Supernatural S06E03 - The Third Man (2010)

Review

Sam calls Dean with a case; a couple of officers of the law have died in mysterious circumstances in Easter, Pennsylvania. The Boys duly arrive and discover one officer has been turned into blood sauce, and another had an extreme case of boils. They talk to a surviving officer who witnessed the blood thing and while interviewing him, the Winchester Bros are FBI agents this episode, the officer complains about his head itching and promptly drops dead. Dean hears something and they discover the officer shockingly had locusts eating away his skull. I immediately picked up a Biblical vibe, which was almost immediately confirmed by the Boys, and they call in heavenly help in the form of Castiel.

Castiel makes the scene and we learn God has left the building with the heavenly host descending into civil war. Our favourite Angel is opposed to arch angel Raphael taking the reins of power but does admit that during the power struggle someone has made off with weapons of extreme power and he informs the Bros that they are dealing with the Staff of Moses. You know ten plagues of Egypt and all. They do find the culprit, who proves to not be who they thought it was, and eventually discover who stole the weapons from Heaven's arsenal. Naturally things don't go quite as well as they might have, Angels can be dicks.

The biggest take from this episode is that Dean is starting to wonder about Sam's actions since he escaped the cage, still unexplained by the way. Sam backs Castiel in torturing a young boy to discover who stole the weapons much to Dean's horror. We also learn Angels can trade for human souls just like Demons, so that would be a common currency I guess. So as established previously who or what is Sam, for sure he isn't the Winchester we previously grooved to.

Another thread added to the season, Balthazar has gone feral, which may play out this season or perhaps next.

So we have like alpha monsters charging around, a civil war in heaven, and now Biblical firepower being unleashed on Earth, anyone else think that we might be getting a tad too many threads woven into the season? While I'm all about making things complex and interwoven I also kind of like the simplicity of Supernatural's monster of the week episodes.

So the episode itself rocked like rocking was going out of fashion. We get some gnarly deaths, full props to the makeup team on the boils, and the off screen blood death had me grinning, but twitching my death nerve was the locust one. Talk about some gruesome effects being delivered for an unsuspecting audience. But, and this is one truism of horror, the victims got what they deserved and the culprit was all revenge for his brother's death. So he had some punishment delivered via Castiel, you have to pay your dues in this genre, but ultimately I guess walked away with maybe something learnt.

Interestingly there's something to be said for the use of clothes in The Third Man. Before anyone complains that this review is going Queer Eye for the Straight Guy just let me get this across. Castiel is naturally rocking his trench coat and we meet another Angel, who is laid back in casual attire. More on that Angel shortly, as I think we might have a replacement for Gabriel, the Trickster for the Supernaturally challenged. On the other side of the battle lines are Raphael's forces, decked out in power suits. To draw an analogue team Winchester are the rebel alliance while Raphael's foot soldiers are the Storm troopers. Yes I could have drawn a much darker comparison but pretty much the point has been made I think. All aspects of a show need to be looked at, even if this involves extras dressed up in expensive suits.

So to the new Angel, introducing Balthazar another of the renegade Angels that have taken time out from the shenanigans in Heaven, who presents as a fun time guy who will still step up to the plate if required, which he does in this episode. Not entirely sure the newest angelic one on the block is an ample replacement for Gabriel, but the character might just grow on us. Besides which he has an arsenal of heavy ordinance from the heavenly bunker.

Naturally there has to be something wrong with the episode that precludes a perfect score; we ever actually given one of those to an episode of Supernatural, from memory that would be a negative? This episode is split down the middle with a first half that rocks along and a second half that is definitely a lot more sedentary in nature. Hey "sedentary" might be my word of the week, perfectly sums up my normal weekend, well being honest here, week. There's no building crescendo to a brilliant conclusion that perfectly encapsulates the events previously demonstrated, rather there's a sort of resigned building on the themes the season is offering to us. This doesn't sit well with this little black duck, show us the money or get the hell out of the kitchen, in cricketing terms face the ball in front of you rather than the next over.

Dear God in heaven what are they doing with this show, the mullet has been effectively shaved off, no track listing folks. One of the excellent aspects of Supernatural is the soundtrack, one whole mark removed for the lack of said aspect here.

So I enjoyed The Third Man over all but was still left with some doubts about how the collective writers are approaching things with the season threads intruding on what could have been an excellent monster of the week episode. There's a general murmuring just below the surface that the show is being defused by Castiel, who seems to be a major character in development. Personally I think the character adds a lot more to the franchise than he takes from it, and hey who doesn't love the trench coated dude. So I enjoyed the episode, was left wondering about the change in tempo, but would still recommend to regular Supernatural viewers; the episode requires prior knowledge. Bit of a weird title for the episode, yeah got the meaning which was a sort of double entendre - hey literature term kids, but things are working like a Psycho with a kitchen knife. We might be going through a few rough bits in our relationship but I'm still committed to the show.