2.12 Nightshifter
Title | Nightshifter |
Episode # | Season 2, Episode 12 |
First aired | January 25, 2007 |
Directed by | Phil Sgriccia |
Written by | Ben Edlund |
On IMDB | Nightshifter |
Outline | Sam and Dean investigate a string of robberies with a disturbing pattern: In each incident, a trusted employee holds up a bank and then commits suicide. |
Monster | Shapeshifter |
Timeline | |
Location(s) | Milwaukee, Wisconsin (City Bank Milwaukee) |
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Contents
Synopsis
Sam and Dean investigate a series of crimes and suicides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wherein people are behaving out of character in stealing from their place of business and then committing suicide shortly thereafter. During their investigation, they come across Ronald Reznick, a victim who has conspiracy theories about "mandroids." His amateur research reveals to Sam and Dean that the perpetrator of these crimes is in fact a shapeshifters, as previously seen in 1.06 Skin.
Plotting out the path of the shapeshifter in accordance with the city's sewers, Sam and Dean pinpoint the next place of attack - City Bank Milwaukee - and pose as security techs in order to view security camera footage and locate the undercover shapshifter.
They are interrupted when Ron comes into the bank, chaining the door closed behind him and brandishing a gun. Convincing Ron that he believes him, Dean helps Ron lock everyone in the bank into the vault and helps him seek out the shapeshifter.
Unfortunately, the shapeshifter has already changed appearance by this stage, and the tension is increased as it changes appearance multiple times, with Sam, Dean and Ron attempting to track it down in order to kill it. Ron is shot and killed by a police sniper while in pursuit of the shapeshifter.
Meanwhile, outside the police are stationed, and manage to see Dean's face as he leads an ailing hostage out to an ambulance. Once Dean has been identified, the FBI come in, and it's revealed that an agent has been tracking the Winchesters for some time, and knows some details about their history and childhood.
SWAT teams infiltrate the building while Dean fights and finally kills the shapeshifter. Sam and Dean escape the building by stealing and wearing SWAT team uniforms.
Characters
Definitions
- Aliases
- Cameras
- Costumes & Disguises
- Doppelganger
- Impala
- Mandroid
- Monsters
- Morph
- Silver
- Shapeshifters
- Star Wars
- Terminator 2
- Werewolves
Music
- "Renegade" by Styx
- (plays when the boys get into the car at the end of the episode in their SWAT outfits)
Quotes
Ronald: ...The laser eyes.
Sam: Mandroid?
Dean: Except for the mandroid part. I liked him. He's not that different from you or me. People think we're crazy.
Dean: Eyes flare at the camera. I hate those friggin' things.
Sam: What if he's the shifter?
Ronald: Shapeshifter?
Henriksen: Go screw yourself, that's how I knew. It's become my job to know about you, Dean. I've been looking for you for weeks now. I know about the murder in St. Louis, I know about the Houdini act you pulled in Baltimore. I know about the desecrations and the thefts. I know about your dad.
Dean: Hey, you don't know crap about my dad.
Henriksen: Ex-marine, raised his kids on the road, cheap motels, backwood cabins. Real paramilitary survivalist type. I just can't get a handle on what type of whacko he was. White supremacist, Timmy McVeigh, to-may-to, to-mah-to.
Dean: You got no right talking about my dad like that. He was a hero.
Trivia & References
Sam's FBI ID names him as "Han Solo," a Star Wars reference. Dean's FBI ID names him as either "Jack Bauer" from 24 or "Jack Ryan" who is a fictional character created by the novelist Tom Clancy.
Dean: Like the one from T2.
- Ron likens his theory of mandroids to that of the T-1000 from Terminator 2.
- A possible reference to the FBI agents in Die Hard.
Sam: We're not working for the mandroid!
- In popular culture the Men in Black are thought to be government agents to threaten and harass people who have seen UFOs.
- "Another Day in Paradise" is a 1989 song by Phil Collins.
- A reference to the Michael Jackson song of the same name.
- Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were notorious robbers and criminals who traveled the central United States during the Great Depression. The line 'He's the Bonnie to your Clyde' was originally in the script for The Usual Suspects, but never made it to the final cut.