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Sam Gardner

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"People think autistic people don’t have empathy, but that’s not true. Sometimes I can’t tell if someone’s upset but, once I know, I feel lots of empathy… maybe even more than neurotypicals." - Sam Gardner, in The Silencing Properties of Snow -- Atypical

Samuel Douglas "Sam" Gardner IV is the main protagonist of the Netflix comedy drama series Atypical. He’s very interested in the South Pole, Antarctica and penguins. He’s the son of Doug Gardner and Elsa Gardner and the older brother of Casey Gardner. He was diagnosed with autism in 2004. Sam is portrayed by actor Keir Gilchrist.

Personality[]

Sam is smart, eccentric, funny, cool, creative, empathetic and curious, even though he has a hard time expressing emotions and he often appears to be cold as chilly ice all of the time. He can also be awkward and blatantly honest, due to his autism. When he’s curious about something, he often goes into extensive research about it for a long period of time. He loves and cares about his family and friends and he wants to be very independent by himself.

Biography[]

Season 1[]

In Season 1, the series kicks off as Sam researches for dating advice on how to get a girlfriend. In several interviews throughout this Season with his therapist, Julia Sasaki, he writes down every single details in his notebook about attracting girls that are given by her. He even continues to have obsessive thoughts of getting a girl at the Gardner home.

At Techtropolis (an electronics and appliance store which is run by the top manager Bob), Sam is new as an employee to the store, where he gets anxious around everyone, especially an Australian customer, whom Sam has a hard time responding to his demand. However, his anxiety fades away when he meets Zahid for the first time and they both become best friends easily. Sam asks his best friend, Zahid, for help. Zahid agrees with Sam on how to get a girlfriend.

Sam begins to look for a relationship, encouraged by Zahid. He goes on an unsuccessful date with a random girl that he met through online dating, and then another, where he asks out a woman named "Riley" in Techtropolis and he ends up pushing her off the bed when she starts to touch him at her house.

Sam is distressed to learn that Julia has a boyfriend, as he is interested in dating her. Sam's father, Doug Gardner, gives Sam advice without realizing the girl he likes is Julia and Zahid encourages Sam to pursue Julia. Sam is mocked and taunted by Arlo after he approaches Bailey and Arlo and asks them questions about how to "steal a woman". Doug consoles Sam and tells him that relationships are difficult but one shouldn't give up. He gives Sam a lift to Julia's house so he can leave her chocolate-covered strawberries. To Doug's alarm, Sam breaks into Julia's house. Doug then realizes whose house it is and drags him away.

Back at Techtropolis, Zahid tells Sam to go to the clothing store with him, but since Sam told his mother, Elsa, about it, she goes along with them to choose the right clothes for him. However, Sam doesn't want her to decide for him, he wants to buy the clothes for himself to become independent, and he tells her to wait outside of the store. Zahid picks a greaser-inspired leather jacket for Sam to wear to look nice or cool for the ladies over his favorite penguin shirt. Sam doesn't find the leather jacket comfortable to wear and he doesn't like it, even though he still purchases it.

At Newton High School, Sam is seen sitting alone in front of his locker. A teenage girl named Paige Hardaway takes interest in Sam, who is not fully paying attention to her by making a list of pros and cons about her if she is the right girl for him or not. Paige decides to leave Sam to his special activity. As Sam enters his class and he sits down in his seat, he gets annoyed by the noises that his leather jacket's zipper makes when it keeps on hitting a part of his chair. When class ends, he decides to throw away his leather jacket in the trash can outside of his class. Later, Sam is met by Paige again, after he didn't fare well with a random girl, whom he didn't have sex with at her house. Sam asks if Paige can be his practice girlfriend. Paige accepts Sam's offer.

At the Gardner's residence, Sam is busy with his things, but he gets mad at Paige for touching and invading his bedroom's closet by wearing his penguin shirt. Doug arrives to Sam's room to see that Sam has locked Paige inside of his closet, and he tells his son to release her. Oddly, Paige is not mad at Sam and she says that he knows its normal for Sam to punish others like that, unlike neurotypical people. Paige is released by Doug from Sam's closet, and she breaks up with him at Sam's family dinner when she finds and reads Sam's pros and cons notebook about whether or not she is a suitable girlfriend for Sam to have. Not to mention Casey discourages Paige from dating Sam, who scolds his sister for doing that.

