Pilot

"*Take me home...*"
—The Woman in White

**"Pilot"** is the first episode of Season One of The CW's *Supernatural*. It was written by Eric Kripke and directed by David Nutter. It is the first episode of the series overall, and premiered on September 13, 2005.

## Synopsis

Two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, witness their mother's paranormal death as children and grow up trained to fight by a distraught father who wants nothing more then to hunt down the thing that killed his wife. Sam escapes to college to start a new, normal life, but gets pulled back in after Dean shows up on his doorstep to tell him their father is missing. Following clues from an eerie phone message from him, the boys travel to a small town and encounter a vengeful spirit called the "Woman in White" who then starts to haunt Sam.

## Recap

*This section is a detailed recap of this episode. **There are major spoilers.** Click to expand.*

Lawrence, Kansas - 22 years ago, it is a happy family scene as Mary and John Winchester put their children, six-month-old Sam and four-year-old Dean, to bed. Later, Mary investigates a sound coming from Sam’s nursery. She sees a figure standing over his crib and assumes it is John, but when she realizes it isn’t her husband she rushes back in. John, who was asleep in the living room, hears Mary's screams and rushes to the nursery, only to find her pinned to the ceiling with a deep wound across her belly. As he stares in shock, flames engulf Mary and the room. John hands the baby to Dean and tells him to run outside before trying in vain to save his wife. The scene ends with John and the boys sitting on the hood of their Impala as firemen tend to their burning house.

In present day, it's Halloween and Sam and his girlfriend, Jess, go out for drinks to celebrate his good LSAT score, which should guarantee him a place in law school. Later that night, Sam awakens to the sound of someone breaking into their apartment. He wrestles with the intruder, only to discover that it is his older brother, Dean. The brothers haven’t spoken for some time, and Dean is only turning up now because their father has gone missing on what Dean calls a "hunting trip."

As Dean tries to convince Sam to accompany him to find their dad, it is obvious that what the Winchesters hunt are supernatural entities. Dean plays a recording of a voicemail from John Winchester, which contains EVP of a woman saying “I can never go home,” and Sam agrees to spend the weekend looking for their dad. He needs to be back at Stanford on Monday for a law school interview. Jess seems worried, but it is clear that she does not know the truth about what Sam's family "hunts."

The boys travel to Jericho, where John has been investigating the disappearances of young men that go back ten years and all seem to occur on the same stretch of road. The latest victim was Troy Squire, and when Sam and Dean speak to his girlfriend, Amy Hein, they find out about a local legend of a murdered girl whose ghost hitchhikes and kills whoever picks her up. After some research, Sam and Dean discover the girl in the legend is Constance Welch, who killed herself by jumping from a bridge after her children drowned in the bathtub. That night, they travel to the bridge, and Sam makes it clear that he doesn’t want to return to hunting with Dean and John. He also questions the value of their quest to find whatever killed their mother. During the confrontation they see a woman jump into the water, and, when they go out on the bridge to investigate, the Impala mysteriously starts on its own and pursues them down the bridge, stopping once they've jumped to safety.

Upon checking into a motel, the brothers find out their father had also been staying there and that his room is still being held. They break into his room and, though it is obvious he has not been there for a few days, the walls are covered in research; newspaper clippings, notes – that identifies Constance as a woman in white. Local law enforcement have been staking out the motel, and Dean is arrested when he leaves to get food. At the police station, the sheriff accuses him of being connected with the disappearances and shows him John’s journal, which contains the notation “Dean 35-111.” While Dean is being questioned, Sam tracks down Constance Welch’s widower, Joseph Welch, who tells Sam that Constance is buried in a plot behind their old house, the same house where their children drowned. He also reveals that he was unfaithful to her, which makes it more likely that she is a woman in white.

Dean escapes from the sheriff's station using a paper clip and a distraction provided by Sam, but before Dean and Sam can meet up again, Sam has a personal encounter with Constance. She tries to seduce him, whilst begging him to take her home. Sam refuses, but she takes control of the Impala and forces him to drive her towards her old home. The car stops outside the deserted house, and Constance attacks him. Dean arrives and shoots at her, distracting her and allowing Sam to ram the car into the house. Inside the house, the ghosts of her children materialize, and as they embrace her, all three vanish.

After the case, Dean is keen to pursue John –- he has worked out that the notation he left Dean in his journal are coordinates to a town in Colorado, but Sam declines and so he drives him back to Stanford. Returning to his apartment, Sam finds a plate of cookies with a note from Jess. He goes upstairs and, hearing the shower running in the bathroom, collapses onto their bed, exhausted. He seems happy, but then something red drips onto his forehead and he looks up to see Jess pinned to the ceiling and bleeding from her belly. He screams, and, as Jess bursts into flame, Dean rushes in and pulls Sam from the inferno of their apartment.

Outside the house, as firemen battle the blaze, Sam tosses a shotgun into the trunk of the Impala. He is back in the hunt again.
## Cast

* Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester

Guest Starring* Sarah Shahi as Constance Welch
* Adrianne Palicki as Jessica Moore
* Samantha Smith as Mary Winchester
* Jeffrey Dean Morgan as John Winchester
* R.D. Call as Sheriff Pierce
* Ross Kohn as Troy Squire
* Steve Railsback as Joseph Welch
* Jamil Z. Smith as Luis
* Elizabeth Bond as Amy Hein
* Miriam Korn as Rachel
* Cletus Young as Motel Clerk
* Robert Peters as Deputy Hein
* Rick Dano as Hotel Clerk
* Hunter Brochu as Young Dean Winchester

Uncredited* Unknown as Azazel

## Featured Supernatural Beings

* Ghosts
* Demons

## Trivia

### Production Notes

* The original plan in shooting the bridge scene where the boys jump off, both Jensen and Jared were planned to go in the river. However, there was a costuming error and they only had enough for one of them to fall in; accidentally adding more humor to the episode.
* The streets used are the names of streets from Eric Kripke's hometown of Toledo, Ohio.
* In an early draft of the Pilot, the Winchester name was actually Harrison and John's name was Jack.

### Behind the Scenes

* After Dean and Sam jump from the bridge, Sam asks Dean If he's alright and Dean replies saying "Super!" Jensen Ackles, who plays Dean, auditioned for the role of Clark Kent (Superman) in Smallville, and later played a prominent role in Season 4 of that series.

### Event Chronology

* Mary dies on 2nd November 1983. 2nd November is All Souls Day, also called the Day of the Dead in Mexico.

### Goofs

* When Mary is pinned to the ceiling, her blood drips on Sam. Yet when John sees her body and falls down screaming, he looks in another direction that would make it impossible for Mary's blood to drip on Sam.
* When Sam criticizes Dean's choice in music Dean takes a Metallica tape off of Sam and puts the cassette in the stereo but instead of Metallica playing, Either "Back in Black" by AC/DC or "A Gift to the World" by Loveless starts playing depending on the version.
* Dean shoots Constance and she dissipates, but he seems to shoot her with regular bullets.
* Fire Engines in Lawrence, Kansas during the 1980s were painted lime green, not red.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.webcitation.org/5rzRNY9PF
2. ↑ http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listings/20050823wb19/