right after 'phantom traveler' ended, people started talking about dean's phone number that john gave in his voicemail

but i watched that moment and went, where are they getting this completely different number from? on bluray john gives the number as 785-555-0179

and then i see this

so at some point, the producers went back and overdubbed the number john gives with a different number, but the people who were watching it live heard 866-907-3235. and they called it. and this is the voicemail they got (youtube recording of it)

so, the first time dean's phone is given out on the show, the viewers are prompted to call it and get a voicemail. 11-2-83 is the night mary died.

the next time dean's phone is said on the show, in 'home', they're also prompted to call it.

and they find out that the voicemail changed

(i couldn't find a recording of this voicemail)

since dean gives out john's full email address in this voicemail, people start writing it too. and the day before 'asylum' airs, they get a reply

so now they have a day's head start on figuring out what this connects to. and this person gets it

dean does, in fact, get a similar message as them in 'asylum'

i don't know, seeing people this engaged with the show from the very beginning is just cool

before the season 2 premiere they got one more e-mail, this time jo's

if you wrote her, she would write back "Do I know you? Aren't you a friend of Ash?"