Review

Dean and Sam travel to Magic Week in Iowa where Magicians, both amateur and professional, show off their moves in an attempt to increase their profile. The Winchester Bros are there because a Magician was found on Main Street with multiple stab wounds but no tears in his shirt. Clearly there's some real magic being conducted of the black variety and the Boys are on the case.

Jay, who was a leading magician back in the day, is trying to relive past glories and decides to try one of the tricks he could never pull off, what his pals Vernon and Charlie don't know is that Jay is planning suicide via the death defying trick. Surprisingly he manages to pull off an almost impossible escape, which involves not being hanged, but another magician is found hanged in his hotel room. Sam and Dean deduce Jay is using real magic, they now just need to prove it.

While this episode doesn't venture into the overall season story arc it speaks directly to the pressures that both Sam and Dean are under, and in particular drives Sam's decision to take Ruby up on her offer of demonic power enhancement. As stated previously I don't trust Ruby, there is another agenda there but to be honest I'm just not seeing what that agenda is at the moment. The crux of the episode revolves around surviving to do the same old into old age as opposed to finding a quick solution.

In the season two episode Time Is On My Side Rufus Turner confided in Dean that there were no happy endings for people like themselves, it always ends up bloody and with those hunting being alone. Dean has experienced the worse the life style can throw at him and knows that Rufus has it right, hence Dean's comment that he "hopes he dies before he gets old", Dean doesn't want to end his life as a sad lonely old man. Sam on the other hand can see light at the end of the tunnel, he believes there is a future post hunting, they just need to grab that future with both hands. Hence Sam takes up Ruby's offer thinking a quick solution to the demonic issue will give them that future. While Dean is cynical and is going down fighting Sam has forgotten that demons will tempt with the thing you desire most, this can't lead to a happy ending in the final episode of the season. Ruby also mentions that over half the seals have been broken; the Angels are in the process of losing the war.

In a different universe they are watching decent episodes, I want to live there!

This looming conflict between the Winchesters mirrors the issues facing Jay and his two friends. Jay is the sad old man Dean doesn't want to become, while one of Jay's friends has found a solution to the problem, only it costs a few people's lives to achieve. Jay eventually finds a way to cut through the issue, the Winchesters aren't so much help here, which leaves the audience wondering if Dean will be called upon to take the same drastic action. Criss Angel Is a Douche Bag sets up intriguing possibilities as it mirrors the Winchester situation, I'm giving two thumbs up to Julie Siege's script here as it provides additional layers seldom seem in a Supernatural episode.

To the episode itself, sans themes chick moments and stuff, pretty average I have to say. Siege's script might be solid but to be honest the episode didn't hold my attention or float my boat in any fashion. The Winchesters hove into view, get things wrong, discover what they are really up against, blah blah blah, typical Supernatural fodder. What doesn't work is that neither Dean nor Sam resolve the situation, in fact I have to say they were pretty ineffectual. For diehard Supernatural fans this episode really doesn't rate and to be honest I was left wondering just how "chick moment" the rest of the season is going to be. Even Dean was being introspective, a development over the last couple of seasons that is simply wrong.

We do learn a little more about Sam, at age thirteen he was heavily into magic, which must have gone down well with John Winchester considering the lifestyle the Winchesters lead. Sam has been trying to break from the family business for years and now after an examination of what it means to get old Sam is ready to go for a golden solution, to once and for all finish things. However, even if Sam manages to stop Lucifer rising this will still leave a myriad of other supernatural dangers out there, ergo Ruby's offer isn't the final solution. People are reading way too much into this, if Sam can stop the apocalypse he still has to contend with vampires, revenants, werewolves, and Justin Bieber. The forces of evil are still going to be everywhere.

What we do know is that Sam hasn't confided everything to Dean, he is still holding back some dark secret about Ruby. Not quite sure what that is but clearly it involves some sort of moral decision as Sam has been hard pressed to get back into demonic slaying training until the end of this episode. I'm not expecting this to end well and clearly we are going to have a Winchester bitch fight prior to the final episode of the season. The Winchester Bros are on different paths, the unity they seek is being eroded by Sam going secretive and falling into the influence of Ruby.

No mullet rock this episode as the Producers of Supernatural show they really aren't getting one of the requirements. Things need to improve on this front as season four is turning into a Baptist revival meeting on the music front.

While I could dig the parallels, the themes, and Sam being forced into a decision finally, I still didn't dig the episode and consider it one of the weaker entries in season four. Way too much introspection, the Winchesters not sorting out the situation, and a pretty much by the numbers episode didn't stack up as required viewing for me. Clearly Supernatural fans are going to watch regardless, everyone else can take an early mark this week.