Small Details You Missed In The Winchesters

"Supernatural" gave fans 15 seasons of rich folklore, symbology, music, and nerdy references to explore throughout the series. With such rich and expansive mythology to pull from, it's no surprise that fans keep finding new and exciting details about the series. Dean and Sam Winchester spend their time on "Supernatural" killing monsters and taking names, all against a classic rock soundtrack. Though the ending of "Supernatural" has come and gone, Jensen and Danneel Ackles brought this beloved world back to fans in the form of a spinoff called "The Winchesters." 

While the original series teases the love story between Dean and Sam's parents, John and Mary Winchester, fans witness Heaven and Hell tamper with the family more times than they can count. In both parental time-travel episodes, demons and angels alike meddle with Mary and John. Considering all the upheaval, it's not exactly a stretch to think that the version of their parents' origin story Dean and Sam think they know might not exactly be accurate, and Dean is determined to discover the truth.

Of course, in chronicling this story, "The Winchesters" creatives can add a slew of references to the original series, its actors, and the show's expansive musical choices. Between Easter eggs, plotline teases, symbology, and dialogue references, here are some small details you may not have noticed in "The Winchesters." 

As far as Easter eggs on "The Winchesters" go, the anti-possession charms are an intriguing addition to canonical lore. When Dean and Sam get matching anti-possession tattoos in Season 3 of "Supernatural," some fans thought the sun design was an artistic choice. It's the pentacle that matters, right? Yet in the "Pilot" episode of "The Winchesters," both Mary and John have the same sun pentacle sigil on separate charms to prevent possession.

Now, this is the case before the duo really knows each other. Mary's charm undoubtedly comes from her hunter family, while John's is a relic from his dad's Men of Letters days. So, how do two unrelated brands of hunter families have the same charms that their future sons will later get tattooed on themselves? Sure, it's possible that the writers just wanted to throw in a fun Easter egg, but it begs the question: Would a barren pentacle not prevent possession? It's certainly not a do-or-die conundrum, but it's still fun to speculate.

Apparently, John Winchester was saving people and hunting things before it became the family business. Who knew? While fans spent the first seasons of "Supernatural" thinking John only gets into the hunting game after Mary dies, Season 5 already retconned that notion. 

Season 4's time-travel episode, "In the Beginning," hinges on Hell meddling with the Campbells and Winchesters with John's premature death and Mary's demonic deal with Azazel. Yet in Season 5's "The Song Remains the Same," Heaven is responsible for all of the tampering. After a gut-wrenching exchange with Sam where John unknowingly flames his own future parental choices, John says yes to Michael using his body to save Mary. Luckily, Michael only wants to chat with Dean, and he scrubs John and Mary's memories instead of doing lasting damage — if it's even possible for Michael to meddle with the past enough to change the future. Through it all, we discover that John did know about the supernatural world at one point, and the angels made him forget. In fact, the entirety of "Supernatural" hinges on both Heaven and Hell screwing with this family.

In the "Pilot" of "The Winchesters," John mirrors Dean's own family business sentiment from the "Pilot" of "Supernatural." John says to his mom, "Saving people, hunting things. I was born to do this." Well, he's right — because no matter how many times higher powers make him forget, John Winchester always finds his way back to the life.

For the first few seasons of "Supernatural," Dean Winchester wouldn't be caught dead without the amulet Sam gave him when their dad bailed on Christmas. In Season 5, the brothers discover that the amulet, nicknamed by the fandom as the Samulet, is a GPS (or maybe we should say "CPS" with a "C" that stands for "cosmic?") charm for God that burns hot in his presence. Of course, God is God, and if he doesn't feel like allowing a talisman to work, he can suck the magic right out of it. At this point, Chuck isn't ready to show his true colors, and Dean throws the amulet in the trash after losing what little faith he has left.

Yet that's not the last we see of the Samulet on "Supernatural." Robbie Thompson wrote the episode "Fan Fiction," where a fan of the in-universe book series written by Chuck calls Dean out for throwing the amulet away. Despite telling her, "I don't need a symbol to remind me how I feel about my brother," Dean hangs the fake amulet up in the Impala for that single episode. However, it shows up one last time in another Robbie Thompson episode, "Don't Call Me Shurley," God turns the amulet's juice back on, and the Winchesters learn the truth about Chuck's secret godly identity. It's probably a good thing Sam keeps the amulet all that time. 

