Almost everyone can remember being wowed by a magician at some point in their young lives. But for the Winchesters, magic is a very real and very dangerous thing. This episode takes a look at the world of stage magic today, and why Criss Angel is such a douche bag.
Supernatural Episode 412 - "Criss Angel Is a Douche Bag"
The episode starts off with three old magicians watching a Criss Angel-inspired magician doing simple tricks covered in eye liner. After being made fun of at a bar Jay, one of the magicians decides to try a trick that is likely to kill him in his old age, stating that going out with a bang is better than fading into obscurity. When the trick is performed, however, Jay finds himself surprisingly unharmed, and the younger magician who had made fun of him at the bar falls dead while walking along a sidewalk, bleeding from wounds that mirror those Jay should have suffered.
Sam and Dean head to the town, and while Sam has enjoyed magic since he was a child, Dean finds the idea of pretending to be possessed by demons or pretending to do magic offensive. When they look into the death of the young magician, they find a tarot card in his things depicting his injuries. Jay, meanwhile, believes he has hit a new stride, and wants to perform another deadly trick. His friend tries to talk him out of it, but fails.
Dean goes to talk to the other two old magicians. However, they see right through Dean's ruse, being experiences con-men themselves. They give Dean a false tip and send him to an S&M club as a joke. Meanwhile, Ruby shows up at their motel room to try and convince Sam to stop hunting anything but Lilith and start using his dark powers again. The brothers return to watch Jay attempt a trick even Houdini would not perform, and he succeeds, though the Criss Angel-looking magician is killed in the same fashion as Jay would have been.
After finding another tarot card in the douche bag magician's apartment, they head to Jay's hotel room and accuse him of using real magic. He convinces them of his innocence, and so they tie him up to try to figure things out. Naturally, he slips the ropes and escapes, and calls the cops on the Winchesters. Jay wonders to his friend whether the magic might be real, and is shocked when that friend is killed after his next trick just like the others. Dropping the charges on the Winchesters, he asks them for help. They go after the remaining old magician, only to find out that the dead magician faked his death, and due to his magic was able to make himself younger. He offers the other two the same chance at eternal youth by killing others, and Jay refuses. The now youthful magician attacks the Winchesters, and Jay uses the tarot cards to kill the other magician. That night, Sam rethinks he decision and agrees to go with Ruby to work on his powers.
The Last Word On "Criss Angel Is A Douche Bag"
This episode is great because it not only pokes fun at Criss Angel, but because the mystery of where Jay stands remains interesting throughout the episode, and between the three old magicians, the writers did a great job of tossing the possible blame back and forth. The only downside is Sam's constant rethinking of whether or not he should use his powers, which gets a bit annoying. Overall, though, a successful "whodunnit" episode.
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