“New rule: you steal my baby, you get punched.” – Dean
Well, we can all breathe a sigh of relief, Supernatural is back to being generally mediocre.
After a phenomenal premiere and an excellent follow-up, the third episode of Season Seven is altogether lackluster in comparison. Last episode’s jaw-dropping cliffhanger was wrapped up before the title card flashed in what would ultimately prove to be the strongest aspect of the episode. One quick getaway in a stolen ambulance and it’s off to the first official monster-of-the-week story of the season.
Don’t get me wrong, I love monsters of the week. A quick romp through the cemetery with some lighter fluid and a canister of salt can be a much-needed breather when the season-wide arch gets a little too heavy: season 5, anyone? However, interrupting a burgeoning plot just as it’s starting to take off seems misguided and poorly planned. Save the run-of-the-mill monsters for when everyone is sick of Sam and Dean’s Bogus Journey.
At least we got some flashbacks. Colin Ford is always a welcome guest, and his most recent take as a 15-year-old Sam eased the pain of a migraine-inducing script. The one-sided conversations with an unseen Dean and his penchant for ordering triple-caffeinated beverages are so completely Sam. Ford’s uncanny resemblance to adult-Sam, Jared Padalecki, doesn’t hurt either.
To cut to the chase: once again, one of Sam’s old crushes turns out to be not so human. Literally. A newspaper headline brings back memories of a botched Kitsune hunt. Once again, Sam takes it upon himself to sneak out while Dean is sleeping/drunk (really, it’s all the same for the guy at this point) and once again, Dean tracks him down and punches him in the face. Literally. After burying their differences beneath several layers of resentment and whiskey, Dean takes it upon himself to stab Sam’s supernatural lady friend.
If you’re having traumatic flashbacks to Season 4, I feel your pain.
Aside from rehashing that tired and wholly unwanted storyline again, there were other, more glaring flaws:
- Bobby survived the firebombing of his house, but we are never told how and no one ever asks. What happened to the traditional Winchester response to resurrected friends and family, you know, dumping holy water and salt down their throats and poking them with pointy silver things.
- The EMT clearly states that Dean suffers a compound tibial fracture, yet three weeks later, he saws his own cast off in a display of utter badassery and barely even has a limp. I get that Dean is a superhero, but c’mon. That’s not how compound fractures work.
- The Leviathan have started tracking with Winchester’s moves by monitoring their various credit card aliases, but we never see or hear how they even figured out what those aliases are.
Some stats and info about Supernatural, “The Girl Next Door”
TV SHOW – Supernatural
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 7, Episode 3
AIRED ON – October 7th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – CW/Netflix
GENRE – Drama, Teen Dramas, Horror, Fantasy
CREATED BY – Eric Kripke
CAST – Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Mark Sheppard, Jim Beaver, Alexander Calvert, Mark Pellegrino, Samantha Smith, Ruth Connell
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.