Still from on SUPERNATURAL: The Magnificent Seven.
© Warner Bros.
Mania Grade: A
Episode: The Magnificent Seven
Starring: Joel Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Created By: McG, Eric Kripke
Episode: The Magnificent Seven
Starring: Joel Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Created By: McG, Eric Kripke
SUPERNATURAL: The Magnificent Seven
By: Stephen LackeyReview Date: Saturday, October 06, 2007
Supernatural: Season One was my summer box set and it turned out to be a really good choice. Then, Season Two hit DVD so I blazed through it in order to be ready for the Season Three premiere. Season Two was even better than the first so I had high expectations for this season. The show started with an electric sort of zeal recapping the entire last season cut over the always ominous Hells Bells by AC/DC. It worked, because after the recap I was pumped to see what’s next.
The creators did an amazing thing with this series last season. They brought Sam and Dean, Bobby, and Ellen to a final showdown with the yellow eyed demon that has plagued Sam and Dean for their whole lives. I fully expected to see the demon get away or raise the stakes or something, but nooo he got toasted. That’s a brave move on the part of the creators because they could have easily strung this story out over the next few years with no problem at all. To be honest though I think the creators may have done that because they weren’t completely sure that they’d get another season. If you don’t believe me, then check out the commentaries on the Season Two DVD’s. I can’t tell you how many times I heard various commentators say something like “if we get to come back” or “hopefully we’ll get to come back”. Brilliantly, the creators are saying that the creation of the first two seasons and the third one is very precise and maybe it is, but if it isn’t they really came up with a good formula for the three seasons quick. It goes like this: season one is all about Sam and Dean getting to know each other and discovering who they are as they fight demons and investigate the death of their mother, season two is the confrontation of the demon responsible for their mother’s death and Dean’s evolution, and now season three is about all out war with the demons that escaped from the hellgate when Sam and Dean killed the yellow eyed demon.
So, with the start of this season, the actors playing Sam and Dean both have to be happy because they aren’t going to be doing more of the same as far as who their characters are. Sam has evolved into a leader and he is going to have more of an impact on the world of demons than he ever could have expected. Dean made a deal with the devil last season to save Sam’s life and now he starts the war with the demons accepting his fate, that he will die in one year and his soul will go to hell with the devil. As you might expect, he is living life to the extreme getting with women and eating bacon cheeseburgers for breakfast. I think we’ll see an evolution of his character moving from the happy go lucky Dean to a darker Dean with a death wish. He tries to take some chances in this opening episode and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of that soon.
So, onto the episode. Sam, Dean, and Bobby are freaked out by how quiet things are after the epic battle that set the demons free. Well, with no rhyme or reason, a group of demons break the silence by invading a group of humans and causing chaos. The group of demons are the seven deadly sins and each of them begins using their influence on humans just for fun, celebrating their return to earth. Our intrepid heroes meet a couple that are also hunters that define how Sam and Dean are considered in the world of hunters. Hunters that weren’t a part of the battle with the yellow eyed demon don’t see that battle as a victory. They all believe that Sam and Dean are to blame for bringing all out war with the demons to Earth. We get a bit of action regard to the seven deadly sins but they seem much more epic than this single hour allows. This set of demons deserved a two hour premiere or a two parter to kick things off. Throughout the episode we see a new blonde girl following Sam around and she makes her big appearance during the final battle with the sins by killing three of them with some sort of special knife then leaving. Who is she? One of the demons seemed to recognize her. Why is she following Sam and apparently protecting him? These are questions I’m sure we’ll get throughout the season. Another exchange that’s interesting in the episode is that one of the sins mentions that they all know about Sam and who he is.
There’s so much talk about war with the demons in this episode and the previous season finale that I really hoped to see at least a little set up for that war in the opening. Overall, it just seems like another demon of the week episode as far as that part of the episode goes. Yes, these were demons to the extreme, but they were still done by the end of the episode. So, is this truly a war of some kind or will Sam and Dean just have to fight tougher demons? I sincerely hope we get some major story arc set up as far as a war with the demons in the next few episodes. I am satisfied for now though with all the new questions added to the story arc in this episode for now though. As far as this mysterious girl named Ruby, I could see her actually being some sort of demon that’s turned against her own kind. There’s a ton of interesting story here that appeased me until we learn what the demons have in store for our hunters this season.
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