Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) investigate a case where the victims’ hands and feet have been severed and each have been branded with a strange symbol. While Sam does some research at a local university, Dean heads to one of his favorite places to investigate – the town bar. Dean strikes up a conversation with a local named Lydia (Sara Canning), and the two go back to her place. Sam discovers the symbol on the bodies is a sign of Amazon warriors.
Original Air Date: 3 February 2012 — Directed by Jerry Wanek and Written by Eugenie Ross-Leming & Brad Buckner.
Coming back off of another break, Supernatural brings us a tale that’s sure to remind everybody that everything has consequences — the major subject being Dean getting a woman pregnant. Very sensitive issues are brought back up and there’s a bit of a supernatural mystery going on that doesn’t have anything to do with Amazons.
With the leads on Dick Roman going nowhere, Sam and Dean follow a case where men are being murdered gruesomely and having a strange symbol carved into their chests. Sam notices Dean drinking from Bobby’s flask and after shuffling around with excuses for why he has it, Dean misdirects his brother’s accusations by talking about the absurdity of the case they’re following.
When Dean met Lydia
While examining the latest victim, the boys get a vibe that this is possibly their type of case by way of the evidence. Tthe medical examiner tells them that one victim managed to get a piece of the perp during the struggle but analysis came back negative noting nothing human in the DNA.
Dean ditches out on research by hitting the bar where he meets the very attractive Lydia. Talking it up over drinks Dean tells Lydia about his job (as an investment banker with a sufficient fortune) pouring on the charm while Lydia talks about a past of horrible dates and no need to rush settling down which immediately gets Dean’s attention. Sizing him up as a decent enough catch for a one-nighter, Lydia takes Dean home.
A new victim pops up the next morning and while the brothers investigate the crime scene they meet Charlene Penn (Kendall Cross) the leading detective on the case. The Winchesters realize they need an expert to figure this stuff out and Dean grimly muses that their expert (Bobby) is dead. After leaving the crime scene, Dean realizes Bobby’s flask is missing possibly still over at Lydia’s.
As he phones her, Sam starts in with the jokes about how Dean actually got a number from a conquest. Dismissing it as usual, Dean catches up with Lydia who is being super elusive with him and obviously lying about the flask. After hanging up the phone with Dean the camera pulls back and we get the exact reason why Lydia was rushing Dean off the phone…
The Expert(s)?
The boys meet up with Professor Morrison (Harry Groener), an anthropology professor who seems not too interested in their case and a little too quirky. After laying out an interesting bribe for the two FBI agents he thinks he’s dealing with, Morrison reluctantly decides to take on the work leaving Sam and Dean to ponder if he really is going to be any good to them. Arguing about why they’re using him in the first place, it’s obvious that if Bobby was still alive, they’d be consulting him instead of anyone that appears to be certified on mythology.
Dean heads back to Lydia’s to recover Bobby’s flask. While there Dean meet’s Emma, the reason why Lydia has been so busy. Mistaking Emma for a babysitting gig, Dean finds out she’s Lydia’s little girl whom he was sure was in the picture the night before. Sam calls to check up and remind Dean that they’re meeting up with medical examiner Eddie and while Dean’s on the phone, he happens to catch crib sized Emma actually speaking and asking mommy “who the guy in the other room is” while Lydia tries to shush her and wait for Dean to leave. Dean’s Spidey-senses tingle big time and he hangs back, forcing Sam to meet up with the medical examiner on his own.
Sam gets no new leads from viewing the body but does discover that the last two victims had visited the Cobalt Room (where Dean and Lydia met). Both cases coincidentally happened to be at the bar within two nights of being murdered and there’s a 2-year pattern in different locations around the US. Detective Penn arrives and unceremoniously advises Sam that the case needs to be wrapped up quickly.
