Supernatural: The Slice Girls

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

You would think Dean would have learned his lesson by now that random hook ups aren't as good in reality as they are in theory. Unfortunately, he gets the cliff notes version when his daughter shows up on his doorstep a few days later in this week's episode, The Slice Girls.

Following the recent slew of killings where men are having their arms and feet cut off before having a symbol carved into their chests, Sam and Dean are on the case. In order to deal with his grief, Dean has been self medicating and decides that while Sam does handles the research, he is going to take the night off which leads him to the Cobalt Room where he meets Lydia. After a bit of chit chat, things between the two of them get steamy while another man is murdered. A few days later and Dean realizes that he left his flask (formerly Bobby's) at Lydia's. It's when he goes back that he not only meets her daughter Emma, that didn't exist a few days ago, but watches her age into a pre teen by the end of the day when she is taken away by some mysterious women. Now that the Winchesters have connected the dots for who is behind the killings there is just one question remaining: is that Dean's daughter?

Returning from a brief hiatus and coming off the fantastic Time After Time After Time, The Slice Girls could not have been a bigger disappointment. I usually never make this comment when referring to Supernatural but the directing throughout the episode was terrible. Jerry Wanek, who is usually listed as a production designer, had fumbled some of the most basic shots when taking a closer look at the scenes between Dean and Lydia. While they were together in the Cobalt Room we were bordering on extreme close ups and it made the show look amateurish at best. For a show that I always find well produced even during the bad episodes, this was not a welcome surprise.

While the directing may have been weak, it is the writing that truly ruined The Slice Girls from the beginning (Ok, besides the title). Written by Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner, there were so many holes in the plot it was amazing this episode was made. While the two definitely nailed the dialogue between the Winchesters, Dean himself was inconsistent with how we have seen him handle grief in the past. The history of the women being Amazons but not great fighters made little sense but I could get past that. It was however, completely implausible when Dean was reluctant to believe there was a case when men were having their hands and feet cut off before having a glyph carved into their chests while they were alive. It went a step further to say this happened every couple of years in different cities around America and no one noticed a pattern. I'm not a criminologist, but I'm quite certain when half a dozen men are brutally murdered in the exact same way every couple of years, even the cops on Supernatural couldn't ignore this. The city was not in a heightened state of panic and there would be law enforcement everywhere warning people to stay safe (think Criminal Minds). Lastly, Lead Detective Charlene's big plan to "handle" Sam was to kill him in the hallway of a university...? That was the best they could do?

Known best for her work on The Vampire Diaries as the character Jenna, Sara Canning played the character Lydia and her impact was barely noticed. I would mostly attribute Canning's bland performance to how poorly Lydia was written because Canning was barely on the screen after 'getting busy' with Dean. I only wonder why Supernatural bothered getting someone who can actually act and then giving her nothing to do.

The one good scene of the show was sadly in the last few moments between Sam and Dean. It was honest and well deserved for Sam to call out Dean for almost letting Emma walk away before he put her down. How Sam told Dean to get his head in the game made perfect sense but still, it was too little too late for the episode.

The Slice Girls was one of the worst episodes I have seen of Supernatural, ever. After something like Time After Time After Time it's pretty hard to ignore the steep drop in quality and I'm reluctant that think that we will see something better in next week's Pluck Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie.

Tags: Supernatural, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Jensen Ackles , Jared Padalecki, Jerry Wanek, Eugenie Ross-Leming, Brad Buckner, Sara Canning

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