1.01 Pilot (The Winchesters)

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Title Pilot
Episode # Season 1, Episode 1
First aired October 11, 2022
Directed by Glen Winter
Written by Robbie Thompson
On IMDB Pilot
Outline
Monster Akrida
Demons
Loup-Garou
Timeline March 23, 1972
Location(s) New Orleans, Louisiana
Lawrence, Kansas
Lubbock, Texas
Vietnam (flashbacks)
[[|« Previous Episode]] | Next Episode »

Synopsis

Characters

Definitions

Music

  • "I'd Love to Change the World" by Ten Years Later
(playing as John returns home to Lawrence, and as Dean drives off at the end)
  • "People Will Make You Say Things" by Frank Lynch
(playing in the Winchester Garage while John and Millie talk)
  • "Walkin' After Midnight" by Patsy Kline
(playing on the radio as a demon possesses Ada Monroe)
  • "All Right Now" by Free
(playing as Carlos arrives and he and John exorcise a demon; also played in 1.06 Skin)
  • "Americana" by Jay Gruska
(playing in the final scene between Millie and John)

Quotes

Dean: March 23, 1972. The day Dad came home from the war. And, the day he met Mom. Now, I know this story might sound familiar, but I'm gonna put the pieces together in a way that just might surprise you. And in order to do that, I have to start all the way at the beginning.
John: Love what you've done with the place.
Millie: My husband and son walked out on me so, this is the best i could do.
John: When I got back from 'Nam, a man I’d never met handed me this. And then disappeared. Like vanished. It’s a letter from my dad. First I’d heard anything from him in 15 years. It says that if I got this… he was gone.
John: This a normal night for you?
Mary: Since I was a kid, yeah.
John: Figured you liked your coffee liked your worldview. Black as night.
Latika: My friends call me Lata. I don’t have a lot of friends…not sure why I just volunteered that.
Carlos: There’s nothing more hydrating than holy water.
Carlos: Runes, prunes, what is this damn box already.
Latika: It’s a monster trap. Powered by dark magic. It pulls monsters inside. And kills them.
Mary: This a normal night for you?
John: Since yesterday, yes.
John: Mom, my entire life I've been searching for something. And this -- this is good versus evil. Saving people, hunting things. I was born to do this.

Millie: You sound just like your daddy. Just come home.

John: I promise.
Ada: The Akrida are a malevolent force. Not of this world. For centuries, they’ve tried to invade.
Dean Winchester: What they didn't know was that the Akrida weren't just a threat to Earth, but to all of existence. Now, like I told you, there's gonna be some surprises. Hell, I'm still trying to find all the puzzle pieces myself. But I'll explain everything. And, until then, I'll keep picking the music.

Trivia & References

The opening scene in the cemetery is an homage to the opening sequence in the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. Samuel’s hat is also a nod to Indy’s hat.
The film playing in the theater Mary was leaving was Slaughterhouse-Five, which was released on March 15, 1972.
Movie posters that can be seen outside the theater include Klute (1971), Deliverance (1972) and THX 1138 (1971). Showrunner Robbie Thompson's Twitter handle is @rthompson1138 in tribute to the George Lucas movie.
John: I’m legal now.
The legal drinking age in Kansas in 1972 was 18 years of age for beer under 4% ABV.
Mary: Latika, you nearly fainted when you saw "Willard."
Willard is a 1971 horror film, about the titular character, who can control rats and goes on a rampage of revenge against those who wronged him.
Demon: Still has that new car smell.
"New car smell" is the odor a person smells when they first set foot in a brand new car.
Carlos: Jimi, Janis, Jim Morrison. Amen.
Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison are musicians and members of the 27 Club, an informal list of musicians and artists that have died at the age of 27.
John: Maybe he was some kind of paranormal freemason then.
Freemasons are members of a secretive men’s society that dates back to the 13th century.
John: H.E.W. Henry Eric Winchester. This was my dad’s locker.
Henry’s middle name “Eric” is a nod to Supernatural series creator Eric Kripke. John Winchester's middle name was also Eric.
Mary: Ground control to "Major Tom".
Mary is quoting a lyric from David Bowies’ 1969 song "Space Oddity".
Carlos: My bad.
"My bad" was popularized by its use in the 1995 movie “Clueless” which may lead people to think its use here is anachronistic. However, its earliest recorded use was by the musician Louis Armstrong on the Ed Sullivan Show, in June 1956 on the Ed Sullivan Show’s 8th anniversary when he wished Sullivan a happy birthday and then corrected himself, saying: "Happy Anniversary. My bad." By the 1970s it was common slang in the African American community, particularly in pickup basketball games and from there spread into hip hop music.
Mary: Do all hunters have such rough begininngs?

Carlos: The only thing worse than how it starts for a hunter - is how it ends.

A similar sentiment were also expressed by Dean (4.12 Criss Angel Is a Douchebag, 15.20 Carry On) and Sam (13.11 Breakdown).
Latika: Is no one else weirded out by the fact that there’s a giant hole in the ground in an above-the-ground cemetery?
Because New Orleans is at or below sea-level, and surrounded by water means that in ground burials risk coffins being displaced or even expelled from the ground during flooding. This means most burials are above the ground in tombs or mausoleums.
The core group of John, Mary, Carlos and Lata are reminiscent of Mystery Inc. from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, with John and Mary filling in for Fred Jones and Daphne Blake, Lata being a bookworm much like Velma Dinkley and Carlos being a hippy like Shaggy Rogers. They however, don't have a talking dog (yet), but they do also drive around in a van.

