3.01 The Magnificent Seven

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Promotional image from The Magnificent Seven
Title The Magnificent Seven
Episode # Season 3, Episode 1
First aired October 4, 2007
Directed by Kim Manners
Written by Eric Kripke
On IMDB The Magnificent Seven
Outline Opening the Devil's Gate has let out hundreds of demons. Sam, Dean and Bobby hunt seven of them in Illinois, meeting up with some other hunters on the way.
Monster Demons - embodying the seven deadly sins
Timeline 1 week after 2.22
Location(s) Oak Park, Illinois; just west of Chicago
Just outside Lincoln, Nebraska
[[{{{prevep}}}|« Previous Episode]] | [[{{{nextep}}}|Next Episode »]]

Synopsis

In Oak Park, Illinois, Walter Rosen is putting out his garbage when the street lights flicker and dark clouds roil. From the sky a stream of black substance overtakes Walter. He opens his eyes and they are black - he has been possessed by a demon.

Meanwhile, Sam studies the legend of Faust in order to find a way to help undo the deal Dean made with the Crossroads Demon, as Dean has a sexual romp. Bobby calls with news on a cicada swarm and crop failure in Nebraska. it is the first possible sign of demon activity they've had. When the Devil's Gate in Wyoming opened, strange storm clouds appeared over seventeen cities, but there have been no reports of demonic activity so far.

The boys rendezvous with Bobby at a farmhouse where they find a family who have starved to death in front of a television, despite the kitchen being full of food.

While searching the house, Dean is jumped by Isaac, who along with his wife Tamara, are hunters. Back at Isaac and Tamara's house, they make it clear they don’t want to work with the Winchesters, as they blame them for all the demons that have been let loose when the Devil's Gate was opened.

Outside, in the shadows, a woman watches them.

Bobby and the boys investigate the death of a woman outside a shoe store. Examination of the security video shows Walter Rosen interacting with the woman responsible for the murder just before the crime. While at the crime scene, the woman who earlier had watched the house, follows Sam. Even though Sam senses that somebody is following him, she disappears into thin air before Sam can see her.

Using a photo of the man, Bobby, Sam and Dean trail him to a bar, where Bobby urges cautious surveillance. However, Tamara and Isaac arrive and enter the bar. They have also spotted the possessed Walter Rosen, but when Isaac prepares to use Holy Water to see if he is a demon, they are detected. As one by one the eyes of the bystanders turn black, the bar’s patrons are all revealed to be demons. Tamara and Isaac are restrained, and Tamara is forced to look on while a man hands Isaac a container of drain cleaner. He is overcome by some force, and drinks the poison.

As Isaac collapses, a car bursts through the door, and Sam, Dean and Bobby fight the demons, rescuing Tamara, and throwing Walter into the trunk where he is held by a Devil's trap.

Back at Tamara’s house, Bobby has deduced that they are dealing with the Seven Deadly Sins - demons, as documented in Binsfeld's Classification of Demons in medieval times. They interrogate Envy who is possessing Walter. He taunts them that humans possess all the vices they represent, and warns that the other demons will track them down. He taunts Dean about his lust and gluttony, and Tamara about her wrath. Tamara then exorcises Envy, and Walter dies in the process.

Dean offers to battle the demons while the others escape - a suicide mission - but Sam and Bobby agree they need to face the demons together. One of the demons possesses Isaac’s corpse, and calls in agony to Tamara to help him, but she is aware of the ruse and stabs him with a stake of Palo Santo. However, she has broken the salt line at the door, allowing the other demons to rush in.

Bobby traps Sloth under a Devil's trap while Lust tracks down Dean and tries to seduce him, until he manages to push her into a tub of Holy Water. Sam is confronted by the others, led by Pride. He knows who Sam is, and his connection to the Yellow-Eyed Demon, calling Sam a prodigy, and the boy king. As Sam is attacked, the mysterious woman who had followed him earlier appears, who we will later know as Ruby, and attacks the demons with a knife, which kills two of them, while Sam helps her kill the third. The woman disappears after revealing she knows who Sam is.

Bobby spends the night exorcising the demons – only two of the humans survive and in the morning Tamara leaves. Bobby confirms that he hasn’t heard of a blade that could kill demons, and then heads off, telling them to look out for omens, as he will. Sam suggests they travel to Louisiana to visit a hoodoo priestess to see if she can help with Dean’s deal.

Dean confesses to Sam that part of the deal was that if he tried to get out of it, Sam would die. Sam charges that Dean is selfish and is putting him through the same thing Dean felt after John gave his life for Dean. Dean says that he actually feels great for the first time in a long while, and that he wants to enjoy this last year by killing some evil and having fun.

Characters

Definitions

Music

  • "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC
(plays during recap of previous events)
  • "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive
(plays as Sam walks in on Dean and the twins)
  • "I Shall Not be Moved" by J.B. Burnett
(played on radio as Sam and Dean are preparing for the Seven Deadly Sins to arrive at the house)
  • "Mean Little Town" by Howling Diablos
(plays at the bar occupied by demons)

Quotes

Sam: Let me see your knife.

Dean: What for?
Sam: So I can gouge my eyes out.
Dean: It was a beautiful, natural act, Sam.

Sam: It was a part of you I never wanted to see, Dean.
Bobby: You eating bacon cheeseburgers for breakfast now?
Dean: Sold my soul, got a year to live. I ain’t sweating the cholesterol.
Tamara: Isaac, like you've never made a mistake.
Isaac: Oh, yeah. Locked my keys in the car, turned my laundry pink. Never brought on the end of the world, though.
Sam: Dean, what are you doing?

