1.01 Pilot

Title	Pilot
Episode #	Season 1, Episode 1
First aired	September 13, 2005
Directed by	David Nutter
Written by	Eric Kripke
On IMDB	Pilot
Outline	Estranged brothers Sam and Dean reunite to investigate supernatural deaths on the path to finding their missing father, John.
Monster	The Demon Woman in White
Timeline	November 2nd, 1983 (flashback) October 30th, 2005 (Halloween party) October 31st, 2005 (Dean arrives) November 1st, 2005 (in Jericho) November 2nd, 2005 (Jess dies)
Location(s)	Lawrence, Kansas Palo Alto, California Jericho, California
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Synopsis

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.

Present Day
It is 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.

Characters

• Sam Winchester
• Dean Winchester
• John Winchester
• Mary Winchester
• Jessica Moore
• The Demon
• Constance Welch
• Joseph Welch
• Troy Squire
• Amy Hein

Definitions

• Alcohol
• Aliases
• Banshee
• Cat's eyes
• Crucifix/Cross
• Dean's Amulet
• Dean's Leather Jacket
• Demonology
• Demon Blood
• Devil's Gate in Clifton
• Electronic Voice Phenomenon
• Fictional Locations
• Fights
• Ghost
• GoldWave
• Hunters
• Hunter's Lingo
• Impala
• John's Journal
• Law Enforcement Officers
• Lawrence, Kansas
• Peen of Death
• Pentagram
• Photo Album
• Poltergeist
• Poltergeist in Amherst
• Possession
• Salt
• Sam & Dean's Arrests
• Sammy
• Silver
• Silver Bullets
• Stanford University
• Stunts
• Succubi
• Talking in Unison
• Telekinesis
• Tongues
• Title Card
• Voodoo in New Orleans
• Woman in White
• Wraiths
• The X-Files

Music

• "What Cha Gonna Do" by Classic

(plays while Jessica, Sam and a friend are at the Halloween party)

• "Speaking in Tongues" by Eagles of Death Metal

(plays when the guy stops for the hitch-hiking Woman in White)

• "Ramblin' Man" by The Allman Brothers Band

(plays when Dean and Sam are at the gas station)

• "Back in Black" by AC/DC

(plays after Sam finds Dean's "mullet rock" collection)

• "A Gift to the World" by The Loveless

(plays after Sam finds Dean's "mullet rock" collection; Netflix version)

• "She Cheated on a Cheater" by Keith Rosier

(plays as Sam and Dean check into the motel)

• "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC

(plays when Dean says "Saved your ass")

Quotes

John: Take your brother outside as fast as you can - don't look back. Now, Dean! Go!

Jess: And where is your costume?
Sam: You know how I feel about Halloween.

Sam: Dean, what the hell are you doing here?

Dean: I was looking for a beer.
Sam: What the hell are you doing here?
Dean: Okay, all right. We gotta talk.
Sam: Uh, the phone?

Dean: If I'd have called, would you have picked up?

Sam: I swore I was done hunting for good.

Dean: Come on, it wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t that bad.
Sam: Yeah? When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45.
Dean: Well what was he supposed to do?
Sam: I was 9 years old! He was supposed to say 'Don’t be afraid of the dark.'

Dean: Don’t be afraid of the dark? What are you kidding me, of course you should be afraid of the dark! You know what’s out there!

Dean: So what are you gonna do? Just live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?

Sam: No, not normal. Safe.
Dean: And that’s why you ran away?

Sam: I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go, I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing.

Dean: I can’t do this alone.

Sam: Yes, you can.

Dean: Yeah, well... I don’t want to.

Sam: You and Dad still running credit card scams?
Dean: Yeah, well hunting ain't exactly a pro ball career. Besides, all we do is apply. It's not our fault they send us the cards.

Sam: I swear, man, you have got to update your cassette tape collection.

Dean: Why?
Sam: Well, for one: they're cassette tapes. And two: Black Sabbath? Motörhead? Metallica? It's the greatest hits of mullet rock.
Dean: House rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.
Sam: You know, Sammy is a chubby 12-year-old. It's Sam, okay?

Dean: Sorry, I can't hear you. The music's too loud.

Dean: You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are.

Sam: Who is that?

Dean: One of us.

Sam: Come on. We got work to do.

Trivia & References

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

Sam: We’re not exactly the Bradys.

Friend: And I’m not exactly the Huxtables.

Sam is referring to the family in the TV show The Brady Bunch, a large patchwork family that stands for the ultimate American middle class family. His friend mentions the Bradys' '80s African-American equivalent from The Cosby Show, the Huxtables.

It is also possible that Sam is referring to the Brady family from the American soap opera, Days of our Lives, on which Jensen Ackles played Eric Brady.

Dean: I love the Smurfs.

The Smurfs was a cartoon series about little blue creatures living in mushroom houses in the woods. There was only one female smurf, Smurfette. Some fans believe that Dean, however, is referring not to the smurfs on Jessica's shirt, but to the pair underneath.

Sam: So he’s working over-time on a 'Miller Time' shift; he’ll stumble back in sooner or later.

and

Sam: Yeah, he’s just deer hunting up at the cabin and he’s probably got Jim, Jack, and Jose along with him. We’re just gonna go bring him back.

All references to alcohol: Miller (beer), Jim Beam (bourbon), Jack Daniels (whiskey), and Jose Cuervo (tequila). Miller Time refers to a well-deserved break, relaxation, possibly with friends, after a hard day's work or a job well-done.

Dean: Agent Mulder, Agent Scully.

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are the two FBI agents on the popular sci-fi/horror series The X-Files who investigate cases involving paranormal phenomena.

Dean: Okay, thank you "Unsolved Mysteries."

Unsolved Mysteries. was a TV show that featured re-enactments of unsolved crimes filmed in documentary style, with actors portraying the victims, perpetrators and witnesses. Many of these stories hinted at paranormal phenomenon.

Policeman: So you want to give us your real name?

Dean: I told you, it’s Nugent. Ted Nugent.

Ted Nugent is the first of Dean's classic rock star aliases. Also possibly a reference to the movie Fletch starring Chevy Chase.

Policeman: I'm not sure you realize just how much trouble you're in here.

Dean: We talkin' like, misdemeanor kind of trouble, or uh, 'squeal like a pig' trouble?

"Squeal like a pig" is a reference to a scene in the 1972 horror film Deliverance, in which a suburban man is told to "squeal like a pig" then brutally raped by crazed mountain men while on a fishing trip. The scene has been listed as one of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments (#63). See Deliverance for other episodes which have quotes from this movie.

Sam: What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?

Title character in the famous cartoon series Casper, the Friendly Ghost in which Casper was, indeed, a friendly ghost, unlike the Woman in White.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

• 1.01 Pilot (transcript)
• A substantially different draft of the script for the Pilot (pdf format). Mary Harrison dies in what everyone thinks is a car accident when her sons are 9 and 13. After her death Jack Harrison (their father) leaves Sam and Dean and they are raised by an aunt and uncle.
• Aaron Schneider was the Director of Photography on the Pilot.

Promotion

• Promo Trailer
• Australian promo trailer
• Jared talks about Sam during the filming of the Pilot
• Interviews with Eric Kripke, Peter Johnson, David Nutter, Jared and Jensen during the filming of the Pilot
• Episode Stills
• Supernatural Scrapbook 2004-05 (pre-publicity interviews and reviews)
• Interview with Stuntman Eddy Donno from the Set of the Supernatural Pilot
• Unexplained Phenomena Lurk Behind New Shows Review of the Pilot in the New York Times
• Review of the Pilot in the Blog "Play With Us Danny"