Kevin Tran

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Name	Kevin Tran
Actor	Osric Chau
Dates	December 2, 1995 - 2013 (killed by Gadreel)
Location	Neighbor, Michigan (formerly) Warsaw, Missouri - Fizzles' Folly (formerly) Lebanon, Kansas - The Bunker (formerly) The Veil
Occupation	Prophet Ghost
Episode(s)	7.21 Reading Is Fundamental 7.22 There Will Be Blood 7.23 Survival of the Fittest 8.01 We Need to Talk About Kevin 8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy? 8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin 8.10 Torn and Frayed 8.14 Trial and Error 8.19 Taxi Driver 8.21 The Great Escapist 8.23 Sacrifice 9.02 Devil May Care 9.04 Slumber Party (mentioned) 9.05 Dog Dean Afternoon (mentioned) 9.06 Heaven Can't Wait 9.09 Holy Terror 9.10 Road Trip (mentioned) 9.14 Captives

I just want to be the first Asian-American President of the United States. – Kevin Tran, 7.21 Reading Is Fundamental

History

Dean looks at a photo of Kevin and his mother.

Kevin Tran is a teenager from Neighbor, Michigan. He is the son of Linda Tran. His father died when he was a child. Kevin was in advanced placement, and plays the cello. When the first Word of God tablet is unearthed, Kevin is called as a prophet. The angel Hester refers to Kevin as "the sole keeper of the Word on Earth." Kevin becomes a target because of his ability to read and interpret the tablets. He is first captured by the Leviathan leader Dick Roman and then later by Crowley in order to get him to translate the tablets. He has to learnt he hard way how to survive when Sam and Dean disappear for a year. When they return, he is reunited with his mother, but she is later killed by Crowley.

Kevin spends a lot of time isolated on Garth's boat trying to translate the demon tablet for Sam and Dean, as it promises a way to lock all the demons in Hell. He discovers three trials that must be undertaken. However while Sam is doing the third trial, Dean finds out it will kill him, and so he calls it off. Kevin's next task is trying to translate the angel tablet, to find away to reverse the spell which Metatron used to expel all the angels from Heaven.

The trials, and continual kidnapping and occasional torture, took a heavy toll on Kevin. Despite he clearly becoming part of the Winchester family, Kevin remains cynical that anyone has his best interests at heart. He is killed in the Bunker by Gadreel on orders from Metatron. After death, Kevin is stuck in the Veil and returns as a ghost to ask Sam and Dean to rescue his mother who he has discovered is alive. Sam and Dean reunite mother and son and Kevin's ghost leaves with Linda so they can look after each other until Heaven is reopened and he can move on.

Episodes

Kevin Tran becomes a prophet of the Lord.

7.21 Reading Is Fundamental

At the same time Dean is releasing the Word of God from a piece of rock, Kevin is contemplating what to write on his college exam essay. He is struck by something divine, and passes out. When he awakes he is driven by an urge that draws him to the Word, which is at Northern Indiana State Hospital. He manages to steal it from Castiel's room, but Sam and Meg catch him.

It appears Kevin can interpret the Word. However, two angels named Hester and Inias arrive to take Kevin, whom they reveal is a prophet, to the desert to read the Word, but Dean banishes them, and Castiel, with an angel banishing sigil.

Along with Meg and Castiel, Sam and Dean take Kevin to Rufus's cabin. Dean takes Kevin to the basement where he starts to translate the Word. Soon the enormity of what has happened gives him a panic attack. Dean gets him to breath into a paper bag to calm down. He tells Kevin not to worry about why he was chosen. Kevin replies that he just wants to be the first Asian-American President of the United States.

Hester and Inias return for Kevin, but when Castiel tries to intervene, Hester attacks him. Meg kills her with an angel sword.

Inias agrees to return Kevin home, and says the angels will watch over him there. Kevin hands his transcription of the word to Sam and Dean. What can be read from the translation is of the following:

"Waste not thy time nor your breath upon the Leviathan herd. Point thy blade at the heart of their master, for from him springs all their messages. Leviathan cannot be slain but by a bone of a righteous mortal, as light and good as the Leviathan are hungry and dark, washed in the three blood of the fallen: a fallen angel, the ruler of fallen humanity, and the ruler of fallen beasts."

At home, Kevin's mother is being consoled by a Detective Collins. When the angel's arrive back with Kevin, Detective Collins reveals himself to be the Leviathan Edgar who then kills both the angels.

