1.06 Skin

This is the first episode I’m not looking forward to re-watching. I just don’t remember liking it much. Will it have improved with age?

Pre-show notes

Okay, so maybe I should explain why Skin isn’t one of my favourite episodes.

It’s not that it’s a bad episode; on the contrary. But I really don’t like the structure: the fake-out at the beginning where we apparently see Dean cornered by cops, with almost the whole of the episode in flashback until we circle back to that moment. It’s a structure that can be effective, but it never worked for me here. Partly because I can barely recognise Dean in the money-shot.

Also, I really hate that shape shifter. An evil doppelgänger story could have been done so much better than this. The subtext that Dean and the shape shifter have the same emotional damage is laid on so thick it might as well be headline…and intentionally or not it seems to justify the shape shifter’s awful crimes because Dean is a heroic character.

Episode notes

Police are searching a house carrying some seriously heavy weapon types. They find a pretty blonde woman tied to a chair, bloody but alive. And then they find the person who tortured her – and it’s Dean.

Flashback!

Sam Is checking his emails on a blackberry while Dean gasses up the car – technology gives a lot away about the age of the show. Today he would be scrolling through Facebook on an iPhone. Sam learns one of his old friends has been arrested and insists they go to help. We meet Becky, who is the pretty blonde from the opening scene. Her brother is the one who is in trouble: he was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, but Becky insists that the only way he could be guilty is if he was in two places at the same time.

Sam claims that Dean’s a cop so they can begin investigating. He points out that being in two places at the same time is good grounds to suspect something supernatural. Dean wants nothing to do with it. So when Sam announces Dean is a cop, Dean is obviously reluctant to go along with it. Still, you’d think he’d put those awesome improv skills to use for his brother’s sake. Apparently not.

So why is Dean so uncomfortable with this? The sticking point seems to be that it involves Sam’s friends from college. This will play unsubtlely into Dean’s resentment of Sam’s college years later in the episode but it’s as if Dean is treating those years as disposable. Sam is now back on the road, so he should cut all ties with those friends. It would be one thing if Dean made the argument that staying in touch could endanger those friends – given Jessica’s fate, it’s not unreasonable – but instead he just seems baffled that Sam would want to maintain ties.

At the crime scene they find a messed up room and a barking dog in the neighbour’s yard. Becky mentions that the dog used to be sweet and friendly. As a dog owner, I feel obligated to point out that even nice friendly dogs will bark at strangers who come close to what they perceive as their territory. But the Winchesters take this as evidence of the paranormal. So Dean is coming around, relaxing a bit now that there’s something to investigate. They view the security tape which shows the killer arriving at the house: is certainly looks like Zack but Sam spots his eyes glowing on the tape.

Next we have a scene showing the next victim tied up and bloody. She is begging her boyfriend not to hurt her any more – because she thinks he’s been the one hurting her, of course. Oh, this is nasty stuff. Now I remember why I hate this episode. It’s torture porn.

Back at the crime scene, Dean is complaining because it’s 5:30 in the morning. Presumably Sam is still not sleeping, since he’s gung-ho to search where the cops didn’t and he finds blood. And it’s not just a little spot of blood, either. “A trail the police would never follow” – are American cops really that incompetent? A passing ambulance attracts Dean’s attention – he learns about the second victim.

The brothers agree they are dealing with a shape shifter, but there are lots of different kinds. It doesn’t matter what kind it is, though, because all shape shifters can be killed by a silver bullet to the heart. (Boys, most things can be killed by a bullet to the heart – you can save your silver, honestly.) They follow the trail into the sewers and find a pile of organic gunk – the shaper shifter’s shed skin.

Becky phones Sam, steaming mad because she knows Sam’s been lying to her. She has every right, and Sam should have known the story would fall apart. He’s back in the family business now.

“Hey, man, like it or not we are not like other people.”

Dean

Their first encounter with the shape shifter does not go well. Then they split up to chase it and isn’t that just the most idiotic choice, when they know that the thing they are hunting can turn itself into anyone? So, yeah, it’s no surprise that it turns into Dean and goes after Sam. Sam is at least smart enough to know what’s going on, but he’s not confident enough to shoot when it looks like his brother. And it’s wearing Dean’s clothing and pendant – so what happened to Dean himself?

The shape shifter doesn’t just take on the shape of another person, it absorbs their memories and personality, too. So with Sam safely tied up in the sewer, it shares some of Dean’s feelings with Sam.

