he’s incredibly flawed - he’s stubborn, he’s angry, he’s prideful, and he fucks up trying to do the right thing, but no one will punish sam worse than he’ll punish himself. this is the guy who willingly threw himself into the worst torture imaginable in the universe, for what he thought was all eternity, to fix what he screwed up. and he didn’t hesitate, or try to look for some other way, or make up a backup plan to get out after he saved the world. that was going to be the end of him, and he was cool with that.