10 Secret Buffy Summers/Dean Winchester That Most BtVS & Supernatural Fans Missed

From 1997-2003, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) was indisputably the most prominent monster hunter on television. Two years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended, the horror procedural Supernatural blasted onto screens, introducing the world to iconic monster-hunting duo Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester. Sadly, the programs just missed each other, so an epic crossover was out of the question. But if their leads ever did cross paths, Buffy and Dean may be shocked by how much they have in common.

Buffy is a sassy former cheerleader whose life changes when she learns she is the Slayer, the chosen one in her generation gifted with the powers and skills to fight vampires and demons. Dean is a roguish outcast, raised to hunt monsters since childhood after a demon murdered his mother. On the surface, they exemplify very different archetypes, but their journeys force them to deal with surprisingly similar obstacles.

10

They Both Sacrificed Themselves For Their Younger Siblings

Dean and Buffy Prioritize Their Families

Buffy and Dean are both caretakers at their core. On the grand scale, they devote their lives to protecting others from evil, but on a more personal level, they are both fiercely protective of their friends and family. In Season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, fallen goddess Glory (Clare Kramer) uses Buffy’s younger sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) to open a portal to a hell dimension. It seems like the only way to end the ritual is to kill Dawn, but Buffy sacrifices herself to seal the rift while saving her sister.

Dean finds himself in a similar position in Season 2 of Supernatural after the villainous Azazel (Fredric Lehne), looking for a human to lead his demon army, kidnaps Sam. Azazel tosses Sam into a battle royale style deathmatch, and Dean arrives just in time to watch his brother die. Unable to handle Sam’s death, Dean makes a demonic deal to trade his life for Sam’s. Heroism typically demands sacrifice, but Buffy and Dean take it to the next level. They prove how devoted they are to their siblings by protecting them at all costs.

9

They Both Were Vampires (Briefly)

Both Hunters Get to See Things From the Other Side

While Dean and Buffy slay plenty of vampires in the course of their respective shows, they’re both also transformed into bloodsuckers themselves. During “Live Free or Twihard,” Dean bites off more than he can chew during a vampire hunt and winds up sired by his prey. The Winchesters find an untested cure and manage to free Dean of the vampiric curse.

Related

Related Post

New Max and HBO Shows and Movies in December 2024

December 22, 2024

Order corrugated boxes online from Avon Packaging | Fast and easy

December 22, 2024

Lara Trump withdraws name from consideration for Florida Senate seat

December 22, 2024

Princeton Tigers vs Rutgers Scarlet Knights Prediction, Odds and Picks

December 22, 2024

10 Buffy Filler Episodes That Changed the Buffyverse Forever

Episodes outside of Buffy’s main story arc are often called ‘filler’ but some of them are crucial to understanding the series.

Buffy becomes a vampire in a far less traditional way. When a terrified boy inadvertently brings the nightmares of Sunnydale residents to life, all manner of madness ensues. When the Slayer is caught up in his power vortex, she finds herself sporting a new set of fangs. The issue is reversed when Buffy and her friends help the boy regain control of his mind. However, the episode reveals that Buffy has an unspoken fear that there’s a darkness in her. It’s a feeling that is mirrored by Dean at several parts of his journey.

8

They Both Have a Friend Who Becomes a Werewolf

The Monster Hunters Have Unexpected Allies

Not every supernatural creature has reason to fear Buffy; the Slayer readily allies herself with beings who pose no threat to humans. A prime example of this is Buffy’s classmate Daniel ‘Oz’ Osbourne (Seth Green). When Buffy learns Oz’s secret in “Phases,” she protects him from a ruthless poacher. Oz remains an integral part of Buffy’s inner circle until departing the series in Season 4.

Dean’s relationship with hunter turned werewolf Garth (DJ Qualls) has striking parallels. Like Buffy, Dean is friends with Garth before his struggles with lycanthropy start in Season 9 of Supernatural. Dean is initially skeptical of the idea a werewolf can be benevolent, but luckily, he gives Garth the benefit of the doubt. Garth proves to be a trusted ally of the Winchesters, recurring twice more in the series. Buffy and Dean’s unusual friendships underline a part of what makes them such compelling and heroic characters: their willingness to see the gray areas in life.

7

They Both Rejected Help From the Brits

They’re Willing to Bet on Themselves

For the first three seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy worked in concert with the London-based Watchers Council. The group, composed primarily of British scholars on the supernatural, played a vital role in helping the high schooler adjust to her new reality. But as Buffy matures, she bristles under the strict methods of the Council. She formally cuts ties towards the end of Season 3 and delivers one of her all-time best monologues when the Watchers Council resurfaces in Season 5.

