Behind the Folklore - Wishful Thinking

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WISHING WELL
A wishing well is a term from European folklore to describe wells where it was thought that any spoken wish would be granted. The idea that a wish would be granted came from the idea that water housed deities or had been placed there as a gift from the gods, since water was a source of life and often a scarce commodity.
The Germanic and Celtic peoples considered springs and wells sacred places. Sometimes the places were marked with wooden statues possibly of the god associated with the pool. Germanic peoples were known to throw the armour and weapons of defeated enemies into bogs and other pools of water as offerings to their gods.
Water was seen to have healing powers and therefore wells became popular with many people drinking, bathing or just simply wishing over it. People believe that the guardians or dwellers of the well would grant them their wish if they paid a price. After uttering the wish, one would generally drop coins in the well. That wish would then be granted by the guardian or dweller, based upon how the coin would land at the bottom of the well. If the coin were to land 'heads-up,' the wish would be granted. If the coin landed 'heads-down,' the wish would not be granted.
The tradition of dropping pennies in ponds and fountains stems from this. Coins would be placed there as gifts for the deity to show appreciation.
In November 2006 the "Fountain Money Mountain" reported that tourists throw just under 3 million pounds per year into wishing wells.
This may be a left over from ancient mythology such as Mímir's Well from Nordic myths, also known as the ¨Well of Wisdom¨, a Well that could grant you infinite wisdom provided you sacrificed something you held dear. Odin was asked to sacrifice his right eye which he threw into the well to receive not only the wisdom of seeing the future but the understanding of why things must be. Mirmir is the Nordic god of wisdom, and his well sits at the roots of Yggdrasil, the World Tree which draws its water from the well.

TIAMAT
The serpent on the Babylonian Coin that Sam and Dean found was Tiamat.
In Babylonian myths, Tiamat is a huge, bloated female dragon that personifies the saltwater ocean, the water of Chaos. She is also the primordial mother of all that exists, including the gods themselves. Her consort is Apsu, the personification of the freshwater abyss that lies beneath the Earth. From their union, saltwater with freshwater, the first pair of gods were born. They are Lachmu and Lachamu, parents of Ansar and Kisar, grandparents of Anu and Ea.
In the creation epic Enuma elish, written around 2000 BCE, their descendants started to irritate Tiamat and Apsu so they decided to kill their offspring. Ea discovered their plans and he managed to kill Apsu while the latter was asleep. Tiamat flew into a rage when she learned about Apsu's death and wanted to avenge her husband. She created an army of monstrous creatures, which was to be led by her new consort Kingu, who is also her son. Eventually, Tiamat was defeated by the young god Marduk, who was born in the deep freshwater sea.
Marduk cleaved her body in half, and from the upper half he created the sky and from the lower half he made the earth. From her water came forth the clouds and her tears became the source of the Tigris and the Euphratus. Kingu also perished, and from his blood Marduk created the first humans.

WISHFUL THINKING
Wishful thinking is the formation of beliefs and making decisions according to what might be pleasing to imagine instead of by appealing to evidence or rationality.
Studies have consistently shown that holding all else equal, subjects will predict positive outcomes to be more likely than negative outcomes.


OTHER REFERENCES
Dean: Or it's a Bigfoot. You know, and he's some kind of alcoholo-porno addict. Kind of like a deep-woods Duchovny.
Referencing X-Files star David Duchovny .

Dean: What's this, like a Harry and the Hendersons deal?
Harry and the Hendersons is a 1987 family movie about a Bigfoot that ends up living with the Henderson family. It also inspired a follow-on TV series of the same name.

Dean: You see, with great power comes great ...
Dean was going to finish the quote with the word responsibility. This is a classic line from the Spider-Man series of comics, said to the main character by his Uncle Ben.

Todd: Kneel before Todd!
This is a reference to Zod - one of the main bad guys in the Superman comics. The line "Kneel before Zod" was spoken by Terence Stamp in his role as Zod in the 1980 movie Superman II.


Sources: Wikipedia, Pantheon.org