The Winchesters (Season 1): Review, Recap & Ending Explained – How is Dean Winchester involved?

The Winchesters (Season 1) Review, Recap & Ending Explained: When a show becomes as popular as Supernatural did over its run of fifteen seasons and 327 episodes, creating a spinoff show was always going to be an uphill task both in terms of its quality and getting old fans on board. At the same time, The Winchesters tries to pull in a whole new generation as well, in many ways going down the route of a CW teen/young adult drama series with decidedly mixed results. Clocking in at a modest thirteen episodes in its first season, as compared to Supernatural’s average of around twenty episodes per season, it is a relatively quick watch but definitely not something you’ll be following the same way you did Supernatural.

The Winchesters (Season 1) Recap:

Episode 1 – Pilot

John Winchester (Drake Rodger) came back to his hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, after serving in Vietnam on March 23, 1972. There he met Mary Campbell (Meg Donnelly), whose father, Samuel, had recently gone missing. After receiving a letter from his own father, Henry, who had been missing for a long time, John became interested in the Men of Letters clubhouse owing to the letter. When Mary saved him from a demon, he learned about the supernatural world and discovered that his father was also a Man of Letters. Together with Mary and her friends Latika (Nida Khurshid) and Carlos (Jojo Fleites), who are a hunter in training and a hunter, respectively, John joined in the search for Samuel, who had been searching for a magical box capable of trapping and destroying monsters.

The group traced the box to a cemetery in New Orleans, where they faced a loup-garou watchdog and a demon possessing Ada Monroe (Demetria McKinney), who is a bookstore owner with knowledge of the supernatural. John killed the monster, while the others used the box to exorcise and destroy the demon. Ada revealed that the box was the only thing capable of killing the Akrida, monsters from another world that intended to invade Earth and destroy all life and then claim the planet for themselves. Samuel was looking for the box to prevent the invasion but was unable to do so since the Men of Letters had disappeared. Deciding to become a hunter, John and the others pursued a lead to Savannah, Georgia.

Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), who was narrating the events, revealed that the Akrida posed a threat to all existence and that he intended to continue searching for more information on this lost chapter of his parents’ lives without the knowledge of the rest of the group.

Episode 2 – Teach Your Children Well

Upon arriving in Savannah, the group discovered that the files on the Akrida were missing, but they found evidence indicating that Samuel had been there. A newspaper clipping led them to a case in Topeka, Kansas. When they returned home, John’s mother, Millie (Bianca Kajlich), disagreed with his hunting lifestyle, and he left angrily.

In Topeka, children from a hippie community were disappearing, taken by a shape-shifting monster. Mary was eager to solve the case and continue the search for Samuel, which caused her to clash with the others. This put John in danger when the monster took on the form of Millie and kidnapped him.

The group discovered through Lata’s research that the monster was La Tunda, a mother who had been transformed into a monster and who consumed disobedient children. They found La Tunda’s lair and rescued her victims, ultimately killing her with a piece of her own wooden leg.

John made amends with his mother, and Mary apologized for her actions as well, while Ada used a potion and automatic writing to subconsciously extract information from the demon that had possessed her, hoping to find clues about the Akrida and the box. Meanwhile, the Akrida leader absorbed a part of La Tunda’s essence into a vial and was followed by several Akrida as it left her lair.

Episode 3 – You’re Lost, Little Girl

Mary’s neighbor, a child called Carrie, is kidnapped, prompting Mary, John, and Lata to search for her. Meanwhile, Ada and Carlos set out to find Slick, the partner of the demon that had possessed Ada. Slick informs them that he and his partner had made a deal to exchange the box for their lives since they believed that the Akrida were unstoppable. However, Slick has no knowledge of the box’s workings or the Akrida, except that the Akrida leader has taken a human host. Rather than exorcising the demon, Ada traps him in a bonsai tree using magic.