Related

Every Sam and Dean Winchester Fight in Supernatural, Ranked

When it came to it, Sam and Dean Winchester would lay down their lives for each other but even they weren’t immune to occasional brawls and bickering.

When the British Men of Letters inject themselves into the Winchesters’ lives, it’s hard not to see them as Supernatural‘s answer to the Watchers Council. They’re a scholarly secret society devoted to the elimination of everything paranormal. The group looks down on the American hunters’ more ‘menial’ methods, but Sam agrees to work with them as they offer invaluable resources. Dean is never fully swayed and, by the end of the season, leads a violent attack against the Council, who have since been exposed as a dangerous threat in their own right. This parallel between Dean and Buffy demonstrates their resilience and shared scrappiness. Neither one is willing to sell out their beliefs for aid, no matter how sorely they need it.

6

They Both Perform Musical Numbers

Neither Show Stays Too Maudlin

Both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural exhibit a surprising versatility as shows. They skillfully incorporate larger-than-life comedy and deep character-driven pathos into their heroes’ journeys. This keeps the characters from ever becoming too monotone or lifeless. A perfect example of this lies in the fact that both Buffy and Dean have performed full-blown musical numbers between slaying monsters.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s trailblazing musical episode, “Once More, with Feeling,” featured a demon who caused residents of Sunnydale to sing and dance until they burst into flame. While Buffy managed to avoid self-immolating, she showcases her impressive pipes with songs like “Going Through the Motions,” “Walk Through the Fire,” and “Something to Sing About.” Shockingly, despite running for over three hundred episodes, Supernatural never had a musical episode. That didn’t stop the Dean from putting on a show, whether it’s karaoke at a bar or joining an old hunting pal on stage. The most elaborate instance of this, however, is the dream sequence where Dean does a full-on tap number.

5

They Both Have Time Traveled

Dean and Buffy Are Tied to Causes Larger Than Themselves

For a show about ghosts and ghouls, Supernatural includes a shocking amount of time travel. Over the course of his lifetime, Dean manages to visit the Wild West, a World War II sub, prohibition Era Chicago, the late 1970s, and an apocalyptic future. By comparison, Buffy’s single journey through the timestream feels almost mild. However, Buffy’s trip back to see the creation of the Slayer line reached far further back in history than any of Dean’s jaunts.

The fact that circumstances lead both Dean and Buffy to time travel speaks to how important they become to their respective worlds. Buffy is a prototypical teenage blonde. Dean is a charming drifter with minimal education. Neither figure seems likely to change the world, and yet, to their own surprise, they each alter the very flow of time.

4

They Both Defeated Dracula

Both Shows Integrate Pop Culture References

When Buffy first comes across Dracula in “Buffy vs. Dracula,” she is both shocked and excited to encounter pop culture’s most famous vampire. The legendary vamp proves to be a formidable foe for Buffy, but the Slayer manages to vanquish him inside a single episode. Dean’s encounter with Dracula in Supernatural is significantly stranger. For starters, this ‘Dracula’ isn’t even a vampire. Instead, it’s a shapeshifter who is obsessed with classic monster movies and assumes the form of the cinematic icon.

Related

10 Funniest Supernatural Episodes That Still Make Fans Laugh

When it comes to hunting things with a tinge of comedy, there’s no one better than the Winchester brothers in some of Supernatural’s funniest episodes

The portrayal of Dracula in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural underlines an important similarity in the two programs. Neither show shies away from camp elements when crafting their tales. This is because Buffy and Dean are both very much modern figures. They may be dealing with legends from folklore, but the heroes have a pop culture savvy of their own.

3

They Both Have Had Their Bodies Hijacked

Ackles and Gellar Give Top-Notch Performances

Fairly early in the run of Supernatural, Dean learns that he is destined to become the Earthly vessel for the archangel Michael. He’s able to outrun his fate for many seasons, but when Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) threatens the fate of multiple universes, the hunter agrees to let the archangel temporarily possess him. Michael double-crosses Dean, and he has to fight to recover his body. Buffy has had to deal with her own body snatcher in Faith (Eliza Dushku), a Slayer who goes dark. Faith magically swaps bodies with Buffy, who luckily manages to prove her identity to her friends and reclaim her body.

These incidents rob Dean and Buffy of their most basic resources: their own bodies. Still, they manage to overcome all obstacles thrown in their path by relying on their grit and adaptability. Moreover, these episodes showcase the incredible talents of Ackles and Gellar. Both actors manage to embody wildly different characters with unbelievable range and breathtaking clarity.

