Difference between revisions of "John Winchester"

Revision as of 00:28, 7 February 2010


John Winchester
Name	John Winchester
Actor	Jeffrey Dean Morgan Matthew Cohen (young)
Dates	? 1954 - July 19, 2006
Location	Lawrence, Kansas; Nomadic
Occupation	Marine, Mechanic, Hunter
Episode(s)	1.01 Pilot 1.09 Home 1.11 Scarecrow 1.16 Shadow 1.18 Something Wicked 1.20 Dead Man's Blood 1.21 Salvation 1.22 Devil's Trap 2.01 In My Time Of Dying 2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two 4.03 In The Beginning 5.13 The Song Remains The Same .

John in 1.16 Shadow

Full name given on the tombstone in the alternative reality of episode 2.20: John E. Winchester
At Comic Con 2008, Eric Kripke confirmed that John's middle name was... Eric.
Widower of Mary Winchester; father of Dean & Sam
In 1990 fathered Adam Milligan, with nurse Kate Milligan. He had sporadic contact with Adam from 2002 until his death in 2006.
John served in the Vietnam war with the US Marines. See below for John's military history.
He worked as a mechanic and was co-owner (with Mike Guenther) of a garage in Lawrence, Kansas until the death of his wife in 1983.
Blood type: AB
Religion: his dogtags categorize him as "non-religious"
Kept a lock-up where he stored weapons, including landmines, Curse Boxes and mementos from Sam and Dean's childhood.
In one version of the pilot script, Sam and Dean found John dead on the ceiling.^S1Com,p.11
Until he was eight, Sam thought John was a travelling salesman. ^{3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas}
John drives a GMC Sierra Grande Kansas licence plate #CSG 8R3

Age speculation

A draft script of the Pilot places John's age at 30 when Mary dies (therefore early 50s at present).

John's email address, jwinchester1246@gmail.com, could be read to refer to his birthdate - December 1946. This fits with the use of Mary's date of death throughout the show (it is used as a lock combination, or referred to as 110283 or 1183). This would place John at age 60 in 2006.

John cannot plausibly have been born any later than 1957 (so as to have been 18, and in the Marines, in 1975). Considering the notes below about Vietnam force reduction, the likelihood is high that he turned 18 before 1971 (in which case his birth year would be 1953 or earlier).

In the alternate reality experienced by Dean in 2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be, John's gravestone indicates he was born in 1954.

1.01 Pilot

John discovers his wife Mary on the ceiling of Sam's nursery, which is on fire. He gives the infant to young Dean, instructing him to flee the house, but is unable to rescue his wife.

22 years later Dean visits Sam at Stanford, telling him that John has gone missing. Sam reluctantly accompanies Dean to Jericho where John was on a case, but while they find his motel room, and belongings including John's Journal, he is not there.

1.04 Phantom Traveler

At the end of a case with an old friend, the boys get a cell phone number. The message on it is from John, redirecting people to call Dean if they want help - the first sign the boys have that John is still alive.

1.09 Home

Distressed at returning to his home town as they follow one of Sam's visions, Dean calls John but receives no answer. While investigating the haunting at their old home, Sam and Dean visit the garage John once owned with Mike Guenther. He directs them to Missouri Mosely. She helps the boys, but unbeknown to them John Winchester is in town and in contact with Missouri. He tells her he can't contact them until he knows "the truth".

1.11 Scarecrow

Dean’s cell rings, and Sam answers to hear his father’s voice. John expresses sympathy at the murder of Jess, and for the first time reveals that he knows that what killed Mary and Jess was a demon. John tells Sam that he must stop looking for him and he starts to give Sam details of a new hunt, but Sam argues that he wants to help John hunt the demon. Dean grabs the phone and takes the details from John about couples who have gone missing near Burkitsville, Indiana.

Later Sam leaves Dean, intending to travel to California and find John. However, after Dean goes missing on the case, he returns saying while he still wants to find John, he and Dean need to stick together.

1.12 Faith

With Dean near death, Sam calls John for help but gets no answer.

1.16 Shadow

When Sam and Dean encounter Meg in Chicago and realise she is linked to the demon that killed Mary and Jess, Dean rings John. He later arrives and Dean embraces him warmly. Just as he reunites for the first time in years with Sam, they are attacked by Daevas. Afterwards, dean supports John when he says it is too dangerous for them all to be together, and they part.