After Carrie’s brother, Ford, is also taken, the culprit is discovered to be Bori Baba, an Indian boogeyman who lures children in by offering them the things they desire. Mary enters Bori Baba’s bag to rescue the children, while Lata reluctantly contacts and learns from a distant relative that the victims must destroy the items they seek to break free. John uses a CB radio to convey this information to Mary, forcing her to confront her fear of a life without hunting. When the monster pursues them, John defeats it, reuniting Carrie and Ford with their mother.

During this time, John reconciles with his ex-fiancé, Betty, while Mary goes on a date to the movies. The appearance of La Tunda and Bori Baba, two rare monsters from other countries and cultures, concerns the group about the implications. An Akrida brings Bori Baba’s bag to its leader, who absorbs a part of the monster’s essence as she did with La Tunda. It is revealed at the end of the episode that the Akrida leader has possessed Rockin’ Roxy, a local DJ.

Episode 4 – Masters of War

The investigation into the death of World War II veteran Patches leads the group of hunters to join a therapy group that Patches was part of. Mary discovers from her date, a reporter named Kyle Reed, that similar deaths have occurred across the country. This case forces the group to confront their past traumas, with John and Carlos, a former Navy Corpsman, confronting their experiences in the Vietnam War and Mary and Lata dealing with their shared grief over Mary’s cousin Maggie’s death.

The group discovers that the culprit is Mars Neto, a Celtiberian deity who had infiltrated the therapy group. Mars believes that John, as a hunter and a soldier, is the key to defeating the Akrida in the upcoming war. John fights Mars, and Mary, Lata, and Millie destroy Mars’ amphora (a jar that makes him immortal), rendering him vulnerable. John kills Mars, who tells him that he is now ready for the war with the Akrida before dying.

After the end of the hunt, Mary cleans out Maggie’s old room, Carlos decides to attend therapy with the same group and doctor, and John breaks down crying, fully clothed in the shower, as Millie comforts him.

Episode 5 – Legend of a Mind

The hunting group undertakes an investigation into a string of peculiar deaths, which they suspect to be the work of a djinn. While exploring an abandoned warehouse, the group encounters Tony, Ada’s estranged son, who is half-djinn and whose father, Ali, was killed by hunters after giving in to his hunger and feeding on humans.

Ada and Carlos stay behind to confront Tony while the rest search for clues. Tony later confronts Ada in her dreams, revealing to her that he has been using his djinn powers to help people confront their fears and heal psychologically while feeding only enough to survive and nothing more. He informs Ada that the Akrida are the ones responsible for the deaths, not him, having encountered one during his attempt to help a victim and that he was drawn to the town by a sound only audible to monsters.

Everyone learns that the victims were injected with a fatal toxin, and the Akrida is collecting the essence of rare monsters. Mary is injected with the toxin while protecting Akrida’s next victim. Ada convinces Tony to use his dream-walking powers to allow John to enter Mary’s mind, where she faces the deep, emotional trauma she has carried since her childhood and destroys the Akrida stingers.

Tony discloses that the Akrida are using a radio tower project to broadcast a signal that draws in rare monsters, and the victims are all connected to the project. Ada decides to leave with Tony to ensure his safety, as the group identifies Rockin’ Roxy as the Akrida leader. John develops romantic feelings for Mary but chooses to keep them to himself, instead encouraging Mary to follow her dream of retiring from hunting and leaving Lawrence.

Another Akrida warns Roxy that Mary has resisted their control, but she remains unconcerned, believing that the Akrida will eventually get the hunters under their control as the episode ends.

Episode 6 – Art of Dying

Someone in Elk Falls, Kansas, is running away from a creature in the woods. Despite hiding in a barn and preparing a knife, she is brutally murdered. Later, Lata meditates, but her peaceful moment is interrupted by the noisy actions of her companions. John and Carlos argue about the thoroughness of a case, and Mary intervenes to stop the fight. The group receives a call from the hunter line, and they hit the road to investigate.

Mary informs them about Tracy’s friend Darla, who was found mutilated in her barn. Tracy is like an aunt to Mary and one of the rare retired hunters. Upon arrival, Lata suspects a werewolf attack, but Carlos finds a claw that doesn’t belong to a werewolf. With the help of Anton, a monster-identifying expert, they identify the monster as a soucouyant.