Contacting Dean, Sam tells him about the connection to the murders with the Cobalt Room and that Dean’s apparently dodged a bullet. While they talk, Dean is busy staking out Lydia’s place and watches as two women appear and meet up with Lydia. Dean can’t believe his eyes. The two women and Lydia return with Emma (who now looks like a grade schooler) and the two ladies take away to an old warehouse building where Dean follows them to.
The brothers meet back up with Professor Morrison and learn that the symbol left behind on all the bodies was the major clue. These women really are Amazons and that the men (Dean included) were apparently victims in a birthing/coming of age ritual.
The weird and strange keep coming for the boys. The Amazons procreate and the maturity cycle from fetus to adult is within a matter of days. Emma is Dean’s daughter (making Sam an unwitting uncle). Detective Penn is also a member of the Amazonian cult and has made both of the Winchesters as hunters — though they don’t know that part.
Scouring Bobby’s books and journals for more research, the one key piece of research they can use is blown across the table into Dean’s line of sight. The paper contains text written in Greek that neither of them can translate on their own and Dean immediately senses something is up and it wreaks of Bobby. Sam is quick to dismiss that there’s no way Bobby could be behind the revelation given that they burned his remains. Arguing that Dean is still emotionally compromised, Sam takes the paper to Professor Morrison and orders Dean to stay put because they know someone is on the way to kill him.
Keeping it in The Family
As Sam heads to the university, Dean gets a visit from Emma (Alexia Fast) who has come of age. Father and daughter talk about options and choices with Emma saying she’s torn between her heritage and how she wants to just live her own life.
Sam and the professor go over Bobby’s note discovering that the offspring of an Amazon and the male always satisfies the birthright by killing her own father. Realizes that Dean is in a lot more trouble than either of them imagined, Sam hurries back to get to his brother but is intercepted by Detective Penn. Penn catches him by surprise, hurling him across the hallway which smashes his phone and prevents Sam from calling his brother with the warning. Before Penn can make her move on Sam, he recovers in time to shoot her in the heart.
Emma and Dean wind up in a standoff, her with a ritual dagger and Dean with a pistol. As Dean tries to reason with his daughter, Sam makes it just in time to realize that his brother is very reluctant to kill her. As Sam zeroes in on his niece, Emma makes one last attempt at pulling Dean’s strings before Sam pulls the trigger.
Attempting to stop the Amazon operation, the boys move in on the warehouse only to discover that the tribe has moved on — nothing cluing them to where they have moved on to.
As the episode closes out, Sam and Dean talk about the situation with Emma where Sam reminds Dean that this is all too similar to the circumstances with Amy (The Girl Next Door) where Sam let the monster get away and Dean had to be the one to make the kill. Sam levels with Dean, telling his older brother that his emotions will get him killed evidenced by how Dean was ready to let Emma walk. With all of the turmoil of Castiel’s and Bobby’s death and the addition of Emma’s death, it’s now clear that Dean’s head isn’t in the game.
The biggest takeaway from The Slice Girls is how it pulled a reversal on a similar situation that took place during The Girl Next Door. Given how unraveled Sam’s emotional state is currently, having Sam with the opportunity to give Dean a lecture on keeping his head focused is a real twist. Supernatural has always been a story driven on emotion and while we see the brothers in the middle of some really hardcore stuff, someone is always facing the possibility of being hurt.
The Slice Girls was a good episode, but it didn’t really bring anything to the table outside of more thinking points about how the Winchesters function. The typical “Winchester flair” just wasn’t there, but the lack of it wasn’t a deal-breaker. Seeing Sam and Dean separating as much as they have done this season is almost as nerve-wracking as it is exciting because one of these days someone is going to pay a terrible price for working solo.
Sam seems to be becoming the more responsible one as of late while Dean is getting more and more emotional. I’m sure this is building up to something critical for the storyline as season 7 keeps moving.
Next week, it looks like Sam has to face his biggest fear (clowns) when Supernatural returns with Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magic Menagerie.
