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The Nitpicker's Guide to "Supernatural™"
"A series hasn't succeeded, until the fans pick it apart"
©
Season Three
Episode Titles (click to jump to each episode)
The Magnificent Seven The Kids Are Alright Bad Day At Black Rock Sin City
Bedtime Stories Red Sky At Morning Fresh Blood A Very Supernatural Christmas
Malleus Maleficarum Dream A Little Dream Of Me Mystery Spot Jus In Bello
Ghostfacers Long-Distance Call Time Is On My Side No Rest For The Wicked
S3 Ep 1 "The Magnificent Seven"
1. That couple seemed to be rather brash for seasoned hunters. While their aversion to the Winchesters and Bobby is understandable, "Isaac" says they don't know how many demons are out there, but refuses help. 2. Seems that experienced hunters would know how to detect a nest of demons, just as our boys did. Teamwork would seem to be the logical way to go, but not here. Then once "Isaac" is killed, "Tamara" wants to charge back in and make the same mistake again. Dumb. 3. Doesn't track that the demon wouldn't expect to be exorcised - he looked surprised. Did he think they'd just let him go? 4. The significance of the hymn playing in the background ("I Shall Not Be Moved") is unclear. Perhaps "Tamara" enjoys this type of music.
S3 Ep 2 "The Kids Are Alright"
1. MISSED
OPPORTUNITY ALERT: Too bad "Ben" wasn't Dean's kid.
Having a child (not getting married and settling down, mind you; that's a
show-killer) would make this character a little more grounded. That's one
of the (many) reasons we feel they should not have killed off John Winchester.
Dean is a hugely appealing character, but he does need to grow up a bit, and he
needs an emotional anchor other than Sam.
Having a child he didn't know about is just the ticket. It also would have
made him more deeply regret selling his soul. (since at this point he hadn't
gone to Hell yet) The fact that Dean
thought "Ben" might be his, indicates he at least sometimes doesn't
practice safe sex, so he could
definitely have fathered a child...somewhere. Since "Cassie" of "Route 666" is
apparently the only woman he ever loved, she would be a good - and more
interesting, choice for the mother, for obvious reasons.
2. But the lab tech
among us would be thoroughly ticked off, if they pull the old "There was a
mix-up in the lab" thing regarding "Ben's" paternity. That's not a valid
excuse for medical diagnosis or confirmation error...ever. Doctors, health
facilities, even the lab itself will double and triple check any positive and/or
conclusive test; especially a paternity test, because that could end up in court
- hopefully the writers won't use that cop-out. Perhaps in the early days of
medicine these errors happened, but not for at least 30 years in the U.S.
If they go with Dean being a surprise father, it should be a different child, who is past infancy and can
interact with Dean, thus making him a little more responsible...just a little.
"Cassie" and Dean last got together in S1, so a child from that time would be
about 4 years old 5th season.
3. Yet again, we're to believe there were a string of "accidental" deaths, but the
cops apparently aren't suspicious, and the residents think nothing of it. Not
likely. 4. So "Ben's" mom boinked 2 different guys within a very short time - hey,
that would be her business, but apparently she wasn't protected. "Guess I
was a little wild back then" - no, you were stupid; not only because of pregnancy, but
mainly disease. Looked like she wanted to bang Dean yet again. Sheesh
- time and place, chica; take care of your recently traumatized kid.
S3 Ep 3 "Bad Day at Black Rock"
1. "Gordon's" too single-minded in his
psychoses, but his assessment of Sam is reasonable. Judging by upcoming
episodes, he may be right. It would be rather nauseating to find out Sam is
"Azazel's" son or some other soapy crap like that, but something is definitely up
with him. This episode is another rehash of "The Monkey's Paw' - a theme that
gets repeated in season 4 as well. This is not a problem for us, since that story
is a classic with good reason. 2. The "Kubrick" subplot is a little weak,
though. It was just bloat to be the threat of the week. 3. "Kubrick" finds Sam and Dean easily, due
to their win, but the F.B.I. can't?
S3 Ep 4 "Sin City"
1. Though we often see it in movies and TV, it's actually quite seldom that nuns and priests work together, unless there is a parish school. In fact, we haven't even seen a convent in many years. 2. Maybe it's a Catholic thing, but we figured out what was going on with the priest as soon as we saw him in the bar. Priests are allowed to drink (wine is consumed every day by them), but we have never heard of them frequenting bars - at least not with their collars on. An exception would be the priest trying to turn the patrons away from sin, but the owner of the bar wouldn't let that happen (rightly so; that's not the place for that sort of thing). Another tipoff was the "butt" joke the priest made - very inappropriate. Yes, priests are still men, but it's wrong, nevertheless. 3. "Richie" was an obvious red shirt from the start. Especially with Dean's warning "You're going to get yourself killed."
