Some Supernatural super fan must have attempted to calculate how many thousands of miles the Winchester-mobile has rolled through by now, right?
“Skin’s” cold open throws us a Supernatural loop that we’ve not seen before: a “flash forward” showing Dean Winchester embroiled in some kind of creepy hostage rescue situation that looks like it could have been pulled from the recent iteration of Hannibal (and when Dean gets caught he’s holding a knife that would not have been out of place in the bitterly overlooked Sylvester Stallone ’80s flick, Cobra).
It has become kind of stock-in-trade by now for Supernatural to roll out a creepy-of-the-week that excels in some kind of gruesome serial killer-y act that’s both repetitive and supernatural in nature. In the case of “Skin,” it’s a shape shifter or doppelganger ghoul that can take on the form of other humans, though with the added wrinkle/tell of having cat-like evil eyes. Said evil spirit type also likes to tie its victims to chairs before getting its kill on. So there’s that.
Luckily, by the time that Sam and Dean roll into St. Louis, Missouri and dig into the deaths surrounding Sam’s old friend, Becky, they also realize that the cure to the shape shifter problem is a silver bullet to the heart. Way to teach the boys right, MIA dad!
Of course, Shape Shifter ain’t gonna make it that easy, of course. It seems that the shifter has the ability to a) have access to all of its inhabitant’s memories and b) mimic most of its inhabitant’s character traits and quirks. So before long we cut to Dean-as-Shape Shifter tying up his brother and then attempting to get his evil freak on with Becky. (So the “flash forward” in the cold open was a big Supernatural trickery, get it?)
Thankfully, if Shape Shifter has one fatal flaw (and they always do, don’t they?) it’s that he’s pretty bad at tying up his victims. Dean has fun as ever getting to say things like he wants to beat up “that handsome devil” as the escaped fellows try to get the jump on the baddie. That comes in the form of a Sam versus Dean-as-Shape Shifter battle royale (where Dean-as-Shape Shifter gets to say things like, “Even when we were young I kicked your ass”) before Real Dean finally steps in to drop a silver bullet on the Shifty One.
Notes of fun, interest, intrigue:
- Some Supernatural super fan must have attempted to calculate how many thousands of miles the Winchester-mobile has rolled through, right? Drive safe, America!
- “Skin” helped to educate me to the fact that Supernatural is executive produced by one-name wonder, McG.
- Dean has fun announcing to Becky, “I am an officer of the law.” Ah, those Winchester fellows, always pretending to be the law enforcement types.
- Some pretty cool CGI at the end when we get to see the Shape Shifter get his Shift on.
Some stats and info about Supernatural, “Skin”
TV SHOW – Supernatural
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 6
AIRED ON – October 18th, 2005
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – CW/Netflix
GENRE – Drama, Teen Dramas, Horror, Fantasy
CREATED BY – Eric Kripke
CAST – Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Mark Sheppard, Jim Beaver, Alexander Calvert, Mark Pellegrino, Samantha Smith, Ruth Connell
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.