In the "Pilot" episode of "The Winchesters," the amulet once again hangs from the Impala's mirror. And what do these three integral episodes all have in common? You guessed it: Robbie Thompson. Astute fans might also notice the Winchesters' cooler in the back seat and Baby's original KAZ-2Y5 license plate.

Fans who don't stick around for the credits may have missed Lou Bollo's "In Memoriam" honor after the title card. Bollo's name should sound familiar to anyone who watched the "Supernatural" episode "The French Mistake" more than a few times. Bollo was the stunt coordinator on "Supernatural" from the early Season 1 episode "Wendigo" up until the Season 12 episode "All Along the Watchtower." That's 252 episodes for inquiring minds. TV crew members don't always get their props, but "Supernatural" actors and the show itself have always made it a point to showcase the off-screen creatives who make the show what it is.

Bollo's work was integral to every fight scene "Supernatural" had seen during his tenure, and the meta episode "The French Mistake" put the stunt coordinator in the spotlight. Of course, the episode finds Dean and Sam acting in their own fictionalized version of the show, so it was only natural to shine a light on the real creatives behind the series.

While Micah Hauptman played creator Eric Kripke and Philip Maurice Hayes took on the role of Ackles' and Padalecki's bodyguard Clif Kosterman, Bollo played himself in this goofy love letter to the industry. It's good to see "The Winchesters" acknowledge and honor the work of creatives like Bollo, without whom this world wouldn't have been possible.

Not much changes with Mary's fashion choices in the decade between "The Winchesters" and her death in the pilot of "Supernatural." Yet one outfit the young hunter wears in "Teach Your Children Well" chillingly foreshadows Mary's possible future. The first five minutes of the "Supernatural" pilot establishes the series' propensity for death within the Winchester clan and around it. Long before we learn the lore surrounding Mary's death (and her deal with the Yellow-Eyed-Demon Azazel), we watch Sam and Dean's mother meet a crispy end as she's ripped onto the ceiling and burned alive.

Naturally, that would make any family a little jaded, but as the seasons go by we start to uncover what really happened that fateful night. It turns out that Mary made a deal with Azazel to save John, and 10 years later he stopped by the Winchester house to claim his reward — Mary just got in the way. It's impossible to think of the "Supernatural" opener without recalling Mary's white nightgown, which symbolizes purity. Both the Winchester brothers and their father, John, put Mary on a pedestal. To them, she can do no wrong, and her attire mirrors that.

In "Teach Your Children Well," Mary wears a white dress strikingly similar to her nightgown from the "Supernatural" pilot. The callback is a grim reminder of what Mary's fate might end up being, although the Season 1 finale posits that this Mary lives in an alternate universe from the original Mary. In some ways, this could give fans hope that Mary may evade her fate. However, despite Dean's meddling in the past, the Winchester matriarch has ignored his warnings before.

The great thing about "The Winchesters" is that it takes place when many of the original show's best musical moments were actually released. Given that plenty of the best music choices in "Supernatural" debuted before the mid-'70s, the prequel can call back to some of these songs. This happens in the episode "Reflections" when the Blind Faith song "Can't Find My Way Home" plays.

"Supernatural" fans who pay attention to the show's vast music catalog might recognize two moments from the series that also feature the song. Streaming rights made Netflix change the goodbye moment between Dean and Cassie in "Route 666" from "Can't Find My Way Home" to the 2005 song "Line of Love" by The Minors. However, fans who watched live or rely on the DVDs to rewatch the show better understand the show's classic rock tunes — and recoil at even minor changes.

Thankfully, the series brought back the Blind Faith song in the Season 9 finale, "Do You Believe in Miracles?" with an even more iconic sequence. The ballad accompanies Metatron stabbing Dean with an angel blade, Dean telling Sam he's proud of the brothers, the revelation that Castiel will die if his grace isn't replenished, and Sam's attempts to summon Crowley. The song cuts off right before Crowley's deathbed chat with Dean and the eldest Winchester's demonic reveal. 

"The Winchesters" takes a bit more of an on-the-nose approach to the song, as it plays on a record that looks an awful lot like a gaudy motel room pattern you might see in the original show. Here, the song represents Henry and Samuel's inability to come home to their sons.

