All three of the Winchesters survive the wreck, although Dean is مزید severely injured than his father یا brother. In the season premiere "In My Time of Dying," Dean is in a coma. A reaper named Tessa tries to convince him to اقدام on and accept his death as it is his time to die and warns him that, if he refuses, he will most likely become one of the vengeful spirits he and his family have so often fought. In order to save him, John makes a deal with Azazel, trading his life for Dean's. When Dean wakes from his coma, he has no memory of his time with Tessa; he does, however, تبصرہ later that, when he woke up, it felt wrong. When John asks Sam to get him quote "a cup of caffeine" he whispers something in Dean's ear which the audience cannot hear, then hands the gun to Azazel. His father dies immediately afterward, and is later revealed to be in in hell.
Throughout the first half of the سیکنڈ season, Dean struggles with the death of his father. He is also haunted سے طرف کی his father's last words to him. At the midpoint of the season, it is revealed that John told Dean that Azazel intends to turn Sam evil and, if Dean cannot save Sam, Dean must kill his brother.
During an investigation in Baltimore, Maryland in "The Usual Suspects," Dean is arrested in connection with another series of murders. It is revealed that Dean has a police record, with charges over the years including credit card fraud, breaking and entering, and grave desecration. Although Sam and Dean are able to prove that the murders were actually committed سے طرف کی one of the detectives on the case, whose partner lets the brothers escape. Since the authorities now know that Dean is not dead, he is again wanted for the murders committed سے طرف کی the shapeshifter. In "Nightshifter," a team of FBI agents, led سے طرف کی Special Agent Victor Henricksen, catches up with Dean and Sam in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where an attempted bank robbery and several مزید murders are added to Dean's فہرست of supposed crimes, thanks to another shapeshifter.
At the end of "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 1," Sam is stabbed سے طرف کی Jake Talley, another of Azazel's "special children," and dies in Dean's arms. Crushed سے طرف کی Sam's death, Dean summons a Crossroads demon and trades his soul for Sam's life. The conditions Dean's deal are that Dean gets one سال of life, at the end of which he dies and goes to Hell. If he tries to break the deal in any way, Sam dies. Dean wants to keep the knowledge of his deal from Sam, but Sam quickly figures it out and vows to get Dean out of the deal, no matter what. As the سیکنڈ season ends, Dean kills Azazel with the Colt, but not before Azazel has a gate to Hell opened, allowing hundreds of demons to escape from Hell as well as their father, with whom they share an emotional moment before he disappears in a glow of light.