“He’s sure got issues with you.You got to go to college. He had to stay home. I mean, I had to stay home. With Dad. You don’t think I had dreams of my own? But Dad needed me. Where the hell were you?…See deep down, I’m just jealous. You got friends. You could have a life. Me? I know I’m a freak. And sooner or later everybody’s gonna leave me. You left. Hell, I did everything Dad asked me to and he ditched me too. No explanation, no nothing, just pfft! Left me with your sorry ass.”

There is a fracturing of the personality here. The shape shifter starts by speaking of Dean in the third person and shifts to the first person. But the words are a twisted version of what Dean really feels. I’m sure Dean does envy Sam for being able to pursue a normal life, and he would be crazy if he didn’t occasionally dream of a life a bit more normal than hunting. And of course he’s upset at the way John disappeared on him. But Dean is someone who loves his life and loves his family. This negative tirade isn’t him.

So here’s a possibility: whatever this creature does to maintain its appearance as someone else takes a heavy toll, mentally and maybe physically. So maybe it wasn’t always psychotic? I don’t know. But I want to put a pin in that and come back to it after a few more episodes.

Shape shifter Dean goes after Becky, leaving Sam tied up in the sewer. Sam tries to get loose and discovers Dean is also there with him, alive and well.

ShifterDean has an interesting technique – he actually tells Becky that the killer is a shape shifter. And she doesn’t run screaming from the crazy guy. Instead she asks if that means he’s “a genetic freak“. I think it’s safe to assume that ShifterDean was always going to make Becky his next victim, but the word ”freak” seems to be a trigger for him.

“Evolution is about mutation, right? So maybe this thing was born human, but was different. Hideous and hated. Until he learned to become someone else.”

Shape shifter

Sam and Dean escape the sewer, but they decide not call the police to save Becky from the psychotic killer because it will implicate Dean. (Seriously, guys? When you know what this thing has done to others that’s your priority? Not a heroic moment.)

Meanwhile ShapeshifterDean is attempting to seduce Becky. I wonder if His moves are Dean’s moves? Anyhow, she’s so not buying it. He deliberately provokes her into rejecting him so he can attack her, tie her to a chair and do bad things.

Now we’ve circled back to the beginning of the episode and the shifter is cornered. He escapes the house, but not before the cops get a good look at him. He flees into the sewer and sheds Dean’s skin.

So Dean’s face is now all over the news as a suspect in attempted murder. Dean’s freaking out a bit, and Sam’s trying to hold him back. They need silver bullets before they go hunting. So they head back to the car, which of course the cops are watching because – hello – that’s the killer’s getaway car.

The brothers are forced to split up AGAIN and Dean circles back to the car for a gun and then heads into the sewer alone. Meanwhile the shifter has turned into Becky. I would like to say nice things about Trans representation at this point but psychopathic sadist isn’t great representation, so let’s just skip over that. Sam gets caught and tied up AGAIN! And then the shape shifter turns back into Dean. Sam gets loose AGAIN and fights ShapeShifterDean, who monologues like a Bond-villain about how Dean can always kick Sam’s ass while they wrestle. Sam Does seem to be losing but Dean gets there in time and shoots the shifter dead.

So does this make Sam the maiden in distress?

Unlike a werewolf, the shape shifter doesn’t change form on dying. It still looks like Dean. Dean reclaims his pendant from the body. This is the first indication that the pendant means something to him.

The cops have “Dean’s” body, so he is assigned blame for all of the murders in spite of the mountain of evidence they had against Zack. Case closed. Sam’s friend Zack is in the clear, at least.

As they drive out of town. Dean says something about missing his own funeral. There’ll be more chances, Dean.

Associations

The shape shifter’s transformation scene is inspired by An American Werewolf in London (1981). At the time it was made the special effects of the transformation were revolutionary, and the film’s mix of horror and comedy can be felt as an influence on Supernatural, too.

They don’t call the monster of the week a skinwalker, but that would be a good guess. There are a few different Native American versions of the skinwalker myth and they are not all evil. In one version, a human sacrifice is required for a human to acquire the powers of a skinwalker, and the sacrificial victim must be a close family member. That would hit close to home for the Winchesters.

There are other skin changers in legend. Werewolves, of course, vampires in some versions can become bats or wolves. Shape shifters who can become other humans are more commonly found in Science Fiction, either as aliens or users of holographic technology.

Final thoughts

To use the fandom vernacular, this episode hits too many of my squicks for me to enjoy it.

It does give us a deeper look at Dean’s emotional state and the darker side of who he is.

Why do we never “meet” Zack? The motivating force for the whole plot is that Zack is Sam’s friend, and he’s been falsely accused of murdering his girlfriend. He’s the victim and we never get to see him except as the shape shifter. It seems like poor writing, or at least poor plotting.

Let’s hurry on to the next episode.