 |
 |
 |
 |
Pilot
Sam is about to graduate from college
and has an interview set up to join one of the most prestigious law schools
in the country. His brother Dean, whom he has not seen since he went to college,
shows up in the middle of the night and tells him their father is missing
while on a hunting trip. Leaving his girlfriend behind to find their dad,
Sam joins Dean in an effort to find their father in a little town called Jericho,
where unmarried men disappear without a trace.
|
|
NotesWriterEric KripkeDirectorDavid NutterGuest Stars:Sarah Shahi(Constance Welsh) Adrianne Palicki (Jessica Moore) Samantha Smith (Mary Winchester) Jeffrey Dean Morgan (John Winchester) R.D. Call (Sheriff) Ross Kohn (Troy Squire) Steve Railsback (Joseph Welsh) Other Guests:Derek WebsterJamil Z. Smith Elizabeth Bond (Amy Hein) Miriam Korn (Rachel) Cletus Young Robert Peters Rick Dano (Hotel Clerk) Hunter Brochu (Sam's Friend) Filming Locations:Hastings ParkCompletely Useless Trivia:SynopsisLawrence, Kansas. 22 years ago. Mary Winchester is putting her sons to bed. Baby Sammy is snuggled cozily in his crib and big brother Dean kisses him goodnight. The happy family scene is completed with the entrance of father John. Later that night, Mary is awoken by the sound of static coming from the baby monitor. She goes to check on Sammy but sees that John is already there. She hears the TV on downstairs and when she goes down to check it out, John is sleeping in the easy chair. Realizing that the man in the nursery is an intruder, Mary races back upstairs to confront him. John is woken by the sound of Mary's anguished scream and runs upstairs. All is quiet in the nursery; Sam is safe and smiling in his crib. A drop of blood alerts John that something is amiss, and he looks up to find his wife pinned to the ceiling and bleeding. The room is suddenly engulfed in flames. John sends Dean outside with baby Sam and he tries to get Mary but to no avail. The three watch helplessly as the house burns with Mary inside.Present day finds Sam happily at Stanford with his girlfriend Jessica. He has just scored a 174 on his SATs and is anticipating a law school interview on Monday. He and Jess are asleep in their house when Sam is awoken by the sound of breaking glass. He gets up to investigate and sees a dark shape moving through the house. He attacks and a fight ensues. In only a few minutes he finds himself pinned to the floor, and realized the intruder is his brother Dean. Jessica comes out to find out what the ruckus is about, and is introduced to Dean. When asked why he broke in, he speaks the immortal words "Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days." Dean convinces Sam to help find Dad, and the two are off to Jericho, California. Men have been going missing since 1981 and their father was investigating why. The latest victim is Troy, who was just taken the previous night. The boys pass the crime scene on their way into town and stop to investigate. Posing as US Marshals, they find that the boy is missing without a trace and the police have no leads at all. They overhear that Troy's girlfriend is named Amy and she's putting up missing posters downtown, so they go to find her. They are told the local legend that a woman hitchhikes on Centennial Highway and any man who picks her up is never seen again. Dean and Sam rent a hotel room with the Mastercard with the name Hector Aframian. The hotel clerk recognizes the name as a man who rented a room for the whole month under the name Burt Aframian. Knowing this was their father, the two break into his room and find the walls covered with papers. All the victims are posted, plus theories and news articles including a newspaper clipping about Constance Welch who committed suicide after her two children drowned. She is a woman in white who preys on unfaithful men. The boys recognize the bridge where Constance died as the same one where Troy disappeared. They wait until dark and then go to check it out. They see Constance jump from the edge, and when they race over to see what happened, the car starts up of it's own accord. It must be something supernatural, as Dean still has the car keys in his pocket. The car races pell mell towards them, and they jump over the edge to avoid it. Sam manages to catch hold of a bridge stay, but Dean falls all the way to the muddy riverbed below. Back at the hotel, after cleaning up and getting a night's sleep, Dean is off to get some breakfast. The hotel clerk is in the parking lot with the two policemen from the day before. Dean realizes he's in trouble and quickly calls Sam to tell him to get out. Dean is arrested for using a fake credit card and for posing as a US Marshal. Sam gets away and goes to ask Constance Welch's husband about her death. Joseph Welch confirms that John Winchester was there asking questions, and tells Sam where Constance was buried. He also reluctantly confirms that he had been unfaithful to her but denies that she would hurt her children. Dean, meanwhile, has used a paper clip to pick the handcuffs and escape custody. He calls Sam and credits him for the fake 911 call that allowed him to escape, and is telling Sam about finding their father's journal and the co-ordinates