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Monday 11 June 2012

Supernatural - 1.6: "Skin" Review


Sam is called by an old friend to look into the arrest of her brother for murder and the duo find more than they bargained for when they run into a shapeshifter, who takes on Dean's appearance.

St Louis, Missouri.   Police stop Dean (Jensen Ackles) and tell him to drop the knife.

One week earlier:  Dean: "Sam  (Jared Padalecki) wears women's underwear."  Is the first line Dean utters.   Sam's reading some e-mails from his Stanford friends.   Dean jibes him about keeping secrets.   Sam: "I just don't tell them everything."  On a job like this, it's not wise to get close to people.   Sam's told them he needs time alone and is on a road trip with his brother.   Dean calls that lying.  Leading Dean onto his fave topic, when he asks, "Is she hot?"  Sam mentions Rebecca (Amy Grabow) and her brother Zach's (Aleks Holtz) been charged with murder.   He was arrested for killing his girlfriend.   Dean: "What kind of people do you hang out with?"  Same kind Dean does, but it's all part of the job for him.

Rebecca tells them Zach came home and found his girlfriend in the chair, he could have only killed her if he was in two places at the same time.   As he's seen in the ATM footage.   Sam tells her Dean's a detective in Arizona.   Dean doesn't  think this is their kind of problem, so Sam can't help out an old friend now if something supernatural isn't involved.   Sam wonders how Zach could have been in two places at once and they've looked into a lot less before.   There's blood everywhere in the apartment and one week later there was a break in and Zach's clothes were stolen.   Dogs keep barking outside.   Sam looks at the photo with all three of them.   Sam comments that animals have a strong sense of the paranormal, hence the dog barking.   Kind of got the feeling here that the dog was barking cos Dean wasn't really him, but that couldn't be possible yet.   Dean looks at the video Rebecca stole from the lawyer.

A husband says goodbye to his wife and his eyes shine, which Sam notices on the video and it's not a camera flare.   Many cultures believe a camera can catch glimpses of the soul and the dog saw it.   Sam believes Zach is a double, Dean: "a doppelganger."  Which would explain how he could be in two places at once.  Sam doesn't see the killer leaving the building in the video, so they have a trail to follow.   There's blood on the tree and an ambulance drives by.   The husband allegedly killed his wife, but he was driving home so couldn't be in two places at once.   Dean decides this is their kind of problem.   Sam thinks they're dealing with a shapeshifter.   Dean explains every culture has a lore on this.   Sam refers to them as skin walkers, werewolves.   The shapeshifter ran out of the back, but the trail ends there.   Dean suggests they go down into the sewer.

Dean notices slimy mucus on the ground, which means it sheds when it changes shape.   The only way it can be killed is with a silver bullet to the heart.   Rebecca finds out Dean isn't a detective and she doesn't want his help.   Dean says Sam lies to his friends "because if they knew the real you, they'd be freaked - that's just easier."  Sam replies it would be if he was like Dean.  But they're not like other people.   Dean finds more mucus.   Dean: "I think we're close to its lair."
Sam: "Why do you say that?"

Dean: "Cos we're close to its puke-inducing bile next to your face."  Sam didn't smell that.   Love that part, it was just like Mulder's  (David Duchovny) scene from the X-Files episode, Squeeze.  Sam sees the shapeshifter behind Dean, who attacks Dean on his left arm with a knife.   Sam shoots and it escapes.   Dean says they need to get back to the car and his eyes flash when he crosses the road.   Sam throws Dean the car keys and recalls Dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) facing a shapeshifter in San Antonio.   Sam tests Dean.   Dean catches the keys with his left hand.   Sam is knocked out, very easily again.   Shapeshifter Dean says he used to worry about himself but the more he knows about Dean's background, he was better off.   He tells Sam about Dean's "issues" with Sam being able to go to college and he had to stay home.   Dean had dreams of his own but he had to be there for Dad.   He claims Dean is jealous of Sam having friends and he had dreams of his own.   Shapeshifter Dean: "Me, I know I'm a freak and sooner or later everybody's gonna leave me."

Shapeshifter Dean says he's met the nicest people and Dean would sleep with Rebecca if he had the chance.   That's nothing new to us, we know what Dean's like after all and this would be nothing new to Sam either.   Though the part about Dean's jealousies is new.   of course he'd have dreams of his own and want a life of his own, but nothing's ever easy for the eldest.   Dean wakes up and hopes that's really Sam and not that "freak of nature...  he's not stupid, he picked the handsome one."  Shapeshifter Dean visits Rebecca, thought she wanted nothing more to do with him.  He tells her of the shapeshifter and maybe it was born human, but was hideous and hated and learned to become someone else.   His eyes flash.

Sam tells Dean he was becoming him, downloading all his thoughts and memories.   Dean: "Like a Vulcan mind meld."  Dean believes they need to be kept alive for a psychic connection.   Shapeshifter Dean is alone and wants someone to love him.   He beats her up when she doesn't comply.   The police go after shapeshifter Dean and shoot at it.   It sheds its skin.   They see Dean's sketch on the news.   Dean: "First I want to find that handsome devil and kick the holy crap out of him...there's a guy walking around with my face, so it's a little personal."  Sam says they have no weapons.   Dean: "The thought of him driving my car, it's killing me!"

Sam: "Let it go."  Police car sees them and Sam holds them off.   Dean enters the sewers and finds more bile.   It's now shifted into Rebecca.   Sam is knocked out, again! If he kills Sam he'll be hunted forever.   Dean has good qualities, he should appreciate him more.   Shapeshifter Dean puts the knife down and Sam tries to cut loose after being tied up.   They fight and the shapeshifter tries to strangle Sam.   Dean shoots him through the heart, taking his necklace back.   Thus leaving the dead shapeshifter with Dean's face.   Sam tells Rebecca what they really do, Jessica (Adrienne Palicki) didn't know either.   It's his family and he can't do anything about it.

Dean is the police's suspect for the murders.   They find the murder weapon and blood stained clothes in his lair.   Dean's sorry and he wishes things could be different, that Sam could be 'Joe College'.   Sam didn't fit in at Stanford.   Dean: "That's cos you're a freak.   Well I'm a freak too.   I'm right there with you all the way."  Dean's sorry he's going to miss his own funeral and not many guys get to do that.

Once again we delve into their family life, or lack of and how Sam got to live his dream, go to college and get out of hunting.   Whereas Dean felt he had an obligation to Dad and he needed him.   The shapeshifter does tell Sam some home truths about Dean and as we know, Dean's not one to talk, so he won't tell Sam any of this.   Preferring to keep it to himself.   Good to see he thinks he's as much a freak as Sam is, since he calls him a freak on many occasions.   What else can he call themselves since not many people would do what they do and if push came to shove, they would opt out for a normal life too, instead of saving people.   Also good to see some people from Sam's past to show he did have a life outside of the family.

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