Changes

{{RecurringCharacters

|name= Kevin Tran

|actor= [[Osric Chau]]

|episodes= [[7.21 Reading Is Fundamental]]<br>[[7.22 There Will Be Blood]]<br>[[7.23 Survival of the Fittest]]<br>[[8.01 We Need to Talk About Kevin]]<br>[[8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy?]]<br>[[8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin]]<br>[[8.10 Torn and Frayed]]<br>[[8.14 Trial and Error]]<br>[[8.19 Taxi Driver]]<br>[[8.21 The Great Escapist]]<br>[[8.23 Sacrifice]]<br>[[9.02 Devil May Care]]<br>[[9.06 Heaven Can't Wait]]<br>[[9.09 Holy Terror]]<br>[[9.14 Captives]]<br>[[11.21 All in the Family]]<br>[[15.02 Raising Hell]]

}}

==History==

Kevin Tran was a teenager from Neighbor, Michigan. He is the son of [[Linda Tran]], and his father died when he was a child.

Kevin was in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement advanced placement], and plays the cello. When the [[Leviathan]] [[tablet]] was unearthed, Kevin was called as a [[prophet]]. The [[angel]] [[Hester]] referred to Kevin as "the sole keeper of the Word on Earth."

To protect Kevin and his mother, he was placed on [[Garth]]'s [[Fizzles' Folly|boat]] where he isolated himself to translate the demon tablet for Sam and Dean, as it promised a way to send all the demons on earth to [[Hell]] and lock the gates, forever. He discovered three [[trials]] that must be undertaken. However, while Sam was doing the third trial, Dean finds out it will kill him, and so he calls it off. Kevin's next task was trying to translate the angel tablet, to find away to reverse the spell which [[Metatron]] used to expel all the angels from [[Heaven]].

Two years after the Winchesters last saw him, Kevin's ghost was called in by [[God]] to vouch for Him with the Winchesters. Kevin insists that the Winchesters can trust Chuck and lets them know that for a dead guy, he's doing fine. Telling Kevin that he's spent enough time in the Veil already, God causes Kevin's [[soul]] to finally ascend to its rightful place in [[Heaven]].

[[File:KevinTranProphet.jpg|thumb|right|350px|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 divine lightning, and is lifted off his feet, then 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.

===[[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 Castiel 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]]===

[[File:DemonBomb.gif|thumb|left|400px|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 [[demon]]s 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.

===[[8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy?]]===

Despite Dean's protestations, Kevin insists on checking up on his [[Linda Tran|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.

===[[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 [[demon]]s. 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.

===[[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 Samandriel 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.

[[File:Kevin814.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Translating the [[demon tablet]] takes its toll on Kevin.]]

===[[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]].

===[[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.

===[[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.

===[[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 [[Tablets|angel tablet]] for the spell [[Metatron]] used to banish all the angels and a way to reverse it.

===[[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 [[Goblet of Blood|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 [[Angel Suppressing Sigil|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.

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===[[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 [[Linda Tran|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.

===[[11.21 All in the Family]]===

After [[Dean]] expresses doubt towards [[God]]'s intentions, [[Chuck]] teleports them to [[the Bunker]] where Kevin's spirit emerges from behind Him. Kevin greets the shocked Winchesters and notes how tense Dean seems. Kevin tells the Winchesters to trust Chuck, that He wouldn't be turning to them if He didn't believe they could do what He asks of them. When the Winchesters continue to look skeptical, Kevin reminds them that he always trusted them, to which Dean bitterly replies that it didn't turn out well. Kevin tells them that for someone dead, he's doing well, and Chuck tells Kevin that he's been stuck in [[the Veil]] long enough and that it's time for an upgrade. With a wave of His hand, Kevin's [[soul]] ascends to his rightful place in [[Heaven]].

===[[15.02 Raising Hell]]===

==See also==

* 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. If he was born in 1993, he should have been 18 or 19 when [[7.21 Reading Is Fundamental]] aired. This confusion is most likely due to writers' inconsistencies. Therefore it is unclear how old Kevin actually is. Given that Kevin's first appearance in [[7.21 Reading Is Fundamental]] shows he is applying to college though, and lists his age as 16 in his missing report, we can assume that he advanced grades (which would fall in lieu with his advanced placement line), making him actually born in 1995.

* 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]].

==External links==

* [http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mediablvd/2012/05/06/winchester-radio-supernaturals-reading-is-fundamental Interview with Osric Chau] on Winchester Radio

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQw_LiZdBvQ Character study experiment] – Thoughts running through the head of Kevin Tran at the end of ''Supernatural'' season 7 by Osric Chau

* [http://spn-kevin.livejournal.com/ Community for fanworks] related to Kevin and [[Osric Chau]] on Livejournal

[[Category:Canon]][[Category:Characters]][[Category:Ghosts]]