Imagine it or not, 20 years have handed because the first episode of Supernatural aired on September 13, 2005. That’s again when The CW didn’t even exist but, with a really younger Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles debuting because the Winchester brothers on The WB. Each The X-Information and Buffy the Vampire Slayer had resulted in the previous couple of years, so there was a gap for a brand new present to take over the spooky style house on community TV. However would Supernatural be the one to work out?.
By 2025, we actually have the reply to that query. Supernatural ran for fifteen seasons and 327 episodes. It survived a writers strike, its community altering from The WB to The CW, and the primary characters being repeatedly killed off. Whereas I didn’t begin Supernatural again within the day till the primary few seasons had been out there on DVD, I rewatched the Supernatural pilot for the primary time in years in honor of the twentieth anniversary, and I had what Dean undoubtedly qualify as a “chick flick second.” Here is why.
The Pilot Was A Nice First Episode
Pilots on community tv usually aren’t the smoothest episodes, with loads to set as much as try to hook audiences to come back again the following week. I’d remembered loving the Supernatural pilot the primary time I noticed it, however I additionally wasn’t watching on the time with a important eye a lot as with an eye fixed for a spooky present that might fill the opening that The X-Information left in my coronary heart.
Watching the pilot in 2025 (out there streaming with a Netflix subscription), I famous that there are certainly a couple of minutes of clunky exposition after Sam and Dean reunite. They needed to arrange the premise of the world being filled with monsters whereas additionally pertaining to simply how messy the Winchester household has grow to be within the years since Mary was killed by a demon. Supernatural’s pilot stands up as a fairly nice episode apart from these couple of minutes of clunkiness.
A part of that goes all the way down to Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki nailing the brotherly dynamic proper off the bat, and I feel the present made the proper name in beginning out with a Monster of the Week slightly than entering into the meat of the Yellow-Eyed Demon from the beginning. I’ve all the time had a gentle spot for the Lady In White, even earlier than Supernatural introduced her again within the remaining season.
I Forgot How Many Iconic Quotes Got here From The Pilot
Supernatural had its share of iconic strains throughout fifteen seasons, and I would recalled {that a} truthful few of them got here from the primary season. That mentioned, I completely forgot that so most of the strains that followers can quote en masse had been uttered within the very first episode.
We get the primary change of “jerk” and “bitch” between the brothers, in addition to “No chick flick moments” from Dean to cease Sam from getting too emotional. (Spoiler alert: there could be quite a lot of emotional “chick flick moments” over the following 326 episodes.)
And naturally, there was Dean laying down the legislation of the Impala when Sam was rummaging by way of his traditional rock cassette tape assortment: “Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.”
There Have been A Lot Of Firsts That Proceed Later Into The Collection
Again within the earliest days of Supernatural, there was no approach of figuring out how typically the Winchester brothers would get into the identical sticky conditions again and again and over once more, however the pilot introduces some plot twists that may undoubtedly be repeated over the fifteen seasons.
The primary fistfight between the Winchester brothers was truly their very first interplay after the time bounce, though these had been undoubtedly not their most brutal fisticuffs of the collection. The climax of the episode additionally included the primary crash of the Impala, which Dean took fairly nicely, all issues thought of.
The pilot was the primary time that Mary died on Supernatural, and whereas she wouldn’t rack up deaths fairly as ceaselessly as her sons on the present, it undoubtedly wasn’t the final time she died on display screen. Additionally – and apologies to the then-future Brokers of S.H.I.E.L.D. star – Adrianne Palicki’s Jess is the primary of many WInchester love pursuits to die a horrible loss of life.
The Collection Finale Referred to as Again To The Pilot
The Season 15 premiere memorably referred to as again to the Season 1 premiere by ending on the Winchester brothers standing over the Impala trunk with Sam saying “We’ve acquired work to do,” however there’s a pilot callback within the collection finale that I missed when that remaining episode aired in 2020. When the brothers had been engaged on the case of the Lady in White, they had been carrying the identical outfits that they’d be carrying once they reunited in heaven in Supernatural‘s divisive finale ending. Have a look:
Whereas Dean’s jacket within the final scene of the finale isn’t precisely the identical because the one he wore within the pilot, they’re fairly dang shut, and Supernatural did an awesome job of matching Jared Padalecki’s Season 15 costume to what he wore in his first episode as Sam. If I wasn’t already having a chick flick second over seeing the brothers in motion earlier than all the trauma they’d endure over fifteen seasons, I’d have undoubtedly had one over seeing the pilot costumes that had been recreated for the finale.
I Hate The Music Adjustments On Netflix
Sadly, there was one loss from the primary time I watched the pilot to after I rewatched it for the twentieth anniversary, and that’s the music. Supernatural was recognized through the years for Dean’s love of what Sam referred to as “mullet rock.” Arguably one of the iconic music sequences initially occurred within the pilot, with AC/DC’s “Again In Black” blasting after Dean instructed his brother to close his cakehole within the automobile.
This is not unique to the pilot, both. I additionally know in regards to the tragic lack of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Concern the Reaper” from the Season 1 episode referred to as “Religion,” through which a runner is actually fearful whereas working from a Reaper. The Season 1 finale additionally misplaced “Unhealthy Moon Rising” on Netflix. In accordance with government producer Phil Sgriccia on the Supernatural Then and Now podcast relating to the primary season, what occurred was that they “solely had rights to the music in Yr 1 for DVDs and tv broadcast, however something that was streaming and later acquired redone.”
Thankfully, that doesn’t apply to seasons past the primary on streaming and digital, so each “Carry On Wayward Son” that Supernatural ever included continues to be out there streaming, which is simply proper. The Kansas hit is all however synonymous with the Winchester brothers from the Season 2 finale onward.
The pilot lacking the music from the unique broadcast and DVD launch doesn’t imply that it’s not value revisiting, as I had quite a lot of enjoyable going again to see the very younger Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles of their debuts as Sam and Dean Winchester. It actually wasn’t one of many stars’ picks for the worst episode of Supernatural! Yow will discover the pilot in addition to the opposite 326 episodes streaming now.