At school again, Sam apologizes to Paige by asking her to be his girlfriend again by giving her a penguin necklace in her French class. They both kiss each other in class. As a consequence of their inappropriate passion, they both get detentions from her French teacher.

Following this, she decides to start the autism-friendly dance. Paige tells Sam that they can both have sex with each other at her house when her parents are not at home tonight. Sam agrees with Paige on her plan. Also, Sam is told by Paige that they can meet her parents to get to know them at the Olive Garden.

Sam heads toward a pharmacy store with Zahid. In a pharmacy store, he asks bizarre and funny questions to an employee about condoms that makes the employee very uncomfortable. He purchases the condoms to head towards Paige's family dinner at a restaurant, where she invites Sam to.

In the parking lot of Techtropolis, Sam helps Julia to her car. The two of them also share advice on how to slow dance with each other. This sparks Sam's attraction to her even more.

At the Olive Garden, realizing that he adores Julia more than Paige within his inner thoughts, he shouts out his thoughts in front of her and her entire family. He leaves the restaurant to go see Julia, tremendously upsetting Paige.

Sam confesses his feelings to Julia at his therapy meeting. Julia, in a poor emotional state, confronts Sam about being inappropriate and crossing the line of appropriate behavior herself, as well as her saying that he is younger than her and that she'll get fired for hooking up with a teenager, preventing her from paying off her $120,000 of student loan debt. Sam becomes distressed as an effect of this, and he walks out to ride on a bus, but not before being slightly hit by the car of Beth Chapin, who attempts to say sorry to him.

On the bus, Sam bangs his head on the window of a bus to suppress his stress, but to no avail. Luckily, the bus driver stops the bus to try to help him regain composure as Sam's parents both arrive right on time to drive him home.

Back at home, after he calms down and his burnout stage starts, a tired Sam rests on his bed, while wearing his light green hoodie. His sister, Casey, comes into his bedroom to cheer him up. Zahid also comes in to cheer him up, and that he says that chicks are the worst to them. At the same time, Zahid says that he and Sam should meet a bunch of them downstairs.

Outside of Sam's house, an enraged Paige comes to scream at Sam for breaking her heart. She angrily dumps a box full of contents that remind her of him onto his lawn, including the A she got on her Biology test that she studied for with Sam, a detention slip after kissing Sam in French class, and a drawing for her locker. She tells him that she lost the penguin necklace that Sam bought for her, and she tells him that he is not taking away her virginity. She then takes out a large stuffed penguin that she was planning to present to Sam for Christmas, but she slits its throat with a knife in front of the Gardners and their visitors. She departs Sam's lawn to return to her house in her car. As a result, Sam decides to find the necklace by tracing Paige's steps from the day she lost the necklace at school.

At the autism-friendly dance event, Sam is assisted by Zahid to find the necklace in a pool at the school's gym, getting himself wet. Sam meets up with Paige at the dance to return her necklace and he apologizes for what he did at the Olive Garden. Paige kind of forgives him, they both kind of made up in an igloo, and she gives him a sexual handjob.

Season 2[]

In Newton High School, Sam meets up with Paige. Unexpectedly, she creates new guidelines for them to stay as casual friends and nothing more. Sam approves of Paige's rules, and they both continue with their lives as before, aside from being romantic couples.

Having a difficult time searching for a different therapist since Sam scared away Julia with his confessions of love and not taking change that well with different other therapists, Sam has no choice but to join an autism peer group as a substitute after being advised by Ms. Whitaker. During his peer group meeting with other autistic teenagers (including Noelle, Sabrina, Lily, Amber, and Jasper), Sam and the other kids discuss about planning for their futures after high school and Ms. Whitaker encourages them to apply for several colleges. Sam is one of the few autistic kids who is planning to attend college, but Amber warns him that most people in college don't graduate and they end up flunking out of college.