The group attends Darla’s funeral and later learns from Tracy that the creature responsible for Darla’s death may be seeking revenge. A monster suddenly enters the scene, and John and Mary engage in a fight with it.

They later discover that the soucouyant was possessed by a vengeful spirit seeking retribution on the hunters. Tracy admits that she and her old hunting team killed their friend Mac, who had turned to dark magic and become a danger to others. Mac’s spirit possesses John, and he becomes violent.

As John is attacked and possessed by the ghost, Mary engages in a desperate struggle with him while Tracy prepares to shoot. Mary implores her not to pull the trigger, and Lata steps forward and shares a story about her father’s experiences in war and how his anger consumed him. In response, Tracy confesses to Mac that she was afraid and apologizes. Lata encourages him that he still has the chance to break the cycle. While Mac nearly stabs Lata, he ultimately lets go of Mary and flees, leaving John unconscious but alive and unharmed otherwise.

After regaining consciousness, John receives reassurance from Mary, but he brings up their previous altercation. He confesses his anger issues and expresses a desire to avoid becoming like Mac. John also expresses gratitude towards Lata for shielding him from the gunshot and inquires about how she manages her anger. Lata recommends meditation and emphasizes the importance of focusing on positive aspects, just like she does. John participates in Lata’s meditation session to alleviate stress.

During the meditation session, Mary and Carlos arrive and inform the duo about the location of the Akrida.

Episode 7 – Reflections

The hunting group arrives at the Akrida’s radio tower only to find it deserted and discover evidence that Samuel has been captured. Roxy demands that the group exchange the box in exchange for Samuel’s release.

Ada discovers files about the box in another ‘Men of Letters’ office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The notes, written by Henry Winchester, are decoded by Millie, revealing that the box is the Ostium – a portal that can banish monsters from this realm. Additionally, it is also revealed that the Akrida are all connected to their queen, and if she is banished, the others will perish.

To learn more about the Ostium, the group summons Henry’s ghost (Gil McKinney) through a séance. Henry shares how the box can be recharged and finally gets the chance to say goodbye to his family. The team assaults Roxy’s new base and uses the Ostium to banish the Akrida queen. However, the other Akrida remain unaffected, suggesting that Roxy was not their true leader.

As John and Mary are cornered, they share a kiss. But, arriving at the last moment, an injured Samuel (Tom Welling) uses the Ostium to banish the rest of the Akrida from their presence. Meanwhile, the Akrida’s mind-controlled servants discover and present the queen with different monster essences, promising to make her powerful enough to bring the others to this world, enabling the Akrida to make it their own.

Episode 8 – Hang on to Your Life

After recovering from his injuries, Samuel confesses that he had been searching for a way to rid the world of monsters permanently to give Mary the normal life she said she wanted. He stumbled upon the Akrida while doing so, and in order to keep his daughter safe, he kept her away from the hunt.

Samuel initially clashes with John, Mary, and Millie over a few things, but they later mend fences and are on the same page. Millie begins repairing the broken Ostium, while Carlos and Lata uncover Jericho’s (Carlos’s old music partner) pact with Loki, the Norse trickster god, who demands innocent lives as sacrifices in exchange for their own lives. When Carlos refuses to harm his friends, Loki is eventually defeated and trapped in his own magical hand mirror.

Meanwhile, Samuel and Ada leave to find a way to stop the Akrida, and the Monster Club sets out to locate the Akrida Queen. Mary decides to be with John. Among Samuel’s reconnaissance photos, John recognizes the man who gave him Henry’s letter: Dean Winchester, who is seen getting into the Impala in the picture.

Episode 9 – Cast Your Fate to the Wind

Il Soarta, a vampire cult that worships the Romanian gods of fate known as the Ursitoare, seeks an amulet that can unveil an individual’s destiny. The hunters find the amulet hidden within their clubhouse, but it presents a bleak fate for John – dead and being fed upon by the vampire leader. Leaving John behind, the rest of the group invades the vampires’ lair and uncovers that they possess the blueprints of the clubhouse, which reveal a weak spot in the sewer defenses.