1.18 Something Wicked

Dean reveals to Sam that in 1989 when john was hunting a Striga, he left dean and Sam alone. When the Striga attacks Sam, John returns just in time to save him.

1.20 Dead Man's Blood

Following up on the death of the hunter Daniel Elkins, Sam and Dean are surprised when John arrives. He tells them about the Colt, a gun that can kill supernatural being, which he know realises Elkins had. Together they fight the vampires that killed Elkins, and retrieve the Colt, although john and Sam clash almost immediately and argue. After the hunt, dean inists that they continue the hunt for the demon together.

1.21 Salvation

As hunters they know start being killed, the Winchester start the hunt for the demon in earnest, following signs, that John has learned are associated with its appearance, to Salvation, Iowa. Sam has a vision concerning a young woman and her baby, suggesting she is a target of the demon. John is angry that the boys hadn't told him about Sam's visions, but Dean stands up to him.

When Meg calls she demands the Colt, killing his friend Caleb as John listens. John plans a ruse to give her a fake Colt, as Sam and Dean take the real Colt to kill the demon. Both plans go wrong, when John is captured, and the demon eludes the boys.

1.22 Devil's Trap

Sam and Dean turn to Bobby for help. When Meg turns up, they capture her, and manage to find out John's location. The boys rescue John, and take him to a remote cabin. It is while he is telling Dean he is proud of him that Dean gets suspicious and realises that John is possessed by the Yellow-Eyed Demon. He taunts Dean and Sam and is killing Dean when John manages to wrest control for a moment, and allow Sam to get control of the Colt. Sam however can't shoot to kill and the demon escapes. As they escape in the Impala, a demon-possessed truck driver totals the car.

2.01 In My Time Of Dying

All the Winchesters are in hospital - Dean near death. When Sam discovers John is planning on pursuing the Yellow-Eyed Demon, they argue. John promises to hold off until dean recovers, but actually summons the Yellow-Eyed Demon and makes a deal - his life for Dean's.

John has a final few moments with his sons. he tries to make some peace with Sam, and then reveals to Dean a secret - that he needs to save Sma, but that if he can't he will have to kill him.

Moments later the deal is called in - John dies and Dean recovers.

2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two

When Jake Talley manages to open the Devil's Gate in Wyoming using the Colt, John escapes from Hell and helps Dean kill Azazel.

3.14 Long-Distance Call

A creature called a Crocotta impersonates John's voice and contacts Dean on his cell phone, telling him an exorcism that can kill the demon that holds his contract. After the ruse is revealed, Dean confides to Sam how scared he is of going to hell.

4.03 In The Beginning

Back in 1973, Dean meets a young John Winchester, not long returned from Vietnam. Dean follows John to a car lot, where he suggests his father buy the '67 Chevy Impala instead of an old VW van. Dean introduces himself as Dean Van Halen and assures John that the car will still be "bad-ass when it's 40". Dean tries to get info about any mysterious events but John doesn't know anything. Dean follows John on a date with Mary Campbell - who John is planning to propose to.

File:Young John.jpg

John in the 1970s

Later, as Mary decides to elope with john to escape a life of hunting, he is killed by Azazel. She makes a deal to bring John back to life - his life in return for letting Azazel access to her house ten years in the future, when unknown to her he will feed Demon's Blood to baby Sam.

4.16 On The Head Of A Pin

As Dean tortures Alastair, he reveals that in the hundred years John spent in {{Hell]], he never broke and accepted the deal that Dean was offered - that the torture would stop if he started doing it himself. If he had, this would have broken the first of the The 66 Seals - instead it was Dean who did.

4.19 Jump The Shark

Sam and Dean learn that John had a son with Kate Milligan, a nurse he met January 1990. She worked as a nurse, when he was injured during a hunt. Adam was born on September 29, 1990. He didn't have any contact with John until he was twelve.

5.13 The Song Remains The Same

Castiel takes Sam and Dean to 1978 to save their parents from Anna, who is trying to kill them. John is shocked to learn the truth about the supernatural, and that Mary was raised as a hunter. When Sam reveals he and Dean, were raised that way too, John, unaware of their true identity, criticises their father. Sam gets a chance to defend his father and says he know understands better that John tried his best, and that he loves him.