Minutiae

The episode was dedicated to Lou Bollo, who served as stunt coordinator from Seasons 1-12 of Supernatural, and received "Story by" credits for 4.02 Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester and 4.08 Wishful Thinking. Lou passed away on July 11, 2022.
While Tom Welling was cast as Samuel Campbell, he did not play the role in the pilot episode.
The Aquarian Star is the symbol of the Men of Letters it is seen in the crypt Samuel is in, on the knife John carries, on the letter John has, and the monster box.
Both Samuel and Mary use a lighter like the Zippo Dean often used.
In 12.01 Keep Calm and Carry On, Dean describes John and Mary's first meeting, as the two bumping into each other when Mary came out of a movie theater, and going for coffee afterwards, where John proceeded to impress Mary with his knowledge of Led Zeppelin lyrics. The pilot episode of The Winchesters alters this, with John and Mary simply going their separate ways after first meeting.
Mary and John share a love for licorice. In 7.10 Death's Door, Bobby has a memory of a movie night with Sam and Dean where they argue over licorice. Dean loves it, while Sam thinks it tastes like "it was made from dirt".
The character of Millie Winchester was created by Adam Glass. He never got a chance to have her appear in an episode, but had wanted her to be played in the present day by Louise Fletcher
The exorcisms used in the episode are part of the Rituale Roman.
John: I'm guessing this is your artwork?
Mary has drawn a Devil's trap which can physically trap demon's in place.
Both the key to the Men of Letters Clubhouse and Mary's Bracelet have an Anti-possession symbol charm on them. In 4.03 In the Beginning, which takes place in 1973, Mary's bracelet is seen to have many charms on it. Ada is also seen to have a charm, but she drops it, leading to her possession.
Although not mentioned in the episode itself, the Men of Letters Clubhouse is most likely one of their chapter houses, two of which were previously seen in 10.19 The Werther Project and 13.17 The Thing. In the latter, Sam tells Dean that "the Men of Letters only has one bunker, but they have smaller outposts all over the place."
Unlike the demons in Supernatural, the demons in The Winchesters are given modulated voices to sound more "demonic." In addition, exorcising a demon only appears to kick it out of its host rather than send it to Hell, as the demon that Mary first exorcised in front of John found a new body soon after.
Mary: Your Dad kept all of this from you for a reason.

John: Yeah, and I hate him for that. But I love him, you know.

This echoes Dean speech from 12.22 Who We Are where he tells Mary "I hate you. And I love you."
Mary: My dad went hunting for demons and now he's missing.
This echoes the story Dean tells Sam in 1.01 Pilot:
"Dad's on a hunting trip and he hasn't been home in a few days."
There is a postcard on the board in Ada’s Rare Books from the Manner’s Hotel, a tribute to producer and director Kim Manners, who was a huge influence on the show and all who worked with him.
John: I thought you killed that demon?

Mary: You can't kill demons, our buddy from the alley found a new host.

The Colt can kill demons, though at this point in time, it was believed to only be a myth, a "bedtime story" Samuel would tell Mary per 4.03 In the Beginning.
There is a folder with "D. Nutter" on the front, a reference to David Nutter who directed 1.01 Pilot of Supernatural.
John: When I was a kid, I thought there was a monster under my bed. You know what my dad told me? “Don’t worry son. I know how to trap it.”
This line echoes a line by Sam Winchester in the Supernatural 1.01 Pilot where he says to Dean:
“When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45.”
Mary: EMF Reader. Ghost Detector. Switch is on the side. Turn it on.
Sam and Dean Winchester often used an EMF reader, which Dean had made out of a Walkman.
Mary: Sulfur. Demon B.O.
Sulfur is a sign of a demon’s presence.
In 4.03 In the Beginning, John says he's a "mechanic from a family of mechanics." This episode does reveal that his mother, Millie opened her own auto shop and that her father was also a mechanic.
The letter from Henry Winchester is read by Gil McKinney who played Henry Winchester in Supernatural.
John: Mom, my entire life I've been searching for something. And this is good versus evil. Saving people; hunting things. I was born to do this.
Saving people, hunting things. The Family Business. was Sam and Dean's motto, first heard in 1.02 Wendigo.
Ada: All the Men of Letters I knew disappeared 15 years ago.
In Supernatural, the American chapter was destroyed by the Knight of Hell Abaddon on August 12, 1958. However, Ada's comment has a slight goof as 1958 is 14 years before, not 15.
At the end of the episode, Dean's Amulet can be seen hanging from the Impala's rearview mirror as he drives away.
The Impala has the original KAZ 2Y5 license plates rather than the CNK 80Q3 that it had ever since 2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be. The only time that the car was subsequently seen with these license plates outside of flashbacks is when Dean was driving through Heaven in 15.20 Carry On.
The Green Cooler is visible in the Impala's backseat.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

Promotion

Reviews

Pre-broadcast

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