While Mary and Carlos eliminate the other vampires, John and Millie are trapped by their leader. Determined to take control of his fate, John has Millie electrocute him with a live wire. Thus, when the Il Soarta leader feeds on him, he consumes the dead man’s blood, enabling Mary to defeat the vampire, as that is one of the few ways to kill it. Millie and Mary revive John using CPR, while Mary’s previously concealed romantic involvement with John is unveiled.

Meanwhile, Carlos attempts to ask Anton out again after avoiding him following their date. John’s ex-fiancé Betty grows suspicious of the hunters’ activities and works with Kyle Reed, the reporter whom Mary had briefly dated. However, it is revealed that Kyle is under the control of the Akrida and is merely using Betty to investigate the hunters.

Episode 10 – Suspicious Minds

Dorothea Wilcox falls into a vegetative state after being attacked by an Akrida puppet in 1957. In the present, the Akrida shift their focus to manipulating the Monster Club into locating Dean Winchester, the person responsible for bringing the hunters together to fight them. Despite scouting the areas previously explored by Samuel, the group is unable to locate the Akrida queen.

Seeking help, Carlos and Lata turn to Rockin’ Roxy, who had been traumatized by her experience with the Akrida. Using a magical hypnosis technique, Lata helps Roxy remember her possession and the location of the queen.

Meanwhile, John and Mary meet Porter Hobbes, a man who claims to be a retired Man of Letters, and offers them a solution to stop the Akrida. However, they eventually discover that he is actually Jack Wilcox, Dorothea Wilcox’s husband, who was expelled from the order for conducting human experiments by Henry Winchester. Jack plans to transfer his and Dorothea’s consciousness into John and Mary’s bodies, but he dies during the ensuing battle.

After returning home, John is framed for Kyle’s murder by the Akrida, who have been plotting against him.

Episode 11 – You’ve Got a Friend

After the altercation with Jack Wilcox in the previous episode, Carlos, Mary, and Lata are tasked with cleaning up the aftermath of the case. They find John covered in blood, framed by the Akrida for Kyle’s murder. He plans to flee to Mary’s father’s cabin to avoid the police. However, John is arrested before they can leave.

Meanwhile, Carlos and Lata search for a mystical bracelet that can lead them to those who harbor a dark secret. The bracelet attaches itself to Lata, but only those with pure hearts can wear it. The shadows in the bracelet trap them in the house they are in, forcing Lata to reveal her childhood secret, which resulted in the death of a servant. An Akrida-possessed police officer interrogates John about Dean. But John truthfully denies any knowledge, except for the fact that Dean is not of this world and can harm the Akrida.

Mary and Mollie attempt to recruit Betty into the fight against the Akrida. However, she is skeptical until they use the bracelet to reveal an Akrida in the department. As John escapes and becomes a fugitive, Betty agrees to become their informant within the police department.

Episode 12 – The Tears of a Clown

The hunters are trying to uncover information about the mysterious man in a photo, who is actually Dean Winchester. This leads them to an article about the disappearance of a teenager named Wally at a carnival. They eventually discover a link between various disappearances, including Wally’s, to Limbo the Clown, who traps his victims as part of his clown troupe.

The group learns that Limbo made a deal with an occultist during the Great Depression to be perpetually happy after losing everything and falling into a depression of his own. He targets people who are going through the lowest points of their lives, promising them that they will never feel pain or sorrow again.

During their investigation, Mary and John start fighting about their problems. Mary is using hunting to avoid her fears of facing the future, while John is using their relationship to ignore his own troubles. This makes them vulnerable to Limbo’s traps, and both Mary and John fall victim to him.

Meanwhile, Carlos and Lata end up trapped in a clown car that turns out to have Roger, Clarence’s missing brother, in the backseat. Carlos talks to Roger, hoping to get him to embrace reality. When Roger learns that his brother has spent all this time looking for him and desperately wants him back, he breaks the spell by crying for his brother. This causes Limbo to explode, and his victims are freed.