7.22 There Will Be Blood

At the beginning of the episode we see Kevin in Dick's office taped and gagged. Dick wants him to translate the tablet for him. Kevin refuses, but when faced with the image of his mother being imprisoned and having a knife put to her throat, he agrees.

7.23 Survival of the Fittest

Kevin is still held captive by Dick at SucroCorp. He meets a young girl named Polly, who is under the influence of the Leviathan additive. He manages to pick the lock of the door to the room he's in and escape. Kevin spots Dick and the other Leviathans having a meeting, then heads for the exit only to be re-captured by Susan. Later, while Dean and Cas try to locate Dick to kill him, Sam finds Kevin and frees him. Kevin tells Sam about the Leviathan plan to kill all the skinny people in the world through poisoned dairy creamer and convinces him to blow up the lab rather than escape. The two head to the lab in time to witness Dean kill Dick with the help of Castiel before both disappear. Kevin warns Sam that more Leviathans will be coming, but Crowley appears and tells them that he has a small army of demons outside to deal with that now that the Leviathans are disorganized with Dick's death. Crowley then proceeds to kidnap Kevin for his own purposes.

8.01 We Need to Talk About Kevin

Kevin sets off a demon bomb.

After being kidnapped, Crowley takes him to a warehouse where he has another Word of God tablet that he has somehow located and asks Kevin to translate it. Kevin learns that this tablet is about demons and after having a little trouble, tells Crowley it contains a spell to open the Gates of Hell and release demons in into the world. Kevin sends Crowley to a gate in Wisconsin while he performs a spell that will open the gate. However, it is a trick and the spell Kevin casts kills the two demons guarding him and escapes.

For the next year, Kevin goes on the run, Kevin repeatedly calls Sam and leaves him messages asking for help, but gives up after six months, figuring that Sam is dead. Kevin learns how to protect himself from demons from the tablet and that there is a way to close the gates of Hell forever and banish all demons from the world before he hides it. Kevin eventually hides out in an abandoned church in Fairfield, Iowa. Kevin goes into town to use the computer at an internet cafe to surf the Internet, but is spotted returning to the church at least a few times by a priest.

After Dean returns from Purgatory, he checks Sam's abandoned phones and find Kevin's messages and he and Sam track Kevin down, his last message to Sam having indicated he traveled to Michigan where his girlfriend Channing goes to college. While she hasn't seen him, they find he used the computer at the college, and track him back to Iowa.

When they find Kevin he sprays them with borax in case they are leviathan. When he tells them he may have a way to banish all demons, Dean is surprised when Sam is not immediately on board with the plan. Sam later apologizes to Kevin for abandoning him.

Crowley and a possessed Channing show up and Crowley offers to trade Channing for Kevin, proving that she is still alive by letting Channing talk. Kevin pretends to agree, but lures the demons into the backroom where he drops holy water on them, allowing him, Sam and Dean to escape. In revenge, as the group leaves in the Impala, Crowley kills Channing while a horrified Kevin watches.

Later, Sam, Dean and Kevin stop at a gas station where Kevin reveals he is not taking things well, overwhelmed by everything he has been through and the murder of his girlfriend.

8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy?

Despite Dean's protestations, Kevin insists on checking up on his mother, who he hasn't seen in a year. At the time, Linda is visiting with her friend Eunice sadly discussing the disappearance of Kevin who Eunice insists Linda keep out hope for. With the Winchesters, he finds her house surrounded by demons. After killing two of them, Sam and Dean find that Eunice is possessed as well and kill her in front of a shocked Linda. They then offer to find a safe house for Linda to hide out in, but she insists on accompanying them in the search for the Word of God.

Kevin and his mom get anti-possession symbols tattooed on them to prevent demon possession, although Linda admits it's not her first tattoo which appears to shock Kevin.

While tracking down the tablet, Linda proves of use at a pawn shop, using her knowledge of tax law to blackmail the owner into giving them the information they need, which helps them track down Beau, who invites them to Plutus' auction of mystical artifacts.

At the auction, Crowley shows up, and Linda punches him for kidnapping Kevin, impressing Sam and Dean. When Plutus grabs Kevin and adds him to the auction, Linda wins the auction by offering her soul.

After the auction, the angel Samandiriel tries to convince Linda to let the angels guard Kevin, but she refuses as the last time angels tried, they were killed and Kevin got kidnapped. She is then possessed by Crowley after Beau burns off her tattoo.