S3 Ep 5 "Bedtime Stories"
1. It's unclear how this homicidal ghost
is managing to know where and when to manipulate people into the "stories" - but
we have to go with it. 2. What's the deal with dressing a comatose adult in
little-girl clothes and hair? (kind of icky) 3. At the end of this, Sam is talking to the
crossroads demon, who says the holder of Dean's contract is a "he". But
later in this season we find out it's "Lilith" - oops. A recovery from that
would be to say "Lilith" acquired the contract from the male demon who held it.
Or that demons aren't really gender-specific, and might have decided to "be a
girl" for a change. But that doesn't hold up in light of "Azazel" (while
possessing John) saying Dean killed Azazel's "daughter" and "boy",
so...
S3 Ep 6 "Red Sky At Morning"
1. Most repugnant nit in this one, and for the entire series so far? That pervy old lady. Hey, we believe in use-it-or-lose-it, as far as sex goes, but not when it's a guy who's young enough to be your grandson, and is not a willing participant, which Sam isn't. That ain't "cougar" action - that's sexual harassment. The old lady grosses us out every time, so we just fast-forward her. 2. In the summoning spell at the end, Sam says "Castiel" - this is significant later in the series.
S3 Ep 7 "Fresh Blood"
No real nits in this one that we could see. Cute stunt casting of Mercedes McNab, who also played a really dumb vampire on "Buffy" - she was in her element.
S3 Ep 8 "A Very Supernatural Christmas"
1. Darkly humorous, but only good for one viewing.
S3 Ep 9 "Malleus Maleficarum"
1. Contemporary witchcraft stories are usually pretty interesting in and of themselves, but this one seems too much like the movie "The Craft" (teenage witches). What's good in this one is that we find out a bit more about "Ruby".
S3 Ep 10 "Dream a Little Dream of Me"
1. This ep heavily cribbed "A Nightmare On
Elm Street". But more significantly, this episode may be the only time we
see Jim Beaver ("Bobby") without that trashy cap.
2. Seems kind of silly that
Sam didn't immediately realize they could control the dreamscape as much as that
slacker. But then, when Dean wanted to ditch "himself" he couldn't. Doesn't
add up. 3. We don't get how Bobby's screaming wife was putting him into a coma.
She didn't seem to really do anything but act psychotic. That's not a
trigger for comas that we know of. 4. When the psycho slacker was confronted by
his psycho dad, why couldn't Mr. "God" stop his father? So, could Sam manipulate the
little weasel because of the powers he was given? This one, on many levels,
gets the...
S3 Ep 11 "Mystery Spot"
1. As with the divine, once again Dean is
skeptical of something that's clearly proven. He knows Sam has
precognitive abilities, yet doubts the time loop, despite Sam predicting many of
the things that happen. The character of Dean can be somewhat thuggish, but he's
smarter than this. Very accurate that Dean "peed" himself
when hit by the car, though. (one of us is a former EMT) Most men either urinate or ejaculate with traumatic
deaths (including heart attacks). Women usually urinate.
2. The piano dropping on Dean looked totally what it was - C.G.I.
3. Dean chokes
to death on sausage in a restaurant.
Restaurant folks are usually taught Heimlich, and if not, bystanders usually
include at least one person who knows it, so that's not likely, but we guess,
possible. However, Sam can do suturing, but not Heimlich?
4. The writers of this show just love the term, "chuckleheads" - it
was also in "Salvation" and it shows up again in S4.
5. Why
did Dean just go to Hell, but when he came back he didn't have any memory of
Hell? Later he remembers every bit of it. Or maybe the "Trickster" just
kept Dean in some sort of suspended animation. Yeah, we're reaching here.
The "Trickster" seems to be somewhat sympathetic, so he may have spared Dean the
memory of Hell this time. 6. We wish Dean were jamming to something besides the
very cheesy "Heat Of The Moment". Could have been worse - could have been
effing "Wayward Son" again...and again...and....
S3 Ep 12 "Jus in Bello"
1. "Groves" was a lousy shot; yeah, he was actually a demon possessing "Groves" but anyone could have made that shot. Of course we'd have lost Dean, so he had to be a lousy shot. 2. With the Feds involved, it seems unlikely that law enforcement from several agencies wouldn't be there, once things went awry. All of communications are down, which is a red flag to any enforcers. They'd be swarming the place, especially in light of Sam and Dean being "dangerous". 3. Minor religion nit: "Nancy" was clutching a rosary, but wearing a standard cross around her neck. Catholics (as far as we know) don't wear crosses; only crucifixes (with the figure of Jesus on it) or medals with saints, etc. on them. 4. MISSED OPPORTUNITY ALERT: We're frustrated by the death of "Henriksen", since he could have been a tremendous asset to the guys. He could have smoothed over some of their legal hassles, for one thing, and Whitfield had great working chemistry with Ackles and Padalecki.