he wrote inside when Sam gasps in shock at the appearance of Constance directly in the path of the car. He slams on the brakes, but still drives through the apparition. She appears in the back seat unharmed, and demands that he take her home. When he refuses, she locks the doors and the car begins driving to her house. Once there, she repeats the phrase "I can never go home" and disappears. She almost instantly reappears in the front seat with Sam, asking him to hold her because she is cold. Sam refuses and tells her she can't harm him because he's never been unfaithful. She replies "you will be" and kisses him. The seat reclines, and Sam falls back with it. Suddenly screaming in agony, he opens his jacket to reveal five holes in his shirt. Constance's hand appears, a finger in each hole, and we realize she's squeezing his heart. A gunshot explodes in the air, and she disappears for a second. Dean has arrived and is shooting her spectre in the face. He continues to fire, giving Sam enough time to start the car and drive it into the house, saying "I'm taking you home!" to Constance. Once inside, her spectre picks up a photo of her with her two children from the floor. Dean helps Sam out of the car, but an angry Constance won't let them off that easily. She pins them to the car with a cabinet and is advancing menacingly towards them when the lights flicker on. Water cascades down the staircase and two children appear at the top of the stairs. "You've come home to us, Mommy" they say in unison. Constance looks up at them with love and fear in her eyes. They come downstairs in a flash and lean in as if to hug her. Constance screams in agony and the three spectres flicker and flash in a battle of energies. They melt into the floor and disappear with a gurgling flush, leaving only a puddle of water to show they were ever there. The boys, now freed from the weight of the cabinet, breathe a sigh of relief and toss a few jokes at each other. On the drive back to Stanford, Sam checks the co-ordinates John left in the journal and finds that they point to Blackwater, Colorado. Dean asks if he'll come, but Sam insists on going home. They say their good-byes, and Sam enters the house to find a plate of cookies from Jessica with the note "Missed you! Love you!" Glad to be home, he flops onto the bed, smiling with the memory of urban bliss. A drop of blood spatters onto his face and he looks up to see Jessica pinned to the ceiling. He shouts "NO!" but there's nothing he can do. She bursts into flames. Dean makes a timely reappearance and pulls Sam out of the path of the flames. Outside, the fire crew has put out the fire, but smoke still pours out of the window. Sam, crying and heartbroken, rummages through the weapons in the car trunk as though trying to make sense of his life. Dean comes over to check on him, and tossing a shotgun back into the trunk he says "We've got work to do." |
ReviewFor a pilot episode, this one was surprisingly good. We were given all the pertinent information without undue discussions or flashbacks, and I found myself captivated for the entire duration.The fight scene at the beginning was quite well done, we see enough to know that they're serious about it, but not so much that we can critique their style. It only takes a minute for Dean to pin Sam down, so we know that he's a well-practiced fighter. He reacts strongly to meeting Jessica, so we can assume he's a ladies man. Sam, on the other hand, seems like a nice, quiet boy-next-door. We only find out after they leave the house that he too was "raised like a warrior". There were a lot of good lines in this episode. Some of my favourites are as follows: Sam tells Jessica that his father John is "deer hunting up at the cabin. He's probably got Jim, Jack and Jose up with him." When Dean says "Dad hasn't been home in a few days." Sam responds with "So he's working overtime on a Miller time shift. He'll stumble home sooner or later." The policeman asks "Fake credit card, fake US Marshal, is there anything about you that's real?" Dean answers "my boobs". Sam: "You gotta update your cassette tape collection." Dean: "why?" Sam: "For one thing, they're cassette tapes. Black Sabbath, Motor Head, Metallica. It's the greatest hits of mullet rock." Dean: "House rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole." A few notable moments; when Constance first gets into Troy's car, you see her enter the passenger side, but she doesn't show through the back window. The seat appears empty. When she is squeezing Sam's heart, her lips are gone and all we see are her teeth. Not only does this reinforce the fact that this is a supernatural being they're dealing with, but it also makes her look like a predator. Best Dean moment: him firing the gun at Constance. Gone is the joker who thumbs his nose at authority and convention. This shot is all business. No way he's going to stand idly by while she hurts his brother. Best Sam moment: him flopping onto the bed with a contented sigh. The look of pleasure at knowing his life is safe and happy, knowing his girlfriend is showering in the next room and will be out any second to tell him he's loved. That contentment changing in an instant to shock and horror. Wow. |