Possessing her body, Crowley pretends to seal her deal and then teams up with Beau to kill Plutus and his guards and take the tablet. In the fight that follows, Dean nearly kills Crowley - and Linda - with Ruby's knife, but Crowley flees her body first, leaving her in shock and completely unresponsive. Sam and Dean believe she will recover as she is a strong woman, but Kevin tricks them and flees with her. He leaves a note asking Sam and Dean not to follow them.

8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin

Kevin returns to the abandoned bar where he and his mother are hiding out and is annoyed when she squirts him with holy water to see if he is possessed despite all of the precautions that they have taken against demons. Kevin is shocked to find out that in order to create more "demon bombs," Linda has hired a witch off of Craigslist, Delta Mendota. When Delta arrives, Kevin is clearly attracted to her despite his mother's warning and lets Delta use the bathroom. Kevin is shocked to learn that Delta has broken the salt line and betrayed them to Crowley who shows up and kidnaps Kevin once again, ordering a demon to kill Linda.

Crowley takes Kevin to the warehouse where he is holding the captured future prophets and demands Kevin translate the Word of God for him. Kevin refuses until Crowley cuts off one of his fingers. Kevin reads the titles of the various sections to Crowley until he comes upon a message from the tablet's writer, Metatron, in which he reveals there is a compendium of tablets, which interests Crowley as it means there are more tablets out there on more subjects than leviathans and demons. Before anymore can happen, Castiel arrives and confronts Crowley. As Castiel tries to smite him, Crowley flees, but only gets half of the tablet as Castiel smashes it in half. As Dean arrives, Kevin retrieves the second half.

Outside, Kevin and his mother are reunited and Kevin is bitter over his experience, more determined than ever to seal the Gates of Hell forever with all demons inside after losing his finger to one. Sam tells him Castiel believes he can fix his lost finger and that he has called in Garth to look out for Kevin and Linda and warns them not to run off on their own again.

8.10 Torn and Frayed

Kevin, disheveled with the beginnings of a beard and mustache, is still trying to translate the half of the Word of God tablet he has and is apparently running himself into the ground doing so. Dean and Castiel approach him for the ingredients to the demon bomb so they can rescue Samandiriel and he is annoyed as the ingredients are incredibly hard to come by. Castiel still asks for a list and heads off to get them while Dean stays behind with Kevin. Kevin listens to music to try to concentrate and completely ignores Dean, which he uses to his advantage when Benny calls. Finally, Dean forces Kevin to pay attention to him and asks where his mother is. Kevin reveals that he is now so focused on translating the tablet that he sent his mother away, saying that he can't enjoy the world until it is saved, reminding Dean of how Hester had told him that he needed to go to the desert to learn the Word away from man. He feels that Garth's houseboat is his "desert."

8.14 Trial and Error

Kevin, even more disheveled then before, starts a routine of waking up a 5:00 in the morning, eating hot dogs, then spending all day focusing on translating the tablet while taking lots of aspirin. After weeks of no success, he finally cracks it, but collapses with a nosebleed. After waking up, Kevin calls Dean, but apparently passes out again before he can tell him anything.

Translating the demon tablet takes its toll on Kevin.

Sam and Dean rush to the houseboat to find Kevin throwing up. Kevin has been so focused on translating that tablet that he has let himself go completely - he now stinks, he wears dirty clothes and he has frequent nosebleeds and headaches and believes he has even had a small stroke. Kevin reveals what he has learned: someone has to undergo three trials and recite an Enochian spell after each one. He has only been able to decipher the information on the first trial which is someone has to kill a hellhound and bathe in its blood. While Dean goes out to get supplies so that Kevin doesn't have to eat hot dogs everyday and Sam researches to find someone who has made a deal, Kevin cleans up. After he's done, Sam tries to get him to slow down, but Kevin tells him he hates the life he has, the lack of company, the fact that his mom is crying all the time and the place he lives, but knows that until the Gates of Hell are closed, he won't be able to rest. Dean returns and Sam reveals that he's found a possible match in Idaho. As they leave, Dean gives Kevin the food he has bought and pills for the headaches and to keep awake, but tells him not to overdo it. Dean also requests Kevin see if he can find anything on hellhounds on the tablet.

Kevin, somewhat hyper, calls Dean a couple of days later to report that he has found information on hellhounds: "the dire creatures may only be seen by the damned or through an object scorched with holy fire." Kevin suggests a pair of glasses, but ignores Sam's request to get some sleep and takes some of the stimulants in order to keep translating.

8.19 Taxi Driver

Due to all of the stress he is under, Kevin begins hallucinating that Crowley is talking to him in his head and mentally torturing him. Freaking out, Kevin calls Sam and Dean and informs the skeptical brothers of this. He also informs them that he has deciphered the second trial: Sam must travel to Hell and rescue an innocent soul then release it into Heaven.