What is with TV shows making random, subtle comments with incest vibes? "Supernatural" first went there with the Season 4 time travel episode "In the Beginning," when Dean makes a pretty creepy offhand comment about the young version of his mother. He says, "Sammy, wherever you are ... Mom is a babe! I'm going to hell. Again." While the line is almost funny (and weirdly on brand for Dean), it's more creepy than quirky. Out of all of Dean Winchester's best one-liners in "Supernatural," we can happily leave this one on the side of the road. 

Yet apparently not. "The Winchesters" makes an unfortunate callback to this repressed moment when Mary sees a picture of Dean. In her defense, she doesn't actually know that Dean is her child (unlike Dean). So her offhand comment about Dean is a bit more forgivable. When Mary sees her alternate universe son's photo, she says, "He's not a bad-looking one either." It's still less cringe than saying, "Mom is a babe," but it's equally unnecessary and awkward. Can we just collectively put the kibosh on lines that imply creepy feelings between family members? 

One of the more innocuously fun moments of "Supernatural" comes from the show playing with the title cards over the years. Each season has a different thematic vibe for the title cards — between the ghostly intro in Season 1, the Key of Solomon and demon essence in Season 3, and a fiery Men of Letters symbol in Season 12. Though each season has its own card, certain thematic episodes get their own quirky title card. The first instance of this doesn't happen until the Season 3 episode, "A Very Supernatural Christmas," where we get a shattered Christmas ornament and a snowy background.

As the series began showcasing more light thematic episodes, we got book illustration title cards, an homage to "The X-Files," glittery clown guts, a wedding cake, and a frontier map, to name a few. "The Winchesters" follows this formula for the season finale, where the series teases what's to come in the episode. 

The original title card for the prequel mirrors the "Supernatural" Season 1 choice in simplicity and vibe. However, "The Winchesters" title card has a red coloring choice with a Men of Letters symbol in the "C" and red flashes of the symbol as the title moves. In the season finale, the title card pays homage to the "Supernatural" Season 1 card with blueish hues. Additionally, the "C" gets hit with lightning, teasing Dean Winchester's flashy return to the show. Given the alternate universe revelation in this episode, the title card is symbolic of the "Supernatural" and "The Winchester" worlds (and characters) colliding.

If there's one thing Dean Winchester can appreciate, it's a good Western reference. Dean's presence is sprinkled throughout "The Winchesters" — both with narration and fleeting implications that he is in John and Mary's world pulling some strings. Somehow, despite being dead, Dean's existence on "The Winchesters" is corporeal enough for him to show up normally on film. He can also engage with this world in a non-ghostly manner. Maybe he picked up a thing or two in heaven? 

Given that Mary and John have no clue that Dean is their alternate universe son, they simply call him the Man With No Name. The first film in Clint Eastwood's "Dollars Trilogy" was released in 1964, so it looks like Dean isn't the only Winchester with a soft spot for Westerns. Dean would no doubt be thrilled to know that his parents likened him to Eastwood's character, the Man With No Name.

Though Dean would love the nickname, he wasn't actually trying to serve Western looks. It turns out that Dean Winchester is kind of a fashion icon when he's on a heaven budget rather than a hunter budget. An Entertainment Weekly interview with Jensen Ackles lent insight into Dean's updated peacoat look and beard, which primarily exists because Ackles had to film another project. To tie the look together, Ackles proposed that Dean should go for a Navy look to fit in with John's military vibe and avoid sticking out.

If Mary and John live long enough to reach 1981, they're in for a fun surprise. The newly-minted hunting duo (and couple) are more than familiar with using aliases on the job. As it turns out, it's not John who kicks off this classic Winchester family tradition, but Mary. In Episode 2 of "The Winchesters," Mary chooses Mick Fleetwood for John and Christine McVie for herself. Of course, both are members of Fleetwood Mac — although Mary definitely isn't winning any awards for subtlety, especially using both names at once. 

At the end of "The Winchesters" finale, titled, "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye," Dean is a bit evasive about his own identity. We learn that this Mary and John are from another world, and Dean just wanted to see if any of his alternate universe parents could have a happy ending. Naturally, he also wanted to make sure that the Akrida wouldn't breach Sam's world. Though he's doing plenty of meddling (much to the chagrin of Jack and Bobby), revealing that he's their possible alternate universe son would be too much. Instead, Dean tells John and Mary that his name is James Hetfield. He's smart enough to avoid using a classic rock moniker that his parents would recognize, so he picks the lead vocalist of Metallica. Dean will be long gone by the time Mary and John figure that one out.