2

They Both Have Been Stuck in Time Loops

Buffy and Dean Both Exhibit Resilience

Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer largely focuses on Buffy’s struggles to balance real-world issues with her duties as a Slayer. In particular, she struggles to find a steady job, trying her hand at retail as an employee at the local magic store. Things take a sad turn for Buffy when an aspiring villain traps her in a time loop where she tries and fails endlessly to please an irritating customer. The ordeal was a tough one for Buffy, but considering Dean’s time loop experience, she got off light.

In the Supernatural episode “Mystery Spot,” the brothers go to investigate a paradox in a small town, only for Dean to die in a bizarre accident. As soon as the hunter is killed, the day starts over, and this pattern continues, with Dean dying countless times in increasingly comical ways. The brothers eventually deduce the force behind the anomaly, the archangel Gabriel (Richard Speight Jr.), who coldly tells them to accept fate and let Dean die permanently. Despite this harsh ‘lesson,’ Sam and Dean continue fighting the forces of fate for many seasons to come. A notable similarity in these two stories is that the time loops are created intentionally to break the shows’ heroes. But rather than buckling, Buffy and the Dean each build their own escape routes.

1

They Both Dug Their Way Out of Their Graves

Buffy and Dean Suffered Great Traumas While They Were Young

After Buffy heroically sacrifices her life, her friends resort to dark magic to resurrect the Slayer. Her allies succeed, but rather than appearing before them, she’s restored to life in her coffin. The group assumes their ritual has failed, and Buffy is forced to claw her way up from her grave. With bloody, busted fingertips, the dazed Slayer roams the streets of Sunnydale. Dean’s resurrection didn’t go much smoother. He’s dragged from hell by the angel Castiel (Misha Collins). Unfortunately, this means Dean awakens in his casket. After calling in vain for help, he digs his way to the surface, only to find himself alone in a barren field.

The imagery of Dean and Buffy’s resurrections is anything but celebratory. In theory, their returns should be welcome moments in their story arcs, but they prove to be moments of incredible trauma. This beckons to a central truth that unites these characters. Both of them are normal people who were saddled with enormous responsibilities and put through a series of increasingly traumatizing experiences. They both feel the need to play the hero and protector, so rather than seek help to resolve these traumas, they rely on themselves. Their compassion for others is endless, and, to that extent, it becomes a curse. Both Buffy and Dean spend a good deal of their arcs trying to heal themselves by saving the world. Luckily, by the time their shows wrap, both realize the importance of self-reflection and take steps to find a degree of inner peace.

• 

  A young woman, destined to slay vampires, demons and other infernal creatures, deals with her life fighting evil, with the help of her friends.

  Release Date

  
  March 10, 1997
  

  Cast

  Sarah Michelle Gellar
  , Nicholas Brendon
  , Alyson Hannigan
  , Anthony Stewart Head
  , James Marsters
  , Emma Caulfield Ford
  , Michelle Trachtenberg
  , Charisma Carpenter
  , David Boreanaz
  , Kristine Sutherland
  , Amber Benson
  , Seth Green
  , Marc Blucas
  , Danny Strong
  , Tom Lenk
  , Eliza Dushku
  , Armin Shimerman
  , Juliet Landau
  , Adam Busch
  , Robia LaMorte
  , Mercedes McNab
  , Harry Groener
  , Charlie Weber
  , D.B. Woodside
  , Iyari Limon
  , Clare Kramer
  , Bailey Chase
  , Leonard Roberts
  , Sarah Hagan
  , Lindsay Crouse

  Rating

  Seasons

  7

  Creator

  Production Company

  Story By

  joss whedon

  Writers

  Joss Whedon

  Network

  The WB

  Directors

  Joss Whedon

  Showrunner

  Joss Whedon

  Expand

• 

  Two brothers follow their father’s footsteps as hunters, fighting evil supernatural beings of many kinds, including monsters, demons, and gods that roam the earth.

  Release Date

  
  September 13, 2005
  

  Cast

  Jensen Ackles
  , Misha Collins
  , Jim Beaver
  , Jared Padalecki
  , Katie Cassidy
  , Lauren Cohan
  , Mark A. Sheppard
  , Mark Pellegrino
  , Alexander Calvert

  Rating

  Seasons

  15

  Creator

  Production Company

  Story By

  Eric Kripke

  Writers

  Eric Kripke
  , Andrew Dabb
  , Robert Berens

  Directors

  Philip Sgriccia
  , John F. Showalter
  , Robert Singer

  Showrunner

  Eric Kripke

  Expand