“Sex and Violence” was true to its name. The episode contained both sex and violence. Of course, merely having those two things isn’t enough to make something worthwhile. Fortunately, there were lots of other elements on display this week as well.
I think the writers tipped their hand a little too much with its big twist this week. When we were first introduced to Doctor Roberts, my first thought was, “Well, she’s the one behind this.” However, the show never introduced a single other plausible female suspect. So if you confine your suspicions to female characters, Doctor Roberts had to be the most obvious suspect by default. And since the odds of the most likely suspect being the killer in fiction are roughly 1:87, it seemed unlikely that Doctor Roberts was really the siren.
As a result, the second that Agent Monroe got excited about Dean’s car, my suspicions were immediately raised. And once he gave Dean the flower that he “found” at one of the crime scenes, I knew that Monroe had to be the siren.
The confrontation between Sam and Dean was a bit on the weak side. You knew neither of them was ever in any real danger, so it just didn’t feel all that intense to me.
The argument they had before trying to kill each other was far more interesting (not to mention important) as it raised all the issues between the two brothers that have been simmering all season that I imagine will explode in a much more non-siren spell related way before the end of the season (though on a side note, I thought it was kind of silly that Dean was all suspicious about Sam talking to Ruby. The last time Dean and Ruby were in the same room was when they were all working together to stop the demons and angels from doing bad things to Anna).
I really liked that Bobby did most of the actual work this week. Sure, Sam and Dean managed to figure out the connection to the strip club, and that it was a siren they were after, that was pretty much it. From the moment that Agent showed up, their progress in the case came to a complete halt. Dean thought he was making progress but, of course, he was just being lead on by the siren; Sam didn’t even get to think he was making progress, he just hooked up with Cara instead.
I also thought the phone trick with Bobby was a pretty amusing and clever thing to have set up. Bobby rarely seems to work a case that doesn’t involve the Winchesters these days so it is a good idea to have him on call to help back up their various con personae. Of course, it’s hardly a foolproof system, if someone is a little too persistent or Bobby just happens to be away from the phone it’s not going to work, but as a kind of emergency backup system on their cons, it’s pretty clever.
“Sex and Violence” wasn’t a perfect episode of Supernatural, by any means. It had more than a few issues; the mystery was a little too easily solved by the viewer, and the big showdown between Sam and Dean wasn’t quite as engaging as it could have been. But, it was still a good episode, and the way that the Winchesters had absolutely nothing to do with stopping the monster of the week was a refreshing change of pace.
Trevor MacKay is the sci-fi/horror/fantasy/cheesy/random geeky stuff guy. If something is geeky and/or unbelievably cheesy, he’s there.