Near Sam's school locker, Arlo approaches Sam by politely inviting him to his party at his house. However, since Sam told his mother that he was invited to Arlo's party and Arlo manipulated him to gain about $700 of funding to his party, Elsa calls Arlo's parents on her phone to ask what cutlery Sam would bring, based on advice given to him by Arlo. This is revealed to Arlo's parents that he was planning a party while they were going to be out of town that weekend. Arlo gets angry at him and grabs his expensive phone to smash it by tossing it to the ground, after Sam was watching a video of a baby penguin egg preparing to hatch on his phone. On top of that, Arlo pushes Sam to the ground to dehumanize him even further, causing Sam to feel sad about it and he leaves the scene in pain, while every students around them didn't do anything to stand up against Arlo or report to authorities about the incident. Otherwise speaking, the students around Arlo enable him out of fear of being targeted by him next right after Sam. Out of empathy for Sam, in the supply closet of the art room, Bailey Bennett is found hiding in a cabinet, and Sam enters the room. Bailey gives her phone for Sam to borrow, while she calls Arlo a jerk, indicating that she is no longer friends with him. She also lit a cigarette to smoke. They both later become closer to each other, as Sam shows her the baby penguin and Bailey tells him about her life.

To prepare for college, Sam seeks Zahid's advice. Zahid helps him to deceive his school counselor on his resume to appear to be interesting, even if Sam is a horrible liar. Furthermore, Zahid consents with Sam to have a sleepover with him at his house, in case if Sam wants to live on-campus of college. Unfortunately, being very sound sensitive to Zahid's snoring and his alarm clock due to his autism, Sam leaves Zahid's house to return to his home. On his way home, Sam is confronted by a cop named "Officer Timms" about violating curfew, scaring him into almost having a meltdown. Zahid wakes up and realizes that Sam left his house, so he goes out to find Sam with Officer Timms threatening him with questions as to why Sam is very late up at nighttime. Zahid tries to educate the cop to understand that Sam has autism, but Zahid is put in the same situation as Sam and they are both taken into custody to the police station. Luckily, Officer Timms' old friend, Doug, comes to pick them up. Doug informs the cop that Sam is his son, causing the cop to apologize for his misunderstandings and he places Sam's photo on his wall to remember him the next time he sees Sam.

After that, Sam tries to figure which colleges he is applying for. Sadly, at Techtropolis, Sam realizes that he lost his portfolio for his art school application, and he panics. Zahid attempts to call Casey to comfort him, and they make him retrace his steps of where he left it last time. In relief, Sam was given back his portfolio by Amber at his house. Amber reveals to him that she took it from him when he forgot about it during the autism therapy group session, because she doesn't want him to mess up so badly in college.

As his high school senior years are coming to a close, Sam demands his yearbook to be signed by many students. Many students signed his yearbook. However, when he takes a peek of his yearbook, he sees insulting names of him. He demands the lady of the yearbook to switch from his old yearbook with a new one. The lady refuses, and she says that each students can only receive a single yearbook. Sam angrily smashes his current yearbook on the table, making the table break and fall to the ground, as he leaves in emotional pain that almost every students despise him for being different from them.

At high school graduation, Paige is unable to make the speech. Paige reveals to Sam that she lost her voice, due to screaming extremely loud at the students who made fun of him after she discovered insulting names of Sam on his yearbook. Out of sheer empathy for her, Sam returns the favor by making the speech for her in front of a large crowd, including their family members and friends. Paige appreciates him, and she applauds for him. When graduation has ended, Paige decides to dance with Sam inside of the school alone during the night at the end of Season 2.

Season 3[]

In Season 3, Sam attends Denton University on Orientation Day. Sam seems to not have any friends until he meets two neurotypical, freshmen students, whom they befriend Sam so easily. At first, they seem to take a liking to Sam for being an irresponsible adult like them by ditching his appointment with the disability office, and chilling out with them all day. However, they turn out to be fake friends, similar to typical high school kids, and they only care about is their own self-image, ditching Sam for other people to hang out with. Sam no longer associates with them. On the next day, he makes an appointment with the disability services office, where he makes plenty of caring, neurodiverse friends, especially Sid and Jasper (the guy that Sam met before back in Newton High School in the peer group).

Thanks to Sam spending so much time on finding the necklace for Paige at Newton High School, besides art class, the only class available to Sam is ethics class to which he signed up for in his first semester. In ethics class, Sam has a rough time understanding the lecture that Professor Judd teaches him and he is falling behind on taking notes, so he tells her to slow down the lecture for him. On the contrary, Professor Judd refuses as she believes that he is a responsible adult now, and he needs to focus more carefully in order for him to stay on task to pass her class. Fortunately for Sam, since he signed up for disability benefits, he has a disability assistant, Evelyn, to help him take notes for him, while he listens to Professor Judd, improving his understanding of her lecture to some degree.

