SUPERNATURAL
Episode 3.3
Bad Day at Black Rock
Written by: Ben Edlund
Directed by: Robert Singer
Guest Starring: Jim Beaver, Lauren Cohan, Sterling K. Brown
Plot Summary: The boys get a call that a hitherto secret storage room Dad kept in New York has been broken into. What they find missing is only marginally less surprising than who did the stealing, and why. Chaos shortly and enthusiastically ensues.
Review: Supernatural Season 3 is finally hitting its stride. This episode opens with a properly brooding mood inside a gloomy prison block. The prisoner is none other than Gordon Walker, locked up since "Hunted" (2.10). Now another hunter visits to tell Gordon that the Devil's Gate in Wyoming is open and the Winchester boys were there. "Track him down, Kubrick," Gordon orders. "Sam Winchester must die.”
But that's about the last serious moment we see. An argument between Sam and Dean assures us the boys are still brothers - Sam has come clean about the demonic Mystery Girl, now named Ruby, and Dean thinks Sam shoulda put her on an express elevator back to Hell. Sam insists they can use - literally - someone with an inside track to Hell's plans, but in the middle of all this sibling affirmation, a phone rings.
Not theirs, but Dad's, which Dean kept (secretly) charged in the glove box because, you know, things might come up. Like secret storage lockers. Yes, turns out John kept a special storeroom in a secret place he never told his sons about. Oh, come on, you know John too well to be surprised. Clearly, he never thought his boys would need to know where he stored stuff like extra guns, land mines, and curse-proof boxes. And Sam's sixth grade soccer trophy and Dean's sixth grade sawed-off shotgun and...
Interrupting this Winchesterian trip down memory lane is a single missing box. Bobby made those boxes for John, and he warns that whatever's in them should not get out. Whoops. Tracking the thieves' license plate thanks to the storage facility's security camera, they locate the two thugs playing cards. One of them is winning in a dazzling run of luck, when in burst Sam 'n Dean, SWAT-team style - and total bedlam ensues.
Ricocheting bullets, smashing furniture, Old West gun stunts, and splendidly timed pratfalls - it's like Laurel and Hardy meet Die Hard. Finally, the thieves are down and Sam has recovered the evil... uh, rabbit's foot? Yup, and evidently, its power is chaos magic, its final salute when the boys leave and one of the thieves slips, falls, and impales himself on a very large meat fork. Through the skull. Hello, Creep Quotient.
And Sam's luck turns unstoppable. From being the millionth customer at a local diner to finding a gold watch to thousands of dollars in scratch-off tickets, Sam is all winners. Even their pretty waitress ignores Dean to favor Sam with a come-hither smile.
But a phone call to Bobby reveals that this rabbit's foot is big hoodoo. Whoever holds it has stupendous luck, yes, but only until they lose it - and losing it is not only guaranteed but also unavoidably fatal. While pondering this, Sam spills his coffee, collides with a waiter ... and they realize the pretty waitress has pickpocketed the rabbit's foot.
Sam's rapidly failing luck turns to catastrophic (and brilliantly played) clumsiness versus Dean's James Bond smoothness, when they go interrogate the surviving thief about who set up the theft. "Now, I can read people," Dean says, "And I get it. You’re a thief. And a scumbag. And that’s fine. But you’re not a killer. Are you?” Thus, they learn they face a beautiful, shady, world-class artifacts dealer named Bela Talbot. Bad news for them, because she's in it solely for the money certain relics bring.
What they don't know is that Gordon's pal Kubrick and a friend are on the Winchester's trail. I did think the episode dragged some in its attention to Kubrick and friend. They're quirky and fun with Kurbick as a redneck religious zealot, but ... edit for pacing, guys.
Otherwise, the comedy brilliance continues: Dean stuffs jinxed!Sam in a motel room for safekeeping. There the air conditioner bursts into flame, Sam catches his sleeve on fire, gets tangled in the curtains, and knocks himself out cold. Enter the Hunters for Christ. Sam is, Kubrick declares, part of a demonic plan to open the Devil's Gate, and Kubrick is on a mission from God. It's unfair to quote Elwood Blues while beating Sam, isn't it?
Continuing in Bond mode, Dean breaks into Bela's upscale flat where his Colt 1911 meets her Walther PPK muzzle-to-muzzle. She has handled the rabbit's foot with nothing but a pair of tongs, and shows no remorse over the fact that Sam will soon die of the hoodoo curse. When charm and bluster fail, however, Dean resorts to the old fashioned way - he steals it. Bela shoots at him - but chaos rules again as the bullet ricochets madly, destroying several priceless art pieces but missing Dean.
Back at the motel, Sam is beginning to look both battered and annoyed, but Dean arrives in time to save the day. His new luck handily turns an ink pen, the TV remote, and even the motel wall into weapons in Dean's favor. "I'm Batman!" he exults as Kubrick hits the floor. Grow up much, Dean-o? But the energy of the scene just pops.
Midnight in the local graveyard, Sam's about to burn the bunny foot, when Bela appears, gun in hand. Realizing Dean is impervious thanks to the rabbit's foot, she underscores her threat by shooting Sam in the shoulder. I found it perversely funny that this threw Dean off his game, as if casual cruelty by a pretty girl had broken the rules of combat. But he tosses the rabbit's foot at her, which she instinctively catches, and it's game over. Bela stalks away, but not before pilfering all the boys' winning scratch-off tickets. If they'd just burned that bunny's foot a few minutes sooner....
So, bedlam and comedy ruled this episode, but it also introduced several new plot threats: Bela the amoral thief (posh Hollywood-English accent and all), Gordon's hunger for revenge, and Kubrick on his holy mission. That's a lot of obstacles to throw in the Winchesters' path, and I think a more strictly linear episode would have had trouble incorporating it all. However, this episode hit me like a good, solid meal, with lots to digest and a satisfying taste on my tongue. Jensen and Jared's chemistry translates to brotherly physical comedy with great affect, while Kripke and crew done good, I think, in giving us so many great laughs and so many new problems for the Winchesters' already complicated future. In closing, I'll just say - now we're cookin' with gas!
Peace, out.
~ Gloria Atwater / ErinRua
Midnight in the local graveyard, Sam's about to burn the bunny foot, when Bela appears, gun in hand. Realizing Dean is impervious thanks to the rabbit's foot, she underscores her threat by shooting Sam in the shoulder.
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