Supernatural - Skin

 "Skin" is probably my favorite of the first season episodes so far. It was just a blast to me because you get to see Sam (sort of) and Dean duke it out at the home of Sam's college friend, Rebecca (Amy Grabow, yet another beautiful friend of Sam's that Dean gets all hot and bothered about!). Well, there is a shapeshifter who not only takes the doppelganger form of those he mimics "it" also absorbs their thoughts and memories, too. So Dean is one of the shapeshifter's many victims. You get an idea of how the shapeshifter operates. I am going with he just for the hell of it: he eyes someone, mimics their physical form, then starts to take on their traits so he can prey on their girlfriends or wives (or brothers, in the case of Dean trying to trick Sam). The shapeshifter will bind them women to chairs and use a knife on them, getting his jollies by torturing them. And also the shapeshifter uses the disguise to frame the boyfriends and husbands (or Dean) so he can continue to move place to place. In this episode, the shapeshifter is in St. Louis, so Sam has to drive 400 miles out of his way so Sam can help Rebecca. Sure enough, the shapeshifter will use Dean's form to get close to Rebecca and eventually harm her, bringing in the police, framing Dean, and leaving Sam vulnerable to attack.

The shapeshifter is shifty (for lack of a better term), so he can adopt different faces, leave behind messy skin, and uses the underground sewer system as a method of travel. So Sam and Dean follow the clues, such as blood and exits of crime scenes, locating his lair. Eventually the shapeshifter fools Rebecca, attacks her, barely escapes a SWAT team, and leaves behind Dean's face to pursue. So police put out Dean's face on a be-on-the-lookout bulletin. Certainly that creates quite a pain in the ass for Dean!

What a hook at the beginning, too. The police busting into the house of Rebecca (her face not shown at that time), the shapeshifter taking on Dean's form, a knife in hand, all of that kicking off the episode. What the hell is Dean doing with a knife and a tied up and bloodied woman in a chair?!

There is a great scene where the shapeshifter seems to adopt a lot of Dean's personality and talks as him to Sam, who was knocked unconscious and tied up in the sewer lair. The shapeshifter complains to Sam about giving up his own dreams to help out dad while Sam got to go to college. The shapeshifter talks about how Dean resents Sam for abandoning his own desires for a different life to be this hunter. So Sam has to put that aside and not allow the shapeshifter to throw him off. I just like little details like that because there are adversaries out there looking to destroy the bond between the brothers. Not only that, but these adversaries will also try and undermine the mission of the brothers to vanquish whatever extraordinary creatures out there are harmful and dangerous to humans everywhere.

We still aren't really into the main show's mythos, yet. I really hope we get to that eventually. But the show was establishing the fact that despite wanting to remain somewhat tied to his friends and "normal life", monster hunting with Dean would leave Sam at a difficult juncture...a country wide mission doing what the Winchesters do wouldn't allow Sam to have that normal life, be a lawyer, and hang out with friends. Just as Dean is alienated from a normal life, so would Dean. 4/5