on a regular basis--not only the patients' brains, soaked in dopamine, are delicious, but no one in the staff would believe them if they claim that there is a monster killing them, as the patients were diagnosed as unstable (psychologically speaking) and most of them suffer from some form of psychosis, schizophrenia, and/or several other mental disorders involving paranoia, reality distortions, hallucinations, and other delusions. Wraiths also have the ability to make a person mentally unstable just by touching them.
Wraiths true forms are revealed by mirrors like sirens and their main weakness is silver as just the touch of it badly burns them. Silver to the heart is fatal to them.
It was also revealed, in Patience, a Wraith has an evil aura that can be sensed by Psychics. Their aura is usually coloured cold blue, but can later can be switched into a fierce red. A Psychic, Dede, was shocked upon the revelation.
Physical Appearance
Depiction of a wraith from Martin Creaser's journal.
As other supernatural creatures, wraiths can look like typical humans. However, their real faces can be seen, and recognized as wraiths, when they are reflected on a mirror. Their true form is that of a humanoid creature with rotten skin.
Powers and Abilities
- Perception Altering - Like many monsters on the show, wraiths can appear as humans. Their true form however, can be revealed in a mirror, as you'll see that their faces are rotten.
- Insanity Inducement - It has been shown that wraiths possess an ability to infect people through physical contact, and make them psychologically unstable. The wraith that appeared in "Sam, Interrupted" revealed that they infect them by elevating a human's dopamine level, and that they actually do not make them crazy--they just let their inner problems and emotions take over with a little help. The victims slowly become more and more emotionally unstable, and depending on the victim, their inner problems will begin to surface as realistic hallucinations (E.g. Dean and Sam Winchester's problems related to their life as hunters and their guilt over the Apocalypse, caused them to have hallucination, as they began to not be able to tell apart reality from fantasy). However, when the wraith is killed, the venom loses its effect.
- Spikes - They have sharp retractable prongs on the back of each wrist. They use these to drain brain fluid, and as a weapon. The spikes are quite brittle, and if broken cause the wraith great pain.
- Super Strength - Wraiths are naturally stronger than humans, able to easily overpower them, however they are not so strong that they cannot be beaten.
- Super Agility - Wraiths are incredibly agile; one wraith was able to crawl through the walls and attack its victims by climbing out of the ventilation shaft.
- Regeneration - Wraith can grow back their skewers if they are broken off.
Weaknesses
- Silver - Wraiths have a great weakness to silver; silver burns their skin, being stabbed in the heart by a silver blade will kill them. With one wraith, just getting stabbed in the side with silver killed him as the blow didn't even touch his heart.
- Mirrors - Mirrors reveal a wraith's true form.
- Severe Trauma - Dean was able to kill a wraith by beating it to death with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.
Known Wraiths
- J. Forman (deceased)
- Psychic Attacker (deceased)
Etymology
Wraith is a Scottish dialectical word for "ghost, spirit". In popular culture it is a ghost-like undead being that has many dark powers.
Appearances
- Season 5
- Season 9
- Bloodlines (cameo)
- Season 12
- Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell (mentioned only)
- Season 13
Trivia
- When the Psychic Attacker wraith get his spike snapped off, a black substance pours out of it that is similar of that to the black fluid the Leviathans are composed of, its unknown if there's some relation.
Gallery