Outside of Sam's university, Sam and Zahid are both invited by Abby to an art jam party. Zahid was initially excited to go there to hook up with hot girls until he realizes that its not really a wild party and that its only artists trying to perfect their drawings to impress others. On the other hand, Sam enjoys the art jam party. While Zahid tries to lit a smoke, Abby informs him to not smoke here and he should go outside to do it. Zahid leaves Sam in the party to go to a nearby dumpster, where he meets and hooks up with Gretchen.

At the Gardner's home, Sam and Casey both invite Paige, Izzie, Zahid and Gretchen for a couple's dinner. During their dinner, while Sam and Paige both talk about their experiences at their own separate colleges, she says that attending college is a waste of time and money for students, and that learning from the internet is useful and free in the real-world. This ticks off both, Sam and Paige. Sam and Paige both also begin to dislike her, and correct her about college being worth attending to pursue their dreams. The dinner ends with Gretchen leaving the Gardner's house.

In art class, Sam is considered to be the best artist by his art professor, Professor Shinerock. He is tasked by his professor to sketch something that is politically-related. He sketches a drawing of penguins dying to climate change in Antarctica, where it is melting and a bloodbath of dead penguins. He hands it over to professor, who is very impressed by his work. Sam receives an A grade on his assignment.

Gretchen, however, appears to have a defiant personality, as Sam later discovers through a Techtropolis security footage that she stole a turquoise fitbit from the store. Sam tries to convince Zahid, who is acting as the manager, while Bob, the real manager, is away on vacation, but Zahid refuses to acknowledge it as a theft. Instead, he marks it down as a shrinkage. After being given some advice on doing the right thing, Sam reports the incident to Bob when he returns from vacation. Enraged, Bob bans Gretchen from the store and puts Zahid on thin ice. Furious, Zahid ends his close friendship with Sam, and he later announces that he is getting married to Gretchen.

Later on, Sam takes Zahid's favorite shirt from his bedroom's closet at the Gardner's home to prove that they still have a bond, even if they are no longer friends with each other and that he still thinks that Gretchen is not the right woman for him. Sam places Zahid's favorite shirt on a stove at Techtropolis, incinerating it by accident and causing sprinklers to set off. Zahid doesn't respond to him as he leaves the scene.

At a casino, Sam, Paige, Casey and Abby all track down Zahid and they try to disrupt Zahid's wedding. Unexpectedly, Gretchen tells them that her ex-boyfriend, Gavin, asked her to get back together again and she agreed, dumping Zahid. In the batting cage room, Sam tracks down Zahid and they both reconcile their close friendship, after he takes a direct hit from a baseball to defend Zahid, indicating that he is always there for his bro. As a price to pay for getting back Zahid, Sam misses his ethics test.

Season 4[]

This Season's finale begins with Sam now becoming independent by living with Zahid in their apartment. During their time living as roommates, Sam is bothered by Zahid's unusual habits, such as placing the trash can below the kitchen sink rather than next to the refrigerator. Because of this, Sam invents a bunch of rules that Zahid has to follow to compromise with his behavior. Not taking anymore of Sam's strict and multiple rules, Zahid has a fight with Sam over control in their household. As a way to get both sides to agree with each other, Zahid tones down his behavior to a moderate level, as well as buying him another trash can to put next to the refrigerator and Sam enforcing less rules. Sam agrees with him, and they both get along again.

Meeting with Professor Judd, he is told by Professor Judd that he failed her class and he is endangered of being on academic probation, unless he completes his extra credit, specifically an interview with several people of why college is essential for students to attend. At the very least, Sam can avoid being placed in probation. Feeling very determined, Sam does the extra credit assignment by interviewing with five people, particularly his former therapist, Julia. Hilariously, Sam interviews his professor, who simply states that he can't interview her as an exception for his assignment. In the end, Sam passes his assignment, and he is no longer on academic probation. Professor Judd congratulates him on his accomplishment.

At the aquarium, Sam is being introduced by a penguin named "Stumpy" to play with. During his time with Stumpy, he finds out that he desires to pursue his dream by traveling to Antarctica. The issue is that traveling to Antarctica is very expensive, and he needs over $9,000 to take a flight to that frozen continent. Not to mention his job at Techtropolis is no longer paying him out of the sheer fact that the store will be closing down, so he seeks Sid's advice and she tells him to give away anything that he doesn't need anymore to generate profit.

