'The Winchesters' Season 1, Episode 1: 'Pilot' gives us nostalgia and a riveting premiere

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“Saving people, hunting things. The family business. In the great words of Dean Winchester, those words couldn’t be truer. This Supernatural prequel is an intriguing and deep tale about the love story of Mary and John Winchester, Sam and Dean Winchester’s parents from its predecessor, Supernatural. The series premiere of The Winchesters is an exciting and charming start to a journey of two people whose worlds collide, thanks to both of their fathers being hunters before them. Alongside alliances and friends, The Winchesters series premiere sets up new creatures, new connections, and the unfolding of a love story years in the making.

When Two Likely Worlds Collide

THE WINCHESTERS E1 Photo 1 — Image from Entertainment Weekly

The premiere focuses on the exact moment when John Winchester (Drake Rodger) and Mary Campbell (Meg Donnelly) first met, in the spring of 1972 in their hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. John is a soldier coming home from the war, while Mary is a girl coming out of a movie theater. They bump into each other and John is completely floored by Mary. But then the episode goes into more context about John’s father and why he feels the need to be connected to him. His mother, Millie (Bianca Kajlich) explains to him that the only reason her son enlisted in the army was to make his father come back home. His father has always been away, for a reason John finds out while working with Mary on a hunting case. He receives a letter from his father that leads him to a certain address, only then to be in the presence of a demon. Then Mary comes to the rescue, performing an exorcism and dunking the demon in holy water. This informs John that demons do exist and explains the fact that Mary’s father has been missing for a few days. They enter an abandoned garage filled with books and letters, which turns out to be an old Men of Letters site that has been defunct for years. John finds a lock with his father’s initials on a locker. It is at that moment he realizes the reason his father has been gone all the time. These events bring back references from Supernatural that make it feel so familiar to super-fans.

A new Scooby-Doo gang

While John and Mary are trying to find answers about their fathers, both arrive at a library shop where they speak to a woman named Lata (Nida Khurshid), who gives them supplies and knowledge about this case that they are working. She offers to tag along for the ride, but Mary is a little hesitant to let her join the case. This leads into questions about their relationship. But when a demon is coming to attack John and Mary, a van pulls up and knocks the demon on the side of the street, and Lata and a groovy hunter named Carlos (Jojo Fleites) show up to save the day. They also show John how to perform his first exorcism on a demon. Mary, John, Lata, and Carlos hit the road to New Orleans to a cemetery where a mysterious man, assumed to be Mary’s father, is running from an unknown species. They make quite a team, working together to slay a creature called a loup-garou and to perform an exorcism on a woman named Ada (Demetria McKinney). But that’s only the beginning. Ada then tells them about how she knew John’s father back in the day, and a new threat called the Akrida could potentially wipe out the existence of not only their whole town, but the entire universe. The twist: Mary’s father is out there chasing and trying to put an end to the whole thing. Ada gives them the location of an old Men of Letters space in Savannah, and off goes the gang to help save the world.

Promises of a series to come

Episode 1 of The Winchesters is a nostalgic, fresh prequel filled with burning questions about all the characters, like John’s unknown knowledge about his father and his involvement in the Men of Letters; Mary’s passion and dedication to finding her father, wondering if she will really leave the hunting world and fall into the arms of her father once found; and the relationship and the dynamics between Carlos and Lata. The new and diverse characters with their own stories to tell make the plot so much more rich and indulging. The action is well-paced and exciting. The emotional backgrounds to Mary and John’s family histories make it more intriguing to find out more about these two people, despite Supernatural fans knowing they ultimately fall in love. It’s those kinds of easter eggs that drive the plot and story forward. The ending of bringing Dean Winchester into the story (bring the tears) really helps tell the story from his perspective and a different set of eyes and ears. The Winchesters are in for ride while learning more about the family business. The show’s executive producers, Jensen and Danneel Ackles, give us an indulging and exhilarating start to a show that every Supernatural fan will be talking about for a long time. So, to the fans of Supernatural, we are in for quite the ride and I cannot wait to be a part of it.