Episode 3.1
"The Magnificent Seven"
Written by: Eric Kripke
Directed by: Kim Manners
Guest Starring: Jim Beaver, Caroline Chikezie, Peter Macon, Katy Cassidy, Josh Daugherty, Ben Cotton
Plot Summary: As the threat of apocalypse looms, Sam and Dean Winchester brace to face the demon horde that escaped the Devil's Gate. Now they learn that seven demons personifying the Seven Deadly Sins are wreaking havoc in the heartland, having escaped Hell for the first time in centuries. The hunt only gets more complicated when they meet a pair of married Hunters - who don't play well with others.
Review:
This was not an e-ticket, whoop-and-shout, hold onto your seat premiere episode. I don't think it was meant to be. This was an in-your-face notice that, since the devil's gate in Wyoming, Things Are Not Right. And really, seriously, they're not.
From the first scene, we're treated to a seething black cloud that almost gleefully descends upon suburban Chicago. The demon horde is loose and ready to rumble, which is cue for our boys to appear. We find Dean in an almost giddy state of live-for-the-moment, and Sam oddly patient with his brother's excesses, but hey, Dean's got only a year to live. He brings up that fact at almost every available chance, and there's another warning bell to heed. Nobody's that happy when they're slated to die and go to Hell, right?
But Dean insists he is, so when Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver) calls with a lead in Nebraska, the boys pile into the Impala and they're off with a whoop and a V-8 roar. And then Kripke et al have fun. From a family of three found desiccated and semi-fossilized on their living room sofa, to a woman going Pulp Fiction on another gal over a pair of shoes, the audience gets a full-face splatter of gruesome effects, and we are left with no doubt the demon invasion has ushered in a new era.
The fun starts when we learn who the nearest culprits are: a septet of demons physically embodying the Seven Deadly Sins. They don't even have to possess anyone: a simple touch is enough to trigger a person's greatest weakness with deadly results. Complicating the boys' investigation is a pair of married hunters, a couple known to Bobby who carry their own tragic pasts - and who don't, they declare, play well with others.
However, when the husband of this dynamic duo suffers a particularly ghastly death (again lovingly handled by the makeup and FX departments) due to the touch of Gluttony, Sam, Dean, and Bobby are caught in the whirlwind. Here the demon war has barely begun, and already the boys are cornered and out-numbered. But two of the best performances of this episode are turned out by the demons, Envy and Pride. These two fairly ooze malice and disdain, and their expressed opinions of humanity are not only chilling but borderline Biblical: reminder of just how long it's been since these characters were "top-side" in the living world.
Perhaps the most interesting detail of this demonic skirmish, however, is a mysterious woman (Katy Cassidy) who slinks around in the background of the episode. Whoever - or whatever - she is, she wields one helluva wicked demon-killing knife, and with little apparent regard for the human hosts the demons inhabit - and she somehow knows who Sam is. Clearly we'll be seeing her again, or at least when she chooses to be seen.
Yes, the requisite angst between Sam and Dean surfaces at the end. Dean's new modus operandi appears to be brutal honesty in all things, including spilling the beans about the expiration date on Sam, if they try to break Dean's deal with the crossroads demon. Sam naturally does not take that well, and Dean's manic behavior doesn't help.
In all, I found this a respectable episode. Perhaps not the thunderclap fans were hoping for during the summer's agony of suspense. Perhaps it tried to cram in a bit too much, at the expense of some development that might have been fun. But it was layered with lots for us to speculate over and analyze, and opens the door to whole new realms of evil and evil-doing. We've new characters, new weapons (why should the magic Colt be the only one?) and new nasty things to hunt. I think we're building up to a good season, so let's hang on and enjoy the ride.
Just be prepared for the accelerated Creep Quotient. I think Kripke wants to scare us even more. Yeah. I'm up for that.
Peace, out.
~ Gloria Atwater / ErinRua
We knew it was going to be huge, but we also knew that if we let ourselves be daunted by it, then we would fail. So we always set ourselves tasks: we’ll just get through this and we’ll be okay.
Posted by: abercrombie uk | May 14, 2011 at 07:36 AM