At home, Sam attempts to sell as many of his belongings as possible to customers in a yard sale to donate money for his trip to Antarctica. He also persuades people in his slideshow event by explaining to them about being passionate to meet penguins and his expertise on surviving in the wild. His audience donates hundreds of dollars to him. Sam's speech does not sit well with Paige, who angrily tells his audience that he can't survive in the arctic area, due to his inexperience. Sam becomes saddened by her, and he leaves his house to enter a cold storage room at Paige's workplace, but Casey comes to cheer him up and he trains him to prepare him for his trip.

Having enough money and preparing for his trip, Sam seeks for someone to take care of his pet turtle, Edison. He couldn't look for anyone who can take care of his pet. Luckily, Sam finds Paige (who apologizes to him for making herself look childish in his slideshow event) to be the suitable candidate, since she is able to take care of her pet pig well. Paige is willing to look after it while he is away.

When bad news are heading towards Sam, Sam is informed by his mother that his flight to Antarctica is cancelled at his apartment, due to no one going to Antarctica, except for him. Instead, Sam's only available flight is a plane trip to Alaska, where he doesn't take interest in. He becomes furious, and he becomes sad when he believes that his mother had meddled in his life again. He leaves his bedroom to be in his bathroom's bathtub to be left alone for a while, and, returning to his bedroom, he disposes of everything that is penguin-related to forget about Antarctica.

However, thanks to Professor Judd's advice, coming up with another plan, Sam decides to buy a boat to travel from the USA to South America and then to Antarctica. He shows his plan to his family with a geography map. His family thinks that it's a good idea. His father (who teaches him how to survive in the wild by building a tent) asks Sam if he can come along too, and Sam allows him to.

At the end of Season 4, Sam says goodbye to Zahid, whom Sam entrusts his pet turtle to over Paige. Sam also says goodbye to Paige, and he breaks up with her temporarily, due to being far apart from each other. Although, he confesses to her that she is the best girlfriend he ever had in the world, and there is no other fish in the sea that can compare to her. Lastly, Sam and his father both give a big hug goodbye to Elsa and Casey as Sam exits his house to witness the world of Antarctica.

Appearances[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]

Season 3[]

Season 4[]

Trivia[]

  • Sam is one of four characters to have appeared in every episode of the series, with the others being Elsa, Casey and Doug.
  • Sam's favorite subject is Biology.
  • His favorite color is Marine Blue.
  • He has a pet tortoise named Edison (named after American inventor Thomas Edison) whose his best friend.
  • He used to have a pet tortoise named "Tesla" before he had Edison, but Tesla died and he blamed it on not finishing Casey's birthday ritual list.
  • He doesn't like cats, unlike his mother.
  • He learned about wordplay jokes/puns in second grade, when one of his friends gave him a valentine card saying “Bee Mine” with a picture of a bee on it.
  • His favorite food is chicken tenders, from the box.
  • He works at Techtropolis, alongside Zahid, until Season 4 when it was running out of business, due to low stocks.
  • According to Sam, he never has gotten an F in his entire life and he always get straight As in school, except in his mom’s summer school, but her Fs stood for “Funtastic.”
  • He doesn’t drive because his first instinct is to close his eyes.
  • He loves penguins.
  • He likes Igloos.
  • Although he likes all kind of penguins, he considers the Chinstrap penguin to be his favorite type of penguin.
  • He thinks that he’s a good dancer.
  • He won the 8th grade science fair while in 7th grade, and also won the the 7th grade reading challenge while in 6th grade.
  • He was diagnosed with autism when he was 4 years old.
  • His mom washes his clothes with unscented laundry detergent.
  • He got detention for kissing Paige when she was in the middle of French class.
  • He’s incredibly smart.
  • His favorite number is 4.
  • His Denton University Student ID number is 9783210.
  • He hates being treated like a baby.
  • He’s an art geek and a penguin geek, since he has a collection of penguin drawings and pictures in his room, up until Season 4 when he gets rid of any collections that are penguin-related to forget about them after he was rejected to travel to Antarctica.
  • He’s a social outcast in school and society, meaning he isn't popular, he gets bullied at times by those who are popular and narcissistic (usually Arlo) in school, and he hardly has any friends due to being 'abnormal', his poor social skills and his inability to read social cues, except for mostly his best friend, Zahid and his temporary ex-girlfriend, Paige, who both accept him as a close person in their social circle.

Gallery[]

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