While Dean is waiting for Sam to return from Hell with the soul of Bobby Singer, he visits with Kevin who is so freaked out he spends most of his time in the houseboat's closet. Dean manages to lure him out with food, but Kevin just takes the food and returns to the closet. He later sneaks out of the houseboat with his half of the tablet and hides it somewhere he won't tell Dean, believing it will take the pressure off of him.

Growing more and more paranoid, Kevin paints protective symbols over the boat, including a devil's trap. Crowley arrives, blowing out the windows in the boat, and telling him he tortured Kevin's mother for his location and after killing her, got it off of her smartphone.

Returning to the boat after completing the second trial, Sam and Dean find Kevin and his notes gone.

8.21 The Great Escapist

Kevin is held in an illusion of Garth's houseboat and is tricked into believing that he hasn't been captured and is still at work translating the demon tablet. Two demons pretending to be Sam and Dean bring him Crowley's half of the tablet to translate and Kevin works at while having "Sam" and "Dean" get him things, including food. However, when they are too polite, Kevin realizes the truth and under the pretense of sending them for his half of the tablet, sends them into a devil's trap.

The real Sam and Dean get a message prerecorded by Kevin in case something happened to him. He sends them all of his notes and translations on the tablet and they are able to use them to find Metatron.

Crowley learns of Kevin learning the truth and confronts Kevin who refuses to translate the tablet for him, saying he won't break and Crowley has no idea of the power that the demon tablet could give him. Crowley doesn't care anymore or need Kevin as he has the angel tablet and he starts to strangle Kevin, however, Metatron rescues Kevin before he is killed.

Kevin is taken to the casino where Metatron hides out and Metatron heals him. Kevin wakes up and reveals he has Crowley's half of the tablet with him and that he has translated the third trial which Metatron reveals is to cure a demon. Kevin confirms that and is confused at who Metatron is.

8.23 Sacrifice

After Sam and Dean ostensibly make a deal with Crowley to return the demon tablet to him, Kevin digs up the first half of the tablet where he hid it, and puts the tablet halves back together and gives it to Sam and Dean. Sam and Dean give him the key to the Bunker, telling him to wait there.

While Sam is undertaking the final trial to close the Gates of Hell with Crowley, Dean and Castiel travel to the Bunker seeking more information on the trials Castiel has been undertaking. They give the angel tablet to Kevin, and ask that he translate it to find out what the remaining trials may be. When Kevin protests, saying he thought he was done after translating the demon tablet, Castiel gets angry and tells him "You are a prophet of the Lord, always and forever... until the day you cease to exist, and then another prophet takes your place."

Dean calls Kevin and Kevin reveals that while he has found trials on the angel tablet, they don't seem to be the ones that Castiel is doing. When Naomi shows up and claims that Metatron is really working a spell to expel all angels from Heaven, Kevin listens over the phone but is unable to confirm her claims. Kevin later prepares to leave the Bunker, but pauses as alarms go off all around and the map table lights up with supernatural activity all over the world as the angels fall.

9.02 Devil May Care

Panicking, Kevin shoots a crossbow at Dean when he returns to the Bunker, but misses. Kevin is panicked since after the alarms went off, the whole Bunker locked down and he couldn't call out, though opening the Bunker from the outside seems to have lifted the lockdown. Kevin is worried when Crowley is led in as he once tortured Kevin, but Dean calms him down and asks him to look through the angel tablet for the spell Metatron used to banish all the angels and a way to reverse it.

Looking over the angel tablet, Kevin is called by Dean and is confused by Dean pretending that Kevin is his boss in the FBI. When turned over to a military sergeant to cover for Sam and Dean, Kevin initially fails due to how young he is, but hacks into her computer and uses what he finds there to blackmail the woman into agreeing. Later, Abaddon calls one of Dean's phones and Kevin answers and takes her message about the hunters she has captured and the coordinates she gives him of their location. Dean asks Kevin to look through the Bunker for a way to permanently kill a Knight of Hell.

Looking through the file room attached to the Bunker's dungeon, Kevin is taunted by Crowley and confronts him. Angry over his torture, Kevin beats Crowley up with his fists and tools in the room and Crowley claims that his mother is still alive and that he will lead him to her if Kevin sets him free. Kevin doesn't believe him at first, but Crowley points out he never saw her body and tells him that the Winchesters can't be trusted, that if necessary, they will discard him because there are always more prophets.

