Episode 6 – Skin    Written by  John Shiban

Setting: St. Louis, Missouri  (above and below ground)

     This is a hard episode to watch, because of the gore, violence, and special effects of the skinwalker’s transformation.  But  it’s important in the canon because the monster says some of Dean’s inner thoughts. Since Dean doesn’t talk about his feelings, this gives us a look into what might be going on. Of course, maybe the skinwalker is making some of it up, or maybe he’s only picking the things that will torment Sam to hear, and leaving out anything positive.  We have to sort that out ourselves.

MOW – Skinwalker

                                               

Scariness factor: creepy pursuit thru sewers, creepy substitutions, VERY icky shape-change

Drive-by totals: Blood and gore – several bloody victims, nasty shed shapeshifter ooze, nasty shapeshifting.  Tire-iron-fu, knife-fu, beer bottle-fu, knife-fu, bookcase-fu, pool cue-fu, choking, two silver bullets to the heart – one dead shapeshifter.

Dead: 1.     People tied up and beaten but living: 5 (2 women, Sam (twice), and Dean (once)

Saved:1  (plus possible future victims)

Dean and Sam whump factor: Very high. This episode should get an honorable mention for number of possible concussions (about 5).  You see what looks like both boys beating the crap out of each other because Sam is fighting the shapeshifter who is in Dean’s shape. 

Summary: Sam and Dean are gassing up the Impala when Sam’s college friend, Becky, texts him that her brother, Zach, is accused of killing his girlfriend. Becky says he was with her at the time that security camera footage showed him going to his girlfriend’s house. Later that night, Zach found her beaten up, bloody, and dead, tied to a chair. He called the police but they arrested him because of the security tape showing him coming home at 10:30, shortly before she was killed.

Special knowledge: how to kill a shapeshifter – silver bullet to the heart.

The brothers ask to look at the crime scene. Pretending Dean is a cop from Arizona.

The brothers’ relationship:

1.       Dean teasing Sam “Sam wears women’s underwear”.  Also, about why the shapeshifter choose to visit Becky looking like Dean “he’s not stupid – he chose the handsome one.”

2.       The shapeshifter says what Dean’s is thinking – that he’s jealous of Sam. Sam got to go to college and he stayed behind with Dad. Sam has friends and he doesn’t. He expects to be alone because “Sooner or later, everyone leaves.”   I think this last bit really is what Dean is thinking.

3.       The two of them drive off together in the Impala and there is a little foreshadowing:

Dean – “Sorry man.”

Sam – “About what?”

Dean – “I really wish things could be different, man. I wish you could just be Joe College.”

Sam – “That’s ok. You know, truth is, even at Stanford, deep down I never really fit in.”

Dean – “Well, that’s ‘cause you’re a freak.

Sam – “Yeah, Thanks!

Dean – “ That’s ok, I’m a freak too. I’m right there with you.”

Sam – “I know you are”.

Highlights:

1.       Dean taking his shirt off. Well, actually, it’s the shapeshifter. And it immediately starts “shedding” Dean’s image (VERY grossly). But heh, first you have a couple seconds to appreciatively “worhip at the shrine” of Jensen Ackels chest J

2. Pop culture reference

 Sam : “That’s the thing. He didn’t just look like you – he was you.  At least he was becoming you. “

Dean “whadda you mean?”

Sam “ I don’t know – it’s like he was downloading your thoughts and memories.”

Dean: “You mean like the Vulcan mind-meld?”

Sam: “Yeah, something like that.  I mean Maybe that’s why he doesn’t just kill us.

Dean: “ Maybe he needs to keep us alive...psychic connection.”

3.       Dean’s signature line “Son of a bitch”,  uttered by the shapeshifter.

Body count: 1

Monsters killed: 1

Saved: 2 – Becky and Sam (saved by Dean).