Dean: Comforting the bereaved. What are you doing?
Sam: Working. Dead body, possible demon attack, that kind of stuff.
Dean: (pretends to get choked up) Sam, I'm sorry, it's just I don't have much time left. (coughs) Gotta make every second count.
Sam: Yeah, alright. Sorry.

Dean: (smiles) Apology accepted.
Pride: And you are Sam Winchester. That’s right, I’ve heard of you. We’ve all heard of you. The prodigy. The boy king. Looking at you know, I gotta tell you – don’t believe the hype.
Sam: If you want a troubling question, I've got one for you.

Dean: What's that?
Sam: If we let out the Seven Deadly Sins, what else did we let out?

Dean: You're right, that is troubling.
Dean: Truth is, I’m tired, Sam. And, I dunno, it’s like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
Sam: It’s hellfire, Dean.

Trivia & References

The episode title The Magnificent Seven is the title of a 1960 Western about a group of hired gunmen. It's also the name of a song by the English punk band The Clash.
Caroline Chikezie who plays Tamara also appeared in Torchwood as Lisa the Cyberwoman.
The Impala's license plates in this episode - CNK 80Q3 - are the ones used since the original ones were ditched in 2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be.
"Doublemint Twins" is a part of an old advertising campaign for Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum. The company used identical twins for their advertising for many years,
Dean: It’s weird man, I mean the night the Devil's Gate opened, all these weirdo storm clouds were sighted over how many cities?

Sam:Seventeen.
Dean: Seventeen. You’d think it’d be Apocalypse Now. It’s been five days and bupkis.

Apocalypse Now is an iconic France Ford Coppola movie set in the Vietnam War and based on Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness
"Bupkis" is a yiddish word used to mean ‘nothing’ or ‘nothing of value’. It is derived from a Slavic word for goat poo.
Bobby: So where's your brother?

Sam: Polling the electorate.

On The Simpsons, the local cops joke that Mayor "Diamond Joe" Quimby is "polling the electorate" whenever he meets an attractive young woman for a motel-room tryst.
In the house where the family die of sloth, the TV series Dallas is playing on the TV. The character speaking is Lucy Ewing Cooper who will be played in the film remake of the series by Katie Cassidy who appears for the first time as the New girl in this episode. Jim Beaver appeared in two episodes of the original TV series.
Isaac: This ain't Scooby Doo.
Scooby Doo was a long running cartoon series about four friends and a dog called Scooby Doo who hunt down ghosts and the supernatural.
Offscreen voice: You better call Grissom.
A shout-out at the Shoe Rage crime scene to the character Gil Grisson from the TV show CSI:Crime Scene Investigation.
Dean: What’s in the box? (pause) Brad Pitt? Se7en? No?
Se7en directed by Fight Club’s David Fincher. It is a dark psychological thriller about serial killer who bases each murder on a gruesome interpretation of the Seven Deadly Sins. "What's in the box?" is a reference to his final kill. And no, I'm not going to tell you what’s in the box!
Envy: Which one of you can cast the first stone?
A reference to the Bible, John 8:7, which tells the famous story of Jesus defending a woman accused of adultery from being stoned to death by asking her accusers, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." This quote is more widely known in popular jargon and pop culture as "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
Envy: My name is Legion; for we are many.
From the Bible, Mark 5:9. When a possessed man approaches Jesus, he asks for the demon's name and the reply is "My name is Legion; for we are many."
Bobby: Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
The quote is from Animal House by Dean Wormer to Stephen Furst’s character Kent Dorfman.
Tamara: I don’t care if they’re the Three stooges or the Four Tops!
The Three Stooges were an early 20th century comedy trio famous for slapstick comedy with witty one-liners. The Four Tops are a US band formed in the 1960s.
Pride: Here’s Johnny!
Famous Jack Nicholson quote from The Shining, in a mocking interpretation of the introduction of late night show host Johnny Carson.
Dean: I'll say it again. Who was that masked chick?
A reworking of the line "Who was that masked man?" from The Lone Ranger, a long running radio and TV series which featured a masked Texas Ranger.
At the beginning of the episode, Sam is researching for possible ways to get Dean out of his deal. One of the pages refers to the German legend of Faust. According to the legend, Faust was a highly accomplished scholar who is bored and/or unsatisfied with what he has accomplished. He makes a deal with the Devil's servant Mephistopheles: unlimited knowledge and/or worldly pleasures in exchange for his soul. As a condition to the deal, after a set period of years, the Devil/Mephistopheles will collect Faust's soul and he will be eternally damned.

Minutiae

There are Seven Deadly Sins, but only six are shown killed or exorcised on camera during the episode:
  • Envy (exorcised by Tamara)
  • Sloth (not explicitly stated, but implied by Bobby's "fat, drunk and stupid" comment. Exorcised by Bobby)
  • Lust (exorcised by Dean in the holy water bathtub)
  • Gluttony (killed by Ruby with Ruby's knife)
  • Greed (killed by Ruby with Ruby's knife)
  • Pride (killed by Ruby/Sam using Ruby's knife.)
  • Wrath (possessed Isaac's body, was immobilized by Tamara and later exorcised offscreen by Bobby)
During the closing scene, we briefly see three bodies in the mass grave. Bobby tells Sam and Dean that the humans possessed by Lust and Sloth will make it, but have a lifetime of therapy to look forward to, seemingly implying that the other five people who were possessed by the Sins were killed.
A bathtub full of holy water was used to kill a vampire in the movie The Lost Boys.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

Promotion

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