Though Kevin doesn't release Crowley, he decides to find out if what Crowley said is true and starts to set out to find his mother, but is confronted by Dean who tells him that even if Linda is alive, she is worse than dead. While Kevin believes Dean only wants him to stay because he is useful, Dean tells him he wants Kevin to stay because Kevin is now family to him and he will die to protect him. As Kevin breaks down into tears, Dean tells him that if that means nothing to him, he won't stop him from leaving. Kevin ultimately decides to stay and goes to sleep.

9.04 Slumber Party

Dean takes Kevin to a warded motel room in Branson, Missouri so he can get away from everything for a while after he starts to go crazy reading the angel tablet.

9.05 Dog Dean Afternoon

Kevin has returned to the Bunker and is recovering from a massive hangover after getting drunk in Branson. Sam and Dean later call him to research what could be causing the mysterious deaths in Enid, Oklahoma and to find a way to communicate with a dog. Kevin finds an old Inuit spell that allows Dean to read the Colonel's thoughts though it has the side effect of him taking on dog-like traits himself. Sam calls Kevin and he explains that the person using the spell can take on animal traits as a result, but hopefully when the spell wears off, so do the side-effects though he doesn't know how long it will take to wear off.

9.06 Heaven Can't Wait

Kevin finds a codex linking the angel script to proto-Elamite cuneiform and is able to translate the tablet and the footnotes into Elamite. He still can't read this, however Sam finds out that Crowley can. Crowley agrees to do so in return for being able to speak to Abaddon. He insists on using some of Kevin's blood to make the call with which to communicate. Crowley tells them the tablet says the spell Metatron used to expel the angels from Heaven is irreversible.

9.09 Holy Terror

Kevin is still working on the angel tablet. When Dean finds out that Ezekiel is lying about who he really is, he decides he must get Sam to expel him. He asks Kevin for a spell that will help him speak to a person, while repressing the angel possessing them, although without revealing the real reason why. Kevin finds a blood spell using the angel tablet and a Men of Letters book, and helps Dean set up the sigil that activates the spell in the store-room. Dean gets Sam into the room, and casts the spell. He tells Sam about the possession and that he must eject the angel. However Gadreel was aware of Dean's plan and altered the sigil. Knowing that Dean plans to get rid of him, he punches Dean, briefly knocking him out. He then finds Kevin in the main bunker room and despite Dean's intervention, he kills Kevin and leaves with the angel tablet.

Kevin is killed by Gadreel.

Kevin lies dead in the Bunker.

Dean gives Kevin a hunter's funeral.

9.10 Road Trip

Kevin is given a hunter's funeral pyre by Dean. It is also revealed by Metatron that Kevin was the last of the prophets, as he has made sure that no other ones will be activated.

9.14 Captives

Kevin, now stuck in the Veil as a ghost due to Heaven being closed finally manages to manifest himself to speak to Sam and Dean. Kevin asks them to rescue his mother, having found out from another ghost named Candy that she was seen alive a week before by her in Witchita, Kansas. Sam and Dean agree to perform the rescue and Kevin disappears.

After rescuing Linda, Sam and Dean return to the Bunker where they call out to Kevin who appears. Kevin is relieved to hear that they succeeded in the rescue and has a tearful reunion with his mother. Linda finds the ring she believes Kevin is attached to and decides to take him with her despite the risks of having a ghost around. Kevin likewise refuses to let his mother out of his sight now that he has her back. Kevin tells Sam he doesn't blame him for his death, knowing it was really Gadreel and asks him to kill Gadreel for him to make up for it. Kevin also asks Sam and Dean to put aside their differences, aware of their problems with each other as he was there all along even though he wasn't visible. Sam and Dean agree and Kevin and Linda leave the Bunker.

Trivia

• In 8.05 Blood Brother we see a screen shot of Kevin's application to Princeton which shows his date of birth as December 2, 1993. However, earlier in 7.21 Reading Is Fundamental, his age was listed as 16-years-old in a television report, meaning that he was not born in 1993 but later.
• Kevin also lists himself as an agnostic. Another form shows that he's using a credit card under the pseudonym Kevin Park which is a shout out to Supernatural first assistant director Kevin Parks.
• What Kevin did on his birthday by Osric Chau.

External links

• Interview with Osric Chau on Winchester Radio
• Character study experiment - Thoughts running through the head of Kevin Tran at the end of Supernatural season 7 by Osric Chau
• Community for fanworks related to Kevin and Osric Chau on Livejournal
• Is Kevin Really Gone? - A Reflection on Kevin's Death by Nightsky