Samantha Spade (Without a Trace)

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Samantha Spade
Without a Trace character

Samantha Spade
First appearance "Pilot"
Created by Hank Steinberg
Portrayed by Poppy Montgomery
Information
Occupation FBI agent

Special Agent Samantha "Sam" Spade is a fictional character portrayed by actress Poppy Montgomery on the CBS television drama Without a Trace.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Samantha is a Special Agent in the New York City FBI missing persons case squad led by Special Agent Jack Malone. She was raised in an economically disadvantaged, troubled home in the town of Kenosha, Wisconsin and as a result is particularly empathetic to kids in troubled situations. She was very unhappy as a teenager and tried to run away when she was sixteen, but was stopped by her mother and a policeman. For a short time while she was eighteen, Sam was married, but the marriage didn't last long. In Season 5 episode 18, we are introduced to her sister (older by two years), Emily, and in the next episode (episode 19 entitled "At Rest"), we discover that Samantha, aged 14, killed her Mother (Patricia)'s then-boyfriend (Joe Henry) by hitting him with a shovel, after she caught him sexually abusing Emily. They buried him in the woods next to the cabin, and this is the reason why they became very distant from each other. Samantha finds out that as a result of this abuse, Emily had a son (Randy) who now has cancer so she was looking for a bone marrow donor. At the end of the episode we find out Samantha is not a match but it looks good for her mother.

Before she came to the FBI, Samantha was a New York City police officer. Sometime after she joined the missing persons squad, she had an affair with her then-married boss Jack, and still feels partially responsible for his divorce from his wife. She has also dated NYPD officer Eric Keller and a man named Dr. Fred, and had an inter-office romance with fellow agent Martin Fitzgerald.

Samantha was once held hostage with several other people after a ransom drop went bad, and was subsequently shot in the leg with her own gun. The man holding her hostage refused to let her go until Jack exchanged himself for her. After Sam returned to active duty, she was forced to shoot and kill two suspects and was sent into therapy. While she first believed the therapy was pointless, she eventually stopped fighting it and soon came to realize that her job was all she had.

Since Martin Fitzgerald joined the squad, he'd had an eye on Samantha, and she knew it. After Jack told the team he was going to relocate to Chicago to be with his wife and kids (she divorced him before the move), Sam gave in and asked Martin out for a drink, thus beginning their relationship. It is likely she only started a relationship with Martin to help herself get over Jack. Nonetheless, she and Martin stayed together for a while, at first hiding their relationship from the rest of the office because Samantha didn't want to be seen as someone who got around. However, Martin soon grew tired of hiding and eventually broke up with Sam.

Sam once went undercover after one missing woman led the team to a series of women who had disappeared after going to work for a suspected drug trafficker. A few days after she went undercover, Sam was found out when she performed a police move on a man who was harassing her friend, and she was severely beaten by the thugs before her team was able to find her and save her.

Samantha was visibly shaken after Martin was shot and critically wounded, and, after a while of avoiding his bedside, finally came to him in the hospital and shared her feelings with him, though he was unconscious. Later, after he became addicted to prescription pain pills, Samantha was key in leading him to get help. She also takes extreme measures when Jack goes missing to find him, and her actions suggest she has some feelings left over for both men.

During Season 6, it was revealed that she is pregnant. She told Elena Delgado that the father was nobody that Elena knew. Based on this statement, the father is neither Jack, nor Martin. The father is Brian Donovan. a bartender with whom she had a one night stand.

[edit] Trivia

  • She received her name because her mother was a fan of fictional detective Sam Spade and The Maltese Falcon created by Dashiell Hammett. (In addition to this, the show seems to include many "Hammettesque" themes; e.g., missing persons, hard-bitten and enigmatic detectives/agents, mistaken or forged identities, including people who leave their former lives without explanation and start a new life under a new name or identity (similar to the "parable of Flitcraft" in The Maltese Falcon).)
  • She has an estranged sister named Emily Reynolds, played by Molly Price and her mother Patrica Spade, played by Tess Harper.
  • Brian Donovan, father of her unborn child is played by actress' boyfriend Adam Kaufman.

[edit] Quotes

Jack: How is Dr. Fred?
Samantha: Busy and unavailable, just the way I like 'em.

Martin: Sam, I want to show you something.
Samantha: It's Samantha. Nobody calls me Sam.
Martin: Jack calls you Sam all the time.
Samantha: Well, Jack's the boss. In case you hadn't noticed.

Samantha: It's called divorce. What is with you people?
Vivian: You're taking it a little personally.
Samantha: You go to a lawyer, he draws up the papers, you sign them, you swallow your regret, and you move on.
Vivian: And of course you're speaking from experience.
Samantha: Yeah. I was married once. When I was 18.
Vivian: Really.
Samantha: Yeah, it was red hot for the first two weeks and ice cold the last four months.
Vivian: Well, at least you understand commitment.
Samantha: (laughs) Thanks.

Samantha: Hey, you think it's easy being surrounded by guys with guns all day?
Martin: I thought you liked guys with guns.
Samantha: I like the guns.

Samantha: I've been sitting here all night looking for clues, looking for suspects. I mean, I'm not just seeing her I'm seeing... everything she sees and I keep thinking that if I get to know her maybe that'll help, you know? And then I think maybe I'll get to know her and it won't make any difference at all, it just... (She starts to cry) ... God, I'm sorry.

Samantha: Do yourself a favor, don't get shot. It's not all it's cracked up to be.

Samantha: I wanted to tell you something.
Martin: Sure. What's up?
Samantha: I'm happy.
Martin: Okay.
Samantha: I mean you make me really, really happy.

Samantha: (To an unconscious, critically wounded Martin) I'm sorry I didn't come to see you sooner, I, uh, I guess I was scared to see you like... like this. I want you to know that I know that I haven't been very good about being there for you. But I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere until I know you're all right.

Samantha: I'm tired, Jack.
Jack: I know you are honey.

Martin: ( In reference to Samantha's feelings about Jack) I guess old feelings die hard
Samantha: They don't die they just fade, and then you feel guilty that they faded as you wonder what they meant when you had them.

[edit] External links

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