S3 Ep 13 "Ghostfacers"
1. OK, these guys are funny. (though usually not
deliberately) They were able to bleep audio, as well as put a graphic on the
tape, (covering the bleep, adding the logo and voiceover, etc.) yet they have to
fake slow-mo? Not likely. Funny reference to
the writer's strike, which really was happening at the time this was shot. Also
funny that one of the geeks called the Winchesters "assholes from Texas" since
both Ackles and Padalecki are from Texas. 2. Really unfortunate that
"Corbett" was ridiculed, then killed, and it seems the character was pretty much
dredged up to be the red shirt, since he wasn't in "Hell House." Another
corporeal ghost kills the old-fashioned way. 3. Here we go with the
gay "humor" again. At least "Corbett" was portrayed as the hero, after being the
most abused character in this one. 4. Biggest nit? You'd have to be a
techno-moron to not back your video up on more than one hard drive, then
separating the drives. This very site is backed up regularly onto 2 separate
external drives, one of which is promptly put in a damage-proof safe when
updated. 5. Erasing it would have been much more difficult than
portrayed. Any geek worth his/her salt knows better than this stuff...
S3 Ep 14 "Long-Distance Call"
The return of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's voice is small consolation, but we'll take what we can get of him. We give the writers credit for alluding to lifting the plot of an episode from the original "Twilight Zone" by giving this one the same title, and having a scene with a little boy being manipulated on a toy phone by his dead mom (it was a grandma in the TZ ep).
S3 Ep 15 "Time Is on My Side"
1. A little of Billy Drago goes a long
way, but this one has a number of problems. 2. Drago's "Doc Benton" is a very
confusing character. He's not really a spirit, since he needs human tissue
to regenerate, but when said tissue is transplanted, he gains more life.
Doesn't track at all with the way tissue lives or dies, even within the realm of
the um... supernatural. Playing Frankenstein on yourself just isn't practical.
What if the tissue in your arms or brain dies? When the brain starts to
die, it progresses too rapidly to be replaced. You couldn't think about
what you needed to do, anyway. Maybe we're to think the brain never dies. That gets the
,
because it can't live longer than most major organs. Strokes (some, not
all), Alzheimer's, and other brain disorders have to do with decaying brain
tissue. If the magic formula keeps you alive, what do you need with the
tissue replacements? Even if you go with the idea that you're replacing
organs as you would car parts, it's doubtful that tissue would last more than a
week or so. Just not practical, even from a magical standpoint. Oh wait -
Sam said it's not magic at all, but "science" - we hear the meter warming up.
And it seems unlikely Sam would want Dean to become what Benton is - the undead.
3. As for the opening scene, we saved that for last because it deserves the meter
most of all. You cannot live long enough or have enough strength to walk
anywhere with a major organ removed so violently. The trauma alone would kill you, so...
S3 Ep 16 "No Rest for the Wicked"
1. We realize grandpa in that
hostage family is desperate, but he knows he can't escape because "Lilith" sees
all (otherwise he would have hitched a ride out of there), so he was pretty much
asking to die. But then, most of us would probably rather be dead than in
that situation. 2. This ep also borrows
shamelessly from "It's A Good Life" on the old "Twilight Zone" series.
3. What is "Lilith"? A child who went
to Hell and somehow became a powerful demon? An adult demon who likes to
pretend to be a child? Probably. 4. Strange that no other demon besides
"Ruby" could escape the devil's trap. 5. Apparently, "Lilith" isn't composed
of black smoke, since nobody saw her sneak into "Ruby's" body (the
kid's mom would have seen her leave the little girl; mom was wide awake). Oh wait
- when "Lilith" leaves "Ruby's" body, she is composed of black smoke;
so much for that part: Good
job on the Dean death effects, though - his (bright red) chest blood was squirting, which is
appropriate, as there are arteries in the chest. (the "skin" was too pink,
however)
Season Three
Episode Titles (click to jump to each episode)
The Magnificent Seven The Kids Are Alright Bad Day At Black Rock Sin City
Bedtime Stories Red Sky At Morning Fresh Blood A Very Supernatural Christmas
Malleus Maleficarum Dream A Little Dream Of Me Mystery Spot Jus In Bello
Ghostfacers Long-Distance Call Time Is On My Side No Rest For The Wicked
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12/26/2008