Sin(fully Good) City - a Review of Supernatural Season 3 Episode 4

Well I have to admit I'm probably going to be the only reviewer to have immediately had this episode upped in their estimation based on one wonderful reason, and his name is Don S. Davis!

Stargate SG-1 fans will know him as Gen. George Hammond, who for seven seasons was the commander of the Stargate Facility located under the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. I have had the great honor of knowing him as a kind and generous man. When my good (and now very much missed) friend Ruth was diagnosed with cancer, one of the few things we got to do together before she became to ill to travel was to go to a few SG1 conventions around Los Angeles where Ruth lived. Don S. Davis always took a moment to tell my friend how beautiful she was and that did more for her spirit than any medicine in the world could to make her keep fighting for as long as she did. I miss my friend Ruth and I will always have a warm place in my heart for Don S. Davis, so seeing him in Sin City as the miserly business own Trotter immediately made the episode stand out for me.

Seeing Don S. Davis aside, I also have to admit it was cool to have the story taking place in Ohio, which is where I am from. It made the story seem a bit more 'sit up and take notice' for me. Sin City was a very well written episode of Supernatural. Robert Singer and John Carver created a very intense and layered story that touched into the lives of each of the Winchester men and opened up those layers for the audience to see. The story gave us humor within the characters of Sam and Dean without going over the top (I'm sorry, but The Magnificent Seven may just go down as my least favorite episode of Supernatural, easily displacing Tall Tales). It gave us insights into their emotions for and about each other.

The one really interesting thing that stood out for me in this episode is the appearance of the character of Ritchie, played by Marty Papazian, who was originally called Iggy in the casting sides. I was sad to see him be killed off and found myself wishing he could have been one of the recurring characters to hang around like Bobby and Ellen did.

My being female, this might sound like a strange comment, but in watching Supernatural sometimes the series seems, especially lately, to have become very estrogen soaked. Yes, it's suppose to be about two hot young men riding around in a cool muscle car and doing heroic things and (sometimes) getting the girl. But from this viewer's standpoint there seems to be too much 'girl to get' going on lately, especially when it comes to Dean. Last season saw the introduction of Ellen and Jo Harvelle, this season the introduction of Ruby and Bela. Between this and all the hot young girls Dean is always scoring with, to me there seems to be very little male influence in Sam and Dean's lives outside of their Dad and Bobby Singer.

So it was refreshing to see Dean meeting up with a male friend from his past, to see the easy 'buddy banter' and playful rivalries that go on between guys. It accomplished something the actors themselves have asked for, which is to have interaction with other characters and not to have it all rely on just the two of them and it showed us a side of Dean we don't to see all that often. That he does have some sort of life outside of his world with Sam and chasing hot chicks to score with. That he has friends and has worked as a hunter independent of Sam or of his Dad. That he cares about other people who besides his brother, his dad, Bobby or some hot chick. It was a nice layer of Dean's personality to be revealed for us. Very well written and played out as well.

It was also interesting to see Dean being the one trapped and waiting for Sam to show up and help him. That Dean was the one not losing hope because he knew his brother was out there trying to find him. It was a nice role reversal from the events of All Hell Breaks Loose and that reversal, which harkened back to those events, in my opinion, lent a lot of dramatic weight to the point in Sin City where the writers touch base with what the YED hinted at in the second season finale: that Sam might not be 100% the Sam he was before Dean brought him back from the dead with the deal he had made.

What also lent weight to this dramatic point was the clever way in which the writers started Sam Winchester out in this episode as kind of humorous, with many instances of his gentleness and his kind of 'little boy' way of stumbling all over himself. Then hitting the audience with the Sam who had the colt in his hand and the demon possessed humans in his sights. Much kudos to Jared Padalecki for making theses transitions in Sam look so flawless and convincing.

Dean Winchester's conversation with the demon possessing Casey the bartender, played by the beautiful Sasha Barrese, was also a truly well written piece of story. It contained a lot of exposition filled with religious issues yes, but the scenes, in my opinion, were never awkward or stilted. Everything flowed and everything fit the character of Dean Winchester like a glove. Jensen Ackles was top notch in these scenes. Even though we know he says he prefers action over talking, in my opinion, very few television actors can do these kinds of scenes with the power he can put into them to make you feel things for and about his character of Dean Winchester.

Have I mentioned that Bobby Singer, played by the talented Jim Beaver, was in this episode? That's always a sure fire way to make any Supernatural episode even better. Getting to see Jim Beaver do his own stunt work in this episode was also a plus. Well done Jim!

Sin City does have its flaws in my perspective. I have to admit I immediately thought that the Catholic priest Father Gil, played with great flair by Robert Curtis Brown, was not the good guy simply because he wasn't genuflecting in front of the cross inside the church. I'm not sure if the writers intended this to be an overt signal that the character wasn't what he said he was or if this was just an oversight on their part. Evidently Sam and Dean do not have a working knowledge of how Catholic priests are to conduct themselves inside the Church or they might have been clued in sooner as well.

Also as a viewer, I find myself intrigued by the 'humanizing' of the all the demons by giving them personalities and shades of gray. However I am a bit wary of the writers going overboard on this aspect. I don't want to see the 'demon war' turn into a soap opera that could be labeled 'The Hell Days of Our Lives'. I think that might not be such a good thing, but that's just me.

As a viewer I also find myself having some niggling issues about two things.

My first thing is an issue with the demon Ruby, played by the lovely Katie Cassidy. After seeing Ruby in several episodes, I have come to appreciate the concept behind the addition of the character and the things the writers think she can accomplish and bring to the mix. However, in my opinion, she already seems to be skating very close to the edge of being a deus ex machina by seeming to have all the answers and constantly showing up just in time to save Sam, and in this case Dean as well. In my opinion there just seems to be an overall lacking in the way the character is being conveyed from script to screen and being presented to the viewers. As I said in theory, Ruby is an intriguing concept for a character addition to the series. I like the idea of what Ruby is suppose to be, I'm just having a hard time getting past the poor presentation of it that I am seeing on screen. I'm just not sure if it's due to the actor in the role or how the character is being written. Perhaps a little bit of both, maybe.

My other issue is with the Colt being re-introduced into the mix. When it first showed up in the Supernatural season one episode, Dead Man's Blood, it was a mystical and mysterious weapon that could kill the YED (now revealed to be the mythical demon Azazel) but only had thirteen bullets to do it with. The scene in the second season finale All Breaks Loose, Part 2 of Dean firing the last bullet from the Colt and killing the thing that had killed their mother might just have been one of the most powerful scenes of the whole second season of Supernatural. Now here is this mystical and mysterious gun that had a limited use and became a pivotal plot point, being 'resurrected' and used as just another one of Ruby's ways of being the deus ex machina she is dangerously close to becoming. The Colt has ceased to be a mystical weapon and just become something the boys can use at their convenience to slay the demons.

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode and again my faith in this show to entertain me and keep me coming back for more stories about Sam and Dean Winchester has been renewed. Excellent job all around!

Supernatural stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as Sam and Dean Winchester; two brother's whose 'family business' is traveling the highways and back roads of American cities hunting down and getting rid of 'supernatural threats' and airs on the CW Network on Thursday nights at 9PM EST.