Sam Lawson
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- "Come on, chief. Give me a mission."
- ―Sam Lawson[src]
Sam Lawson was an ensign of the United States Navy during World War II and a vampire.
Biography
Although he disdained the military while growing up, thinking they only knew how to follow orders, Lawson joined up after seeing films of Nazi atrocities, feeling that something that evil had to be fought.
Lawson served as part of a team who captured a German submarine, only to become trapped on the ocean floor when the submarine's cargo- Spike, The Prince of Lies and Nostroyev, three vampires who had been captured as part of a Nazi research program- attacked most of the senior officers. Attempting to recover the submarine, the Demon Research Initiative forcibly recruited Angel to perform the mission, Angel being the only being they could find who could make it to that depth without being crushed and wouldn't eat the crew once he reached the submarine.
Once aboard, Angel assumed command of the submarine thanks to the command codes provided for him by the Initiative, staking Nostroyev and convincing Spike and the Prince of Lies to work with the crew to get the sub moving again. Unfortunately, thanks to the actions of the Prince of Lies and a Nazi officer, the submarine was damaged and Lawson, the only person who knew how to repair it, was fatally injured; with no other way to save the crew, Angel sired Lawson, the young man thus becoming the only person Angel turned after he received his soul. After the submarine surfaced near shore, Angel allowed Spike and Lawson to go free, subsequently fleeing himself.
For the next sixty years, Lawson committed all the traditional vampire atrocities, but was unable to gain any real pleasure from any of his actions, a fact that he attributed to Angel having a soul when he sired Lawson. Checking up on Angel once a decade, waiting for the moment when his sire would have something to live for so he could take it away, Lawson finally attacked when he learned that Angel had become CEO of Wolfram & Hart and a champion of good, threatening to kill Wesley, Gunn and Fred. Despite this, Angel was able to save his friends and stake Lawson, Lawson's last words being to ask Angel to give him a mission.
The next day, Spike and Angel talked briefly about Lawson, Spike reflecting that his revenge must have been practically frozen solid by the time he confonted Angel, only for Angel to speculate that Lawson wasn't looking for revenge, but for the thing that had defined his life; a mission.