In the end, Mary and John reconcile, and the group discovers a witness who clears John of Kyle’s murder. Ada’s search for magic capable of stopping the Akrida leads her to Rowena the witch who offers to trade the magic for the demon that Ada had trapped, intending to torture it for information on Crowley. Rowena gives Ada a crystal that can kill the Akrida Queen when it is powered by a piece of Ada’s own soul, and Lata discovers that the planetary alignment, which the queen will use to open her portal, has already begun.

The Winchesters (Season 1) Ending Explained:

How is Dean Winchester involved?

In a flashback scene of the season finale, it is shown that after John returns from the Vietnam War, Dean gives him a letter from his father, Henry, who died several years ago. Bobby Singer and Dean Winchester are hunting the Akrida, and they encounter a hunter named Joan Hopkins, who reveals that she is the Akrida Queen. She was driven insane in the 17th century by consuming monster essences and banished from the world as she couldn’t be killed. Meanwhile, Lata is possessed by an Akrida, and Ada sacrifices the magic that Rowena gave her to save her life.

John, Carlos, and Samuel try to stop Joan from opening her portal while the others use the Ostium to try to bring back Dean, who was banished by Joan. They succeed in bringing back the Impala, which Mary uses to kill Joan, as the car is not from their world, destroying the Akrida as well. Dean rescues Mary from Joan’s portal and reveals that they are in an alternate universe. After his death, Dean drove through Heaven and traveled through the multiverse, looking for a world where his family got a happy ending. However, he found the Akrida, who were created by Chuck, the old God, as a contingency plan in case of his defeat. With Akrida’s plans also threatening his little brother Sam’s safety, Dean defies Jack’s (the new God) orders not to interfere and stops them.

Before departing with Jack and Bobby, Dean gives his parents his hunter’s journal to guide them and the Colt in case they ever encounter Azazel, the yellow-eyed demon. When they ask his name, Dean gives them a fake name after hesitating briefly. He then goes with Jack and Bobby to return to his place in Heaven. At the end of the season finale, John and Mary set off to figure out their future while their friends continue hunting.

The Winchesters (Season 1) Review

As a spinoff to Supernatural, it is inevitable that The Winchesters will be compared to its parent show in every conceivable way. One of the major differences is that it has four starring cast members instead of the two Supernatural had in Sam and Dean. The four of them are portrayed charmingly, each having their own problems and trauma, though that does sometimes lead to more predictable melodrama than is necessary. On the whole, though, the cast has a positive, energetic chemistry with each other, whether as a group or in pairs.

The plot can be hit or miss at times, with a tonal mismatch in that they are attempting to stop the Akrida from destroying the globe. Yet many of their cases are centered on a single village about which we don’t learn much. No doubt the creators tried to ground the high, world-ending stakes in a more relatable setting, but it clearly didn’t work.

On the other hand, the way they integrated Dean Winchester into the plot was handled well, and his motivations for interfering were very much in line with his character. His narration was surprisingly honest and frank for someone who tends to bottle up emotions, just like his father John. While Dean’s inclusion was fun for old fans, new viewers would be completely in the dark due to their lack of familiarity with him, raising the question as to how well the show has handled new fans.

Overall, the show doesn’t live up to the standards that fans of Supernatural might have been expecting, although many were hesitant going into the show in the first place, and rightfully so. The Winchesters isn’t exactly a series that fans were craving, and viewers had seen a different version of John and Mary’s story in Supernatural. All of this makes it a hard series to recommend for newcomers. However, previous fans might have just enough to get by, especially as characters from Supernatural other than Dean return.

Related Read: Guilty Minds (Season 1): Review, Recap & Ending Explained

The Winchesters (Season 1) Links – IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes
The Winchesters (Season 1) Cast – Meg Donnelly, Drake Rodger, Nida Khurshid

Where to watch The Winchesters