When Anna and Uriel attack the family, John is injured. Michael appears and asks for John's permission to take him over as a vessel and save Mary. John consents.

Later Michael erases all memory of the events from John and Mary.

John's Military History

In 2.09, Dean says that John was a Corporal in the Marine Corps, with company 'Echo 2/1' (2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, Echo company).

In 2.19 Folsom Prison Blues (episode), we meet Deacon, who served in the Corps with John, and saved his life.

Speculation on dates

It's unlikely John graduated from high school. The badges/medals/photos in his journal (see below) suggest he was a rifleman. High school graduates were almost always sent to aviation or communication schools, rather than combat arms.

The Tet Offensive took place in January 1968. It is possible that this got John all fired up with patriotic fervour and he decided to screw school and enlist in the Marines. If he joined with his parents' permission, he could have been seventeen at this point. At that stage in the war, recruits were given four months of training then booted straight out to Vietnam, so he would have been out there by June 1968, by which time American bombing was already being curtailed and negotiations were beginning. Even so, it would be another year until troop withdrawal began.

(speculation care of Derry)

Dog Tags

WINCHESTER
JOHN
306-00-3894
TYPE AB
NON-RELIGIOUS

John's social security number suggests he was born in, or obtained his first job in, Indiana (source) (Although most children born today receive a SSN at birth or within their first year, this was not common practice when John was a child.)

Medals in The Journal

USMC Expert Rifle Badge
Bronze Star (fourth highest award for bravery, heroism or meritorious service)
Purple Heart (wounded)
Vietnam Service Medal (served more than thirty consecutive days, or 60 non-consecutive days, in the Republic of Vietnam between the dates of November 15, 1961 and March 28, 1973.)

'Nam information

These are all the official military campaigns for the Marines in Vietnam from 1970-73:

Vietnam Winter-Spring 1970 : November 1, 1969 to April 30, 1970
Sanctuary Counteroffensive : May 1 to June 30, 1970
Vietnam Counteroffensive, Phase VII : July 1, 1970 to June 30, 1971
Consolidation I : July 1 to November 30, 1971
Consolidation II : December 1, 1971 to March 29, 1972
Vietnam Cease Fire : March 30, 1972 to March 28, 1973

Although the Marines were in Vietnam until the end of the war (assisting in the evacuation of US embassies, for example,) ground force reduction begins in July of 71.

USMC units in Vietnam

Random Nam facts

25% of the total forces in country were draftees
82% of veterans who saw heavy combat strongly believe the war was lost because of lack of political will
91% of actual Vietnam War veterans and 90% of those who saw heavy combat are proud to have served their country

Other Hunters

John tended to work alone, and avoid other hunters, although many appeared to know him or of him, and he seemed to have a good reputation as a hunter.

From 1.22 Devil's Trap, on John:

Dean: Well, yeah, but last time we saw you, I mean, you did threaten to blast him full of buckshot. Cocked the shotgun and everything.
Bobby: Yeah, well, what can I say? John just has that effect on people.
Dean: Yeah, I guess he does.

According to Jo's Journal, John used to visit the Roadhouse before William Anthony Harvelle's death in 1995.
In 2.06 No Exit (episode), Ellen infers that W.A.H.'s death was John's fault - they were both usually solo hunters, hunting together, when W.A.H. died.

@@ Line 103: / Line 103: @@
 ==[[4.03 In The Beginning]]==
 Back in 1973, Dean meets a young John Winchester, not long returned from Vietnam.   Dean follows John to a car lot, where he suggests his father buy the '67 Chevy [[Impala]] instead of an old VW van. Dean introduces himself as Dean Van Halen and assures John that the car will still be "bad-ass when it's 40". Dean tries to get info about any mysterious events  but John doesn't know anything. Dean follows John on a date with [[Mary]] Campbell - who John is planning to propose to.
-[[File:young John.jpg|thumb|right|250px]]
+[[File:young John.jpg|thumb|right|250px|John in the 1970s]]
 Later, as Mary decides to elope with john to escape a life of hunting, he is killed by [[Azazel]]. She makes a deal to bring John back to life - his life in return for letting [[Azazel]] access to her house ten years in the future, when unknown to her he will feed [[Demon's Blood]] to baby [[Sam]].